Mark 9:9 Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Mark 9:17-18 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

One Sunday morning, a young pastor thrilled his new congregation with a sermon about showing the love of Christ to others. The very next Sunday morning, the congregation was a little taken back when the pastor delivered the exact same sermon. Then, the very next Sunday, the congregation heard the exact same message from this young pastor. A spokesman for the congregation came forward and asked, “Don’t you have any more sermons?” “Yes,” he said, “I have quite a few. But you haven’t done anything with the first one yet.”

Too often church goers assume the hearing of the message is the means to an end and so they hang out on the mountain top of the message but never descend to put the message into practice. When Jesus led His disciples back down the mountain, they encountered a multitude of people. Where was the multitude? Here’s a hint: They were not on top of the mountain. What if Jesus had remained on the mountain top in a special tabernacle built by Peter? Had He done that, the multitudes would not have seen Him.

David wrote in Psalm 23:

Psalm 23:1-3 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

What a great picture! Lying in the cool, green grass with plenty of food and water. It’s a time of refreshing. But wait, there are paths of righteousness that we are being led on. I wonder where they will take us?

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

Yep, the mountain tops do not have a monopoly on the paths of righteousness. Jesus certainly walked those paths and was not only on mountains, but in valleys … safe places and dangerous places … life and death. Jesus will take us to the mountain tops and into the valleys because there is value in both places. There are times to be alone with God in personal study and private devotion. That is not all the time. Jesus did not come to stay up on the mountain, but to descend the mountain and be among the multitude, even though represented among that multitude are the contentious, the angry, the hateful and the argumentative.

What have been your mountain top experiences? Have they been times of accomplishment in ministry or family success? Maybe you start each morning on a spiritual mountain top of quiet time with the Lord. The mountain top is great and we all need that time of refreshing and being poured into, but the time comes when we must depart from the mountain tops and minister in the valley of human need.