ANY MOUNTAIN MADE A PLAIN

Zechariah 4:1-14 (KJV)

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:

And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?

Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

Although this chapter begins with the vision of a golden candlestick, the focus really is about a man named Zerubabel.

Zerubabel was a direct descendant to King David and is found in the lineage of Jesus Christ. 

·   He was a leader among the Jews in Babylon and was probably involved in some sort of service to the Babylonian king prior to returning to Jerusalem. 

·   His name literally means "coming from Babylon" or "begotten in Babylon."

It was Zerubabel who led the first wave of Jews back to Jerusalem when king Cyrus made the decree allowing the Jews to return.

His first project was to rebuild the Temple. 

But, when a group of Samaritans asked to help, and Zerubabel refused them because they were involved in false worship, the Samaritans lied to the King and were successful in stopping the rebuilding process for 17 years.

Although the process of rebuilding the Temple was difficult, long and laden with ups and downs, Zerubabel was successful finally in completing the new Temple.

My key verse for tonight's message is verse number 7

Notice the words

"Who art thou, O great mountain?..."

For Zerubabel, the mountain he battled to plow over, was building the Temple.

But when I read this, it seemed to me that God is making a statement here.

He is saying that whatever our particular mountain may be, it can come down by using the same means used to bring down Zerubabel's.

A good number of the people in this church have mountains that need to be plowed down. 

·   You have hurdles you are facing

·   You have some problems that seem insurmountable

·   You have no idea how you are going to overcome the things you are facing right now

With that in mind, I have given tonight's message the title

Any Mountain Made a Plain

I want to show you three things in this passage that brought Zerubabel's mountain down:

Any Mountain Can Be Made a Plain

I. BY GOD'S SPIRIT

Zechariah 4:6 (KJV)

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

They say that, no matter what Billy Sunday was preaching on, he always opened his Bible to this verse while he was preaching.

Sunday was about as dynamic a speaker as the country had ever witnessed.

They say he would walk as much as two miles during just one sermon.

·   He would jump on pianos

·   He would pull up a chair and pretend to be a lion tamer against the devil

He preached with such fire it was amazing.

I watched a short film clip of Billy Sunday just after they repealed prohibition. 

The news folks went to see what Sunday's reaction would be.

By then he was an old man, but he preached so hard into that camera that you weren't sure he wasn't going to grab it out of the camera man's hand and beat it up too.

But you know, Sunday's success in seeing a million souls walk the isle and trust Christ was not because he was such a powerful speaker.

IT WAS BECAUSE HE RELIED UPON THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

The temptation in our lives is to try to tackle mountains ourselves, and leave the things that don't really matter to God.

The temptation is to keep Christianity something that is separate from real life.

·   We pray that God would help us understand the Bible

·   We pray for God's guidance and help in our Sunday School class

·   We ask the Lord to bless us when we go out witnessing

But then, when it comes to

·   Getting a job

·   Quitting a habit

·   Paying our bills

·   Handling our neighbors

and other day to day types of struggles, WE WANT TO DO THAT OURSELVES.

Hey listen, no matter what kind of mountain you have to deal with its best dealt with

"not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts!"

To be truthful to you, we need to get over this idea that there is such a thing as something in our lives that shouldn't be handled spiritually.

Every area of our lives ought to be lived

·   In obedience to the Lord and

·   In dependence upon the Holy Spirit

The first step in plowing down mountains is to do it BY GOD'S SPIRIT.

Secondly, Any Mountain Can Be Made a Plain

II. BY OUR PERSISTENCE

Zechariah 4:8-9 (KJV)

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.

I do want to make sure you know that persistence comes AFTER dependence upon the Spirit of God.

But nothing of value happens without our sticking to it.

Zerubabel did successfully rebuild the Temple, but it took him more than 17 years to do it.

Billy Sunday was successful because he depended upon the Holy Spirit.

·   BUT HE STILL WALKED TWO MILES PER SERMON

·   And he still jumped on pianos

·   And he still fought the devil like a lion tamer when he preached.

