Jentezen Franklin - The Blessing Of The Busted Nest
If you have your Bibles, I'm reading from Deuteronomy, the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 31, for just a few moments, "He found them in a desert land and in a wasteland, a hallowing wilderness". And when He was in the wilderness, look what happened. "He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him". Aren't you thankful in your wilderness, He encircles you? He instructs you? He kept you? When you couldn't keep it together, mentally. And you were about to have a breakdown, He kept you. He encircled you. He instructed you. "He kept him as the apple of His eye".
Exodus 32:11: "As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings. So the Lord alone led him", Exodus 32:13 said: "He makes him to ride the heights of the earth", "the high places", the King James says: "To eat the good of the land, to draw honey from the rock". Notice that there's the stirring up of the nest, and then there is the new level of blessing. And I wanna talk to you for a few moments this morning, out of this text that Moses wrote as a sermon to his congregation. And I'm preaching today on, "The Blessing of the Busted Nest".
In Job 29, I want 'em to throw up just the one verse for the sake of time. But he starts describing how that he wished, in Job 29:1, he talks about how that he wished he could go back when he had his family, when he had his wealth, when he had his health, when he had not lost everything. He said, "In that time, I was in my prime, the favor of God shined on me like a light, and on my tent, on my family". Said, "My steps were like butter". My steps were like butter, I just eased into everything. There was no struggle, it was just blessing, blessing. Everything I touched turned to gold. And: "Then I said", Job 29:18: "I said, 'I will die in my nest'", I'll just stay here the rest of my life, and God said, "I heard that, and I'm gonna introduce you, Job, to the blessing of the busted nest".
A nest is a cozy, smug place to rest, to retreat to. It's a nice place to be born in to. It's why birds and other animals build nests, it's to have a safe, secure, wonderful place for their babies to be born in to. But it's in this text, one day, Moses was out in the wilderness. He looks up in the cleft of the rock, or in a high tree, and he sees a mother eagle stirring up the nest. And he sees the eaglets as they're being moved and shuffled around out further, further, further to the edge of the nest, and he grabs a pen, and he begins to write the sermon to Israel. And he said, "As an eagle stirs up the nest, so God will deal with Israel".
The female eagle picks her mate in an interesting way. If you wanna qualify to be her mate, first of all, she's picky, she's choosy about her mate. That would be a great lesson to learn. And she takes a stick, she puts him through a series of tests, and she flies to about 15.000 fee, and she would drop that stick. There, he comes, flying, chasing after her, trying to flirt with her, and she won't have anything to do with him. And she drops the stick, and I could almost see her folding her wings, and looking at him, and all of a sudden, he realizes, "Oh, she wants me to pick that up". And he starts flying down, they can fly up to 200 miles per hour, and he does a nose-dive, and grabs that stick in mid-air, and brings it back to her. She, then, goes down and gets a much larger, it moves from a stick to a log. She picks up a large branch, and flies up not to 15.000 feet, but to about 5.000 feet, and when he comes soaring out there, trying to impress her, she drops the bigger stick at a lower level, and that stick is racing to the bottom, and he has to go even faster. And when he grabs it, it pulls him down, and now, he's breaking a sweat.
Now, it's really getting tough. And just when he thinks that he's finally impressed her, she goes down and basically picks up a small tree, and she flies to about 500 feet, and he looks at her, and she looks at him, and he knows what she's about to do. She drops it. And when she drops it, he, flash, takes off, and goes down, and grabs it. It's pulling him down, he's doing everything he can to not let it crash on the rocks. It's taking all the strength that he has, his talons, his claws are just as strong as they can be, holding on to that huge, huge limb. The question is, what is the lesson you're supposed to learn? And he learns a lesson that all men learn soon, that it's impossible to please a woman, amen.
No. No, let's keep moving. That's not the sermon today. Never enough. But here's the beauty of this. This is so important, catch it now. It's the mother eagle that stirs up the nest where the little eaglets are. But it's the father eagle who circles, and she's testing him to know that when she stirs up the nest and they go tumbling and falling and squawking, about to hit the rocks, that that father eagle is powerful enough, is fast enough, is strong enough to not let 'em fall and ultimately be destroyed.
I wanna preach to somebody today, if you're tumbling and falling and the nest has been busted up, and everything seems like the bottom has fallen out of your life, and you don't know, it looks like the rocks are getting closer and closer. You have a Father who can fly faster than you can fall, and you may fall, but you will not be destroyed. You may be cast down, but you will ultimately find the loving arms of God, grabbing you, rescuing you, and taking you up where you belong, so don't lose heart. He will not let you be destroyed. He will not let you crash. The problem that Moses saw in his congregation, I see in the Body of Christ today, and in our church sometimes. Many have nesting syndrome. A nest just gets to a comfortable place, it speaks of a comfortable place, a place of security. A place where I think I'll just kick back now.
I've seen these nests. I've been to Alaska, and in Canada, and you see these nests. They're huge. And God will bust up your nest to teach you to fly. What seems most cruel can become most beneficial in our life, and if you don't learn that lesson, you'll misunderstand and think that God is a cruel God, but the truth is, when He's going to take you higher, He will bust up your earthly nest. Many Christians have folded wings. They want no change, they want no challenge, they want no risk in their life. I only want security. I only want happiness here on earth. That's it. But you're called to a higher calling, a heavenly calling is on your life, not just an earthly calling.
There's more to life than the house and the car and the comfort and the nest that you build. It's important, and God blesses you with it, and if He's blessed you with it, you ought to be thankful. But don't ever think that's what your life is about, it's not about earthly things, but you have a heavenly calling on your life. And until the eagle starts disturbing the nest, the eaglets will never step out into their potential. You've got a heavenly calling. You've got wings that can lift you above the storm, do you hear me? You're gonna need this sermon. You've got wings that can lift you above the other birds. Our nest gets too nifty, too comfortable.
Some of you are so comfortable in the place you're in right now that you don't even need to read the Bible. You don't even need to pray. You've got all the answers and I'm a self-made man. Like somebody said, "Why'd you make yourself like that"? But I promise you, life has a way of tearing up your little nest, and you're gonna need Him. You're gonna need Him like you've never needed Him, sooner or later.
And then, you'll discover the blessing of the busted nest. Had I not gone through it, had I not suffered... sometimes, we wanna shield our family and shield our children. We don't want 'em to go through nothing, and want for nothing, and lack for nothing. But the thing that made you what you are is what you went through, the hardships and the struggles and the tears and feeling like quitting and giving up. And now, you just wanna give everything to them. You need to hear this preacher. God says, "I'm gonna bust up some of those kid's nests, until they get back on their knees", and they realize that what they were raised in was not a lie. There is a God in heaven, He does have victory for His children, and I cannot make it on my own. I never would've made it if the Lord was not on my side.
Here's something powerful. She doesn't dismantle the nest, she comes twice. She doesn't dismantle the nest, she just makes it uncomfortable by pulling out the fur, pulling out the skin, the animal hides. Now, the twigs are sticking those little eaglets. Because they don't even know that they have two gifts they're not even aware of. Talons or claws, and wings. They don't even know that they have it. You never know that in the soft, luxurious penthouse. Big-screen, laying around, all your clothes, all your stuff laid out. You never know what you've got. You'll never find some of your gifts as long as you're in a place of comfort and ease.
But when she tears that place up, all that's left is sticks, and at that moment, for the first time, those little eaglets take those talons, and they grab hold of the stick, and they learn how to stand. Because that mother eagle understands that we've gotta teach a new generation, that before they can fly, they need to learn how to stand for something. You gotta learn how to stand for morality and stand for character and stand for integrity and stand for the Word of God, even if nobody else is, even if nobody else wanna live it, you learn how to stand all by yourself. 'cause if you don't stand for something, you're gonna fall for anything.
And at some point, if you're gonna ever fly high, you first gotta learn how to take a stand, and say, "Yeah, I'm different. Yeah, I don't have your morals. Yeah, I don't go there, I don't do that. That's who I am, and I stand for some things". Why am I screaming? I don't, I'm not apologize. But I feel this. We got to teach a generation, it's all right to stand all by yourself. I don't have to have your support. I don't have to have you liking me. I don't have to be popular. I don't have to be in your little clique. Me and Jesus is all I need to go to the high places. And I stand for holiness. I stand for righteousness. I stand for the Lord. I'm not ashamed of Him.
You're supposed to fly. You're supposed to be going higher. You're supposed to be growing in the Lord, not sitting in a comfortable nest. "Well, I got baptized back in '53, and back in '73, I gave a special offering, and", you're in a nest of religion.
The thing about the eaglets, when they start falling and tumbling and plummeting, they look foolish. Can I preach a minute? Are you willing to look foolish, or are you just gonna stay comfortable the rest of your life? Some of you young people don't ever take risks, you say no to every challenge, you're not open to change. You just got to... get out of your nest! You will look foolish. Go somewhere. If you're lonely, go somewhere where some people are. Get out of your nest. Just get in their circle and stand there, and act like you know what they're talking, but you gotta get out of your little lonely nest.
