February 11, 2024

And if you’ve been blessed today, be sure and bless the Lord. Take your Bible now and turn to Deuteronomy that’s in the Old Testament, 32, Deuteronomy 32. And then when you get there, you can go over to Exodus 19. I’m gonna preach just two verses of scripture today. I normally spend more time in one area. In other words, I normally will preach you an entire chapter. Some of you are saying, sometimes you preach a whole book. No, I won’t preach an entire chapter to you today, but I’m gonna preach a little different than I normally do today or recently. And I guess I could tell you, I’m about to go old school on you. When I began preaching, God called me to preach, and you’ve got to understand when he called me, he probably never called a more country bumpkin kid than me. All right, now some of y’all think you know country. You don’t know country unless you’ve had 181 coong dogs barking at you every morning, and about 4,000 chickens meeting you in the yard, and about 150 sheep and some cows and horses and all that. No, no, you talk to my kids. They’ll tell you their daddy’s country. All right. I’m from the country. So when God called me to preach, one of the things that I learned very quickly was that God would use my life experiences and the things that I was acquainted with. And he would use those for me in ministry. In other words, I could draw upon those. I tell people, yeah, I went to seminary, but I learned more about pastoring people. but simply owning a herd of sheep. And I’ve owned a herd of sheep most of my life. I’ve learned about putting up with knotheads, but owning donkeys. I’ve got two of them out there in the pasture. Some of y’all going, how do you deal with us? Well, I got two. No, I’ve learned that God made animals and he gave man dominion over them. Some of you bull riders back there know my speech. I normally give you about getting in the shoot with a. a rank bull or a shoot fight bull and knowing that God gave you dominion over and having that peace of God. All of those things I learned as I was growing up from my childhood to present day. And what amazes me is how many times God uses animals in the Bible. Let me give you some examples. When you read in the Old Testament, the Old Testament is always pointing to the cross, it’s always pointing to the New Testament, the Gospels, everything you see there. So anytime you see a lamb in the Bible, for example, it’s always pointing to Jesus, the lamb of God. Every time they would sacrifice a lamb in the Old Testament. Anytime you read of the dove, you always see the symbolism there that it’s a reference to the Holy Spirit of God. And so I could go on and on. By the way, when you see… a donkey, for example, I mentioned that a moment ago, the donkey by its very name meant birding bearer and it’s a picture of you and I, the sinner. But there’s one animal that God uses in the Old Testament and that animal he uses very specifically to draw a picture of him, God the Father. And that’s the one I want to share with you today. I hope you’ll never see it the same again. You say, well, where did you learn? You’re going to probably wonder by the end of this sermon, where did you learn that? Or where did you get that? When I was just a boy, I was sitting in church service. And I’ll never forget, I heard this preacher get up, and he referenced an eagle in the Bible. And he preached a sermon. And though I remember just a little bit of it, I always wanted to learn more about eagles. And so. I had become a preacher in 1995. I had my first time, first chance to get to go to Yellowstone National Park. And that was the first time that I had ever got to see an eagle in the wild. And I remember sitting on the banks of the Yellowstone River one morning and looking down that river and seeing this large and majestic animal flying just above the water. And it was a bald eagle. And that eagle was soaring just above that water. searching and fishing for some fish. And I’ll just never forget being so struck by the size of that animal and the majestic beauty of that animal. It forever made an impression on me. And I just began from that time learning as much about eagles as I could because I had read so many places in the scripture. And that’s what I’m gonna share with you today. And next week, it’s rare that I told you all last week, next week I’m going to share a message about eagles in the Bible. And it’s rare that I ever know five minutes in advance what I’m going to preach before I get here, much less what I’m going to preach a week ahead of time. Some of you may have heard me. How many of you ever heard me preach on eagles in this building? Several, all right. Some of you, but a lot of you haven’t, right? All right, well stick with me. In Exodus, Deuteronomy 32, verse number 11 and 12. I’m going to make for you today is from the Old King James Version of the Bible, and there’s a reason why. Anytime you take the Old Testament or New Testament, of which you and I have copies in different versions of the Bible here, but most likely you’re sitting here listening to me today or online and you’re reading from some English translation. You’ve got to remember the Bible was translated from Hebrew, the Old Testament to English, or if you’re talking New Testament from Greek to English So many times you’ve heard me say this, there’s a little bit of a change in the language because whether you know this or not, those of you who speak English, I speak Redneck, but if you speak English, it’s a very simplistic language. And when you go from Hebrew to English, you lose some of the meanings until you really dig in, and in the same way with the Greek and the New Testament. So I’m going to share a few words with you in a little while, and you’ll probably only find them in the King James, but if we could go back and read the Hebrew together, you would understand what I’m talking about, but I think you’ll get it before the sermon’s over. So, Exodus