When God Speaks R1422

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of The Encouraging Word, featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called When God Speaks. Too many times I have been with my bride and I've said, now wait, sweetheart, tell me again, I'm really listening now. When God speaks, are we listening?

Today we'll dive into God's Word together with Dr. Don Wilton beginning in Matthew chapter 6 in just a moment about understanding when God speaks. As we do so, know that we're available for you. We're connecting online at www.tewonline.org. Matter of fact, if you drop by the website www.tewonline.org, you can take a look at what I'm going to tell you about later. The bumps are what you call a wonderful book from Warren Wiersbe that Dr. Don's made available to you.

Again, check it out online at www.tewonline.org. Now today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. I don't think that there is anyone who is listening right now that is listening by accident, and I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. I'm going to speak to you on the subject when God speaks, and it's found in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9, Jesus said, When you pray, this is what you should say. This is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on this earth just the same as it is done in heaven. Please, Father, give us this day our daily bread, and would you be so kind as to forgive us for our sin just the same way as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And if we could ask you this, please prevent us from being led into temptation, but rather deliver us from the evil one because everything belongs to you. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and forever.

It's eternal, never changed. Now that's what happened here. We know, we understand the background.

We get it. Here was this group of disciples, these people. They were not different in many ways.

They lived in a different day and age, and they were experienced so much of the same things that we experienced, but in a different day and age. They had a very interesting, tumultuous government, and back in their day, their politics was very tumultuous. It was very threatening. It was unknowing. It was perplexing.

It was almost frightening in many ways. People were losing their lives in their case. They were surrounded by haves and have-nots. There were a lot of poor people, a lot of wealthy people in their world. There was a lot of religion.

People believed in you name it. They were very religious people that these people mingled amongst. They had their sons and their daughters and their grandchildren. I'll tell you the other thing. They also suffered from all kinds of diseases.

Historians confirm that. They had gallbladder problems and prostate problems and cancer problems, and they suffered from a lack of sleep. All right, when do I stop?

Anyone like to tell me? And I'm sorry I missed whatever it is that you're dealing with right now. And this group of people came to Jesus, and they said to Him, Lord, would You teach us how to pray?

Because this group of believers understood that communicating with the One who had made them was of paramount importance. It's why I believe so much in parents. It's why I'm not in favor of government interference in schools, and one could go on.

I'm not trying to get political on this because nobody knows a child like the parents do. And so it is we had better be very careful. You had better be very careful because right now you are running your own life the way you see it, and you better be very careful. And we had better be very careful as a church that we never get to the point where we sit around a table and we decide, ever, because this is God's house.

I had better be very careful in my life that I never get to the point at which I say, I've got this thing down because I don't. Nobody knows me nor loves me like my Heavenly Father does. Now, I absolutely love my wife, Karen. She's my best friend. I love her with all of my heart. I go to her with everything. She's my duckling. I wouldn't trade her for all the tea in China. I need to come up with something better than that, but I wouldn't trade her for anything. But she still cannot go to where my Heavenly Father goes.

This is not the removal. God doesn't say nobody else. Godly counsel, godly wisdom. The Bible is filled with all of these things. He gives us wisdom. He indwells us by His Spirit. He raises us up. I pray, and I have always prayed, that in the privilege of leading you as your pastor that I pray, Lord, please allow me to never let my people down.

Please help me to speak with wisdom. Parents pray that, don't we? Give us the right judgment, the right way. Where would we be without doctors and nurses and counselors and wonderful teachers? I look out here and I see exceptional teachers in our school systems, coaches, and we can go on.

But watch out. Some of you have gotten so impressed with yourself that you are leaving God out of your life, and you are asking for serious trouble. In many ways, these disciples, by the way, they proved to us how much they thought of themselves. This was a jolly good bunch of men who, you just start with Peter. He was just too magnificent in his own eyes to comprehend. And these people came to Jesus and they said, Lord, teach us. What was it that Jesus said? Jesus looked into the face of these people that He loved so dearly and He said, I want to teach you something because when you hear what it is that you say to your heavenly Father in communication, it's not so much about what you say to Him because in the preceding verses, He drops a bomb on them. He says, it's not what you say to Him because He already knows everything that you're going to say. You can't say anything to God that He doesn't already know. It's not about what you say to God. It's about what God needs to say to you. And so He begins to go through this. When God speaks, here's what happens.

I'm just going to unpack this with. If we look at what Jesus taught them, He said to them, when God speaks to you, number one, He activates His authority. You need to speak to your heavenly Father. You need to search for Him and know Him and have intimacy with Him and meet with Him because when you do, He unleashes His authority. Our Father, the One who is on the throne, He activates His authority. Now what kind of authority does God have in our lives? In order to answer that, you've got to understand the authority of God.

Many things we can talk about when it comes to God's authority. God's authority is inclusive. It's all inclusive because God's authority covers all people. Nobody is an exception. We live in a non-inclusive society.

Oh yeah, we're Americans, everybody's included, but our whole world speaks to the non-inclusiveness of our inclusiveness. God, because He loves us and because God created all of us in His image, when we tap into Him, what He does is He activates His all-inclusive authority. His authority is all-inclusive. It's all-comprehensive.

It covers all subjects, every detail. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilson, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Don't go away. He'll be back with the rest of today's message, When God Speaks, in just a moment, as I interrupt to let you know we're here for you. If you'd rather meet us online, let's connect keyboard to keyboard at our website, T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W for The Encouraging Word online dot O-R-G. But right now, especially as we're kind of moving through this coronavirus situation, still many, many days, if not weeks, before things return to whatever the new normal will be, you need to know that we're here to pray you through this situation, pray for you, pray with you, at the other end of 866-899-WORD. Again, right now, more than ever, a conversation may be just what you need to have someone, a sister or brother in Christ, praying for you, and we'd love to be that person. 866-899-WORD is the phone number.

That's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilson. I just invite you and me right now to try and come up with something that God doesn't know about, that from the throne, from His seat of His authority, through His authority and by His authority, cannot speak to. His authority is all inclusive, it's all comprehensive, and it's all final. That's one that we really battle with, especially in our world today. God's Word is final. Our society today just battles to accept that.

Now I can understand unbelievers and pagans. Do you know how many believers will not accept God's final authority? Yes, I know God says this, but there's no exception. God's Word on family, God's Word on marriage, God's Word on life, God's Word on conduct, God's Word on behavior, God's Word on morality, God's Word on just keep going.

Final. So Jesus was saying, if I could put a backward spin on this, I think Jesus looked on the heart of these people and He said to them, listen, I love you so much. If you don't talk to God, you will never become part of the activation or the unleashing of God's authority on your life. You're going to be a person who lives your life without authority. By the way, going to your history, any society that is void of authority is a society that cascades into anarchy. By the way, God is not a democracy. He's not even a constitutional republic. God doesn't share His space. He's God. Look at that. I'm still on my first point. Can you believe that? This is pitiful.

How am I ever going to get through all of this? What happens when God speaks? He activates His authority. Number two, He announces His plans. There it is right there.

Your will be done. He announces His plans. You know, His plans are both perfect and they're also patented. They're perfect because God's plans are exactly what He knows to be best for each one of us. I want that. I want the best for my children. I want the best for me. I want the best for my wife. I want the best for my community. I want the best for my friends. And, folks, I want the best for my church.

I want the church. I want the absolute best from God. So, thy will be done.

Number three, how do we attain or aspire to the best, the perfect? Well, God's will is perfect, but it's also patented. It's got God's signature on it.

God determined it. So, when we ask Him and He speaks and He says, this is what I want for you because this is my perfect will for you and we do it, watch out because we're carrying God's brand name. So, if God be for us, bring it on.

Who can be against us? That's powerful. So, Jesus was saying, look, I know you love Me and you're faced with all of these things. You're going through bereavement, loss, you're grieving, you're hurting, you're facing this, you're doing.

You need to make absolutely certain that you are seeking God's face. He activates His authority. He announces His plans. He offers His provisions.

Give us this day our daily bread. What do you need right now? By the way, there's nothing unspiritual about needing. Have you ever thought about that?

That's not a criminal offense. What do you need in your life right now? Do you need peace? Do you need wisdom? Do you need a good job? Do you need security? Do you need a wonderful husband? Do you need to meet a lovely girl? Do you need to know what to do with your son?

Do you need to make a decision about to turn right? Look, needs are the fabric of our human disposition. That's what He was saying to them. Give us this day our daily bread. God's provisions are always on time, they are always enough, and they're always on target. When God speaks, He grants us His grace. Forgive us our sin. By the way, this granting of forgiveness is everything to do with the grace of God.

Can you imagine that? The sin in our lives and how God forgives us for that, that's the granting of His grace. Jesus said, you have to talk to your Father because in the unleashing of His and the activation of His authority and the announcement of His plans and the offering of His provisions, He is the only one who is in position to grant you His grace, which is the only means by which you can get a reprieve, the only means by which you can escape the death sentence. It's the only means by which you can be forgiven, be restored, be made brand new. If I was to ask the question today, is there anybody, don't raise your hands, is there anybody that you are so battling with your sin, the sin, something's gone in your life, man, it just sits on you, it's like a fog, man, it's like a cancer, it's like a sticky glue that just won't let you go. I just want you to say Jesus looked at these people and He said, He's the one who will grant you His grace, set you free. When God speaks, He removes our difficulty.

You know what He told us there in the second part of verse 12, I think He put a real humdinger on people like you and me, He said, forgive us for our sin just the same way as we forgive others who have sinned against us. To borrow a classical phrase, yeah, that's the area of some of our greatest difficulty, isn't it? How many of us, if the truth were really known, some of the greatest difficulties we have is forgiving someone who's really hurt us.

And sometimes it goes back years, I mean years. Do you know that there are people like you and me that carry what I call a reasonable spirit of unforgiveness? Can I say this?

Maybe I should turn around and say it. On a human level, I can understand why you don't want to forgive. Look, if that were done to me, I wouldn't want to forgive them either. And Jesus was saying to these disciples, you want to live your whole life with an attitude of unforgiveness?

You're going to have a rock in your river all your life. You will never have peace. You will never be able to live this life out with this spirit of unforgiveness in you. And the only way you're going to be able to overcome that is to go to Him because when He removes our difficulties, He convicts us of what we need to do. He conquers our difficulty, and then He compels us to actually take action.

So there's kind of like a threefold thing that God does because He's God. He convicts me that I have got to go and forgive that person. Then He conquers my inability because I just can't do it. And then He takes me in a gentle way and sometimes not so gently because of the conviction and the conquering, and He compels me. His spirit moves me to actually do it because I can't do that in myself.

What was Jesus saying? When God speaks, He prevents our downfall. Lead us not into temptation. He prevents our downfall. Temptation is everywhere.

I'll guarantee you, every one of us were tempted this week, not once, not twice, probably many times, in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our actions, words, deeds, mannerisms. Bible says that old devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And he'll use things. He'll cotton onto stuff. He'll sneak stuff in on you. He'll bring up issues. He'll throw things in your face. He'll remind you of past sins.

He'll let you know how sorry you are. The Bible says when you go to your Heavenly Father, He prevents your downfall. That's that prayer. It's a, Lord, please help me. Do not allow me or prevent me from being led into temptation.

What does He do? God shows us what it is for what it is. He convicts us concerning what it is because it is what it is, and He prevents us from giving away to what it is because of what it is. I need all of that.

Don't ask me to repeat all of that, but it sounded good. What it is, it's just this thing, God, I mean, it's right there, and I don't want to do it, but I can't help myself. Lord, please prevent me from being led into temptation. There's one more thing He does. He fortifies our defenses, delivering us from the evil one. Now I like that.

He fortifies our defenses. By the way, have you ever used the word for a son or a daughter or a husband or wife and more importantly for yourself? How many times have you and I have said, you know, I can do this and this, but in this area, man, I am just so weak.

Go on and say it to yourself. You know, I can handle just about anything, but I'm just so weak. I've heard people, and I've said that many times applying to so many things in my life, you know, and I can do this and I can hold this, but I'm telling you, in this area of my life, I'm just so weak. It's like I just, I get right up there, and along this comes, and you know, I give way every time, and I don't like myself for it, and I know it's not pleasing to the Lord, and I wish that I didn't do that. He fortifies our defenses. He builds a garrison of protection. He gives us something to lean on, to hold onto.

He puts guardrails up there for us so we don't trip when we're walking down the steps. So here was this group of people coming before the Lord Jesus, Lord, would you tell us something? He said, hey, here's what you need to do. I want you to know this. If you don't do this, you're not going to tap into God's authority, into His plans, His provision, His grace, your difficulties and your downfalls and your defenses.

You're on your own. This was a call back to where they need to be. I'm sensing in my own heart God calling me back, saying, Don, don't get ahead of yourself. Don't get ahead of God. It's a discipline to pray. It's a discipline to seek God's face because I just, I really believe that if God says it, if I say it, well then we back to the court of public opinion.

But if God says it, we are all listening to Him. That's what I'm praying for your life and for my life. Could it be that the Lord's been speaking to you throughout this entire day and stirring your heart to Himself, calling you home? God has a plan for your life and it's a good plan. And more importantly, you need to know God loves you.

He's not mad at you. He's ready to receive you. No matter how far you've gone, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Please take a moment and hear these next few words from our pastor, Dr. Don Wilson.

Are you ready? Would you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that Jesus loves me and that He died on a cross for me. Today I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus and I give Him my heart and my life.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. If you've made a change in your life, you've drawn the line in the sand and say this is a new beginning, let us rejoice with you and help give you some discipline tools like a daily Bible guide that will help you begin anew and begin fresh with Jesus. Call us right now at 866-899-WORD and let us know if we can help put some resources in your hands that will help you grow in your faith, 866-899-9673, and especially if you've just given your heart to Jesus Christ or just dedicated your life, Dr. Don has some specific things just for you, 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org where you'll discover great resources like this.

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