Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the power of waiting on the Lord, drawing from Isaiah 40:29-31, where God promises to renew the strength of those who trust in Him. He contrasts the majestic eagle, which soars high above the earth, with the impatience of modern society, urging believers to rise above their circumstances and live in the heavenly places God has prepared for them. Ravenhill illustrates how God, like an eagle, nurtures and strengthens His people, encouraging them to embrace their identity as children of God and to seek His presence for renewal and strength.

The text this morning is in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, reading from verse 29, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint. When God wanted to remind Israel of His power, He said in the 19th chapter of Exodus there, in verse 4, You've seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. So there God likens Himself to an eagle. When He wanted to pay tribute to the skill and the ability of King Saul and his son Jonathan, He says in the second book of Samuel, and the second book of Samuel chapter 1 and verse 23, Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, and they were stronger than lions. A wonderful compliment. And God says of us, His people, that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Now you remember in history we've been taught that there was the ice age and the stone age, and then there's this ridiculous age in which we live. And you know today men, whether they're scientists or cynics, they're trying to write a kind of epitaph for this age in which we live. Cynics are doing it, scientists are doing it, scholars are doing it. One person has said we live in the most cruel age that man has ever known. With increasing wisdom there comes increasing devilry because not until this age was it possible for men to invent something that can burn a whole city up in a matter of 60 seconds. But we can do that in the day in which we live. That's called progress. But if I were to put a tab on the age in which we live, I would say it's an impatient age. Everything now has to be instant. You know, instant coffee, instant tea. You send an order in to a Sears and say could you have it delivered an hour ago? And we want everything doing yesterday. It's a mark of the age in which we live. It is a restless age. And yet God says here that they that wait upon the Lord, well that's almost a lost art. I almost said a lost science. It's almost a lost art in the day in which we live. Because again we're impatient. The 40, in the 37th Psalm, I waited patiently for the Lord. We have an idea that God's on call. Immediately like that we can rush about and then say Lord you just intervene right now and get this thing done and let me get on my way because I'm in a desperate hurry. Not only does the Psalmist say that the wait, the prophet here say they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Not only does the Psalmist say I waited patiently for the Lord but also he says that they that, the patient people that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth. Now I think this is a stupendous thing that God says here. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. Well bless you most of us live like sparrows. The eagle lives in heavenly places. The eagle is the king of the sky. The ox is the king of the domestic animals. The lion is the king of wild animals. The eagle has more peculiarities and unusual features about it than any other bird at all. And God says of us that this is what we're designed to do. We're not made to live on this dirty old mud ball. Would suit none of us if he said they that wait upon the Lord shall live like owls. Most of you folks stay up half the night anyhow it would suit you okay. Owls live in rotten old trees and they're quite happy to live there. Sparrows flutter about there are millions of them. Dirty messy little things they are. And now the starlings have come back. I wish they'd go somewhere else. Starlings are not my darlings anyhow. But they come around our house in flocks. A man said to me the other day there's a million starlings in your yard. He was an evangelist exaggerated as usual but there it was we had we had flocks and flocks of starlings. And immediately I thought that God hasn't called me a starling. We're not roosters in a farmyard. We're not birds that scratch on the ground and dig up for worms and all the junk. That even before we get to the text. In studying this I remember the fact that a few years ago I watched an artist doing a picture. And every day that picture grew and I opened my mouth and I saw the beauty in the skill and I saw what the artist was trying to get to. And then on the final day a frame a gold frame was put round that beautiful beautiful piece of art. And suddenly the picture took life. It seemed as though there was as much almost in that artistic gold frame as there was in the picture. The one complemented the other. Now let's look at the framework here for a minute or two here in this 40th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is the one who exalts God. He shows us his majesty at least 21 times 17 times in the first half of the book. No 12 times in the first half of the book chapters 1 to 39. He speaks of the holiness of God. And then in chapters 39 to the end of the book he speaks again over and over and over about 17 times about the holiness of God. I say very often to people now let me ask you this morning here did you really come here to meet God this morning or to hear a sermon about him? Did you expect to leave this audience kind of drunk with the concept of the majesty of God in a world of turmoil a world of restlessness where there seems to be no security there's nothing you can forecast about tomorrow the world's on the edge we're told of a of an explosion we feel as though we're balancing on the edge of a razor and if ever there was a day when we need to lift up our eyes to the hills when we need to see the majesty of God the one who created the heaven and the earth that God is my God he's not merely the