Soar like an Eagle!
Isaiah 40:28-31
This passage is one of two passages of scripture that I call my life verses. Now in case you don’t know what that means, life verses are verses God has used to speak directly to your heart, and they become a theme for your life. So, Denise and I are now entering our 25th year as Pastor and Worship leader of this church. We are also celebrating 50 years of ministry together this year. We are fortunate and grateful for our health, for our marriage and of course for each of you who have labored with us in this ministry. I’m not being dramatic at all when I say that these 25 years have been a ministry of blood, sweat and tears. But also a lot of joy. Now, today I want to talk about vision.
Vision is defined as the ability to think about or place the future, plan the future with imagination and wisdom. It is also defined as an idea or a mental image of something.
Vision is about leadership, the future, change, something better / new. In the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, we see that the nation of Judah was receiving judgment but when we reach chapter 40 there is a very clear transition. The passage is no longer about the fact that they had been banned from their home country – no longer about all the ways they had suffered – now God is offering hope, comfort and vision for their future.
So, Isaiah is writing this passage to his own people who had been in Babylon because they had been removed from their homeland for around 50 years. Obviously, they were in despair. They felt like sheep without a shepherd, wandering around aimlessly. They were at what many of us would refer to as a breaking point. It is when we have reached the end of our rope; when the straw has broken the camel’s back, when we see no way out of our situation. Isaiah uses these words to speak and has two purposes. (1) He is speaking to this nation to encourage them and (2) the scripture always encourages us for the future as well.
So, first He gives us a principle. Here it is. V. 28. Isaiah is reminding us that we can always, always, always rely on God. He is the Alpha and Omega, first and last, no beginning and no end. So, when we pray and say, “Lord, can you take care of my problem?” He responds by saying “it’s no problem to me.” When we say Lord, “have you seen anything like this/like what I am experiencing?” He says, ”yes many times.” When we say “Lord will you be there when I need you, he says are you kidding? I was there BEFORE you needed me. I was there BEFORE, and I will still be here AFTER you’re gone. Isaiah makes it clear that God never grows weary. He is never too weary to help us and never too preoccupied to listen. YOU and I are his focus. If I could put it this way, he never answers so many prayers in one day that he can’t get out of bed the next morning. He never decides to sleep in, and he never tires of helping his children. God is never stumped by our questions. Never confused by our confusion. When we don’t know what to do, He always knows.
Then He gives us a promise. Verse 29. Ever feel weak and helpless? Do you ever feel stuck in one place and can’t get unstuck? Ever feel powerless? Listen, the definition of power is very simple. It is the ability to do what needs to be done
and in this context, it literally refers to the physical power/strength you need to keep going. It refers to the power in your bones. Have you ever heard someone say – I’m so tired, my bones are so weary. Look at verse 30. You know when you were young you worked like you had no limits, right? When I was working on my master’s degree, I was a full time student at New Orleans Seminary – the coursework was very demanding – in addition, I worked 42 hours a week in a supermarket – no days off. So, there were definitely times when I was weary. One day I was in the campus library with a stack of books on the table … my Greek text on top because that was the one I was struggling with, and I laid my head down to take a nap. My advisor happened to be in the library – he came over and said you look tired/weary – I said I am – with my head was laying on my books, he said you know you can’t get this by osmosis, right? 😊 I smiled and started back up with my studies.
Most of us were able to do that kind of thing when we are young, when we think we are bulletproof, but there are times when verse 30 speaks to us – especially as we grow older – “even the youth will become weak / tired and young men will fall in exhaustion. “ And that is when we receive some good news. Verse 31. Now notice two things here. He says, “wait on the Lord.” Personally, I am not great at waiting. Maybe you’re not either. We want things now. ASAP. So, we flew out to Texas last Sunday afternoon. In the process our flight was delayed at least 5 times. We stopped counting. Then you’re in line at the security gate they always find a reason to pat me down in the security line, you stand at the gate – then sit down on the plane and finally sit down on the plane. But all of this is minor compared to….
• parents who wait for their son to return from Iraq.
• For a cancer patient, waiting for results.
• Every doctor’s office has a special room – called a waiting room.
• We wait in the hospital.
• Minutes become hours while we are waiting for our loved one who is in surgery. Hours can become days – even weeks.
But listen and remember this – when we are waiting we are usually waiting for SOME THING. But we are not actually waiting for SOME THING. We are waiting for SOME ONE. We are waiting on the Lord Jesus himself, and we must learn to say these words ……. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but I do know who is going to do this. And I’m not gonna give up because I am waiting on him.
