Strengthen the Weak Hands
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Isaiah 35:3–4 (NKJV)
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
Weak Hands, Feeble Knees, Fearful Hearts
Weak Hands, Feeble Knees, Fearful Hearts
Life is about work, effort, persistence. It is about being with the ones we love. Accomplishing the Goals God has created us for. To Fulfill our purpose.
Finding the Will Of God for our lives can be sometimes unclear, or unknown. God has a will for all of us, this we know because we are breathing and made in his image.
We know that his will for us is that all men to have a relationship with him, and be born again.
The New King James Version Chapter 17
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
So the great goal of man is to get to heaven, and have eternal life. But this is a summit not all will make.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
By the spring of 1953, the ascent of the world's highest mountain was beginning to seem inevitable. First attempted in 1921 by the British, Everest had repulsed at least ten major expeditions and two lunatic solo attempts. With the 1950 discovery of a southern approach to the mountain in newly opened Nepal, and the first ascent of the treacherous Khumbu Icefall the following year, what would come to be known by the 1990s as the "yellow brick road" to the summit had been identified.
At first it seemed the Swiss would claim the prize. In 1952 a strong Swiss team that included legendary alpinist Raymond Lambert had pioneered the route up the steep Lhotse Face and reached the South Col. From that high, broad saddle, Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay then pushed all the way to 28,210 feet (8,598 meters) on the Southeast Ridge before turning back—probably as high as anyone had ever stood on Earth.
Many people have tried to summit Everest dating back to 1921 and failed. And so have many before us set out to summit to heaven and failed. I want to preach this morning on Standing on the Summit of Heaven.
The New King James Version Chapter 35
3 Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
Beloved if we are going to Stand at the summit of Heaven we must have strong Hands, Firm Knees and a heart of Courage. SO it would make perfect sense for your enemy to go after the very things that will get you to the top.
Your hands speak of the work you do, your grip on life, and what you hold on with. Weak hands are a death sentence for the Rock climber. Weak hands will stop you from working, and making progress.
So the enemy will try to break your grip and your ability to Climb to a higher level in your walk with God. To try to thwart the work that God has put on your heart for ministry. The enemy will try to stop your Growth as a christian
Feeble knees speaks of the Unbalance. The knee is integral to the climb as it will stabilize the body, and one wrong step has claimed the lives of many before us.
This speaks of our resolve in our christian life. A man with feeble knees is surely to slip and fall. your stance is crucial to persevere. Little Doubts about what you are and what God is, and lies about life can get you to have feeble knees.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
This is prevalent in our generation, filled with lies and deceit. If you keep climbing in this state, you are almost sure to fall from the road of grace.
The fearful heart is perhaps worst of all of these symptoms. Speaks of that internal battle that we all face. Fear brings out the worst in Men.
A fearful heart will affect everything you do, it will make you look at the world and life in a distorted lens. How you talk to people, how you pray, how you read the bible, how you work. All throughout scripture, the great conflict of man is between fear and love.
We all battle through these weaknesses and God wants us to fight through this.
Strengthen and confirm
Strengthen and confirm
So it was that three days later Hillary and Tenzing set out for the top. Their pairing was hardly an accident. "It had always been Hunt's intention, if feasible, to include a Sherpa in one of the summit teams, as a way of recognizing their invaluable contribution to the success of these expeditions," Band says. "Tenzing had already proved he had summit potential by his performance the previous year with Lambert.
In fact, he had been at least 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) higher than any of us!" Indeed, Tenzing (who died in 1986) was the most experienced Everest veteran alive, having participated in six previous attempts on the mountain dating all the way back to 1935. (To those who criticize the practice of leading paying clients on Everest, Himalayan Experience founder and longtime Everest guide Russell Brice has a barbed, half-joking response: "You know who the first guided client on Everest was? Ed Hillary.")
But Hillary, too, had proved his worth, seeming to grow stronger as the expedition progressed. Band notes that Hillary had also realized what a powerful team he and Tenzing would make. "During the expedition, with hindsight, one can see that he made a deliberate effort to develop a good partnership with Tenzing," Band says. "It paid off. Hillary and Tenzing were the logical second party for the summit. But this was not determined at the outset, only during the course of the expedition as it evolved."
With an earlier start from a higher camp than Bourdillon and Evans's, Tenzing and Hillary reached the South Summit by 9 a.m. But the difficulties were far from over. After the South Summit, the ridge takes a slight dip before rising abruptly in a rocky spur some 40 feet (12 meters) high just before the true summit. Scraping at the snow with his ax, Hillary chimneyed between the rock pillar and an adjacent ridge of ice to surmount this daunting obstacle, later to be known as the Hillary Step. The pair reached the highest point on Earth at 11:30 a.m. on May 29.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”
God wants us to encourage one another with our lives. To come along side one another and reinforce each other till the end.
17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Build up the hands of those you come across in life so that they will be able to make progress toward heaven. Teachers teach the word of God, Preachers Preach the word of God, Pray for those in need, Give nourishment to the hands that are in need. Correct the hands that are climbing wrong. How can you make impact on the climbing of another?
Confirm the feeble knees. Stand behind others to the extent their own stance will be firm. Unwavering resolve to stand in the face of the Climb to the summit. IF one is doubting, encourage them and make clear what is obscured. And perhaps most importantly how can you make firm the knees of others if you yourself are wavering, we must be firm in our resolve to Follow God.
Speak words to those who are fearful. Fear must be vanquished by the loving words of another to bring to light the love of God in their hearts. Love is the answer and we must live in Gods love.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
God will Come with Recompence
God will Come with Recompence
Most importantly God Will be the one to bring us to the end. The Truth is that you and I cannot do this on our own. It will take the very specific help from God in the time of need to reach the Summit. and We have GOds promise that he will be there every step of the way.
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
When we have feeble knees, fearful hearts and weak hands we must trust GOd. And he will come along side us to help strengthen our hands, encourage our hearts, and confirm our knees to get us to the Top.
This is what Jesus died for, and he will complete the climb with us.
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;