Love Covers a Multitude of Sins [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If you think, in other words, that the Lord is a hard task master, you will be afraid and have a hard time investing your life because you're always, when you're afraid, thinking about punishment.

But perfect love casts out fear. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Elect Exiles, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. He's trying to act like he can be conversant about stocks and bonds, and he's not making any sense. And he's just coming across looking like a guy who's trying to sound smart about investments. And then the conversation with another guy turns to golf, and Barnard goes, so what are you shooting these days? And the guy goes, well, I'm shooting mainly in the 80s. And Barnard goes, well, you know, keep up pre-practice.

You might be able to get it up in the 90s. He just doesn't understand what he's talking about, and so they reject Barney. Andy, who doesn't try to be fancy but is just secure in himself, is accepted. It doesn't matter what arena of life this principle plays out. Insecurity and fear always leads towards the thing it fears. If the free-throw shooter with a second left and the game on the line is nervous about missing it, then he or she is more likely to miss. The same free-throw that he or she could make with ease in the practice gym, now with the pressure on, is more likely to miss.

If you got the big interview and you feel insecure about the interview and about your skills for this job, you're less likely to look like the kind of secure person that someone would want to be. If as a parent you are so worried about your child's potential movement towards waywardness, then you will become over-controlling and actually promote waywardness. Every arena of life it plays out like this. Fear leads to sin. So if you want to get rid of sin, get rid of the fear. And here's how fear goes. Perfect love casts out fear.

It melts it away. God does not want you to be afraid. He wants you to be secure, to never doubt his love, to never fear your future, and never lack confidence that he's always going to be with you. And the more that you know that, the more secure you become, and the more secure you become, the less sin will have a grip. God's design is faith. And when you have faith it leads towards what it believes. So if you want victory over sin, we want faith, not fear. You could almost go through all the Ten Commandments and answer it this way. It's the fear of not being successful enough that makes us feel like we can never rest.

No Sabbath, no Sabbath, no rest. I've got to always do. Fear of being less than others is what makes us covet.

If you think that you are blessed with every spiritual blessing and God's really been good to you, and you've got more than you need, why you need to covet? You don't. It just goes away. It's extinguished.

It's extinguished. It's why with our kids, I just wanted them at every turn to just know you are blessed. You are so blessed. And if you are deeply aware of your blessedness by the love of God and Christ, you don't feel like you've got to worry about being found out because so you've got problems. So you've got flaws. But if you're secure enough by the acceptance of God and Christ, then why you need to lie? Why you've got to cover everything up? That's our insecurity that makes us lie. Fear of God not being enough makes us form idols.

Fear of not having enough makes us steal. I mean, you could go through the Ten Commandments. You know, you can also just look at more of the things you might think of of the lesser.

They didn't make the Big Ten, but they're just the things that mess us up in life. I remember some years ago doing a series in which I wanted to look at all these little sinful tendencies in our life. How does the gospel of grace address this and help us in that? And one of the subjects I wanted to look at was laziness. Why do we get lazy?

And I was fascinated by what I found in the scripture that I think is probably the primary principle behind laziness. And it was in Proverbs 22 verse 13, an unusual proverb. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I should be killed in the streets. I've got this vision of some man sitting in his living room, and he's like, his wife's saying, are you going to go to work today? And he's like, no, there's a lion in the streets.

I need to lie here. It's an unusual verse because you would think that it might say, the coward says in his heart, there's a lion in the streets. Or you might think it would say, the deceived one says, there's a lion in the streets. Cause it's probably not a lion in the street, but it says the sluggard, the lazy person.

Could even laziness be related to fear? Well, then you come in the New Testament and Jesus tells this fascinating story that has a surprising and sort of confusing twist at the end about a man who's very wealthy. He goes on a journey and he entrusts three of his servants with a lot of his resources. One, he gives five talents and another, he gives a couple of talents and another, he gives one. And when he comes back, the one who had five towns had invested it and returned double. And the one who had two invested it and returned double. But the one who had received the five talents, Matthew 25, 16, let me jump to 24 rather, Matthew 25, 24, the one who had received the one talent came forward saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground.

Here you have what is yours. He did not say I was conservative, so I buried your money. He didn't say I didn't have much savvy with investments, so I just buried it. He said, I was afraid. And what's interesting is the master's response at verse 26, you wicked, wicked and slothful servant.

He called it laziness. And the master said, you knew that I reap where I've not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. I think he said it with that tone of voice. Oh, you knew that I'm that kind of person. Oh, you know me inside out, do you? You think I'm a hard man? You think I'm a hard master who's eager to punish? You think I was just ready to come back here and punish? That's who I am. Oh, you do think you know me?

As if say you didn't know me at all. Is this a story about a master who was stingy and hard? This is a master who did a radical thing. He entrusted his wealth to servants.

They didn't know him. And so he said, take the talent from him, verse 28, and give it to him as 10 talents. So even the smaller matters of our life that impede us, that cause us to stumble, the things that hold us back from our destinies and fulfillment and all, even these small things, even laziness is rooted more in fear, not understanding the love of God.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. With so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks, sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most right now in a hurried, worried season. God invites you into the present.