But listen as with many words in the scripture, the Hebrew and the Greek have greater meaning than we can possibly express in the English language. And that is the case here. This word here does not mean to just wait. It does not mean sitting idle and doing nothing. We could compare it with strands of a cord where there are at least three strands, and they become intertwined. This symbolizes unity. Us, Church, Him; altogether. Wait means to be bound up with God and when we are we will renew our strength. Now this is the heart of this passage. The word renew is like changing clothes. You put something brand new on. When our kids were younger and would hurt themselves playing outside, I would pick them up – we might take them to the doctor --- we went to the hospital more than once – but guess what, I can’t pick them up anymore. Before I could easily carry them. These days I couldn’t pick any of them up. Things change overtime. God doesn’t. Here is one way to look at it. The sun gives us full light at noon, less light at dusk and no light at night. Unlike light God’s character does not change.
And here is what he promises us.
• The strength to soar. We will be able to mount up with wings as Eagles.
My wife gave one of our grandsons, who is in college now, some excellent advice recently. They were discussing his future, and she said, “whatever you do – find something that when you get up in the morning, you cannot wait to get out of bed and do it.” Listen, we must learn to soar and rise above our difficulties.
• The strength to run. The ability to withstand the pressures of life. It is when you and I have unusual strength, and we do not know where it is coming from. It’s when we say you know I really don’t know how I made it but here I am.
• The strength to walk and not faint. So, we soar. We run. We walk. Obviously, it’s best to soar but for most of us we spend a great deal of time running or walking. Now here is a thing to remember –
If we focus on our problems,
we cannot focus on God.
Here’s the thing about walking …. Walking is slow compared to driving or taking a plane. It’s not flashy. Walking is not flashy. people. People are not impressed. For some walking is kind of boring. But walking is the stuff of life.
• We walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
• For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them."
• For we walk by faith, not by sight.
• "Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. "
Here's the deal: our greatest hope is when we exchange our weakness for his strength. We are invited to wait for this strength. God will provide. We will not faint. We say all we can do now is pray. We say I’ve got no place to go now but to the Lord. This is like saying I have nothing to breathe except air. Now I want to cast some vision. Four areas to focus on in 2025.
(1) Enlarge our prayer ministry. 76 weeks ago, we started our House of prayer ministry. We have 20 people who are committed to one hour of prayer each week. When Jesus addressed his disciples on the night before his crucifixion, He prayed so intensely He sweat drops of blood. When he returned to the disciples, he found all of them asleep and he says, “Could you not pray with me for one hour?” Then He left a 2nd time and when He came back, they were asleep again. A third time and the same thing!! The same question applies today.
(2) Enlarge our giving. Unfortunately to reach people it takes financial resources. All of us have the opportunity to give to and support kingdom work and there is no greater investment on this planet. We need more givers, and we need more tithers. 10%.
(3) Enlarge our ministry staff. For the church to continue to grow we must add ministry staff. We desperately need to increase our ministry staff to reach and plan ministry for children and youth – to reach more young families because they are the future of this church.
(4) Enlarge our number of small groups. Now let me say this is our best area. This is where we shine. With 80 adults on average attending worship, we had 95 in small groups. I spoke with Dr. Myles Dowdy of the Florida Baptist Convention, and he told me that of the 3000 churches we have in Florida, Eagle’s Landing is one of a small handful of churches who have this kind of participation. Churches simply do not have more people in small groups than they do in worship. But we do!
(4) Enlarge the attendance in our worship service. So, this is the theme I want us to focus on this year for 2025. Because this is the solution to every one of the previous building blocks. And here is the theme in four words. Each One Reach One. Who is your One? Each family reaches another family. It is such a simple concept that we don’t realize the change it would make in our church.
We carry the name Eagle’s Landing for a reason. These are some things you may or may not know about eagles. All of this applies to the church. Listen carefully.
• The eyesight of an eagle is exceptional. Eagles have amazing vision.
• When storms arrive, eagles soar above them. regrow new ones. When attacked, eagles often rise higher instead of fighting back.
• An eagle will always protect their younger eagles.
• Eagles take time to renew themselves. Every eagle will shed its old feathers and regrow new ones.
• Eagles focus intensely on their target.
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• The scripture reminds us in Exodus that God protected the Israelites as though they were being carried on eagle’s wings. When they had no water or food he swooped down and provided it for them. He brought Manna from Heaven.
• When Moses faced the Red Sea, he swooped down and parted the waters.
• When David was facing a giant, he swooped down, and he saved his life.
• When you And I were wandering around lost in life, he swooped down and saved us.
Aren’t you glad? Don’t you want others to know what He did for you? Each One Reach One. That’s our theme for 2025. Will you, do it? If you will do two things for me to show your commitment…. (1) Let me know you will do it and (2) come forward and stand or kneel here at the front and pray God will show you who that ONE is.
