Waking Up [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will never be popular. Have you read the New Testament? Everywhere Jesus went, one of his biggest problems was to somehow not get crushed by the crowd.

He had to just sneak off to even get a nap or have a meal. So popular that everywhere he went they didn't know what to do about it. 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.

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. So therefore we're going to turn to the Gentiles who have not already disqualified themselves because of this, who are open to the message of the gospel of grace. This is why they're so excited about it. I'll tell you one other reason that when you get awake to the gospel, when you wake up to it, it's like you get caught up in the story of what God's done and you just want more of that, right? I don't know how it happened, but I got just sucked right into with my wife watching Downton Abbey. Don't tell me what happened. I'm in season two.

Every one of these people acts like they're going to marry somebody and nobody's getting married and everybody looks like they're going to die at some point. And I, you know, and it is just a sophisticated soap opera, but it's a good story. And I'll tell you this, I was like, it doesn't matter what the story is. If you're in that story and you get into it, you're just like, hey, we got time for one more.

It's getting late. Let's watch. We just watched 10 minutes. See what happens next. You just want to find out what happens next in the story. This is what happens to people who come awake to the gospels. They find out that the Bible is one big story about the person, Jesus Christ. Now, if you're, if you're reading the story of Sleeping Beauty, you want to find out what happens to Sleeping Beauty. Does the prince ever kiss her? You want to know, and you want to know what happens after that. This is not the way we act with our user manuals in our car. I just can't wait. So that's how you change the oil.

I can't wait to see how I check the tire pressure next. If it's a user manual, you just go to it if you have to. But if it's a story, like give me the remote control. We're watching one more, but it's almost midnight. I don't care. Story. They found out, because that's what Peter, if we had time to do, I mean, what Paul, if we had time, we'd go back and look at all chapter.

He told them the whole story of Israel to the time of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of it all, and how he is the savior, and how now we, Israel, were actually just in existence to be a light to tell you this story. And they said, we beg you, come back next week. Don't stop. I want one more episode.

And the next week, just about the whole town showed up. I think part of this is just, beloved, just wake up to the fact that you'll never know the depths of the goodness of God. He's too good. He's too wonderful.

And his word is endlessly rich and deep. I think maybe I've told you before what Anne's Uncle Stanley came and told us the night before our wedding. We'd had a premarital counseling by someone else.

Stanley was pastoring in California. He flew in the day before our wedding, and that night we just had two hours to sit down with him. We said, Stanley, what do you have to tell us? He said, well, he said, on the night of our honeymoon, he said, we were out eating one night, and he and Joelle, we just leaned across the table just talking to each other, so interested.

We're honeymooners. And I looked around the restaurant, and he said, I couldn't believe it. He said, I noticed that most of the couples weren't talking to each other. They were just eating their food. And he said, I saw one couple, older couple, and they were doing what we were doing.

They were leaning across the table. They were just talking. They were just enamored in their conversation. He said, I just had to go by and talk to them at the end of the meal. And I went by, and I said, I just noticed. He said, we're newlyweds.

I just noticed. Nobody seems to hardly be talking to one another in here, all these couples. He said, but you guys are just leaning across talking to each other. He said, is there any chance you're newlyweds too?

The man put his head back and laughed. He said, some we've been married 55 years. And Stanley said, I walked out of the restaurant, and I thought, I'm never going to say I know my wife like the back of my hand. And he looked at us, and he said, Alan, and he said, you know, you each been alive 22, 23 years. He said, you've got nearly 50 years of life between the two of you.

It would take you 50 years just to even share all the stories of your life. But in the meantime, you're living life, so you'll never be able to catch up to that anyway. You'll never get tired of getting to know each other because there's an endless depth to each of you. So just enjoy continuing to get to know each other for the rest of your life.

And she's still surprising me. And if that's true of a human relationship, how much more is it true of a walk with God? The more I walk with him, the more I know I don't know about him. And the more that I know, the more I realize how much I don't know. And the more that I love him, the more I want to experience his love. And beloved, I'm telling you in this world, you will never be able to plumb the depths of his word. And I don't think in eternity, you'll ever stop growing in your knowledge of the Savior. It's the most wonderful thing in life is to grow. And that makes you alive.

When you start thinking, I know it all, then you're asleep. It's a beautiful thing about this church. I came here, I was 34 years old.

And here I am a few years later, and 39 now, can you believe it? But I was a young man, and I came here and I said, Lord, I could not believe the older people in this church, I mean, many of whom are still alive. I mean, they were so full of the Holy Spirit and so many mature saints. I was like, Lord, how am I going to pastor people who know you better than I do? How am I going to teach people who know the Bible better than I do? These are just most wonderful people. You know the thing that I loved about, you see people in their 90s, and they're still taking notes during the sermon.

They're still there. And they'll come in and say, look, let me tell you what I journaled this week in the middle of my devotions as I was learning about this. And I realized we've got people that are 92, and they're learning as if they're babes.

They're just thirsty. Just keep growing in the Lord until the day you die. It'll keep you awake. If your body grows tired and your mind's not as sharp, your spirit is very much alive to the word of God. I think there's a principle of being awake that they just hungered so much for more of the word because this is the way God designed us.

What you feed yourself, you want more of. I finally just did it. I said, Ann, the chocolate covered peanuts from Publix got to go.

They're out. You just got to say, I can't control myself around them. She had found the chocolate covered peanuts. They're double dipped in milk chocolate. It's the creamiest chocolate. It's delicious. I thought Cracker Barrel had the best chocolate covered peanuts. I thought I'm a connoisseur of chocolate covered peanuts.

Publix brand. And the Publix, they're irresistible. They're irresistible. And so they're sitting there in the cupboard. And I just feel like if they're there, that every time I walk by, I should get two or three of them.

Don't you think? But if you do that 20 times a day, you're eating them but if you do that 20 times a day, you're eating bags of chocolate peanuts every day. I said, I can't control it.

Get rid of it. Because the tendency is to think if I could just eat a few of these chocolate peanuts, then it'll satisfy the craving. That's not the way it works, is it?

No, it's not the way it works. The more I eat of them, the more I want to eat of them. Maybe God designed us this way because that's what He wants us to be spiritually. You feed yourself the word of God and you know what's going to happen? You're going to want more of the word. If you cram your heart and mind full of the world, you're going to want more of the world. But you fill your life with the word of God and with worship and you're going to just want Him all the more.

He begged Him, please come back. Which brings me to this beautiful verse 44, the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And there was nothing in the preaching. There was not one statement in here where they said, tell your friends and send out, you know, on social media that we'll be having a meeting next week and be sure and bring people here and we'll have a special incentive, a surprise of some time for those that do. For the first hundred worshipers that come, we'll give a free book to them.

There's no mention of that. They just begged them for more of the word of God. And the next week, this Gentile city, it's like almost everybody we know is at the synagogue ready to hear because the gospel in and of itself is that 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 toolkit 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, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. There's so much debate about church growth. I remember when I was in seminary, I have this vivid memory. Seminary is weird because, especially I was there as a young person, I'm still forming a lot of my thoughts and beliefs.

And so every day I'm like, oh yeah, you know, you get excitement and then just something's twisting around your soul and you're just like, you're trying to figure stuff out. And I remember this class, we were talking about church growth and there was a church, kind of a mega church in Atlanta that had grown a lot and it got a lot of criticism. And somebody in the class was criticizing the church for their church growth methods and saying they had compromised the gospel.

I actually did not agree with that. I did not at this particular church. I thought they were true to the gospel and Lord was blessing the church. But we are having this discussion about that and to sometimes church grow because they watered down the gospel and the blah, blah, blah, and are the different taxes. And in the middle of all this, and we're kind of wrestling with this, and this one student finally just said, the gospel of Jesus Christ will never be popular. And that's when I said, I can't stand it anymore.

I'd said, that is ridiculous. The gospel of Jesus Christ will never be popular. Have you read the New Testament? Everywhere Jesus went, one of his biggest problems was to somehow not get crushed by the crowd.

He had to just sneak off to even get a nap or have a meal. So popular that everywhere he went, they didn't know what to do about it. We got to find a way to feed 5,000 people out here in a field because they want to sit and listen all day long, begging for more truth from the Savior. And the same thing with Paul and Barnabas, and here they are, the whole city's come out. Absolutely they're persecuted.

Absolutely there's people who hate them. But the gospel of Jesus Christ, starting in the book of Acts, spread to the whole globe. And I don't see why we shouldn't carry with us right now a faith image of a pervasive global spiritual awakening where there's a hunger for the word of God and redemption for the lost.

And let me mention one more thing that I think is a characteristic of being fully awake. If the first is just you're alive and the word of word is so beautiful, and then you just start telling everybody spontaneously about it. There also is this piece, and I think this is important, is a part of the discernment that you see in this text. I think it's really important to learn is verse 51. After they were persecuted and there were people seeking to kill them, they shook off the dust from their feet against them and they went to Iconium. Well, this is an ironic statement because the phrase shook off the dust of their feet was actually a phrase associated with the Jewish rabbis because when they would go to a foreign land, like if they were being in Samaria where they amongst the land of the despised Samaritans, when they would come back into Judea, they'd come back into into the Holy Land, they would literally the rabbis they'd shake the dust off of their feet because that was unholy dirt, and they didn't want to bring it back into the holy. That's what shake off the dust. And now so ironic that the phrase is being used to speak of these disciples who are actually being rejected by the Jewish rabbis and Pharisees.

So now they shook the dust off of their feet and went into the previously forbidden foreign lands. That's what it is. And I just think it's important because we who love Jesus have a hard time understanding why some don't love Jesus. I don't understand it. And also we who know what's best for people is so tempting to want to think that you can just talk to them a little bit more and just give a little bit more and do a little bit more and eventually they're just going to come around. Sometimes they don't.

I don't understand that. This text alludes to it, just mentions it, verse 48, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. It doesn't go into a big doctrinal discussion of predestination, doesn't go into all the nuances about what does it mean to be chosen or elected and doesn't go into all the things that we nitpick and make about that. It's just acknowledging right here, we don't save anybody. God does it. And so they preach the gospel. They're like farmers. They just sow the seed. You don't know where it's going to sprout. Some plants, they just falls on rocky ground and it doesn't sprout. And you don't go around and say, well, I'm going to, I'm going to forget the rest of the harvest.

And I'm gonna go over here and just keep working on this one. This is not going to sprout. That's just not the way they did. They just said, well, evidently they're getting ready to kill us now. And a whole bunch of people here believe it's time to move on to the next place.

You got to know what to do with rejection and what you do with it is you, you don't, you don't harbor resentment and you don't get bogged down. You keep loving, you keep moving, keep on loving and keep moving. So what happened interestingly was it was a process where they would go and they would preach the gospel. Jews and Gentiles believe, lots and lots of Gentiles believe. And then some of the Jewish leaders in concert with authorities in the Roman empire would then persecute them and seek to kill them and they'd move on. So this is actually how the gospel started spreading. So there are two different Antiochs, but the Antioch of Syria is where it's all started. And then we've read texts about where they're in Cyprus and a couple of places in Cyprus and then up here to Antioch and Perga and all these regions of Asia Minor and everywhere they go, the same thing would happen. You read through the book of Acts and it's just kind of a beautiful picture really that the way the gospel spread is that there'd just be an explosion, a revival everywhere they went.

And then somebody would hate them and try to kill them. And so they moved to the next city. So the way the gospel spread was the persecution of the church.

There's something. Everywhere they went, lots of Gentiles believe, lots of joys, signs and wonders, religious leaders plot to kill them. So they go on to shake the dust off their feet, go to the next place, go to the next town.

Tons and tons of Gentiles believe their signs and wonders, tremendous joy, love for the word of God, religious leaders try to kill them. So they go to the next place and the gospel starts spreading across the world. I just don't know every day what to do with all the isolation during pandemic, but I know this. I just want us to stay awake spiritually. Wake up.

Redemption's at hand. Wake up. Freedom is nigh. Wake up.

There are signs and wonders coming. Wake up and see what God is doing. Wake up. Let your inside, let your spirit being, let everything within your heart be attuned to the sound of the gospel. Wake up to the goodness of God.

While we were worshiping this morning at our closing worship song, suddenly an image just came in my mind. I hadn't thought of in years when Bennett was a baby. He was such a good little sleeper, how quick he'd fall asleep, but it was a problem because every time that we'd feed him, he'd take a couple sips of milk and fall right asleep. He's just like, you know, you think he's crying, he's hungry, he's crying. Give him a little bit of milk. He'd get about two swallows of that warm milk. And we said, the pediatrician said, he drinks about two swallows and he falls asleep. So it's part of the reason he won't sleep more than about an hour at night because he's got no man. The pediatrician said, yeah, he's got to get more milk tonight.

I said, well, what are we going to do? He said, well, Alan, he said, you're going to need to stand there with a cold cloth. And when he falls asleep, you wake him back up. I never felt more mean in all my life than that little cute little baby. Cause you know how fun it is to watch a baby fall asleep.

There's nothing more fun than that. Like, you know, Ann sitting there holding the baby, feeding that baby. And then she's like, I need you to cool cloth. And I come in and I get a cold cloth and put it on the baby's face.

It felt so cruel, you know, but the baby was not going to get enough milk. If I didn't wake him up, you cannot take nourishment. If you're asleep, wake up, wake up. There's a spiritual malaise that has sought to come upon the body of Christ. And this is a very hard time, but the world needs us to be fully awake.

We need to be fully awake. Just because we are going through a difficult time doesn't mean that something in the kingdom of God has changed. The kingdom of God still consists of righteousness, peace, and joy and the Holy Spirit.

Let's have joy in the middle of pandemic. Let's walk in discernment in the midst of confusion, and let's stay fully awake because God is on His throne. And that's the gospel. 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 toolkit 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 here in the studio now sharing Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and this is again how to escape spiritual malaise. All right Reverend, educated one, they didn't teach pastoring during a pandemic in seminary today. They did not.

They did not. It's a tale as old as time, tale as old as sleeping beauty. The idea that the evil one can't kill the princess but could get her into a state of sleepiness. And I think that Daniel defines something of the spiritual battle around us. The devil can't snatch us from the hand of God, can't take our salvation, but the battle therefore is to render us sort of spiritually sleepy or as we use the phrase during pandemic, spiritual malaise that requires some sort of Holy Spirit move, a shaking, a waking us up. And maybe some of our listeners right now, it's the thing you need from God. You essentially say, Lord, just don't let my spirit be slumbering. Wake me up out of any malaise. Wake me up to your goodness and grace. And let's pray together for the whole world to wake up to the goodness of God. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.