Modern day life coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness living in the present is God's idea, and the Bible unveils the way Pastor Alan Wright invites you to save her life each day. When you make your gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment in the moment every day of your life. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastoralan.org. This teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. If you think, in other words, that the Lord is a hard task master, you will be afraid and have a hard time investing your life because you're always, when you're afraid, thinking about punishment. But perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. And beloved, when you're in Christ Jesus, there is no more punishment for your sins. He has been punished, and your sin has been cast as far as the east is from the west, and God doesn't even see it anymore.

You have been washed thoroughly. It is as if in His eyes you had never sinned. But there's a second reason that love causes sin to lose its grip, extinguishes it, and that is that to be loved is to be cherished. To be cherished is to be valued, and whatever is valuable to us, we take care of. Whatever is not valuable or deemed to be valuable, we waste, misuse, or hurt, or throw away. And all sin in our lives in some way is therefore an expression of an inadequate sense of our own worth. It is really, sin is the violation of our worth. It stands in contrast to our worth, and God wants you to know your worth.

I think that you see it over and over in instances in the Scripture, but maybe nowhere more poignantly than in the life of Joseph. If you know his story, he was a favored son who knew he was loved. He knew God loved him because God spoke to him through prophetic dreams, and then he suffered the worst abuse imaginable.

I can't even imagine. All of his brothers hated him. They emotionally, verbally abused him, physically abused him, terrorized him by throwing him into a pit, thought about leaving him for dead, but instead decided to sell him like a commodity, and he was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. If ever there were a man who, when the occasion for some fleshly pleasure arose, if ever there were a man who could justify it to himself, it would have been Joseph, right? But instead, we read this in Genesis 39.7. After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he's put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you're his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God, which reveals to us that the way to resist temptation is not through great self-will. The way to resist temptation is through great self-worth. I'm too loved. I've been too blessed.

How could I do such a thing? That's not who I am, and I don't need it. That's what God wants for us all. And the experience of God's love, when we experience His love, automatically, automatically, unthinkingly causes us to love others. You cannot love others without being loved by God, and if you are loved by God, you can just about not help yourself but to love others. This love of God is alien to the world except for God. J. I. Packer, in his classic, Knowing God, writes, God loves creatures who have become unlovely and one would have thought unlovable. There's nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it forth.

Nothing in man could attract or prompt it. Love among people is awakened by something in the beloved, but the love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves people because He's chosen to love people. No reason for His love can be given save His own sovereign good pleasure. The Greek and Roman world of New Testament times had never dreamed of such love.

Its gods were often credited with lusting after women, but never with loving sinners. And the New Testament's therefore, the New Testament writers therefore, had to introduce what was virtually a new Greek word, agape, to express the love of God. The world hadn't known it, and so they more or less had to use a word that no one knew, agape, love, that comes from God and is seated in covenant and commitment with no strings, is utterly free. This is the love Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13 so famously, love is patient and kind. Agape love, it does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things. If you have that in your heart towards someone, how can you sin against them? So, beloved, if you want to have a more victorious life, meaning living with more and more automatic, powerful resistance to temptation because the temptation is just dying away. I'm not saying you're going to have a time where you don't sin in your life, not in this world, but I'm talking about the temptation of the things that are worst in us.

It just grows more and more dim like a flame with no oxygen. If you want that to happen, you're going to need to be more secure. And if you want to use your mind and your body and your time and your skills in a way that is honorable and beautiful and powerful and lovely and helpful, if you want to resist the sin that would cause you to misuse your mind and your body and your life and your time and your gifts, if you want to live like that, what you need is not more willpower but more of the love of God. How do you walk in that love? Say no to these twin faults and follies of trying either rebellion or religion and say God neither works.

I don't want either one of those roads. I want to just say to you, my sin is real, but your love is even more real. Baptize me in your love.

Engulf me in your love. He loves that prayer because his love covers a multitude of sins. That's the gospel. Alan Wright, our good news message today. Love Covers a Multitude of Sins.

It's from the series, The Elect Exiles. And I encourage you to stick with us. Pastor Alan is back sharing a parting good news thought for the day. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Start God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. With so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks, sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most right now. In a hurried worried season, God invites you into the present.

Modern day life coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program, and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness, living in the present is God's idea, and the Bible unveils the way. Pastor Alan Wright invites you to savor life each day. When you make your gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment, in the moment, every day of your life. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back now on the studio with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day. Pastor Alan, do you think that sometimes we resist running to Jesus for that forgiveness because we just can't get it through our minds how it just feels too simple. It feels utterly too simple. I got to do something else other than just ask for his love or just receive it.

Well, as we learned today, historically, the enemies that were always competing against Jesus were you could think of as, as my mentor Dudley calls it, a spirit of rebellion or a spirit of religion. Either I'm going to do it my way and you can't tell me, or I'm going to try to do it your way, but by my own strength. And in every instance, what that is is a forsaking of love relationship. Love is the, as you say, Daniel, is the deepest reality of life and therefore the most profound. And yet it is so simple that it is as simple as just a relationship. And God through Jesus Christ invites us into relationship with him and abandons the pathways of rebellion or religion and invites us into relational covenantal love with God. And that love answers everything. Love in that sense covers a multitude of sins. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.