Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. As Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, slowly suffocated on a Roman cross, the Father did the unimaginable. He took his strong right hand of blessing from the firstborn's bleeding head. and moved it toward the head of the undeserving younger siblings. That's you.
That's me. God crossed his arms in grace. It means that you can walk in the favor of God. A blessing that should have rested on the sinless Saviour alone. With such a gift in mind, there's no limit to the favor of God.
On your life. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. I heard almost like it was audible. In the middle of all these tears, I heard Alan, you know I'm calling you to the ministry, don't you? And I said yes, and I wept for weeks after that.
Weeks. I couldn't even talk about it without weeping. And so I didn't become a pro tennis player, a cartoonist, an artist, or a rock star. Uh And here I am. 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.
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More on this later in the program, but now let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Pastor Alan Wright. Mm.
Okay, we're starting a new series in Nehemiah. And I'm excited to get started with this.
So we're going to start right at the beginning. And if you follow along in your Bible, we're right there at Nehemiah 1, starting at the beginning. I'm going to read a few verses, then we're going to do some more of the verses actually during the message. The words of Nehemiah the son of Hecaliah, now it happened in the month of Khislev. Winter month.
In the 20th year, as I was in Sousa, the citadel, Susa, the Persian Palace location during the wintertime that Hen and I, one of my brothers, Cain may be a literal brother or maybe Maybe just a Jewish brother. came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days.
And I continued fasting and praying. before the God of heaven.
Okay, beloved, are you ready for some good news? God made you on purpose for great purposes, and He wants to help you know the purpose and walk in it. I don't want you guessing. He wants to release you. Uh And when we're little, we always say, What are you going to do when you grow up?
What do you want to be? I was positive what I wanted to be. Professional tennis player. My first favorite was a guy named Rod Laver. Anyone remember Rod Laver?
Lefty, huge left forearm, crisp. Strokes. And then a guy named Bjorn Borg came onto the scene. Bjorn Borg. Long hair, that made him cool right there.
Endless stamina and a looping top spin forehand like nobody'd ever seen. I wanted to be Bjornborg. I was playing tennis before we had tennis courts to play on. Bob Phillips and I, he lives across the street, we'd go out in Pine Top Road like we owned it and just hit the tennis ball to each other. No net, no nothing, just hit the tennis ball.
I had a contraption. It had a bass, a heavy bass, and a long rubber string tied to a tennis ball. And I'd just go out there in the street and hit the tennis ball, and it'd spring back at me, and I'd hit the tennis ball. I spent hours just hitting the tennis ball against the wall of my garage. And then when I was old enough, I could drive my bike to the tennis courts.
I'd go and I'd play tennis the whole day. I want to be a professional tennis player. I was positive until Sometime around high school. I wasn't the best guy in the state or In the region, and you probably need to be about the best in the state at least if you're going to be a pro. And I was going, well.
I'll give up on that. But I had some things I could fall back on. I was pretty sure, also, I wanted to be.
Well, let's just say, an electric guitarist rock star. I mean, I was going to be. I had a pretty good garage band, and I was going to be Jimmy Page. I mean, I was just going to be. It was somewhere along the line I thought, ah, this thing, I don't know if I'm going to do that.
I also thought about it, you know, I'd like to have been a painter. I love art. I'd love to be an artist. I'm going to be Bob Timberlake. And I don't know, somewhere in high school also I started going, My stuff doesn't look like Bob Tenderlakes.
And it's like, maybe that's not going to work. I just like to draw cartoons. And I thought, you know, honestly, if I would just sign it still. Like if it was just me. I'd be Charles Schultz.
Just let me do a comic strip every day that can have a little message, give a little chuckle, maybe make the world a little bit better place, and just create something every day, you know. You always have these things, like, what am I what am I gonna do? And then I'm a junior in college and I I discovered I really liked studying the Bible. I'd been a Christian for some years, and I really liked it, but I'd never, never had I thought about being a pastor. And my junior year of college, I was praying in my dormitory room in Stacey Dorm, and Out of the blue, out of nowhere.
I wasn't asking God, what do you want me to do in my life? I wasn't asking for His presence in any special way. And I can't even describe what happened. I've told it in detail before, but Mm-hmm. The holy presence of God came in that little room and I'd Can't even give you words for it.
Felt like uh blanket like it was heavy and Yet it was hopeful and I just don't I didn't even know what was happening. I began just to weep. for a long time. And then I heard almost like it was audible In the middle of all these tears, I heard Alan, you know I'm calling you to the ministry, don't you? And I said yes, and I wept for weeks after that.
weeks I couldn't sto I couldn't even talk about it without weeping. And so I was I didn't become a pro tennis player, a cartoonist, an artist, or a rock star. And here I am. And you know, I've had days like all of us do. who have been called to anything.
You know, whether it be A specific way to love a neighbor that lives next to you, or whether it be the whole vocation of your life, or we all have times where we go. I don't know if I want to be doing this, you know. But I've never had a moment Not one. that I doubted the call. I think of the Apostle Paul who You know how he often would say like, Jesus came and appeared to me, and I've been faithful to that vision.
It's like it was too real. I couldn't do something else. You know, I'm so, so thankful for that. Because I think it's one of the number one priorities and dilemmas that I talk to people, young people, they're like, I just want to know. what to do with my life.
But it's not just young people, it's also. I talk amongst those who've retired and are older and have all this wisdom and want to know how to use it and where to go. In other words, it's the prevailing question of our lives, really. Not just we're saying as kids, what do I want to be when I grow up? But it's what do I do with tomorrow and the next day and the next year?
Because we don't want to live aimlessly. And yet there's this big distinction, I think, between just like what would I like to do? Maybe we call it ambition. And I use the word ambition in in kind of a worldly sense today. But it's not necessarily that it's bad.
I mean, it wouldn't be bad that. Like I was planning before I experienced this call to ministry, I was planning to maybe go on into academia and teach New Testament or something. And what it'd be bad to be noble. I mean, a lot of no it just wasn't the thing that I was being called to. But we have all of these things that we might really like to be.
Yeah. But that compared to what we're called to is very different.
So I'm going to talk to you about the difference in calling and ambition. And Nehemiah is a wonderful place to start because in this opening chapter, what we see is a call. This is not like some of the other calls we see in the Bible where God just appears in a burning bush or appears to Paul and speaks to him directly, or even like what Isaiah experienced. This is more of something that Nehemiah discerned. And so There's a little bit of the anatomy of the kind of call like any of us can experience.
Although this was a big task in front of him, I think the paradigm and some of the things we learn have much to say about our daily sense of call that we have. The word vocation is actually a beautiful word. We use it just to mean your career or whatever. But it actually, its etymology is of calling because it comes from the word vocare in Latin, it means voice. or call.
Vocation is the same root as voice. Why? Because there's a voice outside of you. That's beckoning you toward something.
So, the Christian life is one of calling. It is not one of inward ambition. of simply saying what would I like to do. What is it that makes me happy? These aren't the fundamental questions for determining the course of our lives from a biblical perspective.
So Nehemiah is a great place to see this. on display.
So let's dive in. Why Nehemiah? Why now? Why this summer for us at Ronaldo? We're in a season of vision that we hope we're going to be able to build the kingdom and build some physical spaces as we want to enhance what we're doing in four places.
So there's that. I mean, Nehemiah is a visionary builder, and I think it's so powerful, though, individually. When you start thinking about vision in your life, you start thinking about where does your story, although it can feel small, like my story can feel very small. It takes but where is it in the big story? That's where it makes a difference.
Where does your story, part of the big story? And you see your life as part of that big story of what God's doing, that's when your life becomes big. 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 Allan 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. Your life, even if your call may be very specific and. Nobody is not going to do anything that would draw any attention to itself, but it's part of the big story.
And so I think that's part of the value of thinking about Nehemiah and vision. And I'm just fascinated. I'm just fascinated. Aren't you? I'm fascinated by visionaries.
Nehemiah was one. I'm fascinated when anybody. Because this is what faith does. Anybody that can see something that has not yet happened or does not yet exist and see it in their mind happening. And then and then and then execute it.
I'm just fascinated by visionaries. I'm fascinated by inventors. We came back from the beach and I was wishing, I wish I'd invented the shabumi. The Shibumi has taken over the beaches. It's better than an umbrella, this little fabric.
