Sermon 2011 02 27 AM

Lifted up (Isaiah 40:27-40:31)

STORY: When I was doing my theology degree at Spurgeon’s college in 2006, I remember seeing a car bumper sticker that grabbed my attention it read: ‘Don’t be a chicken, instead soar with the eagles’.  Was this some profound message of ancient wisdom perhaps?  Actually as it happens the nearby Crystal Palace football Club, known as the ‘Eagles’, were having an evening match and the car owner was sneakily using the college’s car park.


I would like to focus this morning on one verse from our reading, it mentions eagles as well:  Isaiah 40:31 “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings of eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NIV) This verse is a key part of God’s responseto Israel’s complaint of feeling weak and forgotten by God. Isaiah’s prophetic words from God spoke comfort and assurance into the situation but gave guidance too.  He uses the rich imagery of an eagle to show how God can be and should be the wind beneath our wings.

 

STORY:  The eagle is an interesting bird.  It makes its nest from briars and thorns and then lines the nest with animal skin, to stop the thorns and briars hurting it’s newly born eaglets. For the eaglets, this is the life. Mum brings the food and the eaglets hang around the nest getting fat. UNTIL one day, when Mum decides it is time to fly.


Naturally the eaglets are not keen to leave the nest and so the mother eagle pulls away the animal skins. The prickles are not too comfortable and naturally encourage the eaglet to leave the nest.  So the eaglet clambers on mother’s back and the mother flies high, 1000 ft, 2000 ft, till she reaches about 5000 ft over the ground.

 If the little eaglet suffered from vertigo, it is now in for a shock, because suddenly, the mother tips the eaglet off and it goes hurtling down. The little eaglet flaps it wings but nothing seems to happen and the earth looms up closer and closer.  Just as the eaglet is about to hit the ground, the mother eagle swoops down and catches the eaglet.  This is repeated- until the eaglet can fly.


Christian life isn’t that different. When we first become Christians we feel protected in God’s nest, but inevitably we find that God allows us out of our comfort zone too.  One of the reason’s that God does this is I believe so that we can learn how to “spiritually soar on wings"

 

In John Ortberg’s book “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat”.  Ortberg writes about how spiritual growth can come, through encountering difficulties in life:  "It is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning.... It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually...”

 

The fact is that life here on earth will always throw up its share of problems, but it’s how we respond to them that really matters.  When the going is tough do we lie down or see it as an opportunity to grow?  Do we want to soar like the eagle or scratch around with the chickens? If we want to soar like the eagle, we need to apply some certain spiritual principles.

 

The key word in our passage is hope.  Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength and this new strength will not give out on them.  The Hebrew word for hope is w’qoye  which has the idea of someone who is expectant of God.  It essentially gives the idea of depending, trusting and waiting.

 

PRAYING

One of the most clear times we depend on God is when we are praying.  Prayer is not something we do to God, when we pray we are intimately connected in communication with God.  Prayer can and should be a two way communication. Paul also talks about the intimacy and connection to God that there is during times of prayer, reading from Romans 8:26 ‘26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.’ Paul says in Philippians just after taking about prayer “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:13 NIV).  Jesus always followed the Father’s will and it is no surprise that Jesus’ custom was to often pray alone with God, for direction and strengthening. 


I came across this poem, entitled: ‘Time to pray’

I got up early one morning, And rushed right into the day, I had so much to accomplish, That I didn’t have time to pray


Problems just tumbled about me, And heavier came each task, “Why doesn’t God help me” I wondered, He answered “You just didn’t ask”


I wanted to see joy and beauty, But the day toiled on, grey and bleak, I wondered why God didn’t show me, He said “You just didn’t seek”


I tried to come into God’s presence, I used all my keys at the lock, God gently and lovingly chided, “My child why didn’t you knock?”

 

I woke up early this morning, And paused before entering the day, I had much to accomplish, That I had to take time to pray.

