Only Human [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Zeus was the king of all the gods, and it was the priest, the high priest of Zeus, who comes rushing out with oxen and garlands and says it's time to worship Zeus.

It's almost comical, isn't it? The high priest thinks that Barnabas is Zeus. 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 Reynolda 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 Alan Wright Ministries.

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Here is Alan Wright. One story was made particularly famous by the prominent Roman poet Ovid, who was writing around the time of the birth of Christ. And he tells or retells one such story in which Zeus and Hermes, Jupiter and Mercury, come down from Mount Olympus in the form of some poor men, human.

And they interact with all the citizens and nobody treats them with hospitality or kindness until finally they meet an elderly poor couple that show them great hospitality. And Zeus and Hermes, according to this myth that was famously retold in Ovid's Metamorphoses, took the elderly couple up to Mount Olympus up to the top, took them up and then brought a huge flood that ravaged the whole village below, killing all those inhospitable people. And then Zeus and Hermes went back and built a lavish mansion for the poor elderly couple. That was one of the Greek stories.

And it was very famous because of Ovid's recalling of it. Well, it is said that that valley where the story was told and the people were wiped out because they didn't treat the gods right, was the very valley of Lystra and Derby where Paul was preaching. And so scholars think that part of what was going on here was that everybody had, in their minds, the story of Zeus and Hermes coming down to the valley and people didn't treat them right and then they all got wiped out. So here comes this miracle and they go, it's Zeus and Hermes.

And people are like, oh no, we better just worship them. And so immediately they begin to start lifting up the Zeus and Hermes for fear that they too might be wiped out. And what happens at verse 14 reveals the apostles' hearts of astonishment and being appalled at this. The apostle Barnabas and Paul heard of it. They tore their garments, rushed out into the crowd, crying out, men, why are you doing these things?

Why are you doing this? They're astonished, they're appalled. We also are men of like nature with you. We're only human, he's saying. We're just of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things, all these idols and false gods, to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that's in them.

In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. He's saying what Paul said in the Romans, he said, God has always been revealing his glory through nature. He's always been showing grace, even though it's not been the grace that yet you've known Jesus, it's his common grace.

He's been showing you his kindness and his goodness towards you. And verse 18, even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. You know, you just got to keep in mind all across the landscape of Turkey were these, modern day Turkey, were these enormous temples to Zeus. I think we got a couple pictures of a couple of these that are archeological sites in Turkey now. Here's one of the temples, here's another one that's more inland. And you could just get from the archeological remains that these things were huge and Zeus was the king of all the gods and it was the priest, the high priest of Zeus who comes rushing out with oxen and garlands and says, it's time to worship Zeus.

It's almost comical, isn't it? The high priest thinks that Barnabas is Zeus. I don't know what to do with this miracle and Paul tears his clothes. It's the mark of supreme grief or shock. It is the mark of humanity. It could have been tempted to take advantage of it, could have abused the privilege of being an announcer of the gospel and being used of God for miracles, but it didn't, it didn't, it would have been so far from anything that you would ever imagine.

Because remember he didn't do something, he saw something. Years ago I was privileged to be in India with Pastor Hank Keating and Elder Jeff Deaton and we were ministering one day at the Bible college that was pioneered by Pastor Sam Chelladura there and all these young Bible students and this church had planted at that time 150 churches in India and so they're always trying to get pastors. That's the hard thing is to get pastors because most of these young men were from Hindu families and when they became Christian many of their families rejected them and out their pastors they had no support and we did we taught them some and then we were going to pray for them and Jeff's got a beautiful prophetic gift and we were speaking words of encouragement to them and they lined up a long line and it different in you know our our western culture we've got a thing about like personal space and all like that other cultures are more or not are more communal than that and and so everybody's pressing in trying to listen what words being spoken to this young pastor and all of that and they're just pressing and they were just so so hungry and they were they were they were saying it was prayer requests like pray for me my whole family has rejected me and won't talk to me anymore and I'm trying to pastor this little church out in the village and we only have a dozen people and it's tempting to just to just quit what should we do and I realized as we were praying and prophesying to them that if somebody wanted to abuse that because here were these white men from America that were in this position of authority and seemed gifted and just like would have believed almost anything and so it's a very cherished and very holy thing to be used of the Lord it's a very holy thing and the proper response when God uses you in some wonderful way is deeper humility than you've ever had before because you know that it's God and it's not you and that's why Paul felt 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 verse 19 how quickly how very very quickly it turned Jews from Antioch and Iconium this is where Paul had been previously and had been persecuted there they came from there and having persuaded the crowds I don't know how they persuaded them but it was probably along this line that once Paul and Barnabas said we're not gods then these wicked religious leaders that felt so threatened by Paul and Barnabas began poisoning the minds of people saying all kinds of untrue things about Paul and Barnabas maybe they would just call him schemers or scam artists or tricksters or who knows what but it turned and they stoned Paul and they dragged him out of the city supposing he was dead it is very important not to just read over this verse and say oh they stoned him yeah I know Paul was stoning stoning was a form of execution it'd be placed down into a ravine sometime they would first roll a very large large rock down intended to render unconscious the stoning victim and then the crowds angry would throw stone after stone it would gouge the flesh it would inflict internal damage render the victim unconscious damage the brain they left him for dead because they thought they'd finished the job but he must have had a miracle because this is what we read at verse 20 when the disciples gathered about him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby and when they preached the gospel to that city and it made many disciples they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God so I think he clearly had a miracle didn't he when people of God came and gathered around him they prayed for him they ministered to him he was healed because you can't be stoned and left for dead and the next day travel by foot to another city and start preaching the gospel so he was healed and and and and he goes and God uses him in a in a fruitful a fruitful way isn't life just odd and isn't it amazing as we're seeing in the book of acts the more I study it the more I realize acts is a series of stories of miracles that is interspersed with admission of real humanity and real suffering just like life just like life the real story is the miracle but interspersed in the midst of it are all of these reminders of our humanity and the more that we could really understand that and accept that the happier we would all be and the more that you could really be used by God or face the criticism of others and keep it all in its proper perspective I had an eventful week many years ago that was really the week I would say that I think it was 2008 that we I would say essentially launched a conference ministry and written some books and a book called Shame Off You and we started doing conferences on the healing of shame and I think this might have been the first church we went to was in Moultrie, Georgia and actually ended up going there several times and have real affection for that church a great church there and at the time they had many many people there had read the book and they'd done small groups and so they were ready to receive this message and we had a great a great conference and I preached there on Sunday morning and when I preached on the Sunday morning I preached on one of my favorite things on the power of blessing and afterwards I ministered a long time along with others that were traveling with me ministered for a long time blessing people in that church individually and it was just a wonderful time people were where their lives were touched by God and it was so it was just so anointed and and and afterwards it was a Sunday that was a Sunday we were flying back one of our elders on his plane and we but we had lunch and the kind of fellowship Paul at the church and as we were leaving to get in the car go to the airport a young man came in frantic and he said that he had been there for the service and had received blessing but his wife his young wife had not been able to be there she had to work and he said he so wanted her and she needs this he said she needs to be blessed would you speak of blessing over her life he said we drove around to every restaurant in Moultrie trying to find you and finally we came back here and we said of course we will and we prayed for her and blessed her minister and she just wept and God just touched her heart it's a wonderful thing to be used by God and we got in the car to go to the airport and we just sat there for a long moment the three of us or four of us actually were on that trip and we just sat there and wept for joy and thank God for what he was doing totally we got in the airplane there was bad weather my family was at the beach on vacation and I was going to go join them and so we couldn't get to drop me off at the beach instead we stopped somewhere in the middle of South Carolina and I rented a car one way and drove it to the beach I was missing the evening meal at the boundary house restaurant at Calabash and all the cousins were there the whole big family it was there and I'm just coming off of a mountaintop where everybody was like oh Pastor Alan would you pray for me Pastor Alan would you sign this book Pastor Alan would you do you know and I'm just off this mountaintop seeing God do this and I walked in and there's there's all my family and all the cousins and you know what happened nobody ran over and and grabbed me by the leg and said daddy you're the most wonderful daddy in all the world my own wife I don't think got up from the table anybody said oh there you are what took so long and I said well there was storms and thunderstorms we dodged and I had to stop and rent a car to drive here but I didn't go into all that because they're too busy eating hush puppies and just living their normal lives and you realize in an instant just how normal you are you know what I'm talking about and then later I came back to church and I had an appointment I'd been dreading with someone that was unhappy and and I had an appointment and sat down for a long hour with someone that criticized almost everything about the way I was leading and doing ministry all in a week's time so what are you going to do to let shape your life who are we really are we holy or are we just human are we people that are used in miraculous way by God or are we people who are just frail well we're just some of all of that aren't we let me just draw a few actually five principles there are many you could draw from this story but as regards these questions number one this is clear neither great praise nor great persecution is an accurate measurement of your faithfulness success or worth and don't ever be duped into thinking that it is we can't live by the praise of people or by the persecution of people listen when people bless you authentically and have something affirming to say to you that is not intended to be undue worship of you or mere flattery when people bless you and affirm you take it into your being and let God use that to build you up we all need encouragement and when people criticize you I say ask the Lord and ask one two or three people that you didn't know you very well and trust you is this something that I should pay attention to and if it is then though it hurts grow through it but don't let your life I think this story says be shaped by the fickle crowd that might want to worship you or wallop you you never know which it's going to be let it be shaped by God there's something about humility in this story number two humility I think originally this was said by C.S. Lewis humility isn't thinking less of yourself humility is thinking of yourself less you read a story like this what you realize about Paul and Barnabas is when they were ministering to this man that was crippled from birth and this is all getting ready to happen Paul it never even went through his mind well what are the crowds going to think of me when I do this it never went through his mind of you know I'm going to look really good if I can do this healing miracle God will look better if I do it never went through his mind like oh no I might get persecuted by this what the point of the story was Paul wasn't thinking about himself at all he just saw in the spirit this man had faith to be made well and so he spoke it because that was what God was doing at that moment and that's what mattered humility is not it is not going around acting like we don't have gifts or that we can't be used but wonderful this is Paul who said we've been chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world this is Paul who said we are more than conquerors this is Paul who says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength humility is not a oh I'm not good at anything humility is just where you're not you're not having to think of yourself and you're not having to think of yourself hardly at all and number three likewise pride isn't a heightened sense of worth no it's wonderful to know your worth that's not pride but pride is a diminished view of God pride is where you start thinking in some degree you are God here's a fourth thing I see identity is a diminished view of God here's a fourth thing I see identity is the thing that God wants to shape our destiny and identity comes from Christ not from the crowns I just I wish I could just somehow take this great huge truth and deposit it into every child and every young person every teenager this is the shape of your life it's why we need to parent toward identity for our kids because that's the struggle everybody's trying to figure out who am I and that's what's going to shape how we live our lives it can't be what the crowds are saying it can't be what social media is saying it's so fickle but who we are in Christ that determines all Bill Bright who founded Campus Crusade always liked to say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life but some wit once quipped by adjusting it and said yes it's also true that God loves you and everyone else has a wonderful plan for your life and it's true that if you'll let them everybody else they'll tell you what you should do with your life and that's what God loves you and everyone else has a wonderful with your life and only God can let me mention one final thing this story shows that every Christian is holy and can be used for miracles that means you and me it also reveals every Christian is human and is therefore inherently no better than anybody else what this means beloved is that you are holy and you're human it means you are a holy human and that's the gospel alan wright today's good news message only human from the series unlimited pastor alan is coming back here in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day i encourage you to stick around 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 pastor alan.org back here in the studio to share pastor alan's parting good news thoughts for the day and those two truths your holy and your human some might question well how can you be both but that's the beauty of god's creation you're a human being and as such you're absolutely limited and god's god and you're not and so you can build your life on trusting him but in christ he has set you apart so you're holy and it's very closely related to saying you're only human to say you're holy and human because it's not by our own power that we would ever do the works of god but you can't be disqualified if you're in christ you have been qualified and god can move through you every bit as much as he did peter or paul or barnabas and that's an extraordinary thought so yeah you're human you're limited but you're holy and therefore god can use you in remarkable ways today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries