God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we study Matthew 28 together. Yes, this is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, teacher, seminary professor, and pastor. Let him be your pastor in these moments as he opens God's Word and talks to us about the carrier's promise. As we gain clarity, as we gain understanding about how God carries us through, it's our prayer you'd know we're here for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you anytime on our prayer line at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. And while you're on the phone, be sure and ask about this wonderful resource about praying for our adult children.
You'll find those details on our website as well at www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Wilton. 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've 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, don't 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.
And I want you to do it like this. And I want you to know that I've spoken to you and our people came together after five years and said, yes, Lord, yes. And we became unified in the spirit of the living God.
Are you ready to do that with your life? Can you trust God like that? They were unified. The Bible tells us in verse 14 very clearly they were with one accord. They were all united together. They had followed Jesus. They heard him speak. They understood it and they came united saying thou art Lord.
You're the one who carries us through. You're not the first thing they did after that. They devoted themselves to pray. Now they prayed to him.
That was their first order of priority. The Bible tells us in verse 14, those men and women, those boys and girls, those preachers and laymen, all those people who were followers of Jesus, they heard him speak, then they said yes together, and then they got to their knees and they began to seek the face of God. So let's talk about that just for a second. How are you doing in the prayer department? Did you pray this morning? Now you just answer this to the Lord. That circumstance, have you prayed about it? Have you gone to your knees? Now I'll tell you the big irony.
This is not an indictment, and by the way, all the fingers point back at me. I'm in the same boat. So you know why I know and you know that prayer is the primary most important thing we can do. You know how I know that?
Can I share it with you, Matt? Can I tell you how I know that prayer is important? I want you to just imagine that tomorrow, God forbid, tomorrow you have a pain, you go to the doctor and the doctor says to you, you've got cancer. You want me to tell you the first thing you'll want to do? Number one, you'll cry out to God. Number two, you will send a text to somebody and you'll say, please pray for me. Number three, you'll contact the church and say, man, I just need to let you know I've got this. Let everybody start praying.
We all do that. We should do that. You go through a divorce, your family split up and you love the Lord Jesus, the first thing you're going to do. Listen, if we had a hurricane come through this city tomorrow, most every believer will immediately call on God. Let's pray together.
Hello, were we the first ones to invent this? So watch this, guys. Jesus, get this, Jesus has gathered them all around. He says, don't leave Jerusalem. I want you to plant the first church in Jerusalem.
Well, thank you very much. All I want you to do is forget about the kingdom of Israel. I want you to be about being my witness.
I want you to be a Jesus people. And then boom, he takes off. No wonder they stood there looking up intently. It was like, thank you very much. Does he know what he just said to us?
Then they go back into the hangar and they get themselves together. Now, let's just figure this all out. He just said, we got to like build right here where he's planted us.
Has he missed something? There's a bunch of bad people out there. I mean, they're going to kill us. They don't like us. Nobody wants to do this.
People are far more interested in the Roman games than they are in the work of Jesus. And you want us, how are we going to do this? Where can we start? Hey, we've just got this little room. What are we going to do? Guess what happened? They got on their knees.
I don't want to get ahead of myself, can I just give you a glimpse of the rest of the story? It began right there on the southern steps of the temple. I mean, right there at the point of the greatest opposition among all these strange people coming and going, worshipping and doing all kinds of stuff. And it was right there that these believers who trusted in Jesus Christ began to witness to the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. That was their bridge. That was their mission field. That's where God planted them. And God began a movement right there in that place in Jerusalem that reverberated around the world for Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen for Jesus today.
I get excited about this stuff. Here's the question. Why did they pray?
Two reasons. Number one, because they trusted him. They prayed because they trusted him. Number two, they prayed because they surely needed him, right?
Boy, did they need him. Let me bring this together. What did prayer do for them? What does prayer do for us? What does prayer do for you? So you're already identifying what it is that you're facing.
And you know you can't do this on your own. It's been a long time since your son showed any interest in the things of God, right? What more can you do?
Maybe you are a victim. And God says he will carry you through. What did prayer do for them? It connected them. Prayer connects you. So watch this.
It connects the carrier to the carried. You get connected into the one who says he will carry you. Prayer is the way you do that. Isn't that great? That's why when people go through something, what's the first thing believers do?
Please pray for me. It's beautiful, man. I mean, it's beautiful. It's right.
It's a privilege because we're one. We come together. God's putting this in my heart. We're going to call on the name of the Lord. We've got some people. You can't.
It's not going to happen. But God's going to carry you through. We're going to be looking at so many events and stories and happenings.
We're going to be hearing testimonies of people who have been carried through. He connects you. The second thing that he does when he connects you through prayer, he directs you. We all need to be directed. To be directed by God means that God tells us how, what, when. When he directs our paths, he directs our paths.
So he will direct you in the next step you need to take. Which doctor to go to? Which counselor to consult? Which decision to make? How do you speak to your son, your daughter? How to reconcile your marriage?
The issue of forgiveness. He will direct you. He'll direct you in where to serve. So how do you arrive at something like that?
I'm just being practical. You're looking at it and you've got payments and you've got school and you've got commitments and you've got family and you this and that. How do you, when you are properly connected into the one who carries you through, he will properly direct you even in your giving. So here's what's going to happen to you. When you say, Lord Jesus, my wife and I have done this.
I'm not telling you, and Karen's here today. We've done the same thing. You're going to look at that and you're going to say, we're in, man. God's called us.
We've got to do this. He's spoken, but I don't know how I'm going to do it, let alone how we're going to do it. And you are connected into him and you say to him, Lord, here's my finances. I tell you what God's going to do. God's going to put your eye where it needs to be and then he's going to raise it by two or three. Now, why do I say that? Listen carefully. God never causes you and me to do what you and I can do.
