Follow His Voice

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. This is God's unchanging purpose. You are not going to ever change the purposes of God. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the purposes of God will prevail.

No matter what seeks to come against God, there's not going to be a thwarting of God's original plan and purpose. 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 that we've called The Top Ten from Pastor Alan, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina in the first 10 years of Pastor Alan's radio broadcast ministry. 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, a digital copy of The Top Ten from Pastor Alan Wright. This digital download can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries, or if you prefer, we do have a CD album available. Your choice as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org, that's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. We'll tell you more about it later in the program, but right now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Genesis chapter 22, first book in your Bible, and this provides the context of Hebrews 6, where we'll be looking and getting our good news today. Genesis chapter 22, this is the story in which Abraham, the patriarch who has inherited the blessing of promise to be a father of a nation, had been called up out of the Ur of the Chaldees, given in Genesis chapter 12, an oath of God that you will be blessed and your people be blessed, and you'll be have a numerous descendants. And now the blessing seems to be called into question because Abraham is called now by God to go and take this only son, Isaac, the son of promise upon whom hinges all of the oath of God to be fulfilled in this son, Isaac.

Without Isaac, there seems to be no way for the promise to be fulfilled. And so it seems that the promise of God is called into question because God calls Abraham to take Isaac and offer him upon the altar as an act of worship. And at verse 6 of 22, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son, Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham, father.

Yes, my son Abraham replied. The fire and the wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Where is the lamb?

I'm going to preach a sermon on that one day. Where is the lamb? Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb.

God himself, everybody say himself. I'm not going to provide it. You're not going to provide it. I'm not real sure where it's coming from, but God himself will provide it. The word provide comes from pro meaning before and video meaning to see. To provide means to see before.

If you could see everything before, you could already have the provision there waiting on the need. God himself will provide it. I don't know how, but if there's one thing I know about our God, son, is that God doesn't make a promise and then turn back on it. I doubted him once, and so we wound up with Ishmael, but it's a new day, son, and I don't know what's going to happen, but God himself will provide the lamb.

There's never been a greater and a more poignant or powerful or accurate prophetic word has there, but that God himself will provide the lamb. When they reached the place God had told them about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, your boy, and I'll lay a hand on the boy, not do anything to him.

Now I know you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son, and Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns and he went over took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place the Lord will provide. He called that place the Lord sees, that's what it literally means, Jehovah Jireh.

I'm gonna call this place Jehovah Jireh because the Lord sees ahead and provides, and to this day it is said on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said I swear by myself declares the Lord that because you've done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you've obeyed me. If you want to know what your spiritual inheritance is then I call to you church the spiritual offspring of Abraham and tell you that here you have your inheritance. I will bless you says the Lord and I'll make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. I'm gonna bless your life and the fruit of your life will be spiritual descendants that will go on beyond you and touch the world and your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies not only will you but those whose lives you touch will be infected will be gloriously filled with the Holy Spirit such that you take back what the enemy had stolen. I'm gonna bring about a restoration. The world seemed like it was lost but it is not and I'm gonna bless you that you'll be a blessing and you're gonna have spiritual victory in your life and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.

We've got an inheritance. Go to Hebrews chapter 6. See God came to Abraham in Genesis 12 and gave him an oath I bless you and you'll be blessed and your people be blessed and the world will be blessed through you and he came back in Genesis 22 and he blessed him again and gave him the same oath again.

Now we come to Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 13 Hebrews 6 13. When God made his promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for him to swear by he swore by himself saying I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. So after waiting patiently Abraham received what was promised.

Men swear by someone greater than themselves and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised he confirmed it with an oath. The unchanging nature of his purpose and his purpose was to bless Abraham his natural descendants in all of his spiritual offspring so that through this blessing there would be blessing released in the world. This is God's unchanging purpose. You are not going to ever change the purposes of God. Many are the plans in a man's heart but the purposes of God will prevail.

I'm telling you come no matter what seeks to come against God there's not going to be a thwarting of God's original plan and purpose to bless the human beings that he made in his image so that they would have dominion in the earth. And he wanted this to be very clear to the heirs. He doesn't want people who are heirs to be acting like orphans. So he has sworn by himself to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised and he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it's impossible for God to lie we have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. The point of what he's saying is to encourage us.

The text that immediately precedes this is an exhortation to not be lazy. You could call this message the answer out of our laziness but I think I'm going to call it God squares to God. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. The life-changing message of good news has been taught over radio from Alan Wright Ministries for quite some time now and God has used every one of those messages but some broadcasts have really hit home in special ways. In gratitude of more than a decade of radio we have assembled the most powerful best love messages from each year of the first ten and put them together in one special album. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download.

Are you ready for some good news? Make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade. 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. When you're kids it's funny it's like you want to tell the truth and but the studies show that kids don't tend to tell the truth. I watched a documentary recently which they had an experiment hidden camera in a small room the empty table and a chair. They put a child in there at the table and said now I want you to turn around and face the wall and I'm gonna put something on the table and when I leave I want you not to look at what's on the table all right? Yes. Okay you're not gonna look are you? No. And they walk out and they had the video camera going and most of them within the first five seconds would turn around and see what was on the table. By the way that's what the law does to you.

Don't think of a pink elephant right now please whatever you do don't think of that. And so they watch on the video camera and then the person comes back in and says well did you look? No. Seven out of ten of these precious otherwise perfect children immediately lied about it while their parents are watching in a separate room on the video screen to see their children their precious little ones lying. And as children we tend to kind of know that it's one thing for somebody to say yes or no to us but if the circumstances change a little bit that might not hold so if you really want to get something from somebody you need to move beyond just a yes or a no. It's you know can we have ice cream tonight? And if the parent says we'll see that that means no. But if the parent says yes you know the child might want to ramp up the commitment a little bit by saying do you promise? Because a yes or a no is not quite as good as a promise.

If you make the promise you put a little bit more into it. Now if you really want to turn the heat up another notch it's not only do you promise but what we do as kids is we like do you promise no crosses counted? And you have to bring your hands around say okay no crosses and then you cross your legs and they don't notice you see because I can nullify this by some other superstition here. You promise no crosses counted?

And we're like okay I promise no crosses counted. But if you really really still you know you need to get confidence that they're gonna stick by this you turn it up just another notch and that's where you get into not only do you promise but do you swear? Well you swear my mama taught me don't you ever swear like that that's not good. But if you really need somebody to okay do you swear?