God of Elijah he's not merely the God of the Old Testament prophets he's not merely the God the Father of the Lord Jesus he's my God he's my Father and as a father pitches his children so the Lord pitches them that fear him now this 40th chapter begins comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God this is just the property of God's people the rest of the world's made up of sparrows and unclean birds but we're to mount up with wings as eagles and if there's any comfort needed and any comfort given it is given through God it is given through the word of God in the 14th of John 26 verse 26 Jesus says the comforter who is the Holy Ghost will come well again he's not a nursing mother for spiritually sick children but indeed he is a comforter he talks in the Old Testament in Isaiah again about a man doing something and he comforted it with nails well nails aren't too comfortable no the word actually means he made it secure and there's comfort in security and there is no bird more secure than the eagle he puts his nest there in an inaccessible place and almost inevitably in the cleft of a rock that cannot be swayed it cannot be moved but again the comfort here is to God's people this is the framework I say well what kind of a God is he did you this morning with all your compassion have you given a passing thought that there are millions of people groveling in the dust this morning and they take broken hearts to God who have no hearts that they're crying and their voices can't be heard by their gods millions of them and those who don't have gods of wood and stone have got gods of materialism a lady called me yesterday from Houston she's one of the great characters in America today she's been living in a hellhole there she's a very distinguished gifted young Jewish lady who was converted and used to run a booking residence on the strip in California and God saved her and now as a seedy stud would say she runs a rescue shop within a yard of hell and she said to me yesterday you know I'm so indignant about the situation our nation's humiliated by a man who seemingly is intoxicated he's mad religiously mad there in Iran but she says brother Ravenhill people get so disturbed when they see the flag being burned and yet Americans burn it every day with their immorality the publication of filthy literature we send around the world dirty films we send around the world there are countries in the world won't accept any American films anymore they question every bit of literature that we send and while we talk about old glory we cover it with shame every day with our divorces and our immorality and our sin we're burning the flag never mind the rest of the world everything it stood for is being dishonored and yet when you think again the same is true of the cross of Jesus Christ it seems to have lost its luster and lost its wonder the word of God clearly says there is no God like unto our God what does it say here I need to rush on I have a lot to tell you this morning as usual Isaiah 40 verse 13 says who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counselor who hath taught him with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding this God I serve is the essence of all wisdom all power all authority all majesty all glory I was reading about those black holes up in the sky it's getting worse I thought all the black holes were on earth but they've got them up in the sky now and we think maybe they've burned out stars and they have a power of suction that they can draw things into them well somebody has said up through there somewhere in infinity man is beginning to tap the powers of creation or whether he is or not I want to tell you I know the person that put it all there now I've got no nerves about it I know he's a God of majesty I know he's a God of glory I know he never went to school I know nobody gave him any instruction that what it says clearly very here here very clearly the 17 all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing verse 18 to whom then will you liken God or what likeness will you compare unto him well let's leap over and find out what it's like in verse 22 it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and that spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in he bringeth the princes to nothing he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity yea they shall not be planted yea they shall not be sown yea their stock shall not take root in the earth and he shall also blow upon them and they shall wither and the world shall wind shall shall take them away a stubble verse 25 to whom then will he liken me or shall I be equal saith the Lord now lift up your eyes well isn't that where the eagle lives he doesn't scratch about on the earth he doesn't buddy buddy with uh rooks and and crows and sparrows he ignores them he lives in an entirely different world but he says here you lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created the thing these things he bringeth out the stars their host which means against the stars i like a hymn that was written by uh who wrote it now oh the man that wrote cross isaac watts always reminds me of this hymn he says he made the stars those heavenly flames he counts their numbers calls their names his wisdom's vast and knows no bound a deep where all our thoughts are ground a drown what is the creature's skill or force the sprightly man the warlike horse the piercing wit the active limb all are to mean delights for him but saints are lovely in his sight he views his children with delight he seeks their sees their hopes and he knows their fears and he looks and he loves his image there but again it says the stars look on high behold he has created who has created these things and he brings out their host by number he calleth them all by their names i remember one night i've been to do one of those things they do in england uh at night time after supper time is about nine o'clock and there was a fish and chip shop at the top of our street and they always opened at night with the leftovers from the night before they threw them in the old boiling oil