Revealed Truth [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If you were to ask me today about the whole shape of my life, I would point you to God moments in which God has spoken to me, and I know it to be God, and therefore it's shaped my life. When God speaks to you, it changes everything.

God is a God who wants to be known. 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, God Moments, as presented at Reynolda 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's Pastor Alan's book by the same title, God Moments, and 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 a copy of Pastor Alan's book, God Moments, our special offer today. Contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

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

Here is Alan Wright. Did you ever hear about the reporter who decided he was going to do a story on all different churches all across the nation? And so he started out in the West Coast and started in San Francisco, and he was going to just zigzag his way back through all the big cities across the United States and just look and see what he found interesting about churches. And so he started out in San Francisco, and he was in some church there, and he saw there was a golden telephone and a sign next to it that said $5,000 a minute. So he went to the pastor, he said, what's with this golden telephone and $5,000 a minute? The pastor said, oh, it's a direct line to heaven. He said, you can use it.

It's just $5,000 a minute. Man said, wow. So he started zigzagging his way across the country, and he stopped at church after church, and everywhere he would go, he went to Boise, and he went to Milwaukee, and he made his way through New York, and everywhere you go, golden telephone, sign, $5,000 a minute. And then he headed southeast, and he came into a church, and he saw a golden telephone, and it said 35 cents. So he went to the pastor, and he said, how could this be? He said, I've seen this same golden telephone all over the nation, and it always said $5,000 a minute.

He said, but here it just says 35 cents a call. And the pastor said, oh, son, you're in North Carolina now. It's a local call.

Are you ready? Are you ready for some good news? No matter where you are, no matter who you are, talking with God is always a local call because God is present by the Holy Spirit. He's with you, and He never leaves you, and so you can talk with God. We are learning about what we call God moments. It's related to a book I wrote many years ago in which for simplicity and for the sake of taking us onto a spiritual treasure hunt, I categorized these kinds of moments that we have with God in our lives that you could, if you weren't paying attention, maybe miss them or just forget them or not let them have the full benefit of what they mean to you.

These kinds of moments with God in which, you know, this was God, and God has encountered me in some way, and we've talked about some of these. There's a kind of God moment we call amazing rescue. God saves you. God delivers you. God keeps you from harm.

We probably will never know. Maybe when we get to heaven, we'll get to know how many times God has saved us, spared our lives, and we didn't even know it, but to stop and pay attention to these moments of amazing rescue in our lives, and we talked about how God allures us and draws us. Any good decision that you've made in your life, any time in your life in which you've been drawn to God, for every one of us is a Christian, how did you become a Christian? The Scripture says that no one comes to Jesus except they've been drawn, and we call this the God moment of holy attraction.

Why is it when you could have gone a wrong path, you went down the right path? This is God in your life, and we talked also about unearned blessings, how it is in our lives that the very best things in our life, you could not have earned it, and you did not merit it, and how ultimately the greatest celebration of our life is the unearned blessing of the gift of Jesus Christ to us, and building our lives as a life of gratitude, and how powerful this is in shaping us. Today we'll come to the fourth kind of God moment, and it may be to me when I think about the course of my life and the shape of my life, this maybe more than any other kind of God moment has shaped my life, and I call it revealed truth, and by this we just mean the ways in which God leads and guides us into truth, the way in which God speaks to us, the way in which God turns on the light where there had been previously darkness, and God is speaking to you, and He's speaking to you on an ongoing basis, and I want to show you today how much it changes your life when you know that God has spoken to you, and I particularly want to just dwell on this one simple question, why is it that God wants to speak to us?

Because if we really can understand that, then I think that our faith will all together be built, and I want us to be able to just hear from God today. I turn today to Acts chapter 26 for a story that I really will not honestly take time to exegete all the way through everything that Paul is saying in his speech to King Agrippa, but I really want to point you to one thing that Paul says here because I'm so identified with it. This is the apostle Paul who is in Caesarea. This is the Caesarea that is on the coast, not Caesarea Philippi, which is more inland, a place where, famously, Peter confessed Christ is Lord, but this Caesarea Maritima, as it is sometimes called, was a beautiful, gleaming Roman city. I've been there, stood in the amphitheater, been in the place where likely this conversation would have been taking place, and Paul was there as a captive, and the Jewish authorities and religious leaders wanted to be rid of Paul, and they actually wanted to get Paul to come to Jerusalem, and so that's what they were beseeching the Roman authorities, send Paul to Jerusalem.