chapter 32, in verse number 11, it says, as an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its youngs and spreadeth out its wings and taketh them up, them on its wings. Now, When you read just that verse, you say, what is it talking about and what does it mean? This was a song of Moses. How many of you know that the Jewish people wrote songs? If you go in the Old Testament to the Book of Psalms, you’ll find that those were Hebrew songs that they wrote, often as a memorial to remember the great things God had done for them. But in this particular context, whenever you read in the middle of this song that Moses writes, you read about this eagle and God is, if you’ll notice, he’s referring to himself as an eagle. He says, as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreadeth out its wings and taketh them up, beareth them on its wings. Verse 12, so the Lord alone led him and there was no foreign God with them. This is a reference to how God had been faithful to the nation of Israel and had shown his faithfulness to them all from the time that he called Abraham until Moses present day that he wrote this. You understand this morning that Whenever you look at the nation of Israel, you may wonder, why is Israel always in the news? Why do preachers talk about Israel so often? What makes Israel so important? Well, I’ll tell you why. If you look at a map, you’ll find that Israel is a very, very tiny nation. And yet, this very little bitty tiny nation being surrounded by all these other Middle Eastern nations, larger than it, but at constant conflict with them. And you may wonder, well, what’s all that about? And why is there so much of Israel in the news? Well, let me tell you, from the time that God called a man named Abram, changed his name to Abraham, from that time to present day, God made a covenant, a promise with him. And he said, this will be an everlasting covenant. And so every time you see Israel in the news or politics And you see the wacky world we live in turning against Israel You need to know that is a sign that we’re living in the end times some people say well I’ve always heard we’re living in the end times But you know I think everybody else and every generation before us thought the same thing indeed They did but the one missing link most generations before us had the one missing link was that Israel be and everything you see about Israel like it or not is about God keeping his covenant with Abraham and you say why is that so important because if God won’t keep his covenant with Abraham he won’t keep it with you and I but the very fact that one day Jesus is coming back to Israel he’s coming back to Jerusalem he’s gonna come back when the Antichrist and the armies of the world Israel’s rescue and defense and it will be an everlasting testimony that when our God says something He means it and he keeps it and if God to keep his word to Israel you can mark it down He’ll keep his word to you when he said that your sins were paid for in full and the price and the debt had been paid in full at the cross and that when you put your faith and trust in Him that you will have an eternity in heaven you can bank your life on it. God will keep his promise to you. When you look at Israel, then remember you’re looking at a God who said, I keep my promises. It doesn’t matter what Joe Biden does. Doesn’t matter what Donald Trump does. Doesn’t matter what anybody else says about Israel. You just remember what God said about Israel. And God said, I’ll keep my word and I’ll keep my promise. God has dealt with Israel and it’s a picture of how he deals with us and God refers to himself and his dealing with Israel or his dealings with us the same similar to that of an eagle with its young you say man what importance does that have well let me borrow your imagination for a moment this morning and I want you to go to the wilderness with me I want you to go to eagles do and I want to give you a little bit of information about how eagles react in the wild and how they raise their young and Why this verse is so important to your life and to mine first of all Whenever you think of an eagle you and I being Americans We immediately think of the bald eagle the bald eagle is our national bird or national symbol and for good reason because pound for pound inch for inch Body size and mass there’s no animal on this planet stronger than an eagle, and especially a bald eagle. They are such a majestic animal, and they have such incredible strength. They say that if an eagle, if you ever watch someone handling one, they will wear protective gear on their arms, because that eagle literally has the power to reach down and grab a hold of your arm and crush it beyond use. Back in the 40s and 50s, there was a bounty put on eagles because of the sheep and lamb population and they would actually go out there and kill the eagles because they were reaching down and grabbing full-grown lambs and flying off of them. Animals that outweighed them quite a bit but they have such an incredible strength but something else you need to know about an eagle. An eagle has the ability to fly higher than any other animal or any other bird. You’ll never see a bird that can soar to the height that an eagle And it has to do with not only the incredible strength of its wings, but it has also to do with the ability that it has to breathe pure oxygen. You understand that living on Earth and walking on Earth as we do, we live in a more carbon monoxide type environment. And the higher up you go, the oxygen level gets a little more pure, a little less, abundant but a lot purer the higher up you go. So an eagle has a great ability to soar at great heights. They have a very strong body mass, even though their body mass in relative size to other animals is not as big. But then, An eagle has very set ways that they live. For example, when eagles mate, they mate for life. They will choose a mate and they mate for life. Eagles don’t live just 10 years like a crow or a mockingbird. They live sometimes 70 and 80 years. And when they do mate, they mate for life. And that pair of eagles will normally go to the same spot year after. year to build a nest to raise its young and nurture them until they get them to a place that they’re mature enough to make it on their own. In this area, I remember living in Sunset and one day I was walking down the street day I’m standing out in my pasture, and I saw a large bird coming at me. And it took a moment to figure out what it was until it got close enough. And I realized it was a bald eagle. But we had a lake, Amon Carter Lake, that was just up the road from us. And little did I know that there was a pair of bald eagles that would come down every year. And there in those cliffs that they have, they would build nests. And those eagles would raise their young. But if you were to go, say, to the Rocky Mountains, or even to Alaska or Canada, where they’re more abundant than even here, you would find that those birds will, when they mate, they will mate for life. They will pick a place to build their nest. And when they build their nest, they don’t just build like a canary nest. It’s actually something very large. The structure of it, the integrity of it, is far beyond anything. of any other bird and there’s good reason why. First of all, when eagles decide to mate, they will fly as high as they can in the air. in an attempt to get away from all other predators, all other things. Matter of fact, without binoculars, you really can’t see. I’ve only seen eagles mating in the wild one time, and it was actually a pretty amazing thing. They’ll fly way almost out of sight to the naked human eye, lock talons and wings and mate and fall toward the ground as they do that. And they’ve mated, and now this time, the female will go lay eggs, It’s a nest to do it, so those eagles, the male and female, will work together building the nest. They’ll take big sticks first, and they’ll make a really large perimeter, come back in between those big sticks with little sticks, and then they’ll go get things like rabbits and squirrels, and they’ll line the bottom of their nest with those squirrels and those rabbit hides, or whatever type of fur they can get from something they’ve killed. And then the mother will go in and lay the eggs. And I think it takes around 39 days of gestation period. They’ll lay that egg. And the male and the female will take turns setting on the egg. But then comes the day that chick that does eaglets, and actually normally it’ll be a couple of them, they’ll raise two to three. But they will. take turns throughout that gestation period, laying on the egg, nurturing it, and then the day comes for it to be hatched. How many of you have ever seen a chicken egg hatch? You ever had an incubator and you watch a chicken hatch? How many of you have ever boiled an egg? And when you boil an egg, you’ll notice on one side of that egg that it’s a flat side. If you’ve never noticed that, next time you boil an egg, you’ll notice there’s always a part on the egg that’s boiled that is flat. You know why that’s so? that egg there’s an air pocket whether it be a chicken egg or an egglet egg and there’s just enough air in that egg so that chick can breathe for whatever its gestation time is but then comes the day for the eagle it’s a 39th day they’ve got that eagle it’s gonna make a choice whether it will breathe that little bit last air and then be birthed or break into the world in which it will not to break forth out of that egg and die in that egg and never experience the life that God has waiting for it. As you know most of them because of the instinct God gives them they’ll take that last breath of air and then they’ll break forth out of that egg and those mother and father, they will begin the male and female will begin the process of nurturing and raising that baby elid. Now I don’t know I know some of you in here are older than I am I am, not much, but you are. Say amen if you are, all right. So you are going to remember something that this generation probably will think is gross. But most of you that are my age or younger, and your parents or you if you are a parent, you probably gave your child. Gerber baby food or something like it, right? I seem to put I’m looking over here Uh-huh and that you give them that Whenever the baby is coming off of milk, but they obviously need soft foods What you don’t realize is there was actually a time not long ago that Gerber baby food did not exist There was actually a time when there wasn’t a such thing as a disposable diaper My mama used to, I can remember being a boy because I had one for my pet chicken. She gave me one of my old diapers, my brother’s diaper. It was the kind you had to wash and you put on with a pen. Remember that? Uh-huh. I carried a chicken around all the time. He had a diaper and a pair underwear on all the time. But there was a time that you didn’t have that. You couldn’t go to Walmart and buy. So you know what, do you know what parents, mamas used to do, how they used to feed their babies? They would eat some of the food spit it back in the spoon and feed their baby. Oh, that sounds nasty. Y’all didn’t grow up on a farm, did you? But an animal does the same thing, and especially an eagle. They will go out, the mother and the father both, they’ll take turns, one stays with the baby, the other go out, and they’ll find, they’ll find meat like a fish. or a rabbit or a squirrel, they’ll find fresh food. By the way, I want you to remember this for next week because I’m gonna preach part two of this to you next week. Eagles are not like buzzards. I want you to remember that. By the way, I think God calls us Christians to be more like an eagle than a buzzard, but sometimes I see buzzard Christians, all right? A buzzard, a buzzard will eat dead meat. We know buzzards real well here in Texas, right? You see something dead. If there’s