you know of fat and and we went and you got a fish for a penny half a one for half a penny and my mother when she was you know felt good she gave me a half penny for half a fish sometimes she got generous gave me a whole penny and and i go to the fish and chip shop and i was coming down the street one day and i saw the stars it was a frosty night and i remember there's a kind of a streak in the sky and i said mother the sky's very different tonight there's a kind of a streak like the teacher makes with chalk through the sky now i don't know how she knew but she said that's called the milky way well all i knew about milk was what came out of a cow but she said that's the milky way up there and then afterwards i read about it it was estimated there were maybe a million stars and it is the only unique path in the sky like that the milky way well of course since then since i was a boy a generation or two ago they uh the world has changed they have a telescope on mount palomar now with a 63 inch lens i'd love to look through it it must have been made in ireland because to look through it and once you get inside of it and then you begin to see oh yes do you know what science is telling us we live in an expanding world a shrinking world and an expanding universe every new plane we make shrinks the world they get though it it took wesley i was reading this week it took him three months to cross the atlantic you can cross it in three hours now if it's a british plane that uh three hours instead of three months every new invention we we shrink the world but we expand the universe if you were to take a match and strike it what the flame of that matches to the sun up there that sun is the sun's away in infinity it is not true there's only one milky way there are hundreds of milky ways it is not true there are millions of stars there are billions and trillions and quadrillions and you know what he knows their names well if almighty god is interested in stars they can't sing his praises he didn't redeem them are you trying to fool me and tell me he doesn't know my name he doesn't know my address didn't god say one day when somebody had to go down to anna nice anna nice rather go down to a street called straight and knock on the door of a certain man and there's peter well if he knew the name and address of peter he knows my name and address too well thank you there's two of us but he knows he knows our names what a god with such majesty and glory that he knows the very names of the stars when themistocles was the mayor of athens there were over 20 000 people lived in the city and he could recite the name of every person who lived in the city he was so concerned about them and yet it says here that this god he made the stars he calls them by names by the greatness of his might that he is strong in power verse 28 says hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting god the crater of the ends of the earth he fainteth not neither is there is weary neither is any searching of his understanding don't you think we need a new concept of the majesty of god as well as of the god he hangs the world on nothing took the american government i don't know 50 billion dollars to find that out they sent some men to the moon and everybody looks at the moon and wonders why it has no props if we'd made it would have stuck props and all kinds of gadgets around it god hangs it on nothing but one of the astronauts says the thing that astonished me was as i looked at the moon and then looked back the earth was hanging on nothing takes a bit of strength to hold the world up but god does it by the very breath of his nostrils as it were now this is god the god of infinite power the god of infinite glory the god of infinite mercy the god who knows your name and he knows your circumstances and he knows everything through which you go the psalmist says there's not a thought in my mind but what thou knowest it all together you say it's impossible four billion people on the earth and at this given moment god knows the name and he knows the emotion of every heart well i was reading the other day that they've invented a new computer they're they're old you know about three weeks after they invent them but anyhow they've invented a new one the new super computer is called gray one the new one is called gray two do you know what it can do it can register 80 million things a day no a second now do a bit of homework this afternoon instead of watching the cowboys 80 million a second how many is that in a in a in a minute how many in an hour you don't ask for the rod before you leave he'll tell you but anyhow 80 million a second and that's a machine made out of a mind like mine maybe a bit bigger but it's made by human mind and then it can register 80 million different things in a second are you suggesting the creator isn't greater than the created and this is the god i said that as introduction because this is the god you're invited to wait upon that they that wait upon this lord who hangs the world upon nothing who has never been never been baffled by a situation who has never been beaten the god who cannot die the god who cannot lie he says if i wait upon that god i shall renew my strength you see the contrast is here even the youth shall faint and be weary but they that wait upon the upon me verse 29 he giveth power to the faint and even the youth shall faint but there is a text that says and god he cannot faint now again we're to be likened again to the eagle it's a beautiful bird it's a unique bird look at the 39th chapter in the book of job job 39 and verse 27 says doth the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high she dwelleth and abideth on the rock upon the crag of the rock and the strong place from thence she seeth afar off seeketh afar off and her eyes behold afar off her young ones also suck up blood and where the slain are there is she she makes her nest where on the rock verse 27 says she maketh her nest on high and she dwelleth and abideth on the rock and on the crag of the rock say where have you made this nest your nest this morning have you made it on the