Go a little deeper
Pastor Noah Stevenson opens by honoring Journey Church's lead pastors and greeting the congregation, then shares a personal story from his own life that he pauses and returns to later, using it to introduce the theme that God is over discouragement and fear.
Noah lays groundwork by surveying Solomon's temple, Israel's persistent sin, the exile, and the return under Zerubbabel to rebuild ruins that had sat for seventy years. With the people discouraged, God sent Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them. Noah reads Zechariah 4:1-7 and connects the series theme, kingdom come, to mountains as obstacles and grace as the response of faith. He outlines three points: kingdom does not promise a life without mountains but promises God's presence in them; in mountain seasons God's voice is not lacking; and when God's people cry out grace, mountains become plains.
Noah develops each point with Scripture and pastoral application, citing Ecclesiastes, Psalm 42, Ezra, Proverbs, Jeremiah, and Romans, and he leads the congregation in a responsive acclamation of grace over their lives and region. He describes how grace is a person, Jesus, and invites hearers toward repentance and faith in him, then leads a prayer of confession. After he is thanked from the platform, another speaker gives a brief word about generous giving and a closing prayer.
Take this with you
Mountains are part of kingdom life
Noah's first point is that following God does not remove obstacles; it promises his presence in the middle of them. Drawing on Zechariah 4:6-7, where God speaks to Zerubbabel about the great mountain, he names physical, spiritual, and emotional hurdles and says God intends to address the mountain each person faces.
Discouragement is common, not disqualifying
Noah describes the internal dialogue of people who believe life will never be as good as it was, and says such thoughts can hold people captive. From Ecclesiastes 3:1 and Psalm 42:5-6 he draws the point that hard seasons are neither unique nor permanent, and he calls the congregation to hope in community.
God speaks in the mess
The second point argues from Zechariah's vision that God is not silent in dry or plateau seasons. Noah cites Ezra 5:1-2 and 6:14, where Haggai and Zechariah prophesy and the elders prosper as they build, and Proverbs 29:18 on prophetic vision. He ties this to Jeremiah 29:11 and to Jesus as the one who carries God's promise to be with his people.
Praise and reliance on God's Spirit
The third point centers on Zechariah 4:7 and the congregation's acclamation of grace over the mountain. Noah says this is praise and truth spoken over the obstacle, turning our perspective toward God's, and that mountains become plain by God's Spirit rather than human strength. He leads the congregation in that acclamation and clarifies that it is not manipulating God but aligning with what he has already spoken, while human participation still matters.
Grace has a name
Toward the end, Noah says grace is not merely something given but a person, Jesus, and he connects the cry of grace to surrender. He presents the gospel from John 14:6, 1 John 1:9, and Romans 10:9: repentance, confession, and faith in Jesus, followed by an invitation to respond.
The conversation,
in their words.
Transcript from the recording’s captions. Select any timestamp to hear the original audio.
[applause] Wow. Pastor Keith, I think you should come back up and preach this instead. Um, hey guys, thank you so much for uh just being here in this house today. It's always an honor just to be up here doing what I love to do most most. And for those who know me, especially Larry, shout up, Larry. I see you right here. For those we're always in the prison. I'll say this every single time. I love just to share about who Jesus is and what he has done for me and what I'm believing God is going to do for you either here today or in this season because I believe God is on the move here at Journey Church. Amen. We're constantly seeing God move in and miracles, healing, wonder, but also just internal healing as well. And so we cannot sh stop shouting a praise of holy are you. And so, uh, I believe we get to be participants and on the on the very
front lines of, uh, great awakening and revival here in Central Oregon. Do you guys believe that? Okay. You are meant for so much more. And you guys were meant for kingdom. We are believing that Central Oregon shall be saved and God's kingdom is going to influence all of Central Oregon and people are going to come to know Jesus as the one true God. Amen. Amen. Now, before we get started into the message, I always always just want to give honor to where honor is due. And so, Pastor Keith and Pastor Kara, every time, hey, we honor you and we bless you. Can you guys give a shout out to Keith and Kara? And just, hey, thank you so much for just stewarding us all well and pointing us always to Jesus. And so, it's an honor and thank you for the opportunity to be here on stage just preaching the word of God. Now, for those who don't know me, my name is Noah
and I'm one of the pastors here at Journey Church. And uh I am married to my wife Hannah right there. Shout out. She is the most beautiful woman in the world. And together we actually have two kids. Our oldest son Ezra who is about to turn five at the end of July here on the 20th. And he is the coolest guy. He loves Mario. So if you see him jumping up, bing woohoo. [laughter] That's Ezra. He loves Mario. All right. So if you give him something about Mario, like he'll be your best friend. And then we have our second daughter, Ella, who is two, turning on 16. She is the most wild one available and so she is uh amazing and so we we love her so much. Um and they definitely give us a run for uh our parent tent. Like uh they they stress us out for sure. Um but hey, we we love them. Oh, hey look, they're up there. So yeah, Ezie right here and then Ella.
Look at look at those rain boots in summertime. Anyway, uh I'll say this guys is as much as I love my family, I got two main desires in my life. And this first desire is that my family would know Jesus, walk in the anointing and in friendship with the Holy Spirit. And the second desire of my life is that that my friendship with the Holy Spirit would be infectious. My desire is that you too would know Jesus. You two would have such a deep relationship with Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit that you would know that wherever you walk, the kingdom follows. that it doesn't matter whether you're in the grocery store or you're at work or you're in the church that the kingdom of God follows and the atmosphere shifts in
Jesus' name. So, another way to put this is that my desire is that you would know who you are in Christ and that you would live like Christ. And part of living like Christ as a human here on earth is just simply testifying of what he's done for you. So, it doesn't matter where you are. I just get to testify the about the grace of God and what he has done for me. And today I actually want to testify about some good stuff. The grace of God in my own life and the power of his spirit in action. Now years ago, I remember that uh I had to get my wisdom teeth removed. So we go in to get scans and talk about what this would look like. And I and I want to recognize here in the room that as soon I start start talking about wisdom teeth, some of you think I'm going to tell a funny story about being under the influence. I'm not
that funny. Okay. So, but what's interesting about this story is that I will I go in to get the scans to get my wisdom teeth uh just scan what kind of is going on. And they figured out that my wisdom teeth were completely impacted. So, they're going like 90 degrees straight into the other teeth. And so, I'm like, "Wow, okay, that's interesting." And so we got to go in, we we sit down with the surgeon after the scan, my wife and I, Hannah, and we're talking about this and he starts talking. Yeah, we got to get like it it was just all gibberish to me as you start talking and I I start fading out because I got a short attention span and so they're they're talking. Hannah's paying attention as we So if you're you're ever in a meeting with us, just know that Hannah's the talker and I I will fade out at some at certain point and so it's okay to re-engage me in the conversation. But so I'm I'm talking
about my own wisdom teeth here. I'm not even paying attention. But then there's this trigger word that that's said and all of a sudden this word biopsy comes. So I got awaken out of my own sleep or my own daydream whatever is happening. And then now I got to recall all of the conversation that was happening in the past 15 20 minutes. And so I'm like and then I realized that not only did they want to take my wisdom teeth out, but what they did is they found a mass in my mouth. And in this they wanted to not only take the teeth out, but they wanted to go ahead and cut out the mass and biopsy to make sure this thing was not cancerous. So all of the sudden my my heart drops when I hear this word and I hear this news and all of a sudden I get this overwhelming spirit of fear that comes
over me because I've never received news like this in my life before. I'm young. I'm healthy. And I want to tell you that fear is not your portion in Jesus today. In fact, Satan will try to steal your joy, take your faith, and turn it into fear. And things will happen in your life that Satan will try to steal. And here in my case, it was my health. It was my faith. It was my joy. And so as I heard this news, my fear started coming over me, anxiety in my heart. And then the bill comes along with it and realize I don't have money for this either. Like this is getting wild. And then so we had to really evaluate. Jesus, what do you want to do? Then we realize that this uh oral surgeon is not even in network with our insurance. So hey, we got to go get a second opinion. So we go, we find a new oral surgeon for the second opinion
that's in insurance. And so with more bills later, another having to pay for another X-ray later and everything like that. This was kind of a minor inconvenience anyway because for some reason the new place did not want the same scans. They didn't want the old scans and medical records or they couldn't I I don't remember the exact details, babe. But we couldn't get the old scans. So now we had to get new X-rays, which this was an inconvenience anyway because now, hey, guess what? We got more bills. But I say this because even minor inconveniences can turn into a a a way in a in a place for God to be God. So we're here at the new oral surgeon, more bills in an anxious heart, in a fearful heart, and I start asking the questions, God, where are you?
