R1588 A Christian Response

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and this message, A Christian Response. Responding, it's what we do a lot, don't we? I know we want to be active, we want to be intentional, and we should be, but they're a part of our lives that just is our response to what's going on around us.

Our response to our own loved ones, our response to the people we work with, go to school with, we have recreation with. Today, Dr. Wilton's message, A Christian Response, will help us gain some insight from God's encouraging word about what we know to be true in our head, but how we can control our emotions and help have that Christian response in every way possible. As we study the word, know that we're available for you. Connecting online at www.tewonline.org. While you're there, sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don. That's at www.tewonline.org. Now, today's message.

Here's Dr. Don Wilton. For just a few moments, I want us to consider a Christian response. Pastor Ron, through God's word, has made it very clear. This is what God said. Jesus said this.

Love God, love others. On a very personal note, most of you know me. I grew up in Africa.

I've been a United States citizen for nearly 40 years and lived here longer than that. I'm a Christian man. Jesus changed my life. I'm not a perfect man. How could I be? I'm a Christian man.

Christ lives in me. And I have to ask myself in today's world and in light of these deep issues that we face. What is God saying to me? What is my response?

What is your response? That's why I'm inviting you to give your life to Christ today. When you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

You and I have no measure of response outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in Christ, I am entwilt by the Holy Spirit and God by his Holy Spirit is going to do for me what I evidently cannot do for myself. One of the men that I respect greatly in the United States of America, one of the great African-American pastors in our nation, Dr. Tony Evans, pastor of the great Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, a man that I've had the privilege of sitting alongside, of listening to, of learning from. Dr. Tony Evans said, and I quote, Don't try to change others if God can't even change your heart.

Unity starts with you. Each of us plays a part in healing our racial divide. He went on to say this. This is a powerful quote from Dr. Tony Evans. This, he said just the other day, is a defining moment for us as churches and as citizens, whether we want to be one nation under God or a divided nation apart from God.

If we don't answer the question right and if we don't answer it quickly, we won't be much of a nation at all. Another man, brother in Christ, fellow citizen of my city in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is our current police chief, Chief Thompson. He is a wonderful man and I quote, I kneel and I pray all the time. As long as I am praying, I want you to know I pray without ceasing. And I ask God that you do the same and that you ask God to heal our land.

Where do we go? Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Pastor Ron. Thank you, my beloved fellow Christian men and women. Thank you, brothers and sisters in Christ in our community.

I call upon all believers in the United States of America at a time like this, to ask God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. I'm going to read to you two verses from Psalm 139 and verse 23. This is David, the king. This man had a relationship with God. He was personally known by God. He was appointed by God. This man was anointed by God and yet his sin was ever before him. He was faced with every predicament, every circumstance, from the racism of his day, to the separation among the tribes, to the demeaning of one another, to the manner with which people responded to each other and the very expression of the true meaning of the love of Christ through his own heart and life. And this is what David said, search me, O God, and know my heart, test me, and know my anxious thoughts. O God, would you see if there be any wicked or offensive way in me, and lead me in your way everlasting. What does the Christian response involve?

Well, beloved friends, I believe it involves three things. First of all, as a believer, it involves looking up. Pastor Ron, my brother in Christ and my friend, fellow pastor, just a few moments ago, reminded us of that great imperative when those Pharisees and those Sadducees, the rulers of the law, the governors of the state, the people who claim to know that they had every solution to every need, and they came to the Lord Jesus Christ and they tried to test him, they tried to trap him, they tried to put him in a corner, they tried to prove to him what they had determined from their own human disposition. And Jesus said, I want you to know that the greatest thing that you can do is to look up into the face of Almighty God. You see, my friends, when you and I look up into the face of God, we see the true meaning of Christian love. Jesus said, love one another. And by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. And when you look into the face of God, you see the reflection, the very mirror image of the unparalleled, indeterminate before creation of time, unsurpassed love of God in Christ Jesus, that with such compassion, he would reach down from the portals of heaven and he would give to us Jesus and pass along to us a love so deep and so rich that it surpasses our human understanding.

I don't know what it was about the psalmist, about David, but I submit when we look up into the face of God, you and I as believers in our strife-torn nation will take hold of a fresh meaning of the true meaning of love. We'll understand in a fresh way when we look into the face of God the true meaning of forgiveness. How can we ever understand that?

I don't understand that. I don't understand how as a boy in Africa, living among the Zulu people on the other side of the world, that this God would have reached down from the portals of heaven and that he would have confronted me with my own sinfulness and my own unworthyness, my own racial biases and dispositions, my own attitudes, my own selfishness, those things which the Word of God said are sin and they separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But when I look into the face of God, I not only see a true meaning of love, but I come to a fresh understanding of the true meaning of forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

I submit to you today, just look to Charleston. You and I, so horrified by the treachery, the barbarism of a young man who would walk into a church where precious men and women meet to pray and to seek the face of God and in an act of unparalleled barbarism would kill those people, just murder them in cold blood. You know, the thing that gripped our hearts was the way in which the family members of those very same people, right there in the midst of the courtroom. Yes, understanding that the full letter of the law needed to be carried out in this young man's life.

That he would have to pay the full consequence of his sin. These people looked across that courtroom and in front of the United States of America said, we forgive this young man for doing something so unconscionable. America, we as believers, when we look up into the face of God, God will refresh our hearts. Give us the true meaning of love, the true meaning of forgiveness and the true meaning of reconciliation because when we look into the face of God, he brings that which is separated from him into a right relationship with God and because of our vertical relationship, horizontally he passes that on through the life of every believer so that I can look this way. I can look this way. I can look behind me.

I can look in front of me, red and yellow and black and white. All people are precious in God's sight and God does for me what I cannot do for myself because he gives to me a spirit of reconciliation. I present to you America, dramatically void of love, dramatically void of forgiveness, dramatically void of reconciliation, a Christian's response. What a powerful statement. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and he'll be back in just a moment to complete today's message called A Christian Response. And if the Lord is stirring your heart and perhaps you'd like to have someone pray with you and for you in this particular season of life, we would love to do so.

Our phone number is 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org where you'll discover great resources like this. Our nation is in crisis. The devil is working overtime. How do we counteract the evil all around us? How do we overcome? We must learn to be quiet, to be still and listen for the voice of God. We must listen and obey. With your gift of support to The Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's timely messages on the teachings of Daniel. Messages include hearing God's voice in the crowd, the power of obedience, and the story of conviction. These messages on CD or DVD will be sent to you for a gift of $20 or more in support of The Encouraging Word. Call us at 866-899-WORD to request Dr. Wilton's teachings on Daniel, a man of courage, conviction, and immovable faith. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. Thank you for listening today.

And now back to the great teaching of Dr. Don Wilton. How do you respond, my friend? I'm not asking you today how Washington responds. I'm not asking you today how does the president respond. I'm not asking you today how does the civil rights movement respond. I'm not asking you today any other than what God would ask of me because He is my Savior and He's my Lord and He looks upon my heart and He says to me, Don Wilton, you are a child of God. How do you respond? How do you respond? Christian response involves looking up, but it also means that when we look up, it involves looking in. This is an automatic. It's the very heartbeat of salvation.

It's the root of our relationship with Christ. As we gather together, hundreds of us, by way of television, maybe you're sitting there today, someone told me just recently that they were driving by last week in their motor car. They just happened to have their window down and they heard this sound. They said, hello, what's that?

They wound their window down, ended up stopping in the parking lot up here. Took the time to call me and tell me how that God began to grip their heart and you might say to me today, Well, pastor, what are you asking? Are you asking that we, the people that we listen to pastor Ron? No, I'm not asking that. I'm asking today that you, you listen to this praise team and the Genesis band in this incredible sound.

I'm not asking that. You might be saying to me, Well, pastor, why don't you get alongside someone and let them talk to you and teach you? Yes, these are the things we do, but I'm not asking you to do that because God is not asking us to do that. If we don't begin by looking up into the face of God, we will never know what it means to look in and to see ourselves as God sees us. When we look in, the Holy Spirit begins to do his work and as we bring this together, let me show you what the Psalmist said, the five things the Holy Spirit will do for you.

You're ready? Here's what the Holy Spirit will do. Looking into the face of God, all I'm saying to you today right now, right now, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, right now, Spartanburg, right now, believers across this beautiful land from sea to shining sea for just a moment, please. Hear what God says. Let's draw a line in the sand.

Let's stop. And every one of us who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, let's look up into the face of God himself. And when we look into the face of God, we're gonna begin to see ourselves in light of who God is and the Spirit of the living God is going to do his work. Here's what he's going to do. Number one, he's going to search me.

He's gonna conduct a mission. He's gonna burrow into my meat bones. He's gonna get down there into my soul's spirit. He's gonna rock my world. He's gonna alter my perspective.

