From Self-Confidence to Spirit-Confidence [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Ask God every day to fill you with His Spirit, if for no other reason than the Spirit will show you the providential plan of God that's unfolding, and you will have an insatiable thirst for the Word of God, because it's not a collection of little moralisms and legalistic thoughts. It is the very living Word of God that is telling forth the redemptive story of God in Jesus Christ. This is that of which Joel spoke, and the Son of David is here, and this is the book that tells you.

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, Life of Peter, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire broadcast, 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. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you this special offer available today. Contact us at PastorAlan.org.

That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I liked the songs, but not all the other stuff. And the reason was, I had no idea of its purpose. I didn't have any idea how it fit together. So, when I was in college, I decided to take a music theory course.

Ended up taking two of them. And when I got into the music theory course, I had to take the course, pass fail, because it was going to ruin my grade point average. It was hard. And the professor was mean.

It was a bad combination. Hard course, mean professor. But, and to illustrate how hard it was and how mean he was, we had a pop test early on in which he just handed out a blank piece of staff paper. You know, it's got all the scores of lines on it. You can put musical notes on, but nothing on it. And he said, I want everyone to write out in music your favorite Christmas carol, please.

What are you talking about? And some reason, I had just been playing Silent Night and I thought, well, it was in 6-8, and I think I can get this thing. And so I decided to do Silent Night. And I started putting down notes. I put the meter, I put the notes and drawing in the bars and everything. I turned it in. I got it back. I can't remember how miserable the grade was on it.

The main thing I remember is it had all this red all over it. And he had written one comment. He said, I don't know what song this is.

And then he added, but it is not Silent Night. Well, I stuck with my music theory course. And all of a sudden, as I began to take these courses, I thought, are you kidding me? You mean the scales and the chords are the stuff that builds the music and that's how we write our songs? And I understood for the first time.

I said, wow, this is like some beautiful art or some glorious math problem that all works and fits together. And this is why harmony works. And this is why these notes sound good together.

And these sound bad. And that's why this key does this. And this is why that. And I was like, this, oh, I see.

That stuff wasn't unimportant. It was very important, but it was all pointing to this and it all fits together. Something like that, but in glorious, infinite proportion happens in Peter's life as he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is what's happened in my life. More increasingly, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what happened. It's just one aha after the other.

Like, wow. And so Peter grows up as a Jewish boy and he is taught that there are these laws of the Torah and God revealed himself at Mount Sinai and there was the Passover and they killed a Passover lamb and celebrated Passover. And there's this feast of weeks at Pentecost and Jewish tradition said that this was back from the time of Mount Sinai when fire came and God spoke to the people and revealed himself. And he knew about the day of atonement that takes place in the fall festival and high priest who goes in.

He knows all these things, but they're like chords and scales that don't relate to anything. And that's the way the law was to people. It's like, do this, do this, do this, do this. And you don't even get the full picture. And what happens when the Holy Spirit fills Peter and fills these disciples on Pentecost day is it is the most awesome, gigantic aha that you could ever get like the light just turning on. And Peter says, this is that of which Joel spoke.

I see it now. This all fits together. This, this isn't this, this is not, those weren't just prophecies that were random.

This is all coming to pass right here, right now. And he is just filled up with the joy of understanding the glorious providential plan of God. And suddenly he realizes that he has been caught up in the great redemptive story of Christ. And your life changes beloved when you realize that you are a piece in this beautiful puzzle, that your life is integrated into this cosmic glorious plan of God that is at work in the world. And so even though, even though there's all of the Roman empire that would be against him, even all the Jews who had crucified Jesus and didn't understand in this moment is the Holy Spirit is being poured out. Peter realized he is part of something that is enormous.

It is the providential glorious plan of God. And everything starts making sense. Everything starts making sense. It doesn't mean he understands everything that's going to happen. It just means the big picture starts to come together and you can make it through the little things that you don't understand when you go, where's God in this? And I don't understand.

It seems like this isn't happening. And why am I having this? You can walk through those things. If you understand how it all fits together. And the second thing that happens is that you'll see this in Peter and you'll see it in your own life. The more that you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the more captured you are by the wonder of God's word. He has two primary references in this pentecost sermon of his. Two primary references. One is to David and the other is to Joel.

Let me just talk for a moment about why this is so important. Let's start with Joel. That long section from the prophecy of Joel that he includes in this. And he just recites that whole text of Joel. That is a reference to Joel's prophecy of what was known as the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord was a prophetic image that you see over and over in the Old Testament. And Joel sort of spells out some of the things that are going to happen on the day of the Lord. He spells out the fact that there's going to be prophecy that's going to surprise everybody because it's not going to just come through an established prophet.

And the people that are going to be included is going to be astounding because it's not going to be just the Jewish men but young people and women and girls and people that are from far away. And all of this will be able to prophesy. We'll be able to hear from God. We'll be able to be connected with God in this way.

And he says that there will be signs. And this is what we call apocalyptic language. Some of the prophetic imagery like the moon turning to blood and signs in the heavens. So all of this is pointing to this what was called the great and terrible day of the Lord. Or maybe as the ESV translated, the great and magnificent day of the Lord was prophesied over and over. And Joel prophesied about it. And what everyone thought about this day is that on the day of the Lord, God is going to show up in power and evil is going to be judged and the lordship of God is going to be established in a new way. So everyone grew up in the Jewish culture looking towards the day of the Lord in which this great change would take place.

The day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. And the other reference that Peter has here is to David. And he quotes two different scriptures that he associates with David.

And one's from the psalm of David. David was the king of Israel and God promised David that someone from his throne, from his family, would always be on the throne. So in other words, somebody in the lineage of David would be on the throne. And so there was, along with the expectation of the great and magnificent day of the Lord, every Jewish child grew up with an expectation of the coming Davidic king. You can't get two more important prophetic concepts than those two concepts that all of Israel look forward to. The decisive day of the Lord, power of God comes, evil is judged, and looks forward to when the son of David, the new king comes who's going to set up this great throne and be like David was, who established the borders of Israel, expanded them, had military prowess, political rest, and prosperity. It was going to be like David, but even better. And if you've been under persecution for centuries and centuries and various empires have trampled you down, and now you're under the thumb of the Roman empire, you can imagine how much you look forward to this day of the Lord in which evil is judged and the power of God comes, and how much you look forward to the new king David who is going to come.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like the pressure's always on? Do you find it hard to say no, worried that you'll disappoint someone? The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame, but as soon as sin entered the world, they became anxious, plagued with a gnawing question.

What must I do to be accepted? There is only one solution, the grace of God that lifts our shame. In a new six-week video masterclass, Pastor Alan exposes the dynamics of shame and shows the path to freedom. Whether as an individual or in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you're in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you the digital masterclass videos and study guides as our way of saying thanks for your partnership.

In a world so quick to say shame on you, it's time to let God's grace take the shame off you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. 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. Peter, this is what's so astounding. At Pentecost, Peter has so seen what's happening. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He teaches you and shows you this is what's happening that now Peter, for the first time in his life, is really understanding the Word of God. He becomes absolutely enthralled and ecstatic in celebration of this is that of which Joel spoke.

What Peter says is earth-shaking. He's saying this day, what you see in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this is the day of the Lord. Now there may be other days of the Lord that will come because Jesus is going to come back. But he's saying this is the very thing that Joel prophesied.

This is the thing. And all the signs and all the apocalyptic language, what you're seeing here is that you're seeing as if the image of fire is coming upon them. And you're feeling the wind that's blowing. This is the stuff of the day of the Lord. And what you're seeing here is that it's not that evil is being judged in the sense that the Roman Empire is suddenly being overthrown, but what you're seeing is that the day of the Lord has come and Jesus has established his lordship and Jesus has risen from the dead and Jesus is to be celebrated because the victory has been won and evil has been judged. The day of the Lord is at hand. This is that. You don't have to wait any longer. You don't have to think about this anymore. This has come. The kingdom of God's here now.

Wow! That's what he's saying. And the word repent, most people think it means you need to try harder to get better and not sin so much. That's not what repent means. Repent means change your mind.

That's literally what it means, meta nueo, change your way of thinking. And Peter is saying change your minds, every one of you. This is the day of the Lord now.

It's here now. Today's the day of salvation. And then the reference of David, he is saying David's lineage and the promise of God and the prophecy that there would be someone from David's family that's always on the throne, this has come to pass because Jesus is the son of David. And he's saying what's happened is that when David is speaking in a psalm and he says the Lord says to my Lord, the father says to the son that the enemy will be made your footstool, this has come to pass.

So he's saying it's all being fulfilled in front of your eyes. And beloved, when you get filled with the Holy Spirit, the word of God starts coming alive to you. Oh, I just cannot encourage you enough to ask God every day to fill you with his Spirit if for no other reason than the Spirit will show you the providential plan of God that's unfolding and you will have an insatiable thirst for the word of God because it's not a collection of little moralisms and legalistic thoughts. It is the very living word of God that is telling forth the redemptive story of God and Jesus Christ. This is that of which Joel spoke and the son of David is here.

And this is the book that tells you the third thing that happened with Peter. And this happens with anybody who's filled with the Holy Spirit, is that he gets a certainty of the victory of Jesus. When he references back to the Psalm about the Lord and the enemy being made his footstool and what he says, you can just hear it just launching out of his heart that this Jesus that you crucified has been made Lord. This Jesus, he's not in a grave. Verse 33, being therefore exalted to the right hand and received the promise, the exaltation of Christ, the victory of Christ.

He is certain of the victory in a way that he had not been before. This is one of the things that happens. As Christians, we walk through the same things that other people walk through. You don't get an excused absence from the suffering of the world. You just don't.

You just don't. And sometimes we go through valleys, sometimes we go through mountaintops, but we walk through stuff and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. And so Christian victory doesn't mean, oh, I don't have any problems.

Please don't be disillusioned when you have a problem that comes along and think that you're doing something wrong. Remember when they went into the promised land, there were battles to be fought. Your promised land is a battleground and we're in a spiritual battle and you're going to face things in this world. But what it means to live in the spirit of Christian victory is to live in an ever increasing certainty that Jesus has come and he has overcome this world. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You can trust in God. In this world, you'll face problems, Jesus said, but take heart. I've overcome the world and he's overcome the enemy and he's overthrown the enemy and he has defeated death.

And this is what happens. The Holy Spirit bears witness to your spirit that you're a child of God and if a child of God, then a co-heir with Christ himself. And you start getting a certainty about the glories of Christ and the glories that await all of us. When you get a greater certainty, what I say is, is this is where you start just knowing that, you know, you don't want to mean about that. You know, that, you know, that, you know, how do you know? I don't know. I just know, I know that I know that I know.

Well, how do you know that? How do you know everything's going to be okay in the end? I just know, I know, I know, I know, I know. And beloved, when you start getting worried about this world and you start thinking about this crazy election year and you want to pull whatever hair you have left out of your head and you want everything, I advise you get filled with the Holy Spirit and remember that Jesus Christ is Lord of the cosmos and he is on his throne and he has been exalted and the Holy Spirit will not let you forget it. And the fourth thing, the fourth thing that happens that I wish I had a lot of time to talk about because it might be the most important thing of all is that as soon as Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, this man isn't so, it's just, how can you explain this? This man who would not even admit to a servant girl that he knew Jesus, now cannot contain himself from telling everybody.

He cannot contain himself. He said the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone, everyone whom the Lord God calls himself, he and thousands of people come to faith in Christ that day. What happens when you get filled with the Holy Spirit is that you in the first place start realizing there's a providential plan of God.

You're a part of it. You start falling in love with the word of God. You start having a sense of victory and confidence of knowing that you know that you know and Christ exalted, but then this always happens and that is that you have this great passionate yearning to just tell people. You want to share what you've experienced and this is the reason why if you've ever been around a Christian who's just been freshly filled with the Holy Spirit in some new way and they're just like, you want to just say, I think I need to put you in a cage. You're just, all you're doing is you, you want to lay hands on everything. You're going over laying hands on trees and rocks and things and the reason for this is because if you get filled with the joy of the Lord, you want other people to have it. There is no such thing as being filled with the Holy Spirit and wanting to hoard the experience. There is no such thing as having the love of God be shed abroad in your heart and not wanting to share it with the whole world. There's just no such thing as that. That's not the way it works. It's like when you experience something beautiful, when you experience something wonderful, don't you just want to tell somebody you can't go to a good restaurant without walking out and telling 10 people that was really good.

You ought to try it out. Every time we go down the beach, I always like to run out to the beach and just say hello to the beach and my wife, she likes to start getting settled. You know, she just wipes things down and puts things away and stuff like that and I'm like good. And so years ago, I ran out to the beach and the sun was setting and the sun was setting at Ocean Isle Beach in the wintertime. You can see it just over the edge of the water because the way that island lays out and it was dropping fast. You know how the sun is dropping fast. I ran and I said, honey, I said, you got to come see this.

You got to come see this. The sun's setting. She said, okay, I'll be out in a minute. I said, please come, it's beautiful.

I went out and I was just beholding probably the prettiest sunset I've ever seen at the beach and maybe the prettiest sunset ever and she didn't come. And so I ran back in. I'm starting to get mad. Get out here right now. I said, this sun is setting. You're going to miss it. Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming. I said, no, right this second, get out here right now. Okay, she comes and she said, oh, it is beautiful.

What is that? When love and beauty and glory meet in your heart, it just demands to be shared. When the Holy Spirit fills your life, I promise you, you will be overflowing, be filled with the Spirit. Because of what Jesus has done, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit and move from a life of trying to be self-confident to be Spirit-confident. And that is the gospel. Allen Wright, today's teaching in the series, Life of Peter is From Self-Confidence to Spirit-Confidence. Stay with us. Allen is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life in a final word. Ever feel like the pressure's always on?

Do you find it hard to say no, worried that you'll disappoint someone? The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship in paradise. They were naked and felt no shame. But as soon as sin entered the world, they became anxious, plagued with a gnawing question. What must I do to be accepted? There is only one solution, the grace of God that lifts our shame. In a new six-week video masterclass, Pastor Alan exposes the dynamics of shame and shows the path to freedom. Whether as an individual or in a small group, the video series is sure to bring healing and hope. When you make your gift to Allen Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you the digital masterclass videos and study guides as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. In a world so quick to say shame on you, it's time to let God's grace take the shame off you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860, or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, how often are our children taught about confidence, right? And having self-confidence, and that can be an important thing, but to understand the nuance of, you know what, this confidence is not in and of myself. My standing with God is because of Jesus, and that gives me this new sense of confidence.

I don't like the way you phrase it here, spirit confidence. Well, you know, again, as we've said throughout the series, Peter's so likable. I think you'd like him.

Anybody, if you're just now checking in with it, I think you'd really like Peter. In fact, you'd probably want to fly to the moon with him. He was one of those guys like, I can do it. I can do it.

We'll do it. He seemed so self-confident, and yet he just failed so miserably. And when he preaches at Pentecost, wow, the transformation that has happened and what he talks about now, he's taken himself out of the picture, really. He's not talking about anything he's done or what he will do, but he becomes obsessed in a magnificent way with what Christ has accomplished for us. And if you want to have fervor and power in your life, to be able to really move forward and share the gospel and have a powerful witness and so forth, it's going to happen the same way it happened for Peter. And that is you're going to become absolutely magnificently, wondrously obsessed with the accomplishments of Jesus. And this is what filled him up. So he's filled with the spirit and he's filled with the confidence that comes from knowing Christ. And that's what God wants for every single believer. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.