Our Spiritual Climb

Good afternoon again to everyone. Here's a subject that I love to speak on. It's about a valley here in California, a valley called Yosemite. It has always captivated me. It's my favorite valley that I've seen in different parts of the world, and it's my favorite one. I can go forward. The first time I visited Yosemite Valley was back in 1972. I was a student at Ambassador College. I had arrived from Big Sandy, which I'd been a year there. And then the Spanish Department transferred to Pasadena, and they asked me to go along. So for that feast, we went to Squaw Valley. As you can see, it's next to Lake Tahoe, the red dot there. And then on our way back, we stopped off in Yosemite. And we stayed at the famous Awani Hotel, huge hotel. And everything about that valley was huge. The first time we went through the entrance of the tunnel there in Wawona, there you saw the most beautiful site. There were huge mountains, towering cliffs, waterfalls, giant trees. And in the front to the left here was El Capitan, a gleaming silvery cliff over 3,000 feet high. That's the equivalent of 10 football fields that you'd have to go and climb up. And then in the background was the half dome, like a gray unfurled sail. It was split in two by a glacier. And then walking in the valley floor, I felt so tiny, so insignificant in the midst of all those huge cliffs and trees, and appreciated so much more God and His creation. As you can see to the left is the famous El Capitan that reminds me a bit of the great white whale Moby Dick in the novel. You can see there to the right a certain similarity to it. So one of my first trips when we got married and settled down in San Diego was to take my wife Cottie to see Yosemite. And we have gone there numerous times since then. We had a chance in a van with 16 of Cottie's family all the way from Chile. That came for one of the feasts. So you can imagine my shock when I read in 2017 that someone had climbed El Capitan without ropes or gear of any type just with his hands and feet. And the only thing he had was a little talcum powder, sort of a little bag that he put on his belt. And he climbed over 3,000 feet. It took him less than four hours to do the climb.

I thought, how could someone be so crazy to attempt something like this? And how in the world did he survive? Every second he was risking death. And then in 2019, Cottie and I watched an Oscar Award movie called Free Solo about this feat. Who was it?

It was the person who climbed all the way up on what they call the face or the nose of El Capitan. His name is Alex Honnold, a Californian. He was 33 years old when he climbed it without any help. No ropes, nothing to grab except that sheer granite cliff. He was a true Spiderman.

Here you can see the valley below and him climbing all the way. Even the cameramen of the National Geographic crew sometimes just turned away and said, we cannot bear to watch. How did he do it? Of all the famous climbers, none had dared attempt it. As one climbing companion of his said mark, Sinot, the author of the book, The Impossible Climb. That's how climbers called him. Climbing El Capitan this way, the impossible. It's impossible to do it. And I've used that book extensively here. He had said, everyone knew that a free solo, which means just going without any equipment at all, of El Capitan was the holy grail of rock climbing. Whoever did it would go down in history as the greatest climber ever. The New York Times called it one of the great athletic feats of any kind ever. Sebastian Junger, author of the book, The Perfect Storm, which was made into a movie, said, with the possible exception of the lunar landings on the moon, free soloing, El Capitan may rank as one of the most audacious and terrifying things a human being has ever done. And so, there are some spiritual lessons here in this achievement, and it has parallels with our spiritual climb. That's the title of the sermon, Our Spiritual Climb. We have here another picture of him going up.

For Alex Honnold, it was climbing a physical mountain. For us, it is climbing a spiritual mountain. But ours is done mostly in silence and secrecy. Hardly anybody knows or credits what we are doing. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 11, rather. 1 Peter chapter 2 11.

Peter says here, Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, about giving a good example, that when they speak against you as evildoers, because we follow God's laws, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. When Christ comes back, these people are going to see the glorified saints, and hopefully we will be among them. And people will say, oh, that was my neighbor! Yeah, he was a nice guy, but I never knew. Kind of always left on the Sabbath and left on these long vacations to go to a convention. But I didn't know anything about that. I didn't know what he was doing in his life to deserve something like this. Being glorified and reigning under Christ. I never saw anything that special.