Why me? I'm scared. What do you want to do? And actually, I want to stop hearing the story here with you guys. And we're going to come back later to the story here in the sermon. But why I'm stopping is because I want to let you know that our God is the God over our discouragement. And he's the God over our fear. There'll be times in life where you get discouragement, but the God is the God over our discouragement and fear. And actually, I want to look at a biblical example of discouragement here today. And so, what I want to do is I want to lay some groundwork for the message. I want to lay the background for our message because what we're going to do during this time, we're going to talk about the destruction and the rebuilding of the temple of Solomon. So, for those of you who are uh new coming in to
journey here today, thank you so much for being here. For those who are catching up and watching online, for those who haven't heard uh the situation of what's happening here, where we're going to go in our main biblical text is what I'm going to do real quick is we're going to take a brief fly over and we're going to look at the picture of what's happening this whole scenario in a bigger picture. So, we see previously before we go into our main text, we see King Solomon, right? God tells King Solomon to build my temple. Says, "Hey, go build the temple and the dwelling place of God." And so in doing so, King Solomon goes and he grabs all the best craftsmen, all the best temp uh materials, and he builds like the most beautiful structure and temple just ever known to man. This is like it's this place is beautiful, but also it's got
straight up just the power and the presence of God there in it. The details on this temple go well beyond the 16th chapel. So it's full of like there's some rooms that are full like head to toe gold there. It's got expensive wood. It's got bronze. It's got so many different things. And so they it's this absolute immaculate structure. And now I would say it's during this this time where the temple is built. God's there. But Israel continues to keep living in sin. They got the presence of God, but they keep continuing to live in sin. And they keep doing that more and more and in evil. And then eventually God, he's so patient with us. He keeps calling them to repent. Keep following my ways. Stop doing that. But now God had enough and
he's like, "Hey, I cannot let the evil happen any longer. You guys are my chosen people. You're supposed to reflect my face. So guess what's going to happen? You're going to go into exile. You're going to be conquered. You're going to be taken into exile. And you're going to go there for about 70 years." So now this happens. The exile comes the the people come and raid and they destroy this beautiful temple. It comes down, crumbles into a pile of rubble. They take all the gold, all the good stuff out of it. They take the healthy men from Israel, all the women and children. And what they do is they take them to exile. But the Babylonians at this time who uh conquered Israel, guess what they do? They leave behind the lame and the poor in the desolate land. Are you guys still tracking?
So the siege happens. Everything's destroyed. Israel is in exile. And what happens now? 70 years go by and God says, "It's time to go back. It's time to go back, Israel, and rebuild the temple." And so, a bunch of favor and a bunch of grace comes upon Israel and God stirs up and changes the heart of the king. And then he basically the king says to Zerubabel, Israel's leader at that time, to go back and build. He says, "Here's a giant paycheck. Here's all the materials. Go and do it and rebuild the temple." So, Rubel goes back with other people to build this massive glorious temple again.
And then they get there and they're they're in the midst of what we will call some of the lame and some of the losers. So, they indeed do not have the bandwidth. They don't have the power to be able to accomplish such a project. And by this time, guess what? this rubble pile. It's 70 years later, right? So, if you guys could picture it, it could be overgrown. It could have things growing out of it. And very well, this pile could look like a mountain. It could look like this giant mount. And it's here in this point of time with profound discouragement, God sends two prophets, Haggi and Zachchariah, to give encouragement to build up in the time of need to say, "Keep going." And actually what we're going to do, we we find ourselves today in the book of Zechariah, chapter 4, and we're going to pick up where we left off the last
couple weeks with Pastor Keith. And then we're going to rest on a very special couple verses here today. So if you have a Bible, you got you can have a hand Bible or a phone Bible. That's what I mean by that. Or a printed Bible here. Would you wave it in the air like you guys care? Right? We'll see those. What I'm gonna do together, I'm gonna say one, two, three, and together we're just going to shout word. Amen. Ready? One, two, three, word. Hey, we're getting the God's word. So God's word's getting into us, guys. So together, Zechariah chapter 4, we're going to go from verse one all the way down to verse seven. And it says, "And the angel who talked with and I said, I see and behold a lampstand of all gold and with a bowl on top of it and seven lamps on it with seven lips on each of
the lamps that are on top of it. And there are two olive trees by it. One on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." And I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my Lord?" Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my Lord." Then he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubabel. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, oh great mountain, before Zerubabel you shall become a plain, and he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of grace, grace to it." This is the word of the Lord, everybody. Amen. So for those who are coming in today, we're actually in a yearly theme. This annual theme, not annual, today's year's theme
is kingdom come. Can you guys shout that with me? Kingdom come. What I want to tell you is that when we declare God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, this is lifechanging. And we can learn so much about the kingdom of God. And we find that from pastor Keith earlier that there is a need here in Zechariah 4 to awaken from our sleep. The church needs to wake up and realize something. But not only do we need awaken, we need the oil. This is the Holy Spirit. We need the oil and it drives everything. But more than that, or not even more than that, today I want to talk to you about something different.
I want to tell you that when we declare kingdom come, there will be seasons that have mountains. And these mountains, these are obstacles. These are hurdles. And these hurdles can either be physical, they could be spiritual, they could be emotional. But more than mountains, I also want to talk to you guys about grace. because there's something special about the grace of God when facing the mountain in front of us. And with this being said, today I actually have three main points for you when we talk about grace and mountains. So if you're a notetaker, you can always write these things down. So this first point, point one is this. Kingdom doesn't promise a life without
mountains. It promises God's presence in the middle of them. Kingdom doesn't promise a life without mountains. It promises God's presence in the middle of them. Main text today, Zechariah 4:6-7. Then he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel." Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, oh great mountain? Let's stop here. Here the word of the Lord comes and notice what God is speaking about. God is speaking to the prophet Zachchariah to reach the leader Zerubabel in regards to the mountain.