He's gonna change my heart. The Bible says, search me, O God. Conduct a Holy Spirit, Renaissance, reconnaissance, vision in my heart.

Go to work by your Spirit. He not only will search me, but he will know me. He knows my heart. That's what the Psalmist says in 139 and verse 23. Know my heart. That word there carries with it an open abandonment of the very reality of what is deep down in my heart and my soul.

Why? Because God's Word says man is so limited. You and I have the capacity only to look upon the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart, and he knows my heart because God made me. He created me in the image of God. He created all people, male and female. He created them, and he knows us, and he loves us, and he forgives us, and he has reconciled us to a holy and a righteous God, and when we begin to look in ourselves, the Spirit of God begins to search our bone marrow and our soul spirit, knowing our hearts, and he tests us. Try me, O God.

I think America's greatest days are ahead of us if we pass the test. Tony Evans said this is a defining moment for those of us who are believers, whether we want to be one nation under God or we want to be a divided nation apart from God. What does the Holy Spirit do when we as believers in our Christian response look up into the face of God?

Look in. The Spirit of God searches us, knows us, tests us, puts us to the test. The Bible says the Holy Spirit also understands us.

That may come as a shock to some of you. He understands us. The Bible tells us there very clearly that he understands our anxious thoughts. God knows the disturbance of the human heart.

God knows our weakness because of the Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the Word of God was tempted in all points just as we are yet without sin. This the spotless Lamb of God who took upon himself our flesh, and when the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and lives, he not only searches and knows and tries and tests, he understands. And the final thing that he does is he exposes our wicked ways. Oh, now we're going to be uncomfortable.

Now we're going to be uncomfortable. You see, many of us, those of us who are believers, we can tolerate everything excepting being exposed in our sinfulness. And that's what God does by his Spirit. He says, see, expose me.

The word there in the Hebrew text means unravel, peel back the outer clothing, make known, expose me. In my heart and soul show me the filthiness of my sin and my degradation, expose me. How do we respond, people?

Have you asked that question lately? What's the right answer today? What is the right answer? What do we say? A Christian response involves looking up. It involves looking in. But here it is, folks.

It involves acting out, doing. Love God, love others. Would you bow your heads with me today? I'm asking God's people in the presence of the Lord today. What is your response before mighty God?

Not before the Senate, not before the House of Representatives, not to a friend, family member. What's your response to the Lord? That's where it begins.

Search me, O God. You and I have one place to go. God invites us. He says, you belong to me.

You do? You're my son. You're my daughter. Look up. Just check me out and the beauty of my holiness.

Oh, we know. We know that great passage of Scripture that I spent four weeks preaching about just recently. O God, would you hear us from heaven? Would you forgive our sin? O God, would you heal our land?

Here's how you do this. Humble yourself before the Lord, before God, before God. Pray.

Cry to Him. Seek God's face. Repent. Repent. Do business with the Lord today. Wherever you are, my friend, God's calling your name because He loves you.

You're saying today, what can I do about this? Give your life to Christ. I'm going to invite you to give your heart to Jesus Christ.

You say to me, how do I do that? The Bible says, if I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, I will be saved. Will you confess Jesus Christ as Lord?

Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Tell Him that. Pray that. Say, O God, I confess that you alone are Lord. I believe in my heart that you're alive.

You paid the price. You took my sin upon yourself and God, because He loves me, raised you from the dead so that I can have life, that I can know real love. I can understand what it means to really forgive others. And I can be reconciled to a holy and a righteous God.

And in so doing, I can be reconciled to my fellow man. Would you give your life to Christ? Have you prayed that prayer? Did you just pray that prayer with Dr. Don? Giving your life to Jesus Christ or rededicating your life to Jesus?

If so, we are so excited to revel in the new. What's going to be next in your life? Oh, one of the things I hope will be next is that you'll let Dr. Don know about what God's doing in your life. You can give us a call and we'll be glad to deliver that message. Call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.

Or you can email Dr. Don directly, Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Dr. Don would love to hear your story, but we'd also love to put those resources in your hands. Again, Dr. Don has prepared a unique set of resources as you begin a new life in Christ or rededicated life in Christ. So please ask for those at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. You also have wonderful resources like the Abandoned Faith book or the Great Awakening message series. All the details are online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Know that we are here to encourage you and would love to connect with you this week on the phone or online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G or 866-899-9673. The Encouraging Word.