Why Wouldn't Everyone Want to be Led by the Spirit? [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Why wouldn't everybody want to be led by the Spirit? He is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, the third person, the triune God.

God himself, by the mystery, this is a spiritual mystery that we cannot describe in natural words, but he lives in us. 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 this series filled 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 today. 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 that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. If we live a distracted life rather than a reflective life, we cannot expect intimate communication with God. This is the very nature of relationship, isn't it? In 25 years of marriage, Ann and I have slowly learned that there are many different forms of communication that are essential.

There is the day-by-day, moment-by-moment communication of practical things that must get done. Are you taking Bennett to golf practice? Are you picking up Abby from dance? Has the dog been taken outside yet? Did you really buy this?

Should this be on our credit card bill? These are the things. But there's something, of course, we want much beyond that. And we realize that if we want to know, what are your longings? How is your soul? What's in your heart? Where have you been disappointed? What do you dream of? What do you need? Where do we need to forgive?

These things. We don't get that running around the house, taking care of children, dog, and telephone. We have to pull away. We have to get a little dinner together, a little walk around the block, at least.

But better yet, some focused time. And we know that is true of any relationship. It is absolutely true of our relationship with God. God is committed to leading his people. And it doesn't mean that we're supposed to be monks in a monastery or that you sit there all day and meditate.

No, we need to be doing some things. But we are called to come apart and be with God and listen to God. And whether that means that you structure a certain time each day, or whether it means that you get a rhythm in your daily life in which you're able to be with God, or whether it means that you just learn to even cultivate the times when you are able to be alone and maybe just driving somewhere, that you're able to cultivate your spiritual life with God, all of these things. But the bottom line is it's about the heart's affection.

The reason I want to have a date with my wife is because I love her and I want to know her. And that's what moves us to do the work that is necessary to get a little bit of time. Do that with God and prosper. The second obstacle is probably the greatest obstacle to hearing accurately the voice of God. And this is a wrong view of God. A distorted theology will result in a distorted perception of the voice of God. In other words, the way that you view God will predispose you for what you interpret to be God's voice.

This is huge. If you think that God is primarily a judge eager to condemn you, then every time you hear something that is judgmental, you'll think it's God. There was a man who I didn't know until a year or two later this story was in this congregation. When I came here 13 and a half years ago, I was not aware of this, but he could not stand what I was saying about the love of God and the grace of God. He hated it, he said.

He left within six months of my coming here. It literally, it was like he said it made his skin crawl. It's like that preacher is not telling the truth.

It's the way he felt. And he left. And sometime after, he was sitting in a real law preaching kind of more harsh mentality church. And he was sitting there, after I had been sitting there week after week, and he said one day he was sitting there and it was about 30 minutes into a message, and the preacher was just angry and was preaching about judgment and about what sinners everybody was and just yelling at them. And he said I was sitting there with this man yelling at me. And he said something just turned in his heart and he said, Why am I doing this? Why am I here?

Why would I want to sit and listen to a person yell at me and tell me how bad I am for 45 minutes? And something just, a light just turned on and he just saw himself back as a little boy. When he would disobey, his mother would say go to your room and you wait until your father gets home.

And sometimes it would be hours and his father would come home and yell at him and then beat him. And he said, I realize on that day that's who I thought God must be. And he'd been missing the voice of the gospel because of a distorted image of God. This is why I'm staking my life and will not stop proclaiming the gospel of the love of God the Father in Jesus Christ for the world. Because God is love. His mercy is new every morning.

His steadfast love endures forevermore. And he so loved the world that he sent Jesus Christ to die in your place. And Jesus so finished the work that not only did he declare it was finished, but for anyone who is in Christ Jesus, there is a Sabbath rest from all of our labor because it is no longer up to us. God is not angry at his children. His wrath has been satisfied on the cross.

Not a harsh judge eager to judge the world. Jesus came not to condemn but to save. So the gospel proclaimed to us and our minds transformed with a proper theology of who God really is enables us to discern the character of God's voice.

The third obstacle is closely related to this and that is that we can not only have a distorted image of God, but we can have a distorted image of ourselves. Calvin was right in the beginning of his theological treatise when he said, all true Christianity begins with knowledge of God and knowledge of self. And we do need to know that we are sinners in the sight of God justly deserving his displeasure and without hope except in his sovereign mercy.

That is true. But it is not true to say that in as much as we do not measure up that there is some flaw within us that we must correct. For the whole gospel announces to us that it is not in our own righteousness, lest we boast, but it is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ such that when you are in Christ, you are no longer labeled by God as this miserable sinner.

You are called a saint. Well, if our minds have a filter of distorted thinking about our life, our destiny, about our past, about our place in the world, then we will distort what we hear. And as I've spoken so many times about the way shame works with this, saying there's something in me that doesn't quite measure up, I need to do more, I'm not quite good enough yet. And so I'd always need to do something a little bit more instead of resting in the finished work of Jesus and knowing myself to be so clean and so free, though, yes, I stumble and, yo, I need to grow, that I am accepted in the beloved and living out of that assurance.

That's a vast difference, isn't it? And I've laughed with you before, early in our marriage especially, I would misinterpret something Ann would say. So it's my job to take the trash out and she'd say the trash needs to go out.

But my filter, especially if it was on a stressful day or something, my filter is like, doesn't hear the trash needs to go out, I would hear you hadn't done enough. Translated, you're not done enough to be a good husband yet. Translated, you're not a good husband. That is a bad situation. If one person says something innocently and the other person is ready to fight you over it. You see?

That's a predicament. You know what I'm talking about? It's like the wounds that we have make us misinterpret what people are saying. And this is only heightened in our relationship with God. So people that have a shame filter, they read the Bible and you know what they do? They read every page as if it's about you're not good enough yet. They go to church and they hear every word about you're not good enough yet.

And totally miss the gospel. So let's rightly learn who God really is and let's get our wounds healed. Because the more that we're healed, the more we'll discern the leading of the Spirit.

That's Alan Wright. We'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. And both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but will nourish, inspire, and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in His love and power.

Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love, joy, and power. 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. The fourth obstacle.

There are many obstacles. I'm just going to mention these few. The fourth is idolatry. We, most of us as Christians, do not think that idolatry is a problem for us. And I am convinced it's one of our biggest problems. That it is one of the great tricks of hell that we have little idols in our lives.

They end up robbing us of the abundant life. An idol, scripturally, is not a God that you put in the place of the true God. It is, instead, an object of adoration or trust that you put in addition to God. Sometime go back and look at the story, the famous Golden Calf, while Moses is up on the mountain and the people melt their earrings and so forth and they come up with this golden calf. But if you look at the story closely, it clearly says that they said, come, while Moses is away, let's have a festival to the Lord. Let's have a festival to Yahweh, Jehovah God.

It was in the middle of their festival to Yahweh that they also came up with the golden calf. In other words, it's like, I'm going to worship you, God. I worship you, God. I love you, God. I want you, God. I worship you, God. You're a great and awesome God.

And I really need also to be successful in this area of my life. And then I'll really be, if I can have you, plus also I need to really make sure that I have this other thing that I've been wanting so much, and that's necessary also for my happiness or security. It is an addition to God for your security, fulfillment, or ultimate satisfaction. So anything that we put alongside of God, though even secondary to God, distracts from the intimacy of our relationship with God. Again, from the marriage illustration, isn't this true that the degree of intimacy in a married relationship depends upon the degree of exclusivity that they practice? In other words, how are you going to have an intimate marriage relationship if one person is wandering over here unfaithful?

What that has done, it has now mixed the relationship. It is, you want me, but you also want these others. And God is not a jealous God because there's something that is inadequate and empty in God, and so therefore He's jealous of other attractions in our life. God is a loving God, and His love is all-consuming. It is not loving if you are a husband and you don't care if your wife is with other men. That's not love.

That would portray the fact that you don't have love. Love demands the exclusivity in the marriage relationship as such it is with God. It is, the more unmixed my heart is for God, the more I see God. Isn't that what Jesus said? The blessed are the pure in heart. They will see God.

The less mixed I am about where my help comes from and where the glory is and all of my hope, the less mixed I am about that, it is to say the more that I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, these other things including the leadership of the Holy Spirit are added onto me. And this is a good news because you can destroy your own idols. You built them. You carved them.

You set them up. You're the one that said you've got to have the approval of others in order to be secure, so you're the one that can renounce it. Well, that's another sermon, but tear down your idols.

It would be the happiest day of your life you tear down your idols, I promise you that. And there's one more thing I want to mention that is probably amongst many other obstacles that God can heal that hinder us from hearing the voice of God and that is fear. I went to the doctor this week, had my annual physical. He's an excellent doctor.

In fact, he's a long time friend. And it's amazing the things you'll yield to a doctor in an annual physical. Oh, can we not be real in church? Can we not? I mean, you know.

No, you go to the doctor and some of you have been to a doctor this week you don't even know and took your clothes off for. I mean, you just. How are you going to yield to somebody you barely even know and yet we have a hard time yielding to God. Why? Well, we're afraid. There's a little bit of fear. Let's clear up this idea that I once had that if you really were to submit to God's leadership in your life, He is probably going to take you to a place where you don't want to go and make you do what you don't want to do for longer than you would like to do it. People think like that. I did. I thought, man, if I just surrender totally to God, I mean, man, if the spirit just overtakes my life, that's it. That is it. I am definitely somewhere in Zimbabwe.

I'm definitely in a Peruvian jungle. I just know I will be in a town where there is no movie rental store. There are two things to say to this, and I say it with full confidence from life experience, as well as the promises of God that God is a good father. And if earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more your heavenly father would give you good gifts if you ask him. And this is a God who the scripture promises loves to give you the desires of your heart. Of your heart, not of your flesh, but he is a God who is a father who loves his children.

Why does God as a father want his children to be young? You have to be so silly for me to take my children out to ice cream and say, what flavor do you want? And they said chocolate. And I said, well, you're going to have strawberry. Well, why did you bring me out for ice cream in the first place if you're going to make me eat something that tastes like medicine?

I don't want it, you know, and so that's ridiculous. The amazing thing about God is that he has a way to put you into your calling, and then you find out it is what you always wanted to do. You don't need to be scared of God. He is your advocate, your hero, your rescuer, your savior, your lover, your covering, and your king. So God is committed to melting the fear of his people.

That's why there's enough for every day of the year. Fear not, I'm with you. Don't be afraid.

Don't let your heart be troubled. I don't want you to be afraid because the more you're afraid, the harder it is for my voice to get through to you. God does not lead by fear. God leads by peace. The very nature of the Holy Spirit is peace and love, and perfect love casts out fear. Alan Wright, maybe this hit home for you today. It's in the series Filled, Why Wouldn't Everyone Want to be Led by the Spirit? Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word.

Please stay with us. Thankfully, God has never expected you to live the Christian life by your own strength. He has sent a helper, and every single Christian is invited to live a supernaturally empowered life through the continual infilling of the Holy Spirit. In a special bundle alongside the audio teaching, Pastor Alan has also written a booklet. Both the audio and the booklet not only explain the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but also nourish, inspire, and draw you nearer to the God who longs to immerse you in His love and power.

Discover how to be filled with the Spirit and get ready for your life to be filled with fresh love, joy, and power. 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 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. So Alan, it does seem a little bit, with the title of this teaching today, a little bit kind of a no-brainer, I think. It's like, well, I'm going to surrender my life to Christ. I'm putting faith.

I'm exercising trust. All these words seem to say I'm going to be led by the Spirit, but sometimes we still resist, right? Yeah, I'm just kind of playful with the titles of these messages, you know, but that is the way it feels like. Well, why wouldn't everybody want to be led by the Spirit? Why wouldn't you want the God who's omniscient, who knows everything best for you and knows exactly where you should be? Why wouldn't everybody want Him to be the one leading you every step of the way? And sometimes, you know, there's pride that's there and thinks, well, my way is a better way.

Most of the people listening right now, it's probably something else. It's probably that there's some part of us that thinks that we don't deserve to be led by Him or we can't be led by Him or that there's some obstacle or I've sinned too much. And I just want to say to anyone listening right now, God, He is speaking and He is leading and He doesn't want you stumbling or wandering or afraid.

He wants to be known. And so He is going to be leading you. And I pray that you'll be able to discern His promptings and to hear His voice and follow Him every step of the way. Alan, if I were to ask the question after hearing this, well, how do I convince my brain to trust?

Am I asking the wrong question? Probably, probably, because really following God is not so much about forcing yourself into mental assent to truths as it is an actual relationship. And I think that's so much of what we're wanting to say about being led by the Spirit is it's not a technique.

And it's not something that you convince yourself of. It really is something that grows like any trust relationship. Trust grows. So you walk with Him, you learn, you grow, you pray, you worship, you abide in the community of Christ. You do the things that Christians do and through that we grow. And as we grow, we're growing in the knowledge of God. And I think so much, Daniel, what we're trying to say today especially is as your thought life is healed from old shame-based thinking, you'll be able to more clearly hear what the voice of grace really sounds like. So you grow in your ability to hear God's voice.