Only Human [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The pastor said, all I got to do is say he was a saint.

You write $100,000. He said, yes, sir. So the pastor got up to start the eulogy, and he said, well, we've come today to bury old Joe, and everybody knows old Joe wasn't by any means perfect.

But compared to his brother, he was a saint. 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 Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special author. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.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 Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? Christians, at our worst moments, we are still holy, and at our best moments, we're still human. It makes us holy and human.

I'm going to be going through a section of Acts 14 today sort of line by line, but I want to give you just two verses that will plant the seed of today's message. In Acts 14-11, after God has used Paul to heal a man who'd been crippled from birth, verse 11, when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in Liaconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. And so they want to worship them. And at verse 19, how quickly the sentiment changes.

But Jews came from Antioch in Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. One minute, they want to worship him. The next minute, they want to kill him.

Because sometimes they'll want to worship you, and sometimes they'll want to wallop you, and you can't build your life on either. There was a rascal of a man. His name was Joe who died, and everyone knew he was a liar and a cheater and unfaithful in every way. And before the service, the memorial service, Joe's brother came to the pastor and said, Pastor, listen, it's really important for me to you to say nice things about my brother. And the pastor said, well, you know, as you know, we all know, it was the kind of man he was. And the brother said, I know, he said, but pastor said, I tell you, I am prepared to write a check for $100,000 to donate to your church if you'll just tell everybody that my brother was a saint. The pastor said, all I got to do is say he was a saint.

You write $100,000? He said, yes, sir. So the pastor got up to start the eulogy, and he said, well, we've come today to bury old Joe, and everybody knows old Joe wasn't by any means perfect, but compared to his brother, he was a saint. A saint is not a person who is somehow more gifted or even better than others. Biblically speaking, a saint literally is a holy one. It means that every single Christian is someone who has been so thoroughly forgiven by God and so completely set apart in Christ that any single Christian and we together as the body of Christ, Jesus said, would do the things that Jesus did and even greater things because we are holy, but we are absolutely human also. And that's part of what this text is about, a story about Paul. People think because God used him in such a miraculous way, he must be a God. And Paul, who is just astonished and appalled that anyone would think like that because he realized just how human he is.

And in just moments the crowd turns and they're ready to try to kill him. I remember years ago I was at a pastor's conference. Bishop T.D. Jakes was speaking, and he was at the time, as he is still, one of the most renowned preachers in the nation.

And he was talking about not giving over too much influence in your life to the flattery or the criticism of others. And he said that one time he was walking down the streets of Atlanta with a colleague on the way to a meeting and someone recognized him and started hollering out at him and started just speaking all kinds of terrible things. Bishop Jakes, you're the worst thing. Bishop Jakes, you're an imposter. Bishop Jakes, you're nothing but a hypocrite and just was going on all this negative.

And T.D. Jakes said, you know what I did? I just kept on walking. He said, and one block later somebody else recognized me and started hollering out and said, Bishop Jakes, oh, you're the most wonderful person in the world. You changed my life, Bishop Jakes.

You're the most special. You're the most gifted preacher in the nation, all this. And he said, you know what I did?

I just kept on walking. Because in this life, sometimes they want to worship you and sometimes they want to wallop you. And you got to know your identity in Christ rather than from the fickle crowds.

Let's look at this incredible miracle story. Acts 14, verse 5 to 7. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and stone them, they learned of it and they fled to Lystra and Derby, cities of Liaconia and to the surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the gospel. So the reason that they're in Lystra is because they were persecuted in the previous city. I'm trying to keep a map in front of you, but we've got it here just to show you that they moved first from Antioch over in Syria down to Cyprus and then up to these provinces of Asia Minor, where basically a pattern emerges where they preach the gospel and many, many people are saved and there are signs and there are wonders. And then leading Jews began to persuade the crowds to persecute them and they're persecuted and they are brought to the point of being executed.

And so they have to then escape and they escape to go to another city. And this is part of how the gospel spread. It's just a pattern in the book of Acts.

We'll come to verse 8 of Acts 14. Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. The emphasis on being crippled from birth reminds us of some other accounts in the book of Acts specifically earlier when Peter is used by the Lord to bring healing to a man who had never been able to walk before. And we see in that story, the man was a beggar and this man would have been a beggar also. When you are disabled like that in the culture, you just had to rely on others charity to even be able to eat. And so his situation is desperate.

