Amazing Rescue [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If you want to be able to rest tonight and pillow your head, remember Jesus. If you want to be able to conquer whatever it is that God has said for you to take, remember Jesus, because He is the Lamb who came, and He died for you, and you didn't do it.

He did it. He has stretched out His mighty arm, and He has brought salvation. God is a God who saves.

The name Jesus means who the Lord saves. 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. Five-year-old John woke up and realized he was engulfed in flames. He pushed a dresser over next to the window to try to look outside the window from the second floor. And it was no way that he could get out. The stairs had burned up by this time. And realizing that John was still in there, his father took his trousers, pulled them up over his head, tried to run in twice, but was beaten back by the fire and realized he could not save his son. And so the father gathered his family around him and he knelt down and he commended his son to God. Meanwhile, a man had seen little John standing up on the dresser at the window and had declared that he was going to run for a ladder.

And someone said there's no time. The roof was about to collapse. And so they made a human ladder putting a smaller man on top. And a man was able to reach the five-year-old and grab him by the hand and they were able to pluck him out and bring him down to safety. And that little boy went on to become the founder of the Methodist faith, John Wesley. And afterwards, as the house within about five seconds of John being plucked out collapsed, his father said, according to history's notes, come neighbors, let us kneel down. Let us give thanks to God. He has given me all my eight children. Let the house go.

I am rich enough. It is possible that while your house is burning down you can feel rich if you know your God moments. And later it is attributed to Susanna, his mother, but it appears below one of John's portraits and it is a scriptural quote, is not this a brand plucked out of the burning? And many people would say that this was the God moment that fueled a sense of destiny in John's heart and changed the world.

Later, John Wesley referenced this in his journal on Friday, February 9th, 1750. All those years later, it said while he was holding a watch night service in his West Street Chapel in London, he wrote in his journal, about 11 o'clock he says, it came into my mind that this was the very day and hour in which 40 years ago I was taken out of the flames. I stopped and gave a short account of that wonderful providence. The voice of praise and thanksgiving went up on high and great was our rejoicing before the Lord. I've just over the years begun to invite the Holy Spirit to bring into my remembrance all that God has done. I think it would be a great delight to soul if we could ever say with the psalmist, forget not all his benefits. If you knew all of the benefits of the Lord, great rejoicing and amazing faith and peace would flood every part of your being. Great is the Lord. He's done so much and he's been so good to us. I've particularly thought about the amazing rescues and as a parent you think about your children. There have been so many instances and any parent knows this, we can't always be there and we do foolish things. One evening Bennett was one and we were living in Durham. I would sometimes go out, we had a basketball goal in the cul-de-sac we live in, I'd go out and shoot some baskets and this particular evening just out there I had Bennett in my arm and I was kind of dribbling the basketball around and I'm shooting with my right hand holding him which was not a smart thing to do and I was holding Bennett and I got up and under the basket and too close and I shot it up with my right hand and it hit the bottom of the rim and I had my my baby in my left arm and the ball came back straight with great force just came straight down from another straight toward his face and I just I thought in that moment first my wife's going to kill me and then just you know it's amazing you can think in less than a second and I thought I know for sure I'm going to be going to the hospital with Bennett tonight and it was almost just like I didn't have a time to pray but I was like please just don't let it break his neck you know you know our little little head would get hit by a big ball and pop backwards and I knew it would at least break his nose it was just it was just one of the most awful moments and I just all I know is just report this is exactly what happened I'm holding Bennett here his face is looking up watching the ball go up and the ball there's no time to react the ball comes back it comes back and I'm waiting to watch it comes back and I'm waiting to watch his head snap backwards and and instead the ball came and say the ball hit it rebounded it went back up and his head stayed in the same spot it didn't it didn't move back at all and then I looked at his face and he just looked at me and he didn't cry there was no bloody nose there was no indentation of being hit with a ball his head didn't move it didn't move and I just know I mean I was there I mean all I can say is an angel's hand just came in just popped it and we quit shooting basketball and went inside and I waited several days before I told my wife of the incident oh god thank you so much for that day and I just I could just tell story after story after story of God's intervention in our lives and we're not aware of how much God has been doing because what happens is there are some bad things that happen in life and the mind tends to focus on those things but that's really not the question that's in my heart I remember some years ago a rare unusual tornado tore through our city and the western part and I remember driving out through Clemens to look at it and seeing the trees the houses that were decimated all and you would drive through and you'd say this a thousand people must have died and not one person died and we know of natural disasters and terrible things that happen and many people that die but honestly truly in this sin broken world where there are so many things that could go wrong every single day so many diseases surrounding us that we breathe in every day so many potential catastrophes that could happen so much adversity the amazing question to me is why isn't everything falling apart why didn't everybody die in that tornado why didn't everybody died in some accident how is this all happening and I see God sustaining grace in his world that his grace is covering us both the just and the unjust and we are being blessed and protected by God I really mean it when I say it's a miracle we make it here this morning and so at the center of the life of Israel God established a feast called the Passover that was commemorating the most important moment in Israel's long history the people had been slaves for hundreds of years in Egypt and it's important for you when you think about what God did on the night of judgment of the Passover it's important if that violates some sense of your reasoning about how could a loving God do this it's important to remember this was 400 years of oppression this is hundreds of years of human cruelty that only escalated in the later years of their slavery in which they were oppressed this is a people that were beaten this is a people who all their freedom was taken away from them this is a people who are committing crime against crime against crime against humanity this was a tyrant who was stubborn who would not let God's people go this is an era of great evil against the people of God this is a Hitler this is this is the very thing that anybody in the world would say that's got to stop 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 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 pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright and God said through a series of plagues that he was demonstrating his power to Pharaoh so that Pharaoh would let his people go but he was stubborn-hearted and he wouldn't let them go and so finally the the last of the plagues was to come it was going to be the death of the first born of the Egyptians on this particular night what was going to happen is that God for at least one night was going to let Egypt see what judgment looks like it's like if you want to understand the Passover understand it like this if God were to remove the restraint of his mercy and grace if God were to lift his common grace which covers this world if he were to lift off his protective power if he were to let justice roll down like waters as it should this is what it would look like for people who have been cruel and enslaved other human beings this is what judgment would look like this is what the power of eternal judgment would look like in one night he's going to let it come upon Egypt and prove that God's people are God's people and that there's judgment against evil that's what he was going to do and so what he told the people through Moses he said on the 10th day of Nisan or Abib it was the month that corresponds roughly to April so let's say on the 10th of April he told them I want you to go and get a lamb and find one that's unblemished and they were to take the lamb into their home it would become theirs and they were to spend the next day inspecting the lamb to make sure it was without blemish and then on the 14th day at twilight the the patriarchs of the family were told to to slaughter the the lamb and then to put its blood in a basin and take some hyssop a leafy uh branch like thing dip it down into it and put everybody in the household and then paint the blood over the doorpost in the top of there and then after he painted it with blood that he the grandfather or the father was to enter into the home with the rest of the family he said do not come out until morning nobody come out till morning so because wherever there is blood and what the text says I will prevent the destroyer from entering in God would actively prevent harm from coming wherever there was the blood of the lamb and so on that night there was loud shrieks and wails as the first born of the Egyptians were slain that night by the power of a dark judgment that rolled through the land and you could imagine the Egyptians that were coming out one after the other pleading with the darkness is saying but I I'm a good person and I or I'm an important person or I'm an educated person but there was nothing that could save them nothing nothing nothing but the blood of the lamb and on this night in which the greatest power of the cosmos was rolling down in judgment with sheer darkness upon that land the Hebrew slaves were utterly 100 safe and what had protected them a little lamb that had died a little lamb was the protection against the cosmic force of dark judgment and part of what's so marvelous about the story is if you think about it is that those Hebrew slaves in their homes if they had known I doubt that many of them were able to do this because it was sheer terror in the land that night but if they had really known how safe they were they might as well been popping popcorn and playing Monopoly they might as well just spend the best night's sleep they ever had because the contrast was how apart from the grace of God the Egyptians were in imminent danger but the Hebrews were 100 safe and this Passover story that is commemorated in Jewish homes every year is one in which they roast the lamb they eat the lamb they remember they were saved by the blood of a lamb and this feast includes bitter herbs and they eat the bitter herbs and the children go why do we eat this bitter stuff and the father says because slavery is bitter but God saved us it was designed to make the people remember the amazing rescue that God had brought about and so when you come to Deuteronomy chapter 5 and you're getting the 10 commandments and the Lord says I'll tell you something's important that is observe the Sabbath you know one day a week I want you to rest and elsewhere this is tied into the fact that God rested at creation but in Deuteronomy 5 what the word of God says is if you're going to be able to keep a Sabbath if you're going to have a day where you quit your striving and you just rest for that day then it's imperative that you remember the amazing rescue of God because remembering that God brought you out of your bondage by his outstretched hand and remembering the fact that you did nothing to contribute to your salvation except you went through the blood and that night that the patriarch walked through that doorway of blood he knew for sure what this was a picture of because when you make a covenant in ancient times it was literally called cutting the covenant and what you do if you're making a covenant with somebody is you cut an animal and you'd shed that blood and you'd put a bloody gauntlet of the animal carcasses and each person in the covenant would walk through swearing that they would keep up their end of the bargain and they were saying if I don't keep my covenant if I don't keep my vows let my life be like these bloodied animals but on that night of the Passover as those Hebrew patriarchs finished painting the blood of the lamb on the door and they walked through that blood thinking back of the covenant that God had made with Abraham thinking back of the covenantal power of God they realized what is my oath to God the only thing that they were doing that they were doing is saying I'm going to be under the blood of the lamb I'm going to let the lamb's blood save me otherwise I have no contribution the word said don't go out till morning because in fact of the matter that all the people were evil the Hebrew people the Egyptian people all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God everybody was justly deserving God's judgment and displeasure but wherever there was the blood of the lamb not by their merit but by the sacrifice of the lamb they were saved nobody inspected the Hebrews to see if they were out blemish they inspected the lamb to see if the lamb was without blemish and there's something that God was tying hitters saying if you're ever going to rest in your life it's going to only come when you can remember that you were saved not by your righteousness but by the mighty saving mercy of God himself that you realize that God is the one who has saved you and God is the one who sustains you and God is with you at all points and all you have to do is rest in the gift of Jesus and he said in Deuteronomy 7 that if you come into the land and you see some foes and you might feel like grasshoppers in your heart here's what you're going to do in order not be afraid of them remember in your heart what the Lord did to Pharaoh remember how he has conquered enemies that you in your flesh could not conquer remember God's saving power and you'll be able to face those that oppose you and believers let me tell you the glory of the gospel is that when you come up against evil even as darkest form you have been an authority in the name of Jesus because every time that you evoke the name of Jesus you evoke the saving power of the blood of the lamb you have been saved by the blood of the lamb and you have authority in the name of Jesus Christ the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world if you want to have more peace to face your obstacles today remember Jesus if you want to be able to rest tonight and pillow your head remember Jesus if you want to be able to conquer whatever it is that God has said for you to take remember Jesus because he is the lamb who came and he died for you and you didn't do it he did it he has stretched out his mighty arm and he has brought salvation God is a God who saves the name Jesus means who the Lord saves and every time that you remember that he saves you you remember that he loves you when we were little we had a dog named brownie the things we do for our dogs brownie was a mutt he got hit by a car one time we thought he was dead but he survived but he was weird after that he would creep around bushes slowly and we called it playing gi joe but we loved him he was our dog tell you who really loved him my brother mark my middle brother mark and one day this was back in the day no dogs were on leashes nobody had a fence and dogs roamed wild and uh one day from up around the other street the one dog you did not ever want to see on your street came around blackie his dog brownie brownie was little and blackie was huge solid sinew and blackie jumped onto brownie and brownie felt brave when he was around us that was foolish and brownie and blackie were in it and blackie was going to kill brownie there's no question men came out of their houses with hoses going to try to stop them one man actually broke a board over blackie's back and blackie kept attacking brownie and right about the time that blackie was about to puncture brownie's neck my brother mark jumped into the dog fight and grabbed brownie as blackie's teeth came down into his arm and he saved the dog that was dumb that was dumb because mark is worth so much more than brownie but he loved him by god's set purpose and jesus's own resolute choice he jumped in to save you so what does that say about you you're loved infinitely remember your moments of amazing rescue and peace will fill your heart that's the gospel alan wright and wow haven't we all been rescued it's today's teaching the amazing rescue and hey stay with us alan will be back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life today and a 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 so alan we look back at the stories in the bible we can see moses in the red sea and there's an amazing rescue right daniel in the lion's den an amazing rescue and even if we're having a hard time in this moment even just remembering along the way there was the big deal rescue on calvary right i mean and we all who put our faith in jesus have that if he can do that and he did that yes what can he do for this moment exactly you've been saved by the blood of the lamb and the lamb of god taking away the sin in your life taking away the world and so if you want to have more peace to face your obstacles you remember jesus if you want to rest tonight and pillow hit your head remember jesus yeah if you want to conquer what's facing you now remember jesus he didn't have to die for you he did he dove in to the human predicament remember jesus today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries