Sermon Preaching at ISA/KESA Chapel on Friday

Sermon Preaching at ISA/KESA Chapel on Friday

Title: A Training for Life
Scripture:
10 He sustained d him in a desert land,
in a howling wilderness waste;
he shielded him, cared for him,
guarded him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
and hovers over its young;
as it spreads its wings, takes them up,
and bears them aloft on its pinions,
12 the LORD alone guided him;
no foreign god was with him.
Deuteronomy 32:10-12

Introduction
It is my privilege to share the word of God to all of you this morning. In fact this is my first time to share the word to you. Please pray for me. May the Lord help me and encourage all of us by His word this morning. Let’s pray.
This morning I would like to use the above passage to meditate with the title “A Loving and Painful Training” All of us have come here to be trained. You and I are in the same boat. We face the same difficulties, we deal with the same problems. Therefore, we share the same feeling and experience as student.
My aim in this sermon is that to encourage all of us to continue with your study and training courageously and confidently in the Lord.
When we talk about training, we think of learning and practicing and acting out. It requires physical trainings, skillful training, and in our context, may be spiritual training. However, training sometimes involves not only at knowledge but also at experience, not only at success but also at failure. Training is wonderful, joyful, and yet very often painful.
The Lord trains us in a very powerful and wonderful way, sometimes we cannot even grasp or imagine. The scripture we read today reveals a very wonderful picture about how God love us, care for us, and train us. That is the picture of a mother eagle taking care of her eaglets. How did God train us in relating with this image? What is this passage about?
First, we need to look at the whole chapter 32 and then verse 10-12.
Deuteronomy 32 is a type of Psalm, or a song by Moses. It was written by Moses before his death. In fact, the song was composed by Jehovah himself. The context of this song was that Israelites at their transitional period. Moses came to his last moment on earth. The term of Moses as the great and powerful leader now is end. Joshua will be the new leader. The first generation had passed away in the desert, the new generation of the Israelites will move in battles with the Canaanites to claim their promised land. Before all these events happen, Moses writes this song for the people.
This song was written for the Israelites to sing, to remind and to encourage them going on with the journey before them. The purposes of this song are first, to remind them how much the Lord has loved them, cared for them, trained them, brought them from Egypt and became a nation; second, to remind them how unfaithful they have been to the Lord. They have tasted the good things from the Lord, yet they rejected Him, their Savior; third, to warn them that the Lord will punish them for what they do. The overall purpose is to appeal them to listen and obey the word of the Law.
Verse 10-12 is the first part. The mother eagle in this song becomes the most powerful and beautiful image for the readers. The LORD compares himself as a mother eagle cares for her eaglets. The Lord is the mother eagle, and the Israelite is the eaglets.
How does this image relate to us today as pastor, theological students? Our training is a wonderful yet it is difficult, suffering and even painful too. You and I may face a lot of problems and difficulties. However, above all, the hope that we have today is that the Lord will surely lead us. V.12
There are four things that the eagle does for her children. I believe the Lord will do for you as we go on our journey. Four C that we may easily remember, you may mark them along as we read from the Text today: They are four verbs Care (v.10), Cause, Catch and Carry (v.11).
(1) Care
The eagle is a symbol used many times in Scripture, in fact, it is mentioned 38 times throughout the Bible. The eagle builds its nest in a safe place, on a very high tree or on the ledge of a sharp cliff. The eagles start their nest with a lot of large sticks, thorns and off and ends to build the base. Next, they get smaller sticks and grasses to it more comfortable, then they pull down and feathers from their own bodies to line the nest for a comfort to the newly hatched chicks.
When the babies are born, both parents assume responsibility for their care. The parents care for the chicks from beginning. They sit on the eggs for one month. The babies came out, they start feeding them with food. Only about 45 days after birth, the baby eagles gain weigh 40 times their birth weight. Food brought into the nest is cut into very small pieces and gently fed into the hungry mouths.
This picture conveys a message that God in the same way has carefully loved us and taken care of us. At times we are just small enough to do nothing but wait for the food provided from God. God prepares everything ready for us to provide for our needs. The spiritual journey with God in this period is wonderful. We ask God, he answers. We cries out, he replies. When enemies try to attack us, he is ready to defense for us. This is how God has done to the people of Israelites. I believe he has done to each and every one of us here.
(2) Cause
The second word we study here is Cause. The baby eagle becomes very big after a short time in the nest. May be because of eating too much. They grow very fast. Now they have become big enough to stand up and move around the nest. The problem is that they cannot stand up because of too fat. The mother eagle now has to cause her children to stand up. First she may use the mouth to kick off. It does not work. What will she do? She flies away and brings back some thorns. She makes them stand up by the thorn. Ough..ama what are you doing? She continues to bring more food and yet with the thorn. The baby cannot understand why? Sitting too long may not good for the legs. The body is big and they need to stand up.
In our journey with God. God will use some thorns to make us stand up. If he pinks us, stand up right away, don’t wait. It is painful. When we are lazy and do not get up for our own sake, God will come after us. May be the nest is so comfort, so good, we don’t want to stand up. The bed is so warm in the morning, cannot get up for prayer...Everything is ready for us, food is ready, we start to complain.
Verse 11 said, like the eagle stirs up his nest. What happen here? The mother eagle knows that it is the right time for the chicks to get out from their comfort zone, to move out of the nest, she takes away all the feathers, all the grasses, there the nest is barely with thorn and odds. Get out of the nest. She stirs up.
The chicks then move out and look around. The mother eagle starts flying and shows the chicks how to fly.
We can get very comfortable in our nest. Perhaps that could be our way of doing things, our ways of thinking, our opinions, our way of living life. Then God comes and Cause us up. He stirs our nest and then we get upset. We don’t identify this as a growing experience. Sometimes we really don’t want to grow. We satisfy with what we have and where we are. But God wants us to get out and fly. He never stirs up our nest without good reason.

(3) Catch
The time for real training comes, the mother eagle will kick the chick off from high. Why? Mother? The baby falls out of the nest and begin heading for the earth below. The legs are good now able to stand but not the wings. Never having used the wings before, he is not sure what to do and just make a lot of flapping. Just before the baby hits the ground, the mother eagle flies underneath in order to ‘catch’ the baby on her powerful wings.
Without being kicked off, and falling into the ground, the chick never learns to fly. God has brought so many lessons for the people of Israelites to learn to grow up in faith. Instead of getting into the promised land 4 years, he lets them do it 40 years. Many times they fails to trust God, punishment came, but he will not let them die, before they hit the ground, he is there to catch them.
Falling is not a good experience. Why do we fall? For we know how to pick ourselves up.
(4) Carry
Finally, the word Carry is so much meaningful here. : The Lord carries them on his pinions. The eagle will not let the chick hit the ground, but she is there to carry them in her wings. Pick the baby up and carry him back to the nest. And take a break, then she will do it again and again. Until the chick now how to use the wings and start to fly and soar by themselves.
The Lord will carry you and I on his wings and never let us hit the ground. You may struggle with the training now. Hebrew and greek may be very difficult for you but God has a purpose in that. I have to study again the subject that I already taken, same professor, same materials, same things.. But I believe there is a purpose, may be I have not mastered it yet. I need to study again.
May be we are struggling with financial stuff. Tuition fee, pocket money, and many others needed expenditure, let us have hope in the Lord that, he will provide enough.
May be we fall in our spiritual life and sin against God. Stand up, come to him. Fix your eye in Jesus, for he is our Saviour and Redeemer.
Conclusion
Up to his point of time, due to the situation of the school and other reasons, I have decided about three times to quit the study. All my theological study program have problems. I don’t have problem with the study itself but external problems. First is about finance then about professors, then now about tutorials. I used to ask myself why are you here and keep facing the problem, just quit and go off. But God is faithful and he wants to kick me off from my comfort zone to see his marvelous work and deeds. He wants me to fly, to grow up and be more matured with him. I decide to continue my study, I don’t know the future, but I believe, the LORD has his will upon our training. I encourage you to find confidence in the LORD in whatever situation you are.
The training that we have now is a loving and yet sometimes painful training. God will not allow anything happen to us without his good reason. The most important verse is verse 12. The LORD alone will lead us. He led the Israelites people, he will lead you and I. Remember these four C, Care, Cause, Catch and Carry. Whenever you do or wherever you go. God will care for you, to a certain time, He will surely cause you up, he will catch you when you are falling, and finally he will carry you up to fly with him.
Therefore, have hope in the LORD and be faithful to him. Look upon him for our strength. Isaiah said, 40:31
“But those who hope in the LORD, will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”