In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of receiving Christ as one's Savior. He highlights that Jesus is the sin bearer who died on the cross for everyone. The preacher encourages listeners to turn to Jesus for forgiveness, peace, hope, joy, and fulfillment. He also emphasizes that Christ is all we need and that nothing in this world compares to having a relationship with Him. The sermon concludes with a story about a man named Dick who gave up worldly possessions to follow Jesus and found great joy in being sold out to God.

Isaiah said, 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. We welcome you today to the program entitled On Eagle's Wings, a program we hope that will be an encouragement to the local church, to the pastor, new program in this area, and I think probably it's going to take maybe a little bit of time to get the technical areas of recording out. I think a couple weeks ago it was pretty bad, if I've got it straight, but I apologize for that. But we hope that the message will be one of encouragement to you, even as we deal on the areas of dealing with sin, that this would be an encouragement for cleansing. It's not a negative thing. The negative thing is sin. The positive thing is to deal with it and get right. Well, we hope that this program will be a unique program in the sense that it will be an encouragement. We are not trying to replace the good Bible teaching programs. We encourage you to listen to those men that teach the Bible systematically, verse by verse through the Bible. I believe that's one of the best ways for a Christian to grow, with expository preaching and teaching to give you the overall view of the Scripture. And we're trying to take some time each week in the Scriptures, and right now we're going through the life of Moses, to just share truths, cross-truths with you. But also we want to encourage you for revival and sharing different things on revival with you. So, get your Bible, maybe a notebook, maybe call your pastor up, ask him to listen. We want this to be a blessing to you and encouragement. Trust God that we'll do that in your life. Have you ever heard the slinky story? The story of how the little toy, the slinky, I'm sure you've probably played with one. It's made out of metal and coiled up like a spring and it'll walk down steps and things. Have you ever heard that story about how that came about? I was reading some while back in a magazine put out by Life Action Ministries called The Spirit of Revival, and author DeMoss had shared this story about how the man that invented the slinky, how God got a hold of his life. Very interesting story about that little toy and the man and the things that were involved with it. And I thought I'd share that with you today. But first I wanted to take a little time to share with you some thoughts on God's dealing with us in the area of being abandoned to Him. We've been talking about Moses, the man of God, the man who God took out into a desert for 40 years. And we all know Moses. We've preached about him. We've listened about his life. And I've chosen this man because we're well acquainted with him. And I can take time to share with you knowing that you know a lot of the background. But Oswald Chambers shared some things on being abandoned to God, as Moses was abandoned to God. And the world thinks it's a shame when we're abandoned to God. The world thinks it's a waste. What a waste, they said, as Moses went out into the desert. What a waste, all that training, all of that talent he could have had to thrown. Now let me share some things here from Chambers about being abandoned to God. And maybe some new thoughts. Don't be afraid to abandon yourself to God. Cast yourself on Him. We're to cast all our cares on Him. Well, cast yourself on Him. Do you remember the Scripture reading in Mark 10, 28, which says, Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee. Peter's saying to Jesus, Lord, we've left it all, and we're following you. And then our Lord replies in effect, as Chambers said, that abandonment is for Himself. If you're going to be abandoned to God, be abandoned to Him, for Him, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it. I might say that this is why many take off in a great burst with flares and bands and flags to follow Christ. But if the crowds fade away and all of the glitter is not there, and the glamour, well, many will quit following Christ. I'm reminded of the story of a man that came to Arthur Blessed, and maybe I shared this with you, but he wanted to follow Him, and Arthur gave him some little menial task to do, and he wouldn't do it if he couldn't have the big crowds. He was asked to just go down and play his instrument on the street corner, and he wanted to be in front of the big audiences. Well, we need to be careful about the commercial spirit. Quote, Chambers said, I'm going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy. All that is the result of being right with God. But that spirit is not of the essential nature of Christianity. Abandonment is not for anything at all. We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying, no, Lord, I don't want Thee, I want myself. But I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost. I want to be put in Thy showroom and be able to say, this is what God has done for me. If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there's nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment. It is miserable commercial self-interest that we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God. These things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself. When we come up against the burials of natural relationship, where is Jesus Christ? Most of us desert Him. We say, yes, Lord, I did hear Thy call, but my mother is in the road, my wife, my self-interest, and I can go no further. Then Jesus says, you cannot be My disciple. And then He closed up saying, beware of stopping short of abandonment to God. Most of us know abandonment in vision only. Now without a cross experience, without an experience in your life of where you are finished and Christ lives, as Paul shared in the Scriptures, I am crucified with Christ, meaning He died. He said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Then He went on in the next verse to say how He does not frustrate the grace of God. Trying to live the Christian life in the flesh will frustrate the grace of God. This abandonment to God is what we need in this day, where we're totally in His hands. Nothing ruffles us, nothing rattles us, nothing shakes us loose, nothing makes us cave in. We are abandoned to God. We have a total confidence in Him that He is Lord of every area of our life. And revival will bring you to this state if you're not there. If you're not walking in such a case to where your life, your temperament, your emotions are abandoned to God, and you can confidently live each day in the joy of the Holy Spirit, then this program is designed to bring you there. We're here to minister to you. We're here to encourage you. Chambers said something else about being abandoned to God that I thought was good. He said that God so loved the world that He gave. Now that was an abandonment. God abandoned Himself to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness. The salvation of God is deliverance out of self, entirely into union with Himself. And one of the tragedies of life is that so many trust Christ as their Savior, but they're not discipled, they're not taken and shown the Scriptures, they're not shown the cross, and their relationship to the Lord in relation to the cross. I was talking with a young man this week, a man that I'd led to the Lord. And after I'd led him to the Lord, I was not able to get back to him for a week or so. And someone else grabbed him up real quick to get him off into an emotional experience oriented religious experience, so to say. And I had some time later this week to talk with him, and I shared with him some things from Scripture, and pointed out to him how that direction that he was going would not be conducive to his spiritual growth, that he needed to be grounded in the Scriptures, that he needed to understand the cross. And, uh, my experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness, Chambers said. But salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God's personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself. I am caught up into the abandonment of God. You know, all of our misery revolves around self. Our disappointments, our discouragements, our despondency is self that doesn't come from the Spirit. And you can learn from the cross how to have self crucified and the Spirit reigning. We are commanded even to be Spirit-controlled. Ephesians 5, 18 says, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled or controlled with the Spirit. Without obedience to that command, you will live under flesh control. To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to get into a side, Eddie. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ. The fact that he saves from sin and makes us holy is part of the effect of the wonderful abandonment to God, Chambers said. And he went on to say, Abandonment never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the one to whom we abandon. Beware of talking about abandonment if you know nothing about it, and you will never know anything about it until you have realized that John 3, 16 means that God gave himself absolutely. Well, if he gave himself absolutely, then I say along with Chambers that we need to give ourselves absolutely to him. Well, where are you? Are you struggling? Striving? Or are you doing what Hebrews 4 says? Are you resting? Resting in the complete work of Christ? You know, many are like the story in Luke that have come to Jesus and said, We'll follow you. We'll follow you. Jesus even came to one and said, Follow me. In Luke 9, 57, it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. You think he's saying to this man, You follow me, and you won't have a place to live? Hmm. Are you willing to give up your place to live? I know a preacher that God has been dealing with over the last few years who has been giving up things as God dealt with him in these different areas. And one of the things he gave up, he gave up his home. He had a home and the Holy Spirit was dealing with him about abandoning himself to God. And this preacher realized that and he gave up his home. And he let God have the choice in his life. He said, You can choose for me where I live. And even to this day, right now today, I know that he is waiting on God to give him a place to live. He's moved and he's believing God for a place to live. He moved down to a certain area and God provided that place for him to move. And now he's believing that he needs a different place because of the circumstances and he's waiting on God to provide. He's abandoned himself. And Jesus went on to say in verse 59, and he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Now that's not like it sounds. The thing was there that his father hadn't died yet. And he says, I'm not ready to go. I've got to get some things tied up at home. And Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Let the spiritually dead bury the physical dead. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Many say they're going to follow Jesus and they take off in a roar, a cloud of smoke, dust flying everywhere. Then you get down the road, it's just like a race. I used to run track in high school. Boy, it's just like a race. This is a long distance race, this Christian life. It's not the sprint. And many would take off in that cross country run like a rocket. And those that were geared and trained for the race would just take off in their pace. And the crowds might roar and ooh and ah at that fellow that took off 90 miles an hour and went out of sight. But when the race is over, guess who doesn't show up usually? Oh, it's that fellow. He's all burnt out. The Christian life is a race that needs to be paced. It's a disciplined life. Now, let me share with you about this slinky story. Mr. DeMoss said that many of us in our Christian lives have been wallowing around in shallow waters, assuming it to be safer there. No need for miracles. But one of the divine paradoxes I've learned over the years is that contrary to normal expectations, it can be much riskier, much costlier to stay in the shallow water than to trust the Lord and launch out into the deep. And he went on, he said, I'd like to read a letter from one of the few men I know who has really launched out in faith and total commitment and who has experienced the resultant blessings. How many of you remember this slinky toy? It was invented by a young engineer. The invention propelled him to instant fortune and fame and wealth. He became a millionaire overnight, and he did all of the things which most people would like to do if they had the money to afford it. He traveled all over the country, all over the world, tried everything, did everything, and then became sated and suffocated with the things of the world and decided to commit suicide. He was then exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and his life was transformed in a very dramatic way. God doesn't call us, all of us, the same way, but this fellow felt called to just totally commit himself and everything he had to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave everything he had, his business, his bank accounts, his stocks and bonds, and felt the Lord calling him to minister in a very primitive part of South America. Then an uncle died and left him $40,000, and he gave that away. He didn't want to depend on man. He didn't want to depend on money. He never went around raising support, and I'm not criticizing the practice of most of our missionaries today. I'm just saying that this fellow wanted to just totally depend on God. He didn't want to have any money in the bank. He didn't want to have any monthly support. However, he did confess to holding out on God a little bit, in that he retained a die of the slinky toy. He felt in case things didn't work out, in case God let him down, he could start making slinky toys in South America. One of the most moving experiences I've ever had was to hear this fellow, Dick James, tell of how he became convicted of holding out on God. He took that die, and he tossed it in the ocean. He shared how that step gloriously liberated him, that since then he's really been free because he could really depend on God now. Now you'd think a person like that could understandably develop a martyr's complex. Look at all he'd given up for Jesus. I've observed, as I'm sure you have, that it is not at all difficult for us to adjust upward on the socioeconomic scale. Most of us can stand prosperity, and as raises come and as God sends the blessings, we can normally handle that all right. But to adjust downward on the socioeconomic scale is very difficult, and to do it voluntarily is practically unheard of today. I want to read a portion of a letter I received from Dick. It reveals the great joy he experienced from being sold out to God. Quote, Yesterday we cleaned out the storage room. Old paper, rusty scrap, steel, tin cans, bottles, and really rubbish. All we have to do is put it outside of the gate, and within minutes, the neighbors take away every, every, every single scrap. Old rusty bent nails are picked up one by one and are used. Old rusty corrugated sheets with holes in it will go on someone's roof. Blessed poverty! Hallelujah! I praise the Lord that He has shown me both sides of having much of this world's goods and having nothing. The more I am in this world, the more I can see that there is nothing, nothing, nothing. Families, money, education, factories, position, reputation, children, nothing, nothing, nothing amounts to a piece of dust outside of Christ. He is everything, all total. He is King. He is wonderful. He is love. He is life. He is peace, happiness. Lovely, wonderful to be praised. He is our all. He is the foundation. He is the rock. He is the only way. He is