We always have so many things to be thankful for, don't we?
You know, even when things aren't just right, the Lord still blesses because He's so good
to us.
This morning I got up, had to take the dog outside, and I noticed it's not raining.
The sun was shining, and I thought, Lord, thank You so much for that, you know, because
we have had a lot of rain, but even when the things come like that, there's always a blessing
that can come from it.
And so the blessing today was for me to maybe feel a little bit like Noah did, you know,
after the flood when he opened that window and the sun was shining and there was no rain.
Praise the Lord for that.
This morning we're going to look at the second book of the Bible, of the Old Testament, in
Exodus this morning.
And so I would just like to invite you to take your Bible, turn with me to Exodus chapter
19.
Exodus chapter 19.
This is a very familiar passage here.
We, or the very next chapter is very important to Adventists because it's the Ten Commandments.
And so we're all familiar with that.
This story here that we're reading is part of a larger story, Exodus 19.
We have been reading Genesis in our morning devotion and we've been reading all about
Moses as he was called by God.
We've been reading about all he went through when he went to do what the Lord asked him
to do to free the Israelites and all that Pharaoh did to try to keep them from it being
freed.
But through all that the Lord kept working.
Finally they were freed.
And then we get to the rest of the story of what happened after they left and all the
things they went through.
And I can only imagine how Moses felt as he, we could use the word as he put up with the
children of Israel over the next while.
So this is about three months after they left Egypt.
That's where this story begins.
And so I'd like to read verses one through four of Exodus 19.
This is the New King James Bible.
It says, In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt,
on the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.
For they had departed from Rephidim and come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the
wilderness.
So Israel camped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying, Thus you
shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did
to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.
Today we want to look at this Old Testament story, this Bible story that's familiar to
us.
And we're going to talk about those eagles wings today.
That's our focus.
And we're going to try to see what God actually meant when he is saying, I bore you on eagles
wings.
And so as we approach this message, we're going to do it in story form, maybe a little
bit different from a normal type of sermon.
And so as I speak to you today, I want to encourage you to use your sanctified imagination.
You know, there's imagination and there's sanctified imagination.
So use that this morning and imagine with me what it might have been like for God to
have this conversation with Moses and Moses responding back to God.
And I'd like you to think about what might have been said and what it might have been
like if you had been there and if you had been in Moses' place during this conversation,
especially knowing all they went through before they got there.
Now a few chapters back in Exodus chapter three, we find that Moses is standing in front
of a burning bush on Mount Orab and Moses at that time had been tending sheep for 40
years.
He had been banished or ran away from Egypt.
He fled from Egypt because he killed an Egyptian soldier and he fled for his life.
And God had really gotten Moses' attention.
He's out there.
He's in the desert.
He's out there tending sheep and all of a sudden he sees this bush on fire, a burning
bush.
And he looked around and he couldn't understand how this happened, but he began to get a little
closer.
God says, take off your shoes.
It's a holy ground.
And so then he had this amazing conversation taking place between God and Moses.
And God says to Moses, he says, Moses, I want you to go down to Egypt.
My people are in slavery there and I want you to take a message to the people.
Tell them that God is going to deliver them.
Then I want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to give him a message as well.
And what I want you to say to him is let my people go, let my people go.
And Moses, you know, he's standing there and he's, you know, he hadn't been to Egypt in
40 years.
So he's standing there and he's thinking about it and he says, well, okay, God.
Then he thought about it a little more and he said to God, Lord, are you sure you want
me to go?
He says, I'm on the FBI 10 most wanted list in Egypt, Lord says, Pharaoh is not going
to be happy to see me coming.
Are you sure, Lord?
Moses, you know, this is the beginning of an argument, you know, an excuse, you know,
Moses making a lot of excuses.
If you read this chapter, Moses continues to argue with God and then he says, well,
Lord, I'm not really that good at talking to people.
You know, I'm not really that good at talking to people.
My speech is kind of slow and I think you may have picked the wrong guy.
And he went on and he makes another excuse, Lord, who am I that you would send me to Egypt?
Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
But God reassures Moses, reassures them in chapter three, verse 12.
This is what he says.
He said, go, go, go Moses.
I will certainly be with you and this will be a sign or a promise.
When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve the Lord on this very mountain.
Trust me, Moses.
So he's saying there, I want you to go down there.
I want to give a message and then you're going to come out and three months later, you're
going to be standing right here where you are and we're going to have another conversation.
Now if you will hit that fast forward button, go to Exodus 19, where we read from earlier.
Here stands Moses again.
He's standing on that same mountain and the Lord has fulfilled the promise.
And Moses stands there on Mount Orab and he's talking to God and God says to Moses, see
Moses, I told you so.
I told you so.
