Letting Go Series

FLYING LIKE EAGLES

Part 2-Letting Go

Isaiah 40:31, “They will soar on wings like eagles.”

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Pastor Brian Matherlee

Eagles sometimes drown while hunting. They catch a fish too heavy for it to really carry and if it can’t drag it to shore quick enough it may hang on and be dragged under the water and drown because it won’t let go.

You can’t fly when you are weighed down.

Do you want to mount up with wings like eagles?

1. Be content

a. With what you have

i. Why do we have so much stuff?

ii. In his latest book, Jumping Hurdles, Hitting Glitches, Overcoming Setbacks, Steve Brown writes, “The most unhappy person in the world is not someone who didn’t get what he or she wanted. The most unhappy person is the one who got what he or she wanted and then found out that it wasn’t as wonderful as expected. The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you’ve got. Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have. Then we wake up, our life is over, and we missed the beauty of the present. You think about that.”

SOURCE: Servant Magazine, September, 1993, p. 8.

iii. We are enslaved as a culture to things and the Christian community has forgotten, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”-Matthew 8:20

b. With who you are. Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.”

c. Learn to let go of things. God knows what we need for our journey. My brother-in-law is like a roving general store. Everything he thinks he might possibly need is piled into his SUV. He is so afraid he might need something, he brings everything. Are we packrats out of frugalness or out of fear?

2. Forgive

a. Every once in a while we hear about an eagle that has been wounded. As powerful as they are, wounded eagles are terribly vulnerable. If they can’t fly, they are susceptible to many predators.

b. When we don’t forgive people we are wounded. We become vulnerable to attack. We are sitting ducks for:

i. Bitterness

ii. Hatred

iii. Depression

iv. Physical & emotional devastation

c. Mark 11:25, “If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins.”

d. Our lack of forgiveness may not hurt the other person like we hope but it will always hurt us like we never expect.

e. All of life is impacted by the lack of forgiveness and we’re in the trap of Satan when don’t forgive.

3. Trust God

a. We are so afraid of failure that we don’t try.

b. In the world of eagles up to 40 percent of their young die attempting their first flight!

c. But God doesn’t let anyone down who trusts in him.

d. Perhaps God has called you to do something but you have hesitated out of fear.

i. (Video clip, “Walking Across Egypt” from Wingclips.com “I’m swimming.”-this was edited for content deleting several segments of language & actions). He will never push you in over your head!

ii. Isaiah 43:2, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you.”

iii. Don’t we remember how God saved Noah from the flood?

iv. Don’t we remember how God preserved Moses in the Nile?

v. Don’t we remember how the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground?

Do you want to soar?

• Be content

• Forgive

• Trust God