breath, bread, water. Praise God. Glory, glory, glory. I want Him and only Him, one hundred percent. Nothing else. Hallelujah! I want to know Him. I want to glory in Him. I want to follow Him. Glory to His name." That was Dick, the man who invented the slinky toy, gave it up to follow Jesus. Abandoned to God. And the world says, and the world doesn't understand it, and very few Christians, I believe, really understand being totally abandoned to God. Now, we won't have much time to get into Moses this week, but I want to take you into a little bit in the last few minutes of this program, how in Exodus chapter 3, we see that Moses is back in the backside of the desert. Verse 21 says, he was content to dwell with the man. Exodus 2, excuse me, verse 21 says that Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter, and she Barimah's son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. That word, content, in Hebrew means to be slack. Mental weakness, maybe, to commence, to seize. He thought it was all over. That was it. He may have given up his hopes and his dreams, but you can't convince me that he gave up on God, because God drew nearer to him out in that desert, and ministered to him, and he got to know God in a special way. Notice how he named his first son Gershom. Moses says, I'm a stranger. I'm a stranger. But you know what? He had another son, Eliezer, and that means, but God will help me. That was his confession of faith. Oh, what a testimony. I was reading over in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 9 about those that live by faith, and it says, By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in the tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. He lived by faith. Hebrews 9.13 says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. One of the interesting things is that the things that those great men and women of faith held so loosely to, so many hold so tightly to today that profess Christ. We have churches that hold tightly to big bank accounts and big savings accounts, holding many thousands of dollars, while so many of our missionaries are pleading before God for finances so they can spread the gospel. But yet those same churches will think that they are a spiritual giant, holding up these big, vast amounts of money, pouring in thousands and millions of dollars into buildings, and I'm not against those things if they're needed. I've been in those building programs and thousands of dollars involved, but the primary focus is not to hoard the money, but to invest it spiritually, to be wise, to be very wise and discreet. And sometimes you may need a little money on hand in a savings account, but be very careful that you're just not hoarding it up for a rainy day. God takes care of rainy days, not our savings accounts. Well, here's Moses, buried out in this desert. He wasn't at home in Egypt. He wasn't at home in the desert. You know why? He was designed for the promised land. And if you're content with this life, and you can love this world and the things of this world, which are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, then you're probably not saved. 1 John 2, 15 and 17 is what I'm quoting. That's the things of this world. Now, why did God keep Moses in the desert 40 years? And what did God want to teach him there? We're going to learn that next week. But first, I want to share just a little bit more with you before we close up of how God can meet your need in the desert. You know, there's so many systems. I was talking with a lady this week. She was trying to get me in on her system. She didn't know who I was. I was out working on my van, putting a new battery in it that I'd been praying for for a long time. I'd been jumping that thing to get it started, and God had gave me that battery. And then she comes up and trying to tell me that she has a better way. I told her I was really satisfied with Christ. I didn't see what she could have that was better than Christ, but she kept jumping over to this thing she wanted to try to get me off on. And then we got to talking about who Christ was, that he was really God in the flesh. And, well, she didn't agree with that. And most cult members will have a problem with the deity of Christ, and so I get to the point real quick. But this is just what the law is. The law says, Run, run and do the law commands, but give me neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings. It bids me fly and gives me wings. Let me encourage you to receive Christ as your Savior if you haven't done so. He is the sin bearer. He died on the cross for you. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He died for you, my friend, and he can lift you up out of that mess you're in. He can give you peace and hope and joy. He can give you fulfillment. He can give you forgiveness of sins. We need forgiveness of sins. We need to be cleansed. He can meet your needs in the church. Pastor, he can meet your needs. You're such a busy man. Be careful that you don't let the demons drive you. He can meet your needs. Christ is all and in all. He's all we need. Is he all you want? Will you let him minister to you? Will you let him lift you up on eagle's wings? Will you learn to live by grace, to have faith? Will you learn to let God be your strength? Well, trust this program's been an encouragement to you. God bless you, and let him lift you up. He wants to.