Wings Like Eagles Series

Wings Like Eagles

Isaiah 40:28-31

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

02-12-2023

On E

There are two types of people in the world. Those that fill up their gas tanks when it hits half full (like Maxine) and those who drive until the low fuel light comes on (like me).

Maxine has never run out of gas. I have…several times.

The solution to an empty gas tank is easy - fill the tank at the gas station.

Running out of gas is frustrating but can I ask you another, more personal, question?

Have you ever run out of hope?

Maybe it’s a financial situation, a health issue, an addiction, a wayward child or grandchild, depression/anxiety, fear of the future, hurt from your past, an unfulfilled dream, or a lingering question of whether you want to keep living at all.

Maybe you are wondering where God is and if he cares about the craziness that is going on in your life.

What do you do when your hope tank is running on fumes? Where do you look when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired?

This is the first week of our HOPE series and I’m going to ask you to think about the people in your life that need hope and invite them to join us on a Sunday.

As always, we will turn to God’s Word to see if there are answers to these honest questions.

Turn with me to Isaiah 40.

Prayer

Comfort, Comfort

Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who wrote of the coming judgment on the Jewish people in the 6th century Bc during exile. For the first 39 chapters, Isaiah writes of doom and gloom that awaits them due to their rebellion against God. God would use the great empires of Assyria and Babylon to judge their disobedience.

But, at the beginning of chapter 40, the book takes a sudden turn of hope:

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1-2)

The exile is over. The people would return to the land. God would restore their hope.

Let’s pick it up in verse 27.

I can have HOPE because God hears my complaints

“Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?” (Isaiah 40:27)

They were in limbo. They were waiting and waiting. They were losing hope. They were tired.

And what do we do when we are tired? We complain. And that’s what they were doing.

They felt like God was playing hide and seek with them. They complained that God wasn’t being fair.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that God seemed to disappear when you needed Him most? When you needed Him to speak, He was silent. When you needed to feel his presence, you felt more of His absence.

Have you ever gone through situations and wanted to scream at heaven - this isn’t fair?!

Pastor Alistair Begg makes the point that there is nothing wrong with asking God questions. Abraham did it. Noah did it. David did it. Job did it.

But we end up in dangerous territory when we begin to question (challenge God).

When you feel like God isn’t living up to His end of the bargain, you need to remember:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

When we cry out God hears us. He listens. He cares. In times of doubt and questions, we have two choices. We can run away from Him or we can run to Him.

Paul and Silas could have grumbled. After being beaten and put in prison, I certainly would have been whining. But what did they do?

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25)

Instead of complaining, we can worship God because we know He is working everything out for His glory and our good.

That’s what Isaiah writes next. He reminds them that God is worthy of our worship.

I can have hope because He is God and I am not

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

This was not new information. They had been taught these things from their youth.

But when the going gets tough and our hope meter is running low, we need to be reminded who God is and who we are.