You go down to the valley and I want you to tell the people that I have delivered on my
promise and I have delivered that promise at the burning bush that's right here at this
mountain and I want you to tell them how I brought it to pass.
I want you to go down and I want you to tell the people that I bore you on eagles wings
and I brought you to myself.
Moses says, yes Lord, I recognize.
I know we're here.
Just like you said, but you're saying I bore you on eagles wings.
That's a bit much, Lord.
You bore me on eagles wings.
This has not been an easy three months.
This has been a rough time coming out of here.
Three months out of here in this desert and you're saying you bore me on eagles wings.
You see Moses remembered about the eagles.
He had 40 years of time to watch the eagles fly around the mountain.
And he had seen that eagles, he's all he's attending the sheep and watching the eagles
and the eagle was such a powerful bird.
The eagle was graceful.
The eagle just seemed to float like a feather in the air and the eagle never got flustered.
The eagle never was afraid.
The storm, if a storm came up in the desert, as it often did, Moses would watch all the
other animals as they would run and flutter, fly away, hide, but not the eagle.
Not the eagle.
The eagle seemed so unconcerned, so relaxed, the storm didn't bother him at all.
Moses watched that eagle fly right into the eye of a storm and it would disappear.
And Moses keep watching and all of a sudden that eagle would reappear above the storm
clouds and it would float through the air as though nothing was happening.
And so God said to Moses, I delivered you.
I bore you up on eagles wings.
Moses says, wait a minute, Lord, wait a minute.
Yes, we're here, but isn't it stretching it a bit to say you bore us on eagles wings?
Because that eagle is graceful.
That eagle is trouble free, but Lord, it didn't happen that way for us.
Didn't happen that way.
Do you remember the Red Sea, Lord?
We were there.
The sea was in front of us.
Pharaoh and his army were behind us.
Everybody was scared to death.
And Lord, your people were crying out.
They were crying out and they were without faith.
They were sure they were going to die.
Remember later on when we ran out of water, Lord, the people did what they always did.
They griped and complained and they came to me and griped and complained and they said,
it's my fault that we don't have water.
They wanted to go back to Egypt and then later on we ran out of food and water.
And the people threatened to stone me that time.
And they said they wanted a new leader.
And Moses says, Lord, are you telling me that through all that you bore me on eagles wings?
Lord, where were you when I needed you?
You know, perhaps some of you here can relate to how Moses was feeling.
I know I can.
I felt that way sometimes.
I can remember times in my life when it looked like everything's falling apart.
I can remember when depression came.
I can remember when it looked like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
I can remember crying out and saying, God, where are you?
God, where are you?
I need you now.
And I know some of you felt that way too.
Maybe it's when you couldn't pay the bills.
Maybe it was when your child was sick and you didn't know what to do for that child.
When you had a problem with your in-laws, your outlaws, and maybe your spouse wasn't
listening to you.
When you had that problem that was so delicate that you could not tell another soul about
it, and you cried out to the Lord and said, God, where are you?
Where are you?
Think about that.
If you think about it, are we really that much different than Moses and the Israelites?
But God said to Moses, he said, I bore you on eagle's wings.
You know, now it's God's turn to ask the questions.
And so God said to Moses, Moses, do you remember what happened at the Red Sea?
Didn't I deliver you from Pharaoh at that time?
Didn't I break open the whole sea, part the sea so you could walk out?
So did any of God's children die in the Red Sea?
When you got to the other side, nobody even had mud on their feet, did they, Moses?
And by the way, he said, do you remember when you ran out of water, Moses?
You found this bitter pool of water that nobody could drink.
And I told you to throw a tree in the water, and you threw the tree in the water, and didn't
the water turn sweet?
Moses, didn't it taste good?
Then later on, you ran out of both food and water.
Did I leave you, Moses?
Did I leave you there?
Sure, the people wanted Big Macs and French fries and chocolate shakes, but didn't I send
angel food?
Didn't I send the manna for them to eat?
When I told you to strike the rock, didn't the water come forth, that sweet tasting water
come forth?
Moses, I was there.
I bore you on eagles wings.
Moses says, I know.
I guess I just don't understand about this bearing up of eagles wings.
It didn't really make sense to me, because eagles don't have problems.
Eagles are special.
Life is easy for them, and the eagle is graceful, powerful.
He's always in control.
But for me, Lord, this whole trip, this life with these people has been so rough.
I don't understand the eagle's wings.
God said, I know, Moses, but you've got to understand the Israelites.
You've got to understand these people that you brought out.
He says, they've been in Egypt for a long time.
They've been there for 400 years enduring slavery.
They've been serving idols.
They've forgotten God over time, and they've lost their real belief, and they've been in
paganism and heathenism and harsh conditions.
You see, Moses, I have to help them.
Before I can take them into this promised land we're talking about, I've got to smooth
the edges up on these people.