He has no place in society and he has no real advocacy for him. And listen to what happens. Watch this at verse 9. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet.

And he sprang up and began walking. We spent the first half of this year exploring a new spiritual principle, an idea of a discipline that is not commonly spoken of. The idea of instead of trying to think what Jesus would do and imitate that morally, instead to invite by the Holy Spirit Jesus to show us how he sees. Because as we talked about for months, the way that you see shapes how you think and feel and forms all your behaviors. So if you perceive a situation to be one that is threatening, then you'll respond in a defensive way. If you perceive a person to be wicked who's actually good, you treat them as a wicked person.

And when we misunderstand situations and we misunderstand people, then we're not going to think or feel appropriately towards them. But what would happen if you could be a person who sees? Well, what would happen if you could get Jesus's eyes and you begin to see as Jesus sees? Well, instead of then trying to build your life on moral conformity to patterns of behavior, you're living a Spirit-led life where you're discerning through the eyes of Jesus.

And then your behaviors, your thoughts and feelings all just follow. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. 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, PastorAlan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. A very similar story to this where Peter in the book of Acts is walking by a man who had been crippled from birth and probably Peter had walked past this man hundreds of times. But the text said that Peter stopped and looked at him very intently.

It's at verse four of Acts three. Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said look at us and he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something. So this beggar was expecting that when Peter said look at us that is because the beggar was going to receive some alms. But verse six of Acts three, Peter said I have no silver or gold but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk.

And the language of this is so interesting. It is for lack of any better phrase Peter did a double take. So what happened was there's a man who's lame from birth and he's always out begging. Peter's probably walked by him hundreds of times. And Peter's walking by on this day and all of a sudden he looks at him he glances at him like see them and all of a sudden he stops and he turns and he begins looking and gazing intently at the man.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever done a double take where you're like something you wouldn't normally notice and all of a sudden you're like what what is that? Well what was Peter seeing? Well it's the same thing Paul saw in this story.

It's fascinating. Look again at verse nine of our chapter Acts 14 verse 9. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and here's the phrase to highlight seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet. What was he seeing? How do you see that someone had faith to be made well? Did the man say something? Was the man just leaning in intently and looking more focused on the preaching?

How can you see faith on someone? Well you know it's interesting I mean on the one hand we feel like that yes we can see confidence or fear. I don't know why I was thinking back famously. It was part of what was attributed to the win of John F Kennedy over Richard Nixon in 1960 because it was the first televised debate and evidently both men refused to wear makeup before the day.

Actually this is I went back and read it. Kennedy who either had a natural tan or it was a result of Addison's disease that he had but he had this warm looking complexion and young good-looking man and he said he was not going to wear any professional makeup for the debate and Nixon heard that and was worried that if people found out he did wear makeup and Kennedy didn't that that would come back to haunt him so he refused makeup also but Nixon it turned out had a real thick beard. He joked one time and said if he shaved 30 minutes later he had a five o'clock shadow and so right before he went on there was some product I think it was called instant shave or something like that it was an over-the-counter product that you dab on your face and it was basically a makeup you know I mean it was it was just an over-counter thing that made you look like you had a fresh shave and his staff convinced him to put it on. Well two things Nixon it turns out had scraped his leg badly while campaigning in North Carolina and had gotten infected and so he'd been very feverish and he'd lost about 20 pounds and he was really tired and he just put this fake shave stuff on put this fake stuff on this started failing him by the end of the debate so he was perspiring so people thought that Nixon was anxious and that Kennedy was confident. It really wasn't actually the case it was a lot of other things that was going on so it's really interesting to say well could you tell who has faith and who has fear? Well I mean in one sense you could look at someone and say oh they look nervous you know if they were perspiring and they were shaking or something and someone else looks really confident so in a sense maybe in the natural but you know how unreliable that is for us to say we see that someone had faith to be healed so what is it that Paul like Peter in chapter three what does he saw? Well I think I understand because I've had many moments in the spirit where this very thing's happened to me. It was so interesting the first time I really experienced this in a meeting a spiritual meeting I was just minding my business many of you heard my testimony and minding my business with my nice Presbyterian church in Durham where I'd been for seven years and my mom called and told me in 1993 there's meetings at her church a non-denominational church she says like Pentecost is broken out here you got to come and I was comfortable with my situation and I was not our church was not as exuberant in worship as hers and so I wasn't really comfortable but eventually Ann and I went and there was a young Pentecostal evangelist named Richard Moore who was there and I'd never seen anything really like it before because what Richard would do in the course of the meetings after he'd preach he'd start ministering and this young evangelist would just look around the room all of a sudden he'd look over to the side and he'd say you ma'am there yes you quick quickly come here come here well of course everybody wanted to go up because everybody that got prayed for was getting some sort of major blessings supernatural joy or a healing or something and so even though it's just like you know in so many ways you can think I don't want to go to a meeting where somebody's going to just call me up front you know it's the ultimate violation of boundaries but that's what was happening these meetings and he would just call people up and almost everybody would call up and just be really really touched by the Lord and he ended up becoming a dear friend of mine Richard did because my life got touched through that ministry and I remember that first week when I started getting to know him I said well how are you deciding who to call up and now this is Pentecostal language he said I see the anointing on them now what does he mean by that how do you see he said I it was basically saying the same thing that that this text is saying that Paul saw that he had faith to be made well well how can you see that is it because they were leaning in because they look different because they weren't sweating like the rest of the crowd I don't know you know it just you know and you can't describe this because this is mystical and it is something that comes as I was saying earlier by seeing with the eyes of Jesus well since that time many many times I've had that same experience some things you just could only know by the spirit sometimes you'll just know because Jesus has given you his vision sometimes you're going to know in a conversation with someone that it's time for you to turn that conversation right into a spiritual way and you're going to just know sometimes you're just going to have a sense where you're just in a some sort of gathering maybe it's just some Christmas dinner party and for some reason your heart is drawn to go talk to this particular individual because you sense there's some kind of receptivity or need and God wants to do something in their life this is this is part of the inheritance of any Christian as many as are the children of God are led by the spirit of God so this dramatic miracle takes place because Paul saw in the spirit that this lame beggar had a I guess a gift of faith that had been dropped upon him that he could be made well so in verse 10 in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking on your feet and he sprang up and began walking this is a great great instance of the kind of prayer that is more of a proclamation than it is a petition it is a prayer but it is a declarative prayer and it's powerful when this kind of prayer is released and in the spirit authorized within you according to the word of God and according to leading of God to to release this kind of prayer it's not really the norm of Christian prayer for the sick in fact the norm for Christian prayer of the sick is in James chapter 5 verse 14 anyone among you sick let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord so we are not instructed in the scriptures that the main way that we pray is by simply declaring things I mean Jesus himself when he was asked by disciples teach us how to pray he gave them a prayer that had requests to the Lord Lord will you will you give us our daily bread as and forgive us our our debts as we forgive our debtors it prayer is the body of Christ interceding lifting up in confidence and faith according to the word of God in the spirit requests unto the Lord for him to do marvelous and amazing things but there are times and this is one and there are numbers of instances in the new testament throughout the book of acts where the the proclamation is so sure that it is a prayer that is essentially just announced and so what happened here was that Paul saw let me put it this way he saw a miracle before it happened in saying he saw the man had faith to be made whole it means that Paul saw in the spirit that God was about to do the miracle and therefore when Paul spoke it he released it Allen 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 Allen 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 Allen 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 Allen Wright ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org back now in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and someone's listening right now they've identified we're placing a bookmark here we'll have the conclusion to the teaching on our next broadcast but but Pastor Alan they've they've been here the sentiment only human well that's a relief yeah it's a relief and it also is the greatest thing you could ever say because human beings are made a little lower than the angels you know it's a beautiful story in acts 14 when they really when this miracle takes place people wanna they want to to worship Paul and Barnabas you know they the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men and Paul is just saying you know I'm only human and um and I think part of the principle of this um and I can't remember if we gave it this subtitle or not to that message but I at least I had made a note that the subtitle sometimes they worship you sometimes they wallop you you never can know for sure so you need to remember whether people feel like worshiping you or feel like walloping you either way you're only human and in the end uh it's a profound encouragement to know we're just here just as humans but we can trust in God and he can do supernatural things through us today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.