"Ascending to New Heights: Embracing the Call to Grow"

Title of my message this morning is let's go up. It's not rocket science to

know that's why we're called High Life Church, not just because we meet in the Southern Highlands,

but because we believe we need to go up to higher levels.

So I'm going to talk this morning about that. Let's go up. And I'm going to

invite you on a journey with me to go up.

I'm going up. So come with me, Come with me this morning.

Psalm 24 verses three to five says this, and I started the service last week with this, and it says,

who may climb the mountain of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place,

only those whose hands and hearts are pure,

who do not worship idols,

never tell lies, and what they should add there as well as those that forgive, those that forgive.

They will receive the Lord's blessing and have a right relationship with God, their Savior.

Now, the life of a Christian, the life of a Christian is meant to be one of continual movement.

And I'm here to say, not just continual movement, but upward movement, upward progress.

And there's no place in a Christian's life for stagnation or standing still.

The Bible actually says the way of the righteous is like the first gleam of

dawn which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.

So it's meant to be a journey upwards and brighter.

Numbers 13 verses 30 to 31 says this,

Numbers 13:30–31

then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let's go up,

let's go up and take possession for we are well able to overcome it.

But the men who had gone up with him said, we're not able to go up against those

people, against the people, for they are stronger than we.

So did you hear the words of Caleb, what he was actually saying?

He's saying, let's go up at once.

Right now, let's go up, for we are well able to overcome it.

So what does that tell us about going up?

What does that tell us? It goes, it tells us that to go up means to engage.

It means to confront. It means to go on the offensive, to push and to advance.

That's what, that's what those words, let's go up means.

But sadly, sadly today, most people are at a place where we're not able to go up.

We're not able to go up against the people.

Sadly, that's where the majority are at at the moment. Simply put,

they are saying, we are not willing to make the effort or to take the risk to go up.

In essence, they were saying, we would rather live in the desolate wilderness

and do without the blessings,

the provisions and the promises of God than leave what we're familiar with and

have to make a change and have to take a risk.

It should be understood that there is no such thing as Bible faith without risk.

Without risk. Risk is built into the equation of faith.

What's the equation of faith? The equation of faith is believing in something

that you cannot see and taking his word against all concrete,

natural, tangible, and conflicting evidence.

So therefore, faith is risk-taking, is risk-taking.

Have a listen to this bit for me. Judges 1 verses 1 to 2 talks about the death of Joshua.

Judges 1:1–2

And it says this, Judges 1, 1 to 2, Now after the death of Joshua,

it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying,

Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them.

And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.

Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand.

Now, notice when you read that, it doesn't say who will go up for us in our

place, but it says who will go up first.

Who will go up first? Who will lead the charge into battle.

And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.

Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

Who knows what the name Judah means?

Praise. The word Judah means praise.

So God is saying that praise must go up first.

Praise must lead the charge. He said he has delivered the land into the hand of praise.

Whatever battle you are facing today, whatever battle you're facing,

you need to send Judah out.

You need to send Judah out. Judah must go up. You must lift up a hallelujah.

Praise is not just something that should slip out of our lips when something good happens.

No, no. Praise is a weapon. Praise is a weapon.

Whatever battle you're facing today, you need to send Judah out first.

This is how I fight my battles. Hallelujah.

That's how I fight my battles. And hallelujah, not because of the right results,

but hallelujah, because I need to win this battle.

Amen. Hallelujah. I lift up a hallelujah.

Inferred in the directive to let's go up is a principle of change as well.

A principle of change. In other words, change is built into the directive,

let's go up, okay? It means change.

It's a pretty simple concept.

You can't go up and remain in the same place at the same time, can you?

Even in the natural, you can't. If you want to go up, you can't remain in the

same place at the same time.

Let's go up is an invitation to a higher life.

It's an invitation to more. It's an invitation to the greater.

It's an invitation to see more, to know more, and to be more. It's an invitation.

Then the question would arise, why does not everyone want to go?

Why doesn't everyone want to go up?

And the answer would be, many people would rather remain the same,

in the same place, in the same condition. Why?

Because it's familiar and it's comfortable.

So you'd rather stay in the same place than advancing and going up.

But what you and I have to understand...

Now, let me go back one step about that. The truth is, even that which is uncomfortable,

even that which is uncomfortable, once it becomes familiar to us and we become

adjusted to it, it becomes normal to us.

It becomes normal. When something becomes normal, people usually resist change

because it threatens their normal.

Even if it's uncomfortable, normal. Are you hearing me?

But what you and I have to understand is that

the invitation to come up and higher and be

higher and to go up higher is not

just my invitation it's not the

man it's not a man-made invitation it's a

call of the Holy Spirit this is the calling of the Holy Spirit to your spirit

and to mine to ascend to the hill of the Lord to come to higher places another

reason why people resist that

and resist change and going up is because going up creates discomfort.

Who's ever been on a decent bushwalk or journey where you've had to walk up.

Like Ange and I, a couple of years

ago, went down to Tasmania and went to Wineglass Bay. Who's been there?

Beautiful place. Beautiful place. You'd know.

You get up to that lookout. You look down on Wineglass Bay, and then there's

a journey going way down.

