The Good News in the Bad News [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You don't have to hear from God perfectly in order to hear from God. And if there's any other recovering perfectionists in our midst, I can tell you the greatest news you could ever get is for somebody to tell you, you do not have to be perfect.

You can be loved anyway. 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 Unlimited, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going 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. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special author. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

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

Here is Alan Wright. If you can't play the guitar perfectly and never miss a note, then you just can't play the guitar here. Thankfully, they don't say, unless you can preach the gospel perfectly and never mess up, I just did it right there, never mess up. If you don't do it perfectly, you can't do it at all.

Wouldn't that just be ridiculous? It's good news to know that right there in the first century, full of the Holy Spirit like you are, they didn't get it perfectly. My wife and I have been married 35 years and we talk, we love to communicate and we teach other couples about communication and we study communication in marriage and we miscommunicate every week. If you're going to be married, you're going to miscommunicate. You can have times where you thought she said this and she didn't say that or you heard it this way. I mean, I'm being serious.

In small ways, sometimes big ways. But I mean, it's not a week ago that we don't miscommunicate in which someone, and it's usually me, it's usually me, and she'll be like, you know, I was like, don't you remember I said so-and-so? I said, oh, no, that's not what you said. No, you know, this is what I said.

I said this and then we're like, that's not what I heard. And it was like, you know what happens when we have a miscommunication in our marriage and somebody didn't hear something perfectly? You know what happens? Nothing.

We stay married and we try to communicate better the next time. How ridiculous it is to think ridiculous to think that you're going to hear from God perfectly and if you can't hear from God perfectly, you just can't fellowship with God. Beloved, let me tell you the good news of these imperfect prophecies is that you can hear imperfectly from God and you can fellowship with God now and forever. Yeah. God's amazing.

So loving and patient and wonderful. All right. So there's a good news to a warning. If the warning is strengthening you for the battles of the promised land, there's good news in imperfect prophecies if it means that even though we don't hear perfectly, that we are called to hear from God. And then me and my greatest struggle with this text is that Paul really was going to face some tough times ahead and that's not fun to read about or hear about. They learn about the prophetic insight, the foreboding that's happening and they really try to persuade him not to go until finally Paul admits that they're just making it harder. In verse 13, Paul answered, what are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart. You know, this reminds me of like, I know there's times I might go on a ministry trip.

There've been more than one occasion I'm going to go out on an intensive ministry trip that I know I'm called to and I have great joy in doing it. And the family's headed off to the beach or something, you know, and I can remember more than one time the kids are like, they're like pulling your dress. Daddy, don't go, don't go, come with us.

And you're sitting there going, you're just making it harder on me. It's kind of like, you know, in college and our dormitory, we had guys that we called the corruption factors. Those are the guys that didn't care about studying. And for those of us that did care about making grades and graduating, and those guys would come around and knock on your door. Back in those days, all we had, the only video game was Pac-Man. There were guys that flunked out.

They were addicted to Pac-Man and the Pac-Man guys would come around and knock on your door and say, what are you doing? I said, I'm studying for a big midterm tomorrow. Leave me alone. No, come on, man. Just take a break.

Just, just blow it off. Just come on out. You know, we're going to go, go downstairs.

We're going to play some ping pong right now. You know what I mean? Just like, and you're sitting there like, you know what?

The last thing I want to be doing right now is studying for this exam. And now here you are telling me to just come with you. You're just making it harder.

Go away. That's what this scene is like. It's like eventually just says, who watches all this weeping and breaking my heart?

It's hard enough to go knowing that I'm going to be arrested. It's real trouble that's in front of them. It reminds me of the time that Peter, assuming that he needed to protect Jesus after Jesus had told him about the suffering that was ahead in Matthew 16 verse 22, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. His name was Simon and Jesus had just changed his name to Peter, which means rock. And when the short order Jesus now says, get behind me, Satan. I think, I think the devil actually appeared, but the point being Jesus, even Jesus had to say, you're a hindrance.

You're making it harder for me. Peter, I love you. I'm going to build my church on your proclamation on my Lordship, but right now I need to tell you to stop because you just aren't helping.

Here's what changed everything. Finally, Paul said at verse 13, Paul answered, I'm ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And Luke writes, since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. Wow.

I'm ready. Remember, Paul also said, for me to live is Christ and die is gain. There is something that's more important to me than comfort, guys.

That's what he's saying. And finally, they said, quit urging him to stay. We bless him to go. Will the Lord be done? Now, interestingly, I wish we had a long time to show you everything that happens after this in Paul's life, but it really makes sense once you see it.

Let me give you the highlight of this. So what happens is Paul goes to Jerusalem and he ends up getting an opportunity to speak to a huge group of Jewish leaders and to tell all these Jews more plainly than ever about his testimony, about how the Lord appeared to him, to tell them the gospel. And they hate what he's saying and they hate Paul so much that they want to kill him. And the mob is going to rise up and kill them. But the Roman council, instead of handing him over to the angry mob, they decide we should flog him and interrogate him ourselves to see why this crowd's so angry.

What has he done? They get ready to flog him. And Paul turns to the Roman officials who says, is it okay for you to flog a Roman citizen who hadn't been justly tried? And they step back and realize he was a Roman citizen and he had all these rights.

So they didn't flog him. And instead, what happened is the Roman official just wanted to know why the Jews wanted to kill Paul. So he brought in Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees and let Paul talk to them. And what I'm saying is, one of the things that happened was Paul got to talk to Jewish leaders only because he was being protected by the fact he'd been arrested by the Roman officials. And he talked to them more plainly than any other place in the New Testament and they would have probably killed him. But instead he spoke to them.

It's fascinating. Well, let me read a couple of verses about that point right there at verse 10 and 11 of Acts 23. When the dissension became violent, the tribune, the Roman official, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him to the barracks. And look what happened at verse 11. Here's another sweet thing that happens. The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, take courage for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.

Now we know Paul had all kind of visions and experiences of God, but this stands unique. The Lord Jesus came and stood next to him and talked to him face to face. I don't want to suffer and I don't want to be unjustly arrested and I don't want to be in a place where there's persecution.

I don't want any of that. But if you get to stand next to the Lord Jesus face to face and have a conversation, I believe you'd say it was more than worth it. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. 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 PastorAlan.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. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. 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. But something else happens. So he's imprisoned. And while he's in prison in Rome, the Jews cause a big conspiracy to arise where they're going to try to ambush him. And they're going to go to the Roman officials and say, we want to hear more from him, but secretly they're going to ambush him. And Paul learns about this because Paul's nephew overheard the conversation and came and told him. And the nephew then went and told the Roman officials.

And here's what happened at verse 23 of Acts 23. Then the tribune, the Roman official called two of the centurions and said, get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. And provide also mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor. The Romans now hearing this provide 200 soldiers and Paul gets to ride on a horse protected all the way to Caesarea so that he can speak to the governor. He would have been killed except Rome is escorting him to his next ministry location. It's just fascinating how vividly he tells the story to Felix the governor and from there he goes on to Rome to testify before the emperor and he spends their two years under house arrest in Rome. But while he's under this house arrest, he's given a lot of freedom to preach the gospel and he interacts with a lot of people.

And while in Rome, most scholars agree while he was in that house arrest, he wrote the letters to Philemon, the letter to the Colossians, the letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Philippians. What I'm saying is if he hadn't gone to Jerusalem and been arrested, he wouldn't have gone to Caesarea and he wouldn't have gotten to Rome and he wouldn't have been under house arrest and he wouldn't have written Ephesians. And what would I do without Ephesians? What would I do without Ephesians chapter one?

What would I do without knowing that we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, chosen in him before the foundation of the world, predestined to be holy and blameless in his sight. It's a story that at one level is quite disturbing to think that God would knowingly send Paul to a place where he would be arrested knowing that angry crowds would want to kill him. But at the same time, it's a wonderful freeing story.

Because when Paul says in verse three, I'm ready not only to be in prison, but to even die in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus. And the people recognize that there's something more important than our comfort. And they say, let the will of the Lord be done. They see what we need to see. The glorious freedom of a man who does not idolize his own comfort and does not even idolize the longevity of his own life.

Let me say this as plainly as I know how. I like comforts. We all like comforts and God pours out blessing and he gives us comforts and he gives us delicacies and he gives us wonderful times and most of us have wonderful places to live and we live in the greatest country and the greatest time in the history of the world and God's favor is poured out upon us and it's just wonderful and I love it. But we don't live for comfort. So we mustn't make an idol of it. And if pandemic's doing one thing for a lot of us, it's shaking us out of our idolatry of comfort. And even more so, Paul who said to live as Christ and die as gain is showing he didn't idolize the longevity of his life either.