They didn't know where to look. As it was mentioned by Enrique in the sermon, God's truths are the key to being called and being brought into God's kingdom.

So people are not going to recognize what we did until God's kingdom comes back. Then they will know.

Mountains are an important symbol in the Bible. There in Genesis we have Mount Moriah, where Abraham took Isaac for the sacrifice. The second book of the Bible, we have Mount Sinai, where God delivered his holy law to Israel.

And we have Mount Zion, which is that upper part of Jerusalem where Christ is going to return. And of course, Jesus spoke on the Sermon on the Mount. So mountains have a symbol of reaching certain spiritual excellence.

And so it is one of those symbols of a spiritual mountain. Notice in Hebrews 12, verse 22. Hebrews 12, verse 22. It says, For they could not endure what was commanded, and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot at an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly in church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. So, yes, Mount Zion is a symbol of where God is, and also what Jesus Christ is going to establish, the Mount Zion on this earth during the millennium. Notice in Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2, in verse 2.

Famous passage. It says, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, which symbolizes His kingdom is going to be above all other kingdoms, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nations. Neither shall they learn war anymore. So that's coming. And so Mount Zion is a symbol of our spiritual climb, the mountain of God.

So what are some of the parallels and lessons from what Alex Honnold did? First, he set a life goal. From a time he was a kid, he was climbing. Everything he could, he'd go to these climbing gyms where they had all of these objects. He would climb whatever mountain was close by. And he proposed to become one day the best and to free solo El Capitan. He looked at that mountain. Nobody else ever thought they could climb it. Well, he said he would prepare for that. He had set a life goal. And we have set a life goal of loving God and His word above all things and to be in His kingdom one day. That is our life goal. In Matthew chapter 6, another famous passage that Jesus Christ mentioned, it says verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you, the physical things God will provide. If we put that goal, seeking to enter God's kingdom and seeking God's righteousness, to be working on that, developing God's righteousness in us as He gives us the power and the guidance over it. With Alex Honnold, it took about 15 years to achieve His goal. Nobody pursued it more tenaciously, more self-sacrificingly than Him. This author that I mentioned, where he climbed many times with Alex, Mark Sinot, calculated that Alex, during those 15 years, climbed about twice as many rock cliffs than any other climber he knew. He went around the world and climbed the most audacious, the most challenging rock cliffs to prepare him for one day going up to El Capitan.

With us, we have a lifetime goal, as I've mentioned, after our baptism to one day be in Mount Zion with Jesus Christ in His kingdom, in that first resurrection. Notice a couple of scriptures along that line. In Psalm chapter 2 verse 6, talking about Christ's return, Psalm chapter 2, verse 6, it says, Yet I have set my king, this is God the Father speaking, on my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, you will dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel, talking about Christ's enemies.

Also in Psalm 132, Psalm 132.

As you can see, Christ means business when He's going to return.

Psalm 132 verse 13, It says, For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His dwelling place. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread. So God has established that place, and that's where the New Jerusalem eventually will come down as well.

In Revelation 14, let's go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation.

Chapter 14. Here you see some of the saints with Christ on Mount Zion. So here, this is a vision of the future. It says in Revelation 14 verse 1, And then I looked, and behold, a lamb, which is of course symbolic in this book of Jesus Christ, standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His Father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. So here, there's a heavenly place where God the Father is, and then the Lamb is with those 144,000 on earth. They are the ones who were not defiled with women, talking about spiritual virgins.

For they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being first fruit to God and to the Lamb. So this is part of the first resurrection. It's specifically singling them out because it's going to be a time when the church is going to flee, and you're going to have people that are going to be protected at that time. And it's talking about those, but it's not limited to them. In chapter 7, you can read about those 144,000 who were sealed before God to be protected, but then it talks about an innumerable multitude that also are part of those first fruits. So this is just talking about that moment when it's all going to be brought together.

These 144,000 that were protected, that Satan wanted to destroy so badly, and that they are going to be redeemed and protected when Christ returns. So we see we need to set a lifetime goal, and that is to continue climbing that spiritual mountain of God. Secondly, going back to Alex Honnold, a reporter who interviewed him said, it actually took more than 15 years for him to train and prepare.

He likened it to the difference between cramming for an exam and deeply understanding a subject and being able to teach it. He said, I think it's important to recognize the amount of effort that goes into things that are truly difficult. There's no real shortcut for that. So he kept notebooks of all his climbs every day, usually climbed five days out of the week. He jotted down what he had done right, what he had done wrong.

He learned all the rules about climbing and applied them. He abstained from alcohol, smoking, didn't party with the rest of the climbers. He kept a strict diet to keep his body completely fit. He didn't have one gram of fat in that body because everything meant he could lift himself and he could take just a little crevice of a rock and jam his fingers in it and he could pick himself right up and climb like in a ladder. He had that type of strength. And he was looking at that eventual satisfaction of climbing that mountain in particular.

All the best climbers said it can't be done. Well, he took up the challenge. Here we see the actual Mount Zion. There, where it has the tower, you see to the side the Mount of Olives. And here's that Mount Zion in the future, taken from Ezekiel chapter 40 through 45, where it describes when Christ comes back, Mount Zion is going to be set up and it gives all the dimensions. People say, what does Ezekiel 40 to 45 have to do with? Well, it's all the architecture behind this new temple that Christ is going to establish.

King David is going to be the prince there. So we have spiritual exercises that we need to do every day, just like he did. We need to learn God's rules and apply them in our lives. What kind of climbers, spiritual climbers, are we? Are we keeping the basic rules for this spiritual climb? That means keeping the fourth commandment holy. That's the Sabbath day. That's one of the basics.

If you're keeping another day, that's not the one God sanctified. That's not the one he set apart. Are you keeping the holy days of God? Or are you keeping man's carnal and pagan holidays? Which of the two? See, we've got to start with God's basic book of rules, of instructions. Are we respecting God's food laws?

Are we keeping God's laws about tithing? See, these are the basics. We've got to start with the basics and straighten our lives out and organize our lives around these four basic principles. It has to do with time. It has to do with God's plan of salvation that we keep in mind with the feasts. It has to do with keeping our bodies properly protected from all kinds of toxins with wrong foods that we eat. I was just mentioning that to John and to Corwin, where there was a scripture. We can go to that scripture. It has relevance in 1 Timothy. As you know, I just love always John and Corwin. They have some good questions before beginning the Sabbath services. Here's the one that Corwin, because he has a friend that'll try to trip him up. So Corwin comes and brings 1 Timothy. It has to do with chapter 4 verses 1 through 3.

It says, now the Spirit, we talked about the Holy Spirit, expressly says that in the latter times, this is the Spirit inspiring the prophets to write about those latter times, some will depart from the faith, some will leave the true faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. So these are Satan-induced doctrines. These are the counterfeit teachings that Satan uses. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. They don't mind teaching false teachings, many of them knowing better. And one of the things that they will do in the latter days is forbidding to marry. So here we have the prohibition against celibacy, which is where you dedicate yourself to God and don't marry because you think that's better. And God tells us that we should marry. It doesn't mean it's necessary to do so, but you should not have a religious reason for not marrying. That's called celibacy. It's applied in particular in the Catholic Church where the priesthood are celibate. They are forbidden from marrying. And look at all the problems. Even today's paper had a tremendous scandal over New Zealand with all of these priests involved because it creates all kinds of aberrations and wrong behaviors. Going on, it says, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. So there are going to be all kinds of people that are going to be banning certain biblical foods, for instance, meats that are good in the Bible. They're going to say, well, you should be a veggie. You should not eat any meat. And this is also for religious purposes. There are all kinds of religions that they don't want you to eat meat, to just eat vegetables. And it goes on to say, for every creature of God, so it's talking here, not about plants. It's talking about animals. For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, which means praying over it. For it is sanctified, which means set apart by the word of God. That means the Bible has to authorize that it's good to eat. It's sanctified. It's placed as food that can be eaten and prayer. And so we see here, again, these are basic rules in our lives that we need to first prove that they are biblical and then put them into practice. But after you do that, then you go to a higher development. Once you get the basics down, then you've got to look at the inner man, the fruits of God's spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. These are the spiritual principles that come after we have the basics down. And so these are the rules that we need to apply in our own lives. First! It's like getting to first base. You can't get to second base unless you go to first base. And so you learn to apply these principles in your life. Just like this Alex Hunnall climbed some of the highest cliffs in the world where El Capitan wouldn't look so daunting. That's what he did. A reporter wrote, in the years prior to his major climb of El Capitan, he climbed around the world in Chad, Africa, the Gulf of Oman, and in the Patagonian peaks of southern Argentina. In this part of South America, the mountains dwarf what is considered big in the United States, with rock faces often two to five times the height of what Hunnall had been climbing in California.

He put in the preparation and practice.

In 2 Timothy 2 verse 15, it tells us about our preparation and practice. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 15 and 16.

It says, be diligent to present yourself, approve to God. Let's go here to the slide which has to do. A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Learn how to apply it properly. The word here dividing means cutting in a straight line, like a burrow when you're doing the hoeing. When you are tilling the land, you are having a straight row, or it has to do with a carpenter. When he's cutting, it's a straight line, as they say. Measure twice and cut once. So, Alex Honnold prepared himself, as no one else had done before. He was at light speed from all the rest of the climbers. Most of them were just having a good time, doing what they could part-time, partying, drinking, a pretty rowdy bunch over there in Yosemite. But he stayed away from that. He had a higher goal to reach. And that takes us to the third lesson. Learn to deal with adversity. Learn to deal with adversity. Of course, during those 15 years, Alex had some bad falls. Once, he almost broke his ankle. He was purple and yellow and red from the knee down. But thankfully, he didn't break it.

And before successfully climbing El Capitan, eight months before, he had climbed up to a certain place and he just didn't feel right. And he had to abandon. Even if the cameras from National Geographic, they were all there and he bailed out. Just didn't feel that was the right time, right place. And so, he could have gotten discouraged. But he didn't let all of these different falls and adversities get him down. He learned from his mistakes and became even better at it. And just like he had to learn from adversity, we also have to learn from adversity. Notice in Philippians chapter 2, we have something that Alex Hunnall does not have, for sure, in our spiritual climb. It brings it out here in Philippians chapter 2 in verse 12. It says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So, in our spiritual climb, we have a coach next to us. We have a helper. We have a guide. That's Jesus Christ. He's there with us. Alex Hunnall had to depend completely upon his own resources. But when adversity comes, we have Jesus Christ there. He already paid the ultimate price. He knows what we're going through. He suffered all kinds of losses. And yet, he says, it's important to go forward, to overcome those losses. Christ is our coach, our helper, and our guide. Now, the fourth lesson we can learn was something that he learned above any of the other climbers. He learned how to visualize the term. The term is visualize.

Let me go to this slide in particular.

Life is not about how many times you fall down. It's about how many times you get back up. You know who said that? Jaime Escalante. Did you ever see that movie Stand and Deliver? About this Bolivian teacher that was over here in the south of Los Angeles, and he was a mathematics teacher. He had actually worked for Nassau. And then he sort of retired and went to teach in one of these Latino high schools. And of course, hardly anybody had ever made it into engineering school and big business schools. And he started teaching them mathematics. And he was so good at it that just about his whole class qualified for superior institutions. And so before that, they sent inspectors. They said, these guys must be cheating. And so they had to take the test again. This was high calculus test. And guess what? They all took it again. With two inspectors watching everything, kids got the same high grade. And Jaime Escalante is an inspiration. By the way, just on a personal note, I knew his brother when I pastored the La Paz Bolivia congregation. And so his brother said, yeah, that's Jaime Escalante. Yeah, he left Bolivia many years ago. And he became a very inspirational person, which helped in government to try to teach better all of these underdeveloped places. But this was said by Jaime Escalante. And so we have to learn to overcome adversity.

There's also the saying, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In the Bible, it says in Proverbs 24 16, the righteous fall seven times and get up. They don't give up.

Now, also, another famous person. Let me get here. See, I guess it wasn't. Oh, yeah, it's coming up here in a moment. Alex learned to visualize, to use his imagination to picture every step of the way, and then write it down in his journal. He had it memorized. When he went up there, he said, I didn't have to think about anything. I just had to execute my plan. He knew every step, every little place where he could place his foot, his hand, everything was carefully. He had climbed it already like 20 times with ropes. So he knew exactly every step of the way.

As Einstein once said, imagination is more important than knowledge. I want to thank Enrique Vidal because he brought that to my attention, that quote.

He said, I arrived in Yosemite in late April of 2017, and from then on, until I did the climb in June, that's like two months, I only left once the place of Yosemite. I stopped responding to emails. The main thing for me was to have unstructured time where I had nothing going on and I could just sit in my chair in the van and naturally start to think about these things that matter on the route. So basically, he just followed a program that he had gone over hundreds of times before. We also need to visualize our climb. Never leave it out of sight. Notice in Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, in verse 1 and 2, what is faith about? Visualization of that coming kingdom, of being with Christ, God the Father, being in a better world than what we have today. It says, verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony. And let's see what it's saying here. It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Visualization. You can't see it yet, but you know it's coming. We can prepare for it. It goes on to say in verse 6, for without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He's going to be with us. He's going to reward us. He's going to accompany us throughout our lives. And then in verse 9, talk about visualization, it says verse 9, by faith, talk about Abraham, he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He knew the kingdom was coming one day. He wanted to be in God's kingdom. And then it goes on to say in verse 11.

No, it says verse 13. It's what I want. Verse 13, it says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them. They visualized. They knew it was going to come true. Embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the land. So these men had division.

This is the scripture that I have down. It says, all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

The fifth lesson we can learn is perseverance. Perseverance. The not giving up. Alex had gone through some depressive moments, what he would call his blue periods, when he had serious falls, things hadn't gone well. He also postponed the first time he tried to climb El Capitan. He was discouraged for a while, but not for long. He mentally prepared even better for the next attempt, and it went off smoothly. We can also go through what we call blue periods in our lives, but then with the help of God, overcome them. In Hebrews 12, in verse 3, it says Hebrews 12 verse 3, For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted bloodshed to bloodshed, striving against sin. I don't see anybody with stripes on their backs to avoid sin. We haven't gone through great persecutions. That maybe in the future, just coming to services, there would be a persecution against us, and maybe we get beaten up before we got here. How many would still be attending? As another famous personage, Winston Churchill said, Never, never, never give up. He also said success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts, the courage to continue moving forward, even when you don't feel like it.

And the final principle, this would be the sixth point, keep your eyes on the reward. Keep your eyes on the reward.

Alex realized what was at stake doing that climb. He had been given the opportunity. He had the right body, the right mind, the right preparation, and he saw what it would deal to achieve such a feat. It was a great risk, but there would be a great reward as a consequence, worldwide fame, and many riches. Well, we also need to remember about our reward, like Paul did in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 5 through 8. When he was finishing his spiritual climb, his race, he said in verse 5, But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, for I am ready, already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. He was in jail. He was going to be executed soon. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day when Christ returns, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. We look forward to that day. 10. Alex Honnold will be talked about as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of all the athletic feats. For almost four hours, life was on the line, just as Sir Edmund Hillary, who did something similar by climbing Mount Everest in 1953 for the first time. I still remember his name. I'll always remember Alex Honnold's name.

Yet, if we rank with what Jesus Christ went through all his life without sinning once, that was the greatest feat of all. He is the greatest spiritual athlete, and he did it for us. 11. So let's go to the final scripture.

1 Corinthians 9, verse 25. Very appropriate. You see Yosemite Valley there. And let's read what the Apostle Paul talked about, our spiritual climb. 1 Corinthians 9, starting in verse 24.

It says, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Put your whole heart into it, all your dedication. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Alex Honnold certainly was. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Yes, brethren, we have a spiritual mountain to climb. And this is encouraging what human beings are capable of doing just on the physical realm. How much more in the spiritual realm that God has called us to be these spiritual climbers and to make it to the biggest mountain of all, with God's help, with Christ pulling us up, which is the kingdom of God.