R1631 Alive

It's one word, and it's the title of Dr. Wilton's message today, Simply Alive! Let's open God's encouraging word together. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton. Discover more about us on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. And now today's great teaching from Dr. Don Wilton. Let's pray together.

Lord, it's just, wow. Father, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth. Just as it is in heaven, it is too wonderful for words, O God, that you would have loved us so much that you would have sent Jesus, your Son, this spotless Lamb of God, to come to this earth, this sinful, sin-sick world of ours, where we are trapped in our flesh and where we struggle with so many things, Lord, notwithstanding the sin of our hearts, the inclination of our hearts.

And yet you would love us so much. Thank you for Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray together.

Amen. I just cannot try to comprehend or try and tell each one of you how much I thank God for you today and just for the preciousness of us being together like this. Just so many of us worshiping in Genesis in celebration and the thousands upon thousands who worship with us today, our way of television and live streaming and places, states, countries, military bases, just people everywhere worshiping the Lord right now, and none of that even touching the hem of the garment of the one of whom we speak, this Jesus. And I just pray today that the Lord Jesus would bless you. Thank you for joining together like this. And right at the outset of our time of worship, Jesus died for you.

He died for me, every one of us. We see ourselves very often as this vast group of people, these congregations and gatherings, and most certainly we are. We see the stadiums of life, but it's just mind boggling to think that when Jesus went to the cross and when God raised him by his power that he had every single one of us in mind.

Do you understand that? And he sees you. He knows you. And what I'm about to share with you today is going to show you how very significant this is because he understands every single thing about you. And so many of us today we gather and we bring to this moment in time our lives. You and I have got a life. We've each got a story. You know, we say this many times, and if we could project onto screens right now, just the people worshiping the Lord and each story of every one of us. You and I know very well that we could never ever have enough. We couldn't extend that.

We couldn't buy enough screens to project the life, the story, the circumstances. Some of you, some of us, we are experiencing such great joy. You know, not everything about COVID has been bad.

COVID is bad, but not everything about it hasn't all been just rotten and bad. I've had people say to me for the first time in my life, I've spent quality time with my family. I had a father say to me a couple of weeks ago, he came to me and he said to me, you know, Don, he said, if you want to look at a silver lining on the cloud of COVID, he said it stopped me in my tracks. He said, all of a sudden I had to work from home and all of a sudden I started to see my wife through a different lens. And he said, all of a sudden I noticed my children like never before. And he told me that he had become so busily consumed by his work.

It was go, go, go, go, go. You know, God has given us an opportunity today and to really take note. And I'm telling you, I'm praying for you right now.

We are praying for you. You individually, I'm going to ask you if you know Jesus, not the person next to you. I'm not asking you today if your mother prayed for you, which I'm sure she did. I'm not asking you if you grew up in a Christian home.

I'm asking you if you know Jesus. I'm not asking you if you're just a wonderfully happy Christian. You know, everything in the Bible tells me that Christians have the abundant life and we do. But Christians also sin against God. Christians also suffer with anxiety.

You know how much anxiety there is? Do you know Christians can get angry? Christians can speak out of turn. Christians can behave badly. You know, the Bible tells us that Jesus hung on that cross, first of all, that we would know him.

And then having come to know him so that we could live in him. It's a daily thing and God knows us and he loves us. And that battle that you're going through right now, do you know Christians can go through divorces?

Did you know that? Really fine Christian people. Do you know wonderful Christian moms and dads can raise wonderful Christian homes and still have sons and daughters who grow up and today they're far from God? Do you know that there are moms and dads who love, just love their sons and daughters, that they cry out to God every day because their sons and daughters don't know Jesus? I want to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. You'll want to have a look at this in your Bibles with me today, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Wonderful passage of scripture. This talks teaches us about the fact that Jesus is alive.

1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 12. Listen to how personal this is. You're going to feel when I read this passage today like, you're talking to me?

Yes. It's not me. God talks to us individually.

Listen to what he says. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, if Christ has not been raised, we are then found to be false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that he raised Jesus Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact we the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still lost in your sins. Then those who have died or fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all people. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection from the dead and of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam and Eve, all die. But in Christ, we are all made alive. That's a powerful passage of scripture.

That's the Easter message right there, full of personal questions. You know, I am no different. I was born and raised on the other side of the world, but just like you, many of us, I grew up in a wonderful home. And I grew up in a home where my mother and father came to know the Lord and loved the Lord Jesus. I can stand here today and say to you, when I was a young boy, I heard about Jesus. I read about Jesus. I saw Jesus demonstrated, lived out in the life of my parents and so many others. I was in church. You know, my friends, I had to come to a point where I believed that God raised Jesus from the dead.

I had to believe that. And how do you believe something that is so bizarre? You see, that's what faith is. Stepping out in faith. Know that we'd love to pray with you and for you in faith about anything, anytime at 866-899-WORD.

That's our phone number, 866-899-9673. We'd love to encourage you anytime, day or night, and especially encourage you about the daily encouraging word. The Encouraging Words most requested resource is the Daily Encouraging Word. The Daily Encouraging Word is a daily devotional made available in a quarterly booklet or delivered each morning in your email inbox. If you would like to request this free devotional, please call 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. We are confident that it will be a blessing to you. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener supported ministry.

Thank you for listening today. Again, that's just one resource. There are many available on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org.

Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. It's trusting God. It's taking God at His word. You see, when Jesus went to the cross, there were a lot of people there. There were hundreds of people, and there were hundreds of them that shouted for His blood. They screamed.

They wanted Him crucified. In fact, they were there right there when Jesus was crucified. They watched it. They saw it.

There was even one of the soldiers there. He even made a comment when Jesus said, it is finished, and died. He turned around, and He said to His buddy next to Him, you know, surely this must be Jesus.

This must be the Son of God. Then there were the people around Him that just, they knew it. They just believed it. They couldn't understand it, but they got it. They accepted it.

They trusted. I came to the point in my life when I just believed it. When I was like eight years of age, I was in boarding school in Africa. I made a decision as a young boy to give my heart to Jesus.

Did you maybe do that? Maybe as a young girl, a young boy, and you made a decision? Well, I did. I'm here to tell you. You know, I believe because faith is so simple, isn't it? You have faith.

He comes into your heart and life. I tell you, from the age of eight until, you know, the age of 23, I tell you, I battled with this thing called faith and trust. I battled to live out that life. I was never overtly bad, but certainly if you had seen me, especially in my mid and later teen years and early college years, there was no connection. If you had known me in the army, you would never have said, well, you know, Don Wilton's a Christian man.

He believes that Jesus is alive. You wouldn't have said that because there was nothing in me that spoke to that. And then I met this unbelievably beautiful young lady and fell in love with her and her life and her influence. And I just remember going to that church service on an Easter Sunday in a city on the other side of the world. I remember that pastor getting up and he began to talk about Jesus, that he was so real and alive. And it's not that I didn't, I just, that was the day when my faith became so real to me.

I said, yes, Lord, I'm going to just trust you. You see, this passage of scripture tells us that Jesus had to come and die on a cross and be raised by God because just like Adam and Eve, we too are born and conceived in sin and we are condemned to die because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. So that great verse then, verse 22, let's think about it for a minute. Verse 22 says, but for as in Adam, all die.

Now what does that mean? So you remember when back in the book of Genesis, the Bible tells us that God created Adam and Eve. Those were the first two human beings.

God made them. So if you could transport yourself and try and imagine the unimaginable, we always talk about the Garden of Eden, don't we? How perfect it must have been and it was perfect. Well, the Bible says that when God created the first two people, he created them perfect. All right, now we're all going to have a serious problem here because apart from one or two of you, there are not a lot of perfect people around, are there? And it's hard to be humble when you're just perfect in every way.

Quite frankly, I think I'm quite terrific. We can't conceive this thing perfect. In fact, in 1 Corinthians, Paul puts it like this in chapter 13. He says we are imperfect, but when the perfect comes, now I'm going to explain that to you. So when God made Adam and Eve, man and woman, he made them perfect, which means three things. Number one, he made them to look like God.

Now, I can't wrap my mind around that. The Bible says that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. If you want to understand an image, go and stand in front of the mirror, which most of us did this morning, and look at yourself.

You are seeing yourself as you are. That meant when you looked at them when they were made and put into the Garden of Eden, when they looked into the mirror, they saw the face of God. They were made in the image of God, in God's likeness.

They were made to look like God. Secondly, they were made to love like God. Their love was pure. It was holy.

Now, we can't figure that out. It was so pure and so holy, they were not even aware of their own differences. Their own makeup, their own physiological design. It was not an issue. There was no need to cover up because they were perfect.

There was no consideration of different here, different there. And they were made to love like God with a pure love. Can you imagine a world where there's just pure love? And the third thing about Adam was that he was made to live with God, not only to look like God, not only to love like God, but to live with God. You and I see heaven and a garden. The garden was as much God's haven and his home as heaven was. You know, the Bible said he just came down and walked around and had fellowship. That was where God was. They lived together. Please forgive me if I sound too human, but in that living together, that fellowship, good morning, God, how are you?

Well, I'm fine, Adam, and how are you? There was a one-on-one, there was a oneness. So what happened? What spoiled everything? Sin. The devil came and said, you don't really mean God said that. And Adam and Eve did what God said not to do.

God said, and they said no. They sinned. Sin is falling short of God. Anything that so much as misses the mark of God's absolute is sin.

Excuse me, where does that leave all of us? We're all sinners. Always get amused when people point at Christians and say, well, there's some hypocrites. Hello.

Welcome to the world. Everybody's a sinner. And when they sinned, they were cast out from the presence of God because God's righteousness and holiness could no longer accept them or tolerate them. So what happened?

When sin entered the life of Adam and Eve, three things happened. They could no longer look like God. And if you want to know how that works, just take a look at me. Go ahead. All of you can look at me. I know it's a shock to some of you. My hair is not quite the same color as it was. It's changing. Did you see this little bump I got you that I put something on to try and cover it over? You do this.

Look at you ladies with all that Mary Kay stuff. And we're very happy, we're very, very thankful, but we're also grateful you didn't come here when you got out of bed this morning. I didn't say I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble.

I'm in trouble. We love you just the same. Hey, listen, we no longer look like God.

Anybody got anything to say about that? I'm telling you now, every day we wake up. Do you know when we're born, we start dying?

The moment a baby comes into this world, this flesh, because of sin begins to take on the sinful nature, the decay of the body. We can no longer look like God. We can no longer love like God.

Have you noticed what is really missing in our world, folks? You know, sin came into the life of Adam and Eve. They could no longer look like God and they could no longer love like God and certainly they could no longer live with God. God can't live with anybody that has any sin because he's holy. Jesus is the only answer to this problem. He's the solution.

You know, here's the issue. When Jesus came, because Jesus is alive, when we put our faith and trust in him, three things happen. Number one, we can once again look like God. We can once again love like God. We can once again live with God.

That's what happened because he paid the price. When Jesus went to the cross, he said, it's finished. I've paid your debt.

I've paid it in full. I've taken away all your sin, everything. See, friend, watch this. For many years, I heard about Jesus.

I understood it in some kind of ways. You know, I bought in to Jesus. But I had to believe in my heart. You ready for this? Would you give your heart to Jesus? As many in the worship center are bowing their heads with Dr. Wilton, would you open your heart, not necessarily bow your head and close your eyes, but open your heart to what Dr. Don wants to share with you next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If God has moved in your life today and you've made a change, a course correction, maybe you prayed along with the pastor moments ago, we'd love to pray with you, put some free resources in your hands if you'll call us. Our number is 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect you with those free resources, but also you can visit us online for a myriad of resources at our website, www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. 24 hours a day you can connect with those resources, like signing up for the daily Encouraging Word email from Dr. Don. And it's online at tewonline.org.