They actually had a plot. They were going to kill Paul on the way to Jerusalem, but even if they didn't kill him, they figured they could have better control over him in Jerusalem where their religious base was, but the Roman authorities recognized Paul was a Roman citizen, and Paul had made his appeal to Caesar, which meant that he was ultimately going to get an audience with Caesar, but it began first with an audience with a man named Festus, who was essentially the governor. It was called the procurator, and he governed this area, but it so happened that King Herod Agrippa II, who's usually just called Agrippa, was in town, and so what you get in Acts 26 is Paul actually appearing before the king, and in his defense of his life, his faith, and his gospel proclamation, I want you to see what Paul says. Acts chapter 26 verse 1, so Agrippa said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself.

Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense. Now this is in fulfillment of an earlier prophecy given to Paul that he would appear before kings, and now he is. He's before the king.

His life could be in the hands of the king. Jump to verse 12, Acts 26 verse 12. In this connection, this is Paul now speaking to the king.

I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I'm sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Paul just told the king what had happened to him when he was a persecutor of the Christians on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. And God came in a blinding light and spoke to him personally. Jesus spoke to him. And this is what Paul says. And here's why I'm reading the text verse 19. Therefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

It's not the only place where Paul says essentially the same thing. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why do I feel so resolute about this? Why am I willing to be imprisoned for this?

Why am I willing to die for this? Why am I so absolutely convinced of this? And essentially what he's saying is that God spoke to me personally, and I never have doubted that. And if you were to ask me today about the whole shape of my life, I would point you to God moments in which God has spoken to me and I know it to be God. And therefore it's shaped my life. When God speaks to you, it changes everything. God is a God who wants to be known.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's always been there. In every moment you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. 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. Let's just talk first about this, how much it means when you do hear from somebody. And if there's silence, it's frightening or painful. Did I ever tell you a cute story about the boy who had never spoken? And he was five years old.

They'd taken him to doctors and counselors. He'd never spoken. And the parents were so forewarned about their mute child until one day he was eating some soup at the kitchen table and he just lifted up his head and he spoke. He said, this soup is cold. And they said, you spoke. You spoke. You spoke all this wonderful. You spoke, our child. You spoke. And they said, but why have you never spoken till now? And he said, till now everything's been okay. If somebody doesn't speak to you, it's troubling, right?

We all know this. Anybody that's ever been married knows something about this, the dreaded silent treatment. No poking, no elbowing, husbands and wives, but you know the scene. It can be man or woman. Let's say for the sake of our purpose, this case, that it's a woman on this particular day. And the man is there and he is watching the ball game and she comes walking through the room. Hi, honey.

She walks on through where upon the man says, is something wrong? No. Have I done something wrong?

No. There are people that have not talked to each other for days and days. And the silent treatment is particularly painful and strategic, is it not? Because what it is ultimately conveying is that I am so upset with you right now that I really don't even have words to say. Or it is to say, I want to keep you guessing right now. You know there's a new kind of silent treatment that's out there now, and that is when you don't respond to a text or an email and just leave them kind of hanging out there wondering.

Ever had that? It's like something kind of sensitive, you're texting your email at somebody and you don't hear about it and you're like, are they mad at me? When did they not write me back? Maybe they just didn't get it. Should I resend it?

No, that would be too much. And so when there's no communication, something is wrong, right? Can you imagine some of the scenes of life if somebody just didn't speak to you? You're like going to a restaurant and your server doesn't speak to you. Comes over to the table and stands there. And you say, well, I'd like to have some water maybe, menu. Server comes back, just stands there. You say, maybe you want to tell us about the specials today? And they just stand there. I mean, or worse, I thought about this. You're done with your surgery and you recover and the surgeon comes in and you say, well, doc, how did it seem to go?

And the doc just stands there in silence. Something's wrong. And it means so much if somebody does communicate to you. It's like, I don't know if people still send postcards.

We've got emails and text our pictures and stuff, but somebody takes a trip and they send you a postcard back and they just write a little something on it, just communicating with you. It's amazing what it means. In fact of the matter, all joking aside, when there is this dreaded silent treatment, psychologists have talked a lot about this.

And here's what one description says. It's a form of emotional abuse. It's typically employed by people with narcissistic tendency designed to place the abuser in a position of control. It is to silence the target's attempts at assertion, avoid conflict resolution, personal responsibility. But all of this is to say, if there's somebody that won't talk to you, it's a form of shame.

It's like saying, you're not even worth the breath in my lungs. And I want to begin today by just saying, God never gives you the silent treatment. God is not like that. In fact of the matter, if you were to go through the Bible page after page, page after page, remembering that the whole gift of the Bible, the Word of God, is God's proof that He wants to reveal Himself to you. He wants to speak to you. And if you were to go through it from the beginning pages all the way through the end, what you'd see is a God who fellowshiped with Adam and Eve and walked with them in the garden. He talked with them.

