By Appointment Only [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Whatever God calls, there is power within the call to live out that call.

And so it changes the whole playing field because it just means that the main thing you need to know is your appointment. 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 Brint, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Remade as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure 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 today's special offer.

Don't miss it. Contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860. We're going to give you more on all this later in the program, but right now let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. But that's the problem of an election. I had been appointed, but now I got an election I lost. When you're appointed, you can't lose it. When you're an election, you got to fight for it.

You got to hold on to it and you got to keep on getting elected. I appointed you as a prophet to the nation, God said. And in an appointment situation, it means that if it's the wrong person, it's not so much on that person as it is the one who appointed him or her. It's like God saying, I know what I'm doing and I'm appointing you. The appointments of God, the call of God are connected. So God calling Jeremiah into the ministry is to give him the announcement of the assignment that he has. And it is such good news because it is God's appointment. But Jeremiah doesn't understand that yet. And. But if you can understand the call of God this way, that even when you have to face challenges by what he has called you to do, that there is within it and an assignment from God that is a blessing to you and a blessing to the world.

It always is. So you have to think of being called. You have to think of appointments that God gives. You have to think of all that he speaks to you about in your life in those terms. Like, what's one? Can you think of when you had one of the happiest phone calls you ever got?

Did you think of that? Like when it was a kind of phone rang and you just that call just just bless you. Dear, dear friend of our church, David Beatty, who was who's the pastor at River Oaks and our daughter church. And I was I was with him this week and he was saying he said he got one of the happiest phone calls he ever got. His five year old grandson from Tennessee called him first time ever that he the boy, little boy himself had called. He calls. He calls David G. Daddy and David answer the phone and has his grandson on there. And he said, Hey, G. Daddy. And and he was like, Yeah. And he said, I just wanted to call and tell you that I have trusted in Christ as my savior. He said, that's one of the best phone calls I ever had. You ever had some good phone call? I think one of the happy, happy phone calls I ever had was when I was so young and, you know, I love to write and it's it's really hard to ever break into, you know, getting it being a published author, even more so these days. But it was back when I first started. And I didn't have any platform or anything like that. But I had sent I had sent an idea to some publishers and and one of them had said, I'd like to see your proposal.

So I'd send in a proposal to him. And I'll never forget where I was. We were actually on vacation. We're at the beach.

I was down on the beach with a family and little nieces and nephews running around down there. And and somebody came down and said, there's a phone call for you. And I said, well, can you call him? And I said, well, can I just call him back? And they said, it's some editor from a publishing.

I said, I'll take it because I didn't figure he'd be calling me to tell me bad news. And I went in and he said, this is Dan Benson from Multnomah Publishers. And he said, I have read your proposal. And he said, we have decided we'd like to publish this book. And not only this, but we'd like to have more than one book in you.

We'd like to give you a contract for three books. And you talk about a happy phone call. The amount of work that that phone call represented for my life over the next three years was immense, wasn't it? But the purpose of my life and the call are so connected. And that's what I want you to see about God and the way that he works in your life. So God has set up good works, Paul said, for you to be doing.

He has intentions for you. He has appointed you is what I'm saying. And so when you get by whatever means the promptings of the Lord in your life for what it is, it comes like that, like a sense of call. And in the call, there is always the good news of the blessing that you will receive and someone else will receive.

But in that call also is the assignment. And I think it's important to understand from this call of Jeremiah that the power of God is in God's call. This is such an important truth to understand biblically that we do not get a call from God and then somehow have to strive to fulfill the call. The call actually is accompanied by God's empowering the call to come to be. We'd say things like, well, I really feel called to do this and such. And we tend to think of a call as sort of an invitation.

Like, you know, we get a call and then we decide whether we're going to follow. But that's not really the way it is described in the Bible. The call of God in the Bible is much more powerful than that.

The call of God in the Bible is such that it has an effect. When I was a kid and I'd be out playing in the neighborhood with all my friends and it started getting time for bed and my mother would call, Alan, time to come home. She didn't know where I am.

I could be anywhere within, you know, a certain radius. And I would, you know, resist the call as long as I could. You know, I resisted up to the point that I thought I might be getting in trouble with my mother. That's not the way it is with God's call. Now God's call has an authority and power with it that brings about its own effect. God's call is more like when Jesus stands outside of the tomb of a dead man, Lazarus. And he says, Lazarus, come out. And out comes the dead man.

God's call is like that. So I think I've told this story before, but it bears repeating since it's one of the few stories that I am the hero in the story. And I was at a church one night years ago and I get a frantic phone call. My wife's on the phone, said, Risi, our Beagle is in the backyard in a fight with a raccoon. And everybody's screaming.

I hear Abby in the background screaming. They all figured the raccoon was going to tear our Beagle to pieces. I think it was a, it was a raccoon or a possum.

I can't remember whether one on one of the two, it was either way. It was not a pretty sight when I got there. And, uh, I had the idea sometimes doesn't it work to take a hose and just try to, you know, hose, like if two dogs in a fight, try to hose them or something like that. I don't like that. And they're back in these bushes in our backyard and it's dark outside. And all I can hear is Risi just growling and yelping.

And this other animal is hissing and oh, it was awful. And I just was, I couldn't see anything. And I'm like, what are we going to do?

Somebody's getting torn up here. And Abby's over there. Daddy, you need to go in there and get him. I'm like, go in there and get him.

I would go in there and have my eyes scratched out by some wild rabid animal back there. And I'm just sitting back there and I just like, I'm just like, what am I going to do? You know, I mean, they've been calling for him, begging him, trying to get them out of there, you know, and finally I just decided the first thing that I need to do is everybody needs to calm down and I'm a call Risi out. And I said, Risi, come.

Risi, come here. At first it wasn't working. The growling then suddenly stopped and my beagle came slinking out of the bush and I grabbed him by the collar and saved the day because I was the only one that had the power to call him out. It just proved I was the alpha dog.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a favored foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. 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. God's call is not a, hey, would you like to do this and such? God's call is come, go, speak, be healed, ministered. And when he speaks it, there is a Holy Spirit effect that takes place. Such is the nature of the word of God.

It's like a powerful word that moves accompanied by the spirit that has the sound of invitation, but the invitation is bringing forth the effect. Paul says this essentially in Romans chapter eight, when he famously says, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose called for those whom he foreknew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he called and those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified.

Why is this important? It's important because you didn't make yourself a Christian any more than Lazarus made himself a living man. It comes because God loves you before you love him. It comes because the power of God is at work in your life and if you know him today it's because there's been a call that had an effect in your life.

Now it's not like oh there's just this vague invitation out there or something like no there's there's something stronger than that that's at work and I'm so thankful for it because what that means is that whatever God calls there is power within the call to live out that call and so it changes the whole playing field because it just means that the main thing you need to know is your appointment. I just got a wonderful couple days with about 30 pastors from the largest churches in our denomination and I just really love these guys. They've become dear friends of mine. We meet every year. We pray for each other. We goof off together. We laugh together. We all feel empowered and less lonely and more encouraged and this past year pretty much as everybody went around the table and shared as a pastor like so many professions and vocations but these pastors especially said as hard as they have mostly said it's the hardest year of their ministry and a lot of a lot of them had said they'd given serious thought to to quitting and in fact I read this past week that something like 50 percent of pastors this year said they would quit if they could do something else but but but what you're going to find in Jeremiah and what you find in a in a pastor's life who's been called and what you'll find in your own assignments in your life is that when there's a call the appointment to what you've been appointed that's the thing that ends up mattering more than anything so you don't quit based on whether you feel good or you feel bad or whether it's going easy or it's not going easy there's only one question and that is am I called and is there a time where this call ends and I'm called to something else but but it doesn't leave any room in in Jeremiah's life or anywhere in any biblical character's life for the empowerment of our life to come from some other source so what it leaves us is even though we may have times in which we feel frustrated in our situation that it really is true of the old cliche that you're going to be more fulfilled in the will of God even if it's tough than you would in the lap of luxury and so Jeremiah's called and whatever God appoints he anoints look again at verse nine then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me behold I've put my words in your mouth before preaching with my prayer partners this is what I prayed this verse nine and it's my prayer for you and it's my blessing for you that it would be an ongoing basis as if the Lord touches your mouth the place where you both speak and breathe and eat and eat so that your mouth is open to receive his word so that once you have his word you can do nothing else except speak his word you can you can count on it that God appoints you to something he's he's going to empower you for it and it sounds like a cliche and sometimes when things are going tough or when it's hard to have faith for something new that God's calling you to we say it oh but God will provide wherever you got but it really is true why would God call Jeremiah and say I appoint you to be a prophet to the nations if he's not going to fill his mouth with the anointed word of God and sustain him no matter what persecution the prophet would face what I'm saying from all of this beloved is that God is committed to the prospering of every appointment that he'll ever give you so when I read the call of Jeremiah it makes me want to shift my thinking and not wake up in the morning and pray so much God I'm going to do some things today please bless it but instead to wake up in the morning and say God before the foundation of the world you knew me I began as one of your glorious ideas and though I am amongst the fallen creatures I've been redeemed in Christ and set apart unto you wholly unto you and therefore I know that you have some really important appointments for me today simple conversations quiet moments or grand adventure whatever it might be I want to know what you've called me to because if I know that and I live and I walk in that you're going to empower me for it you were God's idea before you even began to be formed before you even began to be formed in your mother's womb we speak on this sanctity of life weekend of the holiness of life it's holy because you've been set apart like Jeremiah consecrated before you were born and while God appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations in Israel's most turbulent time you can count on this he has appointed you in this life in this life to good works that he empowers by his grace and leads you in every day so the pressure's off except for this just keep our appointments with God because he's going to do wonderful things through it so I'm sitting there in the crisis ministry and I won't even tell their name my cell phone provider is calling in and I just said I can't take it this crisis boy and so what I've done since is just nothing because in this world these appointments they come and go but beloved you can count on this God's appointments are eternal and timeless you are created for good works from before the foundation of the world and that's the gospel Alan Wright today's good news message by appointment only it's from the series remain and pastor Alan is here with us sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment maybe you're like many Christians in America today you're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God the values of our country have changed suddenly most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview it can make you feel like an alien in your own culture there's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon through our special offer this month you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did when you give before the end of the month we'll send you pastor Alan's audio series Daniel a favored foreigner you may feel like a stranger in this world but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land God's grace is upon you as well your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times but it will also help someone else thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries we are happy to send this to you as our thanks call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org back here now with pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and boy if you've ever dealt with and we've mentioned before you know not just restaurants or or DMV but anything to do maybe with with medical uh yeah paperwork you know it takes a while and you I can't I can't tell you the sheer joy just in hearing a human even if they're not even the right human it just is so refreshing just to get somebody it's a person it's a person who can actually set up the appointment here for me um God has appointments for you God has a call not just for Jeremiah but for every one of us and and I think that I think the important thing to take away you know is that God's call is not like a human call um his call has within it the power to bring into being what he's calling you toward his his call has the power to bring the effect so if he if he says to a dead man in a tomb Lazarus come forth then Lazarus comes forth because in his call is power so it's why what we want and what we need and what I suggest every listener yearn for ask God for regularly God you've called me call me again so what are you calling me today because in his call there's power thanks for listening today visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 if you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org that's pastorallen.org today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries