Energized! [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. What happens here is pivotal in world history.

The world changes because of Acts chapter 10, when a Gentile, a non-Jew, receives the Gospel. 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 the series Unlimited, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special author. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Allen Wright. Are you ready for some good news? Yes. God can make anyone clean.

Anyone. No matter the past, no matter behaviors and thoughts, what's happened to someone, God can make anyone, anyone clean. We're in Acts chapter 10. And this is, I know I say this week after week as we go through the book of Acts, but it's not just a pivotal chapter in the book of Acts, not just a pivotal chapter in the Bible, but this chapter and what happens here is pivotal in world history. The world changes because of Acts chapter 10 when a Gentile, a non-Jew receives the gospel. We're going to see something that was inconceivable to Peter and yet the Holy Spirit revealed to him. And thus the power of the gospel fell upon Gentile Christians.

And we're going to pick up reading at verse one. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household. So a centurion was a Roman soldier who had oversight of a hundred troops and he feared God. He loved God of whatever he knew of God. And he gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.

About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God come and say to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror and said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. So that's another image we see in the scripture of prayer, like they would have been familiar, the Jewish people of the incense that the priests would burn at the temple, that it's like it rises.

And you know how you breathe in an aroma and you breathe in that aroma of incense? Well, this is one description of how God receives prayer. That it's like prayer rises like incense and God breathes it in.

It's a beautiful image, isn't it? That your prayers are breathed in by God. This angel of God came and said to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror and said, what is it, Lord? And he said, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God, verse one, and he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God, verse five, and now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who's called Peter.

He's lodging with Simon, a tanner whose house is by the sea. And when the angel who spoke to him departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him. And having related everything to him, he sent them to Joppa. Well, the next day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went to pray. So it's noon and he's gone up to a rooftop, which is in many Middle Eastern houses, that rooftop would be flat.

And it was part of their, what we call outdoor living space. And he became hungry and wanted to eat. And while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance. And he saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending. Some have said that maybe this word conveys like a great sail of a ship.

So a sail or a sheet descending being let down by its four corners upon the earth. And in it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air, all kinds. And there came a voice to him, rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said by no means Lord, for I've never eaten anything that is common or unclean. So as we'll talk about today, this sheet was full of all these ceremonially unclean animals, laws from Leviticus that said you're not supposed to eat these animals. And here this voice said, rise Peter, kill and eat. Peter said by no means I've never eaten anything that's common or unclean. So common is just another word for unclean.

And the voice came to him again a second time. What God has made clean, do not call common. Now that verse 15 is going to be our focal point today.

What God has made clean, do not call common. This happened three times. So it was something that a vision that I guess God just wanted to get it through to Peter.

So it gave it to him three times, same thing. And sometimes God will do that because he just so wants you to understand something. You ever have that happen where people come to me so often, they'll say, pastor, I cannot believe what you preached about today, because that was the very thing I was studying in my quiet time this morning on the way to church. Or that was the very thing that I heard another preacher speak about this week. Or I heard the same thing twice. And then I had a conversation with somebody and then I came and you preach this. Well, what's God doing? Well, he said, I want to get this through to you.

So it happened three, it happened three times. It was taken up to heaven verse 17. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he'd seen might mean behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, behold, three men are looking for you.

Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation for I have sent them. So here comes another vision from the Holy Spirit. So God is giving two different men visions and instructing them.

This is how God's able to get what he wants done. In verse 20, rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation for I've sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you're looking for.

What is the reason for your coming? And they said, Cornelius, a centurion and upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say. So he invited them in to be his guests. And the next day he rose and went away with them.

And some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied them. Oh, we'll stop there. This is really in some ways part one of two messages. We'll come back to this text next week. What's the best bath you ever had? I mean, I'm not talking about like you went to some fancy spa and had some, you know, I'm talking about like when was a time you just felt like, I can't wait to get a shower. And then you got, I was trying to think this week, what were the, what was the best and a couple of instances came to mind. One was, I remember what it felt like to get in a cool shower after the late August three hour soccer practices we had in high school.

