Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/murray-mccandless/eagle-flight/
Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse number 6, Do ye thus requite the Lord? O foolish people and unwise, is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many, or generation and generations, and ask thy father, he will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee.
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to their number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land, in a waste and howling wilderness. He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Now verse 11, As an eagle stirreth up her nest and flutterth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings.
We've done a lot of traveling in our ministry this afternoon, and it has been most enjoyable. We've had ministry relative to earth, we've had ministry relative to future days and the time of tribulation, the great tribulation, the millennial days, and then we've been taken into the, into heaven as to the rapture, and then we have just been reminded to, as our responsibility in between the two.
I would like to take this afternoon, I just never really, if this seems a little disjointed, it is, and of all things, whether you're going to go or not going to go in ministry, I can tear a preacher apart, but I'm going to take you on a little eagle flight.
Eagle flight for the remaining minutes of the meetings. I find it very significant that when this dear grand old man, if I could call him that, Moses, brings these people with him to the very end of the road of itself, so to speak, after all these years, he will point them heavenward and remind them of a bird that the Bible speaks a lot about.
It may be good for you to understand the Bible only speaks, we talk about the sparrow many times, Bible only makes, speaks about the sparrow six times. Do you know how many times the Bible speaks about the eagle?
32 times. 32 times in your Bible you read about the eagle. It was one of your founding fathers, Mr. Benjamin Franklin, that actually, now some of you young people know history, us older ones have forgotten except we reread it, but Benjamin Franklin nominated the wild turkey to be the national bird of the country.
But others said, hey, no, no, no, just a minute, we want to vote on this. And they voted out Uncle Ben, and they named what we know to be the eagle today, the bald eagle. I don't know about you, but I would think I'd rather live in a country that had first national bird, the eagle, than the turkey.
So we're going to talk about the eagle for a little while this afternoon. Moses takes these people back, and he takes them over their experience, and how they were found, how they were located. And there's something about eagle character, just as you read those words, what he is discovering, and he finds a member in a hay waste and howling wilderness, and he keeps them as the apple of his eye.
He locates them, he loves them, he lifted them. It's all eagle language. Finally, when he gets down to verse number 11, he says, listen, as the eagle stirreth up her nest and flutterth over her young, spreadeth broad her wings and taketh them, bareth them on her wings.
So the Lord, so the Lord alone did lead him, as there was no strange God with him. I want to think of three very simple things about the eagle today. I mean, they're not so simple. I want to talk today about the mounting of the eagle, the mounting of the eagle.
Remember that's Isaiah chapter 40. The ewes that faint, but they that wait upon the Lord shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Not that I'm going to be able to take much time spending it there, but we will speak a little bit about the mounting of the eagle.
I want to speak about the maturing of the eagle, the maturing of the eagle. I'm going to speak about some days that are just not so pleasant in the life of an eagle. That's the molting of an eagle. Most eagles molt at least once.
Those are not pleasant days, but they're very necessary in the life of an eagle. I am told by what I've read by naturalists that a lion can be trapped in an afternoon. In an afternoon they can capture, they can take a lion.
It takes weeks, weeks to trap an eagle. It is the hardest of wild creation to trap is an eagle. The eagle because of its keen eyesight, just because of its ability to look around and snap that head around to detect, and it's immediate to launch out of the way often escapes those that seek to capture the eagle.
More than that, if you talk to people that work and keep zoos, they will tell you there are certain zoos in this country refuse to keep an eagle. The reason is nobody smiles. They'll come up, people stand back and look at the majestic, just the ability, the strength, and the sleekness of that tiger, and the leopard, the lion and its power.
But pictures are taken of people standing outside of an eagle's cage, and they did everything but weep. As they watched that bird tip and tilt its head, lift its eyes, and look at heights that it felt it would never reach again.
Let's bring this down to this afternoon right here in this conference. Am I speaking to some here today? And you're trapped. You're caught. You remember heights that once you soared in. You remember days when you went out with the gospel, when you went to speak to that neighbor, and the warmth in your soul conveyed to him the need of a Savior.
This afternoon likely maybe you couldn't do that. Something's happened. Something has taken place, and spiritually speaking you have been trapped. You know the hardest thing is? For others to look at you in that situation.
Not in a condemning way, not in a judging way. You see the pity of a man like Samson, the pity of a man like Samson was not really in what he was caught in, but what he could have been. There was a day when he just wasn't like that.
