On Eagle's Wings

ON EAGLE’S WINGS

Isaiah 40:27-31

Ask for a show of hands – keep them up!

Who is tired today? How many are weary? Who is discouraged? Who has had a rough week? Who is facing a difficulty or trial that seems insurmountable? Who feels burdened today with a concern or question?

Welcome to the human race! I don’t think it was a mistake when the coined the phrase “The human race”. Sometimes we feel like we are running a marathon, and getting no where fast. Some days I feel like I’m retreating rather than advancing. Some weeks I feel as if I’m just hanging on by a thread hoping for the rapture.

We live in a society that is plagued with a lack of sleep, low energy, discouragement, rampant depression, and a loss of joy. The signs are everywhere you look: Addictive behaviors that seek to satisfy some empty spot in the soul, angry people with angry attitudes, hospitals and clinics that are filled with people who are physically fine, but spiritually sick, overwhelmed, overburdened, and often isolated.

Listen to this one lament of a housewife and mother:

Make the beds, bandage heads,

Straighten up the room;

Wash the windows, cut the grass,

See the tulips bloom.

Drive the children to school,

Drive them back again.

Have the Cubs meeting

Then I clean the den.

Serve on my committee,

Attend the P.T.A.

Forgot to buy the children shoes . . . .

Can’t do it today.

Pay the bills, write a note,

Fill the cookie jar.

Oh, dear, I forgot to go

And have them grease the car.

Catch up on the ironing,

Scrub the kitchen floor.

Answer phone and doorbell,

Need I list some more!

My pet peeve I must admit,

You will surely agree,

When someone asks: “Are you employed?”

I answer: “No, not me.”

The average day lived in Chester County can be exhausting. We are a weary people. And it shows!

Unfortunately, one of the first places that it shows is in our lack of energy for the eternal things of God. It seems harder and harder to find time to be quiet before the Lord. Prayer, devotions, and fellowship with the body of Christ often take a back seat to paying our bills, keeping our cars running, and finding time for all the other pressing priorities of life. And though we know in our hearts that there is a need to serve the Lord and to minister within our communities, we just don’t seem to have the time or energy to do it.

As one observer recently put it: “The devil’s greatest strategy in the 21st century is to keep us busy.”

Life beats you up. People disappoint. And sometimes you feel all alone in your battle to follow the Lord.

But my sermon this morning is not intended to shame us into greater commitment. My goal is not to rebuke you, but it is to look once again at the principle of renewal the Lord has put in place. You see we ALL GROW WEARY! We all FACE INSURMOUNTABLE MOUNTAINS! We all HAVE BURDENS AND SORROWS WE CARRY.

We are not distinguished from one another by the loads we bear!

We are distinguished from one another by the God who carries us!

Let me say that again!

Turn with me to a very familiar passage in Isaiah 40:27-31

O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

To begin this morning let me give you a little math formula to memorize this message by:

No God = weary

Know God = strength

Trust in self = weary

Trust in God = strength

Four times in these short verses we have the word weary repeated over and over! The weariness of man is contrasted with the lack of weariness in God. What makes the difference? And how can I get more of God in me? That is the question of this morning’s message.

Let’s pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us now!

1. It is contrary to God’s nature to be weary!

God just doesn’t grow tired. He neither slumbers, nor sleeps! Now you may say – didn’t God rest on the seventh day? Yes, He did, but not because He was weary. The Sabbath rest of God meant the work was done – Creation was complete.