R1006 In Christ More Is Possible, Pt.1

Sometimes less is more, sometimes more is more, but more is possible with Jesus.

That's the topic from Dr. Don Wilton today. We'll head to Romans chapter 10 in just a moment with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, seminary professor, and pastor, and today he takes us into this more. More is possible with Jesus. His message is called In Christ More is Possible and as we study the word together, I want to encourage you to visit our website, www.tewonline.org. If you missed any part of today's message or these next two days of messages, you can find it all right there on demand right when you need it at www.tewonline.org. You'll also find a place where you can share a prayer request or praise report. We are here for you as well at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. We would love to encourage you. And now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. I know that he's going to speak to each of our hearts as we study his word. Now I'm going to share a few words with you today from Romans. Turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10.

I'm going to speak to you on a most incredible subject. In Christ, more is possible than you and I could possibly ever imagine. I want to read to you just a few verses in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 and verse 10. Here's what the Bible says. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.

Listen to this. You will be saved for it is with your heart that you believe and are declared to be just, righteous, pure in the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That happens when you believe in your heart and with your mouth you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now folks, I am a Christian man. I'm so glad to tell you that today. I'm a Christian man.

It hasn't always been that way for me. Some of you may not believe me, but I wasn't born in America. And for those of you that are guests and who are worshiping with us, this southern accent of mine didn't come from around here, but I can still say how y'all doing.

That comes with many, many years, decades of practice. But I grew up in Africa, long way from here amongst a beautiful people. I grew up in a home where by God's grace, my parents came to know the Lord Jesus Christ after I was born. I don't know if you've ever been in a home where you love your mom and dad, but mom and dad don't love the Lord Jesus. I don't know if any of you have ever had that experience before. I don't know if you've ever been in a home where your father has a lot of time for a lot of things.

Love sport and athletics is always out as the center of everybody's attraction, but couldn't really be bothered with the things of God. I don't know if you've ever grown up in a home like that. Well, that's the home that I was in.

My brothers and I, in fact, I don't know by God's grace. Of course, this would never have happened, but my mother and father in all likelihood could have ended up separated and divorced. They had no time for the things of God, but my father ran headlong into Jesus Christ, and the Lord came into his heart and life. My father was radically transformed, so I grew up from a fairly early age in, I think, what you and I would call a Christian home.

I don't know if there are some here today that you've grown up in a Christian home. You've grown up in a home where your mother and father, boy, you love them, and you've done a lot of things together, and you're building up memories like we did. I'm telling you, we did everything. I remember one time we went to a place in Africa, and the closest we could get to the coast was about three or four miles upriver. It was so dense and so uninhabited, and we went to this trading station with mom and dad. We parked our car there, and this is in the middle of nowhere. We got into a little boat and chugged all the way down this river to the river mouth, and we stayed there about five weeks just in a little galvanized roof, little place that when it rained, the rain just came straight through, and the wild animals were all over the place, and I just remember fishing away the days.

I don't think I put on a pair of shoes and never put on a shirt. You're talking about in the middle of Africa far from. I've got a lot of memories, but there was one thing about our home is that my parents loved the Lord Jesus. They understood that Jesus had come out of the grave, that the tomb was empty, and the Lord Jesus Christ had come into their hearts, and their lives had been radically transformed. They'd come to understand that in Christ more is possible than you can ever imagine, but it wasn't the case with me. See, I didn't understand that just because you're born in a garage doesn't make you a motor car.

Someone can interpret that for you over there. I didn't really understand. I didn't come to understand that just because you're born in America doesn't make you a Christian, even though the world out there thinks that we're a Christian nation and we're anything but. I didn't understand that I could go to church once in every while, and of course, under the mandate of my parents, I would go often, but just going to church had nothing to do with whether or not this Jesus Christ had become everything to me.

I had no personal relationship with him. Went to boarding school, and as a teenager, I struggled. I was talking to a really good friend this morning here in the service, and he and I were just swapping some stories and kind of thinking about ourselves, you know, and that's probably why I never tell you all about me. I don't want to burst that bubble, and some of you are looking at me like you've been perfect all your life.

That's why you're so humble, but folks, in my case, I want you to know that the Lord Jesus was not on the throne of my life, completely flunked out of the 11th grade in high school, not because I was not capable. I just wasn't interested. I fought against everything.

I really believe I gave my parents unbelievable gray hairs. I don't know how many times I disappointed them, and I was searching. I was looking for something. I was trying to find meaning in life, and I could never find it. It was like an elusive dream. Even went off into the military, became a tank commander, and was involved in a situation in Africa, special forces, and I remember those days.