The pity of a man like Eli, please don't get when you're reading about Eli and his sons, and you're reading about the latter part of his life, that's very sad. There had to be better days than that in the life of an Eli.
Am I speaking to someone today and there's really been better days in your life than there is this afternoon? Now listen, you got to be honest. Not with me. Not with me. I want you to be honest with God.
You see the eagle speaking back, you know what the eagle would really, if it was speaking to other birds, in order to say I was born above. I really was. The eagle lives higher than most birds fly. What altitude are you living at, dear brother, today?
Have we not been reminded of that? People that would like to live kind of on the level of a professing world of Christianity at the same type, soar to higher heights, can't do it. Can't do it because you can't lift those trappings.
I remember one time having gospel meetings in Garneville, Iowa. I saw something just visiting down along the Mississippi Valley I'll never forget. It was an eagle. This eagle had part of the carcass of a good-sized piece of carcass from a hog.
I watched as that tremendous bird flapped those wings and beat those corn stalks that were left from combining, trying to lift what it had found to higher ground. Just couldn't do it. What it was trying to lift was dirty, was rotten.
And you know I just looked at that, hey listen, I don't know, I would need to get our friend Mr. Orszak that knew more about this than, forgot more about it than I'll ever know. You know I watched that eagle literally with all its strength lift something that it would feed on that was just so in, just so out of character of the bird.
There's just something about the cleanness of the bird and yet to be feeding on that. Let me ask you today, is your diet taking you to lower ground or taking you to the higher ground? That's already what Moses is reminding these people.
He says remember the days of old. Remember those former days. Listen we can't live in yesterday. Okay I'm not up here today telling you about the wonderful old days because the wonderful old days had their difficulties too.
Brethren had their heartbreaks too. There are difficulties in the assembly too. We have them today. They can come in a different form but the the enemy knows what will split us, what will divide us, what will diminish us, what will keep us weak, what will keep us anything except in eagle character.
More than that, this mighty monarch of the skies, to think of the thing actually being captured, that bird literally can hardly exist in its captivity. They have such a hard time because it just it pants, it longs, it longs for those former days.
How about you today? Well let me speak very personally to you brother. I know it isn't a gospel meeting but as I often say sometimes just as if you and I were the only two in the auditorium. Do you want back to those days?
Do you want back to higher levels than you are right now? Or are you content just to stay at this level? I want you to notice of course what the eagle does. Four things very quickly. It stirreth up her nest, it flutterth over her young, it spreadeth abroad her wings, it taketh them, it beareth them on wings.
Now I'm not going to go into the details of just how she makes her young ones fly and that sort of thing because there's differences of opinion if you read magazines, some information on that and some of you know I'm sure a whole lot more about it than I do.
I'm only going to take from what from what the Word of God gives us. You know it's interesting that when it comes to the nest of the eagle first of all the weather actually purges that nest. Those storms like we had last night are necessary for purging those nests.
We don't like storms in our lives. No we want we reach into the comfort zone. We don't like it when things stir up our nest. You know some of us get a little older you know we're just not as quick as wanting to move.
That's all right for these younger people but we don't want storms in our nest. But God can bring a storm in my nest at this age that I wouldn't have had 30 years ago. Come on let me speak to grandparents here today.
You stood and I stood you likely have and I have stood beside my child our child fighting for his life in a hospital. That bothered me. That concerned me. I was in my 30s at the time. I'm in my 60s today.
You know what I'm talking about. I couldn't bear that to do that with a grandchild. I can't do it. Isn't that something brethren? What is that about us? What we could take then we can't take today. I mean if I get an email at little Oliver they had to rush him to the hospital.
Or they had to take little Carter to the hospital. I can't that would finish the conference meeting. That would be it. Or one of the girls or the grandchildren. But you know those things happen because our nest sometimes becomes a place of complacency.
Now I'm getting ahead of myself I'm going to come back to that. So the weather purges the nest. The working of that eagle actually provides the nest. That nest just doesn't happen to be there. Mr. Sharp yesterday, Brother Gary Sharp, I thought he was going to really steal all my thunder if I was going to go with this.
A sister sent me an email. And of all things she had no idea what I was thinking on coming to the conference. And she sent me a story about an eagle. I wrote her back and I said listen thanks very much but how did you know?
I said I'm thinking of launching that bird tomorrow. And he says if we don't get it tomorrow we'll see you Sunday afternoon. We might make it. And I come Sunday afternoon. I thought no no bird's not going to go today.
But here we are. Now that eagle working provides her nest. She works the labor that goes into it. That's why the Lord Jesus, you remember when he spoke about the birds of the air having a nest? The Son of Man not having where to lay his head?
You see he had no earthly dwelling place. He had no nest in which he was comfortable. There's no place of comfort in this world. He found no place to lay his head. But it is interesting that he would go to Calvary.
He would be the one ultimately to put his hand to the plow and let them plow his back if you don't mind. Go to Calvary to provide for us an eternal home. So not only does that weather purge the nest, the working actually provides it.
But her watching, her keenness, she protects that nest. Well you don't touch that nest. You watch a crow or something just come in the vicinity of that nest. Just watch some daring bird, especially if she has her young, come near that nest.
Could I suggest to you there's a no-fly zone for hundreds of feet around that nest. She protects the nest. That's natural to us. Don't we protect the nest? We provide the nest. We raise children. We have them in our homes.
We have grandchildren now and they come to our homes. Weather purges the nest. Well you know what her wings do? Her wings actually program that nest. Because as much as she loves those little ones, she realizes they're not going to be with me forever.
As much as we love our children, we realize they weren't going to be with us forever. And I don't know. I don't know what shift I was on when ours seemed to leave. But one day I woke up and you looked around and the nest was empty.
That's a common expression, isn't it, amongst us that are older? The nest is empty. And mind you, when the little ones come, it's nice to be a grandparent. And it's nice to just kind of say a grand goodbye at night too.
You go home and make your noises there, you know. This is a little too much. And you know, our children, they all get there and they say, you know, I think they just look around. And I try to, you know, look like nothing's bothering me.
But really I'm watching the clock. I think, you know, I can't wait to get back to the study. When are they going to leave? And then they'll say, you know, something like hey, we got to get out of here.
I can tell dads. Now grandma, she never seems to care. She can hack it forever. What do I mean? All rattled, you see. You know what that old eagle realizes? Not an old eagle. That eagle realizes these young ones have got to go.
You know what she does? She teaches them a direction in life. She gives them something that is going to be a future ability. She knows the instincts in which they were born because she was born with the same.
They are her offsprings. And so there will become a time when, of course, she will stir up that nest. The word that's used for the stirring up of the nest is the opening of the eyes. It's getting the vision.
And so we often speak of, and it's interesting that when the eagle molts, one of the first things it loses is its vision. And yet the stirring up of the nest is that it's time these little ones started to open their eyes, started to get a vision on things.
You know, it's delightful to come to a conference like this and see young Christians. And you can tell. You can tell away those young brethren. And they're gone today, so I'm not just up here needlessly throwing bouquets.
But it was obvious, wasn't it, brethren? There's been some opening of the eyes here. Wouldn't the psalmist say, open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. They've been in this book.
Their eyes have been open. In other words, what has taken place? There's been a stirring up of the nest. In other words, this bird understands. My offsprings were born to soar, not to settle. Not to settle.
I often wondered about a man like Aaron. Different men in the Bible want to leave their sons. What could he leave? You know, they took them up and they stripped them. What could he leave his sons? Priestly garments.
Let me say, brethren, you couldn't leave your sons better. You couldn't. Doesn't matter how many farms or farm you may want to leave to yourself. I'm not decrying that. God bless you for that. I'm sure the boys will appreciate it.
Hope they thank you for it. Hope you're kind to them. Hope you appreciate your boys. Don't take them for granted. But I want to ask you today. I want to challenge my generation today. You've got young ones coming along.
You've left them some priestly garments. I know some of the fathers of those we heard from, some of the fathers here today, they've left priestly garments. You want to leave something for them? Leave them priestly garments.
Do like Aaron did. So, you know, the eagle, she stirs up her nest. You know, it's really a flight training for the student eagle and for earthbound Christians. In other words, this little bird is going to learn that to reach those heights that my parents have reached, it's going to take exercise.
I'll never get it sitting in the nest. And who is it that writes that book that says, even the eagles need a gentle push? Now, that's why some of our younger brethren don't sit near me or kneel near me in a prayer meeting, because sometimes they feel a gentle push.
