The Peace Brought by Fire [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. He said, you could have coughed in any direction, but you coughed right on me.

He said, I think you did it on purpose. Yeah. You know, I was going to tell you, these are those moments where there's spirit and there's flesh, right? 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 Daniel, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina.

As we get started with today's teaching, it's titled Peace Brought by Fire, and Pastor Alan is joining me. There is a story pretty soon into this teaching that was relayed and preached and it occurred pre-pandemic. And I think it's important to point that out.

Well, it is important. It's a hilarious story, a real story that happened some months before pandemic when I was on an airplane and the passenger, as you'll hear, thought that I had intentionally coughed in his direction. And Daniel, I just thought it was important here at the outset of the program to say, I would have told this story differently if it had been in the middle of pandemic. Of course, I wouldn't have been there without a mask on in the first place.

But we certainly mean in no way to belittle the importance of protecting any time we clear our throat or cough. But it's a funny story. We want to leave it in there. It's pretty delightful and it makes a point. And it's coming. You'll hear that in just a few moments as we get started with today's teaching, Peace Brought by Fire.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? You don't have to judge anybody. You just leave it to God and just love people. That would be so wonderful, wouldn't it? Not have to walk around judging everybody all the time? We're learning about being peacemakers and we're going to come to two vital texts today in the subject of being a peacemaker. We've learned we can disagree with people without being needlessly disagreeable. And we can be like a harmonious note that's added to somebody's life. Everything we do can either be causing needless dissonance or it can add harmony, make somebody's life more beautiful. In this crazy polarized world, we can be instruments of God's peace.

It doesn't mean that we're abandoning truth. We've seen how grace and truth always, always are wed together like word and spirit. And we even looked at a strange text where David was speaking to Uriah and asked him about the peace of the war, which proves that the whole biblical concept of peace is much more than the absence of conflict.

It is the total well-being of a person and of a whole society. And today we're going to come to this subject of judgment because I think that it stands at the heart of everything that's essential about being a peacemaker in this world. But I want to start with a strange text that we'll read and I'm not going to revisit this until the end of the message so I won't forget it, but I'll come back because in it is such good news. So first turn with me to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12 verse 49. And remember it's the Prince of peace who's speaking here. It is the one who said that I came to give you peace, not as the world gives, the one who speaks of a peace that is so beautiful, it passes understanding of Jesus who came to reconcile us to God. He's the one who has these words. So that's what makes them so puzzling. He said in verse 49 of Luke 12, I came to cast fire on the earth and would that it were already kindled.

I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Now listen to how strange this is. He says, you think I've come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on one house there'll be five divided, three against two and so forth.

How strange. I'll come back to it. Luke chapter six, Luke chapter six verse 37. Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it'll be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. I don't think Jesus is of course referring here to final judgment because from the gospel perspective that would be impossible because when you accept Christ, all the judgment of God against you is placed on Jesus and there's no more judgment against you. So you're completely spotless before God. So you don't have to worry that there's going to be some judgment day where He's going to bring back all your sin.

That's not going to happen. So He can't be referencing here something about final judgment where He says forgive and therefore you'll be forgiven. Don't condemn others. Don't have any judgment in your heart because if that were the case, we'd all be lost at judgment day because there are none of us that have a pure heart towards other people. He's talking about our relationships. He's talking about the way life works right now and judgment is like a sowing a seed and it comes right back to you and the more you judge, the more it reaps judgment coming back towards you and it's like good measure pressed down, flowing over the image of like an apron on the lap that it just keeps flowing in.

So it's not text, it's not just, it's not about primarily about giving our money. It's primarily about the dynamics of relating to people in the world and there are not many places where Jesus is so pointed like this but there's like this is very, very, very, very important. Do not judge. I think I might admit, I can't remember if I told this a couple years ago, a few years ago, I was on an airplane and as I was being seated and getting into my seat, I think I sort of cleared my throat like that. Now, I didn't really have a cold or anything but I've sat down in my seat and I had a lot I wanted to do on the plane. I had a sermon I wanted to work on, a lot I wanted to do on this flight. I just wanted peace and quiet.

I was going to get a couple hour flight and I was just going to get a lot done. While we were waiting the taxi out, the man in front of me turned around with just hate in his eyes and said, cover your mouth when you cough. And I thought, well, you know, I mean, I didn't have a big cold or anything. I just kind of, and granted, I probably put my hand in front rather than you ought to put your face down in the crook of your arm, you know, like that. I didn't totally muffle it. I didn't totally do my best covering. But it was, you know, I mean, like what? And I just said, sorry.

Well, I sit and I see, get some reading done. And a moment later, he turned around and he said, and you know what bothers me? He said, you could have coughed in any direction but you coughed right on me.

He said, I think you did it on purpose. Now, you know, I would just tell you, these are those moments where there's spirit and there's flesh, right? And the flesh had some responses to make. And I was thinking about my responses, but I think the Holy Spirit was very generous to me in that moment. Because I saw a headline flash through my mind, a national newspaper headline.

I just literally saw it. Press chain pastor removed from plane after scuffle line. I just thought, all right, Jesus, I'm not, no, I want to get some work done on my sermon. I do not want to fight this man right now. And so I decided to take the approach the scripture recommends, a gentle answer that turn away wrath. And you have to understand that when you apply a proverb like that, that it means that it's generally true, but it's not a guarantee.

It's better to do it this way, but it's not guaranteed. So I chose to give my best apology. I said, I am sorry. I assure you that I did in no way mean to cough in your direction. I sincerely apologize for any way that it seemed to be that case for any offense that I've called. I am quite sorry.

And I will be very careful the remainder of this flight. And he turned around and within a minute, he turned back around and he was angrier than he was before. He said, I don't trust the sincerity of your apology.

And I don't like the look on your face. That's when flesh and spirit again, and headline goes through my head. And that's, that's when I got up out of my seat because I thought this man has got a problem. And he thinks I'm it.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. 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 through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I had to get a flight attendant and say, I know this flight looks very full, but I need a different seat. There's a man who thinks I intentionally coughed on him. And she said, it's very full. And I said, I need another seat and worked it out.

And I just went back and worked on my sermon because guess what? If somebody has got a judgment against you for whatever reason, what are you going to do about it? You can apologize and try to sow an opposite seed, but it just proves the incredible power of a judgment that here's a guy who assumed malice in my heart and beloved, I've got a lot of flaws, but I can to the best of my knowledge assure you, I have never coughed on somebody on purpose. I've done some other bad things, but that's one I hadn't done and don't intend to do. And certainly not a stranger on a plane for no reason, but he had figured me out, hadn't he? The problem is that we all have this tendency and it's tearing us up.

You know, I've noticed such hypocrisy in myself. I've judged two different kinds of people on the highway before. Why is it that driving the car is the hard thing? You're driving down the road on the interstate, you know, going five miles an hour with the speed limit like you should. And here comes somebody flying by going 20 miles over the speed limit, weaving in and out. And you just, it's so hard. You look at them, you're like, I don't know that person at all, but this much I know you're just an idiot.

What a bozo. And just, you know, you're just, you're just, I've got their whole life summed up in my heart right in that moment because there's speed. And then you drive on down the road further and you come upon somebody in the right-hand lane that's going the speed limit, you know, kind of slow. And so you get in the left lane to go past them and there's somebody in the left lane right next to them who's also going the speed limit.

And now you're looking and saying, who is the bozo that's driving the speed limit in the left lane? In other words, I could judge somebody for breaking the law or judge them for keeping the law. The problem is everybody's judging everybody. We got people who can't stand people. And then we got people that can't stand people who can't stand people. We got people hating people and people hating people that hate people and people that hate people that judge people and people judging people that judge people.

Am I telling the truth? It is a problem. I've been studying in this Peacemaker series the problem of polarization in our culture because it's bad.

And I could list for you 15 to 20 different reasons that sociologists and psychologists suggest we become increasingly polarized. But I can sum it up for you. Everybody's judging everybody. And Jesus comes into the midst of this kind of judgmental world.

The one person who's actually in the position to be able to judge because he is morally perfect and infinitely knowledgeable about people. And he says, I came not to condemn but to save. I just want to talk to you about what judgment is, why we do it, and what Jesus has done to set us free.

Because if you can let go of judgmental attitudes and thoughts, you will be free to bless the world. Well, the Bible doesn't give a definition of judgment. Instead, we are to glean from the whole of the scriptures and the things that Jesus says what judgment is.

But let me start with what it's not. To judge, that does not mean that we're not supposed to be discerning. In fact, scriptures over and over invite us to be discerning.

Jesus did. Matthew 7 said, beware of false prophets. So it's important there are some people to beware, who come in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves or recognize them by their fruit. So he's saying, if someone is a prophet, you do need to look at the fruit of their life.

If someone is going on about all the visions they have that they share from God and there's no love in their heart, then it tells you something very important. He's saying, you need to pay attention to that. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

The answer is no. Everything reproduces after its own kind. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, and the diseased tree bears bad fruit. Healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. So to judge doesn't mean that you're not discerning by the Holy Spirit, and it doesn't mean you're not observant of the fruit of people's lives. Listen, God wants you to be wise, and there are people that you'll see in their life, the fruit, and you're not supposed to call bad fruit good. And it might be there are times where it's like, I'm not supposed to partner with that because I see a discerning thing.

There are times, you know, it's like being on a plane. I just need to, it's not my job to sit here and judge this man's life. I don't know this man. All I know, he might just be having a bad day, and he's taking something out on me.

I don't know. All I know is that right now this isn't good fruit, and I don't need to be around it. That's fair, but you don't have to judge. And also to judge, it's not saying that government doesn't have a role in restraining evil.

There's scriptures about that. And it's not also to judge doesn't mean that you can't, in a paradoxical way, let a person sometimes experience the consequences of their sin, of their actions, without judging them. I think that's what we do when we raise our kids. When we discipline, you know, if the child did something that's disobedient, we didn't judge them and say, well, you're just a disobedient fool, and you're never going to amount to anything.

No, we love them, and we actually see a big vision for their life. And so we say, well, this action, there's going to be some consequences to that because we're helping teach you, right? So there's a place where you can have consequences for actions, and yet you still don't judge people. So what is judgment? Well, here's one attempt at a definition that I think is gleaned from the scriptures and from observation of years of pastoral ministry. I'd put it this way, judgment, presumptuous, prideful, generalized condemnation that expects the worst of others.

Let me see if I can just unpack that for you. Presumptuous, by that I mean assessing others not by observing the fruit of their life, but assessing them through unfounded assumptions. You don't have the information, you can't call somebody, you can't lay down the judgment, you didn't have all the evidence.

It was presumptuous. And y'all, the truth is, we got to admit it, we just don't know as much as we think we know. You know, the older I get, and hopefully the wiser I get, the more I know that I don't know. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Those are the wise people in this world.

And especially if there's something that's clouding the issues. Some of you've heard it because it's folklore in my family, but when I was a little boy, we had a strange event on an ominous night. It was a dark and stormy night. I was a little boy in my room, I had the covers pulled up tight and I heard there were strange sounds in the stormy night time air.

Brownie the dog was barking outside. There were sounds of movement in the house, which was unusual for the middle of the night. I knew something was taking place, but it wouldn't be till the next morning that I found out what. In the middle of the night, my mother awoke and she heard sounds downstairs. She awakened my father and said, there's someone downstairs. Wondering if perhaps it was an intruder, he first thought, well, I'll get and see what's going on. Reached over to turn on the lamp and the electricity was off. The commotion downstairs of the company by the dog barking, which was very strange.

Dogs usually slept through the night, no barking. So trembling, my mother called the police to come and said, we believe there's an intruder in our house. Foolishly, for some unknown reason, my father decided to wander downstairs after a few moments with no weapon, maybe a bedroom slipper in his hand. And he realized the intruder by this time had moved into the front yard.

So he slowly opened the front door. And as he did, the police who had already arrived turned on their headlights all at one moment, flooding the front yard with light. And there was my brother David in his underwear getting in the dog.

That was the whole thing. What had happened was it was a stormy night and the power had gone off of the house because power was off in the neighborhood. And the dog had somehow gotten out of the carport where he slept. And the reason he was barking is that the people across the street had gotten a candle and they were walking around their house with the power and the dog saw this candle moving back and forth. And he's barking at the strange sight across the street. My brother David thought he'd be nice and try to get the dog back in. So he just gone down his underwear and was trying to get the dog in. And that's when the police were there.

And my dad's saying, don't shoot, it's my son, he's getting in the dog. And so the story is folklore in our family, reminding us always, sometimes you think you know what's going on, you don't know what's going on. You don't even know what kind of day somebody's had, much less what's in their heart, do you? So discern fruit, but do not be presumptuous, Jesus is saying. Only a person who had perfect knowledge of people could rightly sit in the seat of judge. Well, I also say it's a prideful thing to judge. Pride just simply means believing oneself morally superior and therefore qualified to judge.

We're not morally superior. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. Alan Wright, our good news message today from the teaching peace brought by fire as we're coming in for a landing towards the end of the entire series on peacemakers.

But we've got Alan Wright in the studio here in just a moment sharing a parting good news thought for the day you want to stick around for that. 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 through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Back here with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day. We have one more installment of this series and to conclude on the teaching. But what's today's takeaway? Well, we're talking about ultimately, and we'll get into this tomorrow, the extraordinary way that Jesus took the fire of God's wrath upon himself so that we could have peace. But in order to really understand this, we're starting with understanding how diabolical judgments are and why God is so insistent that we judge not, that we be not judged. And as I've said today, judgment is a presumptuous, prideful, generalized condemnation that expects the worst of others. And Daniel, you know, I think most of our listeners probably have realized this in the course of their lives that what you expect of others is often what you will get.

The way that we interact with friends, family members, strangers on the street or those that persecute us, we get a judgment in our heart and we begin to expect them to act in a certain way and in some unseen way enables them, empowers them, actually leads them towards the very thing we expect them to do and to be. So this is part of the problem of it. It's presumptuous.

It's prideful. And as we'll learn more about tomorrow, the condemnation that expects the worst, it ends up having one answer and that is in Christ. And boy, it's good news. So let's have this be in our hearts, the good news. God did not hold our sin against us. And we, while being wise about those who have sinned against us are called to do likewise. Let's not hold judgment in our heart against others. It is Satan's strategy to try to not only ruin our peace, but to harm others as well. We're learning to forgive and let go of judgments. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.