Playing Your Part in Harmony [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Let me tell you what Jesus did. Jesus came and brought His life into harmony with anyone that would resonate with the Gospel.

Take the simplest, most rudimentary life and make it gorgeous. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in this series called Peacemakers, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. He went and got a master key from the hotel downstairs and he went and he, about 10 o'clock at night, he went with some flowers and he opened up the door to the room and he went in and there was Dr. Gillespie and his wife in bed. In his bed. And so he just froze and there he is standing there in the dark with the flowers and he said, I thought this was Colleen's room.

That didn't help at all. There was some splaining to do after that. I don't know why this story jumped in my mind, but I was thinking back to the time when I was a teenager, my brother Mark was a teenager. And sometimes if we were at a buffet or a salad bar or something like that, we'd get playful with each other, you know, take our tongs and try to knock the salad stuff off the other guy or, you know, get the better pieces of salad, pull something off the other guy's plate on the other side of the salad. And I don't know why it jumped in my mind at this story that one time we were at East Side Calabash.

I don't think that restaurant exists anymore. And, and I'd gotten my food. I was sitting at the salad, I was sitting at the table and Mark came over, his face was red. And I said, and he was so embarrassed and, and he's halfway laughing.

I said, what? He said, well, he said, I've just been up at the salad bar and I thought you were up there. He said, I was plucking stuff off of this guy's plate all the way down, got to the end.

I couldn't see him across the salad bar. And I looked at him like he's a complete stranger. Mark said, I'm sorry, I thought you were my brother. He said, I just thought you were especially friendly.

You don't always know what's going on and, and how quickly a revelation of the truth can turn everything, right? A minister friend of mine went out of seminary to serve a small church in Eastern North Carolina. And after he'd been there a couple of months, he was driving through the little downtown of this small Eastern North Carolina town. And a lady pulled out in front of him and the minister was just in a bad mood that day. And he just laid on the horn at her, laid on the horn. And then he kind of pulled up next to her and he looked and it was little miss Johnson, who was the elderly matriarch of his church. And thankfully she waved at him and assumed that he was just honking the horn because he wanted to wave back.

So he got away with that. But how many times you had this happen, you know, in traffic, this is one of the, why is this like, I can forgive people of huge things, but if you pull in front of me in traffic, hate comes in my heart. And I just, why are we like this? But you know how it feels like somebody is just weaving in and out of traffic, speeding, you know, making the road dangerous. And every time I go, see, that's the kind of person makes the road so much less safe.

You know that feeling. Well, imagine, imagine you're driving down a road and somebody speeds by, they're weaving in and out, they're speeding by, they're weaving in and out. But wonder if then, and you're mad as a hornet, judging them, hating them. And then you find out there's a father who has this three-year-old in the back seat who has just had an acute allergic reaction that has put the child into shock and the breathing has become labored.

If they don't get the hospital within minutes, the child might die. If you found that out, you'd say, let me get out of the way, go right ahead. Or wonder if you saw somebody speeding through weaving in and out and you're just, and all of a sudden you saw blue lights come on in that vehicle and realize it was an unmarked car. And later you found out he was pursuing an escaped murderer and that actually that police officer was serving you and the public by trying to apprehend someone who was a danger to the public. You'd say, oh, okay, that's fine.

Let me give you one more. Imagine you see somebody speeding down, weaving in and out and you pull up next to them and you look and it's Pastor Chris. Oh God, and he just preached 10 good sermons from Thessalonians and you love the guy and you go, well, it's Pastor Chris.

I, okay, that's all right. Because isn't it amazing where there's true love? It's very hard to judge. Where there's true love, you're slow to condemn. It just proves love conquers. And when you have the love of Jesus in your heart, Paul is saying, you don't think of yourself as the know-it-all that knows everything that's going on.

You don't know everything going on. And instead you reserve judgment. But he says something further. He says, you can live in harmony.

Verse 16, live in harmony with one another. The word here actually means to have, be of the same mind. He doesn't mean literally like you think the same thoughts. He's not talking about uniformity of thought. He is saying that there is a way in which there can be a person with this type thought and you can have this thought and it brings a harmony together even though it's not the same.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Prayer. As a Christian, you know it's important and you want to make it a priority. But if you're like most, your prayer life can slip so easily into routine, lacking fervor and passion. Maybe you're wondering, what is the key to praying with real power?

In Ephesians chapter six, the apostle Paul has a clear answer. Pray in the spirit. But what does it mean to pray in the spirit?

Some would say that Paul is referring only to the spiritual gift of a supernatural prayer language. But in Alan Wright's unique series, Praying with Power, Pastor Alan reveals five different ways of praying in the spirit. Discover how praying God's word is praying in the spirit. Learn how to listen to the spirit as you pray. Come to see Jesus as your prayer partner. It's practical.

It's powerful. Get Pastor Alan Wright's Praying with Power and discover the power of praying in the spirit. Change your prayer life and you'll change the world. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album, on a USB thumb drive or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.

Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. So I took piano lessons as a boy about five years and every week had to practice my scales. For five years. And I didn't know why I was even playing the scales. I didn't know why I was doing chords.

I didn't know. I just thought that was a form of torture for piano students. When I got to college I decided to take a music theory course. And in that music theory course I found out it's because God made music.

They didn't tell me that at Carolina. I figured that part out. And that notes go together in certain keys. And that when you are in that key certain notes are harmonious with other notes.

So you can play a C. And a C by itself is fine and dandy. But you can add an E. A different note. It's not the same note but they go together and that's harmony. You can add a G. And you have something with three different notes that's prettier than it was before because of harmony. But you could have two notes. And then add a note that's not harmonic with it. I remember practicing piano pieces at home trying to do them you know. Because we're like that you can add your sound and either contribute to the harmony or to the dissonance. Every conversation we have everything we do.

But what's interesting is that when you take harmony and you get more and more skilled at it, it becomes more and more beautiful. I mean like you can get like, anybody plays the piano in here? Hey is Ben Alan in the room? Ben. Let's hear it for Ben Alan.

I know that Ben's going to be our new tech guy and all our stuff out at King and we're so glad for that. Have a seat right here because you've taken piano lessons before haven't you? Have you played a little bit?

Sometimes. Well okay let's see if you can, remember the thing we did as kids? Why don't you think, you know, just do whatever you can do. Let's see what add to the harmony. That's pretty good Ben. You want to try two hands on your side too? I sound good. Oh I can play it. I've never sounded this good.

Hear it for Ben Alan. Let me tell you what Jesus did. Jesus came and brought His life into harmony with anyone that would resonate with the gospel.

Take the simplest, most rudimentary life and make it gorgeous. Live in harmony. So glad Paul also said if possible so far as it depends on you. Really important because he's saying you can play your part. It doesn't mean you can play somebody else's part. If someone else is just no matter your own attempt to bring harmony to that is going to correct that is it?

But what you can do is in every situation as much depends on you. It's really important that I hear that and maybe to some of you because especially if you've come from a place of brokenness or hurt, rejection or abandonment there can be a temptation and I've had it to feel like I need to fix everybody. Because sometimes where there's strife or there's conflict you feel like if I don't somehow fix this then I'm going to be left alone again. And Jesus wants to say you're never going to be left alone. I'm going to be with you.

As much as is possible so far as depends on you. You live in harmony. And he says not only are you in that sense bringing harmony instead of strife but you can be a blessing. In fact he says you'll end up heaping burning coals on their heads.

What this mysterious image is probably referring to we don't know for sure but probably it was well known that in ancient Egypt there's a practice when someone became repentant for their sins against another human being they would symbolically demonstrate it by carrying a hot tin of burning coals on their head so that what it was is a picture of repentance. If you love someone well Paul saying there's a much greater person that person will have a change of mind. Repent. You know what the scripture says it's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. If you're in a strife filled relationship or situation if you can bless and not curse it means to envision a positive future.

It means no matter how much is wrong with a person you have faith for them to flourish. Then you're being like Jesus who could look at Peter who he knew was going to betray him and say you're not Simon you're Peter which means a rock. Because he'd already seen in the eyes of faith what Peter could be and God treats you that way. God didn't just come in the person of Jesus so he could be with those with whom he disagreed he came in the person of Jesus to bless those who had cursed him. That's how we are saved.

We would not be saved except for a God who blesses those who curse him. And when you practice all of this what you find out is that you will be surprised by the mercies of God. How powerful is the grace of God.

How powerful it is when you instead of judging a person or situation and putting the forecast and the negative in your mind you remain open to the possibilities of what God might do. We had fantastic vacation Bible school all our campuses more kids than ever. I think we had about 250 kids that were registered at this the village campus for vacation Bible school this year. And Crystal Geis who directs our children's ministries our coach for overall our children's ministries overall campus it's just fantastic. And vacation Bible week is you can't even describe how hard that is you know to do all this you can imagine everything that goes into that. I think that we have 80 volunteers or something like that with vacation Bible school and she's recruited them all and everything all of it.

Well this year we added a new ministry at the end of vacation Bible school called start here. And it was after the kids would sing in church on that Sunday after vacation Bible school they were invited to come to a pizza lunch at a meeting called start here which was for any of the students that wanted to start a relationship with Jesus or had interest in learning more about what it is to be a Christian and how to live a Christian life. And so Crystal had prepared this whole curriculum for it she's gotten everything ready for it they'd order pizza they were expecting about 30 kids to come. And you can imagine on top of EBS she's done all this work and then she and her husband Sean and their three boys are all in the room and they're waiting for people to come got all the pizza boxes there nobody came zero.

I've done some things before where zero people came and I tell you what the temptation is the temptation is to go what's wrong with them why didn't they come and I did all this work and all that you know like that. Well Crystal's too noble and positive for that she didn't do all that but bless her heart I know that's hard I got zero and you got pizza for 30 people and sitting in there with your family and what she said was she said you know she said to her family nobody came she said but I might do this again and she said could I just practice what I was going to share in presenting the gospel to the kids before we go and then we need all the pizza we want and they said sure you know. And so she went through her spiel prepared thing on the gospel and and how God died for us in the person of Jesus and how you can receive him through faith and be saved and and she told the whole thing she did her curriculum on that and she said okay now here's the part where I ask if there anybody here that would like to pray to receive Christ and so she said that and their oldest boy Cooper raised his hand.

They had asked him in recent years several times if he was ready to pray to receive Christ and he'd said no but on that day Cooper Geis accepted Christ and was born again. Is that not the greatest story of a failed ministry you've ever heard? You don't know everything and don't be too wise in your own sight. Do not be hasty to judge a situation or others but be open to the mercies of God and you might be astonished at the God who can do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that you would ever ask or imagine. That's the way peacemakers think and that's the gospel. Allen Wright certainly some good news in that message and it's part of our series Peacemakers today's teaching playing your part in harmony.

I encourage you to stay with us Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day for all of us in just a moment prayer as a Christian, you know, it's important and you want to make it a priority. But if you're like most your prayer life can slip so easily into routine lacking fervor and passion. Maybe you're wondering what is the key to praying with real power in Ephesians chapter 6 the Apostle Paul has a clear answer pray in the spirit. But what does it mean to pray in the spirit? Some would say that Paul is referring only to the spiritual gift of a supernatural prayer language, but in Allen Wright's unique series praying with power Pastor Alan reveals five different ways of praying in the spirit discover how praying God's Word is praying in the spirit learn how to listen to the spirit as you pray come to see Jesus as your prayer partner.

It's practical. It's powerful get Pastor Alan Wright's praying with power and discover the power of praying in the spirit change your prayer life and you'll change the world when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today will send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album on a USB thumb drive or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today.

We will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website PastorAllen.org Back here with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day and that's certainly a good note to end on playing your part in harmony.

Good lesson. Well as we have spoken before God came to us when we didn't know how to go to him. God came to bless us when we did not bless him. And this is Paul's invitation practically the outworking of the spirit filled life is that we live in harmony by making decisions to bless even those that aren't blessing us in return. And never to avenge ourselves. Not repaying evil with evil.

Sowing the opposite seed when someone has treated us without kindness we can show kindness to them. So all of this Daniel is an outgrowth of the very way that God has interacted with us. And so when you have God on the inside of you, you have the Holy Spirit within you, this is what the spirit wants to do through us is to live in harmony with one another. And I'm praying for our listeners. I'm praying. I know that this is a difficult time and I know that there's a lot of tension and it's not just out there on social media or in politics.

It's in our very homes. And I pray God will let you know your part in making it more harmonious. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.