I want to let you know today, Journey Church, God intends to address your mountain. For Israel, this was a literal mountain, a pile of rubble. But I think we could even venture to say there was a mountain of discouragement. And I believe there could be this internal dialogue of my life will not be the same. It will never be as good as it used to be. I can never accomplish this. The odds are against me. I got losers around me. I wonder how many in this room right now have the same internal dialogue. Some of you are completely held captive by your thoughts rather than taking your thoughts captive.
You're run by the mountain of discouragement in your own life wondering, "Will this ever stop?" I want to encourage you that and let you know that you're actually not alone. You're not alone in these seasons. And what you're dealing with right now is actually only a vapor in the line of eternity. It's only a vapor in the line of eternity. And you got a body of people with you in this season. This is why we have hope in community. Amen. And what you're feeling in these seasons is not uncommon to man. And this season will pass. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven."
Psalm 42:5-6. And I love how the psalmist could sympathize with how we feel. says, "Why are you downcast, oh my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation of my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermit and of Mount Misar." Sometimes we got to remember and testify. Amen. There's a season for everything in life. And you're not alone in what you encounter and feel in these seasons. and you actually have a room full of people right now who may be going through very similar things and you just never know. So it's important to recognize we have hope in community. It's important to recognize that you are not alone. But also in addition to this, I want to say
that it's important that you respond righteously. Everyone on earth will come to a point when facing the rubble mountain. But how you respond is changes everything. How you respond changes everything. The heart posture in the midst of this mountain season will shift the outcome. Let's look at what this heart posture should be. And this is point two. Point two is in mountain seasons. Listen, God's voice, God's word is not lacking. And you'll find that in these seasons, the prophetic word of the Lord is not lacking. God is the God who steps into our mess.
He's been there the whole time and he's speaking to you in these seasons. God is the God who is not silent, but he speaks. He's not like any other false god. He's not Buddha who's just a statue doesn't speak. He's not a false god. He's not Muhammad. He's not any spirit god. Jesus. He's the God who speaks in the middle of our mess, in the middle of when we feel discouraged. And so when we feel spiritually dry, when we're in seasons of spiritual plateau, a toe, it's flat, it's got no life around it, God will use the prophetic. God will use his written word. God will speak to you in these seasons when you feel like your situation is impossible. Ezra 5 verse 1-2 says, "Now the prophets Haggi and Zachchariah the son of Edo
prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem and the name of God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel the son of Sheil and Jeshua the son of Jezodak arose and began to rebuild the house of God that is in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them supporting them." Ezra 6:14 says, "And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggi the prophet and Zachariah the son of David." Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there's no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law." So my point here and notice that God intends his words to flow through the prophetic to flow through his word when times are rough.
When it feels like there's chaos, when it feels like there is disorder, when it feels like he is not present, God will speak and he will send those a prophet. He will send those prophetically gifted. He'll use his word. He'll use worship times when facing the mountain. In times of discouragement, God's spirit has not left. And I feel like some of you need here need to hear this today. Just because you are in the trenches right now, does not mean you have been forsaken. Look at this prophetic promise from Jeremiah, even before the exile began. Some of you may have heard it before. Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
And I declare this over you today that God has not left you. In fact, he has good plans for you today. God is addressing your mountain. God is setting you free from torment, from evil thoughts. God is setting you free from sickness. But you must partner with the truth. You must realize that there is a prophetic promise over each and every single one of your lives that God says, "I will watch out for you." Jesus says, "I'll look out for you. I will protect you. And I will never leave you in your darkest moments." This God that declares his promise, guess what his name is? Jesus. And Jesus, if you don't know, he is God, fully man, fully God. He stepped out of
his throne down onto earth. He wrapped himself in human flesh. Being found in human form. He lived this perfect and sinless life. The life we can never live. The life that had absolutely no evil. And what he did is he lived this life and he went to this thing called the cross. And there on the cross he was tormented beyond all measure. He was unrecognizable. And he bore the full weight of our sin, of our wrongdoing, the whole wrongdoing of the whole entire world. And he then paid that penalty of death, death itself's weight. And he went down. And then three days later, he arose again. And he defeated sin and death forever. And that now we are reconciled to God.