Let me be very clear. I think it's God's will normally for us to live long lives and prosper and I'm planning on it. I want to play golf when I'm 100 because I think that'd be my best chance of shooting my age. And I want you to live a long, long healthy life and that's what I want for my children and my children's children. But beloved, we mustn't make an idol even of that.

They're far worse things than dying. Because when we in Christ die, we go into the immediate presence of the Lord and fellowship with all the saints and all the people that we have loved in the Lord and known for the rest of eternity and we become part of a new heaven and a new earth that God has renovated and reconstructed an earth that he did not destroy but instead remade so that we live in our self-same bodies in a resurrected form, fellowshiping with one another forever and forever and with Jesus and doing glorious things as we co-reign in eternity. Let us not make an idol out of anything. I was thinking during the closing worship song today, it's weird how the Lord, sometimes the best way to hear from God, don't try to hear from God, just worship him. I just worship him and it just came in my, it just jumped up, I wasn't trying to think of something, it just jumped up in my spirit and I saw a picture of a man on an airplane who was scared to fly and he was seated next to someone and this is the image, all this could happen.

Isn't it amazing how in the spirit things, it's like two seconds you saw the whole thing. And that's what I saw was like a man who's scared to fly and the man sitting next to him wanted to help him and said, I see you're scared to fly. He said, yeah, I am. The man said, trying to encourage him, he said, yeah, but flying is so safe. He said, it's probably the safest form of travel, it's way safer than traveling in a car.

In fact, nobody has died in a domestic air flight in America in 10 years or something. I mean, the harder than anybody dies. Finally, the man turned to him and said, he tried to encourage him further, he said, your chances are greater getting struck by lightning and dying. And I see the man who's so scared said, so there's a chance then. Because the fact of the matter is if the only way that we can assure one another is to try to tell one another that it's not really that bad and yet a human being knows that it is possible that it could be that bad, then you haven't really given them any real freedom. The only way to not be afraid of death is to come to the place where you know that you're going to die and realize that in it there is glory for you.

So ultimately the only way you can not be afraid of flying is to not be afraid of dying. And what I'm saying ultimately is I struggled with this text that what I realized that God is showing here is that in the midst of all this imperfection that there is a witness to the power of the gospel that is on display that is in Paul and was in Jesus and can live in us and that is yes, we face real struggles but in those real struggles there is so much good news of the gospel that we need not idolize anything of this world and therefore we are free. And whoever is free in Christ is free indeed. Free to love Him, free to worship Him, free to be brave, free to dare to come out of the comfort zone. God is with you and He will give you warnings so you can avoid dangers but sometimes He'll tell you it's going to be a challenge so get ready and I'm going to be with you. Put on the whole armor of God. And there are times in which we minister to one another and we find that we didn't do it perfectly and God's in the midst of us saying take heart, you don't have to be perfect just keep on growing.

And there are times in which what our struggles serve to do for us is to shake away our idols and leave us in the freedom of the security of God. He'll be with you no matter how long pandemic goes or whatever you might face. He'll be with you and that's the gospel. Alan Wright and our good news message today. The good news in the bad news from the series Unlimited. Pastor Alan is back here in just a moment sharing a part in good news thought for all of us for the day.

Stick with us. Walk 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 PastorAlan.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. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. 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. Back here to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day and the good news and the bad news and you're a good news preacher.

And so I'm sure you don't have any lack of people at your doorstep with problems though. Yeah you know absolutely I think that the Gospel is such good news and life with God brings us so much good news but sometimes there's bad news. And what do we do with that? And that's what this text is really about is that there is sometimes a way in which okay on the one hand this is bad news on the other hand there's something good that you can see in it. And that's why you know a story like this in Acts it's one that pardon me we're going to kind of cough and move on to the next chapter you know. But I don't think we need to do that because I think that instead we can learn and see that even in something like where there's a warning or something where there is a disappointment or a great obstacle God is in the work in the midst of that as well. You pointed out if the Lord has prepared you for something difficult the good news is that he will go with you.

He's never going to have a time where there's a challenge in front of you that may be difficult that he's not also going to be with you. And so sometimes what well it feels like bad news carries with it some of the best news the very presence of God with you. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.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 PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.