And you get down the bottom and you look back up and you go,

that's going to be really uncomfortable to travel back up there.

Really uncomfortable. So it's one of the reasons why people resist change,

because going up creates discomfort.

In a sense, it's like the growing pains we had as children.

I remember going to my mum when I was growing up and telling her my legs were hurting.

And she would say, that's just growing pain.

That's just growing pain. And I thought, why do I have to hurt in order to grow?

Well, unfortunately, that's just the way it is. We need to hurt to grow.

Another part of growing up is growing out, growing out.

As I grew up and got older, I grew out of some things. I grew out of clothes I was wearing.

I grew out of shoes I was wearing. I grew out of some of the ways I was thinking and acting as well.

Who knows that when boys are growing, they go through, Mel, you would know this,

that they go through clothes so quickly.

So you grow up and you grow out, but you also, you know, you grow out of some

of the ways you think and act as well.

Sometimes when you see someone acting childishly or foolishly,

you say, or at least you think, why don't you grow up?

Yeah, why don't you grow up? Paul said, when I was a child, I thought as a child

and I spoke as a child, I understood as a child that when I became a man,

I put away childish things.

That's spiritual reality as well. It's spiritual reality as well.

We all start out as a child, as a babe in Christ, but built into the Christian

life is the necessity of growth, of growth in growing up and going up.

It's a necessity in our Christian life. We outgrow some of our traditions.

We outgrow, thank goodness, we outgrow some of our ideas and attitudes,

and we grow into attitudes and ideas and actions that better reflect the heart and mind of Christ.

That's what we do as Christians, going up and changing.

The reason we come to church on a Sunday morning or to midweek connect group

is not just to fellowship or even to encounter the presence of God.

It's just a little added bonus there to encounter the presence of God or even

to worship him. That's not the reason why we come.

Which is, you know, there's certainly reasons to come, but we come to grow.

We come to grow. We come to learn the word so we can become doers of the word and we can grow up.

I don't preach or teach for entertainment, not at all, or just because it's what pastors do.

I preach and I teach for the purpose of helping you guys grow and me growing.

To really grow requires hunger for the word of God and a willingness and a readiness to receive the word.

In Acts 17 verse 11, Paul spoke of those in Thessalonica.

Acts 17:11

And he said, They received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures

daily to find out whether these things were so.

One of the reasons why many people don't want to grow up and grow out is because

there is resistance to it.

There's resistance. In other words, the higher you go up into the things of

God, the greater threat you are to the devil.

And when you become a great threat to the devil, you become a greater target

for the devil as well. Who's ever noticed that before?

The reality is the more effective you become for God, the more hostility you

attract from the enemy. It's good news, isn't it?

Good news. But if you've got the right mindset, if you've got the mindset of

a soldier of Christ and a warrior, then that doesn't deter you.

It doesn't. In fact, it energizes you.

And because you know the greater, you know, the fact is that greater is he that

is in you than he that is in the world.

Now, you may ask the question, Tim, why should I go up?

Why should I want to go up? Are there any rewards for going up?

Are there any rewards for going higher? And that's a fair question,

and I believe deserves some consideration. Are there any rewards?

And the answer clearly is yes, there are rewards.

There are rewards for making the choice and making the decision and making the

effort to go up and to grow up.

Just as it's true in the spiritual, it's also true in the natural.

Now, let's talk about these mountain climbers and, you know, that sort of thing.

The higher you go up the mountain, the higher you climb, the clearer the air becomes.

You get up above all the smog and the pollution and the rubbish.

You get up above all of that and your spirit can breathe better and you can breathe better.

And the spiritual atmosphere becomes clearer.

It does. You get away from all the noise and the clatter and the business of life, and you know what?

You can hear God's voice clearer as well.

There's a good benefit, hearing God's voice better.

Another great reward or benefit of going up is your perspective changes.

Your perspective changes. You see things differently. Not that everything changes,

but your perspective becomes different.

When your perspective on things change, your actions change based on a higher perspective.

Most of the world lives on ground level, sea level, some would say,

with a ground level perception of life.

So because they view life from a ground level perspective, they have very limited

view and limited options in their life. But a higher perspective,

A higher living level also leads to options in your life.

Another great reward of going up is that the higher you go, the greater and

sharper your discernment comes, okay?

Because at a higher elevation, you can see things much sooner.

Think of it in the natural. You see things sooner and much clearer.

And the advantage of this is you can become prepared.

You can be prepared. You can see something coming far off and you won't be caught

off guard and you'll be better prepared for it when it comes.

So you will have an advantage over the enemy.

Join with me in coming higher. There's a lot of benefits to it.

Here's another story about people who went higher.

In Acts 1 verses 13 and 14, the Bible says, and when they had entered,

Acts 1:13

they went up into the upper room where they were staying.

Peter, James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew.

James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women

and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brother.

You know what happened when they went up to the higher room, up to the upper room.

That's where the Holy Spirit came as a mighty rushing wind and came upon them as tongues of fire.

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke with other tongues

as the Spirit gave them utterance.

It was all in the upper room. They went higher.

Why did they go to the upper room? Why did they go to an upper room?

Is there significance of an upper

room as opposed to a lower place or a ground floor, you bet there is.

I believe so. I believe it was a natural action that reflected a spiritual condition.

It was a, it reflected the hunger and the desire for more and willingness to

leave the lesser behind, even leaving those behind who were satisfied on the

ground floor. Have a listen to this with me.

500 people, 500 people heard Jesus say, go to Jerusalem and tarry there or wait

there for the promise, for you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you.

Out of those 500, how many went up to the upper room?

120. 120 made the trip to the upper room. What does that mean?

It means that there were 380 people who were satisfied where they were without

the promise of power in their lives.

I want the power. I want to go up. I want to go to the upper room.

I'm going up and I want you to come with me.

I know I can't force you and I'm not going to drag you.

But as for me, I'm going higher. I want to go higher.

I want more in my life. I want more of his presence in my life.

I want more anointing in my life. I want to experience his power flowing through me.

I want the gifts of the spirit flowing through me.

I want signs and wonders and miracles flowing through me.

I want to lay hands on the sick and they will recover.

That's what I want. I want to destroy yokes. I want to set captives free.

And you know how we do that? By going higher.

By going higher. answering the call of God because I'm going up this morning.

I'm going up. Josh, come on.

Let's go higher. Let's go higher. There's an invitation there for us to go higher.

There's miracles. There's miracle working power when we choose to go higher.

Choose to go higher with God.

You need to understand that not everybody can go where God is taking you. Okay?

Not because they can't or because it's impossible, but because they're not willing to pay the price.

That's okay. Don't fret over that. Don't try to drag people up the mountain. Okay?

Sadly, there are some people who will never leave the foot of the mountain.

They will never climb to higher places. They will live their whole Christian life on the plain,

barely getting by, never pushing boundaries, never reaching for the deeper and

fuller things of God, never walking in the anointing.

There are people that will want that, never manifesting the gifts of the Spirit.

But I believe I'm talking to somebody this morning who wants to go up to the

high places and to take your seat in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

And you want everything that has been made available to you through Jesus' sacrifice

and indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2 verse 6 says, and he raised us up together.

Ephesians 2:6

He raised us up together and he

made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's what he did.

If that's you, if you're ready to take the journey with me and to go up to higher

places, if you're one of those, the Holy Spirit is calling to ascend the hill of the Lord,

and to leave the lowlands and stagnant places and come higher,

I'm inviting you to come to the front with me right now.

Come on, come up the front with me. If you're ready to come on a journey with

me to higher places, if you believe that's you, then come on up with me.

Come and join me up the front.

Come and join me. Come on.

Because I feel something happening in the spirit right now. I feel something

happening in the spirit right now.

I feel a shifting. There's a shifting happening. As you guys are walking,

there's a shifting happening.

Come over here come on come here come right

up the front with me come on don't worry about all that stuff just come up the

front with me there's a change happening there's a shifting i feel some chains

breaking in our lives do you feel those chains breaking in your lives now you

can all read my notes while you're up here as well,

It's like ropes holding down a hot air balloon, isn't it? Cut those ropes. Let's go higher.

Let's go higher together. I feel ropes are being broken and you're getting ready

to soar into the atmosphere.

The Spirit, you're going to gain some altitude in the Spirit this morning. Come on.

Let's journey there together. Lord, we declare in Jesus' name,

all these people around me right now, We declare in Jesus' name that we are

ready for a journey to higher places, that, Lord, things are breaking.

Illnesses are breaking. Shocking treatment is breaking, Lord,

because we are moving to a new higher place in You.

We hear the calling to come to a higher place with Christ Jesus.

We choose that this morning, Lord God.

We leave behind us all those things in the lower places and we choose to march

on to higher places, Lord God.

Take us on that journey, Lord God. Fill us with the power and the presence of

the Holy Spirit that comes from going to higher places, Lord God.

Each person here this morning, Lord God, we are making a decision,

Lord God, to go to higher places in You, in You, Lord God.

We want a better view of our surroundings, Lord God.

We want a better warning of what's coming up, Lord God. We want to see what's

creeping up behind us, Lord God. So we want to go higher.

We want to go higher in your word. We want to claim the truth, Lord God, from you.

Claim the truth about bigger and better things that you have in store for us.

Because I declare it again, greater is he that is in me and in us,

in this group of people, than he that is in the world, Lord God.

So fill us afresh right now as we travel together up that hill.

Give us the stamina, Lord God.

Give us the strength to keep marching up.

Not staying in the low places, not stagnating, not becoming comfortable,

but choosing to move forward and to move on.

Thank you, Lord. Every person, we're on a journey together to bigger and better things.

We are High Life Church because we want to live a higher life in You.

And we thank You for that, Lord.

Oh, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, and as we go today, Lord,

I want us to keep our eyes high towards you.

You are, Lord God, what we walk for.

You are who we walk for. And Lord, we walk higher for you in Jesus' name.

If you're calling us up, then we are on the journey for you,

Lord God, for you in Jesus' name. Hallelujah.

So bless every person here now in Jesus' name. Touch their lives as they journey

higher in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Amen.