In this sermon, the speaker warns against the dangers of self-consciousness, as it can lead to self-pity, which is considered satanic. The example of Judas is given, who was filled with remorse and self-pity after betraying Jesus and ultimately took his own life. The speaker emphasizes the importance of living a life of rest and peace, which is a life of power. The story of the prodigal son is used to illustrate the consequences of rejecting God's authority and seeking fulfillment in worldly desires. The sermon concludes with a call to examine one's life and church, seeking revival and a renewed focus on making disciples and praying for the lost.

Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there's no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increases 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. We welcome you again to On Eagle's Wings. We trust this program will be an encouragement to you, as God leads us today to cover some truths that I trust will be liberating to you. You know, we're living in a day of spiritual warfare, where the intensity can almost be seen. I talk with Christians all the time that are going through battles, and they are experiencing conflicts. Some are experiencing victory, and some are experiencing defeat. I think one of the saddest things is to be, in this day and age, a prodigal son of God. When God is wanting us to advance, you're off out in some pigpen somewhere. And last time we covered cleansing. God cleanses those that are in pigpens, too. There may be someone listening today that has ran from God, and you've ran from God a long time. Back when I was in Bible college, we used to go to the rescue missions and sing a song about running from God. You've been running a long, long time. It would go, without peace of mind, you regret the day you turned away and became a fugitive from God. Sometimes you might think that nobody cares about you. You know, David prayed one time. He said, in Psalms 3112, I am forgotten as a dead man. Out of mind, I'm like a broken vessel. Well, we want to tell you that God loves you, and we trust that this program today will encourage you to come back, if you've wandered, to pray for those that are away from the Lord. Sometimes God has to break us before he can make us. But don't forget that the Bible says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. O God, thou will not despise. Sometimes out of broken things, God makes beautiful things. Broken dreams often crush us, sometimes destroy us. How many times has the young lady had her dreams shattered as the reality set in that her knight in shining armor didn't turn out just like she figured things would? You know, I believe that prodigal son in Luke 15 had dreams of freedom. But when he broke free from the realm of his father's love and authority, he found that his dream had turned into a nightmare. And the lessons of life become pretty hard. And I was just wondering if today, if the Spirit of God couldn't encourage us to come back to him. We need a turning back to him as a body, the body of Christ, and as individuals. You know, life without restraints is like driving in a city without laws. And God's given us the Holy Spirit to restrain us. He's given us the Word to guide us. And when we break his laws and we break loose of his guidelines, we get into trouble. And I believe a lot of our churches in the land today are in trouble. The Bible said in Luke 15, 13, that not many days after the younger son had gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living, he got his way, he went his way, he wasted his substance. You're not wasting your life, I hope. One thing I've never liked to do is waste time. I get in trouble at home a lot of times because I don't want to sit at the table any longer and I have to waiting for a meal. And a lot of times I'll be late. They'll end up waiting for me. But we need God's boundaries. And we don't need to be like the prodigal son. Life outside of the boundaries of authority is dangerous. The Bible says that we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Basically because we need that fellowship and it's dangerous. I've been thinking about sharing some on the area of spiritual warfare. It's dangerous to be outside of the authority of the local church. Even if that local church isn't perfect, you still need the authority. You have a pastor there and the leaders in the church that can pray for you. And that son that ran away from his father, the prodigal son, I really believe that he felt like his father's principles seemed old-fashioned. Many of us may seem like some of the things that are in the churches today are old-fashioned. And it's true, we may have some traditions that are old-fashioned. And one of the problems sometimes is that we establish traditions as truth when all they are is just a tradition. There's a lot of things that we do that are not really scriptural. They're just traditions. Well, the prodigal son found out that his world had turned into a nightmare. And there are some today that are willing to confess and admit that their worlds are nightmares. That their church is in a nightmare. And it doesn't take long sometimes to have our world cave in on us and crush us. Because in Luke 15, 13, he took off. In 14, it says he had already spent all. And then there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want. I believe that we are in a destitute and dry day as far as discipleship. Who is making disciples? I've been personally convinced for many years, for over 20 years, that I should continually be making a disciple somewhere. Making a disciple. That's what the Lord said, going to all the world. He said, we're to teach, we're to preach, we're to baptize, but we're to make disciples. That prodigal son had rejected his father's authority. He ruined his father's reputation. But then in the end, he received his father's forgiveness. The church will never get so low, nor you can get so low either, that you can't be forgiven. There's always room for revival. And our losses can be found again at the cross. The prodigal son lost his money, lost his family. He lost his pride, he lost his security, lost his friends. And in the end, he lost his dream. Well, what forced him back? You know what forced him back? It says that when he came to himself, he saw that he was really destitute and empty. Have you ever looked at your life just to see what's there? Is there much vitality and joy and power? Do you get up in the morning with some excitement in your spirit to watch and see what God's going to do that day? Or is it sort of dry? What about your church? What about your prayer meeting? Is it hum-ho, dry, boring? Do you look forward to praying? Do you have testimonies of God answering prayer, working in people's lives? Are most of the prayer meetings for Aunt Sue's arthritis, or your sore toe? Who's praying for the lost? Whoever isn't is maybe in deep trouble. Well, it was his coming to himself that forced him back. And I believe God works in this way. He ministers to us. Verse 17 says, when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hungry? Who's hungry for God today? Who's hungry for God? He saw nothing in himself, and he said, I'm perishing. He was desperate. And it's the desperate that Jesus is seeking. He said he came to seek and to save the lost. Well, this is all fine, and maybe you're getting bored. But on the other hand, maybe the Spirit of God is saying something to you about your own personal life, or about your church life, or about your ministry. And you're just looking, and you're seeing, as Solomon said, vanity of fanaties. What's the use of all of this? That's how I got into Jesus Christ anyway. I got to looking into my life many years ago, and I saw all the church, churchianity, all the activity and social things. I said, what is all this? I had no love for Jesus. No love for God, just love for self. And you know, just like my little two-year-old, the more of self he gets, the more miserable he is. He's not happy. And we're like that. We're just not happy when we have it our way. Well, the road to repentance and reconciliation is a hard one. And the road sign down that road says, Humility. Humble yourself. And he said, I'll go to my father, and I'll tell him I've sinned, and I'll tell him I'm not worthy. You know, one of the things that we've deceived ourselves, I think, today in the church is to think that our works is really pleasing God. And so much of it is just like the church of Laodicea. We're lukewarm. We make the Lord sick. It's nauseating. Because it's all for ourself. We sing a solo, and we've got to give ourself a hand. If somebody does something, they've got to be praised up one side and down the other. And if they don't get it, they're going to get offended. Leave the church. Well, why'd so-and-so leave the church? Well, they did something for the fellowship, and nobody thanked them. Well, the point is, if you get offended, and you feel bad, you wasn't really doing it for the Lord. You was doing it for yourself. Didn't Jesus talk about some fellows back in the New Testament? About that's all they were going to get. They wanted the appraise of men. And he said, they've got their reward. That's what they wanted. That's all they've got. The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 7, 10, Well, the prodigal son is going to come back to his father, and he's going to say, I've sinned. I've offended you. I've offended God, and I've offended you. That's what sin is. It's an offense. Jesus died on the cross for sin. It's an offense. Our works in the flesh are an offense. Our rebelliousness is an offense to God. He hates it. He wants us to come back in brokenness, as the son did, and in humility, and say, I've sinned against heaven and before thee. It's a terrible thing to be professing to be a godly Christian. But yet, at the same time, your life is full of criticalness, and bitterness, and anger, dishonesty. Self just oozes out, and you're not happy. And you make those around you not happy. You want your own way. You get it, and you're not happy. The cross will take care of that, my friend. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And he's saying, the life that I live is Jesus. That's life. Anything else is death. Anything else is death. Let me ask you a question. Are you home? Or are you in the pig pen? Are you on the way? Are you on your way back? Back to God? We live in a day of rebellion. You know how I know that? Because the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And we have a movement of witchcraft taking over our churches like we've never seen in our day. We need revival. We have music that's calling in demons. One missionary related this story, and maybe you've heard it. How when he was on the field, the natives came and said, How come the youth are calling in the demons? And he said, What do you mean? And he said, Well, that music is calling in the demons. They knew what they was doing. The natives knew what the music was. And what it was was the contemporary Christian music. I'm not saying all of it is, but a lot of it is. We have rebellion in our youth because we have so much witchcraft abounding. We have so many things in our lives, in our homes. We've given place to the devil. I think maybe here in the next few weeks we need to have a little time in the area of spiritual warfare. Many of us are not even in the battle fighting. We've already been taken captive by him at his will. We're not watching and praying. We're not resisting. We're just sliding along. A dangerous place to be. You know, Jesus said, I will give you rest. Let me ask you a question. Do you have rest in your heart? Do you have rest in your home? Do you have rest in your church? Is your home a place of rest? Is your heart a place of rest where the Holy Spirit is at complete peace to work and move about? Scripture says that in Him we live and move and have our being. And basically what this means is that the Lord is directing and leading in our lives. And at your church, is there rest? Or is there a group that meets and there's friction in that group? There's not harmony in that church. That needs to be dealt with. The church can't move forward as long as one link is disengaged. Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, to disrupt it, bring in discontentment, you need to turn to Him at once and ask Him to reestablish that restful state which you received from Him the moment you received Christ. Don't allow anything to remain which is disturbing your rest. You need to take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against and not to allow it. Say, Lord, deal with this, show me what to do. We need to beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue. Because by slow degrees, you know what self-consciousness will do? It will awaken self-pity. And self-pity is satanic. What Judas do? He was filled with remorse, full of self-pity at what he had done. He went out and hanged himself. You need to watch it. The life of rest and peace is a life of power. You know, I like the Psalms where David talks about the times when he would sing songs in the night. He would meditate on his bed. He had a soul that hungered after God. He sought the Lord and he craved the fellowship of the Lord. He wanted to spend time with Him. He loved music. He loved to let the beauty of the harp, and I switched to using the harp a little bit on How Great Thou Art. But he had those songs in the night that he would sing to the Lord. And all the Psalms are so full of the beauty that came out of his heart, the thoughts that God gave for him. He said, It is good for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all Thy works. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Isn't that good? Isn't that beautiful? You know what he said? When I complained, my spirit was overwhelmed. Do you have a complaining spirit? One of the things that's good is to let God minister to us in the night. He said, I commune with my own heart and my spirit but make diligent search. Let Him minister to you. Songs in the night. How the Word of God can minister to us in the night time. Jesus said, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Chambers shared some words on this. He said, When we are in fear, we can do nothing less than pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name should have an understanding confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis, they are the reliable ones. Our trust is in God up to a certain point and then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits end showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world. He seems to be asleep and we don't see anything but breakers ahead. And Jesus says, O ye of little faith. What a pain must have shot through the disciples, missed it again. And what a pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced downright joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him no matter what was ahead. There are stages in life when there is no storm, no crisis. When we do our human best, it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we've been learning to worship God and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we will go to the breaking point and not break in our confidence in Him. Are you at the breaking point? Have you just about had it? Are you ready to resign, throw in the towel, quit, take off, leave town, run away, get a divorce, quit your job? That's the point to where God can work. When the waves are breaking over and you're at the point and Jesus just steps in, He says, Why are you so fearful? O ye of little faith. Where are you at? That's the point to where Jesus can minister to you. Let Him do it. He's waiting to step in and put calm seas in your soul. And this is why we call this program On Eagle's Wings. He can lift you up and He can bear you. He can bear you up on eagle's wings. We need to watch out for a breaking up or dividing of our life with Jesus. We need to beware of, as Chambers said, leakage of the dividing up of your life by the influence of friends or circumstances. Beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately. Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually. The great solution is the simple one. Come unto me. Right now, why don't you just come unto Jesus? Bring your load there. Pray for that friend if you're walking with the Lord and in victory. Pray for your friend that's bearing a heavy load. Come unto me and I will give you rest. Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, Chambers said. And ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against and not to allow. We've shared this before and I say it again because it's so important. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue. Because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity and self-pity is satanic. Self needs to be taken to the cross. Reckon it dead. It was at Calvary that Jesus gave us victory over the self-life. So reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ. And let Him lift you up and bear you on eagles' wings. Let Him be your victory. Well, it's been good to be with you today. There's been a lot of words and some scriptures. And I trust that God was able to use something in your life to encourage you. If you haven't received Christ as your Savior yet, let me just strongly urge you to do so today. Even right now, just in your heart, cry out to God and tell Him that you're a sinner. That you know you're lost and you believe that Jesus died and rose again for you. And ask Him to come in to your life and be your Savior. And then learn to let Him bear you up on eagles' wings. Well, I'm Don Corville. It's been good to be with you today. If I can help you, you write to me. Here at On Eagles' Wings, Box 1100, Webb City, Missouri. And I'd be glad to hear from you, help you out in any way I can. That's On Eagles' Wings, Box 1100, Webb City, Missouri, 64870. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my friend.