It's the word says that he who knew no sin became sin for us on that cross so that we would become the righteousness of God. So because of Jesus's work on that cross, we have been provided the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus. But not only that, he also ascended to the right hand of the father. And when he did on all those who believe, he gave the gift of his holy spirit and deposit it to you. So now you start walking and living in that righteousness provided for you. Hallelujah. So, it doesn't matter what season you find yourself in. You can know the truth that God is here right now and he's in this room and he's found in all those who believe through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, it doesn't matter if you have the mountain in front of
you. God is with you and his promises never fail. And he's always for you and not against you. He's right here in your mess with you. This is the truth we all must recognize. This is the word of the Lord. This is the prophetic promise. He is with you and he will make the mountain plain in season. Zechariah 4:6. And we bold in some text here just to prove it. And he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. When you face the mountain, listen to the word of the Lord. Jesus says it's not by might, not by power, but by my spirit.
You will not get past this mountain on your own strength and your own will. Everything will be done by the spirit of the Lord. By the power of God in our lives, the mountains become plains. But I want to let you know and please note that even though Jesus says I will do it, it does not mean we sit back on the sidelines. This is not an excuse to sit back and say, "Okay, yes, we surrender. We say yes." But there is a little bit of a man's participation here. The word of the Lord, the prophetic word of the Lord comes to give encouragement. It's to build up and say, "Go, you got this." But there is man's participation that helps bring it about. And this is point three. When you shout grace, mountains become plains.
Zechariah 4:6-7. And he said to me, "This is the word of the Lord, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. Who are you, oh great mountain, before Zerubabel you shall become a plain, and he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of grace, grace to it." So there is a need to shout to the mountain. And this is not an ordinary shout. This is a shout of praise. This is a shout of truth. And I believe we could shout grace to the mountain right now because it allows us to recognize that even though I have the mountain in my way, even though the task seems impossible, even though I don't know the outcome, I could prophesy the truth of
God's word over the mountain. declaring that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will become plain. So when I shout grace, grace to it, my eyes turn into his eyes. When I shout grace, grace to it, my perspective turns into his perspective. When I shout grace, grace to it, it prophesies the word of God over impossible situations. It prophesies the truth of God over my disappointment, over my discouragement, over my lack, over my anxiety, over my fear. And the more you find, the more you shout grace, the more that you shout grace, grace, grace, grace, grace to it,
the louder grace will sound in your head over the voice of discouragement. The more yet you shout grace, the noise of life becomes quieter. And then the volume of favor, the volume of anointing, the volume of truth will rise and will change the atmosphere in Jesus' name. Do you believe this? So I think it's time to shout grace, grace to it today. So we're going to practice. So if you are able, will you stand to your feet? I'm going to shout something in this mic and together I'm going to put this mic out and you're going to shout grace, grace to it. You guys ready? Over Central Oregon. [cheering] It over my life.
Over my business. It over my finances. Over my family. Praise to it to kill the addiction. Praise [cheering] to it for my deliverance. Praise to it for my health. To kill the cancer in central Oregon. Over my mountain. Stay stand. Shout grace when you don't feel like it. Shout grace when it seems hard. When it feels like you yourself are the mountain in someone's way, we must shout grace and watch what the spirit of God will do. He'll do what only he could do, what he's famous for. You guys can sit down.
Now, we're not manipulating God with our words. We are aligning ourselves with what God has already spoken. And God has not called you to defeat. He's called you to determination. And with Holy Spirit empowered, determination. Satan cannot stand in your way. Evil influences, people in your life will not pull you down because by his spirit, by his favor, by his grace, you are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ. Romans 8:37-39 says, "No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who have loved us. And I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, Christ Jesus our Lord." Hallelujah. This is how much God loves you. He moves mountains just because that's who he is. I remember the day I walk back into the room of the new oral surgeon's office and I and we go in there. I'm in there with my wife and I talk to them the front desk. We check in and then it's time for my name to be called. So I go and she grabs the nurse grabs me and she brings me back to the room for the new scans. And I remember what's running through my head. This is like wild thoughts and prayer. And I'm like, Jesus, where are you?
I know a doctor could cut it out and the biopsy needed, but I still don't know the outcome. Lord, I'm just asking that you deal with it. Jesus, I'm just asking that you would dissolve it. Jesus, I'm just asking that you would heal it. I'm scared. I have fear. I have anxiety. would you please just show up? I don't want to have to do this. I don't know if I could face the fact that this could be cancer. So, the time comes, we go back and I uh I start putting that awkward thing in your mouth. You start bite down all the plastic and they're doing the scan. And in the meantime, Hannah gets down on her knees. She goes into the bathroom. She pulls what we call an Elijah prayer stance.
where she gets down and she puts her head between her legs and she starts to petition and she starts to pray. We're praying for God to do a miracle a miracle here. It's only by God's grace that this thing would dissolve, but there's also our participation in prayer to pray his kingdom come and his will be done. So the time comes I do all the things necessary for this new skin. The scan happens. I get escorted by the nurse into the into the patient's room. She directs my attention over to the to the seat that has the paper. Got to pat it down. Sit down. And I see on the screen right here that there's an X-ray.
And she says, "All right. Hey, the oral surgeon's going to be here in a second. I want to go out." And I'm looking at the scan. I don't even know if it's mine or not. my eyes start watering, but I just had to make sure. So, before the uh nurse went out of the room, I'm like, "Nurse, nurse." And I'm like, "Hey, do you happen to see a mask there?" And she looks at me, looks at me like I'm the weird one. And she says, "What mass? Who are you, oh mass? What are you, oh great mountain, in front of Noah? You shall become plain mountain in my face. Geez, dumb joke. Okay, come on, people.
If we could have keys, that would be amazing. Got to help me out here, y'all. All right, so the doctor comes in and I had to confirm again. because I don't know like now I'm starting to doubt is this really it is am I really what's seeing what I'm seeing? So the oral surgeon comes in and he comes in like as if nothing abnormal is happening here. He starts talking about, hey, all right, this is what we're going to do. We're going to uh jack you up. We're going to put a bunch of drugs in you and cut you open and take out the teeth. But then I had to interrupt him and stop him. And I was like, "Doctor, do you happen to see a mass there?" He's like, "What mass?
What do you mean?" Hallelujah. God has just done the impossible. No doctor needed, no biopsy needed, just the love and the power of our great God just to do it for me. And Journey Church, I want to recognize there are many in this room battling with something like this. There are many here battling with mountains. And we got some mountains in our way. But do not give up in prayer. There are some things in our way. And it may not be the mass in your mouth, but it could be the mountain of discouragement in your life. Listen to the word of the Lord and shout grace. grace to it.
Surely God is doing the impossible today and forever more. He's the same yesterday and today and forever. And it's time to participate. It's time to shout with loud shouts of grace, grace to it. Grace doesn't ignore the mountain. It transforms how we face it. The mountain does not have the final say. Grace does. Hallelujah. So what is your mountain? And let's bring that to the feet of Jesus. Because after all, it's really hard to shout grace. Grace to the mountain if you've never truly encountered grace. And I tell you, grace is not just something that's given to you. Grace is not something that just happens to you.
Grace is a person and that person's name is Jesus. He is the embodiment and the fulfillment of grace itself. And so sometimes if grace is a person and that person's name is Jesus, a lot of times our shout will look a lot like laying things down at his feet. It'll look a lot like surrender. And that is what we're called to do right now. We must lay everything down at the feet of Jesus. This is all of our pride, all of our sin, all of our wrongdoing. And we must recognize that we need a savior. So, it doesn't matter who you are.
Nobody's got this life figured out. The word of the Lord says that all [music] have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one's exempt from this. Basically, what this means is that there's only one way to be saved. We all need it. We all need a savior and there's only one way to be saved. There's only one way to have eternal life. There's only one person who can save and give hope. There's only one God who can heal completely. There's only one who can remove the evil in our life. There's only one who fully protects. There's only one who gives hope and his name is Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:6, Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
father except through me. There's not multiple ways to be saved, just Jesus. And part of what God's calling us to do to get saved is called repentance. It means that that change the way we think and that change the way we live. And part of that first step of repentance is confession. It means to acknowledge that I need Jesus. to acknowledge the sin, to confess that, and receive the grace and the righteousness of God. First John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." There's no sin too dirty that God can't wipe up and clean.
There's no sin too dirty that God isn't willing to remove from you and make you his complete righteous, holy person, daughter, son, savior. And guess what, guys? Not only did Jesus just die on the cross for you and everything done, he's coming back again. He's coming back to reign and to rule in full glory and power. And when he does, he's going to redeem this earth. He's going to redeem and restore everything back to perfection. And all those who love him will live in eternity [music] in his presence. Full health and glory and healing. All sin, all pain, [music] all everything. Death gone. But what happens is when he does come, he's wiping away death itself forever.
He's wiping away Satan, the tormentor, the accuser, the demonic influences in our life, sin. He's wiping it away forever. And what they're going to is this thing called the lake of fire. They're going to be tormented forever. And the sad reality is is that if you have not made that decision to follow Jesus and have eternal life, this hope, this perfection, you're essentially saying, "I'd rather burn Jesus." Because that judgment, hell was never meant for you. But if we say, "I see the way, Jesus, and I don't want it. I don't want you." You're saying, "I'd rather just go with Satan and burn forever." And today, you just get [music] to choose. You get to choose.
We don't have to have every single answer figured out, but over time, as the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will know Jesus more and more and more. And you get to choose this day rather to have hope and to live with hope now. And it's easy to get saved. The Bible makes it very clear. This just two steps. Romans 10:9 says that because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe it in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Two steps. Believe [music] and confess. So, do you believe Jesus did this for you? and are you willing to call him Lord? And you have this moment right now to receive eternal life.
So in this moment, I want to provide an opportunity for those who have not made that decision to follow Jesus and call him Lord. For those who have not made that decision and do not know that they know that they know they have eternal life in him that when this physical body dies my spiritual my spirit lives forever in unity. My spirit lives with the king. My spirit is forever whole and perfection. Now is your day. Do not let this day do not let this time go past. Choose life now. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask that every eye in the room, you would just close it. For those who have made the decision and want to decide to follow Jesus for the first time, while the eyes are closed, I'm going to ask that you just keep that
hand in the air. I'm going to count to three and you just raise that hand in the air. That way, I know who I'm praying for today. So, with all eyes closed on the count of three, for those who want to make that decision today, this is a very special moment. And right now, I believe the Holy Spirit's going to start prompting things in your soul. This is why we have our eyes closed because the Holy Spirit is going to speak gently to your heart. Holy Spirit, right now, we surrender to you. Holy Spirit Jesus Christ, speak to every heart. Reveal all to be laid at your feet. One, out of all the decisions in life, this is one you'll never ever regret.
Two, choose life now. Choose it now. You don't know what tonight holds. [snorts] You don't know what tomorrow holds. Choose life now. And this is the decision you'll never regret. If there's agitation in your heart, that's okay. There's a real war for your soul. Be bold to raise that hand. And then three, if you're making that decision to follow Jesus today and receive eternal life, would you stick that hand? I want to know who I'm praying for. We don't want to let this moment go past while eyes are still closed. Amen. Amen. The Lord sees you. He loves you.
There's a work he's doing in your heart. He's calling you closer to him. He's restoring all things. He is healing. Anyone else? We do not want this moment to go to waste. Do not let Satan take this moment from you. There's eternal life in him and hope. You can experience the hope for eternity now. Amen. You guys can put hands down. And now Jesus, if you guys would pray something like this all together as a church body and a family, this is so those who have made that decision to follow Jesus could do this in confidence while they confess out loud. Would you say something like this together? Would you say, "Jesus,
Jesus, forgive me of all my sins. I choose to follow you. I choose to follow. I confess that you are my Lord and Savior. confess and you died for my sins on the cross I commit my spirit and life to you I ask to receive the Holy Spirit in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on. Can you thank Pastor Noah for this word today? Hallelujah. Praise be to God. If you would stand to your feet for just a moment before you dismiss, I I want to commend you like Paul did to the church in Ephesus in
Acts chapter 20. He says, "I commend you to the word of grace. Today, you've received the word and now it's time to put it into [music] practice as you prepare to leave today." You know, we wouldn't be here today without faithful people who give financially to this ministry here at Journey Church. I'm so grateful for those that are willing to say, "God, I trust you with my money, and I want you to do more with my money than I could do by myself." Aren't you grateful for those who give? I want to tell you, one person who gives is not here in person today because he's in prison. We received his check just this week. You know, when you're in prison, you don't even get to get paid minimum wage. They pay a a very minimal amount. You get paid a dollar an hour. Well, he sent in his tithe check this week with a little letter and takes a little bit of
work to write a letter and put a stamp on it and write a check and say, "Journey Church, here's my tithe for my work here at the prison this month. It's the faithfulness of those that give that we're able to do what we do here." And I want to encourage you to be a part of what God's doing here at Journey Church. When Paul commended the church to grace, he says in Acts 20:35, "In all things I have shown you that by working hard, in this way, we must help the weak." And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he gave himself and said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." I tell you today, when you trust the Lord with your whole life, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Amen.
Today before you leave, I want to give you that opportunity. You can scan this QR code and you can give that way. There's also a something on your seat back. You could touch your phone and a a link will come up on that tap. You could always give in person. We've got boxes in the back or you can give online in many different forms. You can give reoccurring or you can give one time. But I want to encourage you when you sew financially, no matter what that gift is, when you say, "God, I want I want to trust you with my life." Whether that's a tithe and saying, "God, I'm going to trust you with 10%." Or whether that's a generous offering, "God, I want to trust you with this." You're helping other people. You're participating to push forward the kingdom of God. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word today. I pray that as as it was imparted in our hearts, we would
not allow Satan to snatch it up, but we would let your word go deep into our hearts and take root and bear good fruit today. Lord, we desire that central Oregon shall be saved. So, we just speak to that mountain that seems so great. Grace, grace to it. May it not just be the the big mountains, but may it be the everyday moments when we find ourselves in fear and anxiety like Pastor Noah shared with us today. May we practically put your word into action. May we call upon the name of Jesus, the name above all names. So I pray today that the world will never be the same now that we've received your word in Jesus name. Amen. And amen.
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Mountains Are Not a Sign of Abandonment
Noah argues from Zechariah 4 that kingdom life does not promise a life without obstacles but promises God's presence within them. Israel faced a literal rubble mountain after the exile, and Noah suggests the same discouragement can become an internal dialogue that keeps people captive. He points to Ecclesiastes and Psalm 42 to show that seasons are neither unique nor permanent, and he calls the congregation to hope in community.
Zechariah 4:6-7 · Ecclesiastes 3:1 · Psalm 42:5-6
- What mountain are you currently facing, and how have you been tempted to read it as evidence that God has left you?
- Noah describes an internal dialogue of 'my life will never be as good as it used to be.' Where have you heard that voice in your own life this year?
- Noah teaches that listeners are not alone in difficult seasons and that there is hope in community. Where do you need to receive that reminder right now?
Listening for God's Voice in Dry Seasons
The second point claims that God is not silent when life feels chaotic or spiritually flat. Noah points to the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraging the builders as the elders prospered, and to Proverbs 29:18 on prophetic vision. He also ties the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 to Jesus as the one who carries God's presence to his people.
Ezra 5:1-2 · Ezra 6:14 · Proverbs 29:18 · Jeremiah 29:11
- When have you experienced a season of spiritual plateau, and what helped you hear God again?
- Noah says God will use the prophetic, Scripture, and worship to speak in hard times. Which of those has been most alive for you recently?
- How does knowing God is not silent change the way you wait in a difficult season?
The Acclamation of Grace
The third point centers on the acclamation of grace over the mountain from Zechariah 4:7. Noah interprets it as a shout of praise and truth spoken over the mountain rather than an attempt to manipulate God, and he says mountains become plain by God's Spirit rather than human strength. He says the more you declare grace, the louder grace becomes over discouragement, and he leads the congregation in that acclamation together. He also cites Romans 8 on believers being more than conquerors.
Zechariah 4:6-7 · Romans 8:37-39
- What does it mean to you to declare grace over a mountain rather than ignore it or pretend it is not there?
- Noah says declaring grace turns our perspective into God's perspective. Where do you most need that shift right now?
- How does Noah's claim that it is not by human strength but by God's Spirit reshape how you approach your mountain?
Grace Is a Person
Noah says grace is a person, Jesus. He connects the declaration of grace to surrender of pride, sin, and wrongdoing, then speaks of repentance and confession, drawing on John 14:6 and 1 John 1:9. This section invites reflection on how those who follow Jesus respond to his work and mercy.
John 14:6 · 1 John 1:9
- Noah says grace is a person, Jesus. How does that change the way you approach your mountain?
- Noah calls the congregation to lay pride, sin, and wrongdoing at the feet of Jesus. What does that surrender look like for you?
- How do repentance and confession shape the way you receive grace?
Answers from this recording
Start a conversation.
What is the main idea of this sermon?+
The message uses Zechariah 4:6-7 to argue that kingdom life does not remove mountains but promises God's presence in them. Noah outlines three points: mountains are part of following God, God's voice is not lacking in hard seasons, and when God's people cry out grace over the mountain, mountains become plains. He frames grace as a person, Jesus, not merely a force or a slogan, and ends by inviting people to trust him.
Which of the three points felt most relevant to where you are right now?
What does the temple background contribute to the message?+
Noah traces Israel from Solomon's glorious temple through persistent sin, exile, and the return under Zerubbabel to rebuild. The returning exiles arrived without the resources of the original project, and Noah invites listeners to imagine the rubble pile seventy years later as possibly overgrown and mountain-like. He uses that picture to name the discouragement the builders felt and to explain why God sent Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to keep going. This survey prepares for his exposition of Zechariah 4, where God addresses the mountain before Zerubbabel.
How does the Zechariah 4 picture of God addressing the mountain shape the way you face your current obstacles?
What does it mean to cry out grace over the mountain?+
Noah describes it as a shout of praise and truth spoken over the mountain, not a way of manipulating God. He says it turns our perspective toward God's perspective and declares his word over impossible situations and over discouragement, lack, anxiety, and fear. Zechariah 4 grounds the claim that mountains become plain by God's Spirit rather than human strength, and Noah connects the shout of grace to surrender rather than formula.
How can a shout of grace become a form of surrender rather than just a statement?
What invitation does the sermon end with?+
Noah ends by presenting grace as a person, Jesus, and inviting people to receive him. From John 14:6, 1 John 1:9, and Romans 10:9 he describes sin as something everyone shares, Jesus as the only way to eternal life, and repentance as a change of mind and life that begins with confession and faith. He leads a prayer of confession. After he is thanked from the platform, another speaker encourages generous giving, and the service closes in prayer.
What would it look like for you to believe and confess Jesus as Lord, as Noah describes from Romans 10:9?
