In this sermon, the preacher discusses the life of Moses and draws parallels between Moses and Jesus. He emphasizes the importance of being overcomers in the desert, as Moses was during his 40 years in the desert. The preacher suggests that Moses may have spent this time in the desert because he was not initially willing to leave Egypt and had to learn that spiritual ends cannot be achieved through fleshly effort. The sermon also touches on the need for revival in churches and the importance of surrendering to the Holy Spirit's leading.

Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths 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, and they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. We welcome you again to the program entitled On Eagle's Wings, a part of church revival ministry, ministry geared to helping the local church and the pastors in the area of revival. Revival, we talk about that, it's not evangelism, but dealing with sin, getting right with God, personally cleansing, seeing God move in in a fresh way. There's emotion involved, but it's not an emotional thing, it's a spiritual thing. And we're here to encourage you, we're here to encourage the pastor, we're here to encourage the church that's preaching the word, that's faithful to the word. And let me challenge you to examine yourself, maybe even the church to sit down and take a close look at yourself, have a spiritual examination to see if everything is right. So often we can get going on our own little path and think that we're right. We've been doing it like this for so long, it must be right. But it might be that something's wrong. Well, we wanted to share some things with you from God's word and some illustrations and an article or two. And so we trust that God will use this to encourage you as you listen to this program, On Eagle's Wings, that you'll learn from God, that I'll learn too. I'm open, I hope you are, to what God has for us. Well, we've been studying from the life of Moses. We've been learning some things about being abandoned to God. And today we want to continue on in the life of Moses, but first I wanted to share an article entitled, Leaven, Christianity Cursed by Those Half-Filled, to sort of give you an idea of the type of thing that we're talking about when we say that the church needs revival, when we're talking about revival. This man that wrote this was a president of one of our seminaries in the country. And I'm glad to see a seminary president writing this, because so many of our schools are turning out preachers and missionaries that have not learned the power of the cross life. But he said, The curse of the 20th century Christianity may well be half-filled churches occupied by half-filled Christians. The majority of even those who gather for worship on the Lord's Day have no intention of following Jesus Christ on a daily, hourly basis. Jesus called his followers to bear much fruit, but many Christians hardly produce a little piddling pile of fruit. We are under mandate to reach the crowds, but we must not forget that the mandate of Christ is to make disciples, not mere converts. It's a good point to remember, to make disciples. And then he shared that the purpose of worship is to bring people to a point of surrender to the will of God. When we genuinely worship, God's going to get a volunteer. Somebody's going to stand and say, Here am I, Lord, send me. Well, these things are pertinent. He went on to say at the same time, God will not reveal himself to those who have sin on their hands and minds. It is only when we come to him with humble and contrite hearts, confessing who we are and who he is, and what our need is, that God will honor us with his presence and glory. Once people are obedient to God, it isn't going to be long until the house is going to be full, full of people who are coming to see what is taking place under the hand of God. End of quote. And I might just add that we're trying to get people to come in, and the early church wasn't trying to get people to come in. They were just getting right with God, receiving Christ as their Savior, doing what God wanted them to do, and then the crowds were coming. They were being drawn. And this is what will happen if we experience revival in our church. We'll see that the unsaved will come. They'll come. We had those that even came in our meetings when we experienced revival back in 85 that just came to get saved. And I don't know how many got saved. We had quite a few. One gal just jumped up right at the invitation. She could hardly wait. She came to get saved, and she said afterwards that she came to get saved. But that was after the Christians came to get right with God. Well, this program on Eagle's Wings, we trust, will be an encouragement to you. We've been trying to teach a little bit every week on the life of Moses, to share with you the teaching of the cross in a practical way in the life of one of God's men. And last week we didn't share too much on Moses, and I thought I'd take a little bit more time this week to share about God's dealing in Moses' life. Moses was abandoned to God, and last time, which I'd ask you this before we closed, I said, why did God keep Moses in the desert forty years? And what did God want to teach him? And we might just pick up today on that, and I'll share some thoughts with you, and then a little bit more on an article from E. M. Bounds on Getting