something dead out in the pasture, you look up and see a bunch of buzzards circling it. You know that there’s a cow or there’s a horse or something out there has died because here’s what a buzzard do. A buzzard, believe it or not, can smell a stink about a mile off. And a buzzard will call in all the other buzzards to come eat with it. It’ll get down into something dead, and it’ll begin to scratch at it, stir up the stink, and invite all the other buzzards to come with it. But you know what will never come to the buzzard’s stink? What draws the buzzard in is an eagle, because an eagle only feeds on fresh meat. They won’t come try to find some dead cow or some dead carcass that’s beginning to rot. fresh meat. So I always tell people you can be an eagle Christian or you can be a buzzard Christian and buzzard Christians aren’t very hard to spot. They always find the stink and stir it up, invite all the other buzzards to come. But an eagle only wants fresh meat and so they will go out and find fresh meat for the baby and bring it back and feed and nurture those chicks. Now about the time those chicks turn about a year old then they’re beginning to put on feathers, they’re beginning to venture out of the nest, maybe onto the rock ledges, and the time comes, and this is where we’re going to get into the scripture, the time comes where that little eaglet has got to learn to be a full grown eagle and learn to fly. I’ve seen pictures, I’ve never been able to be close enough to see this, but I’ve seen pictures for instance in a storm when a storm will come and those babies, those eaglets are in their nests, the mother and the father will lock wings together, tuck their heads, providing almost like a tent and shelter over those babies protecting them in a storm. But then the time comes though that they’ve got to teach these eaglets to be eagles and what do eagles do? Eagles don’t walk around on the ground like a turkey they soar when you think of an eagle you think of something majestic That soars all right. That’s what God made it to be and so the time comes that it’s gonna learn to fly But the process of that is a little bit difficult for that baby And this is where God picks up in the story and he’s and what this I’m gonna share what this scripture means and what I mean by God with us in our lives sometimes like an eagle deals with its babies. The first thing that will happen in a little eagle’s life when it begins to get its feathers, it’s gonna need feathers obviously to fly, and it’s always been up until this moment in its life having a pretty comfortable life. It lives at home. Can some of you parents help me here? Y’all can say, amen. It has a really comfortable life. It lives at home. It hasn’t had to go hunt for its own food. It hasn’t had to pay its own rent yet. It hasn’t had to pay for its own insurance and health care. Shall I keep on going? Y’all know these illegals are like teenagers. They got the world figured out, but they ain’t got a dime in their pocket, amen. That’s how they are. They don’t know yet that real life is awaiting them outside that nest. Once they get outside that nest, real life’s about to begin to happen, but it’s the mom and the dad’s responsibility to make it happen in a way that they can become everything God wants them to be. Can I just say something? For that eaglet, until the day comes that it has to learn to fly, the nest is a comfortable place. So what’s the mother going to do? What do for you and I. We live our lives sometimes. I want you to remember what I’m about to say. We live our lives even as a Christian, I think sometimes believing that it’s God’s will for us to live comfortable. Come on, y’all, help me out here. I think American Christianity has been sold and bought the lie that God’s purpose for saving you is so that you can arrive at death safely. But you know what I preach, what I’ve shared from the Bible. I don’t believe that’s anywhere in the Bible. Nothing wrong with having things, but you need to understand something. I think what’s bankrupted most churches morally and spiritually and most Christians in this country and has us so limp-wristed as a called out assembly or a church or as Christians in America while we are in such a terrible spot. I mean, think about what I’m saying. How many of you have driven through town lately and seen how many churches are on every street corner? How many of you know how many Americans identify as Christians today? And yet, we’re so morally bankrupt as a nation. We see so much crazy in our world today. Have you ever wondered why that is? I think it’s because we think that God called us to be comfortable when that’s not what God ever called us to be. God called us to be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. You understand that? Being comfortable has nothing to do with it. And by the way, can I just say, if your aim in life is to live comfortable, you will never God wants you to be. I can’t read of one person in this book that was ever called to live life comfortable. I read of men and women who were called to call, who were called to follow God and follow Christ at a great cost. So I don’t ever want you to stand before God and say, well Lord, our preacher said it was our purpose to arrive at death safely. I think our preacher wanted us to believe prosperity gospel. Oh no, when you get there I hope he knows and I hope you know and I sure am gonna know that I told you that your purpose in life isn’t to live comfortable, it’s to be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. In this time and this hour we’re living. So daddy, if he stays in the nest they’ll never soar, they’ll never fly, they’ll never be what God wants them to be. The only way to soar. And so the first thing that happens, and this is where the text of Scripture picks up, God says this about, Israel says this about us, as an eagle stirs up its nest. One of the first things the eagle, the mom and the dad will