Survive and Advance
Well, for those of you who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s those images and that tune are very familiar to you. Sylvester Stallone as Rocky was a cultural icon that symbolized dogged determination and gritty survival to reach the pinnacle of success.
Things didn’t come easy for Rocky. He had to work and sweat and suffer in every movie in order to come out on top. Sometimes his own failings were his biggest obstacles, but he persevered and wouldn’t quit, and he always emerged victorious.
We like that kind of story, and we want to believe that the same kind of ending is possible in our own lives.
You know, all month we’ve been focused in worship on this idea of Survive and Advance. I think lots of people over the last couple of years have experienced life like Rocky’s first fight with Mr. T.
Jab! – here comes a relationship problem
Pow! – now your pocketbook takes a hit
Boom! – the unexpected bomb of a health issue
Lots of people feel like they’ve been taking shots from all sides, and they wonder when and where the knockout blow is coming from.
What you want to do when you’re taking hits from all sides is survive the blows and come out on the other side.
Because we all are trying to get to a better place in this life. We all have dreams and goals and aspirations. That’s part of who God made you to be. Someone who’s striving to grow and survive and advance and reach the summit.
Back in 1994 I was bitten by a bug.
Let me show you the source of my affliction.
Ultimately I hooked up with an outfit called Exum Mountain Guides, and I began to physically train to join an expedition to the summit of the Grand.
In late summer of 1998, Janet and I and Annie, who at the time was 2 and ½ months old, flew out to Salt Lake City, drove a car to Jackson, Wyoming, and there I took the two day mountain climbing classes that I had to pass in order to join the expedition.
The first day of the expedition involved an 8-hour eight-mile hike, scramble and climb from Lupine Meadows, at an elevation of around 6,500 feet to the Lower Saddle of the Grand Teton, which was to be our base camp for an assault on the summit.
The Lower Saddle was at an elevation of 11,500 feet, which meant that while we were traveling 8 miles, we were going up about 1 mile. I want to tell you, it was tough. The hard work of hiking with equipment and climbing through boulder fields with boulders as large as cars and houses was exhausting, and I began to feel the effects of the altitude. I was queasy and nauseated and dizzy at times.
The first day ended with our first really technical climb:
This wall that guards the lower saddle is about 100 feet high, and while you can see there is a permanent rope affixed to the top to help you climb, what you can’t see so well is that when snow is melting, there is a gushing flow of ice-cold water down that rock that sometimes follows the path of the rope. We were lucky enough to find that to be the case on our expedition. So it took me about 20 minutes to conquer this wall, and when I got to the top I was cold, wet and still nauseous and dizzy.
Here’s what the lower saddle looks like where we spent the first night.
Twelve of us spent the night in that small tent hut, getting very little sleep. At 3:00 a.m. they told us it was time to get up, and by 4:00 a.m. we were climbing up the Grand Teton by starlight.
Here’s our route:
We left the Lower Saddle and climbed up the Black Wall through the Needle, across Wall Street, up the Golden Staircase, through the Wind Tunnel, smashed through Friction Pitch and the V pitch, and we were on the summit by about 11:00 a.m.
My most adrenaline pumping moment happened on Wall Street. There was a place where you had to stop on this ledge because there were no more handholds or footholds, and you literally had to spring out and around a small outcropping of rock, and grab another handhold and put your foot on the ledge on the other side of the outcropping. Now I’m not good at jumping or leaping or springing, but I did find out I can be good at grabbing hold of the mountain when my life depends on it. They didn’t tell us the ledge where we would be putting our right foot was about two inches wide.
Now I’ve said before I didn’t really enjoy the few moments we spent at the summit, because all I wanted to do was puke. The altitude queasiness I had the first day had returned, and all I wanted to do was get down so that my head would stop hurting and spinning.
Thankfully we rappelled a lot of the way back down and then hiked out of there the same day, arriving back to the trailhead where we started about 5:30. I found it was a lot quicker and easier going down than climbing and hiking up.
Now I tell you all about that to get to a point. During this experience and afterwards I came to a realization. The main thing was not standing on the summit. It was kind of anti-climactic.
What was more important to me through the whole thing and looking back was the work I did to prepare for the experience, and the family that was back in the valley that I didn’t get to share the experience with. In fact, I said at that time if I ever did anything like that again, I would want to wait until Annie was old enough to do it with me.
Now I don’t know what I’m going to do since she’s getting to that age. I may have to re-think that.
But here’s what I want to say to you. The key moments and investments of your life are not the summit experiences. The most important moments are on the climb.
