Overcoming Fear [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The only way that you can ever come to this kind of place in your life is to realize that though God doesn't blur the good and the bad, and God is all good and never bad, that everything that is bad and all the evil and wickedness of this world is still under God's sovereign power. 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, Unspeakable Joy, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want 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 offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. It just, we would like to make it more simple than that. Like everything that you're going through that's wrong, it's because you've done something that's wrong. It's just not true, is it? But on the other hand, it would be equally wrong to say that your actions don't have consequences.

Of course, they do. And the Scripture is okay with just the balancing out of those two. Sometimes Jesus would heal somebody, and they might say, well, where did this man's blindness come from?

Was it his sin or his parents? And Jesus is like, it didn't come with me to one of these. But I love this man.

I'm going to heal this man. And God's going to be glorified. But there are clearly other times where people are suffering because of their own disobedience to God. And so when you go through something difficult in life, there's this tendency we have to go, well, what did I do wrong? And why is God punishing me?

Well, beloved, it's a broken world. And see, this has helped me so much in life. I do not default to this position that says, oh, I'm going through something difficult, so God is really chastening me right now.

I just don't go to that position. But instead, I think what the Christian mindset should be, if you're going through something, it's okay to say, Lord, is there something that you want to teach me here? And you just open your heart to the Spirit. If you hear a voice of shame, it's not God.

If you hear a voice of condemnation, it's not God. If you get some gentle correction, it starts moving you in a better direction, you say, thank you, Jesus. But don't default into this position that it's like, okay, this world has sin in it.

Just this past week, a man was highly intoxicated, drove down the wrong way on Interstate 40, and had a head-on collision with somebody coming from the right direction. Sometimes we, and even Christians, we just suffer in this world because of the brokenness and the sin of the world. Number two, the scriptural revelation doesn't teach that you can be so spiritual that you don't suffer, but it doesn't teach that you're more spiritual if you do suffer. And the reason that I think that's important, beloved, to say is based on many, many years of interacting with Christians of all kinds, that there are some that want to have the idea that if I'm just spiritual enough, if I just have enough faith, I'm not going to go through the sufferings that are common to humanity. That's utterly unbiblical, or else we couldn't make any sense out of what's going on with Paul or any of the apostles who all suffered so much, and it couldn't make any sense out of Jesus telling them you're going to have trouble in this world. So there's an utterly unbiblical position. But I have been around Christians of a different persuasion in which because there is a sense from the scriptures that God cares for those that are disenfranchised, poor, disadvantaged, or suffering, that somehow you're more spiritual, or it's a mark of spirituality if you're suffering, and that's unbiblical as well.

So it's neither one of those. Number three, the scriptural revelation doesn't teach that you should at all costs avoid suffering. We should not make an idol out of not suffering. The goal of life is not I'm going to avoid suffering. That's not the goal of life.

The goal of life is enjoying God and glorifying Him forever. The goal of life is fulfilling the purposes for which God made you, and sometimes that means taking a more difficult road, doesn't it? If you make it your goal to not suffer, so many of the wondrous things that God has for your life, you're not going to get there, because sometimes you have to walk through a difficult path in order to get to the glorious fruit that God has for you, right? Some of us right now, you need to have that difficult conversation.

You don't want to because you don't know how well it will go, and you might suffer some if you have it. But if you face problems rather than going around them, God will be with you in the midst of it. But on the other hand, while we shouldn't at all cost avoid suffering, it sure doesn't teach us, the Bible doesn't teach us, that we should go and be attracted to suffering or want suffering. I've known people before, it's like they thrive on a crisis.

It's like if everything is fine, they don't know what to do with themselves. I'm going to go ahead and look for some suffering. We are not as Christians supposed to paint a big bullseye on our chest and walk around hoping that the devil will come after us. What does Jesus say? Be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove. What does Paul say? As much as is possible, live with peace with all people. Who wants to go looking for conflict? But some people do. Fourthly, just as much as the Bible doesn't teach that Christians can avoid suffering, the Bible doesn't teach that Christians can't triumph over suffering or be supernaturally delivered from suffering. We absolutely can. And it's so interesting in Paul's own life.

Do you think this is interesting? We have stories of Paul who is in prison and God shakes the whole prison, breaks off his shackles, opens up the prison door so he can walk out scot-free, lead the jailer to Jesus, and impress everybody with the glories of God. Hallelujah. But in Rome he continues to stay in prison.

No earthquake. Both things happen. And both happen somehow to the glory of God. And then one final thing. There are many, many things. Of course, it could be said in addition to these, but this would be a final thing I would say. The Bible doesn't teach that Christians should be in denial of suffering, but the Bible also doesn't teach that God's sovereignty or God's good purposes are in any way thwarted or held back by human suffering because God is redemptive.

That's what I want to speak to you about in the remainder of our time. Here's Paul. He is, if we were to take time and look, and you might want to go back and study this, in Acts 21 we see where he's arrested in Jerusalem and that's what led to all these events. And then he's put in prison in Caesarea and everyone might be thinking his ministry is going to end because of these imprisonments, but it doesn't. In fact, he winds up in Rome in prison having made an appeal to Caesar. As a Roman citizen, Paul could do that.

So he comes from Caesarea to Rome. And the place of his imprisonment, is what Paul talks about, is so vitally important to what God is doing. Because when Paul says, I want you to know that what's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, and he says that the gospel is being known now throughout the whole imperial guard. He's referring to what was called the Praetorium. And the Praetorium is a word that referred to originally just to the general's tent, but then came to be generalized to mean all of the officers and troops that would be with the high ranking officer. In other words, this is the military and political elite in Rome at that time. And Paul, because of his imprisonment, is having access to all these guards, all of these officials. In fact of the matter, military officers, centurions, you could read about in Acts 23, Roman soldiers, and Roman governors even, Felix and Festus, along with King Agrippa and their wives. All of them, because of his imprisonment, all of them all of them heard of Christ.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems? Or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality?

If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ, no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy 16 times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life-building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we're able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance, but joy is ever present in the spirit.

So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. 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. Over a span of a couple of years, where even one of the governors sent for Paul just to talk to him some more, Paul realized that though the imprisonment was evil and though the hardship was real, he's not in denial. That the fact of the matter was that God was advancing the gospel in some ways that would not have been happening had he not been imprisoned. Furthermore, Paul here is talking about what's happening with other preachers of the gospel. And he says at verse 15, some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. And he speaks of these ones who do so from the goodwill of their heart. And he says that they have been strengthened by this. That actually the brothers that are preaching in the right way have actually been strengthened and become more courageous and more bold in their proclamation of the gospel because Paul's in prison.

How could that be? It's because they've seen Paul, their hero, the one who is the chief proclaimer of the gospel, they've seen him come into the worst of all their fears to be put in prison. And what they see in Paul is he's still got the joy of the Lord in his life. And they see that the gospel's still going forth. In other words, what they see, they said, you can put us in prison and you can't stop the gospel.

And this just made them more bold. And so they got more courage and they were preaching more fervently than ever before. But Paul says there also were some brothers who were preaching Christ, but they were doing so out of selfish ambition.

There's been much scholarly discussion about what is he referring to, but this we know for sure. He says, but they were afflicting me. These are some people that are using spiritual language to advance their own ministry while denigrating Paul in some way. There's nothing more painful than somebody to use some spiritual mumbo jumbo to try to take advantage or put you down because you're going through something difficult.

Let me just tell you this point blank. The biggest way the devil wanted to tempt Jesus on the cross was essentially to say, look, you're not blessed. You are suffering right now. Bring yourself down from the cross. And what happens in our lives is when things aren't going well, there's this powerful demonic force that just invades all the culture around us and people around us and our own thoughts. And it's so much a part of the spiritual battle. This battle started with Adam and Eve and it's like, look at you.

You're not blessed because you're going through something that's difficult. And so a lot of people think that what these preachers out of selfless ambition were doing is they were essentially in one way or another saying, look at Paul, he's in prison. If you really were a great man of God, he wouldn't be in prison right now.

We don't know that for sure, but that's very likely the kind of talk that was going on. And yet Paul being hurt so badly by what they were saying, he recognized they still were essentially preaching the name of Christ. And he said, if I'm in prison, as long as the gospel is being advanced, I'm okay with that. And as long as these people are preaching Christ, even though it's really hurting me, I'm all for it, rejoice in the Lord. It's amazing.

It's amazing. The only way that you can ever come to this kind of place in your life is to realize that though God doesn't blur the good and the bad, and God is all good and never bad, that everything that is bad and all the evil and wickedness of this world is still under God's sovereign power. You might face trouble, but take heart, I've overcome this world. God's wiser and more powerful than all the world sin. You look back over your life, if you have the gospel and you start seeing it, you start seeing it.

And there's some things right now I can't see, but I'll see it one day, but I do see some things. So when I was a fourth grade boy, my family broke up, my dad left home and my heart was crushed. It was bad. Family breakup is bad. Divorce is horrible. Everybody that's been through it, you can say the same thing. But, but, my mother fell down on her knees and called out and said, God, if you're really there, I need to know you. Cause I feel like I'm sinking down.

I'll probably take these three boys with me. And a lady came and knocked on her door and led her to Christ. God just brought this lady over, knocked on the door. And she said, I was waking up in the middle of the night with you on my heart.

Is there something you need? She said, yes, there is. And a miracle took place. And my mom, though she was the daughter of her preacher, came to really know Jesus for the first time.

And you know what she did next? She told her three boys about this savior. I hate that my family broke up, but would I know Jesus had it not. And that little child's heart was, was hurt and was full of shame.

I didn't talk to anybody about it. I just went on being a straight A student and playing sports and looking to go there by and having a nice girlfriend and trying to be cool in high school and inside, man, I was torn up with the tyranny of shame that says something wrong with you and you better perform or else you're not going to be accepted. I lived with that anxiety for years, decades, until I came to understand what grace really is. And a process of dethroning shame in my life. So that about 18 years ago in this pulpit, I'd preach a series. Thought it'd be one or two sermons.

It turned out to be about 17. And I devote a big part of my life to writing and teaching and helping other people be set free. And I love seeing people be set free.

It was wicked and awful that a fourth grader's heart could go through that and start receiving shame. But had I not, how would I ever understand and share the gospel in such a way to help others? So it was bad, but it was good. If I had time, I would take you back to the very beginning of God's word and show you. A man named Abram called up by the Ur of the Chaldees, childless, with his wife Sarah, far beyond childbearing years. In a society that far more than ours, as painful as infertility is in our families today, in that society a stigma was attached. And they had given up hope. What the Bible doesn't give us is a narrative of the decades and decades and decades that Abraham and Sarah tried to have children and couldn't.

But they suffered. And yet, looking back on it, if Abram and Sarah had not been childless, if they had not faced the adversities of that infertility, God could never have put on display in the way that he did. The glories of the gospel, wherein the son that would be born would not be conceived in the natural way, but would be born as a son of promise, to prefigure the glories of the gospel, that he is able to take that which has no life and create life, that he is able to take that which is no son to him and make us into a son or a daughter unto him, to show us the power of the gospel. It was on display in Abraham and Sarah. I wish I could have time and just go on through and talk to you about Joseph, who was thrown into a pit and thrown into a prison and left for dead and forgotten by his family, except God hadn't forgotten him. And the dream that he'd planted in Joseph's heart never was diminished by the adversities of his life, because eventually he was promoted to prime minister of Egypt so that God could have a man of supernatural wisdom on that throne during the years of plenty so they would save up and not squander it because there was a famine that was coming. And God knew that there would be a time in which Joseph's own brothers who had persecuted him, hated him, wanted to kill him and sold him into slavery, would come into Egypt looking for some way to survive because there's the only place in the whole known world that had any food and come and fall down in front of Joseph, who finally would reveal that he was their brother. And instead of killing them, he said, I forgive you because you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

I wish I had time to tell you every story in the Bible is pointing to this truth. There is good. There is bad. God is all good. The devil's all bad. And there is the process of this broken world sin and bad things that happen. But our God is big and our God is wise and our God is sovereign. And he is able to bring every circumstance together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes, even to the point when Jesus Christ comes. And it looks like the worst moment in history when he's nailed to a Roman cross and he bleeds and he suffocates and he dies and the devil thinks that he's won. But God had the last say because the ground couldn't keep him buried and he was raised from the dead and behold, he lives forevermore because God always had a plan, did he not? God is on his throne. Hallelujah. So sometimes what you have to say when that fear tries to get you, I wonder if the worst happens, then you just say, well, I can't guarantee it won't happen.

It probably won't happen. But if it did, God will redeem. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright. I think we can all take that. We can all apply that in our daily life. It's our teaching overcoming your worst fears in the series Unspeakable Joy. And Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word.

C.S. Lewis said, No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. In other words, joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition. Actually, joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ. No matter what you're facing, you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it.

The apostle Paul did, though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned. He spoke of joy 16 times. Alan Wright's newest CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians. When you make a gift today to Sharing the Light, we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

Become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy. 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. Alan, as we are wrapping up this particular teaching, Overcoming Your Worst Fears, I like the way you ended that there. It really is something we can hold onto and say, you know, I can't, it might get worse, it might get better, it might stay about the same, not much you can do about it, but there is joy and there's a consistency that we see. We've watched believers and saints throughout all of history have this unexplainable, unspeakable joy. If I could go back and turn the time back and teach myself as a very young man what I have now learned in the Christian wall, I think the primary thing I would have told myself is, Alan, you're going to be shocked at how God takes the worst things and turns it into good.

Yeah. And Paul's is a story like that. I mean, most of us, if we were imprisoned like he was, would be so focused on that. But see, he realized that the place of his imprisonment, it put him in contact with Rome's elite. And the length of that imprisonment served to propel the gospel.

Military officers, centurions, soldiers, governors, even King Agrippa heard Paul speak about Christ. I mean, the list goes on and on about the way your life, if you go back and watch, you'll see the providence of God even in the worst. And that's how you overcome your worst fears is knowing that God is going to be redemptive. So instead of going, oh, I'm so afraid something bad will happen. Well, we say, well, if something bad does happen, God's still in charge. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.