R1101 My Prayer For You

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called, My Prayer for You.

Dr. Don Wilton. I just want you to know that the Lord Jesus has an encouraging word just for you today. He really does. This is going to be a wonderful day. I have a lot on my plate today and I'm sure you do too. But I want you to know that God is in control.

That is one confidence that I have. So I'll be talking about that tonight and some of you might say, well, who's invited? Everybody's invited to come to 101 at 5 o'clock. It's a wonderful time of Bible study. Now, my friends, you're going to need your Bibles and you're going to need to open them at the Book of Acts and Chapter 1. I'm absolutely convinced that this is where the Lord wants us to be. I'm very excited about this study.

I cannot make you study this with me, but I invite you to do so. There is a sense in which I feel I didn't do a lot of it, but in my early days, I used to love to go out in the Indian Ocean and surf. On paddle skis and things and if you've ever surfed on the ocean, you get a wave and it's the top of that wave. When you're sitting on top of a wave and you haven't caught the wave yet, but the wave is positioned under your board. And you look down and you're looking down at this mountain slope in front of you and you're hearing the wave begin to crest and you know you're about to be in for the ride of your life.

It's the greatest rush that you can possibly imagine. And I feel as though in this congregation that all the ingredients are more in place today than I have ever seen. Which is not to suggest to you that we suggest that we are positioned completely where God wants us to be. We have so much work to do, but my friends, there is much more to life than a church that just simply provides programs to satisfy the needs of people. If all church amounts to is this organization where people say well, I can go there because they do something for me, then that's not the church. And while our church and this ministry does everything we can to provide for all of us, we are the church where everyone can invite anyone to come to First Baptist Church to encounter the living one.

Because we believe that in Christ more is possible than you and I can ever imagine. God is going to take our hearts, each one of us, as the church and God is going to shake us from inside out. And the result is that hundreds of people are going to come to know Jesus Christ. And that the people of this church and this community are going to be so fulfilled in giving out from in rather than taking in from out.

We are going to change from being a consumer oriented people like we are in America to a giving people like the real spirit of America. And God is speaking to our hearts. I've entitled my message today a very simple message entitled my prayer for you. I've been praying for you. I just see a group of people with so much potential for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to know that I'm I'm praying for you. I love being your pastor and I love being here.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world. And you and I have got work to do, my friends. This is serious business. This is great business. This is wonderful.

This is so exciting. And you and I can become so fulfilled, so whole and complete. Feel like we were worth something, that we are making a contribution, that we have purpose in this life and meaning, and that God is in our hearts and he's fueling us.

And we're just energized because we wake up every day just like a powder keg saying, wow, isn't this incredible that God would choose to use someone like you and someone like me to make a difference in this world? Acts chapter one, I just read to you the first five verses. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until that day that Jesus was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles that he had chosen. After his suffering, Jesus showed himself to these men and he gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke to them about the kingdom of God on one occasion while he was eating with them. After he came out of the grave, after he rose from the dead, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water.

But in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. May the Lord write these words on our hearts together. My prayer for you, I want to summarize what my prayer is for you and for me. Please allow me to be included in this.

I am part of this. This is my prayer for me. It's my prayer as your pastor, this is my prayer for you. This is what I'm praying for you. I want you to know I'm praying this for you. My prayer is that we would be the people of God doing the work of God in the power of God. I don't want to camp on those three things right now, but just think about it.

There are three components. Number one, I pray that every single one of us would truly be the people of God. So I'm going to ask you a question, who are you really? Folks, the day has got to come that we understand that life is not in the hands of a few 18-year-olds who are able to throw a football properly. Life is not in the result of a Super Bowl as much as you and I will enjoy that. Life is not in a bank balance. Life is not in a marriage.

