The Path to Joy and Peace [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You could talk to your blue in the face. You'll never be able to talk me out of this. And you raise every question that you've got about the evils of this world and the questions and the confusions and the troubles and all the things that I can't answer. And I'll still have to come back to you and say the things that I can't answer do not define my life.

What defines my life are the things that I do know that is true. 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 Unspeakable Joy as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. 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. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. First Chronicles 6, 18, 16, 8 rather. Second Chronicles 31, Hezekiah just appoints divisions of priests and Levites and just to give thanks and praise. Psalm 7, I'll give thanks to the Lord. Psalm 9, I'll give thanks to the Lord. Psalm 28, I'll give thanks to the Lord. Psalm 30, oh, sing praises to the Lord and give thanks to his holy name.

Psalm 33, Psalm 44, Psalm 54, Psalm 57, Psalm 75, 79, 86, 92, 97, 100, 100. Just read the Psalms. Isaiah prophesied, you'll say in that day, I will give thanks to you, oh Lord. Jeremiah prophesied, give thanks to the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good. Ephesians 5, 4, let there be no filthiness or foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of placement.

Instead, let there be thanksgiving. Colossians 2, therefore as you receive Christ Jesus and the Lord, so walking him, rooted and built up in him and established in the face just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 4, 2, continually steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 4, for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be directed if it's received with thanksgiving.

You can't get away from it. The power of the gospel, the reason it's so important and it separates it from the secular power of positive thinking movement, this is what separates it, is that this gratitude for the Christian is rooted in something that's fixed in history that's actually happened and has been borne witness in your own heart by the Holy Spirit. The reason the gospel transcends just simple ideologies of positive thinking is because there actually is a cause of joy. There actually is a cause of gratitude.

It's like someone has said that the atheist's darkest hour is to have something for which you're grateful and no one to thank. And you might say, well, a starving person, it finally gets food and they're so thankful. They might be thankful that the person who gave them food. But if you're going to extend your thanks beyond that, who do you thank? The farmer. But if you're going to extend your thanks beyond that, the farmer, who are you going to thank?

The one from whom he got the land? Or who you're going to thank for the land? Who are you gonna thank for the sunshine? Who are you going to thank for the rain? Who are you going to thank for the world? Who are you going to thank for the earth that spends upon its axis and revolves around a sun? Who are you going to thank for the stars of the heavens and then the equilibrium of the cosmos?

Who are you going to thank? And what happens in the Christian's life is that our life is no matter what, whether we're in the valley or other on on the mountaintop, our life's a life of gratitude. There's no other definition for my life except I was lost and I've been found, I was dead and I'm alive, I'm saved and I'm gonna live with him forever. And it trumps everything else. And all of this is related, Paul is saying, inextricably linked to the peace of God that surpasses understanding. The peace of God, if you are rejoicing in the Lord and you're giving thanks with all your prayers, at verse seven, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. It's a peace that surpasses, it means transcends, it means far superior to and excels in nature in every way. It's the human sinful tendency to want to have a kind of a peace that's rooted in our understanding. We tend to want to have a pathway to peace that means I'm in control of everything and I'll get everything fixed and I'll make sure there's enough money here and I'll make sure there's not any problems here and I'll make sure that I'll go into my mind and I'll think through all the bad things that could happen and I'll make sure that they don't happen. That's the peace that comes with understanding. And it is a fickle thing and it's a futile thing because you can't control all the circumstances.

Anybody can have peace when life just seems to be okay but the peace that we need, the peace that makes the difference, the peace that far exceeds every other version of peace doesn't come by logical understanding or human satisfaction or any human effort, it comes from God. So it means if you have questions in your life that you don't understand and no matter how hard you try, all it's gonna do is become more oppressive to you if you try to build your life by understanding the things that you can't understand. The mind just wants to understand everything. The mind just wants to just not have to worry and therefore the way we're gonna try to not worry is to try to figure out and understand everything. And so the temptation even for the child of God is to be lured away from the simplicity and the purity of the gospel into trying to figure everything out.

Isn't that what happened to Adam and Eve? The serpents slithered into the garden and lured them into thinking that they needed to eat from the tree of knowledge. The tree of life was in the garden but they wanted, the serpent wanted to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for then you'll be more like God. If you wanna have more peace, if you wanna be more blessed, what you need is just more knowledge. You need more understanding, that's how peace comes. And so when they ate, the irony was they wanted to become more like God but they already were like God. They wanted to have more peace but they already had perfect peace and didn't know it.

And so it happened all throughout history. They traded peace that passes understanding for peace that comes with understanding and all of us are just like little children. We only have limited understanding.

We're just little children of God and we have limited understanding. Every parent faces this with their children. Perhaps you've been through some scenario if you're a parent like this, maybe your five-year-old child starts playing with Johnny down the street and Johnny's not a good influence and it starts showing up. Your child who's normally sweet and peaceable becomes whiny and starts becoming demanding or rebellious and it's not in your child's nature and you realize there's a bad influence that's been taking place. And there are deep psychological things that are going on and there may be very complicated matters that are going on and the other child, whatever it might be and you finally say to your child, say you're not gonna be able to play with Johnny anymore. And what's that child say? Your child says, why? Well, it's too complicated to explain.

It's just not good for you. Child can't understand. You could sit down and start talking about all the psychological principles. You could start talking about how negative things get into its soul.

You could start talking about how if you walk amongst those who are rebellious, you are likely to become rebellious. If you start talking about all these things, your child will never be able to understand it. And the child says, why? And the child will have no peace until finally the child in some level says, my mother, my father loves me and knows what is best for me and I accept and I trust. That's the only time peace comes. You can't get peace by trying to understand what you can't understand.

You get peace that passes understanding when you rejoice in the Lord always and give thanks to him in every situation. The people of God always been lured away, Abraham and Sarah, even though they believed God and it was credited to Abraham as righteousness, that God would give him a son. When the promise tarried and they had no child, the peace that passes understanding got displaced by their attempt to have understanding. They brought in the maidservant Hagar to mother the child and Ishmael was born and he was a wild donkey of a man. And he brought disruption and chaos and destruction into their family. And so it has been, there's something in the sin nature that grows discontent and dissatisfied when we can't see it and understand it.

And the people were told to go and take the promised land and they came back and they couldn't figure out how they would win, how they would take these cities and so instead they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. It's interesting that Jesus came into the earth during the season of what was known as Pax Romana, those years of Roman peace where it was variously inscribed on ancient walls and sculptures that Caesar is the Lord because there was so much peace. And yet the Savior of the world came into the Roman peace and the world sought to kill its Savior. There was no real peace and Jesus said, my peace I give you but not as the world gives you.

It's different and Paul further explains this by saying, think on these things. He says whatever's true, another word for this is real. Whatever the things are that are actually real, the substance of the true things, whatever's honorable, it is a word that can also be translated noble. And see some things that we think about are true but they're not honorable, they're not noble. The invitation is you think about those things that are true but also honorable. You think about things that are noble and you might craft in your mind something that feels noble but if it's not true, it's not worthy of thought. But it's when something is true and honorable.

That's the challenge, isn't it? They're true things that you could think about and you could talk about but they're not helpful because all it does is take you down a pathway of negativity, it doesn't help. Just because it's true doesn't mean it needs to be thought about all day long. You could get together as a family each night and you could have evening prayer and you could tell each other what you're thankful for for that day and you could speak of wonderful blessings to one another and it would all be true and it would all be noble. Or you could get together and you could reflect on how miserable everybody is and point out everybody's weaknesses and remind one another of their failures.

And it might be true but it wouldn't be honorable. We've done some of both. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems? Or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality?

If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit available to all in Christ no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy 16 times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life-building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we're able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance but joy is ever-present in the Spirit. So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Think about these things. True, what's honorable.

Think about what is just. This is the New Testament word, dikaiosune. It is the word for righteousness, the justice of God, the right things. Whatever's pure, it means clean and holy.

Whatever's lovely, I love this word. It means whatever calls forth love. Don't think about things that don't call forth love.

If it's just gonna call forth division and hate, don't think about those things. Think about and talk about the things that call forth love. Whatever is commendable, it's a beautiful idea of being admirable, of being winsome, anything that's excellent, anything that's worthy of praise. You think about these things. And what happens to the Christian is that you are able to move into a new habit of thinking. There's a very important verse in Ephesians 4, verse 23 where Paul brings this exhortation to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That's an interesting phrase, the spirit of your mind. There's a connection between the mind and the spirit. There's an attitude of mind that comes from subservience and connection and alignment with the things of the spirit.

It's a very fascinating thing. John Piper says this, well, the renewal of the mind is not about gaining more information. The mind has an attitude, a spiritual connection, the mind that is informed by the spirit of God, the mind of Christ, the mind that thinks like Christ. You see, what this is to say is to be having the mind of Christ doesn't mean that you know everything that Christ knows.

It means that you think like he thinks. You can think like God thinks. You're made in the image of God. God thinks about those things that are true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. God doesn't think about worries.

God doesn't have fears. God wants you to have the mind that he has. It doesn't make you God. It doesn't make you know everything that God knows, but it is who you are in Christ. You are made in his image, and when you're restored in Christ, you're his child, and you're being conformed to the image of Christ, and the battleground is in the mind. What happens is that when you begin to think differently, at first it may not even feel right to you because you might think that it's so different from how you were raised.

It might be different from every other thought process you've always had. Take your hands and put them together like this. Fold your hands together, interlocking them. Now, if you're listening on the radio or podcast and riding a car, don't do this, but otherwise, put your hands together like this. You know, like you're just interlocking them, and it feels nice. Now, take it and move it over one digit, you know, where you put the four finger over the other one wrong. Like, you know, it doesn't feel right. Put it over, put them like that. Now, just hold it there for a while. It's getting on your nerves, isn't it? It's like, you can't even concentrate because you've got your hands sitting like this, you know? It's just amazing. Something so little like that, by habit, I just put my hands together like this, and so that feels right to me, and if I just do it like this, that feels wrong to me.

Something so small is that, isn't it? Like, you know, sometimes if I'm messing up in golf and somebody knowledgeable will tell me a different way of holding the club or a different way of position at the top of the swing, and at first, it feels wrong to me. In fact, you have to do it for a long time before it feels right. Just because something feels right to you doesn't mean that it's right.

Just because something seems comfortable to you doesn't mean that it's right. Something doing the thing that is right is gonna feel really uncomfortable for a while, and I think this is part of what Paul is talking about here, is that there's a process of the renewing of the spirit of our mind, wherein the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the coming of Jesus into our lives, begins to influence and a process of grow. My spirit is new. My body one day will be made new, but right now, I am being renewed.

I am growing, and if you find yourself at a place where you're stagnated and you're not growing, it's because the battleground is in the mind, and what God does by the presence of his Holy Spirit is he begins to show you a different way. He begins to show you a whole another way of thinking, the power of his spirit, the power of his word, the power of his goodness. It's a new look at life. It's the glories of his grace, and it changes everything. What happens, and this is what basically happened to me if I were to describe the transformation that has taken place in my life, from being a negative thinker to a positive thinker, from being a person who tended to gravitate towards that negative thought process that would go down the road into the hypothetical situation, to being a person who is more inclined to be able to have faith about the possibilities that might happen. Here's what has taken place.

If I were to sum it all up, it's this. God has convinced me. God has convinced me of the truth and the power of the gospel, that I don't know everything, but there are some things that I do know. I know that I know that I know down deep in my soul that God is real. I've experienced him, and I have found his word to be true. I know that I know that God is on his throne, and he's a God of grace, and you'll never convince me otherwise. I know it because I have experienced his forgiving and cleansing power, and though I was lost in sin and shame, he has cleansed me, he has forgiven me, and I've been made spotless. I have been made white as snow, and I am declared to be the righteousness of Christ, so much so that I can come into the intimate presence of God and I can worship him, and I can experience him, and I can talk to him.

I know him, I love him, I know him, I love him. You could never convince me otherwise, and I know because of the deposit of the Holy Spirit inside of me that there's an inheritance that's been laid up for me. That's what the Holy Spirit does. You've had a foretaste of glory divine. You've experienced something of the peace that passes all understanding there must be more.

I've experienced a joy that's unspeakable. I know there's more. I know that heaven's real. I know that I'm gonna live with him.

I know that I'm gonna be his forever and ever and reign with Christ. I know these things. You can't convince me otherwise.

You could talk to your blue in the face. You'll never be able to talk me out of this, and you raise every question that you've got about the evils of this world, and the questions, and the confusions, and the troubles, and all the things that I can't answer, and I'll still have to come back to you and say the things that I can't answer do not define my life. What defines my life is the thing that I do know that is true. See, it's like this. I'm not much of a mathematician, but I do know that two plus two equals four. Does two plus two equals four? Does two plus two, is it four?

Some of you are unconvinced. This is gonna mess up my illustration. Two plus two is four. Two plus two is four. Now, my son is an engineering major, and he's taking math courses in kinds of math I didn't actually know existed. He's taking courses that have to do with imaginary numbers. Why do we need imaginary numbers?

I don't know. But you could take his smartest math professor and bring him and fill up a chalkboard full of formulae, and algorithms, and complicated things that come up at the end, and he says, and see here, two plus two isn't four, and I'd call him a liar. I don't know much math, but I do know this. Two plus two is four.

I got that one down. Two plus two is four. Yeah, but you don't understand this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and look over this.

I don't understand that. But two plus two is four, man. I know that for sure. You can't trick me into thinking that two plus two isn't four In other words, the thing that's fundamental that I do understand is the foundation by which I build everything else. Build your life on the gospel.

Build your life on the presence of Jesus commuting with you in your heart so that you, a born-again spirit, alive unto God, have your mind be renewed day by day by the things of God. You know this, Christians. He loves you. You know this. He died for you. You know this. He reigns for you. He intercedes for you.

You know this. He's coming back for you, and so when the worries come, when the negative thoughts come, the unanswerable questions come, do not get lost in the oppression of trying to figure out everything so you can have peace that comes with understanding. Be satisfied with the peace that passes understanding. God is on his throne today. The world's got troubles, but we just spend our time thinking about all the troubles.

We're gonna magnify, think on these things. Whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely and admirable, things that are excellent and praiseworthy, think on these things, and you will be a different person. It's the promise of God, and that's the gospel. Alan Wright and our teaching, The Path to Joy and Peace, and I hope you found good hope and peace there and live with joy now that you've heard that and you can apply it. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today.

C.S. Lewis said, No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. In other words, joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition. Actually, joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ. No matter what you're facing, you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it.

The apostle Paul did, though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned, he spoke of joy 16 times. Alan Wright's newest CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians. When you make a gift today to Sharing the Light, we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Alan, so often we do think of joy, we think of happiness, but I've also heard many say that there is a difference, that joy does not mean that you will always be happy and never experience disappointment or grief or sorrow. Yeah, well, it's why you can be even in a season of grief and you can still have joy in the midst of it.

And there's a big difference. A joy is a thing of the Spirit. And so what we're learning today, and I hope we've been learning throughout this whole series, is that what you feed yourself is what you grow in. You know, it's interesting, Daniel, I just got back from our epic national conference and I was able to preach several times and Ann and I lit a marriage track, but I was also able to just sit there under some godly ministry, some unbelievable worship, and just listen and take in the Word of God for really three and a half days intensively.

And it's interesting. You would think that the more you fill yourself up, then the more you're full and satisfied, but not so. And the things of the Spirit, the more you are immersed in the goodness of God and immersed in His Word, the hungrier you get. I come back more thirsty spiritually.

So this goes far to explain what Paul's talking about here. If you think on that which is true and is right and true and noble and pure and lovely and admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, you think on these things. What it does is not just satisfies you, but it ignites a spiritual thirst within you. If we sow to the flesh, Paul says, we'll reap from the flesh, but if you sow into the Spirit, you're gonna reap from the Spirit. So in the end, it's about sowing into the Spirit. It's not about earning God's favor at all, but it is about letting your life become aligned with your real purpose in this world. Think on these things and God of peace will be with you. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.