You know, that's what happened to me. I used to get a gentle push. I don't think they're too gentle. They're gentle now. You can't be too rough with them today. You know, they cry. But in my day, when you stood out in open air down by Port Stanley, and all my high school fellows were going by, and they're standing, and the look on their faces, and Mr. Roy Beckett would come along, and he's only 240 pounds.
I like to say he was a nice, cute 170 pounds, and he just went like this. And I would find myself out in the circle. He had to preach. Do you think you have it tough? You know what Mr. Beckett was doing?
He said, here's a bird here that needs to get on higher ground, needs to get to the higher ground. Now listen, the hardest thing for an eagle to do is to walk. The hardest thing for the eagle to do is to walk.
It lives, it lives its life to soar, and to be carried up in the buoyancy of the air currents, and so on. But you know, it is true. It is true that people need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.
That's the stirring up of the nest. That's the word that is used. That's why when it comes to the, when she's about to feed them, when she's about to feed them, she will stir up that nest. She'll come over that nest and start to stir it up.
Isn't that what happens in John chapter 10? He starts to stir them as the true shepherd. Why? He's going to feed them. And so he starts to stir the nest. He tells them of the dangers of the nest. He tells them there's others watching.
There's the hireling that we've been hearing about, and there's different ones watching that little flock, and they're no friend of that flock. He tells us more than that. John chapter 13, he reminded them of their responsibilities.
They were sitting back, and he says, hey, there's a work to be done here. There's feet washing that needs to take place. Is he not reminding them of that? Absolutely. Instructing them, reminding them.
That's the truth of a conference. It's not that we're coming here with something new today. We're reminding you of truths that have been preached from this conference long before I knew where Waterloo, Iowa was, or Cedar Falls either.
Okay? When you come to John chapter 15, he was stirring them up as to fruit-bearing. He said, you need to bear fruit. He says, you are linked with a vine. You are there for a reason, that there would be fruit in your life.
So there's the stirring up that takes place, even though it may not be comfortable. I want to think of things that the nest can become. The nest can become a place of comfort. Okay? That's the scene of Rephidim.
That takes us back to Exodus chapter 17, reclining places. Reza leans back and says, you know, really? We're delivered now. You know, that tremendous Passover. They could talk about their Passover even without celebrating it.
All they wanted, there was in the past. And so now it's kind of retirement age, and looking for some old place to roost. How are you doing, brother? Sidney Shayward, at 80-some years of age, came up from Venezuela to Vancouver.
The Christians had to get together for them. After years of service, and they bought, I just think of this now, Mrs. Shayward a lovely washer and dryer set. Listen, they said, don't worry about it. We're shipping it down there.
We'll have it hooked up. But you got an automatic washer and dryer. Oh, she thanked the Christians, and you know, she just spoke there in her little humble way, and thank you very much. And then they came over, and they said to, good thing it wasn't me.
I'd likely taken it. In fact, if he didn't want it, I'd likely want to know where it went. And they said, Mr. Shayward, we've got a chair here for you. It's a lovely Lazy Boy chair. I've only got five of them, I think, in my house.
A Lazy Boy chair. He's standing there with a long look on his face. They thought, hey, you don't like the color? They said, Mr. Shayward, is something wrong? He looked at that, you know, he said, I wasn't thinking so much of a Lazy Boy chair as I was thinking about a tent at 85 years of age.
They said, Mr. Shayward, if that's what you want, we'll take this chair back. We'll get you your tent. Absolutely. What's already been said, we salute older brethren that pitched tents before I knew anything about it.
I tell you, some, you know, some wild things can come into your mind, especially me up here. I remember at a Pugwash conference, leaned over to the table, and Brother Paisley said to me, Brother McCandless, he says, I was preaching tents before you were born.
Likely were, Mr. Paisley. Actually, to be honest with you, I don't think he was, but, you know, I just bought it. Oswald McCloud was sitting there, and he leans across, you know, he spoke. He says, Brother Paisley, I pitched tents before you were born.
Well, I want to tell you, you could have shot him. He was just done. But it's lovely to see that, isn't it? Watch out, as the nest becomes just a place of comfort. You see, if it becomes a place of comfort, then you don't want to do anything.
You just want to go where it's convenient. It's just, it's all about you. That's Saul. And the place of comfort soon becomes a place of complacency. And that's something that the senior eagle dreads is a place of complacency.
That's why Peter writes in his second epistle, in the second epistle. And he says, I think that is meet as long as I am this in this tabernacle. In other words, he's coming to the end of the road. He's like a Moses.
He's going to use the same language that I stir you up by putting you in remembrance. That's eagle language. He's borrowing the language of a Moses. And he's reminding those believers as they are scattered.
He said, I'm going to put these things in reminds, I'm going to stir you up. We have been stirred up at this conference. God has stirred my soul, brethren and sisters. I'm sure I speak with many that spoke with me yesterday and have spoke with me today and spoke to others.
Our hearts indeed have been stirred. He says, I stir up your pure mind when you get later in chapter three. But sometimes we become like the bride in the song of songs, chapter five. She says, I sleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, and so on. My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. And she goes on and says, I put off my coat.
How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall I defile them? You know what she had done? She really had closed store for the day. Don't do it, brother. Don't do it. Next customer might be your biggest one.
This is like visiting. Someone's visiting in the afternoon. You know, I look at the watch. I think, you know, it's time I got home. There's one more house to do in the road. And something says, you know, this might be the best one.
Sometimes it has worked that way. Other times it hasn't. Whatever you do, don't go into that comfort zone. Don't go into the complacency. That was the fear that this eagle would have. That's why we have those words.
As the eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young. Notice the activity that's taken place, all by the eagle. Spreadeth her wings abroad, and taketh them, beareth them on her wings. In other words, everything is in the mind, in mind, is for the care, for the better, and the prosperity of that young one.
However, just let me talk, just, I just got a few minutes. I want to talk about the molting of an eagle. There comes a time in that eagle's life when every flight that bird will take, unfortunately, when it lands, will take it to a lower altitude.
Finally, it will find itself down in a valley. They'll often find themselves on a rock. Now, I've read this. I'm giving you information that I have read on the history of eagles. It's a molting process.
And that bird becomes very despondent, very despondent. It just sits there. Doesn't move. Hardly takes any interest in anything flying over. Calcium starts to build up at the beak of the bird. Feathers start to fall out.
Can't soar now. And pretty soon, she starts to lose whatever was beautiful. Starts to lose her feathers. Starts to lose everything you appreciated about it. You know, that bird would starve to death if it wasn't for other eagles that went through the same process.
Other eagles that went through the same process. You know what they do? They will swoop down and have been seen to feed that bird, and to look after it, and to care for it. Just comes into my mind. Let me speak to a young mother here today.
You lost a child, just an infant. I'm speaking personally today. Trip to the graveyard wasn't easy. A lot of people that could try to comfort you weren't there. A lot of people just couldn't come near because they wouldn't know what to say.
But do you know who could comfort you? It's that dear old sister that maybe raised four, five, or six. She lost one. She made the trip to the graveyard. She went and selected the little casket. She bore the bad news to the family.
She maybe propped up her husband when he was ready to topple over. She could sympathize with you. She could feed you. That's why the apostle instructs the mothers in their care. So maybe I'm speaking to someone today, and that really is your experience.
You're in the valley. You don't have to stay there, brother. You don't have to stay there, sister. Make up your choice that your last days are not going to be death in a valley, when you can't make decisions, when you can't see your way out, because there's too many that want to take care of you.
There's too many that remind you, want to remind you what Moses reminded these people of a former days, of an older days, and wants to remind you that there are those that still care, that will flutter over you, that will spread their wings of bond, that will do for you now what you couldn't do for yourself, and pretty soon after that molting stage goes on, new feathers start to come.
That bird will actually knock the calcium off the beak of the other bird. It starts to gain strength, and pretty soon it starts to jump to little higher altitudes, and there's long before the bird is going again.
I don't know how deep your depression is. I don't know how deep the valley is. I don't know how dark it is. I likely am not going through what maybe some of you have gone through today, and are going through just at this moment, but I would just like to encourage you at the close of this conference today to tell you that you can still mount up as wings and as eagles.
Interesting. I haven't got time to go to Isaiah chapter 40. Let me just leave it with you. Who's fainting? The young men. Isn't that interesting? Not the old men. They keep going. That's kind of encouragement to me.
None of you young guys down there. The old fellow, he keeps going, but the young men, they need to soar again. All of us, brethren and sisters, the truth of this, none of us are flying at the altitude we could.
God give us eagle spirit. Send us away from this conference soaring with the eagles. Shall we pray?