Okay I swear I'll do it. Now something's really happened but if you still if it's really important it'd be like do you swear cross your heart hope to die? I mean will you add some personal mortal infliction of pain upon yourself and ultimate death if you don't do this? Would you invoke the gods of the universe to strike you down with lightning if you don't say this? Would you add something to your oath here? I need to know that you really really mean this okay all right I swear I hope to die. And I tell you if you've been really desperate in our society and you just I mean there's some way we've got to try to get people to tell the truth here because everything rests on somebody telling the truth that they actually saw the murder happen or that they saw the bank robber come out now so we're desperate so will you just put your hand on the Bible and just raise your other hand and will you just swear by this Bible now you can't use this Bible in the classroom or any other part of our government but for right now we're gonna use it and so you put your hand on the Bible and just raise it up there just will you swear to God right now I know you don't believe in God and you never read the Bible but just put your hand on the Bible and just I swear to tell the whole truth nothing but truth so help me God I mean I just swear right now by God that's what we do so something's really really important I don't know what to do I'm just gonna I'm just gonna make an oath to God I'm just gonna build my life and then everything's gonna depend on I'm just gonna I'm just gonna I'm gonna determine right now okay God I'm just gonna do it just gonna do it I mean just just kill me if I don't do it I just I'm gonna do it so it's so serious that I need to invoke the greater power that could just strike me down at any time so just I swear I swear I'm gonna be a better person I am NOT gonna keep on being so lazy I am I'm not gonna keep being late to all the meetings I'm not gonna do it well you swear well no it's not that important I'm not gonna swear on it but I mean it I see most of my life I've heard the Christian gospel proclaimed as something that sounds a little bit like good news and then it kind of sounds like bad news because it just seemed like most of the messages for most of my life have wound up being like okay now you know here's you know God died for you you know you need to get safe now here let me give you seven steps to be a better husband because you're not a very good husband as you are right now write these down I got seven things for you write them down write them down write it because you know number one you need to love your wife is Christ love the church and that means sacrifice are you sacrificing right now are you sacrificing enough for your wife and all the wives are no you're not you cannot put a check next to that one and the next thing is you know you don't get it seems like it's like it's kind of like good news but then it kind of turned into will you you know by the end of the message is like will you today recommit your oath to God to just live a better life would you just recommit yourself and make a fresh oath today the old oath well you hadn't kept that one but you can make a new oath today you could just right here in front of God and these witnesses you could just right now to establish I'm gonna do better God yes I am and when we do spiritual disciplines like this you know your problem is you don't read the Bible enough that's your problem you don't read the Bible enough if you read the Bible more well the first place you'd know what it said and you quit doing all those things you're doing because that's not matching up with the Bible so just read it more all right I'm gonna do it I'm gonna read my Bible I'm gonna read my Bible I'm gonna read my Bible every day I'm gonna get up I'm gonna get up before the birds are up I'm gonna I'm gonna get up I don't care I don't care if I get no sleep and get a sinus infection and my immune system gets compromised I'm gonna get up whether I could sleep or not I'm gonna get up I'm gonna read my Bible every day you know your problem your problem is you don't pray enough you don't pray enough you don't pray look at what Jesus did for you and you cannot tarry for an hour he died on the cross for you he bled for you on that cross and you cannot tarry one hour you can't even give one stinking hour to God by praying get yourself up out of that bed and pray I'm gonna do it I'm gonna pray every day I'm gonna pray every day for an hour I'm pray I'm gonna pray we go don't pray every day for a half hour I'm gonna get up no we come and pray every day for 15 minutes okay I'm gonna pray three times a week ten minutes a day I'm gonna okay all right I'm gonna learn to shoot arrow prayers to God on the way to work I'm gonna do it by God I'm gonna do it and we do our accountability relationships like this because if you really grow up in the Lord you realize you not only need preaching on Sunday and teaching on Wednesday in small group but you need to get a mentor relationship I actually really believe in this in discipling relationships and if you're ever gonna get rid of that sin in your life I'll tell you what you need to do you need an accountability partner that's your problem buddy you got no accountability all right I'm gonna meet you at 5 in the morning every Friday I'm gonna meet you because you know we need to hold each other iron needs to sharpen iron so you get together did you sin this week yes I did I know what you did you lost it didn't you I did Tisk Tisk I figured you would you promise to do better next week yes next week it's a lust free week absolutely all right I'm gonna be checking back with you next Friday 5 a.m. sharp I'll be there I'll be there having not lusted all right you get back together look me and I I'm your accountability partner don't tell me a lie you lusted this week didn't you I did I made it to Wednesday Tisk Tisk you know what you're gonna have to something something got change you know what we got to do I'm gonna start meeting you twice a week you can't make it a Wednesday all right I'm gonna meet you on Tuesday and Friday every Tuesday and Friday 5 a.m. that's what I need I need more accountability all right I'll meet you on Tuesday did you send you yeah I did I knew you were going to you did it again you know I might have to do I'm gonna have to call you every day because you obviously do not feel bad enough about yourself to stop doing this terrible behavior that is damaging so many people you can't seem to keep your oath so I'm gonna have to just call you every day that's what you need is more accountability you know the problem with trying to live your life out of keeping your oath to God the problem with it is it's a system which is built on and fueled by fear Alan Wright and here it is this is our teaching that really is the flagship of this particular series God swears to God a study of Hebrews and it's continuing in a moment with Alan here in the studio with additional insight on what we've heard and a final word the life changing message of good news has been taught over radio from Alan Wright Ministries for quite some time now and God has used every one of those messages but some broadcasts have really hit home in special ways in gratitude of more than a decade of radio we have assembled the most powerful best love messages from each year of the first ten and put them together in one special album when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download are you ready for some good news make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor Alan org Alan I love this series I love this particular teaching and I've heard you teach that a lot of times for those who are just hearing it and thinking that's a creative title are we in reference to the Trinity God in three persons unpack that so God swears to God is literally what Hebrews tells us that God did when he made the covenant with Abraham seeing there's no one else to swear by he swore by himself so when you make a covenant in the Old Testament times literally they would cut an animal walk between this sort of bloody gauntlet of animal carcass and essentially make their vows each party in the Covenant one would say if I do not keep my vow may I be like this slain animal yeah and what the writer of Hebrews is alluding to is when God made his covenant with Abraham Abraham was asleep God let him go into sort of a trance and God was represented by a blazing fire pot that moved between the slain carcass it was God himself making the Covenant and saying essentially if I don't keep my word and my promise to you Abraham may my life be like this slain animal yeah and of course the beauty of the gospel is that he did come and he became the lamb yeah the lamb who was slain for us so this is all wrapped up and what it means that it's powerful intriguing thought that God swore by himself were learning about the depths of God's New Covenant promises to us in Christ today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries