Touched by an Angel [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

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, Miracle Man, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'd like 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. 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 now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here's Alan Wright. Here's a more interesting study. It came later. They had participants to play a video game. A little game that little monster showed up on a screen and you punch the button and try to zap the monsters. And afterwards, they asked participants, how many monsters did you kill in that video game? The depressed participants, they got it accurate within one or two percentage points of exactly how many monsters they'd killed.

Get this. The non-depressed people overestimated how many they had killed by 15 to 20 times. In order to not be depressed in this world, you got to think that you've killed 20 times more monsters than you actually have.

Isn't that strange? But what does this say about how they were designed? It's to say that in one real sense, if the only reality that you look at is the newspaper and all of the news and the bad news and all of the viruses that you could catch and all of the viruses that you might not be able to defeat and could kill you, and all of the bad guys and all of the negative things that have happened to you and might happen to you in the future and how many car crashes there might be and earthquakes and storms and everything in your life is just focused on seeing that reality, guess what? You get depressed because there is a reality that life is hard and there are bad things and there are bad people and you get to the end of it all and you die.

And if that's your reality, welcome to the world of depression. So how has God made us? He has made us to acknowledge without being in denial that there is this real thing called trouble in this world but He said take heart, I've overcome the world. He said yeah, this story ends with you dying but let me tell you the story doesn't end there because it begins anew with you being given a new body and living forever and ever. You see, what happens when you are a Christian, what happens when you have life-giving power ebbing and flowing in your very spirit in your life, you see an additional reality. You see a reality that is not limited to the things you see with your natural eyes but you see some things that are possible. You see how God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond what you might see with your eyes right now and that is hope and faith. Hope that envisions life is going to get better and therefore I go through a difficult thing now knowing that it will not stay like this forever and faith that believes that it will come to pass.

And so it is that if we're going to have encouragement in this world it's going to come by the hope of the gospel. In the real sense it is to say knowing what's real. You see one of the things that psychologists teach us about depressed persons is that they tend to practice selective abstraction. It is a psychological term to apply to the tendency to focus on a single negative event or condition to the exclusion of others.

Selective abstraction. It is where maybe a young woman becomes discouraged that she's not in a romantic relationship and thinks about it so much that she begins to neglect the fact that she has good friends and a good family. It is in short a focus on the negative.

It is when that negative becomes the central thought and sometimes it just can't go away. At our video capture this week one of the prayer ministers there with me had a prophetic image as I was preaching this. I thought it was an apt image. Sometimes there's an olderness to remember when we were kids we had these records. The smaller ones were called 45s and you would just get a single on that. You know you had to put that little centerpiece in the turntable and you'd play your 45. And you'd get a 45 because there's a hit song on there that you love and on the other side you almost forget about it there's a dud song that nobody liked and they just throw one on the underside. And she had this image.

What a beautiful powerful prophetic image. She's like seeing somebody who's playing that single that 45 over and over and over. You know how that can be like you got a you know how you get like a song in your mind you can't get it out. Well you can get a thought in your head and you can't get it out and it's just like a record and it's going over and over. But what she saw was somebody who's listening to the record over and over but they're listening to the wrong side. And saw you turning that over God turning it over in your mind the hit songs on the other side.

The good song is the one that needs to be going over and over. What would happen if that changed? Also depressed persons the first one selective abstraction Elijah who says that I'm doomed because now all is lost. No you just got one more battle to fight here and one woman. The second thing that psychologists tell us that depressed persons tend to have dichotomous thinking. All of us have had some of this it's all or none thinking right. It's common doctors tell us in hospitalized patients depressed persons in the hospital often might say something if he doesn't come see me today it just means he doesn't love me. No it just means he had a lot of errands today and he's going to see you tomorrow. Dichotomous all or none thinking we had a marital fight this means we should get divorced because we did we're not made for each other. No you just every marriage you have spats every marriage you got to work through things. Well I failed the chemistry class so obviously I'm just not good enough I might as well drop out of school and live on the street. No no chemistry is just not your subject or maybe you just need to take it again you'll do better next time. Dichotomous thinking you get a new job this is the greatest job in the whole world my boss is fantastic this is the greatest company I love my co-workers it's absolutely perfect. Three months later you get corrected or criticized about something that you did and it needs to be changed and now this is the worst boss in the world worst company in the world worst co-workers I need to quit.

How did it get that bad that quick? That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. It's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news and we'd like to help. You'll love Pastor Alan's devotional journal Everyday Miracles. It's a one month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor Elisha that include daily devotionals from Pastor Alan, questions for reflection, space for journaling and a daily prayer of faith. This beautiful spiral bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the word and to build your faith day by day. When you make a gift this month we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal Everyday Miracles as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing. So please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. 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. One more thing you see in Elijah that is in the thinking of depressed persons, catastrophic thinking.

Psychologists tell us this is where you exaggerate the possible consequences of an event. My knee hurts. Oh no. I'm going to wind up in a wheelchair. Oh no. I won't be able to work. I'll be on the street. I'm done. Know your knee is just a little stiff today. That's all.

Catastrophic thinking. A woman calls her husband. He doesn't answer. She calls again. He doesn't answer. Oh no. It's a catastrophe. He's having an affair.

No. His battery is dead on his phone. Who among us hadn't had some of these thoughts, right? And this is Elijah, the man of God sleeping under a broom tree ready to die. What does God do? You might think God might send some judgment on the prophet, bully him back into his senses, shake him, rattle him a little bit and say pull yourself up.

Who do you think you are sitting here when there's more work to be done? Doesn't say you ought not to feel that way. He doesn't club him over top of the head. He doesn't say you shouldn't feel depressed. Look, he doesn't do that. He doesn't come to a depressed person that way. You know why? Because it doesn't work. Condemning a depressed person never lifts them out of depression.

I promise you. He doesn't even come to him quote a bunch of Bible verses to him. He doesn't say you ought not feel that way.

Have you ever noticed that when you are in a ditch and somebody tells you you ought not be in the ditch, it doesn't get you out of the ditch? You got everything going for you, Elijah. You ought not feel this way. What we're really saying sometimes is it bothers me to come to the realization, Elijah, that you too are human and that you have low times and if even you can have low times, what does that say about me?

I don't even want to think about it. That's not what God does. Look at what God does.

Verse 5, behold an angel touched him. The power of touch. The power of just finding out you're not alone. It's the first thing.

It's the primal thing. It's the most important thing. You come into this world and you need to be touched.

You need to be held. It's how you know that you're not alone. It's how you know that you matter. It's how you know that you love.

It's how security is formed. The unconditional love that is associated with touch of a mother and her baby is what builds security into that baby. And when we're at our worst and when we're at our lowest, what we need most from God is what God most wants to give and that is His presence. He draws near. When you're at your lowest, God is not repelled by that. He loves you. When the prophet gives up on God, God doesn't give up on the prophet. He comes near and He touches him. You need connection.

Probably more than you need correction. You might want God and you might think this is what you need God to do is to hurry up and take your Jezebel away. Hurry up God and get rid of this thorn and everything will be okay. Hurry up God. Get that problem out of my way.

And you wonder why it doesn't do it. But God didn't like a bottle of alcohol. God didn't like a snort of some substance.

God didn't like a quick fix. He's not a genie. He is your Father. And what God does is He promises He will never leave you nor forsake you and when you most need to be touched, He comes near to you. This is the whole glory of the Gospel is that God did not remain in the distance but the Word became flesh and pitched His tent in our midst. God proved to you that He wants to be near you through the gift of His own Son Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh. He proved it to you when you accepted Christ by giving to you His own Spirit. He lives and abides with every believer mystically, invisibly, but palpably and forever abiding with you over and over and over His Word says fear not, why?

For I am with you. God touched the depressed prophet. And He said to him, Arise and eat.

Get up and eat something. Before I'm going to give you your next assignment, I want you to know I'm with you and I want you to be nourished. He's nourished in a physical way. He's nourished in a spiritual way.

Inside every command of God is a promise of God. So if He said to Elijah, Arise and eat and that's a command, it must be that there's a reason to eat because if you're just going to die, you don't need to eat. But if you're going to live, you're going to need to eat. If you're going to need to be nourished, there must be a reason that you're going to need to be nourished.

And if you're going to be nourished because there's a reason, you're going to find out what the reason is. And so it is that we have an invitation likewise to feed upon God's grace. Arise and eat. It might just be a word of the Lord for somebody here today that you have been touched by Him and now He's saying before He gives you your next assignment, feed on the grace of God. Feed on the word of God. Be nourished. Be strengthened in your inmost being.

There's something wonderful that's coming. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord touched, came again a second time and touched Him. Are you just, are you overwhelmed by the persistence of this gracious God who comes a second time? Because the first time He touches Elijah, Elijah eats a little bit and the depression just puts him back into slumber again and the angel comes a second time.

He doesn't give up on him, he comes a second time. I think of Jonah who was swallowed up by the whale of God's grace, spewed out on dry land and the text says and the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Your failures, your depression has not revoked God's purposes in your life. Your discouragement has not dethroned God.

The limits that you see over your life have not incapacitated God's vision for your life. God doesn't give up because God sees what is coming. God doesn't give up because His love is unquenchable. God doesn't give up because He's not scared of your Jezebel. God will not give up on you no matter how much you seek to give up on Him. The angel of the Lord comes a second time. Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. The journey is too great for you.

You know where energy comes from? Hope. Something else that's in front of you. Angels saying something that is powerful good news.

The journey is too great for you is to say but it's not too great for me. Something happens. This is one of the primal temptations. Something happens in Elijah's life that I understand where he has this tremendous victory on Mount Carmel.

What else is there after that? You just landed a death blow to idolatry in the land. That's what his ministry was about. Exposing the reality of God and the phoniness of the idols and demonstrating the power. That's what his ministry was about and now it's happened and now he's got still a threat coming against him and all of a sudden it feels like it's over.

But it's not over. You got a great journey in front of you. Oh there's a great journey in front of him.

He's going to go and find himself in a cave in 40 days and there he's going to experience something he had not experienced. A still small voice of God. He is going to know this God of power in new intimacy. Wonder if what God has next for you is not another great exciting God event where everybody knows about it. Wonder if he's just saying arise and eat because I'm going to take you into the inner chamber and show you secrets of my grace that would delight your soul so much that you would exchange all of the grand and grandiose events for this one moment of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He's got not just a still small voice in front of him he has a glorious hope at the conclusion of his earthly ministry that is consummated with a whirlwind and a chariot of fire and an ascension heavenward and what he's got coming no one could have forecast because he would be along with Moses transfigured next to Jesus he still had the shimmering glory of God to position him next to the Messiah of the world.

Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. I heard of a seminarian who would always go around and tell his classmates I will go far in the ministry I will go far in the ministry everybody would say what are you going to do with your I'm going to go far in the ministry and finally one of his friends said why do you say that all the time are you just arrogant or do you think God's got some real special assignment for you and he said well no I'm just telling you what my professors always tell me they say you've got a long way to go. If God tells you that you've got a long way to go it's the best news you could ever hear because what it means is he is by no means done with you yet you got a long way to go good it means you got a great journey in front of you that's how God brings us out of our discouragement he touches us he feeds us he loves us and then he says I got a journey still in front of you and that's hope.

Well my Baylor Bears they they had overtime in Austin Texas and they didn't win in that overtime they won in the second overtime and that's the gospel amen. Alan Wright today's teaching touched by an angel from the series Miracle Man. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word.

It's a great idea to start each day with a dose of good news and we'd like to help. In James 5 we're given these jaw-dropping words Elijah was as human as we are and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall none fell for three and a half years Elijah the man whose prayer called down fire on a water-drenched altar defeating 450 wicked prophets and whose intercession revived a widow's deceased son was just like us an ordinary man who was used by God for the extraordinary. God's Word is clear if the Lord could use Elijah miraculously he can also do wonders in and through you. If you yearn to see more of God's power in your life you'll love Pastor Alan's devotional journal Every Day Miracles. It's a one-month journey through the stories of Elijah and his successor Elisha that include daily devotionals from Pastor Alan questions for reflection space for journaling and a daily prayer of faith.

This beautiful spiral bound book is the perfect tool to get you into the Word and to build your faith day by day. When you make a gift this month we'll send you Alan Wright's new devotional journal Every Day Miracles as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Also free digital access to all the Elijah messages currently airing so please make your gift today and start looking for miracles all around you. 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. Alan Wright and you couldn't have a victory there without a sports analogy right? Well double overtime and sometimes Daniel you know we were talking about you feel like you're in overtime it's like I feel like I should have won this thing by now. That's right. And now I got to play some more and every now and then it's double overtime but whether you are in regulation play overtime or double overtime God can send an angel for you too. He really does love you and he provides for you do not despair there's a journey in front of you. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.