Pastor Alan is on the road and you're invited. Check out pastorallen.org for more information. But if you live in the Carolinas, you're invited to a men's event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on February 27th. And if you're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, join us at the Epic Conference open to all in late February. Plus, catch Pastor Alan preaching at Sojourn Church in Carrollton, Texas on March 1st.
All the details at pastorallen.org. Boom. Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing: a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. The love of the Lord comforts. Assuers.
and heels. I bless your soul to experience The plea of the psalmist, Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. Psalm 119, verse 76. When life hurts, you can count on God's comfort. Compassion isn't God's whim, it's his whole heart.
Comfort isn't God's possibility, it's His promise. May you fear no loss. Knowing that the comfort of God is sure because the love of God is sure. Take heart. You can't suffer more than God.
Can comfort. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. This is the power of tradition in celebration. It is why God instilled a rhythm of celebration in the life of Israel. Three feasts in the spring, one in the summer, three in the fall.
If you were in the family of God in Israel, you either were getting ready for a celebration or in the middle of the celebration or cleaning up from a celebration. 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 Nehemiah, Dreamer, Builder, Warrior, as presented at Renolda 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. For a limited time, this can be yours for your donation to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org.
Or call 877-544-4860. Again, by phone, 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program, but now let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Pastor Alan Wright.
Uh Instead of being duped by hell into thinking that church is a place where they just are there to judge you. and make you more sad. and more restricted. What if they heard the authentic sound of the kingdom of God? which the Bible says consists of righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit.
When we are the body of Christ, there is the sound of joy. May it be heard. Far and wide. I noticed some things about this story. There's so much mention of all these priests.
If we read all the lists, they list them out. And even at verse 44, which is right after our main text today, it says Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. They had huge joy in seeing all these priests that they called in, all these ministers, all these worship leaders, all of that. They were just so overjoyed by that. The priests were there, they were purifying themselves and others.
They'd been called in from some of them were bivocational. They'd been called in and they were all there. And everybody's just so. Happy to see this sight. And it really caught my attention.
Why are they so excited to see the priests? And it's because, I think, They represent the reestablishment of worship in Jerusalem. They represent The worship of the people unto God as expressed through their temple. liturgies and sacrifices. And they represent the purification of the people.
For it was only the priests who were Entitled to handle the holy vessels of the temple and to enter into the holy courts. And only on one day a year the high priest could go into the holy of holies and there would sprinkle the blood of an innocent animal on the cover of the ark of the covenant, which was made of gold and had golden cherubim over it. And on that day, the priest representing the people before God. would be enacting what God said would be, though it be temporary, an atoning work for the people. The priests represented people being assured that they could be right with God.
And so they represented Fellowship with God. And they were so excited to see them. The writer of Hebrews says, We have A great high priest, Hebrews 4:14, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession.
So If they were excited over the sight of their priests, How much more we who have a great high priest, Jesus? Whereas they went in, the writer of Hebrews said, regularly to offer these sacrifices because they never paid for everybody's sins in full. But Jesus, in the writer Hebrews, speaking figuratively, went into the heavenlies, if you can imagine it in your mind's eye. there to sprinkle the blood, but not of a heifer or a ram or a lamb. But he himself was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
And so it was his own blood that he took symbolically, mystically into the heavenlies on behalf of all who put their trust in Jesus.
So, if you're just exploring the gospel in Christianity, here's what you need to know from this: that Jesus is the Son of God, but He also is Son of Man. He is both God and human, so he is the perfect mediator between God and humanity because in him is both the divine and the human. And he was sinless, and he offered up his life on the cross as payment for sin so that we might be reconciled to God. And so, when you are in Christ, you're in the great high priest who's already gone into the Holy of Holies on your behalf and once and for all made sacrifice for you that could never ever be diluted or taken away. It means you are in Christ forgiven and made a child of God.
So they're celebrating just at the sight of their priests. How much more us who have the great high priest? And Peter says: here's the amazing thing: is that when you're a Christian, you're a priest. 1 Peter 2, 5, like living stones, you're built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. To offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, that only the priests in those days could handle the holy things.
Only they could go into the holy places of the temple, but now. That old priesthood, which served a purpose in its day. Was only a shadow of what was to come when we would have a great high priest, Jesus, and every single believer is a priest. Please know this. I am not one whit holier than any of you.
And a pastor is not any more a priest than you are. We are all together the priesthood of all believers who have been by the blood of Jesus made holy and authorized to handle the holy things. The spiritual gifts. The power of the Holy Spirit flowing through you. The fruit of the Spirit.
The sweet, character-changing life of God within us. That's through you. Ambassadorship for the gospel of telling the world and being authorized to do so. That's through you. The dominion of victory over the darkness and the expulsion of evil in the powerful name of Jesus.
That's. Through you. There is nothing in the Christian life that is withheld from any Christian. We're the priests. Hallelujah.
So they were excited to see all the priests, and I tell you, I'm excited to see you every Sunday, and every time I bump into you, because you're priests. A royal priesthood. Serving together with a great high priest.
So That's beautiful. The second thing I notice in this story Is there all these connections to the past? If we had time to go through, we'd read all these names and we could link up and show you how, if you trace their ancestry, so many would be linked to specific saints. Many to Abraham himself. But like Zechariah in verse 35, you could trace his ancestry back to Asaph, who was one of the worship leaders in the time of King David.
And if we look to the chapter, you see David being mentioned in their celebration because David evokes celebration in memory. Like when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, when he was going to take the throne finally in Jerusalem, and bringing the Ark in and appointed choirs and priests to stop and offer sacrifices and praise and worship, and then they'd take some more steps and have some more worship of God because David celebrated God. We think of David who danced with all of his heart without regard for what others thought before the Lord. And we think of David who wrote so many of the Psalms that they would sing as they would ascend to Jerusalem in times of pilgrimages, the Psalms of ascent. I think of like the beautiful Psalm 133 that David wrote, one of the Psalms of his saint good how behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity, like the precious oil that is poured out upon the head.
It's a beautiful psalm that envisions a commanded blessing that comes. When the people are together in unity, worshiping the Lord and ascending up. That's Alan Wright. and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Parents, are you ready for some good news?
You can have a low-pressure, high-expectation home by God's grace. If you want your children to be their best without hounding, threatening, or pressuring them, there's good news. God's grace works in parenting. Shame and pressure offer only fleeting motivation while creating long-term, toxic anxiety in a child's heart. But children thrive in the environment of grace.
Now, for the first time, Alan Wright has joined with his wife Ann to produce eight video sessions that blend humor, deep gospel insights, and loads of practical advice to equip parents and grandparents to raise their children in homes filled with grace and blessing. Use the videos for personal growth with your spouse or with your small group. The DVD album comes with a detailed study guide as well. When you make your gift this month, we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel.
This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.
Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues.
Here once again. is Alan Wright. It's like the dew of Mount Hermon. Psalm 133, 3, who falls on the mountains of Zion, there the Lord's commanded blessing and life forever. One commentator put it this way as they hearken back to David.
None of the current celebration would have been possible had it not been for David, who captured the city in the first place, had devised so many instruments, written so much worship, and laid up a blessing for generations.
So in corporate jubilation. The shared joy is not just our shared joy now. But with what has brought us to this point. This is the power of tradition in celebration. It is why God instilled a rhythm of celebration in the life of Israel.
Three feasts in the spring, one in the summer, three in the fall. If you were in the family of God in Israel, you either were getting ready for a celebration or in the middle of the celebration or cleaning up from a celebration. And every celebration activated the memory, the spiritual memory of the people. If it's Passover, you remember when God. took the people out of their bondage in Egypt.
You remember it? If it's the Feast of Booths, you remember how God provided for them in the wilderness, and therefore you stay and sleep in a leafy booth for a while. You're always being connected to that which went before you, so that your joy now is increased. That's what happens with it. You know, it's hard to explain, but you do this in your regular life.
You may not even realize how powerful it is. But it's like, I was thinking about Christmas, some of our Christmas traditions, and one of which Anne and I every year go to Ryan's. Restaurant and go to the Nutcracker Ballet. We just do it every Christmas. This Christmas, the Stevens Center's closed for renovation.
We didn't go. I felt like my whole Christmas was a miss. Like, what is going on? I said, well, at least we're going to go to Ryan's, where where I sat one day and she gave me a present at my birthday and I opened it up and it was some pink booties, I think it was, and it was the announcement that we're expecting our second child. And where, when I turned 40, she had organized a big surprise birthday party, and friends and family flew in from around the country and surprised me.
And we've had so many intimate dinners. We go to Ryan's and we talk about the goodness of God, and we talk about life and relationship. We never take our calendars, we never do church work. And if it comes up, we say, Oh, but just remember, we're not working, we're celebrating. And that's what it is, you see.
So every time I walk in there, All of that is evoked.
So that becomes the connectivity. What I'm saying is that they were on this celebration of the wall remembering God's faithfulness.
So that's why first up, they were so excited to see all the priests. And then there are all these connections that go back to the past. And then the third and most obvious and most important thing about this celebration that I noticed, it was for everyone. Did you notice this at verse 43? They offered great sacrifices that day, rejoiced.
God had made them rejoice with great joy. Was this a professional celebration for the priest? No, it says this, and the women and the children also rejoice. This is the whole family. This is everybody.
Everybody's in on this. The celebration is always better together. Celebration is always better together. The corporate experience of joy is better. It's like the difference in I love cheering for Team USA in front of our TV, but what Abby had sitting at the finish line with 77,000 people and watching somebody cross it, that's better.
It's better for Anne and I. We'll try to get our own little chant, USA, USA. But it's hard to get a chant with just two people. And it's real hard to do it just by yourself, but get in with about 10,000 or 50,000 who are doing it, and it's better. Why is it better?
Something about it is just better. And part of it is this, and that's why I call it the synergy of shared joy. Synergy means one plus one equals something more than two. There's a synergy of shared joy. And in the first place, it's this: joy is contagious.
We know that to be true. Laughter is contagious. We got to pray in this morning. We had church before church today in our prayer time, and the joy started happening, and the joy's hitting me, and I've been joyful ever since. And it just came in.
Do you know a neuroscientist at University College London has studied laughter for two decades and discovered not only are we more likely to laugh when others are laughing. But we know this to be true, but he proved, but just being in the presence of someone who's funny makes you more likely to laugh. You just like I tell you, awakenings for women on Thursday morning, they laugh so much, they have so much joy, and my wife's so joyful, they laugh about things that, I mean, there are times and like, I thought that was going to be serious, and they're still just celebrating. It's just like you walk in, you're like, okay, I'm ready for the joy. I want to be that kind of person.
I want the body of Christ to be like that. Like, they'd come to church, here's where the joy is. That's what it should be. Psychologist Robert Provine in his book on laughter has shown how much more likely you are to laugh with people. Then you are on your own?
I doubt you would guess this. 30 times more likely to laugh with people than you are on your own. We didn't laugh that much on our own. And what we've learned about the brain. is that we're designed to mirror one another.
This is an extraordinary piece of brain science we're discovering.
Some human interactions are immediate and involuntary. And so the brain just communicates with someone else's brain before there's any other communication that could have taken place. It's a fascinating thing. We were in a store yesterday and walk in, and there's some of our older family right there, and they smile, and we smile. Like, wow.
So, when you do that, and you recognize somebody that you didn't expect to see, and then you smile and they smile, do you realize your brains just communicated with each other, and that's joy. And then we turn around, and here came somebody else from Renola and said, Who are you? And we smile, and they smile, and there's joy. And then here came somebody else. And then we just had a little party up at the front of the store.
It was Renola time, right up in front of the store. But our joy, you see somebody that you didn't expect to see in a crowd, and they smile at you, and you smile back at them, your brain lights up with joy. It is an immediate Communication. I'm talking about the synergy of shared joy that you cannot have alone. Yeah.
You don't get it alone. And Not only is it You share it. But it is multiplied when we are together. Because We actually share one another's joy. If there's something good In you That is your joy and I'm with you, it's also my joy.
So if you Accept Jesus. And you get baptized, and you come up out of the water, we're going to celebrate like crazy. Because Your joy is our joy. That is our joy. It's like when Sidney McLaughlin Lavroni runs across the finish line in the 400 hurdles way in front of everybody else.
And we're jumping up and down. It's like her joy, but it's our joy because that's Team USA, and I'm in the USA. You have a Confederate, they call it. You have a representative who is the one who has crossed the finish line for you. Pastor Alan Wright, in our Good News Teaching, Corporate Jubilation: the Synergy of Shared Joy.
It's from our series on Nehemiah, and I encourage you to stay with as Pastor Alan is back here in the studio with a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover 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 to click away at pastoralen.org.
I don't want to pressure my kids and I sure don't want to shame them, but I do want them to try hard and be all they can be. That's the desire of every well-meaning parent. For over a decade, Alan Wright has been teaching all over the nation about the toxic effects of shame and the amazing power of the gospel of grace to heal and set free.
Now, for the first time, Alan has been joined by his wife Ann to produce a video series about shame-free parenting. It's called Good News for Parents: Raising Grace-Filled Kids in a Pressure-Filled World. The eight DVD video sessions are chock full of humor, deep gospel insight, and loads of practical advice. Use them for personal growth or with your spouse. They're also perfect for use in your small group.
The DVD album comes with a detailed step-by-step study guide as well. When you make your gift this month, we'll send you the DVD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and start raising kids by the power of the gospel. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.
Now, we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan in the studio.
And well, this teaching on corporate jubilation, this is a big conclusion, big party, ribbon-cutting, open house, punch and cookies, but it's deeper and more important than just that, right? When you share in celebrating anything with others, There is a way that there's a spiritual bond with that. I think we all know, even if you're, if you've ever been to a sporting event and you're cheering together for the same team or you're celebrating some. Great play in the athletic endeavor. There's just something that happens.
I was at a At a North Carolina basketball game not long ago. And one of North Carolina's star players, Caleb Wilson, makes this big windmill dunk. And complete strangers all around me that are all celebrating this together all of a sudden, like we're one. How much more so in the body of Christ? Right.
So synergy, synergy is this Um Uh this this This kind of joint. energizing power that comes Through together commemorating and celebrating The grandeur of of what Jesus has done for us. And Therefore, it's a lot more than just going to church. It's about. real fuel for powerful living in Christ.
Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org.
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