I would come home sweating for three hours and always something was a little bloodied and something was muddy by that time caked on in the middle of the sweat. And I can just remember the feeling of just getting out of that drenched soccer outfit and just stepping into a cool shower and just, oh, it felt so good. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Need some inspiration and practical help to bless those you love in conjunction with the exciting release of Pastor Alan's new book, the power to bless. We put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love. The tool kit includes an audio message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing. Also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly as blessings. The blessing scriptures are categorized so you can easily access them for specific situations. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

The resources are available for immediate digital download or available in CD and booklet. Partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. 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. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Another, some reason this popped into my mind when I was a teenager, I used to work at the tennis courts and one summer they used some of us teenagers as the labor in resurfacing the soft courts we call composition. It is kind of what you might think of sort of like a more clay like surface to a court and then it has a sandy dusty granular surface on it and we call composition and it's kind of green and grayish and it had it's sort of dusty and has sort of a sandiness to it. That's what that's what it and so all day long we would shovel that stuff into wheelbarrows and then you know move the wheelbarrows in a 95 degree sun all day and take it wherever they said we need to take it dump it and go and shovel up another one and by the end of the day the sweat all the sweat and then that dusty gray green stuff is just all over you by the end of day I look like a junior hulk you know just a green little man and I remember going home and just the just to feel the shower just get that stuff off me that was a good one but by far and away far and away I'm sure the best shower I ever had was after a trip of a lifetime uh that some of you've heard me tell about before that my daughter Abby and I got to go and be part of a bible dedication service at a little island off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea where Jeff and sissy dejourness had spent 27 years learning the language of this people and living this little island that had no electricity no running water no transportation no medical care it was like a step back into some prehistoric time they had they had nothing but it's a beautiful island um we're flying in you can see it's just a beautiful lush island with beautiful waters and and beach but it's very near the equator and so the temperature is pretty constant year-round right around 90 to 95 degrees and the humidity is pretty constant around 90 to 95 percent year-round and you know how here we have those dog days of august but in the evening you go finally you go huh cooled off it just kind of stayed the same I mean the only difference was it was a moon in the sky rather than a sun and we had uh we had a good time uh they were so kind to us we had no language we couldn't talk to any of the locals but um it was amazing what people learned to do these these trees um these little boys could shimmy up the tree I mean like you think of somebody that was a worker on they worked up telephone poles and had mechanisms just climb right up they just do it with their bare feet just climb up to the top and they'll cut you a coconut and you drink the thing um the the local girls let uh abby in on how they weave their baskets and uh and that was fun they were so kind to us also that some of the locals most of them just slept on the beach that's the way they lived their lives they just slept out under the stars on the beach and but some of the ones uh had the I guess the more prosperous ones had some huts and um they let some of us stay in their huts which my daughter observed had only half walls which are very uh they were not very conducive to privacy but they were conducive to blocking whatever breeze you might accidentally get in the middle of the night and so we're just lying there on these five dollar walmart pool floats with a mosquito net over us trying to sleep and just sweating all night all night long they were so kind to us though and they also let us use their bathroom um there it is and um so uh we had three days on this island there is no source of fresh water available except for one little place where it trickled down onto the beach like a a spring that kind of trickled out of a little rock and came down the beach and it made about a two-foot pool that was about six inches deep and that's what the locals used to go and and get fresh water to drink or they'd go and scoop it up and put it over their heads and we just felt bad about even going and trying to get into that not knowing what we're doing if you muddy that water it was very inconsiderate so bottom line the only way you could get cool was to get in the ocean but you get out of the ocean and and you're stickier than you were before you got in and saltier than you were before you got in and i did this for three days we had the time of our lives watching a people get the bible in their language for the first time but on the way back on that little missionary plane that flew back over to the highlands of papa new guinea and a place called ukurampa at the mission headquarters there all abby and i could talk about was which one of us was going to get the first shower i think she got it but i didn't care when we finally got in there and three days of just living in sweat and being slathered in mosquito repellent and to finally get in that that cool water coming down oh i'll tell you what's the best bath you ever had well if you can envision what it feels like to get clean physically then good you're very close to understanding what the bible means by being clean spiritually and the way in which we are washed clean is not by any physical act but it is by a spiritual act of god and what is required is a spiritual revelation that is received by faith and so i want to focus in on this verse that says what god has made clean do not call common in the context of this remarkable story that was one of the greatest paradigm shifts in any spiritual leader's history when peter began to realize that the gentiles god was now not calling unclean but wanted him to preach the gospel starting with cornelius and all the gentiles well let's lay the setting here this is a roman centurion who is god-fearing and a man of prayer and a giver of alms prayer and prayer and the giving of alms very important to the jewish people so this is a a way of indicating that this was um for all he knew of god a godly man uh he lived in cesarea which is a beautiful city and uh on the coast um and cesarea it's a beautiful place to visit today there's a there's an amphitheater that's there the waters are beautiful king harrod really built up cesarea well he lived there most of the time in a nice climate and all but also he made it a big port city so all of the traffic had to come in through the sea through cesarea where he could tax heavily everything coming in cesarea also being a lovely place indicated that if you were a centurion overseeing 100 troops and you were stationed at cesarea then you were well thought of because it was a popular place to be he has this vision and like most people that have a vision or see an angel at first he's terrified and the angel instructs him to send some men to japa which is on the coast also about 30 miles to the south and he goes down to he sends them down and as they're making their journey peter is up on the rooftop at at noon time and he's praying well uh i guess like most of us it makes me feel a little more at home he's trying to spend a season of prayer and he starts getting hungry and uh so even happened to great peter and so he has told people uh you know he's ready to eat somebody downstairs therefore is cooking a meal while he's praying on the roof and this is part of the irony of this story is the meal that they would be preparing is a kosher meal now kosher it comes from a hebrew word um and it means uh prepared properly it means the appropriate food and what this means for the jewish people has been very precious over the centuries is that god in leviticus chapter 11 when he was laying out ceremonial holiness laws described some clean and unclean foods and by unclean what it means is that if you eat it then you are being disobedient to the law and you are yourself ceremonially unclean and there are many different states of uncleanliness for the jewish people but if you are in a state of being unclean then you would have restrictions as to your participation at temple worship and so these laws in leviticus 11 we won't take time to read them but essentially said that animals that had cloven hooves and chew their cud like a cow are okay to eat so i'm very happy that god validated my ribeye steak it listed several animals just distinctly that said do not eat them they're considered unclean the camel the badger the hare rabbit couldn't eat rabbit and of course famously the pig so um most people are familiar that jewish people don't eat pork it's from leviticus chapter 11 there are also animals that are listed there that um that they're not to eat that they're not to eat and it's specified amongst the things that are in the ocean if it has fins and scales you know mahi mahi tuna tilapia then you're welcome to eat it but if it doesn't have fish and scales then don't eat it so that sad thing is that ruled out my calabash popcorn shrimp and scallops and oysters and rock main lobster is out so but fish is good for you and amongst the birds of the air certain of the birds that you're glad they're counted as as you shouldn't eat it some of the majestic birds like the eagle you know you can't eat and the scavenger birds like the vultures can't eat reptiles lizards geckos all that can't eat and all this is specified in leviticus chapter 11 and people have conjectured you know over the years jewish scholars have christian scholars have many people have said well what are these about because some have noted that there are some health benefits to the dietary laws yeah you're probably better off eating some pan-seared tilapia than you are that good lexington barbecue alan wright today's good news message energize the difference between zeal for the lord and zeal for the law it's in our series titled unlimited and pastor alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day stick with us need some inspiration and practical help to bless those you love in conjunction with the exciting release of pastor alan's new book the power to bless we put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love the tool kit includes an audio message of pastor alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of ephraim and manassa the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly as blessings the blessing scriptures are categorized so you can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month we'll happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the resources are available for immediate digital download or available in cd and booklet partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life today the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries 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 pastor alan.org back here now in the studio with pastor alan our parting good news thought for the day and this message is about being energized and some of us we could use a little more energy these days there's a there's a temptation for us to try to find our energy through thinking i'm going to become a better person by conforming to the law there's a temptation to think that the way to energy is to just try harder and be better but the real source of energy the the actual working out of the power of god it comes not by a commitment to law but by the infilling of grace and by zeal for the lord himself so this is what the lord wants is for us to find energy not through the law but through the lord himself and this comes from an inward passion a thirst for the living water and so i pray for our listeners today that god would put you in touch with your deepest thirst zeal to know the lord himself 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 pastor alan.org that's pastor alan.org today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries