On Eagles' Wings Pt 146 — Don Courville

Well, it's good to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. I guess you're getting ready for Thanksgiving. Well I am too. I don't know where I'm going to be for Thanksgiving. I was hoping to be in Joplin, Missouri today as I'm recording this on Wednesday.

I don't know for sure if I'm going to make it or not. And the reason for that would be revival. We've been praying in this town for at least the two years I've been here and I know before I got here some men were praying for God to work in this town, to do a deep work.

And as we're going on into the middle of this week right now, we've been seeing God work in a mighty way through a prayer seminar. Revival team has come in here, sort of a low key but a powerful ministry that gets to the cross and gets into your heart and gets into my heart if I'm not right with God.

God is working to show me where it is that I'm wrong with Him. Well let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you that today we can meet together where two or three are gathered together.

You said that you were in the mist and we may be traveling down the road at home getting ready for church or wherever and we're together with Jesus. Father, I pray that you would empower us to live the Spirit-filled life that others might see Jesus.

We understand in your word that in the early church they saw Jesus in the lives of those that had trusted Him. They were crucified Christians. And Father, we confess today that we are cushionized Christians.

We're soft and yellow. We don't have boldness. We're fickle and we don't have faith. We're asking you to bring revival in our land. And Father, we thank you that you love us enough to give us just what we need to bring that revival.

For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, I've been thinking about what I could share with you today in regards to Thanksgiving. I have a couple of different directions to go. One would be in the word of God and the other would be I'd love to take you into the history.

Back our roots way back over to England and how we got to the place where the pilgrims after their first year gave thanks. In the harvest time of the year gave thanks with the Indians. I'd love to take you back through that.

Maybe I will, but not today. God has just burned in my heart how much we need to be giving thanks. We as Christians need to be very thankful. We need to be exhibiting to the world a spirit of thanksgiving, an attitude of thanks.

I want to take you over to the New Testament book and take you into the Gospels. But first I want to build on this and give you a little foundation of why we are to be giving thanks. I've been going over with you the last few weeks in the area of suffering and I intend on continuing on in that and maybe taking you into some deep areas in the area of suffering.

But actually giving thanks is in the neighborhood. It's close enough to where I think that we could get some good points out of it. But first of all I want to build on this foundation and if I can get back here in the doctrinal section probably in Ephesians chapter 5 would be a good spot to start.

Giving Thanks in Every Circumstance

I want to share with you folks today of why we should be giving thanks all the time in every circumstance. Now I know that to some this sounds like weird theology. You might even think it's heresy. But the scripture says that we're to give thanks in everything.

Matter of fact if you're filled with the spirit you're going to be thankful because it says in Ephesians 5, 18, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And actually we show whether or not we believe that God is sovereign by whether or not we do this verse or not. If you go over to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6 it says be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with what?

With thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God. Many of us don't get our prayers answered because we're looking at our problems and we're not gazing at God. We're not focusing on Him. We're focusing on circumstances, problems, people, everything but God and we're not thankful when you do that.

You can't look at the things of this world and the problems and the people around you and all these things that bug you without becoming a murmur and a complainer. It's when we keep our gaze on God. You glance at those things but keep your gaze on God.

This is the philosophy of this revival ministry that's in this town this week is you keep your gaze on God and you just take a glance at these other little things around you. And also over in Colossians chapter 1 on building on our foundation.

Verse 3 Paul said we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. I think that when we're praying for others we should be thankful and even if you don't like them maybe they're doing something.

You know Paul didn't like probably being in a Philippian jail any more than you would like being in a jail sitting there with rats and with dung all around but he gave thanks because he knew that God wanted him there and he didn't like jailers there and guards chained to him probably but he was thankful that he had the opportunity to be there to share Jesus with them.

And those guys you're going to probably get to talk to them someday in heaven if you're saved and ask them what it was like to be chained to the Apostle Paul. And if you look over in verse 8 or start in verse 9 he said for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the Lord into all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto the patient and longsuffering with joyfulness and verse 12 giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life.