I've got to help them to be ready to get to the promised land.
He said, I've got to prepare them.
So Moses, I've allowed a few things to happen to try to teach them to trust me so that they
will have confidence and so they'll be willing to follow me all the way into the promised
land.
Moses is just kind of sick his head and he says, Lord, but did it have to be so rough?
Did it have to be so rough?
Couldn't it have just been a little bit easier?
God says to Moses, he says, Moses, let me tell you about the eagle.
Let me tell you about the eagle.
He told Moses, he says, I want you to remember these words.
Moses would later record these words in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 11.
I'll read that to you.
It says, as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young and spreading out its wings
taking them up, carrying them on eagle's wings, carrying them on its wings.
So Moses wrote that and he was remembering this conversation that he had with God when
he wrote it.
And God says, Moses, let me tell you about the eagle.
He said, you see this mama eagle, when she makes her nest way up on the mountaintop,
first thing she does is go way down into the valley and she plucks up all the thistles
and briars and thorns and rough material and she makes the outer part of the nest.
Says then on the inside to cover up all those thorns and thistles, the eagle rises up, plucks
the down from the underside of her body, this nice soft down and she pads the nest with
all this soft cottony down.
And it's there, the mother eagle lays her eggs and then the eaglets are born and they
hatch and the mother watches them very carefully and you know these little eaglets, they're
born with their mouths open.
Like our grandson, boy, he's born with his mouth open.
He comes to our house and wants to eat us out of house and home.
But these little eaglets are born with their mouths open and mother and daddy eagle, they
are busy full time just going back and forth to feed these little ones.
And with her large wings at night or during the hot daytime, she shelters the babies from
the sun and the winds and the mother and daddy eagle protect those babies and nourish them
with all their possibility and they nourish them and give them everything they need.
But then there comes a day, there comes a day when somehow instinctively the mother
eagle knows it's time to get those young ones out of that nest.
Time to get them out of there.
They got to make a way of their own.
Do you think they want to go?
No way.
You know, they have three square mils a day, they have wings over their head, they have
mom and dad eagle who love them and why would they want to leave?
But it's time, time for them to get out of the nest.
So mama eagle just slowly begins to pluck out and drop the down from inside the nest
and she drop it over the edge and it would drift and you could just watch it drifting
all the way down to the bottom of that mountain.
And then she keeps doing it and then she's picking this down out and she's picking it
out and pretty soon she's picked out all the down and it's all dropped over the side and
all of a sudden it becomes very uncomfortable in that nest.
You know, every time the young ones move they're sitting on a thorn and they're going ow, ow
this is not comfortable.
And they want to know, well what's going on here?
The mother eagle says it's time to fly.
Fly?
We can't fly.
Sure you can.
Watch me.
And so the mother eagle takes off gracefully and she's soaring and flying and floating
through the air and then she comes back and sits on the edge of the nest and the little
ones are looking at her and say, well yeah, that's very impressive.
And they were thinking, that's really nice but you know, you've got to get out of the
nest to fly.
And we weren't really sure if they were ready to get out of there.
The young ones aren't sure.
It's not comfortable in the nest but they're kind of caught in between.
What do we do now?
We stay in this miserable situation or do we get ready and get out of the nest and the
mother says, trust me, trust me.
She says to them, jump and flap your wings.
When the eagle looks at the others, did she say jump?
Did she say jump?
Yes, jump, trust me.
Mama's gone nuts.
She's trying to kill us.
Finally one brave little chick gets up and he peers over the edge and he can't even really
see the bottom but he swallows hard and he says, well, mama said to trust her so I guess
I've got to have a little faith and trust her.
So finally he goes over and he swallows hard and he jumps and down he goes, just like a
rock and he's flapping those little wings and it's not happening, you know.
And he begins crying out, no, this isn't working.
Mama, mama, help me.
And he's going down there like a rock, flapping his wings harder and harder and just before
he hits the ground here comes mother eagle.
She swoops down underneath that chick and he lands on her wings and she carries him
back safely to the nest.
And then mama eagle says, let's try that again.
Let's try that again.
And the Lord turns to Moses after he's told him this and he says, you know, Moses, all
those problems that are happening in the camp and on this journey, he says, Moses, I'm just
pulling the down out of the nest.
I'm just pulling the down out.
You know, that happens to us.
We look at the situations we find ourselves in, problems, illnesses, discouragements,
discontentments, distresses.
We see issues in the church.
We see issues out of the church.
We see craziness in the world in which we live in.
And you know, what's happening when that takes place is that the Lord is pulling the down
out of the nest.
We've gotten too comfortable.
Sometimes we're too comfortable just being in church.
Sometimes we're too comfortable just being Christians.
But the Lord says, you know, it's time to get ready for heaven.
Time to get ready for heaven.
It's time to pluck out that down so that we can know what's going on in this world and
get ready for Jesus to come.
You know, we were all slaves in Egypt.
Egypt is a symbol for the world.
We were all once slaves in Egypt and the world and the devil had its clutches on us.
We couldn't get free on our own.
Praise the Lord, God took us up to the mountain.
He took us to Mount Calvary.
And as we saw Jesus and His salvation, our sins are washed away and we're set free in
Christ.
Some of us thought, wow, that's great.
Now everything's going to be great.
Some of us thought that when we came to Christ, it's going to be easy streets and then on.
You know, we thought we would drink non-alcoholic champagne, eat veggie steak, live the life
of Bethlehem Roses.
But then came reality.
Reality.
Maybe we lost our job because we needed to keep the Sabbath.
You know, maybe our spouse did not share the Christian vision that we had.
Maybe they weren't sure.
Maybe our finances were a mess.
Maybe the kids did not want anything to do with God.
And we find ourselves in the valley.
We find that being a Christian is not always easy.
Sometimes there can be a lot of problems happening when you're a Christian.
Remember, this is very important.
God told that to Moses.
Eagle mama told it to the kids.
Remember when everything falls apart, when you feel rejected, despised, God has promised,
I will be with you.
You don't have to worry.
And it may be that God's just plucking the down out of the nest for us so that we're
not too comfortable.
Friends, this world is not our home.
Sometimes we think, well, we're going to just camp out here and have a glorious life.
We forget that this is not where we belong.
This is a temporary place.
The Lord wants us to move on toward the kingdom, not to be too comfortable here.
And when things get hard, when times get rough, remember the Lord has something much better
in store for you than this world.
You know, if this world was all we had to look forward to, we'd be pretty miserable.
Paul said something like that one time.
In James chapter one, we're told, and this has been a tough verse for me, but studying
this story here is kind of, maybe think about that.
James chapter one, we're told to count it all joy when we fall into various trials.
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.
That's tough.
But 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, thankful for this verse, it says, God will make a way of
escape.
God will make a way of escape.
He won't give us more than we can handle.
We may not think we can handle it, but he won't give us more than we can handle.
And friends, we have to remember that the devil can roar like a lion.
If you ever heard a lion roar, it's a huge thing to hear.
It rattles everything.
And the devil may roar like a lion, but we have a God who's the lion tamer.
Daniel found that out.
Today the Lord says to us, trust me, trust me, believe in me, have faith in me.
I will be with you.
I will bear you up on eagle's wings.
And the Lord still says that today.
That's the message for this church today.
I will bear you up on eagle's wings.
And you know, friends, if we're going to fly, we have to trust the Lord first.
You won't ever jump out of the nest if you don't trust the Lord.
We're weak.
Yes, he's strong.
When the burden gets heavy and you feel like you're falling, trust in the Lord.
He'll carry you through.
Now we all have times of doubt.
Yes, we do.
We all do.
We have to work through those things sometimes.
We have to come to understanding and get our heads on straight so that we can trust in
the Lord when those times of doubt come.
Believe me, I understand that I've been there.
And sometimes it seems impossible to trust Jesus.
And I've heard people tell me that.
It's impossible.
I can't trust Jesus.
But you know what?
The most important time to trust Jesus is when it seems impossible.
It's the most important time.
When you can't see the future, take his hand.
That's faith.
When you need help, turn to the word of God.
You'll find the promise.
Jesus has carried you and he has carried your burdens.
He has borne you on eagles wings.
That's why we're told that we should go back and remember how he's helped us in the past
because that will help us get through the future.
If you trust him, he will continue to carry you all the way through this life and into
the kingdom.
Do you want to thank him for that today?
Do you want to thank him for that?
Do you want to praise him for his goodness to us, for bearing you up on eagles wings?
If you're a Christian and you're sitting here this morning, I promise you God has borne
you up on eagles wings.
And I promise you he will continue to do so if you'll trust him.
So today, if you'd like to thank him for what he's done for you, if you'd like to praise
and thank him for what he's going to do for you, I invite you to just stand right where
you are.
Could you stand with me this morning?
Just stand with me this morning.
If you're unable to stand, just raise your hand.
Today if you're raising your hand or standing this morning, you are saying to the Lord,
I desire to trust you, Lord.
I desire to trust you with my whole heart.
I desire to trust you with everything in my life.
If that's your desire today, will you raise your hand?
Amen.
I'm going to ask you to do one more thing.
This morning, if this is your desire and you want to trust Jesus, I want you to say something
with me this morning.
If you could say this together with me, say, thank you Lord for bearing me on eagles wings.
Could you say that together?
Thank you Lord for bearing me on eagles wings.
I'm thankful today and there's something else that we can be thankful for and that
trusting in Jesus is the sweetest thing that can happen for us.