Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to be doubly fruitful. For 3,700 years, Jewish dads have blessed their kids with the words, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. partly because Ephraim means twice fruitful. flourish, grow, bear much fruit.
I bless you to find energy for your work. through your sense of destiny. God has woven unique gifts and aspirations into the fabric of your life. that position you for a role that no one else can fill. You are God's workmanship.
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. That's from Ephesians. Chapter 2, verse 10. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. He's saying, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these other things will be added unto you.
Do not be confused. It does not mean to pursue only the callings of God in your life, that therefore you do not have other. Beautiful desires. Call them godly ambitions that are in your life that God also wants to fulfill alongside of this one great. call of your life.
So 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. Oh.
This is what the world says. The world's ideology right now is: don't let anybody tell you what you ought to do. You just Be who you are. You know, live your truth. Look inside yourself.
It's not a new philosophy. It's not just new ageism. It always has been. A temptation. to pridefully follow an inward voice which is unreliable.
We are sin-tainted creatures, and the inward voice is unreliable. If I just rely on myself. I would still B Trying to play tennis with a sore back. painting pictures and playing the electric guitar. Putting a tin can out for somebody to put money in.
I mean, I would miss it all if I just go, what do I like to do? It's wrong. This is utterly countercultural, but it is the biblical picture. of the spirit-filled called life. I think these days of mourning and weeping and fasting for Nehemiah were a process.
Four months go by before he ever talked. Talks to the king. And calling You see, it can endure the test of time because calling Stands.
So Nehemiah hears the bad news in November. He decides to act on it in April. But it could have been even longer. It's not to say we're supposed to delay, but it's Romans 11:29 to say the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Jonah ran as far away from God as he could run, and yet, even though he had rebelled and tried to travel to the uttermost parts of the sea, Jonah 3:1, the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.
Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, call out against it the message I tell you. The same instruction, the same call. That's really delightfully re-encouraging, isn't it? delightfully reassuring. That even if there was something God had called you to, decades ago.
It's not too late. You can't get away from it, I think, when it's a call. keeps coming. And we get this long and beautiful prayer that we don't have time to. Exegete.
I wish we could because it is a great example. Just look at glance at it with me. Long, beautiful prayer is a model of a kind of discerning prayer. Nehemiah 1:5, I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant in steadfast love.
So prayer. begins with praise. and appeal with affection to God's covenantal faithfulness. Praise is acknowledging God. for who he is.
as the God of covenantal faithfulness. It continues with confession, verse 7: We've acted corruptly against you and not kept the commandments, the statutes. And there is a place for this. This is what's happening here where he is confessing corporately. Though it may not be his unique or individual sins, we collectively have rebelled and been idolatrous.
Then it builds this prayer it does by bringing God's word and promises back to God. This is the model. Praise him, acknowledge with humility that we don't deserve his grace, but then. Bring his word to him. We're not just bringing our thoughts and desires.
This is a great model. Verse 8. Remember the word you commanded your servant Moses, saying, Of your faithful, I'll scatter you amongst the people. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, I'll gather you. This is what you said, God.
I'm bringing it back to you. And then, watch this: it crescendos with unashamed and bold request for success because he's discerned a call and he's going to go ask King Artaxerxes. Be a dangerous thing to appear before a king who you're the servant to and ask to be released and blessed to go rebuild your homeland. But Nehemiah 1:11, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. And look at this, just boldly, and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy.
Some translations say, favor in the sight of this man. I was cupbearer to the king. I'm just saying, what happens is you go through a process of call. You see this happen. His prayer life changes because he's praying into the call.
He's praying. With praise and humility, bringing the word of God back to God, and now confidently, because he has a sense of call, he can say, Let me have favor with the king. Wow, that's... powerful prayer. If he were trying to live according to his own personal ambition and then just ask God to bless what he wanted to do, there's no power in that.
Okay.
So I'm calling it ambition. versus calling John Stott called it godly ambition versus a worldly or self-centered ambition. And he has this to say, it's a long paragraph, it's so instructive. One of the keenest theological minds, pastors, and preachers of the last century said: in the end, just as there are only two kinds of piety, the self-centered, and the God-centered So there are only two kinds of ambition. One can be ambitious for oneself.
or for God. And there is no third alternative. Ambitions for self may be quite modest, enough to eat, to drink, to wear. Or they may be grandiose, a bigger house, a faster car, a higher salary, a wider reputation, more power. But whether modest or immodest, These are ambitions for myself, my comfort, my wealth, my status, my power.
Stock continues, Ambitions for God, however, if they're to be worthy, can never be modest. There's something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambition for God. How can we ever be content that he should acquire just a little more honor in the world. No. Once we're clear that God is king, Then we long to see him crowned with glory and honor according to his true place.
We become ambitious. for the spread of this kingdom and righteousness everywhere. And when this is genuinely our dominant ambition, what I'm calling calling, That not only will all these things Be yours as well, material things and so forth. But there will be no harm. Listen to this.
There'll be no harm in having secondary ambitions, since these will be subservient to our primary ambition and not in competition with it. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever wonder why little children wish they didn't have to go to bed and adults look forward to it? Ever notice how children see mealtime as an intrusion in the midst of a fun day, but adults see mealtime as the most fun part of the day?
What happened on the path to adulthood that robbed us of the simple freedom and wonder on display in a child's heart? If you've ever longed to be a child again, here's good news. You can. When Jesus told his disciples that the greatest in the kingdom were the little children, he was pointing to a huge spiritual truth. The abundant life is on display in the simple faith of little children.
When you make your generous gift this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's timeless book, A Childlike Heart, as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call or visit us online today to make your gift and get your copy of A Childlike Heart. The freedom and wonder of childhood awaits you. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.
When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. 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. Wow, this is so instructive, beloved. He continues, indeed, it is then that secondary ambitions become healthy.
Christians should be eager to develop their gifts, widen their opportunities, extend their influence, and be given promotion in their work. Not now to boost their ego or build their empire, but rather through everything they do. to bring glory to God. Do you see this? He's saying, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these other things will be added unto you.
Do not be confused. It does not mean to pursue only the callings of God in your life, that therefore you do not have other. Beautiful desires. Call them godly ambitions that are in your life that God also wants to fulfill alongside of this one great. Call of your life.
Same.
So I Bless you unreservedly if you're in your vocational career life. Prosper in it, be blessed, be promoted in it. Have favor and... If you're in the earliest years of your life and you're looking for your life direction, and may God bless you in it, and fulfill you in it, and prosper you in it, and you want to have, you have dreams that you have, bless them, bless them. But what he's saying is, The Direction of your life.
And the daily call of your life. Is not an inward Voice.
Some reliable, selfish, prideful voice. It is instead the very voice of God. from outside of you. calling you toward. His purposes.
And I promise you. Any effort to run contrary to his purposes. will not Be fulfilling. at all. Six.
It will not. If you set up personal ambitions, whatever they might be. I wanted to be a rock star. Even if you got it. but it wasn't the call of God.
you will not be fulfilled in it. This applies to us whether we're young and looking for the direction of our life, old looking for who we're supposed to care for tomorrow, or in the middle of a busy family life. and we're wanting to shepherd our kids. Ambition Is more fleshly. It's more originating from within.
Call is from outside of us. Ambition is. in that sense, ultimately an appeal to what I want. But call is much broader than that. It's not just something I want, but it pertains to influence for the kingdom and the goodness of God and the world.
Ambition can never really make us lament and care for the well-being of others, but calling creates a deep burden within us to see others helped. Ambition, I think, taps into the pride of the flesh, whereas calling connects to the humility and vulnerability of our lives. There's probably a longer list of comparisons than that, but I see all of that in the story of Nehemiah. And so There's a sea of need. And you can't respond to all of it.
And it could have been that Nehemiah just received that news. And all he was supposed to do Would say I'm going to pray for my brothers back home and pray. It could have been that the Lord has said, I need you right here with the king because you've got a position of influence. And so you just pray.
Well God did something else. And chances are You can see a sea of need around you. But there's some specific ways God wants you to respond because He's calling you. And that's what we need to know. Our summer reading from Bob Goff, Everybody Always, is one of my favorite books.
The book that he wrote before this is also delightful, not the one we're reading, but it's called Love Does. And I love it partly because he tells the story of what changed his life. Bob said when he was a junior in high school He didn't think of school very much, and so he decided he was going to drop out. and go to Yosemite and go rock climbing. He had $75 in cash.
An old VW bug. Two red bandanas. and some rock climbing shoes. But he'd gotten to know a guy. That was called Randy.
He didn't fully understand at the time why Randy was so interested in him, but Randy worked for a ministry called Young Life. ministry to high school students. And Randy had taken interest in Bob's life and befriended him and loved him.
So Bob said before he headed out to Yosemite, he decided to go by Randy's house. He owed it to him to tell him he was leaving. and he came and knocked on Randy's door. and said, Hey, just want you to know, I'm dropping out of school. And I'm going to go to Yosemite and go rock climbing.
And Randy said, can you hang on for a minute? Bob said, okay. And Randy came walking back out. With a backpack. And a sleeping bag.
He said, I'm with you.
So are you good?
So no, so. You going now? I said, yeah. I said, I'm coming with you. They went out to Yosemite.
snuck in the back of some platform tent they weren't supposed to be in. The next day they got up and they Hike Yosemite. climbed. And Bob said he went down to the Climbing outfitters place and asked for a job, they said, No, you're what? Go back to high school.
The next day he asked for a job at the cafeteria at Yosemite. They said, no, nothing here. They hiked some more. They climb some more. and he was running out of his $75.
And So After they got to that point. Bob one day just says, To Randy. Hey. I'm about out of money. Looks like this isn't really working.
And so I think I'll just head back and finish up school. And Randy said, all right, Bob. If that's what you want to do, I'm with you. And This part gets me choked up every time I read it. When they got back to Randy's house and carried the backpack gear in, Randy's girlfriend was there.
But Bob saw there was some wrapping paper. And a coffee maker. and a half-opened microwave on the floor. And listen to these words from Bob Goff. He said, I felt both sick and choked up in an instant.
I realized that these were wedding presents on the floor. This chokes me up every time. Randy and his girlfriend, he said. had just gotten married. And when I knocked on Randy's door that Sunday morning, Randy didn't just see a high school kid who just Who disrupted the beginning of his marriage?
He saw a kid who was about to jump the tracks.
So instead of spending the early days of his marriage with his bride, He spent it with me. Why? There's nothing like the power of a call. Bob Goff wrote, he said, What I learned from Randy changed my view permanently. about what it meant to have a friendship with Jesus.
Oh, Jesus. He wasn't and isn't the cupbearer to the king. He is the king. He's not just in a position of royalty.
Okay.
He's the ruler. And the call on Nehemiah's life was to leave behind the comfort of the royal palace. And go to the His own people. where he would be, and we'll see it in coming weeks, cruelly persecuted. mocked and opposed.
But the call of the Father for the Son was much greater, wasn't it? To leave behind the comfort and royalty of heaven and become human flesh. to be with us. And to live out a call. not by his own.
comforts. Jesus therefore gave up his life. to build the invisible city. the city of God. And we'll see.
I look forward to the week we see how Nehemiah eventually led the people into unspeakable joy. And that's what Jesus came to do. He's the better, truer, real Nehemiah who lived. every moment. by the call of the Father.
It's the best way to live. It's the best way to live. So, God made you on purpose, four wonderful purposes. And he wants to help you know it. and walk in all of them.
And as the gospel, Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message today, calling versus ambition from the series Nehemiah. Please stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio sharing 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. Ever wish you could be a child again? Ever long for the simpler days when your biggest financial worry was counting the money in the shoebox of the lemonade stand? Ever long for the more carefree times when you wish the long summer days would never end?
If you've ever longed to be like a child again, author Alan Wright has some good news. You can. Because Jesus commanded us to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom, it must be possible. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you a copy of the first book Alan Wright authored. It's called A Childlike Heart, and it will lead you once again into the freedom and wonder of childhood.
If you long for fresh, childlike faith, Alan's book will help you find adventure and joy in your grown-up walk. And remember, when you make a gift, you're broadcasting the love of God to thousands of people every day. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.
We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. 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 as we're coming to the conclusion of this first teaching, Calling versus Ambition in the Study of Nehemiah.
And what does the Lord have for us? Out of this section.
Well, let me just recap this sort of summary of recognizing a call from God. It's so, so important. Ambition rather than call, ambition is from within. It's like something that's driving me on the inside, but call really something that comes from the outside of you. It's God who is speaking from eternity inside your heart.
It's not just something you're dreaming of. And ambition, ultimately, it's really mainly about you. But calling is really mainly about the benefit towards others.
Now, there's blessing for you in your call, but there's benefit to others. Ambition, it never makes us lament and care for the well-being of others, whereas calling Is creating this deep longing to see others helped. And I think that finally, ambition. Kind of taps into the pride of the flesh, whereas calling Connecting to the humility, the vulnerability of our lives. Very important that we understand the difference between the two.
God is at work, He's calling. We are His sheep. We hear His voice. And so I say to every listener, At every season of your life, Uh God has a particular calling for you and you can hear from him and he can lead you. And that's where your joy is, and that's where the fruit is, and that's where the ultimate fulfillment of your life is.
Uh 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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