Giving thanks is a foundational principle for a victorious Christian life. If you're not giving thanks then you're defeated. There's not victory in your life. If there's one area that you won't give thanks in then you are not surrendered completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Also in look in chapter 2 of Colossians in verse 6 and you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him establishing the faith as you've been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving abounding over in chapter 3 and verse 15 and 13 and that's the peace of God ruling your hearts to which you're also called in one body and be ye thankful.

Man, if you've got a grumbling murmuring attitude you are controlled probably by demons hounding you orchestrating circumstances to control you to use you to be a testimony against Jesus Christ. You say that's pretty heavy stuff.

You better believe it's heavy stuff but it's going on. And I see it happening. And I'm not immune from being attacked and you're not either. Just like Peter was used by Satan, Satan planted a thought in his mind.

He was not thankful for the cross. Jesus turned and looked at Satan and rebuked him. Peter was used and we can be used. And if we're not thankful, we'll become instruments of the enemy. Heavy stuff, that's true.

But it happens. Verse 17, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. If you cannot thank God for the opportunity to do it, if you cannot ask God's blessing and be so grateful that you can do this thing to Him, then there's something wrong in your life.

There's sin. Watch your attitude. Watch your attitude. You go over to chapter 4 and verse 2, Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. If your prayer isn't with thanksgiving, the devil will get in.

He'll get right into your prayer life. If you don't have a thankful heart and a thankful attitude with all praying also for us, He said that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which also I am in bonds.

You know, Paul had many times he wanted to do different things but Satan would hinder him. You look in the doctrinal section, he would tell us how he was under attack. But he just kept giving thanks and praise to God because he knew that God was going to get the victory.

He was going to get through somehow, some way, he was going to win. And 1 Thessalonians 2, 18 is an illustration of that. He said, Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us.

By the way, you pray for us. Pray for me. Pray for my wife and my family that we would not be hindered by Satan from doing what God wants us to do, from getting to where God wants us to get. We're in heavy warfare.

This serity, which will be passed by the time you hear this message, but they're taking the morning to cover in on the area of warfare and this is almost overdone. But if there are those ministering in the area of warfare that know what they're talking about, you'll find the captives would be set free.

They'll be set free. I will be set free. You will be set free from any area where Satan may have bondage, have a hold in our life. Let me share just a couple more passages with you in 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, which would probably be our pivot verse where it says, In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

My friend, that's about as heavy as you can get on this doctrine. In everything. And I notice all the places it says in everything. In everything, where to give thanks, you go back over to Ephesians 5, if you'll allow me to rumble some pages back over here, giving thanks always.

So always and in everything doesn't leave much crack. Matter of fact, the reason it doesn't leave any crack, God didn't intend there to be any cracks in your life, in my life, where the devil can get in.

And if we believe that He's sovereign and that He's working, we'll give thanks in everything. And I'll tell you what, we go through some heavy things. I'm going through probably one of the heaviest areas of testing that I've probably ever gone through or will go through this week.

Looking to see just how big my God is in this situation. It seems like things don't get easier, they get better, but they also get harder. There's more blessing and more power, but also greater testing.

Suffering, Submission, and Flying on Eagles' Wings

If we can go over to maybe one more passage. Maybe 1 Peter 2. I'm going to skip some verses because I want to get back to the Gospels and show you how this works in life. I want to show you how it looks in shoe leather as we go through these things.

In 1 Thessalonians, or excuse me, let's just go to 1 Peter 2. I've shared this with you in the last week or two. But in verse, I'll take off with probably about verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

Can you give God thanks that you are going through some grief and suffering wrongfully, being mistreated? Can you give God thanks for that? It just shows how much you love Him and trust Him if you can.

For what glory is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you take it patiently? But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto where you call because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was gall found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He was suffered, He threatened not, and listen to this, God blessed me one day this week, I was meditating on this passage, what did He do?

But committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. Can you commit it to God? Can you commit that area to God that is such a testing to you right now, such a struggle? Can you give it to God and enter into His rest and be free?

Learn to fly on eagle's wings. Learn to use the turbulent winds of life to lift you up above the strife and the circumstances of the daily grind when things are so hard, and learn to fly on eagle's wings.

Live by the grace of God, the strength of God, and let Him take all your problems and bear them. You know, heaven is a place of gratefulness. I was looking in Revelation chapter 4, how these beasts, these angels, it says in verse 9, and when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne who lived forever and ever, it's a place where we will be eternally grateful, and hell is a place where you will be eternally grouchy, and it will be a very, very miserable place.

If you think it's bad now, you wait till you spend eternity in hell without Jesus, burning, suffering, in pain, willing to die, but you'll already be dead because you refused Jesus Christ's blood that was shed on the cross for your sins.

What a miserable thing it will be to spend eternity without God. J .T. Jeremiah, in Light for Living sometime back, shared about a postman who three months before Christmas opened all the mail to Santa Claus, thousands of requests, he said, from everything from balls to Boeing 747s, and he said after Christmas he only got one postcard of thanks.

What is it? After you get saved and Jesus becomes your Savior, you're so grateful He saved you, but then you go off and forget Him, you're not grateful. Matter of fact, some might even wonder if you really got saved.

You know, the Bible says, this also, He says, know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be, and He names six things, and the seventh thing He says unthankful, eighth thing is unholy.

If your church has a characteristic of being unthankful and unholy, then you do not have the Holy Spirit in control of your church and your services. If your life is characteristic of being ungrateful, unthankful, unholy, then who is the Lord of your life?

It is blasphemy to say that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life and to have an ungrateful attitude towards the very Lord that you say He is your Lord. Let me tell you something. Have you ever noticed how similar the crowds are that follow Jesus to the crowds of our day that go to church?

The Feeding of the Multitudes and Spiritual Dissatisfaction

If you go back over to Mark, I want to show you some things. Mark chapter 6, 33 through 46, and you're familiar with these passages because it has to do with the feeding of the 5 ,000. When He fed the 5 ,000, verse 46, when He had sent them away, He departed into a mountain to pray.

Do you think they were grateful? Do you think that those people were really grateful that Jesus had fed them? Or if you go over to chapter 8 of Mark, flip over to chapter 8, verses 1 through 9. He fed the 4 ,000.

Verse 4, His disciples answered Him from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? Let me say this to you. You can't satisfy the unsaved man with spiritual things. This is why so many in your churches, pastor, are not satisfied because they're not saved.

They're not satisfied with spiritual things. They don't want to pray. That's one of the key ingredients to being a spiritual person is you desire to pray. Everything we do should come out of prayer and through prayer and in prayer.

And where's your prayer meeting? You say, well, we're about ready to drop it because nobody wants to pray. Then that shows you, you don't have a spiritual bunch. And I know what it's like because I've been there too.

As a matter of fact, the first time I pastored a church, my wife and myself were the only ones, my baby, for the first two years that showed up for prayer meeting. And boy, we prayed, God, we're done here.

And because the church was growing, I said, it turned into a social club. Started off with almost nothing and up to 60 in two years, nobody praying. I said, God, we're done unless you bring us some praying people.

And boy, they moved in. And when they moved in, then we began to have some warfare. And when it was all done, we had a praying bunch. We wasn't perfect, but we had a praying bunch. You don't have to be perfect, but you do have to pray.

Let me tell you, in Mark 8, when he fed those 4 ,000, by the way, you can't save the unsaved man with spiritual things and you can't, or you can't satisfy the unsaved man with spiritual things. And you also cannot satisfy the carnal with spiritual things.

The self-seeking Christian. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You have somebody in your church that's supposed to be a spiritual giant, but yet they're not centered in the word of God and focused in the area of prayer.

You've got a phony. Phony baloney. And they'll turn against you. I heard of a great king who became jealous of, he's a Greek king, became jealous of a great blacksmith. And he told him, make me a chain no one can break.

And so the blacksmith did. And the king had them all bound up in it. And our selfish ways, where we're never satisfied, will leave us bound. And if we're bound and in misery and ungrateful and unthankful, we're going to try to bind up others.

Actually become the devil's adversary. Verse 9 of Mark 8, And they had eaten, were about 4 ,000. And then he sent them away. First time he fed them, then he sent them away. Now he's fed them and he sent them away.

Let me ask you again, were they thankful? Are the crowds today thankful for what Jesus has done? I'll tell you how you can tell if we're thankful. We'll be going out telling others about Jesus. If you're thankful that he died for you on the cross, you'll be so grateful.

You'll go and you'll tell them about your wonderful Lord and Savior. And he sent them away. Were they thankful? I don't think so. I'll tell you why. Because Jesus never again fed the multitudes. What was the result of those two miracles?

If you go back over to Mark chapter 6, this is an interesting result. Mark chapter 6 and verse 52. Out of that first one, he ended up with a bunch of hard-hearted disciples. Ungrateful crowds, hard-hearted disciples.

For they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened. You see, they come along again. They went on another little trip with Jesus in the boat. Forgot to take any bread and they got to talking about it.

And Jesus told them, beware of the leaven, the Pharisees. And he got into some spiritual things with them. And another time in this passage right here, he came walking to them on the water. They'd been seeing all these miracles.

He said in 50, be good cheer, it's all right, but don't be afraid. And it says, he went unto them into the ship in the wind seas. And they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves.

They were in unbelief, for their heart was hardened. How many times has Jesus worked in your life and done miracles? Why are you worried about today when you look back over your life and you can't name one day, one time, one place where he ever failed you?

But yet today you're worried about something. Hypocrisy. No wonder I don't get to preach in very many churches. Because we don't like to hear the truth. And we don't like the Word of God to break into our hearts and melt us.

And we don't want to fall before God and say, that's right, God. I'm backslidden. For my whole church is backslidden. The men of God, the prophets of God today that have the fire of God on them can't get into the churches anymore.

And if they do, they won't pay them enough to live. All kinds of wicked things going on. We do not want to hear God. And this is why we're going to see in the next four years what it's like when a country forsakes their God.

Hard-Hearted Disciples and the Rejection of Christ

That's been great. We've forsaken them. And I'm going to share some things with you. I don't know if we've got enough time to go through everything I have. In Mark 8, 17 through 21, you come over there, their hearts were still hard.

This is that first time I was referring to you. They forgot to take bread. And you go down to 21. And he said to them, how is it that you do not understand? Don't you understand what he's trying to say?

Be grateful, be thankful, I'm your God. So he's got hard-hearted disciples, ungrateful crowds. My, what a ministry. Why? Let me ask you this. You look in Mark 8, 22. He came to Bethsaida and they brought a blind man to him.

And you know what he did? He took the man out of town. Why did he take that man out of town? I'll tell you why. He took him out of that town and he healed him. And then he said, don't go back to that town.

I'll tell you why. He was through with Bethsaida. He was through with that town. Let me say it again. Don't go back to the town. He said, I'm through with that town. That was his message. Go somewhere else.

Many times. You see, back in John chapter 6, 14 and 15, after they fed him. You remember the crowd sought Jesus out. They wanted him to feed them. They wanted to make him the king. They had received the meal, but they rejected the master.

And they were going to force him to be the king. In John chapter 6, verse 15, let me tell you. We will not take Jesus and do what we want to with him. He is the king. He is the Lord. And many of us in our lives, that's why we're miserable and ungrateful.

Because we're trying to take Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and king of kings. And make him our little God to serve us. To give us all these things that we want. So we can be selfishly happy. Wickedness in the church today.

And he left them. He departed. It may seem that men are rejecting Jesus. When in reality, he is rejecting them. Because they have rejected him first. Make him a king. Blasphemy. He was already the king.

He was only determining who his subjects were. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. The reason so many are not following Jesus today. They follow their pastor. They follow their church trends.

And they follow this and that. But they're not following the crucified Jesus that rose again the third day. Because they got something in mind for the day. They're not following Jesus. Jesus doesn't have that kind of a crew.

Those that follow him are grateful, unselfish, servants of his. The crowd rejected him and was destroyed. You look at Luke chapter 10, 13 through 16. He tells you what happened to that crowd. And what makes you think that you can keep on rejecting Christ and then get saved when you're ready.

What makes us think in this country we can keep on rejecting him and turning away from his word in this land and not have him judge us? Let me tell you. I personally believe we've had it in America. You can spend all the time you want trying to save America.

But I think we're already gone. I'm spending my time working on the church, serving, reaching out to pastors. I believe America has gone too far. I believe we're going to experience revival in America.

But I believe we lost our country. And we've just seen what's happened at our last election. I just got a knot in my stomach when that happened. What makes us think that God's going to bless America when we're full of blasphemy?

The Syrophoenician Woman and the Crumb of Grace

Let me close up with this if I have time. In Mark chapter 7, verse 24, there's a very interesting little story stuck right in between the 5 ,000 and the 4 ,000. And from thence he rose and went into the border of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid.

For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled. In other words, I've come to minister to Israel. For it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

And he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. Tucked in between the 5 ,000 and the 4 ,000 was a crumb.

Verse 29, For this saying, What was in the saying that would move Jesus to grant her request? The answer is in verse 28, That she, she's saying, Lord, I would be as grateful as a dog under the table just for a crumb of your grace.

9 ,000 fed and dissatisfied, ungrateful people. One little woman looking for a crumb of his grace. And she was ministered to. 9 ,000 more, even more than 9 ,000. Yet this one little lady was so grateful.

Where do you start? Back in 25, She heard of him, she came and she fell at his feet. Have you heard? Is Jesus speaking to you today? Then come to him and fall at his feet. You remember the story about the lepers?

Gratitude, Repentance, and the One Thankful Leper

10 lepers crying out, stood afar off. Luke 17, 10 lepers. And they cried out and Jesus told them to go to the priest. And on the way, you know how the story is. They discovered they were cleansed. And you know how one of them came back to Jesus?

One of them came back to Jesus and he fell at his feet. Luke 17, you know that story, a fantastic story. And when he saw that he was healed, he turned back. And with a loud voice, he fell down. And he gave thanks.

When he saw that his recognition of the source of salvation came from Jesus. That he was healed, that represented the spiritual healing of his sins. He turned back, that represented repentance. He had the loud voice, that was the confession.

And he fell down, that was the representation of the submission of his will. And then he gave thanks. That was the mark of gratitude that Jesus was his Lord, would be his Lord. He loved him. Giving thanks is the expression of love.

And he fell down on his face, at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. You see, it's deeper than us just giving thanks at this time of the year for Thanksgiving. For God blessing our nation.

It's us giving thanks that God has given us life again. The leper had life again. He could go home. And he was so grateful. You know what? In Jesus, he said, where are the nine? And that's where we are today in the church.

Where are the nine? Oh, they're so ungrateful. I'm afraid many will end up in hell among the unthankful. What we have today is candy, what I call candy Christians. Just like the little boy, he had candy friends.

Whenever he had a bag of candy, he had friends. If he had no candy, then he didn't have any friends around. And that's the way we are with Jesus. If he's doing something that we like, oh, we're excited.

But if we don't like it, then we're not thankful. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you. This is the message I have for you today. And basically, it's this in a nutshell.

Jesus Christ is all you need. But when you come to the point to where you can give thanks and everything, then you're saying, he's also all I want. Till next time, God bless you, my friend.