Things from God, a very insightful article. It might be a little bit probing to some of us. But now, in Moses, in Exodus chapter 2, if you want to turn there, in the life of Moses, there's some principles there that are so pertinent to us today. We can see the life of Christ there, and the life of Moses. And we need to remember that when God draws us out into the desert, as God did with Moses, we will either be overcomers in the desert, or we'll be overcome. The Bible says, for whatsoever is born of God, overcome it the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our fate, 1 John 5, 4. Well, why do you suppose God had Moses out there forty years in that desert? Why do you think? Such a long time. Well, there could be all kinds of answers to that. I might just share one thing that God had said in Genesis chapter 15 and verse 13, that Israel would be in captivity four hundred years. And it may be that Moses jumped the gun by about forty years. And so because of that, he had to go out and wait in the desert till God got the timetable right on schedule. You know, we're like that so many times. We'll jump the track, and if we do it too many times, we'll get set aside. It's just like the fellow in the race. If he jumps the gun too many times, then they're going to throw him out of the race. He'll be disqualified. Well, Moses may have just jumped the gun out there in that desert. And he needed that desert experience, though. And so God isn't, his plans aren't all upset. He uses these things in our life to teach us. Moses needed that desert experience so he could learn how to wait and know God. You know, the Bible says in the Psalms 103 7, that he made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Moses was drawn into a deep relationship with God out there. And he may not have thought of it like that, but out in that desert watching sheep, he learned to know God. And so when God revealed himself at the cross, he was not really a stranger to God. He just had never seen him in such a face-to-face encounter as at the burning bush. Now, what was he doing out there in that desert? Well, he was waiting. He may not have thought he was waiting. He may have thought it was all over, that he had ruined it. It was finished. All his hopes and dreams were over. But he was waiting. You know what waiting has to do with? It has to do with patience, and it has to do with temper. And if you're going to lead a whole group of people for 40 years in a desert, they're going to be crying and bellyaching and complaining, and you've got all these problems. You're going to need patience, and you're going to need some control over your temper. Well, I personally believe that if there was an area of besetting sin in the life of Moses, it was his temper. That's what got him in trouble in the first place. He got angry at that Egyptian and killed him. And so God was dealing with him with his temper. And if you want to have some training, why don't you let God stick you out in the desert for 40 years and take care of dumb sheep? Well, he had enough of Egypt's bondage and cruelty, and he didn't like it, and he figured that it was time to move, and he jumped in there, and he tried to do something, and he got himself in trouble. I like what Scripture says about anger. I was thinking about Psalms 37, if you wanted to turn in your Bible there. I never thought about the Scripture's teaching on anger as it is, but Psalms 37, I'd never seen this before until I was going over it again. Psalms 37, there's some verses in there that are really good in the first part about trusting in the Lord. Verse 3, it says, Trust in the Lord. Verse 4 says, Delight thyself also in the Lord. Verse 5, Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Then verse 7 says, Rest in the Lord. So there's trust in the Lord, delight thyself in the Lord, commit thy way unto the Lord, rest in the Lord. And then it says, And wait patiently for him, fret not thyself because of him who prospered in his ways because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. And then verse 8 says, Cease from anger. Cease from anger. If you learn to trust in the Lord and delight in the Lord and commit to the Lord and rest in the Lord, then you'll find that there won't be any room for anger in your life. Are you an angry person? Many husbands beat their wives mentally because of their temper. Maybe even physically. I hope you don't. Or I hope you don't know anybody. But the fact is we know that it does happen. But mental abuse is so many times worse than physical abuse. The scars that are left there, they cut them down. They'll say things, and even say things carelessly about their cooking or the way they look. And they destroy their mate. And they wonder why their marriage is cold and has no meaning to it. This thing of anger can really get you. Well, if you'll come to the cross and let Christ deal with you and cleanse you, you'll seek forgiveness, confess of this sin, and seek to let him be the Lord of your life. Let the Holy Spirit direct you and lead you. Then you'll find that as your spirit filled, you'll have that self-controlling attitude of the Spirit. Moses' weakest areas were to be strengthened in that desert. And so many times God lets something come along our way, and we think it's a terrible thing. But God is only showing us that he is going to draw out of us that flaw. He's going to sand it off. He's going to remove it. And so he uses those trials, those desert experiences, to refine us and to make us more like Christ. Well, Moses had got in trouble with his temper. He'd also made another mistake. He'd presumed that Israel was with him, that they were behind him. He presumed it was time to move out. Have you ever made a mistake presuming? Well, we shouldn't presume or assume anything with God. We need to be careful. Presuming will get us into trouble with people most all the time, but with God, it'll get us in trouble all the time. Don't presume. Many of us presume on God financially. We go out and we buy stuff on credit, we charge it, and we presume that we're going to have the income that we've been having, and we get into trouble. We presume on God, and it's a dangerous thing. Moses presumed that Israel was with him, that they were thinking as he was thinking, and so he made a mistake. Now, waiting. There he was out in that desert. Waiting is not passive inactivity, but waiting is time for praying. It's praying activity. And many times in our churches, our pastors are run ragged because they will not take the time that God has told them to take to wait on him in prayer. Waiting in prayer is work. And so it's not a passive inactivity, it's praying activity. For forty years, Moses watched the mountain of God and waited. Forty years. God, just think about it. I believe that God was out there thundering on that mountain, and one day, he looked up and he saw this fire. Maybe he had seen it before. I don't know, I'm just saying some things here that maybe aren't true, but anyway, forty years out there with God, and then God told him to come on up. His curiosity was working in him, and he was drawn up there. Now, what did God teach him as he waited? I believe he learned some things in that desert as he waited. I believe he learned how insignificant he really was, and how essential God was. He learned that he was nothing. At first he thought he was something, and then he learned that God was something. John 5, 1 John 5, well, excuse me, John 15, verse John 15, 5, Jesus said, I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. God says we can do nothing without him, and we are nothing. And Galatians 2, 20, Paul said, I can do something, but it's only through Christ. He learned that for me to live was Christ. Well, he learned that he was insignificant out there in that desert. Also, I believe he learned that he was proud. You know why I know that? Because of some Scriptures. Proverbs 16, 18 says, Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Well, Moses had a fall, didn't he? Proverbs 11, 2 says, When pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowliest wisdom he experienced shame, didn't he? Luke 14, 11 says, For whosoever exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Well, he was abased, wasn't he? John 4, James 4, 6 says, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. You see, God was even resisting him. I believe he had a proud heart. He thought that he was raised up for that occasion, and he was, but he didn't understand that God was going to do it in a different way than the strength of man. What will 40 years in a desert do for you? Well, I'll tell you what it did for Moses. Numbers 12, 3 says, Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. He developed a Christ-like character. Why do I say that he was like Christ? Because Matthew 11, 29, Jesus says, I am meek and lowly in heart. Meekness is not weakness, it's controlled strength. It speaks of a submitted spirit. Moses learned also something else. He learned to cry out to God, because Exodus 17, 3, in Exodus 17, 3, the Scripture says that the people came crying to Moses. They cried unto him. They said, Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And verse 4 says, And Moses cried unto the Lord. He learned to go to God for help. He learned to turn to God. Well, God has a reason for allowing your trials and deserts. Will we learn our lesson or fail? Will you be an overcomer, or will you be overcome? How about it? Are you willing to leave Egypt? Maybe he wasn't willing to leave Egypt. Maybe he wanted to have all the power and the glamour and everything, and have his Israel liberated and live right there in the land. But God had other plans. Moses had to learn that spiritual ends are never achieved by fleshly effort. And one of the reasons we need revival in our churches today is because of the fleshly efforts that are being made. Iain Bounds shared this article. It was written to pastors, but these thoughts can apply to each Christian in how we speak for Jesus. Just try to listen as I read this to you about getting things from God. It's a little bit hard to read. It's written in a way that's a little bit hard to read. 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It's written in a way that's a little bit hard to read. It's written in a way that's a little been broken down and surrendered to God. This inner life is not a great highway for the transmission of God's message, God's power. Somehow self, and not God, rules in the Holy of Holies. Somewhere, all unconsciousness to Himself, some spiritual non-conductor has touched His inner being, and the Divine Current has been arrested. His inner being has never felt its thorough spiritual bankruptcy, its utter powerlessness. He has never learned to cry out with an ineffable cry of self-despair and self-helplessness till God's power and God's fire comes in and fills, purifies, and empowers. Self-esteem, self-ability, in some pernicious shape, has defamed and violated the temple which should be held sacred for God. Life-giving preaching costs the preacher much, death to self, crucifixion to the world, the travail of his own soul. Crucified preaching only can give life. Crucified preaching can only come from a crucified man. This is what we're talking about in the life of Moses. God is bringing him to the cross, and when we look at the burning bush next time, we're going to focus on the cross. But God is breaking the inner man, that self-will, the pride that is there. He's breaking the man Moses, and when Moses is done, he's meek, he's mild, he's a powerful man in the hand of God. Has God been trying to break you? Has there been something come up in your life that's just devastated your life? Or maybe there's just been a subtle dissatisfaction with life that's creeped in. Whatever it is, let God do what he wants to do in your life with it. Let him continue to make you like Jesus. Let him bend you down, lower, that he might lift you up. The Bible says if we'll humber ourselves, then he will lift us up. Will you let him do what he wants to? You know, God designs things in our lives. He purposes to create us, to make us like the Lord Jesus into his image. If we're a child of his and we've been saved by the blood of the Lamb, he's not going to let you go. You may wander and stray, but he's going to track you down somewhere. He's going to get you. You have been bought by the blood of the Lamb. You can't get away. He's going to complete what he started, being confident of this very thing, that he which had begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You remember, Paul, when the Lord Jesus Christ blinded him on the way to Damascus, he said, It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Have you been kicking against the pricks of the Holy Spirit? Life is hard without the Spirit of God leading and directing. Why don't you give in and let him have his way? Chambers said God called unto him and he said, Here am I, in Exodus 3, 4. When God speaks, many of us are like men in a fog. We give no answer. Moses' reply revealed that he was somewhere. Readiness means a right relationship to God and a knowledge of where we are at present. Now I might stop, I'm reading here from Chambers, and say that Moses was ready. He was brought to the point to where he would listen to God. Will you listen to him? Chambers went on to say, We're so busy telling God where we would like to go. The man or woman who is ready for God in his work is the one who carries off the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea of some great opportunity, something sensational, and when it comes we are quick to cry, Here am I. And whenever Jesus Christ is in the ascendant, we are there, but we are not ready for an obscure duty. Would you be happy if God just buried you off somewhere to have fellowship with him? You may be lying in your bed, flat on your back, and unable to walk or go places, and you're not happy. Would you learn to be content with God? You may be at a job that you're not happy in. Would you just learn to be content with God and stop letting the circumstances of life ruin life itself for you? Chambers went on to say, Readiness for God means that we're ready to do the tiniest little thing or the great big thing. It makes no difference. That preacher I was talking about last time, how God had asked him to give up where he lived, and then God asked him to give up more than that. He began to ask him if he'd be willing to give up his salary. And so he told the church that he wanted to live by faith, that God had been speaking to him about trusting him, and so he gave up his salary. And he'd been receiving a little bit of income from another source, too, and right after he gave up his salary, that income cut off. And it's like God was telling him, Okay, we're going to go all the way on this thing. And there he was, cast on God. And God was sufficient for his need. And God asked him to do other things. God asked him to give up his ministry. He was passionate in the church. He said, Would you give up your ministry, your love of preaching? Would you just give that up for me? And that was a hard one, but he did it. Abandoned to God, or Chambers went on to say, we have no choice in what we want to do. Whatever God's program may be, we're there, ready. When any duty presents itself, we hear God's voice as our Lord heard his Father's voice, and we're ready for it with all the alertness of our love for him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us as his Father did with him. He can put us where he likes, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because the union is that of the Father and himself, that they may be one even as we are. Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A ready person never needs to get ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready when God is called. The burning bush is a symbol of everything that surrounds the ready soul. It is ablaze with the presence of God. We'll look next week at that burning bush, but are you ready for God? Are you ready for him to lift you up? Are you ready for him to minister to you, to meet your need? Will you let him lift you up and bear you on eagle's wings? Will you let him save your soul if you're not saved?