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, Foolproof, 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 can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.
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Here is Alan Wright. When someone is angry with you, instead of you speaking harshly to them, which then throws fuel onto the fire of wrath, instead have a gentle word that calms. We're talking about power of words. They can avoid calamity. Proverbs 21, 23.
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. Healing to your bones. Proverbs 16, 24. Gracious words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Prosperity linked to our words. Proverbs 18, 20. From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach is satisfied. He is satisfied by the yield of his lips. The prosperity of your life is linked to your words.
Life itself. Proverbs 18, 21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Death and life are in your tongue. God doesn't just ask you to have a mastery of your speech, but He has come to make it possible. Let me talk to you about the mercies of God in His redemptive work for our speech.
Here's what happened. In the beginning, God fellowshiped intimately in paradise with Adam and Eve. When Satan entered the scene through the symbolic presence of a serpent, the conversation of the temptation centered around what God said or didn't say. And God had told Adam and Eve they could eat of any fruit tree in paradise, except there was one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they weren't to eat of. But the serpent came in and said, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
He talked about God, He talked about trees, He talked about eating, and He talked about the garden, but He turned the words all around. So the primal temptation was a word that was unfitly spoken. The foundational temptation was a twisting of God's word. In other words, what I'm saying is even the devil himself understood the power of words. And then the devil not only twisted, but introduced a word that was not God's word, and said God knows that you'll become like Him if you eat of the tree. And so the word of God, having been distorted and then added to in the minds of Adam and Eve, became to them a perversion of God's own word, and for them became their initial act of disobedience. That's how sin came into the world. And so what I want you to envision is if sin came into the world by the distortion of God's word, would it not make sense if all of that sin needed to be reversed, that the way it would happen would be by a clarification of God's word.
In other words, the serpent veiled the eyes of Adam and Eve so they would misunderstand God's word, and what God has done for us is He has come in fullness of revelation so we would clearly know His word. This is why there is a profound link between Genesis 1 verse 1 and following, and John 1 verse 1 and following, because in the beginning God said let there be light. And in John chapter 1 verse 1, the revelation of John's gospel begins with these words, and the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
I'm talking about some of the deepest mysteries in all of life. The word is a translation of a Greek word logos, and to the Greeks logos meant the ordering rational principle of the whole universe. And John took by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit this prevalent profound Greek thought, and said that which you believe is the ordering structure of everything that exists that you might think of as the mind of God, that logos has always been God and been with God, and He's talking about Jesus. And He says at verse 3 of John 1, all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Now just think about this, what John is saying, God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He's one, and He's three, it's a mystery. And nothing has been made except God spoke. And now John clarifies and says Jesus is the word. So everything that's been made has been made through the living word, and Jesus Christ is the living word. So everything in the Bible is pointing to Jesus. The written word of God is all pointing to the living word Jesus. And He came to us, John says at verse 14, and became flesh and dwelt amongst us. So sin came in the world because there was a distortion of God's word, and God brought salvation to the world by bringing a revelation. In other words, God is saying if you want to see me, look to Jesus. And He gives us Jesus.
That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Just start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. We're happy to share it with you at our cost of only $15. Visit PastorAlan.org to get your Seeing as Jesus Sees product bundle. When you're there, you'll notice that you can opt to make a donation above the cost of the bundle, and we would sure appreciate your support. This broadcast that shares the power of the good news of Jesus Christ nationwide every day is only possible through the generosity of listeners like you. Visit PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Salvation comes, listen to this, I'm speaking of a profound mystery. Salvation comes when you have a miraculous revelation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners. And when you believe that, when you receive that He took your place on the cross, when you receive that, this is the moment of salvation. And Paul describes it this way in Romans chapter 10.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Now, what Paul's not, he's not saying here that there's one thing you believe in your heart and that's justification, and then you speak about that salvation.
He's talking about the same thing. Your justification is your salvation, but what he's saying is in the same way earlier that I suggested that when that groom says to his bride on Saturday, I take you to be my wife, and when she says the same to him, the intent, the love, the assurances of that love, all of that is appropriated through their speech and through my announcement that they are wed. And what God has done for you is He has come in the person of Jesus Christ overturning all of the distortion of revelation about what He said and who He is and giving us a full revelation. He became flesh and dwelt in our midst so we could see His glory up close.
And when you see that and when you trust in Jesus and you believe in Him and then you say it with your mouth, you have appropriated unto yourself the very saving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me give you another way that God has overturned what has happened, and that is that sin grew to such an extent that the pride of the people in Genesis 11 calls them to say, let's build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. They built the Tower of Babel and their pride was so great that God came and said, let us go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech and the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of the earth.
So the consequences of profound pride was that there was a disunity amongst people who could no longer understand one another. But after Jesus came, He told the disciples before He ascended to heaven, wait in Jerusalem until you're clothed with power from on high. And what happened in Acts chapter 2 when the day of Pentecost arrived and they were all together in one place, Acts 2 verse 2 said, suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation and under heaven and at the sound multitude came together and they were bewildered. All these people that came together were bewildered because they're from all over the place with different dialects and different native tongues and each one was hearing them speak in his own language. God overturned Babel. He now has come in the Holy Spirit and He was demonstrating that the Spirit is bringing unity where before there was only disunity.
Let me show you what else He's done. By taking away your guilt, He has purified your mouth. Isaiah chapter 6 describes the call of the prophet who sees God in a vision and He sees heavenly creatures calling out to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty who is the Lord of hosts and the earth is full of His glory. And when Isaiah sees this, listen to what he says in Isaiah 6, 5. I said woe is me for I'm lost.
Some translations say I am ruined, I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King of the Lord of hosts. When perhaps in a greater measure than anybody in the history of the world has ever seen God's glory up close in such a way that it highlighted their own sin, the sin that was manifestly known to Isaiah was my speech.
It's so identified with who we are. But look at the picture of the gospel, this is what God did. One of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and said behold this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Beloved, here's great news, in Jesus Christ God has flown to you with the hot coal of his mercy and grace and he has burned away the sin of your life because Jesus took your sin, it is no longer upon you. And instead you have been purified and made holy and right by the blood of Jesus and as such you are given a whole new heart and the more that you meditate upon the goodness of God and what he's done for you, the more that you fill your heart with the good news of the gospel, the more that you know that you're holy, the more that you know that you belong to God, the more that you know that you're a new creature in Christ, the more that you meditate on these things. I'm telling you what's happening is your heart is being filled with the gospel.
In Luke chapter 6 Jesus said no good tree bears bad fruit nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit for each tree is known by its fruit, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. How are we going to master our tongues? Not simply by self will or trying harder but by the abundance of the grace of God that lives in our hearts, by filling our hearts up with the Word of God so that it dwells so richly within us that the abundance, the overflow, the thing that is there and is available to us like drawing upon a well is down deep within us and here's what God has done. God has even promised to his disciples when they deliver you over do not be anxious. Matthew 10 19 how you're to speak or what you say for what you're to say will be given you in that hour for it is not you who speak that the Spirit of the Father speaking through you. God is even saying that not only have I reversed the way sin came in the world through a distortion of my word by giving you my son who is my word in the fullness of revelation, not only have I reversed Babel by bringing the Holy Spirit to bring unity amongst the people of God and God is saying that you be given a new heart and inside of that heart mystically I will reside with you and if you yield your mouth to me I will speak for you.
It's not really that hard. Here's what happened to me especially as a parent. Before we ever had kids God took me on this paradigm shift because too often I had moments where in my frustration I would speak out of the frustration about the very thing that I didn't want to have happen.
You get discouraged and you say well I stink and this is going to fail or you're discouraged with your child and you forecast something negatively. But what God did when He said let there be light is because He wanted there to be light He spoke light. And what I discovered is it's just as simple as speak the very thing that you want rather than its opposite. Line up your heart with God's heart and you speak God's words.
The winner of the 2015 Toastmasters National Speech Contest gave his speech on the power of words. And he used this example he was the father of a little boy and said he came in one day and his little boy was drawing with crayons writing on the wall. And his dad said he came in he said what are you stupid? He said quit writing on the wall you're messing it up. And some days later he came in and there was his boy writing on the wall again the whole time kind of looking at him like you see me doing this. And this time he wizened up and the dad said he got down on one knee and he said sweetheart come here. He said you know what you're a big boy now big boys don't draw on the wall please don't do that anymore.
And he said his son never drew on the wall again. And the word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. By God's grace your words can change the world.
And that's the gospel. In today's teaching full proof communication in our series full proof please stay with us Alan is back in the studio in just a moment as he shares his parting good news thought for the day. In his eye-opening book Alan Wright invites readers into a new simple spiritual practice a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day.
Jesus how do you see this. It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion win over the darkness and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book and as an additional thank you for your support. You'll also receive a free six week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life.
As you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes you'll start seeing as Jesus sees and you're going to love the view. We're eager for you to receive this month's special product so we're happy to share it with you at our cost of only $15. Visit PastorAlan.org to get your Seeing as Jesus Sees product bundle. When you're there you'll notice that you can opt to make a donation above the cost of the bundle and we would sure appreciate your support. Visit PastorAlan.org that's PastorAlan.org or call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Back here in the studio Alan our parting good news thought for the day on foolproof communication it really is if you think that you don't have much to offer. First of all that's not true but secondly the power of your words you can bless someone in an amazing way. And I think that's the thought I'd like to leave our listeners with today Daniel. There's somebody in your life if you're listening now there's someone in your life that the power of your words can shape and release a destiny. Maybe it's a child or a dear friend or a spouse maybe even someone who's persecuted you before but you have a choice. And God has given you an ultimate tool stronger and better than any other tool you could ever find. And it's your words and a word fitly spoken can change somebody's life. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
