On Eagles' Wings Pt 60 — Don Courville

Well, it's good to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. I trust the last couple weeks you enjoyed the interview we had with Max Chaney from Black Duck, Minnesota. God is greatly using Max in the area of revival.

Again, I might share with you that this program is geared for revival. We have a burden for our land, a burden to see God move in a great way across our land, and there are some principles that we've been sharing with you over the last year.

We've been on the air since September of 89. Principles of brokenness, confession, being transparent, dealing with root sins, bitterness, anger, lust, dealing with these things, and letting God cleanse us.

We've seen God do a mighty work in certain areas of our country, but what we're praying for is a mighty movement across our land, an awakening. The Lord Jesus Christ is all you need, my friend. He is all you need, period.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith

He's all you need for salvation. He's all you need for life. I was reading a little something in relation to salvation by Oswald Chambers a few minutes ago, and it's talking about being justified freely by his grace in Romans 3 24.

Chambers said the gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls, and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. And I think you understand what I'm saying.

I've experienced this so many times in talking with people. They recognize that they need forgiveness. They need to be saved. They want to go to heaven. It's their desire, but to come to the point to where they are willing to recognize that their own good works will not get them to heaven is hard to swallow.

And that's what he means. It's not palatable. Chambers said there is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. My friend, we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ alone.

The scripture says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, and not of works. And just as you need Jesus Christ alone for salvation, you need Jesus Christ alone to produce the spirit-filled life.

He is life, and if I try to live the Christian life, it doesn't come out. Anything like the life of Jesus Christ. Chambers said, I will give my life to martyrdom, or I will give myself in consecration.

I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner, and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. My friend, I don't know who you are.

I don't care who you are right now. If you have not received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are lost. Whether you're the king of a country, the president of a nation, or the governor of a state, or just a Tom, Dick, or Harry, or Jane, or Sandra, or whoever, you need to be saved by faith.

Not your good works. This is the trick of Satan, to think that you can save yourself, and it's been mixed. If we've seen anything, it's been a mixture of salvation by faith, plus your works. That's not scriptural.

It's by grace alone. We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God. Whatever we get from God, we get by grace. We must either receive it as a gift, or do without it. Chambers says, the greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute.

Until we get there, our Lord is powerless, and what he means, he's powerless to work in our lives. The Lord can do nothing for us, if we think we are sufficient of ourselves. We have to enter into his kingdom through the door of destitution, as long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride, or independence, God cannot do anything for us.

It is only when we get hungry spiritually, that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts the beyond within, and immediately, the beyond has come within.

It rises up to the above, and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives. John 3, 5. This comes from Oswald Chambers in his little booklet, My Utmost for His Highest. What am I saying? I'm saying, make sure that you are saved.

I run into folks all the time that think they're saved, and I myself was like that for many years, but yet, within my heart, I knew there was something that wasn't right, and that something was, I did not have Jesus Christ living there.

Well, I have many things that I'd like to share with you today. It seems like the time goes so fast, and there's so many things to share. Let me encourage you to listen to men that are on the air, on this program even, that are teaching the Word faithfully.

I've been listening to Dr. Stanley lately. Boy, let me encourage you to listen to him. He is beating right on top of the drum. He is right in the middle of the bullseye. You listen to these men, like Dr. McGee, others, John MacArthur, that are teaching the Word.

Some of these men, and the program, Maddox, that comes on this program. You listen to these men. Maddox keeps you informed on what's going on. My friend, we are in serious trouble in our land, and I have purposely not tried to get into covering all of the downfalls and the pitfalls in our land.

God has called me to minister to the church, to work with pastors in churches by way of revival, but our land is in bad condition, and right now we have a war just building up over there in the Mideast.

And by the time this gets to you, I don't know, war may have broke out, but it's not over oil. I believe that it's something else, and I believe that we are being set up for the last days, whatever you want to call it, the New Age Movement, the One World Government, but we are being set up.

We have oil. We've had plenty of oil for years. I have verified proof in my own files that we have oil, and I think most of you will realize that there's something bigger than that. We don't have to put thousands of our young men and women over in a country for oil.

That's not it. But what is God going to do in our land? That's what bothers me. I have a firm conviction that unless we repent and turn back, unless the church of Jesus Christ turns back to God in repentance, we're going to see persecution.

We're going to see maybe a major economic fallout. We're going to be in trouble. What is it? What is it that God is speaking to you about? Let me again encourage you to learn to live by the grace of God.

This program entitled On Eagle's Wings comes out of the cross truths of the scripture that we can live by the power of the spirit of God. Jesus Christ is all you need, but is he all you want? The scripture says, 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. You know, there are several key things that are destroying our churches today. I've covered on some of them like prayer, lack of prayer.

I just spent a day with pastors yesterday, a day of prayer. The first Monday of every month across this land, there are groups of people meeting and praying for revival. And we spent most all the day in prayer.

The Influence of Music and the Rock Beat

But one of the areas that I believe that has not been addressed and has been sort of sidestepped is the area of music. Music, of course, is a beautiful thing. God is the one that created music. But there's another area and another side to this that we are not paying attention to.

And that is that Satan is an angel, a fallen angel of music. And what we're doing in our churches today by letting Satan have his way by compromise and getting in to our churches with music is destroying our churches.

And you may think that I'm beating on a side issue. If I talk about rock music or if I talk about contemporary Christian music, you may think that I am on a side issue. But let me assure you that I am not.

I have seen churches go through revival. God do a mighty work. But because they did not cleanse their church of improper music, they go back to bondage. They go back to the old ways. I have in my hand a small publication.

It's got about 20 pages in it on contemporary Christian music. And it says what the Bible has to say about contemporary Christian music, 10 scriptural reasons why the rock beat is evil in any form. And in this thing, I have many, many testimonies of young people and what the rock has done in their own lives.

Now, why I'm telling you about this is I'm going to offer it to you. It's the first thing that I've really offered on a large scale in this program, because I I'm so busy traveling and moving around. And those of you that have written for stuff know how long sometimes it takes to get something.

Sometimes I'm not back to to Missouri for a couple of months. I do plan on being back down into Missouri somewhere around the the Christmas season, the first of the year. And I say that in case someone would like to have me come and visit with you in your church.

I haven't offered this service too much, letting God lead. But I believe that God is prompting some of you pastors to be desperate enough for revival and you're willing to have help. I didn't even realize back in 85 when God brought revival into my life and my church and this and in the area that I was pastoring, I didn't realize that what I really needed.

But I did pray that God would send revival and he did. And it was a surprise. It was a surprise to me to find out that I was a bitter pastor. But after God broke me, I realized that I was the problem.

And others, God dealt with them and they realized they were the problem, too. But as far as I was concerned, I had to deal with me. Now, this thing, I'm offering it to you. If you'd like to have this publication, 10 Scriptural Reasons Why the Rock Beat is Evil in Any Form, you just write to me.

They give you the address at the beginning and the end on this message. You just write to me and ask for it. And I'm going to have to ask you for at least a donation of five dollars if you want to give more.

Great. We just really we just trust the Lord to keep us going, both for our personal needs and for this program. But I'm going to have to ask you, because I just can't cover it out of my own pocket. If a lot of you write in for this, I'm going to have to ask you at least for a donation of five dollars to cover the the cost of getting the pamphlet to you and getting it mailed to you and everything.

And for those of you that give us gifts, thanks again. We appreciate we appreciate you so much. We appreciate the support that you give to us. And again, we are we're not wanting to beg or ask you for money or anything like that.

But we do appreciate it when you send in. We usually realize that those that are for something will support it and encourage it. So thank you. Now, this is 10 scriptural reasons why the rock beat is evil in any form.

Let me just share a little bit with you on this. I have other things I want to share today. I don't know how the time will go on this. I want to share also a story. I hope we have enough time for this story on revival.

And I plan on sometime in the near future, getting an interview with a man that's experienced revival since last spring. That's since last March in his church and in his town. And that's the reason that I have moved in with this man since he was a personal friend of mine.

I've moved in to back him up and help him out every week. We see people saved. We see lives getting changed, people dealing with sin, marriages being dealt with. It is hot in this part of the country where I'm at right now.

Up in western Nebraska, I'd rather be back home in southwestern Missouri, especially when it gets cold. But I like to be where it's hot spiritually. And we want to help you out back home, too. That's why I say I'm going to be coming back down around the end of the year sometime in there.

And if I can get over and spend a day with you, let me know. Let me give you a definition of rock beat from this pamphlet. And it's a large pamphlet. It's large sheets and about close to 20 pages. If I could get back to the back, yeah, 19 pages.

But here's a definition of rock beat. The rock beat is a dominant and repetitious offbeat which competes with the melody and distracts from the words of a song. The contradictory messages in the beat, the words, the melody, the style of the presentation and the appearance of the musicians all create a subtle confusion in the minds, wills and emotions of the listener.

Which leads them to question the absolute moral standards of God. And this is one thing I preach about, appreciate about Dr. Stanley. He's been hitting in this area on the conscience. Our morals are absolutely going to pot in this country.

We can't trust our consciences anymore as maybe we could maybe 50 years ago because the the input into the mind, the conscience has been so rotten, so off balance, so impure that it's warped. This is why somebody can can do things like they do today.

The Fifth Commandment and Honoring Parents

And there's there's just seemingly no grief. The rock beat deceives youth into violating the Fifth Commandment. This is the first thing of the 10 scriptural reasons. This is number one. The rock beat deceives youth into violating the scriptural the Fifth Commandment.

The Fifth Commandment is this. If you don't remember it, it's honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Exodus 2012. And by the way, the New Testament reaffirms this commandment, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth.

Now, why get into this one? I'll tell you why. Because of the turmoil in the home. The turmoil in the home between parents and their children and the music. Now, there's no question that many parents are strongly opposed to to the rock beat.

And the youth will say, well, you're in the dark ages, but but there those that promote the rock beat are causing actually young people to dishonor their fathers and mothers. There's a section here how the rock beat caused a son to dishonor his parents.

Let me just read this to you. It's from Tim Love, age 18 in Washington. He wrote about four years ago. Our church got a new youth pastor. He began playing Christian rock before meetings and during activities.

He encouraged me to get a copy of a certain tape, which I did, even though my parents forbade me from doing so because I was being home educated. The church youth group was the only significant outside influence in my life.

But that influence was enough to cause me to rebel and wreck my life for the next four years. I then started listening to secular soft rock music, thinking, what's wrong with this? It has less beat than Christian music.

If only I had known what a deceiver Satan is, I would have saved myself a lot of heartache. About seven months ago at a Christian radio station's New Year's Eve party, I was introduced to Christian rap music.

Before that time, I did not listen to rap. But after hearing it there, I began justifying to myself that the beat couldn't be all bad because Christians listen to it and it didn't seem to harm them. What it did to me was cause a complete breakdown in morals, which led directly to my becoming involved in immoral habits and illegal activities.

I was also constantly plagued with violent, unclean thoughts. Since then, I've taken steps to regain the ground given to Satan. And for the first time in years, I have a feeling of complete freedom from the influence of this music.

That was from Tim Love, age 18, in Washington. I might read you another witness, a second witness on how the rock beat leads youth to break the fifth commandment. Lael Albo, who was age 14 in Florida, wrote, I've never been into rock music or even light rock, but lately I believe my standards in music have been going down.

Our family was given two music tapes a while back. They aren't extremely rocky, but the beat in the music is a little off. I've enjoyed those tapes, and when my mother said she really didn't like them, I immediately became defensive.

I realize now that even if those tapes were perfectly fine as far as the beat, if my mother didn't like them, it would be wrong for me to listen to them. There's a child with a sensitive spirit. Let me give you one more witness on this.

It's a third witness on how the rock beat causes youth to rebel against their parents. Fourteen-year-old Sarah Ann Mitchell of California received a booklet entitled Notice of Complaint Against the Unrecognized Enemy in the Church.

And I've got that, too. It's a pamphlet put out also by this publication. This publication is put out by the Institute in Basic Life Principles. It's a special publication. We've been encouraged to get it out to you.

And so that's why we're offering it to you, if you can send us at least a donation of five dollars to help cover the cost. Anyway, Sarah wrote, this booklet contains, well, here's her letter. Dear Pastor, she wrote a letter after reading the other booklet that I mentioned to you, the Complaint Against the Unrecognized Enemy in the Church, about how the Christian rock has damaged her walk with the Lord.

Testimony of Rebellion and Compromise

She wrote to her pastor, and this is what Sarah said. I've been praying for a way to express how I feel about Christian contemporary music to my friends and others. I was so happy to receive this booklet in the mail that I wanted to share it with you.

I want to add my own personal testimony to the many in this booklet. I started listening to Christian contemporary rock music when I was 12. At this time, I was attending a private Christian school, and there my friends all listened to it.

The pressure was great, so I started to listen to some of their tapes once in a while. I became hooked. It may be hard to believe, but that music made me think sensuous thoughts, and the beat made me want to sway and dance like the world.

After this, I started to listen to Christian contemporary music all the time, and even though my parents didn't like it, I got some tapes of my own to listen to. One day, I went to a friend's house, and she had a radio on.

It was on a secular soft rock station. When I got home, I turned my radio to that same station. I listened to it just once in a while, and it sounded just like the Christian contemporary music, except the words were a little different.

Actually, I didn't even listen to the words. And when I started to make these compromises, I started to make other compromises, too, like stopping my daily devotions and listening to music instead of studying.

When I did do my homework, I listened to music, and I cheated on some of my homework so I could have time after school to listen to music. I shut myself up in my room and became secluded so I could listen to it.

At this time, I also began to rebel against my parents, spreading from rebellion in music to rebellion in clothes. Then my dad and mom took me to a basic youth seminar, and there I heard stuff I had never heard before about music, dating, marriage, disloyalty, bitterness, genuine love, and much more.

After that seminar, I started to think about where my life was going. It wasn't going how I wanted it to go, no matter how hard I tried. I knew something was very wrong. And then I went to the advanced seminar, and this cleared it up.

I was going downhill, and only God could pull me up. So I gave it all up to him, and every day he pulls me up a little higher. I have to tell you this, because I want you to know, I'm not just saying that I think Christian contemporary music is bad and is compromising, I know it is.

There's only one way to get out of its addictive clutch, and that is to give it up to God, so please don't let this wolf sneak into the church and kill people unaware. Sarah Ann Mitchell, age 14, Stockton, California, a letter written to her pastor.

She shared this with you, because music has become such a controversial thing in our churches. So if you'd like to have a copy of this, then you send me a donation of $5 or more, and we'll get one out to you as soon as we can.

Revival Through Confession and Reconciliation

Now in the last few moments, I just want to share briefly with you a story on revival, because you can have it in your church, you can have it in your life. Now this one took place in the Solomon Islands back in 1936, and the Solomon Islands were considered pretty savage.

And what happened was the South Seas Evangelical Mission undertook a project to reach these people, and at one point they put in some men in to reach the natives, and they were all murdered. And it was a hard ministry, but the living among these natives was very hard for the missionaries.

They worshipped their ancestral spirits, and they lived in their fear, and it was just a hard, hard feel, as many of them were. But what they did, during one point in time, they decided that they would band together and start praying.

They decided at one point that really the reason that they were not reaching these natives as they could, they come to the conclusion was because of sin in their own lives, as they said. Sin in our own lives was hindering the work of God.

And so they began to pray, and they began to seek God, and they began to confess their sin. They began to deal with their own wrong attitudes, their own rivalry, and their own pride and fear, and their own unbelief, their own unforgiving spirit.

And they began to confess it and get it right. And by making confession and reconciliation, the Spirit of God was freed to work through them and in their area. And they found that they had more power in prayer as a result of that.

They could pray with more confidence. Their lives just became transparent. And just to give you a quick rundown of what happened as a result of that was that revival broke out into that area, which is always the case.

If God's people will get right with him, get right with one another, then revival will break out and the unsaved will get saved. We have seen this over and over again. And what happened? They sent in at the end of their first meeting, they sent in some missionaries into an area and they just planned on being in there a short period of time.

I think it was about three weeks. And when they came in and they preached, they were just overwhelmed at the response that they got. There was about, I think, 150 men and women just all of a sudden they began praying out loud and they began seeking God and confessing their sin.

Conviction of sin just swept over them. They began confessing things that they had done for years before. And it was just a cleansing. And these people got saved and they stayed there for three months as a result of that.

And even the old witch doctor got saved. He used to jump into the hot coals and cackle in a high pitched voice and yell at him and screamed. But he even came to a meeting one time and got saved. And the power of God just was working.

And what happened an hour later after he was saved, he was found standing up before a crowd at a pagan feast, praising God and telling everyone how Jesus Christ had came into his heart. My friend, if you want to see your town reached for Christ, then you seek God.

Just start yourself if you don't have someone else and ask God to work in power. Our time's gone. We're going to have to go. And again, let me encourage you to learn to to fly on eagle's wings, to live by the grace of God.

God's grace is sufficient. Jesus Christ is all you need. If you want to, you can write to me and share with me, share with me a blessing. If you want to share a burden, you write. I'll get the letter.

The mail is forwarded on to me from Web City. So you write and I'll answer you until next time. May God richly bless you, my friend.