Because he's told us without faith it is impossible to please God. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment, but Dr. Wilton wants us to remind you that we are here for you. As Dr. Don would say, it's not just a presentation, it's a conversation. It is such a joy. Every day we're opening mail and email and text from you, taking phone calls and understanding how God is at work in your life through the Encouraging Word Ministry. And we'd love to hear your story, seeing how God's changing you from the inside out. You know, these life change stories are what fuels Dr. Don.
It's why we do what we do. We love seeing God work through his word, the Bible itself, God's encouraging word. If you'd like to write Dr. Don, he would love to hear your story and he would love to pray for you. You can write him Don at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's Don, D-O-N, at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Again, he would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you right now. As a matter of fact, at 866-899-WORD we have friends ready to take your call right now. As a matter of fact, ready 24 hours a day at 866-899-9673.
Or we can connect keyboard to keyboard on our website as well at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Or call us anytime at 866-899-9673. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. So why would God turn to one of his children and say, Why don't you just do this here because that's easily manageable to you? God never contradicts himself. And here's what God does.
He takes us into the upper room of our hearts and we connect into him. Then he shows us what we are to do. And we say, Yes, Lord, I don't know how we're going to do this. I don't know how we're going to make ends meet.
I don't know how we could ever give this amount. I don't know how I'm going to survive. And God says, Good, let me carry you through. That's what he did with them. He put them in an absolute hell hole. A place that kills people.
A place that didn't even want the witness of Christ. And he said, I'm going to set you on a rock. And I'm going to use you to ignite a spark of missionary gospel around the world. Of which today I am a product of that meeting in that upper room. And my life has been changed forever and so has yours. Yep.
We might not be able to do this on our own. But I'm telling you, when God's people come together in one accord, it's not about the mount. It's about the sacrifice. It's about the willingness to say, Yes, Lord, in God we trust. Which leads me to my closing point. What did prayer do for them?
I love this one. It connected them. It directed them.
But get this. It encouraged them. Wow. Guys, when I look at Ukraine, I'm telling you, I watch those little children there. It gets to my heart.
I deal with anger and I want to go and pick up a bazooka and go and join the troops over there. Look at our world today. You look at the mess. You look at the divide. You look at the way people treat each other. The racial attitudes and divisions. The disrespect. The language. You look at this world mixed in with all these, man, we live in such a beautiful place, a beautiful world with so many blessings.
You know, it's kind of like this mixed thing all the time, right? But I'm so encouraged. I'm telling you, you really encourage me. God has spoken. This we will do.
Now what? Well, I'm going to tell you, we are going to remain connected. We're going to remain directed.
And because of that, we're going to remain encouraged. And you thought your marriage is beyond repair? No, it ain't. And you thought your diagnosis was at the end? No, it isn't. And you thought the death of that person you loved so much spelled just a total everything changed in your life?
No, it hasn't. Because God will carry you through. And guys, I cannot wait to show you when God carries us through the picture. On the other side of that, it's fantastic. You are about to experience joy.
I promise you that you can't imagine. Indeed, it is a joy beyond our greatest imagination. It's our prayer that as you've been listening to today's teaching from Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word, you've heard more than his wonderful South African brogue. You've heard the Spirit of God speaking through the Word of God and the Servant of God to know that this point is a time for change. There's an opportunity to make a decision in your life today, whether you've been following Christ for a long time, whether you're brand new and just considering following Jesus Christ, or perhaps you've even run from God. And God is using this broadcast to let you know how much He loves you, how He has a plan for your life, an opportunity to have your sins forgiven, to find a place in heaven and a purpose for living every single day. You've heard Dr. Don as he's been preaching and teaching from the pulpit now.
Open your heart to what he 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 you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life to Jesus, please know we are ready to rejoice with you, to celebrate with you, and to put some free resources that Dr. Wilton has prepared just for you in the mail right away if you'll call us and let us know. 866-899-WORD is one way to call us. That's 866-899-9673, and we'll send these materials to you right away, or you can even meet us on our website at tewonline.org.
That's tewonline.org. We would love to help you grow in your faith. We'd love to introduce you to many resources that will help you take the next step in not only growing your arms out to reach others with the love of Christ, but to dig your roots deeply, so to speak, in the Word of God and the power and conviction of knowing how much God loves you. As a matter of fact, while you're connecting on our website, tewonline.org, I hope you'll take a look at a very special book written recently by Dr. Don Wilton. I cannot begin to describe to you how incredible, what a privilege and an honor, to sit at the feet of Dr. Billy Graham as his friend and pastor for so many years right there at his home every Saturday.
I've put that down in Saturdays with Billy. My thoughts, this relationship, never violating any confidences, just sharing the life of this extraordinary man that God touched and used across the world to reach so many people for Christ. Friends of presidents and prime ministers, you don't want to miss this opportunity. It is filled with personal anecdotes, but above all, the blessings that flow from the heart of God's servant, Dr. Billy Graham. It's such a great book. Call us at 866-899-WORD to order your copy or meet us on our website, tewonline.org. And while you're there, be sure and sign up for the free email from Dr. Don. It brings a wonderful bit of insight, a moment to literally launch your day in God's encouraging Word with a wonderful application from Dr. Wilton. That's on our website at tewonline.org. That's tewonline.org. And while you're there, take a look at who we are, how the Lord has called us to keep the Word of God first and foremost in our teaching and our preaching and our programming. And the reason we do that is because we're seeing lives change every day. If you'd like to be involved financially and prayerfully, discover more at tewonline.org.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-10 17:38:30 / 2023-05-10 17:48:00 / 10