 

In this life, it is not hard to remember that we are physical beings with physical needs.  You wake up in the morning and your body says, no stay in bed, you pass by that pizza place and your stomach suddenly springs to live and says feed me.  But as much as our physical bodies need rest and strengthening there is another part of us that needs attention too.  The spiritual side. 

 

Here is a little tip if you find your prayer life becoming stale, remember that God wants your prayer time to impact upon you in fantastic ways.  Never let your prayers consist of just going through a list of requests. God wants to really connect with you, not just hear an un-emotional series of wants.  Even if we structure our prayers like the Lord’s prayer, never let the formulae blind you to the fact that you are communicating with the Living God.  Remember also that God wants you to listen during prayer as well.   Allow God to empower your prayer life.

 

TRUST IN GOD

If we want to soar like an eagle, we also need to learn to trust in God, to have faith in Him.  Jeremiah 17:7 encourages us to trust God: “ 7“But blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah 17:7TNIV).  God wants us to trust Him and depend on Him and trusting is more than simply believing in God.  Let me explain.  In 1859, Charles Blondin suspended a tightrope across the Niagara Falls in the USA.  He then proceeded to walk across it with a wheelbarrow in front of him.  Having reached the other side, he stepped down to the applause of the crowd. He went up to members of the crowd and asked:   "Do you believe that I can walk back on that rope without falling off?"  "Yes" they each replied. "Do you really believe I can make" he asked.  "Yes" they replied. "We’ve just seen you do it"  "Then" said Blondin "Will you please step inside my wheelbarrow and come with me".  It went quiet.  In the same way God doesn’t want us to just believe in him – he wants us to get into the wheelbarrow, so to speak, to trust Him.  Sometimes that might mean a leap of faith into the unknown or to keep trusting God when the going gets bumpy.  Trust in God.

 

WAITING

JOKE-A little boy was fishing but was catching nothing. A man came by and asked him, are you fishing little boy? He replied back, “No I am not fishing, I am just drowning worms”.

 

One of the things I am NOT GOOD AT is waiting.  I am the person who paces the floor waiting for the microwave popcorn which only takes three and half minutes!  Yet waiting is something we need to do if we want to be energized by God. 

 

In the bible there are plenty of examples of waiting upon God for example

A. ABRAHAM AND SARAH (FOR ISAAC)
B. NOAH (FOR THE FLOOD AND SUBSIDING WATERS)
C. JOSEPH (FOR HIS "TIME" IN POWER)

D. DAVID had to live as a fugitive for several years before he could ascend to the throne of Israel

E. JESUS (FOR THE "TIME TO BE FULFILLED")

F. THE DISCIPLES (FOR THE PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT)


In each case they, knew God’s promises, they knew what they were waiting for and they rested in God’s character and relied on God’s faithfulness.  In each case, it was worth the wait!! 

 

When we wait for things normally we all have a tendency - well actually to just get tired, tired waiting.  However here we have a promise of God that those who wait on Him  “WILL RUN AND NOT GROW WEARY, THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BE FAINT.” (Isaiah 40:31b  NIV)

 

Our strength comes from God, make no mistake about that.  If we try and stay strong without God we will soon find that we will fail and falter in our Christian lives.  Going back to our idea of an eagle, eagles use the winds energy to stay up, they do not beat the air frantically like some birds do.  They just spread their wings and wait for the wind to lift them up. For us to run the race well and to soar above the storms of life we need to wait on God’s strengthening.


CONCLUSION:

How we look at ourselves, how we see ourselves in this life really matters for the Christian.  The reality is that we have so much potential in Christ.   But to unlock it we need to overcome the chicken mentality that wants to keep us earthbound. The bible describes us as more than conquerors and we need to believe it and when the storms of life come we must learn how to soar above them.  We need to allow God to train us, like the mother eagle trains her little eaglet.  We need to learn how to:

 

Depend on God in prayer

Trust God. Have faith in Him. 

And just as important.  Wait on God

 

When we do these things, we can really begin to soar in the heavenly realms.

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