do to the baby to disrupt its comfortableness is those eaglets that get out on the logs and then on to the rock ledges, and they’ll begin to play, and they’ll begin to do like, if you’ve ever seen chicks or little ducklets, they’re no different. They’ll get out there playing. While they do that, the first thing the parents will do is go over there and begin to pull out the fur that I told you they lined those nests with. By the way, these nests aren’t just little bitty. They say they’ll weigh 15 to 100 to 2,000 pounds. These are massive nests that they build. Massive structures, very stable, very strong. But they begin to, first of all, throw off the fur that is lying the bottom of it, so that when the elits come back to the nest at night to nestle down, to huddle up together and sleep, the first thing they notice is something poking them. Remember how I told you it was made big sticks, little sticks, and then the fur. So when you throw the fur overboard, all these little sticks are now poking those little eaglets and they have a very uncomfortable night of sleep. And that may go on for several days until the point that the little eaglets are kind of getting exhausted. They, they no longer sleep in comfort and warmth, but they’re kind of cold. They’re kind of uncomfortable. And finally, the mother and the father will come and they’ll begin to stir that little more by throwing the little sticks over the side of the rocks. Now the little eaglet don’t have any little sticks poking him, but now it’s some of the big sticks poking him until eventually those parents will totally destroy that nest to the point that those little eaglets are sitting on a rock ledge or standing on a limb of a tree with nowhere to go, no nest to get in, no longer do they have anything comfortable awaiting them. Thank you. God’s purpose for your life is not to see how comfortable you can be. God’s purpose for your life is to see how faithful and how holy and how righteous you can be walking in His grace. I want you to remember that. Think about what I’m telling you. God is more interested in your holiness than he is your happiness. We often think. I think God wants me to be happy. No, God wants you to be holy happy people die and go to hell But holy people are the only ones gonna make it to heaven And by the way, your holiness is it doesn’t come by something you do your holiness comes by Everything that Christ did on the cross But whenever you really choose to follow him and you commit your life to him Then you become the holiness of God in Christ Jesus or the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. But let me tell you something that often comes at a cost. It comes at a cost. As long as I remain comfortable. Satan’s going to unleash all kinds of hell on your life. Because he doesn’t want you to do that. So they learn now to sleep in the cold instead of the warmth. Now they find themselves no longer with this little nest they have because mama has stirred up the nest. And now she’s beginning to pick those. it gets talons in and it’ll begin to screech for all of all its worth. Oh my gosh I mean all the sudden it has gone from a comfortable nest, no nest, now living on a rock, now it’s on this mama’s back and now the mama falls off a rock or the ledge and all of a sudden this baby is on a roller coaster ride. The mother eagle will take it up into the air, high into the air, most times so high you can’t even see them and they’ll turn upside down and drop their baby. whoo, that was a little bit. I’ve seen that happen one time, and I’ve seen a lot of photos of it and some video footage of it, but when they do that, can you imagine what that baby’s thinking? Mom doesn’t love me anymore. My mama hates me. My mama’s cruel. My mama’s mean. I don’t wanna ask you this morning, don’t raise your hand, but how many of you ever thought God was cruel? How many of you ever thought God was being really harsh with you? How many of you ever thought God’s being unfair to me? I’ve been there. I’ve said that. And what I didn’t realize is that God loved me so much that he would never let me stay in the nest of comfortability. And he sure wouldn’t go let me sit on a rock ledge in my whole life. God called me to soar as a Christian and a believer and to be something that nobody else can be. And God’s called you to do the same. And he is not going to leave you in a nest. And he’s not going to leave you on the ledge. and make you think that he hates you, but he don’t hate you. He loves you. The only way that baby will ever learn to fly is to be in the air, and you can imagine what must go through their mind. Those baby eagles will tumble toward the ground and they’re falling. I read this one time, did you know? Rick’s a little bit bigger than me. I didn’t read that, I’m just making an observation. If you took Rick and I both up in an airplane, and we were at the same altitude, same airplane, and you kicked both of us out of the airplane, you’d have to kick me out, I ain’t jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. But you threw both of us out of the airplane at the same time, does anybody here know physics? How many of you know how fast we would fall toward the ground? The rate of gravity is about 150 miles per hour, give or take a few. And so most likely, even though he’s just a little bit bigger to me, he may have a little more momentum the time we hit the ground. But we’re falling basically at the same rate of gravity. That little eagle will be taken up, dropped by its mama. And as it falls toward the ground, it’s falling at about a rate of 150 miles per hour. But do you know how fast an eagle can fly straight down? It’s been recorded at speeds of over 180 miles per hour. So when God says in his word, As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreadeth out its wings and taketh them upon its wings and bare them on its wings. Do you see what he’s saying? He’s saying, I have the ability to stir your nest sometimes. I have the ability then to take you upon my wings and take you out and teach you to help you grow and become who I’ve called you to be. Some of you think God’s been unfair. Some of you think God has forgotten you. Some of you think you bought into something and you didn’t get the full deal. Some of you are wondering why doesn’t God care? It’s not any of that. God cares immensely about you. He loves you deeply. The whole thing you’re going through right now is God’s trying to teach you to fly. And by the way, you have to fly by faith in this life. And that mother eagle will dump that baby and that baby’s falling, remember, at 150 miles an hour. The mother can swoop down literally at 180 mile an hour and she’ll do so and she’ll swoop down, grab that baby just before it hits the ground. Now, I don’t know what eagles say, but I got a feeling what I would be saying about that time, it’d be like, you crazy woman, you trying to kill me. I mean, mama, what you doing? And she’ll take it back to the rock where it was. You can imagine what that little eagle thinks when it gets back there. It thinks, oh my gosh, I don’t ever want to do that again. That was a horrible thing. Oh mama, will you let go of me? We fell. You almost let me hit the ground. But come the next day, she’ll repeat the same process. And over and over and over for about a week, the mothers and the father both would do that to those baby eaglets over and over and over again, each time letting them get a little closer to the ground. And those eaglets are scared as they tumble through the air, helpless. But little do they know, they already have what they need. They already have everything they need to fly. They’ve just not learned to trust what they have. See, a lot of people go through life, especially as Christians, you don’t realize God has given you the gifts to equip you to make it through this life and to walk by faith. The problems many times we have is we don’t know and we’ve never been used to using those gifts yet. And we don’t realize that we have to first trust God by faith in order to use that. See, you find yourself in a jam. You find yourself with a need. You find yourself with your back against the wall. You find yourself in a situation where, man, you need a miracle. What do I do? We don’t remember. We don’t think about it in that moment. The best thing to do is not call grandma. The best thing is not to call your uncle. The best thing is not to call your coworker who is lost and doesn’t know God. The best thing to do is call upon God. The best thing to do is just go to the Lord in prayer. The best thing to do is just open His word because He’s already written down for you and I everything we need to know about life. And every answer to everything you will ever walk through in life is in God’s word. But the little eagle that will go through this process over and over and over until the day comes that the mother for the final time is gonna take Him up. bear him on her wings and drop him and all with the intention to teach that baby to fly. Now I gave you two scriptures and told you two places in the Bible that was Deuteronomy 32 11 go to Exodus 19 4. I’m going to read this explain it and I’ll be done. In Exodus 19 4 it says this You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bury you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. I still have one of my old bull riding gloves from when I was a kid in my glass case in my living room. And if you’ve ever, any of y’all ever looked in and you saw that, you notice I actually have that verse of scripture written with an ink pen right on the wrist. I always wanted to see that verse just as I would nod my head riding a bull. And this is the reason why. If I told you about the King James version, a matter of fact, the new king, any other versions translate the two words different because they are different. In the old King James in Deuteronomy 32, 11, it says that an eagle will bear her young B E A R, bear her young on her wings. That that word in the Hebrew literally means to physically pick something up and carry it. So you I just told you how that actually happens. baby on its back, physically pick it up, take it off the ledge, drop it, fly over it, and pick it up before it hits the ground. She is bearing, B-E-A-R, her young. But when you go to Exodus 19, four, it says, You’ve seen what I did unto the Egyptians and Israel. How I bear you B.A.R.E. on eagles wings. That word in the Hebrew is a little different. It doesn’t mean a physical picking up. It doesn’t mean that you just physically pick something up, but rather it’s a word used to describe a supernatural power. In other words, in this context, he’s saying, You remember what I did to the Egyptians? and the children of Israel got to the Red Sea. When they got right there to the Red Sea, there’s this vast sea in front of them. They look back and here comes Pharaoh and his armies after them. They’re on this beachhead, if you would. They can’t turn and run back because here comes Pharaoh’s armies. They’re going to kill them. They can’t go forward because the water is so deep they’ll all drown. There’s about a million of them. Moses has got to get across. There’s nothing they can do short of a miracle from God and in just that moment when you read that text and you know that story God says Moses stretch out your rod Moses by faith lifts up his rod sticks it out and when he sticks it out remember what happened the Bible says the waters begin to part what’s the documentary on that this week they think they found the very place where Moses and the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and by the way they not only crossed the Red Sea the Bible it on dry ground. They say that scientifically there would have been about 12 feet of sludge even if you could have removed the water from that portion of the sea. There would have been about 12 feet of mud. Everyone would have sank totally and completely the minute they got into the mud, the area where the water had been. But the Bible says they walked through on dry ground. And then it says when all the children of Israel had got through there, all of a sudden here comes Pharaoh’s guys, him and his. They’re going to get them. And when they get in the middle of the sea, God just closes it back up and drown them all. Now, nobody could see the hand of God reached down and part that water. But if you read that story, if you talk, if you read the Bible, you talk to a Jewish person today, they celebrate that very thing. And every year and they will tell you that the miraculous hand of God or the miraculous breath of God, whichever way you want to say it, opened up that Red Sea miraculously and carried the children of Israel through. So why would God say? You’re seeing what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagle’s wings? B-A-R-E. Remember I told you the eagle is going to teach her babies to fly. She takes them up. She drops them. They’ve tumbled toward the ground. They’re falling in a rate of gravity somewhere around 150 miles an hour. The mother can swoop down at 180 far faster than they can fall. I think God’s trying to tell us when you find yourself falling through life, you find yourself in a jam and you don’t know what you’re going to do or what can be done for you. Just remember God can reach down and grab you. faster than you can fall. He’s a mighty God and he can reach up but then here’s the good part and I’m done. So this time the mother will take their babies up in the air, take them up higher probably than normal and drop them. Those babies are tumbling towards the ground and they’re screeching and crying all this and they’re crying out, Mama, help me, whatever they’re saying. Mama, you hate me. I don’t know. They’re just tumbling, tumbling. And then just in the last moment, the mother will swoop down. But this time, she’s not going to pick them up. She’s not going to bear B.E.A.R. them on her, but she’s going to do what God’s talking about in Exodus and how I bear you on eagles wings. Every eagle has about 1250 feathers on each wing, totaling about 2500 feathers making up their wingspan. A bald eagle has an average wing center of about seven feet. That’s why if you look at them coming down a river coming at you, they look like a small airplane coming at you at a low level and it’s majestic and it’s incredible Collectively they have five on each wing that are referred to as Primary feathers can I just tell you what five in the Bible is actually five and by the way numbers in the Bible means I’m five is the number for grace and so Mother Eagle will swoop down and rather than grab her baby this time She swoops down and she begins to move her wings like this and move those primary feathers Which you and I they can move them like you and I move our fingers But with those primary feathers they create a wind turbulence Underneath the baby. So instead of falling she begins to screech out stick out your wings I’m saying an eagle of course, but I don’t know she said but she’s trying to communicate to stick out your wings your wings and when the baby eagle finally gets enough faith to do what its mother or father is telling it to do there’s floater they’re just hovering over doing this moving their primary feathers in such a way that is creating this wind turbulence and you know what begins to happen the baby all of a sudden is almost like he suspended in air he’s what he’s doing is he’s riding on the wind from the wings of the eagle above him all right that’s what God’s fall in life faster than you can imagine but never forget that God can reach down and pick you up faster than you can fall in his grace in his sovereignty in his love you can never fall faster than God can reach down and rescue you there’s no point in your life nothing you’ll ever do that’ll ever get you to the place that God will lose you or that God will miss you instead you need to know that even last moments of your life if you cry out he can reach down and rescue you don’t ever give up on him don’t ever lose faith in him don’t trust in your own ability but trust in his but then sometimes God’s gonna come down over you and he’s gonna say stick out your wings child stick out your wings it’s time that you learn to fly by faith it’s time that you learn to live by faith and I’ve got grace on the right. I’ve got grace on the left and I’m creating something in your life If by faith you’ll just stick out your wings and trust me You’re ready to become who I called you to be and then you’ll learn the value That it’s not about how comfortable I am It’s not about how far I’ve fallen But it’s about the wind from the wings of the eagle above me whom god says is him And he’s creating something in my life so that I can trust him, but not only that I can trust him, but that I can be the person he called me to be and I can stick out my wings in faith and I can soar over every and any circumstance that comes in my life. That’s what a victorious Christian is, is a Christian who has learned to stick out their wings in faith and trust God. And that’s the difference. Deuteronomy 32-11 bearing that baby on its wings and Exodus 19-4 how I bear you on eagle’s wings. So I want you to remember this morning. You walked in here today, and you said, my marriage is coming apart. My marriage is coming apart so fast, pastor, I don’t think there’s any hope for us. Everything in my life has just fallen apart, and I’ve soon… will see the death and destruction of my marriage or my family or my career or my physical body because of disease. You fill in the blank whatever it is that has caused you to fall in fear. And I’ve come to tell you today that God is saying stick out your wings. Take out your wings in faith and trust him. Trust him to fix your marriage. Trust him to heal you of that disease. Trust him to help you through that sorrow. Trust him to give you a better job, a greater career. Trust him with your finances. Trust him with your kids. Trust him with your family. And see. if he’ll not give you the victory to soar like an eagle this morning. Would you bow your heads in prayer? The Lord willing, the creek don’t rise. We got a creek here next to us, y’all, and it is raining. The Lord willing, creek don’t rise. Next week, I’m gonna share part two with you. God has a lot more to say about an eagle in the Bible. But in the most simplistic way that I could think this morning, I believe God wanted me to give you this message because some of you are so discouraged in your faith right now. You’re so discouraged in your walk with God, and I understand that. I understand that. But you have to know… that the hardship you’re walking through? It’s not because God’s angry at you. It’s not because he hates you. Write the opposite. He may be allowing you to go through some things right now, but never doubt His love for you. Never doubt that. Never doubt. that he has a greater purpose for you. You know, I can stand here at fifty years old and tell you that God never waste a hurt in my life. And boy, I’ve had some. I can stand here and tell you personally, and I can testify in living flesh. I’ve walked through some pretty tough trials. And you know, in all of those, I can look back now and see God’s purpose in it. In other words, there’s purpose in the pain. For that little eaglet, it’s got to be a painful thing to fall. It’s got to be a scary thing looking at that ground coming at you, thinking my certain doom will come. And I know what it feels like to feel that way as a person and think, God, where are you? I’m crying out, but do you hear me? Lord, I’m reaching out, I’m screeching, but I don’t feel your presence. I don’t see your hand working. I believe God put those two passages in scripture and for me to share them with you today to remind you that oh yeah, you’re never out of His sight. You’re never off of His mind. And yes. You may feel like you’re falling right now, but this morning, listen to what the Holy Spirit’s saying. He’s saying, I’m still here, child. Stick out your wings. I’ve allowed all this to show you that yes, by faith, you can fly. Yes, by faith, you can have victory. Yes, by faith, you can become who I’ve called you and created you to be. My question for you this morning is, will you stick out those wings in faith and trust Him? Grace on the right, grace on the left. and in a way that you could never think or imagine he’s coming to your rescue. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus all over this building and online, those watching online. For those that are struggling, those that feel like they’ve fallen, those that are wondering where is God in my situation, Holy Spirit would you show yourself real and mighty and strong to them right now. For the one who needs healing in this building today, I pray in the name of Jesus, healing over them. I pray restoration. From their head to their toe. For the broken marriage, you’re two that may be here today. Holy Spirit, I pray you mend their hearts and you put that marriage back together, supernaturally, like only you can. For the one that walked in here addicted to drugs or alcohol or maybe something else, I pray freedom over them. I pray deliverance for them. The Redeemer of Hell would have to turn them loose in the name of Jesus. I pray for the one who got a bad health report this week. I pray for the person who lost a loved one this year. and still walk into grief. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you bring joy back to their heart and their life. Lord, I pray for the one that may be facing a loss of their job or the threat of it right now. Oh God, that you would show them by faith. You’ve never forsaken them, you’ve never left them, and you’re only giving them the opportunity to trust you and to soar. For that family here that needs your provision, I just pray you meet it. I pray your blessings flow. I pray you pour out a blessing on your people today that they can’t contain. Help us, Lord, to be faithful to you. Help us to trust you. Help us to embrace the process that you ask us to walk through, knowing that process is to help us become. the men and women of God that we’re supposed to be and help us to soar great heights with faith, trusting you in Jesus’ name, amen, amen. All right, well thank y’all for being here today. I know there’s some visitors in the house. I can’t see you. If you’ve been around here very long, you know that I always tell all the people who’ve been here a while, I’m blind as a bat. I’m supposed to wear glasses, but I get scared when I’m preaching and I look at y’all and you’re looking back at me So I purposely don’t wear my glasses. That’s why that clock back there. Don’t mean nothing to me. Can’t see it But if you’re visiting with us today, we’re glad that you chose to worship with us. We want to invite you to stay Okay, we’ve got some chili and banana pudding and cornbread. All right. See, we country around here. So I want you to stay and eat. You say, well, we’re visiting. We didn’t bring anything. That’s perfect. We got plenty. We want you to stay and eat with us. All right. If you want to give an offering today, there’s a milk can back there in the back. You can feel free to do that. Stop by and let Bill and his band know how much you appreciate them being here today. Visit their table, pick up some stuff that makes great gifts to share with somebody else. There’s CDs. I’ve heard of people listening to one of the CDs and come into Christ and that’s awesome and I take a take a moment and share that. No bull riding at two o’clock we’ll do it next week guys we’ll make up for it. God bless you y’all have a good week don’t forget to get a bulletin for you leave though because there’s a lot of stuff coming up this week and next weekend including our team pinning practice on Saturday. God bless you you’re dismissed. Uhhh…