And yes, there will always be critics when you jump out of the nest, who will be sitting in the nest. "I know them. They're from my neighborhood. Why are you dreaming like that? Why are you risking like that? You're gonna make a fool out of yourself". It's better to fail trying to fly, than to sit in the nest and die. Say it with me again, "It's better to fail trying to fly than sit in the nest and die". Why sit we here 'til we die? I'm gonna take a chance. I'm gonna get out. I'm gonna use my wings of faith. I know there's more to life than just getting up and paying bills. So, Lord, here I come. I'm coming up higher. I'm ready for the wind to take me where I belong, the high places. Tell somebody besides you, "You don't belong with the other birds".
So let me tell you this. I'm almost done. The eagle is one of the few birds that does not flap. Chickens flap. Notice, the text said the eagle flutters. She's testing and waiting on the wind. She gets on a rock, and she's just waiting to feel the wind. "It's not by might. It's not by power. Oh. I feel that. Oh. Here we go". And then, she flies in circles. May start out small, but the thermal draft gets in that circle, and every time she circles, the circle gets bigger, and it goes higher, and gets bigger, and goes.
If you will learn to wait on the Lord, and seek after the wind, in the upper room, the Holy came like a mighty, rushing wind. And when you feel the Lord leading you to do something, you say, "Here I go". God said your circle of influence will get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Not because you're talented, but because it's not by might, it's not by power, but the Spirit is enlarging my territory, my circle is getting bigger and bigger, and no can keep me out if I'm supposed to be there. The Spirit will make a way.
Job said, "Everything was blessed in my life. I was walking in butter. I had my family, I had my wealth, I was the richest man in the East. I had cattle, silver, gold, more than any man in the East. Beautiful wife, beautiful children, and then I said to myself", listen to it again in Job 29, "I will die in my nest", and God said, "I heard that, and I want to teach people that I am not the God who wants you to settle. Just when you think I've done all I can do in your life, opened all the doors that I can open, blessed you all that I can bless you, once you settle, it disturbs Me", God says. "You get My attention with your lackadaisical, spiritual attitude towards Me". And He says, "If you don't want Me to tear up your nest, you better get out of it".
You better be like Isaiah 40 said: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength". I may need to run to the nest for rest and refuge for a season, but at some point, I gotta get up out of my discouragement, get up out of the divorce, get up out of the bankruptcy, get up out of the depression, get up out of the addiction. At some point, get up out of the past, out of the heartbreak, out of who left you. If somebody left you, it was heaven's vote that you don't need them to fulfill your destiny for the rest of your life. Six billion people on the planet, life doesn't end when one walks out your life.
The nest is when you're totally afraid of change. Totally afraid of taking a chance. Totally afraid of risk. Faith is spelled R-I-S-K. Risk. We build our security, we've even built our little spiritual nest, we've experienced all that we ever planned to get of God, "Cause I'm just happy where I am. I know that Holy Spirit stuff is real, and God bless Franklin Jentezen, and all them over there. But, you know, I just like to sit up here in my nest. I just got my little seat up here. Everybody knows, in this section, that's my seat. Now, leave it alone. And so, I'm just happy like I am". That is, until your nest gets busted up. When your nest gets busted up, you're gonna need more than you had yesterday.
So, He said in Hebrews 12, "Everything that can be shaken will be". God doesn't owe you anything. You owe Him everything. God doesn't owe you anything. Get that in your head. He doesn't owe you a perfect life, sweet, little picture-perfect little family, everything beautiful. "I just thought if I served the Lord, everything", God doesn't owe you anything. Gave His Son. You owe Him everything. So who are you gonna trust in? Some of you think you're in a wonderful little financial nest. You've determined it. Giving, you kinda do it, but I don't really need the Lord's help.
Well, we need Him, because we print paper, God makes gold. You better never forget, if your nest is blessed then you thank God for it. You ought to be the biggest praiser. The biggest praiser ought not to be the person who's about to lose everything and they're really coming after God. The biggest praiser ought to be the person who has the blessed nest. You're in a season of blessed nest. And you make sure you let God know, my joy is not from my nest, my joy is from You. And that's why no matter how much You bless me with, I'm gonna give You the glory, I'm gonna give You the praise, I'm gonna give You the honor.