Came out of that by God's grace and went to university and ran into the young lady that I fell in love with who's been my wife for over 30 years now, and one day I ran headlong into Jesus Christ, and he radically transformed me, and all of a sudden this cross of which we speak, this Jesus who hung upon that cross and who was put in a grave and who by the power of God was raised on the third day became my Jesus, and since that day, my life has been radically transformed. Isn't that perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Full of bumps and burps, you better believe it.

Struggles? Absolutely, but I'm gonna tell you something. I'm a Christian man today, and Jesus Christ is real to me, and I've got such good news for you today because I want you to know that Jesus Christ has done for me that he'll do exactly the same thing for you, and this passage of Scripture tells us that in Christ more is possible than you and I could ever imagine.

People are searching. Now, folks, I've had the privilege of speaking literally all around the world, and when I say that, I don't mean that in any other way than to say to you I've had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with people just like you and me. I've seen people, and I've met people in Australia and New Zealand, all across the United States, on the islands, all across Canada, Europe and Asia, Africa. You know something? You and I might be in America today, and we might be worshiping the Lord, and we might dress a certain way, and we might love our grits and our biscuits, but do you know that all people are searching?

Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message from Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment, but that last phrase, a lot of people are searching. It could be that you're in a stage right now where you are searching, using this particular opportunity to hear God's encouraging word, but also asking God some questions. I pray that you know that we stand ready to encourage you, literally to pray for you, no matter what's going on in your life. Sometimes the searching is not searching for Jesus.

We know Jesus, but there are other areas in our life where we're searching for wisdom, searching for the clarity of God's will. Know that we would be honored to pray with you and for you any time about anything at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673, or drop by our website, tewonline.org. Just the other day, we had a wonderful email from a friend who, by watching some videos on the website, have changed their lives forever, and God is doing something remarkable just by the visit to a website. Again, tewonline.org is our website. While you're there, be sure and sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don, a powerful insight on God's word, but just it takes a moment or two to literally launch your day in God's encouraging word.

Sign up at tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. A lot of things that we're searching for, and you're one of those people, aren't you? You've got everything.

I don't know what you have or you don't have. I know that we're in the midst of a hard time in our country, but we're still the most blessed people on the face of the earth. I came back from Asia just recently, wanted to get on my knees and kiss the ground because I love America so much, but regardless of whether your pantry is filled with food or empty, regardless of whether your marriage is healthy or on rocky ground, regardless of whether your children are growing up strong or whether they are struggling like I did, I've discovered that people all over the world are trying to find something, looking. There's got to be more to life. Surely there's more to life than just this rigmarole that you and I are engaged in. This thing called life that you and I go through and we wake up in the morning and the second verse is the same as the first. It seems like the more we have, the more we realize how much we do not have. Seems like the more we eat, the hungrier we become. It seems like that our thirst grows like an insatiable desire and I have found people just like you and me everywhere we go because I am no different searching.

Well, there are four things people search for. All people are searching for forgiveness. All people want to be forgiven. I want to be forgiven, don't you?

I've messed up so many times. Bible says all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All people want to be loved. All people want to be loved. I had a man come to me a year or so ago and he said to me, pastor, he said, do you know that I never heard my father ever, not once, tell me that he loved me? I said, are you kidding me?

He said, oh no, my dad would take me to play tennis and we would play golf and we would go swimming and we would go on vacations, but my father would never say the word. All people want to be loved. Loved is not just a word, it's an action. All people want that. It doesn't matter how high and mighty we become.

It doesn't matter how filled we are with a sense of our own importance. All people want to be loved. All people want to have purpose. Everybody wants to have a purpose.

I want to know. I want to wake up and know what my purpose is here on this earth. Why am I here? What is this life all about? What am I doing?

Where am I going? How can I have meaning in my life? Well, before all people want to belong, that's why we have so many organizations and clubs and societies and groups. There's nothing worse than being lonely.

Spoke to a precious lady that I know just recently who lost her husband of many, many years and they had such a love relationship together and she looked at me and she said to me, Brother Don, she said, I'm just so lonely. I feel as though I have no one to belong to. Everybody wants to belong. It's not a matter of being owned or being possessed. You want to be part of and be accepted as being part of, to be part of the family. And I've got such good news for you today because the Bible tells us that when we look into the empty tomb that Jesus, by the power of God, was raised from the dead to the point at which you and I can know that we know that we know that in Christ more is possible than you and I can ever imagine. I've got such good news for you today.

And this passage in Romans that I've just read speaks about two essentials. You see, I don't know if you're anything like me, but when I was young and in my 20s, you know, this was what I was saying. Well, what do I need to do?

Tell me how to do this. You know, I hear it. I've listened to my father preach and I've read the Bible and I've gone to church and I've been to all of these things, but just tell me what do I need to do?

Give me the nuts and bolts of this thing. Well, here Paul was writing and he said, listen, if you want to be saved, and you know, I love that word saved. It's the same word that we get our word to rescue. Do you know that when Jesus came out of the grave, he accomplished God's plan to rescue you and me.

That's why he hung upon the cross and he said, it is finished. I've carried out God's rescue plan for people like Don Wilton and for all people upon the earth. And so Paul here uses that word saved. What am I being saved? I'm being saved from my search, my search for forgiveness. I'm being saved from my search for love. I'm being saved from this feeling of emptiness that has no purpose. I'm being saved from that. I'm being saved from my loneliness because when I give my heart to Jesus, I'm immediately included in the family of God. I am adopted into God's family. I become one of his children.

Wow! That's why in Christ more is possible than you and I can ever imagine. It's all about Easter Sunday. Jesus has risen from the grave.

He's alive. Well, what are these two essentials? They're right here.

You can read them for yourself. Essential number one, this is what you've got to do. You've got to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You've got to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

That's what the Bible says there in verse nine. I had two gentlemen come to my door on Friday night. They knocked on my door. I'm not sure if they really understood whose door they knocked on, but they did 45 minutes later when they asked me if they could leave. I told them how much I respect them and I told them I was so courteous to them, but I'm going to tell you one thing, folks. I said let's take a look at this in God's word together and I'm not interested in some other book. I'm not interested in what some man has to say. Folks, listen, there are too many men and women in this world who have said I got the answer. No, you don't.

If whoever it is from the White House to the Prime Minister's office, if you have an answer, how come we're in such a mess, huh? I'm telling you that. Let's give God a hand for that, folks.

That's one for the future. I love it. I love it.

I could gobble it up right now. Two essentials. All right, you ready for this? Number one, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. You might say to me today, Pastor, what does that mean?

It means three things. When you confess that Jesus is Lord, this is why it's essential. You cannot be rescued, you cannot be saved unless you confess that Jesus is Lord. Such powerful teaching from Dr. Don Wilton, that concept of confessing that Jesus is Lord, do you believe that?

And are you ready to confess that with your mouth? You know, Jesus promised that if we would confess Him before men, He will confess us before the Father. He literally will stand up for us as we stand up as followers of Jesus Christ. You've been listening to this powerful teaching from Dr. Don Wilton over these last few moments in the pulpit. I pray you'd open your heart to what he wants to share next as he steps in the studio with these thoughts. 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, I pray. In Jesus' name I pray. If you've 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. Perhaps moments ago, you gave your life to Jesus Christ, praying along with Dr. Wilton. Or perhaps even throughout the entire broadcast, the Lord has been stirring you and reminding you that it's time for you to come home.

You know Jesus as your Savior, but you really haven't been living as if He is your Lord. We would love to encourage you. We'd love to walk alongside you, pray for you right now at the other end of 866-899-WORD. That's our phone number, 866-899-9673. But we'd also like to put some resources in your hands that will help you grow, help you move forward, help you gain perhaps some footing that you didn't have in the past if today you're rededicating your life to Jesus.

Or perhaps this is just time to say yes to Him. Again, the number is 866-899-WORD. If you have questions, let us discover the answers in God's encouraging Word, the Bible itself, as you call 866-899-9673. Or meet us on our website as well at www.tewonline.org.

That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G. And if you haven't heard about this remarkable book about Dr. Graham and Dr. Wilton and their remarkable relationship, here are some details so you can consider getting your copy. Hello, everybody. You know, my friends know me as Don Wilton, pastor, friend, neighbor, dad, husband, grandpa. But I'm going to tell you people all around the world just like you know and identify Dr. Billy Graham as that man that God used to reach so many people around the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. I had the privilege of knowing Mr. Graham in a very personal and intimate way, both as his friend and as his pastor. In fact, for many years, I drove up to his home in Montreat, North Carolina, and visited with him every Saturday, just like friends do everywhere. We sat together and ate together, walked, talked. We discussed politics, friends, places, people. We laughed our heads off. We did everything one could possibly imagine. That's why I wrote this wonderful book, Saturdays with Billy.

It's all about a personal relationship. And I hope and pray that Saturdays with Billy will be a blessing to you, will inspire you, and will encourage your heart, just as Mr. Graham encouraged my heart and changed my life. God bless you, my friends. There's so much more to discover in God's encouraging word.

Tomorrow we continue in Romans 10 with Dr. Don Wilton. I hope you'll join us and bring a friend. Join now and then. Let's get connected on our website, www.tewonline.org. While you're there, sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don.

It is a powerful insight to God's word, some application on the way we live out our lives every single day. And again, you can sign up today. It'll be in your mailbox tomorrow or the next day at the latest. That's all online at www.tewonline.org. That's t-e-w online dot o-r-g.