Life is not in our wonderful children. These are all blessings. I pray, number one, that you and I would truly become the people of God. I pray that we would be the people of God, that we would do the work of God far too many of us are doing far too many things that do not count eternally. At the drop of a hat, you and I will give all kinds of money to all kinds of things. But when it comes to God's work, we have a reluctance. At the drop of a hat, you and I will stand in line and we will serve tables and we will do all kinds of wonderful things which we must do, which I intend to continue to do.

But how much more so? The work of God. I pray that we would be the people of God doing the work of God how? By the power of God.

See, I can't do that, folks. My greatest struggle in life is that I can't do what God wants me to do, but we're going to discover that God's given us his power. In this study in the book of Acts, we are going to come to understand three things. Number one, that Christ has all the authority. Number two, that the church has Christ's fullness.

Number three, that we are the church. I want you to just flip over to Ephesians chapter one, everybody turn there with me. Take your Bibles, I really want you to see this. Ephesians chapter one and verse 22.

Just very quickly with me today. Ephesians chapter one verse 22. Listen to what Paul said. Ephesians chapter one, I love to hear the pages of God's book. Thank you for getting your Bibles out. Thank you.

Very grateful, very important. Love to hear those pages rustling like that. The rustle of angels wings. So we're in God's word, this encouraging word, and I'm asking you to look at Ephesians chapter one and verse 22. And God placed all things under his feet. How many things?

All things. What does that mean? It means that Jesus Christ has all authority. Here's what we're going to discover. That when you truly trust Jesus Christ, you have all the authority necessary to do everything that God tells you to do. But folks, we've got to trust God. We're not trusting God.

What we do is we throw a program at everything. In our culture today, we believe that yes, we can accomplish something, but we've got to create something in order to accomplish that. We no longer believe that God can do what God says he will do.

That's what he says. God placed all things under his feet. All right, look at the next statement. And appointed him to be head over everything for the church. Who's in charge around here? But neither Larry Feick, our chairman of deacons, nor myself, as your senior pastor, we're not in charge. God is. The big problem that is occurring in America today in one church after another is that people have put themselves in charge of the church.

We have never been better positioned because folks, I'm going to make an announcement to you today. I know of nobody in this church who thinks they are in charge. Do you? There are no strongholds in this church. We do not have one man in this church who because of his money or his position is throwing his weight around in this church.

Do you know of anybody like that? Would you stand up and identify yourself? In this church, a strong armed person would be thrown out in a New York second.

You wouldn't survive. God will have no part of it. And the reason I say to you that we've never been better positioned is because I know of no zone in this church. To my knowledge, where I find people who will not readily say, Jesus Christ, God has all the authority. And secondly, that the church is the embodiment of the fullness of Christ. Now watch this, folks.

This is what he says. He says he appointed Jesus to be head over everything for the church, which is his body. The fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Now I want you to just think about that. What is the church? Who are we? What is this place? This is the fullness of the very body of Christ.

In other words, all that Jesus is is given to his church. Wow. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message. My prayer for you with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. If you haven't been to our website lately, TEWONLINE.ORG is where you can hear today's broadcast and other great messages from Dr. Wilton and also connect with wonderful resources like this. Satan is seeking to devour your grandchildren. Evil runs rampant in the streets.

It's pouring out of social media and online streaming, seducing young people with false promises of worldly satisfaction. But the word of God is stronger than anything that comes from the world. With your gift of support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's message, Standing in the Gap, along with the bonus book, prayers that avail much for grandparents. Use these Bible-based resources to guide younger generations to Jesus Christ, the only one who can save and satisfy. Again, that's just one of many great resources from Dr. Don Wilton on our website, TEWONLINE.ORG.

That's TEWONLINE.ORG. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Which brings me to the third thing that we gain to understand is then who then is the church? We are. The church is not a building. Church is not a roof and lights. That's just the covering that provides for us a place as the church to gather as the church. We are the church. Let me read this again to you. God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Alright, watch me.

This is how this works. Remember my prayer for you and for me is that we would be the people of God doing the work of God only by the power of God. So there are three understandings that we are going to discover in a long study together. Number one, that Jesus Christ has all authority. He told us that, by the way, in the great commission. He said all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.

You want to be complete. You've got to just say, Lord, you're the boss. You're sovereign.

You're God. You have all the authority for everything. Number two, that that authority, all of God is vested. The fullness of Christ is vested in his church.

Can you believe that? And number three, we are the church. What we've got to do is we can't just accept the fact that we are the church.

The time has come that we need to be the church. My prayer through this study is that we will see three things. Number one, that we will see what God sees. That we will see what God sees. So what does God see, folks? God sees essentially two things. He sees a sinful world lost without him. And God sees a seeking world saved because of him. That's what God sees. This study on the power of the gospel is going to help us to see, number one, what God sees.

Number two, what God does. Now remember, Christ has all the authority, all the fullness of his authority has been given to the church. We are his church.

We, me, you. This is an amazing thing that God would create us to carry the full authority in the fullness of Christ as the church. I think we underestimate what it is that God will allow us to do.

We're holding back on God. And what this is going to do for us, it's going to help us to see what God sees. It's going to help us to see what God does. Well, what does God do? He provides the way, his death, burial, and resurrection, but he doesn't just provide the way, he supplies the way.

You know what I love about being a Christian is God in Christ has not just provided the means for me to be forgiven of my sin and to have my name written in God's book in heaven, but he supplies all that I need to be the church, which means to carry his authority and the fullness of all that God is. This study is going to help us to see what God sees and to see what God does, but also to see what God expects. Have you ever had someone, you go and interview for a job and the man or woman interviewing you tells you everything and then you get down to the bottom and you say, so what is it that you expect of me? You know, when do I need to come to the office and when do I need to close and how much this and what's the expectation?

What do I have to do? Well, this study is going to help us to a fresh understanding to see what God expects. What does God expect of us? Number one, God expects for us to hear him speak.

God expects that. Now there may be someone here today that you've already tuned out. You know, I've noticed, for example, you'll see a lot more people walking around our community with earphones in, listening to music.

Nothing wrong with music, nothing, but I'll go to restaurants sometimes. We were at a restaurant recently and there was a couple sitting at another table there and they both had their iPhones and their blackberries and the entire meal. The wife and the husband, if they were husband and wife, they sat there and they were texting and playing with their iPhone, their blackberry, the entire meal. They tuned themselves out.

It was like they had escaped from the unnecessary need to have to actually have a meal in a restaurant and look at each other and have a conversation. You may have tuned out, but God expects us to hear him speak. And number two, God expects us to follow his instructions. God expects that.

It's not an option. The Lord doesn't say, you know, this is what I'm telling you and if you'd like to consider these things. The bottom line is that my prayer is that we would be the people of God doing the work of God by the power of God. And beloved friends, I'm praying that this would consume us because people need the Lord. You need the Lord in your life, don't you? If you haven't met Jesus, you need him. Indeed, we all need Jesus. It's our prayer that you've heard not just the great teaching from Dr. Don Wilton, but you've heard the voice of God reminding you that he loves you, he has a plan for you. And you've heard this through the power of the word of God and the messenger from God. You've heard Dr. Wilton as he's been teaching and preaching now as he steps into the studio.

Open your heart to what he wants to share 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. God is changing lives. I pray that some of you were praying along with Dr. Wilton moments ago and you gave your life to Jesus Christ or perhaps rededicated your life to Christ. You need to know that we stand ready to encourage you.

We are the encouraging word and we are based in the scriptures. And one of the first things Dr. Wilton said is we've got to be able to have a conversation, not just a presentation. So you need to know we're here to pray with you and for you to have that conversation at 866-899-WORD. Now the number, jot down 866-899-9673 will connect with us 24 hours a day. And Dr. Wilton has specific resources.

If you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, he wants you to have them absolutely free if you'll call us. 866-899-9673. If you'd like to connect on our website, you can do that as well. www.tewonline.org is the website. That's www.tewonline.org. We would love to connect with you.