When you look back over your life, you can probably remember some mountaintop experiences – graduation, getting a job, your wedding, the birth of a child, retirement, giving your life to Christ and being baptized – but the greater part of your time is lived out in climbing towards those summits.
It’s what you learn and experience on the climb that enables you to reach the summit.
So let me talk with you about how to maximize your Climb:
Paul lets us know that the first key to a successful climb throughout life is to make sure you decide and keep in mind what summit you want to reach. Because you can’t go the earthly route and arrive on a heavenly mountaintop.
Climbing Toward the Summit
2. Leave Behind Whatever Drags You Down
I took about a gallon. One gallon of water weighs over 8 pounds. And I’m telling you, that eight pounds got heavier and heavier the first day, and I tried to drink as little as possible to conserve it, so by the next morning I was more fatigued from carrying that water and then I ran out, which meant I had none for the summit push.
It was a brilliant move, I tell ya!
What does Paul say here?
"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I might gain Christ," – Philippians 3:7-9
He’s saying, on my climb toward the heavenly summit, I had to leave some things behind. I had to realize that what other people thought of me and the personal aspirations I had for myself, what I selfishly wanted to accomplish, that just wasn’t valuable anymore. It was trash! So I had to throw it out!
Some of you want to climb toward what God has for you, but you’re weighed down with guilt from past mistakes, or you won’t pull back from those relationships with friends that are dragging you down, or you’re burdened by expectations that you or others laid on your life that will not take you toward God’s best.
You’ve got to lay that stuff down. Because if you try to take that trash with you, you will not enjoy the climb that God has laid out for you. It will be harder than it’s supposed to be, it will strain you more, and that stuff may even keep you from making it to the summit.
Climbing Toward the Summit
3. Focus on Today’s Challenge
When you’re climbing the mountain, you can’t look down, and you can’t think about all the difficulty that lies between you and the summit. You just focus on the issues right in front of you. How do I navigate through this challenge? Where do I step now? If I take this one step, where will I go next? You do look a little ahead, but you just solve the challenges bit by bit.
Here’s what Paul says:
"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do – forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal." – Philippians 3:13-14
And Jesus said this:
"Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." – the words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 6:34
Can I tell you what some of you like to do? You like to pre-worry.
You don’t just think about the issues that you’re having to deal with right in front of you, you pre-worry what could happen down the road.
If I do this, and then she reacts this way, and then I’ll say that, and then it will be a big blowup. If I make that decision, and this unexpected event occurs, what will I do then?
Some husbands, they might come home to their wives and say, "Charlie down at work brought his wife home some flowers for no reason, and she loved it, but if I did that for you, you’d be mad at me for spending the money and you wouldn’t even care!"
Snarl! Some men and women do that! And pre-worry turns into real time anger or frustration or depression. And you have an issue over something that never even occurred.
Folks, if you want to get the most out of your daily climb, just hone in on today. Do the best you can with today’s issues. Take time today to cry if you need to, but don’t forget to laugh at what’s funny today, be thankful for your blessings today, be good to your family today, serve others today. If you take care of today everyday, you’ll get to the summit God has marked out for you, and your climb toward that mountaintop will be full of joy and satisfaction. God will give you that.
Let’s look at one final step to maximize your climb toward the summit.
Climbing Toward the Summit
4. Rely on Your Strength
What do you think of that? Rely on YOUR strength.
That may not sound right here in our faith context, but it does make sense as you understand what and who is your strength.
The Apostle Paul says:
"We eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!" – Philippians 3:20-4:1
You see, it was half-crazy for me to think I could climb the Grand Teton. Half-crazy. Full-blown crazy would have been for me to try and do it on my own. What would have happened then probably is at best I never would have gotten off the ground, or at worst I would have died trying to reach the summit that I could never get to by myself.
Do you get what I’m saying? The climb of this life can be incredibly difficult at times. The challenges you face are too much for you to conquer alone. Your life circumstances are like mountain weather - wild and unpredictable – things can change in a moment and you can be in real danger.
You can’t do this climb by yourself. Jesus is the One who’s going to get you to the Summit. He can wash away your sins all at once and then equip and empower you everyday to overcome the challenges you face. He wants to be your Protector and Your Guide and Your Friend on the Climb.
So that’s it.
This life is a climb.
And if you want to reach the summit that God planned for you:
Keep that goal in mind in your daily choices.
Give up and leave behind those things that drag you down.
Focus just on today’s challenges and don’t get too wrapped up in the past or what may happen tomorrow.
And God with Christ. Give Him your weakness, your sin, your heart, your life, and your every moment of everyday.
That’s how you will get to the mountaintop.
