Fly Like an Eagle  

Pastor Tom Hughes

Isaiah 40:31

31 But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

The New King James Version

Whoever said, “It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re trapped in a pen of turkeys had a dim view of their surroundings! It’s easy to blame everyone else for our failure to reach the heights of glory. We all want to have the freedom to fly like an eagle, and soar above the cares and trials of this world. In heaven, we will run and not get tired, walk and not faint, and fly like an eagle high above the earth. Won’t that be absolutely wonderful? The truth of the matter is that if we want this text to become a reality in our lives tomorrow, then we need to live like that today. We need to wait on the Lord, and let him renew our strength. We can’t blame our surroundings for our lack of strength. We must trust God to break the chains of doubt and selfishness that keep us shackled to planet earth. I’d like to talk to you today about one chain cutter, one characteristic of God’s character, that if manifested in our lives, can break the chain of bitterness that often traps us on earth, and pins us to the ground.

That characteristic that can cut the chains that bind us and keep us from experiencing the peace that passes all human understanding. That characteristic is Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a form of compassion, courage, and acceptance all rolled into one. Forgiveness is quite simply, Love. And not just love, but LOVE IN ACTION. Let me illustrate.

Ephesians 4:30-32

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. The New King James Version

Just as God forgives us. What a tall order. Perfect forgiveness. Hmmm. Are we tenderhearted? Kind? Forgiving? Toward all? Everyone? Yes, even that person you absolutely can’t stand in the church? When I was a young man in my teens, I would hear Martin Luther King JR. preach on the radio. I would watch television, and see the conflicts between blacks and southerners and was shocked by the social injustice I saw. Police dogs biting women and children, fire hoses being turned on human beings, and horrible beatings and appalling violence. I was outraged. Then I would hear King preach. “To the black man I say, you must forgive, and win your enemy by Love”. I was flabbergasted. How could they forgive such brutality? Yet he would say “We will win them by our non-violence, by our willingness to endure injustice to demonstrate our love. We will not let their evil acts be a barrier to our relationship”.

His words were like an arrow through my heart. I determined to be one of those people who would love my brother regardless of his skin color. Jesus was speaking to me. I was recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit for the first time. God had been helping me to find him my whole life. Finally at the age of 19, I turned my life over to Jesus, and have never been sorry. How did they do it? Forgive the unforgivable? It was the character of God, at work in humanity. Divinity, poured out into humanity, and helping people to change, to become compassionate and forgiving like God is. Looking at the civil war and some of the divisions that slavery caused you may be tempted to think that reconciliation and love among people so separated would be impossible. That is not the case. The descendents of slaves and southerners are finding forgiveness for one another in the power of the forgiveness and love of God. Here is an interesting account I came across the other day:

Oprah and Billy Graham

*All words in italics are not my words, author unknown

Last year I watched Billy Graham being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on television. Oprah told him that, in her childhood home, she use to watch him preach on a little black and white TV while  sitting on a linoleum floor.

She went on to the tell viewers that in

his lifetime Billy has preached to twenty-million people around the world, not to mention the countless numbers who have heard him whenever his crusades are broadcast.
When she asked if he got nervous before facing a crowd, Billy replied humbly, "No, I don't get nervous before crowds, but I did today before I was going to meet with you." Oprah's show is broadcast to twenty-million people every day. She is comfortable with famous stars and celebrities but seemed in awe of r. Billy Graham. When the interview ended, she told the audience "You don't often see this on my show, but we're going to pray." Then she asked Billy to close in prayer.

The camera panned the studio audience as they bowed their heads and closed their eyes just like in one of his crusades. Oprah sang the first line from the song that is his hallmark "Just as I am, without a plea, " misreading the line and singing off'-key, but her voice was full of emotion and almost cracked.

When Billy stood up after the show, instead of hugging her guest, Oprah's usual custom, she went over and just nestled against him.  Billy wrapped his arm around her and pulled her under his shoulder. She stood in his fatherly embrace with a look of sheer contentment. I once read the book Nestle, Don't Wrestle by Corrie Ten  Boom. The power of nestling was evident on the TV screen that day. Billy Graham was not the least condemning, distant, or hesitant to embrace a public personality who may not fit the evangelistic mold. His grace and courage are sometimes stunning.

In an interview with Hugh Downs, on the 20/20 program, the subject turned to homosexuality. Hugh looked directly at Bill and said, "If you had a homosexual child, would you love him?" Billy didn't miss a beat. He replied with sincerity and gentleness, "Why, I would love that one even more." The title of Billy's autobiography, Just As I Am, says it all. His life goes before him speaking as eloquently as that harming southern drawl for which he is known.

If, when I am eighty years old, my autobiography were to be titled Just As I Am, I wonder how I would live now? Do I have the courage to be me? I'll never be a Billy Graham, the elegant man who draws people to the Lord through a simple one-point message, but I hope to be a person who is real and compassionate and who might draw people to nestle within God's embrace. Any one of us can do that. We may never win any great awards or be named best dressed, most beautiful, most popular, or most revered, but each of us has an arm with which to hold another person, each of us can pull another shoulder under ours, and each of us can invite someone in need to
nestle next to our heart. We can give a pat on the back, a simple compliment, a kiss on the cheek, a thumbs-up sign, We can smile at a stranger, say hello when it’s least expected, send a card of congratulations, take flowers to a sick  neighbor, make a casserole for a new mother, give a high five, say  "I love you" in language your teenager will understand, or back off even when you have a right to take the offensive.

Do you make it a point to speak to a visitor or person who shows up alone at church, buy a hamburger for a homeless man, call your mother on Sunday afternoons, pick daisies with a little girl, or take a fatherless boy to a baseball game? Did anyone ever tell you how beautiful you look when you're looking for what's beautiful in someone else?

Billy complimented Oprah when asked what he was most thankful for; he said, "Salvation given to us in Jesus Christ" then added, and the

way you have made people all over this country aware of the power of being grateful."

When asked his secret of love, being married fifty-four years to the same person, he said, "Ruth and I are happily incompatible."  How unexpected.  We would all live more comfortably with everybody around us if we would find the strength in being grateful and happily incompatible.

Let's take the things that set us apart, that make us different, that cause us to disagree, and make them an occasion to compliment 

each other and be thankful for each other. Let us be big enough to be smaller than our neighbor, spouse, friends, and strangers. Every day, Nestle, don't wrestle! Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship ROM. 12:1 Forgiveness must take place before we can nestle. We have to stop wrestling, and striving for the mastery over others. Stop trying to win at all costs, and just forgive. Be still, and let God help us to understand this truth.

A teacher recently gave me this definition:

What is Forgiveness?

Forgiveness does not mean that we will cease to hurt. The wounds are deep and we may hurt for a very long time. Just because we continue to

experience emotional pain does not mean that we have failed to forgive.

Forgiveness does not mean that we will forget. No, we remember, but m forgiving we no longer use the memory against others.

Forgiveness is not pretending that the offense did not really matter. It did matter, and it does matter, and there is no use pretending otherwise. The offense is real, but when we forgive, the offense no longer controls our behavior.

Forgiveness is not acting as if things are just the same as before the offense. We must face the fact that things will never be the same. By the grace of God they can be a thousand times better, but they will never be the same.

What then is forgiveness?

It is a miracle of grace whereby the offense no longer separates. It means that this offense shall never separate us. Forgiveness means that we will no longer use the offense to drive a wedge between us, hurting and injuring one another.

Forgiveness means that the power of love that holds us together is greater than the power of the offense that separates us. That is forgiveness!

In forgiveness we are releasing our offenders so that they are no longer bound to us. In a very real sense we are freeing them to receive God's grace. We are also inviting our offenders back to the circle of fellowship. Remember God's assurance, which guarantees your acquittal from guilt:

"If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you". (Matt.6:14).

When we refuse to forgive someone, we are bound to that person for the rest of our life. Like the convicts who escaped from the chain gang, shackled together at the ankles, dragging each other along as they run for the train, when we refuse to forgive others their trespasses, we are condemning ourselves to be forever bound to this earth by the chains of hatred and condemnation. Reaping inadvertently upon ourselves that which we desired to inflict upon our adversary

We can never be free, until we let God use his chain cutter upon our hearts. Only Jesus Christ can set us free from anger, malice, bitterness, and unforgiveness, and make us courageous, loving, forgiving people.

We cannot do this in our own strength. We must pray to God to give us the Holy Spirit, and to give us the gift of repentance, and forgiveness. He will place a new heart within us, and cause us to walk in his statutes and do them.

Do we need to pray for God to do this work in us? Do we need to ask forgiveness of those we have hurt and offended? Will we really forgive, or when we bury the hatchet, do we leave the handle sticking out, for future reference? Nobody forgets where they buried the hatchet!

How do we know if we have truly forgiven someone, so we can be assured that God can forgive us?

The Four Promises of Forgiveness:

       (Peacemaker Ministries)

1. I will not think about this incident.
2. I will not bring this incident up and use it against you.
3. I will not talk to others about this incident
4. I will not allow this incident to stand between us or hinder our personal relationship.

We say we forgive, but are we willing to live by these promises? If we constantly thing about it, bring it up, and tell others about it how can it not hinder our relationship? Remember the text:

32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

Jerry Bridges, in his book the Discipline of Grace, noted that it is easy to consent to the primacy of love and yet so difficult to practice it.... In an effort to help him truly understand the concept of love, he stated a couple of verses from the great love chapter, 1 Corinth. 13, as action statements from verses 4 and 5   

Ask yourself how you are doing in your day-to-day practice of Love.... Is there any room for self-righteousness in the light of this practical standard of love?

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and " love covers a multitude of sins."

My son Michael and I were climbing Precipice Rock in Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor Maine, and after about a two hour climb, we reached the top of the mountain, over a hundred feet in the air, looking out over the Atlantic ocean, and I watched an eagle fly high above the clouds. It was an incredible sight. There isn’t that can represent freedom better than a beautiful American eagle soaring through the air.

So may God help us to wait on the Lord. To sit quietly before him, praying that he will give us a new heart, one filled with compassion, courage, and forgiveness. And once we have forgiven, the chains that bind us to our carnal natures, and to the worst in our fellowman, will fall helplessly from our ankles, and we will truly be free, and we will mount up with eagles wings, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint.

Prayer:

“Lord God, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, infill us with your divine nature, converting our souls, and filling us with your Spirit. Make us like you, in character and in actions. Make us kind, tenderhearted and forgiving, as Jesus was. Help us, change us, and transform us we pray,  In Jesus name, Amen, and Amen”.