rock christ jesus the rock that cannot be moved she always builds a nest in a place of security if there are no mountains she'll take the highest of the trees that it's possible to find i was reading recently in a certain book there that it says that uh when lewis and carol you know those lewis and clark those famous evangelist explorers were going through america when they came to missouri falls they reported that they saw the the the nest of an eagle and they they made they pinpointed it and said it was extremely large do you know that 50 years after that that that eagle's nest was still there there's a place called vermilion in ohio and years ago in a high tree i think a cottonwood tree the eagles built their nest and every year they don't destroy the old nest every year they add to the nest finally after many years a storm blew the nest down you know how big it was it was seven feet across it was six feet deep and it weighed two tons that's quite a nest the eagle builds a nest in a place of security and there's a lovely old hymn that says he hideth my soul in the in the cleft of the rock i'm not left to an exposed danger there's a scripture that says your life your life here it is this is your life it's hidden with christ in god that's pretty secure isn't it could you get it any better anywhere else she buildeth her dwelleth and abideth on the rock on the on the uh crag of the rock and a strong place the study says a young one's also suck up blood a unique feature about this it will never steal the lettuce out of your garden an eagle won't come this end to that it won't steal your corn those coons do it i went out for a piece of wood for the fire last night there was a a big fat possum eating the cat's meat outside i don't think an eagle would come this end even to steal that thing it's the ugliest thing i've seen i think no no no the eagle won't come around your garden pecking around he doesn't do like those birds on the road you know when somebody runs over a rabbit or something and you see those great big vultures he no he he scorns death he wants everything alive he's a great poacher last year they took some men over in near um uh near the rockies who were going up in planes and they were shooting eagles because what they were stealing the lambs well the only thing is you shot the eagle you couldn't pick it up it dropped on the ground and the uh the forest rangers were picking them up and they watched these men and they i actually sent them to jail that the bird likes something live it will not eat garbage don't you wish a lot of christians wouldn't what a lot of garbage we what magazines some women can't get through the months without the red book or something like that but the eagle doesn't go after garbage like that he won't steal something dead on the road not unless he's totally starving but he goes down and he gets a young lamb or he gets something else and he carries it squealing up there into the into the sky and then he has he has awesome claws oh he has lovely claws you know this book i could tell you a lot more time than i will take this morning but this bird is so unique well of course he has to have a girlfriend and after i have a girlfriend he has a certain call he makes which i wouldn't imitate but uh he makes a certain call and and she may be miles away and she hears it and she goes and joins him in the air and they go up they float up in the sky and when he gets up there he grabs her not by the throat that comes later he flies up there and suddenly makes a call and and they come together and he gets her claws in his claws and they spin over and he rolls her around and takes her for a roller coaster trip and says well sweetie how do you like that strength and she delights in it well if that bird can take its female friend and give it ecstasy like that god says i'll put underneath underneath you are the everlasting arms or as it's used there the everlasting wings he bears us on eagles wings and then of course again returning to the fact that he won't eat anything that's dead he doesn't eat garbage he'll go and find a beautiful young uh young lamb and he'll carry it up there and then he'll put his great big talons he's got three big hooks at the front and one at the back to give him some balance and he'll take his beak and rip that little thing open and what happens those little things are not content on the unless they can live on warm blood and live on flesh it says here that her young ones suck up the blood where where the slain are and the script is never wrong it doesn't feed on garbage it doesn't take bits of cabbage out of the garden it doesn't go to somebody's garbage can and take junk it finds something that's living it must have living flesh and living blood and isn't that what john says in six john 6 53 except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you've no life in you and so it compares again we sing sometimes beyond the sacred page i seek thee lord but some of us find a lot more garbage though we call it food on the sports page don't we how much do we feed on him how much do we feed on his mercy how much do we feed until we're almost intoxicated with his majesty and his beauty and his faithfulness his holy character then look again a little further over at the uh at a psalm what it was the psalm 100 and um psalm 103 bless the lord oh my soul we sang it this morning and bless his holy name bless the lord oh my soul forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who satisfied thy right sorry who redeemeth our life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and with tender mercies who satisfies thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle yeah the eagle's unusual do you know the the body of an eagle is no larger than a than a barnyard hen its disproportion is enormous because it has one of the greatest wingspans of any bird as even as far as seven feet carrying a light body on a very large large wingspan but he satisfied thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle and that bird goes up in the sky and he has a whale of a time and he finds his partner and he builds his nest and he raises his young and then one day he says oh i don't have the energy to get up there i'm feeling pretty tired old age is coming up and before long he he gets a little full of sympathy you know and self-interest and he sits away in the cleft of a rock there and he says yes look at those youngsters up there look at my neighbor he's up there too and i don't have what it takes to get up any there anymore and instead of looking up he looks down and when he looks down all he sees are his feathers that are coming out and then he gets distressed and he says my main feathers are dropping too i guess my days are over you know that comes in everybody's life remember elijah had a whale of a time and and right after that he sent his notice in to his surprise the lord took it he thought the lord would say like i can't do without you and he says all right i'll take your notice i've got a young fellow called elijah coming up one of your students and uh he'd pick it up this poor old eagle says oh my eyes seem to be getting a bit dim to my strength is going i don't think i'll bother to eat i won't go hunting i'll just sit here in the cleft of the rock and keep away from the storm and uh i guess i'll get through then one day he sees a bird go shooting past he says listen i'm too young to die i i'm not i'm not going to give in right now i need to wake up and he shakes his head and he he beats his beak on the on the on the rock and and the beak falls off and underneath there's a new beak and once he realizes he has a new beak enough strength to go find his food he flies a little and before long the the uh the food renews him and before long his youth is renewed and he lives another 50 or 60 years he was gonna give up his feathers are dropping down he's getting weak and he says no sir i'm gonna get this thing in hand i don't care what it costs and you know getting a little agitated even knocks his beak off and then he finds he has a new beak i can eat and enjoy it and his strength comes and out he goes well isn't that the proof there's a second blessing it must be but anyhow oh my what what what things god has for us um where's the scripture deuteronomy 32 11 look at this a minute look at verse 9 for the lord's portion is his people jacob is the lot of his inheritance so often you hear people say you know i've been in churches and they have a little envelope in the uh in the pew and uh it says on the envelope the lord's portion that's not the lord's portion the scripture is clear here it says in verse 9 the lord's portion is his people jacob is the lot of his inheritance he found him in the desert and in a waste howling wilderness he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye now as an eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them and bear them on her wings so the lord did lead him verse 13 he made him to ride on the high places of the earth again the eagle will never build his nest in your barn he'll never build his nest on the side of the wall like the swallows do he won't build a nest where you can reach him he builds his nest in a place which is inaccessible away there in the heights but you see uh the the eagle usually doesn't have more than uh than two youngsters and you know what the male is always hatched before the female if there are two eggs inevitably the the male egg is hatched before the female you know that's how the lord made them at the beginning he made adam before eve you know why well it because he didn't want any advice so he uh the the male came before the female and in the generation of eagles the the male egg is always hatched before the female egg and the birds stay in that nest again i say it may be as much as six or seven feet wide it could be less now the nest isn't comfortable like most nests but an eagle will actually go down onto the back of a sheep and with his big claws he'll tear the wool out in order that he may put it in the nest but it doesn't make it too comfortable because you see that the two birds settle down and say boy isn't it great living around here huh isn't it comfortable you know mother is so loving remember the storm the other day when it when it seemed all the skies were breaking up and she just sat over us and put her wings over us and you know not a drop of rain goes through she shelters them from the storm and not only does she shelter them in the storm but some days the heat is too much and so she puts her wings over them and the and she lifts them so the wind blows through and they get plenty of air conditioning in but they don't get sunstroke her wings prepare them prepare preserve them from the storm and the wings prepare preserve them rather even from the heat of the day but then the youngsters uh don't want to move you know like some of you don't want to leave this nice place you're living in you're hoping you'll get on the staff but anyhow uh they get settled down and comfortable and then mother and father say you know what these kids have been around here too long got to get them out of here and they make some noises and the youngsters say now listen you get your claws down and you don't get out of here because the old folk are trying to get rid of us now and we're going to stay around and the mother and father say are you going to get out no i'm going to stay here i enjoy the fresh meat you brought yesterday my that was delicious could you bring some from the same place again medium well and uh i'm really enjoying it but when an eagle makes a nest she always leaves protruding branches very seldom are the branches any thinner than my wrists it's an ugly looking nest so inside it's comfortable and they settle down and so dad says all right sweetie uh when you see me coming in you just hop off the nest because never they're never left undefended neither of you and i left undefended because if god isn't very near he gives his angels charge concerning us anyhow and so we're defended one way or another and so the big old boy comes down and he says well i'm gonna have my fun now the kids aren't and when he comes down he gets on that protruding branch with all his weight and up goes the nest and down go the birds and they scream and and the bird watches oh the parent is so delighted once he sees those youngsters you know flying in the air he says oh isn't it great to see your children flying around like this you know like papa solano has a son he's always flying around but he comes down now and again and glad he's here this morning but you know we'd settle down but an ego stirreth up a nest she doesn't ask any advice she says it's time you got out of here and i was in a very famous church not long ago and the pastor said you know brother ravenel this is the kind of church i've always wanted do you know they pay for all the if i buy fifty dollars worth of books every week the church takes care of it and they've just bought me a new gorgeous car and i've everything i wanted and i want to stay here till jesus comes i said boy that's dangerous he said what jesus coming i said no you saying you want to stay here he'll most likely kick you out of the nest you just say this is lord where i want to settle he says no i'm going to stir up your nest why to prove what's in you that's why and one of those birds fly and the other can't make it he's going down and suddenly an eagle makes a power dive and goes underneath and lifts it up and he says i'll bear you on eagle's wings is god capricious does god play tricks on us are you going through the hottest spot in your life well listen he's gonna bear you up he'll let you go go go and then suddenly puts all his resources behind you and lifts you into heavenly places in christ jesus he stirs up her nest she stirs up her nest oh i'm sure they don't like that but notice again it's it's no exaggeration of mine verse 11 of 32 of deuteronomy says as an eagle stirreth up a nest flutters over her young when she sees they're not making it she goes swooping down and if need be he goes down spreadeth abroad her wings and taketh them and bears them on her wings do you know i think that maybe at that time for the first time in its life that little eagle realizes how much it loves its dad your mummy you know it just thought well you're here to serve me and you know change my diapers if they wear them and uh give me some food and make me comfortable and suddenly it seems what it's all about the little thing hasn't enough sense it says i thought we were building you know we're in a secure place the rain never gets on us the heat never gets on us other birds have come and that goes after them boy he shoots them down pretty quickly this is the greatest place of security we've ever had wouldn't it be nice to stay here the rest of our lives and the better get out you better get out and so it's uh it has to go out but when it goes falling down what happens well uh the mother goes underneath or the father goes underneath again and uh and lifts it up now let's go back to the 39th of june and verse 29 says from thence she seeketh her prey and her eyes behold afar off as far as i can find out the eagle has the most unique eye of anything in creation any animal never mind any bird you thought that do use your cameras you've all kinds of filters do you know an eagle has a built-in filter do you know an eagle can see an object no no bigger than a tiny dog it can see it two miles away what does it say from then she seeketh the prey and her eyes behold afar off she sees something she desires a man in scotland said that he he he found an eagle's nest up in the in the hills of scotland the mountains of scotland and he built a blind and he watched it and he made detailed reports on it day by day and he would see that bird suddenly stick its neck out and there it would point in that direction and concentrate and he said i kept my glasses on it and suddenly it made a power dive and went about a mile and a half and it was clocked at 120 miles an hour and it swooped on a rabbit a mile and a half away and it brought it back and gave it to each young the eagle seeth afar off her eyes behold afar off well isn't that exactly what we're supposed to do the trouble is we keep looking down too much and looking around too much instead of looking up too much i'm looking beyond too much the world right now the outlook is dark the uplook is glorious the world says we don't know we're going well goodbye we know where we're going if you don't want to join us that's your business but brother we're not staying around here too long the lodge gonna stir the nest up for a lot of us gonna kick some of you out of the eagle seeth afar off well isn't that what brother tony and the rest have been doing they could see afar off to tacoma washington well why not go to dallas there's plenty of rotten stuff there to deal with but but be your eyes lifted up and you see afar off and you go to the place of his appointing jesus says lift up your eyes and look on the fields look afar off moses lives there over here more than a thousand miles a thousand years ahead it says that moses chose rather to surrender his pray place as a prince there in egypt with all the wealth and all the ostentation all the show and all the servants and all the creature comforts and one day he resigned every bit of it why because it says he chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of israel than suffer with the children of israel why because he endured as what seeing him who is invisible it says more than that it pinpoints it it says he esteemed the reproach of christ well how in the world did he know christ i suggest you in that 24th chapter of exodus again when he left the millions in egypt and he took the 70 plus four and then he left the 70 and there were four and then he left the 70 and then he has to leave even his chosen friend and he goes there on a mountaintop have you noticed how often god deals with men on mountaintops side two he took moses on the mountaintop more than once he took elijah on mount carmel he gives a sermon on the mount the world lives in the valley the believers live on the mount and moses enwrapped in a cloud and after he struggled and come that long journey god kept him waiting for for six days because he said he spoke to him on the seventh day while we would expect that gabriel would be there with a brass band and a red carpet saying oh you're a hero you left all the people in israel and you left your wealth and you left security and you left this and and and god and all the angels are excited to see you and god kept him wait wait upon the lord and renew your strength be still and know that i'm god we're impatient and i think wrapped up there in the cloud god gave him a revelation of something that was going to happen more than a thousand years because from moses to malachi there's at least a thousand years and moses trees through the dust and clouds of time he sees the rise and fall of empires babylonian empires and other empires and he doesn't let them disturb him or get him restless or unmoved or nervous he says there that there's the plan of god i think the same thing when god allowed his servant paul to be caught up into the heavens and he said i i can't even tell you what i've seen oh boy i'd like i'd like to have been in on that deal wouldn't you he's here for far off moses could see a millennium ahead and paul i don't know how far ahead he saw but this i do know he's so far off and i'm supposed to have eyes like this my eyes are not supposed to dwell on the things of earth but as we sing so often the things of earth have grown strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace we're supposed well bilheimer has a book out right now it's called um destined for the throne well that's all right it's a good book a good title but i think if you narrow it down we're not only destined for it we're supposed to be sitting on it aren't we doesn't ephesians say he has lifted us up together and made us sit together and we're dwelling together with him in high places what in the world are we worried about a homie this morning i have totally kahomi a homie how many of what are you gonna call him they call him all kinds of names but isn't it amazing this morning that the the eyes of the world are not on jesus christ they're on a man they're sitting on his little pile there they're not on the church rapturously and uh manifesting power over sin and the enemies of god we're all shrinking and worried about a little madman that's sitting there i think the whole reason there's only one reasonable uh reasonable answer to why he's done this devilish thing is this that that he made so many promises and then after a while his favorite his power went down he he wasn't popular he was sinking and he had to find a way of uh taking attention from himself to something else so engineered this diabolical thing of of trapping these guys away in that building and now he wants all the islamic forces to stand back behind him and you know if you keep looking at that kind of stuff and feed on that stuff forever you'll get depressed in your spirit and the stock market's going down and everything else we're not of the world the eagle is not of the earth earthy it's a heavenly creature it doesn't feed on garbage it doesn't bother with other people it's a defiant bird it's a dangerous bird it's a delightful bird why because it soars in hair areas that no other bird is able to soar in oh yes and another thing about it it has a wonderful eye i said you know when the storm clouds gather and darkness comes all the birds fly off and hide in holes and get back to their nests and the old owl gets in that rotten old tree and the other birds scattered off they have an instinct and they flee for safety you know the eagle does he gets says well hallelujah i've been waiting for this look at that storm coming up boy am i going to have a time and he flies right into the eye of the storm there's no other bird that does that they always flee for safety and when he gets there do you know what he does he rides on the crest of the storm he goes higher and higher and the rougher it gets the more he enjoys it he says why do you think i'm the strongest bird in the sky why do you think i live in heavenly places and get nervous because there's a dark cloud hmm a poet says the clouds may roar without me my heart may low be laid but god is round about me and shall i be afraid i think it was isaac waltz again that says let mountains from their seats be hurled down to the deeps and buried there convulsions shake the solid earth our faith shall never yield to fear all the other birds look out peep and say oh look at that eagle up there oh it must be wonderful to be like that what courage he's got he's got no nerves he isn't afraid oh see that lightning flashing oh listen to the thunders rolling oh the earth's breaking up the eagle says well hallelujah that won't worry me i don't have my feet on the earth anyhow i can ride up in the majesty i'm not made to be a sparrow jumping from roof to roof i'm not an old owl in a barn i'm not a beast i'm not a bird down in a farmyard i live in the heavenly places and paul says that's where we're supposed to live in heavenly places in christ jesus he has lifted us up together and made us sit together and what does ephesians 2 say he says he has all things underneath him and brother you ought to be in the place where you've got everything underneath you you may not explain it you can't explain god you can experience god but you can't explain him finally there's a lovely little word here i like so much in the in the fourth chapter of revelation revelation one and verse pardon me revelation four verse one says after this i looked you see he was looking where was he looking on the earth no was he looking at the cruel ruler ruler domitian who was destroying the christians and even burning their eyes out and oh sorry he's not looking around where is he looking well where was he if you've gone to ephesus that day and said well i've come a long way to hear your preacher i believe he's a great expositor and uh of course he was one that was with jesus and of course uh you know the gospel of john is a masterpiece it's the most amazing piece of literature ever written and then of course he gave us uh first epistle second epistle and third epistle and um i i want to i want to hear your preacher he said well sorry he's not at home oh doing evangelistic crusade no you you see that little peak sticking up in the ocean there yes well well that's the isle of patmos oh he's on vacation no he's in prison he's where he's in prison the isle of patmos was the alcatraz of the day they put the scum of the earth there the thieves and the liars and the incorrigible people people that the law couldn't tame and here is a saint of the most high god in that garbage here is a pure man in the midst of all that corruption and you get somebody to roll you over in a boat and when you get there you see this man meditating and you go up and pat him on the back and say well brother john nice to see you i didn't expect you to see you in the isle of patmos and he says i'm not in the isle of patmos says where are you he says i'm uh in the spirit well where are you this morning in the isle of patmos or in the spirit huh am i a prisoner of circumstances no sir i may not understand them all would you like some revelations of the most high god well maybe he'll have to get you away and break the nest up and get you away from everything and everybody on which you lean and then when he gets you there he'll have a chance to talk and he'll have a chance to reveal himself for that's where he took john on a stinking lousy isle of patmos with all the corruption of the world in it and then he says in verse chapter four of verse one that after this i looked up and behold a door was opened in heaven hallelujah wouldn't that be worth going to the isle of patmos for if i could push that door open half an inch this morning you know what i don't doubt you'd ever get depressed again i doubt you'd ever get under the weather if i could just pull the door of heaven open and say look in there you'll see the glory what does he see immediately i was and behold a throne was set on it hallelujah forever says a hymn writer so be it lord thy throne shall never like earth's proud empires pass away thy kingdom stands and grows forever till all thy creatures own my sway it's not long since some of us remember a man with his fist up like this and charlie chaplin's mustache on his lip and one stripe on his arm and he defied all the 51 nations that signed on the on the the peace pact in the united in the league of nations and he says i will build the third reich and it will last a thousand years hitler's third reich didn't last a thousand weeks there were other men that used to ride down the appian way with their slaves chained to the wheels of their chariot julius caesar and augustus caesar and caligula and they thought they had the world beneath their feet and their worst perished but thy throne oh god is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom and john is seeing when all of life is over and all the empires have gone and there's no more x and no more gas problems and there's no more world as we know it now every human system has developed has crashed and john says i'm looking listen as the man said i'm not too worried i've read the last chapter well you better keep in the last chapter these days when the world's falling apart read read the 17th of revelation and the 18th my commercial babylon goes down and religious babylon goes down and when those men are screaming and howling on their feet you know on their knees you know it says that when the men who have lost their billions and trillions of money and they've lost their kingdoms when they're howling and wailing do not the redeemed are doing across the road they're shouting hallelujah because he is going to reign forever and ever as king of kings and lord of lords immediately i was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne and he that sat on it will look like jasper and a sardine stone and there was a rainbow and then you go right down there's a rainbow there's a foreign 20 elders and then at the last it says the foreign 20 elders hey you're gonna have a crown how many crowns are we gonna have well there are five in the new testament i don't think many of us will get all the five i'm sure i won't i know you wouldn't know one is a martyr's crown anybody you like to vote for that today do you want to make a good lunch for the lions would you like to be crucified upside down like peter oh brother eternity is going to be something isn't it revelation talks about antipas my faithful martyr nobody knows the thing about him but he's listed with the martyrs one day we're going to see him and so we'll have one crown two three four five i know we're going to do we're going to strut around heaven and say oh i remember seeing you at agape you want to make three crowns eh boy boy thought you'd have done better than that notice i've got four uh there's a see this man coming he's got he's got five that man's got three he didn't make it too far is that what we're gonna do are we gonna be looking and say hey is that a diamond i can't see so well the light oh what a diamond as big as a bucket on top of your head is that a ruby in your crown i see over there red yeah are we gonna gape and oh and ooh and ah do you know what we're gonna do what did we sing this morning crown him i like that him i always feel a divine joy crowning with many crowns crowning the lord of spheres the potent and when i throw the door of heaven open there he is those wounds yet visible above i don't read jesus will have any diamonds he's gonna have some rubies where the nails went through his hands and through his feet and where the thorns pressed on his brow and when we see him there in his glory in his majesty it doesn't matter how many crowns you have verse 10 of chapter 4 says the foreign 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and they worship him that liveth forever and ever and they cast their crowns before the throne won't that be wonderful huh oh this is this is for the redeemed there's going to be another little time before this i can't wait for and that is when everybody that ever lived is going to acknowledge that jesus christ is god to the glory of the father boy won't i watch hitler kneel down and the pope and and uh