Just because he depended upon the Spirit to do the real work didn't mean he lay down and did nothing.

I'll tell you why a great many Christians never get victory in their lives.

THEY QUIT TRYING WAY TOO SOON.

A. We are to be persistent in PRAYER.

The Bible says that we should pray with importunity.

That means to pray and pray and pray UNTIL WE GET AN ANSWER.

Too often we quit praying after a try of two and say, "Well, God just didn't answer me."

Or else we take second best to an answer from God because that came sooner than the answer we asked for.

More people have messed up their lives by accepting the quick answer that isn't quite what they needed, but looked better than waiting on God.

B. We are to be persistent in OUR FIGHT AGAINST SIN

I like to use this illustration to explain the battle with sin in our lives:

Many types of sins from very strong chains around us.

Sometimes we think than when we ask God to help us overcome those sins, He will just break the chains immediately.

But what God does most of the time is TO HAND US A HACKSAW.

A hacksaw won't cut through very many chains in one or two strokes.  Most of the time it takes countless strokes before you get all the way through.

Every time you refuse to give in to that sin, YOU JUST TOOK ANOTHER STROKE AGAINST IT.

And if you keep taking those strokes, sooner or later you'll get it cut clear through.

C. We need to be persistent in our SERVICE

I wonder how many people have quit a ministry for the Lord just before God really would have blessed them?

Pastors leave churches after struggling there for years,

THEN THE NEXT GUY COMES IN AND HAS A REVIVAL.

Sometimes the revival was because of the efforts of the man who just left.

You know when a Sunday school teacher really sees the rewards for their ministry?

After 15 or 20 years, when the children of children they taught are in their Sunday School class.

Some teachers never see it BECAUSE THEY QUIT TOO SOON.

·   I know you are tired of climbing up that mountain.

·   I know you would like it to go away

·   I know you wish you could just quit your struggle

I’m telling you, don’t give in. Don’t give up.

Any mountain can be made a plain

By God's Spirit

By Our Persistence and

III. BY ANOINTED HELP

Zechariah 4:11-14 (KJV)

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

There is a lot of speculation about who exactly these two anointed ones are.

Some believe they are the same two prophets who are killed in Revelation 11.

I think that they could certainly be that prophetically.

Others believe that they could be the two preachers that preached in Jerusalem while Zerubabel built the walls.

We know that both Haggai and Zechariah preached to the crowd that Zerubabel led and encouraged them to keep working and keep building.

I think that, for Zerubabel's own situation that is probably the most likely.

That suggests to me that we all need some anointed help and encouragement if we are going to plow down our mountains.

I believe the lesson for us is that, when it comes to overcoming the difficult trials in our lives, we need to be around the people of God.

Not just Christians, BUT ANOINTED ONES.

·   Christians who have the wisdom and power of God in their lives.

·   Christians who don't necessarily plow the mountain over for you...

But

A. Christians who help to keep you motivated and encouraged and busy plowing over those mountains yourself

B. And Christians who will remind you as you put your hands to the plow, TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE LORD

I used to think that the best help someone could give me was to come and do the work for me.

I thought guys like Jerry Falwell ought to come to churches like this and hold a week of services - if he did, you KNOW you would have a full house all week and surely you would have some people to get the church growing that way.

I thought these pastors who drive newer cars should start driving broken down cars like all the men starting churches were - and give the difference to the church planters - many of them could live for a year on what some preachers pay for a car.

But you know what I learned?

Part of success is the struggle of getting it.

If people did meet our every need, and plow down our mountains for us, we would never grow in our Christian faith.

We don't need people to win our battles for us.

·   We need people who will encourage us to keep working on that mountain and

·   We need people to remind us to keep trusting Jesus

Conclusion

I hope this doesn't sound too simplistic to you - because I believe it is directly from God to anyone who has a mountain in their lives ...

Whatever the mountain is - it can be made a plain

·   By God's Spirit

·   By Our Persistence and

·   By Anointed Help