R1680 The Carrier’s Promise, PT.1

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton, all about the carrier's promise.

We'll be opening our Bibles together in Matthew 28. In just a moment, as Dr. Wilton begins to teach about the carrier's promise, know that we're available for you. We're connecting on our phone line at 866-899-WORD anytime, 24 hours a day.

That's 866-899-9673. And on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. Right now, you'll see this remarkable resource as we pray for our adult children in a unique way. Again, that's on our website at www.tewonline.org.

Be sure and drop by today. Now, let's open our hearts and God's Word together for the carrier's promise. Today's message from Dr. Don Wilton on the encouraging Word. Let's talk to the Lord Jesus together. This is a collective thing, because we are believers, and we believe in God. So, let's talk to Him.

Would you join me? Lord Jesus, we talk to You. We have sung about You and to You, and we talk to You now. That is prayer, and we are hearing from You. You have us in this place for a reason, every one of us.

Lord, not a single person is here by accident. We may not see it like that, but You love us so much. You put us in the right position at the right time in the right place to hear what You want us to hear. So, Lord, may this preacher get out of the way.

May we get out of the way. What a brilliant time of worship today. Father, in all honesty, we all have lives, and there are things that we deal with, so much of which we cannot do. We just don't know, but You carry us through, and we're going to trust You to do just that in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't get to see many of you personally, but I feel you. I sense you, and I just love you, and I thank God for you today. We are a family together.

We're a gathering of believing people, and if you don't know Jesus, that's the reason you're here today, to become part of a believing group of people. Now, I'm just going to tell you very briefly that starting today, like, boom, right now, gong rings. I'm going to be in a fantastic series in the Bible.

I don't know how long this is going to go on. It could be six weeks, but I'm just letting you know it may be the rest of the year, because that's God's business, but we're going to be looking at unbelievable accounts, events, stories right through the Bible. I'm going to be jumping all over the place, wherever God leads me, and here's the bottom line. We're going to revel in, be reminded, taken to where we need to be, that God carries us through. Now, you may not feel it or necessarily understand it, but we're going to ask God to show us it. God carries us through. I'm going to show you from the Bible that even though you're in a situation, you've just lost somebody that you really love, right? So if I was to pick on grief, God will carry you through that. I mean, where would I stop?

There are so many illustrations. God is going to carry us through. What I'm going to do today is we're going to go back, and I want to speak to you about the carrier's promise. If God carries us through, whatever it is that we have in life, let's go back to the carrier, the one who carries us, and I want us to begin with where it all began.

Is that good? I want to go back where the promise was made. So you've got to follow this, and we're going to have it up here for you. If you don't have a copy of the Bible, I say this all the time, I have a hard copy.

By the way, do you need a word of explanation why I have a hard copy? Because I'm a dummy with one of those things that is in your heart. I bet you would have said that to me, buddy, right? You would have said, Dr. Don, you're just a dummy when it comes to that. I've got up here with these gadgets that a lot of you younger people get up with, and I put it up here, and I have it all nicely set, and I'm in the middle of my message, and it just goes off somewhere.

Now what do I do? All right? And I'm not stuck on notes and that, but I don't trust that little thing. I thought I'd just say that in case some of you are struggling. You know, at least you're sitting there in the dark, and you can do all this and everything like that.

I can't do that up here. And if I did it, I'd probably end up getting into the ball game I watched yesterday instead of where I need to be in the Bible. So I'm going to begin in Matthew chapter 28, all right? You need to be in Matthew chapter 28, and then I'm going to go to the book of Acts and chapter 1. So in Matthew chapter 28, we have the ultimate statement by the carrier, the one who carries us through when he made it known that he's going to do what he says he will do. This is what Jesus said in Acts chapter 28. Now please allow me to say this.

Can I say this? Don didn't say this. The church didn't say this. First Baptist Church didn't say this.

The bishop didn't say this. God said this. Jesus said this.

This is what he said. Verse 19 of Matthew 28. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. You ready for this? And behold, I am with you always.

All the way to the end of the age. Jesus said that. Jesus didn't say I'll be with you every now and then. Jesus didn't say now, depending on how you behave, Jesus didn't say I'll be with you always after I've sat down with my council of angels and decided whether or not I can spend the time with you. He didn't say I'll be with you always just so long as it doesn't cost too much. He didn't say I'll be with you always just so long as you work through all the details before you ask me to help you. I'll be with you always. All right, let's go to the book of Acts.

That's very important. Go to the book of Acts and we're going to be in chapter 1. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read to you the final moment that Jesus said this again before he took off and left these believers to themselves, so to speak.

At least they might have thought they were on their own. And I might stop every now and again. I've got to do that. I know some of you would rather that I just read it through. But I'm just telling you there's too much here.

I can't do that. So this is what he tells us in the book of Acts. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day that he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He had done, done speaking, telling them what to do. He was out of there. Here's how it happened. He presented himself alive to them after his sufferings by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, I feel like sitting down with this one. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem. Did you get that?

Now, guys, this is some weird stuff here. So Jesus is about to take off into heaven and he's talking to the church, to a group of believers, those who trusted him. And the first thing he says is you stay right here in Jerusalem.

That's very nice, thank you very much. How much time you got for me to talk about where he told them to stay? They hated them in Jerusalem. You know, just 40 short days before Jesus said this, they killed him. Do you know Jerusalem was the seat of their political government and the government hated God?

It was head and shoulders, the single worst place to plant a church you could ever imagine. And Jesus looks at his followers and he says, now I order you. By the way, the word order means I'm not asking you to think about it. I'm telling you because I'm God, not to depart from Jerusalem. Well, let's see what happened.

But to wait for the promise of the father, which you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? You know what they did? They got their politics mixed up in their mission.

They were just like you and me. They sat around there, the first thing they wanted to do was sort out their politics. I tell you, when I began to read that, I had to ask myself a question, even about my own social media. Does my social media prove to the world that I'm more interested in sorting out the politics of my nation? Or am I more interested in being obedient to what Jesus says to me about sharing the gospel where I'm planted so that God can change the hearts of people who will then change the politics of their nation?

Sorry, did some of you not hear that? What are you besotted over? You answer the question. What governs everything you do?

What's turning you into a frenzy? And Jesus looked at them and he said to them, you are to stay right here in this pit of hell, this place where your politics and your people and everything about it is the single most difficult place to ever be. But I'm telling you to begin right here in Jerusalem.

Anybody in? Church? Oh, sorry, I'm reading here. Verse 7. By the way, Jesus sorted them out with their politics. Look at verse 7. He said to them, excuse me, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons that the Father has fixed by his authority.

This world is ordered according to God, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And your business is to be witnesses beginning here in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And when they said these things, as they were looking on, he suddenly, boom, was gone. Hey, hey, hey, yo, yo. What?

The Bible says suddenly he was caught up in the clouds. Jesus tells them, you just stay right here in Jerusalem. I'm giving you a commission. I'm telling you how to operate. I'm telling you what to do.

I'm giving you what you're going to call instantly an impossible undertaking. And suddenly he was taken from their sight. And the Bible says that God, Jesus, then turns around while they were gazing. Behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up the same Jesus who was taken from you into heaven? Well, come in the same way as you saw him going up into heaven. Look at the next verse.

They gathered themselves into a meeting and decided they would talk this over and see whether they could come to a consensus as to whether or not it was the most suitable thing for them to actually do what Jesus said and stay in Jerusalem. Guys, we are looking here at the ultimate expression of faith. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the rest of today's message, The Carrier's Promise with Dr. Don Wilton. But Dr. Don insists we remind you that we are here for you. We're connecting 24 hours a day on our website at www.tewonline.org and the phone line 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to call for resources or prayer anytime during the day or meet us on our website, www.tewonline.org. We've got some exciting resources right now, especially about praying for your adult children.

It's a remarkable set of resources from Dr. Wilton and good friend Stormy O'Marnion. If you'll take a minute and drop by our website, I think you'll be blessed by what you'll find. That's www.tewonline.org and while you're there, be sure and sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don.

That's www.tewonline.org. When you click on the devotion, you have the option to let us send you a small quarterly magazine that you can store in your Bible or above your visor as my bride likes to do. Or we can get you signed up for the daily email. It comes out every morning about 6 a.m. with a powerful word from Dr. Wilton about God's word and how it applies to our life every single day. Sign up today on our website for the daily encouraging word email at www.tewonline.org. Now let's get back to today's message, The Carrier's Promise with Dr. Don Wilton. Because without faith it's impossible to please God.

Can I read it to you? Verse 12. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olivet which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey.

Watch what happened when they did. And when they had entered, they went to the upper room. They went back to the hangar. They went back inside.

They closed the doors. They gathered themselves in a meeting of God's people. And the Bible says they were with them, Peter and John and James and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew and James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. And they were there, the Bible says in the next verse, they were there in unity of spirit.

They were there in one accord, devoting themselves to prayer as they gathered with the men and the women and all the people who called upon the name of the Lord and said, in God we trust. The carrier's promise, you're sitting here today and we may not know about your life, but I'm telling you, you're not on your own because God is carrying you through. You may be saying, I don't know, I got this diagnosis and this disease is going to take my life and I don't know what to do and I don't know how to do it.

I don't know how to make ends meet. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know where I should go. This burden is too big for me. I've got this massive undertaking.

It's far bigger than we could ever imagine. How are we going to do this? When are we going to do this?

How can we do this? God said, hold on a minute. I've told you to stay in Jerusalem and I promise you I will carry you through.

Got that? Well, take a look at these believers just to help us think. First of all, I think we'll all agree they followed him.

What do they have in common here? They followed him. They were followers of Jesus. You know, when we go to Israel, really, you want me to summarize it? We follow the footsteps of Jesus. We just trace him.

We can't do it all in 10 days but we try jolly hard to and we have the best time in the world. These people followed Jesus. They didn't just follow him in terms of their footsteps. They followed him in their heart. They gave their hearts to you. They were believers.

Like you, like me. I'm a follower of Jesus. He's my Lord.

The Bible tells me because I'm a follower of Jesus, faith, my faith comes by point number two. They didn't only follow him, they heard him. He spoke to them. He taught them.

That's what we're doing right now. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by word of God. We are hearing from God.

My friend, listen to me. This may have nothing to do with what I'm saying right now but you are hearing from God right now. You know it.

You know it. You're a believer and your faith is being strengthened because you're hearing, because you're following, because you're reading, because you're accepting the word of God. This is not a Baptist document. People ask me from time to time, are you besotted over being a Baptist?

Absolutely not. How many times have you ever in all these years heard me get up here and preach about being a Baptist? I'm besotted over Jesus. What I pray is when I get up here that I talk about, preach about, read about, and present Jesus, God, because faith comes by hearing, following, through the word of God, by his spirit. And God right now, because you follow him, you're hearing from him. That's what they did, which leads to the third thing.

They not only followed him and heard from him, but they were unified behind him. Guys, can I say something, speak freely? Please don't think I'm trying to impress anybody here. I hesitate to even use this kind of language like I'm, gee, look at me.

But it illustrates what I'm talking about. I've had the privilege of speaking in audiences, little audiences and thousands of people all over the world. So I can tell you about speaking to believers and unbelievers in Asia and Africa, all over Europe and Australia and all over the United States and Caribbean islands and Alaska. You know, talk about it everywhere. And I'm going to tell you something.

You ready for this? Listen, I'm going to tell you something. I can tell when God is present in an audience like this.

When you get up, go and speak to Chris and Lindsay. They can tell. Speak to spiritual people.

There are scores of you here today. You can walk into a gathering. You'll pick up on the presence of the Lord just like that. And I'm going to tell you something, folks. God spoke to us and God said to us, I want you in your Jerusalem to do what I am telling you to do with one purpose. And that is to reach generations for Jesus Christ. What a powerful, unifying purpose, to reach generations for Jesus Christ every single day via text, email, on our website, on the phone line. We are having wonderful communication and prayers with friends that are struggling with the world in which we live, the chaos surrounding us, and coming to the realization that Jesus really is the answer. I pray that if you've been listening to Dr. Wilton and he's been teaching from the pulpit, that you've gained insight from God's word. But you've heard more than just the wonderful South African brogue of our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton, and more than just wonderful biblical teaching.

But you've heard from the Lord himself, knowing that God has a plan for your life, he loves you, and he's ready for you to make a decision. Before we get away, we have some closing thoughts from our pastor as he steps into the studio to share his heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin.

I confess my sin to you. And I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. If you just prayed to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior or perhaps to rededicate your life, welcome to the family of God.

Welcome back to the family of God. Dr. Don has prepared specific resources that will help you grow in your faith. If you'll call us and let us know about your decision, 866-899-WORD is the phone number.

That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect you with those resources to pray for you and watch God grow you in your faith. We can also do that on our website at www.tewonline.org and you'll find great resources like this. The Encouraging Word's 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 visit online at www.tewonline.org.

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