This was what paradise is. God interacting, talking, fellowshipping with His people. And what you'd see if you just keep going through the Word is that over and over there is an affirmation that the Lord loves to have a relationship where you don't have to rely just on your own thinking, but that you're in a communion with Him. Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He'll make straight your paths. And the prophets then who are speaking out the Word of God as God gives it to them, they are reminding us that God wants to communicate with us. Jeremiah chapter 33, call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. And the Psalms are filled with the affirmation of God revealing Himself. Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. Even when the people of God are at their worst, God spoke to them. I think of the beautiful story of Hosea who was the prophet that the Lord instructed to marry a woman of unfaithfulness. When he married this woman Gomer of unfaithfulness, it was a living picture of what God felt in His own heart. That the people's sin was like adultery.

It was a betrayal of God. And yet God would not stop loving His people. And so through the prophet Hosea who He instructed to continue to love this woman who had betrayed Him, we get this word in Hosea too.

The word of the Lord about how He would interact with sinful Israel. Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. Even when people are far away from God He's saying I want to make myself attractive and I'll speak tenderly so that you'll be drawn in by my voice.

That's the kind of God who would say be still and know that I'm God and speak sometimes in a gentle whisper. This is also the God who told Ezekiel son of man eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll and go and speak to the house of Israel. So Ezekiel wrote I opened my mouth and he gave me this scroll to eat and he said son of man feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it and I ate it and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. Anybody who has ever really fallen in love with the word of God can just bear witness what Ezekiel is saying. It is like something of life and goodness that goes into you and the word of God is just sweet to the taste. It is like real food. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it. That's the word of God. But this is where we know most that God is a God who wants to be up close and personal with us and speak to us and that is that Jesus is the eternal word and the prologue to the gospel of John says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son for the father full of grace and truth the word became flesh and tabernacled or pitched his tent and our midst God came in the person of Jesus because in Jesus he was speaking to us and Jesus spent his time intensely with people sharing and speaking to them and Jesus said in John 10 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me that the people who know the shepherd know the shepherd's voice and so it is that Paul comes to his great crescendo in Romans 8 where he has been talking about the power of the gospel and all the benefits of what has taken place because of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus and he says in Romans 8 14 all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God that this is part of the inheritance of being a child of God as you get to be led on a daily basis by the spirit of God and so it is that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God God is not a God who shames and puts into silent treatment he is not withdrawing from you and saying I'm not going to speak to you anymore because I don't like you this is the God who when we were still his enemies came to us in the person of Jesus Christ in order to reveal who he is he wants to be known and he loves to communicate with you which is an absolutely mind-blowing reality that the creator of the ends of the earth would speak to us clearly this is the message of the scripture from the beginning to the end and the power of this is so dramatic that for Paul what it meant was he moved from being a persecutor of Christians and one who hated the idea of Jesus to one who loved Jesus so much he would die for him and who would proclaim the beauty and excellencies of his name until his dying breath it is so powerful just one moment in which God speaks to you and if you know that it is God it will change everything in your life and so it is worthwhile pursuit to be on a spiritual treasure hunt and develop sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and to know the voice of God in your life so here he is he's in front of Festus the governor and he shares his story and then King Agrippa comes and Paul shares his story and he will one day be taken to Caesar and everywhere he goes he's just going to share his story and say this is what happened God spoke to me and it changed my life and when you have moments in your life that God speaks to you it's not really so much like you have to conjure up this great sense of obedience it prompts the obedience within you when you know it's God Alan Wright it's today's teaching Reveal Truth in the God Moment series stick with us Alan is back here in a moment for today's final word unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org God's always been there in every moment you narrowly escaped from danger in every moment you were surprised by a blessing in every moment you just knew the direction to take God was there your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life but your life is full of God moments when you make a gift today we'll send you pastor Alan's heart-stirring book God Moments that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God Moments it's Alan Wright's timeless book God Moments discover your God Moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith 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 pastor alan.org Alan do you think it's fair to say that no matter who's listening right now what they've gone through in their relationship with Christ there's got to be at least a couple moments that are unshakable unquestionable the world may argue with you even fellow believers may say are you sure that was God but in your heart of hearts you know without a shadow of a doubt that was God in my life no question and I think that this is what's so powerful when you know that God revealed something to you because you know Daniel sometimes and maybe listeners right now it's one thing for me to say God loves you but for God to do something to reveal himself to speak to you in some way that you know he is letting you know my daughter my son I love you you hear it from him it'll change your life and so I think that's why these unshakable undeniable moments where God led you God spoke to you God revealed himself to you are so so powerful to uncover in your life so we're learning about the God moment of revealed truth today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.