You just rope this thing around a pole, you stick it in the stand, up, it's going, gives you the shade of four umbrellas. It's taken over the beaches. And I understand these two guys were young guys from NC State. They had the idea of a better shade on the beach. Can you believe that?
NC State. And anyway, sorry, I'm just saying, give you a little shout out, but anyway, and now it's on 800 Beaches taken over. Just to be able to see maybe the way we're doing it now is not the best way. Maybe there's a better way. And somebody that could see that is fantastic.
But what I love about Nehemiah also is that Nehemiah executes it. Many years ago, Andy Stanley wrote a book on Nehemiah, and he called it visioneering. merging together these words engineering and vision because It's not just who can see something, it's who then is going to do it. It made me think of Harold Brock. Harold was my buddy, my brother, my elder, my prayer partner at my first church, and we were a little church.
My loved Harold Brock, and he loved Jesus.
Well, we took our elders out maybe our second year or something, went to Camp New Hope to go do our elders' retreat and put our. Newsprint up on the walls and write down mission statements and goals and what we want to do. And we wrote down, you know, all the things that you want to do and, you know, reach more people for Christ and, you know, care for the hurting and, you know, and all the things we want to do and everything. And we took a lunch break, and there was like a rustic cafeteria at Camp New Hope. and we were in there waiting in line to get our food and there were other elder retreats that were going on from other churches.
that were there. And they had newsprint up on the walls around the cafeteria. And I'm looking at Harold were standing in line and Harold starts chuckling. I'm like, what are you snickering about? Nothing.
He keeps chuckling. He's looking around. I say, what? He said, you see these? I said, yeah.
He said, looks like some other people are doing some officer retreats, planning retreats. I said, yeah. He said Hey, they started laughing and said, They got some of the same things on their pieces of paper that we've got. And I said, yeah. They want to reach people for Jesus and help the hurting and everything too.
Yeah. And then I said, why are you laughing? And he started laughing. He said, wonder who's going to do it. It's one thing to have a vision, it's another to execute it.
So I'm drawn to the Nehemiah story at this season of our lives. He got in there into the thick of it. He became a builder himself. Did it. I'm drawn to Nehemiah for a lot of reasons, and maybe most of all.
It points us to the greater builder, the one who is the greatest visionary who built a better city. And that's Jesus. You're going to see him in Nehemiah's story. Let's dive into this, the setting of this. Again, at verse 1, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah, it happened in the month of Khislev, I think that's November, the 20th year.
I was in Susa. That's the Persian palace that the King would be in in the wintertime. At that time it was King Artaxerxes, king of Persia, that Henanai, one of my brothers, maybe literally a brothers, could just mean another Jewish guy. Came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and who survived the exile. concerning Jerusalem and they said the remnant there Who survived the exile, and the words he used are in great trouble and shame the wall of Jerusalem's broken down, the gates are destroyed by fire.
So disobedience and idolatry. Had been prevalent in the life of Israel. God, through his prophets, had warned them that if they did not return to the Lord, there would be heavy discipline from the Lord. And it came. And it came in the form of the overrun.
of Israel, first the northern kingdom, and then in 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon sacked Jerusalem, overran the city, and they deported most of the Israelites to Babylon.
Some survived it, some escaped it, some were left behind. But most were gone. And God promised that He would restore them. He never, never, never, even under the old covenant of law, he never simply just punished. He disciplined for the sake of restoration, and he never broke his promises.
He always had planned for them to have this.
So they start coming back. When a new empire, Persia, takes over, and Cyrus has a different policy. He's like, I allow people to go back to their homelands. First group comes back around 538. led by Zerubbabel, they rebuild the temple.
There's a famous scene in in Ezra they talk about the temple gets rebuilt and It didn't seem to have the former glory, and so some people wept because it wasn't as glorious as Solomon's Temple. But the temple got rebuilt and A wave of people came back with Ezra. They'd rediscovered the book of the law, probably discovering Deuteronomy. Ezra's trying to lead them back into the word. And Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the king of Persia.
And this is crazy. Because the cupbearer, of course, is the one who's tasting the king's wine, make sure it's not poisoned. But because it's always delivering food and beverage up to the king, this person is intimate acquaintance with the king.
So they became known as having influence. and they had an audience regularly with the king, a very rare thing. And God did this sometimes, right? Like Moses. was Hebrew, but he was raised in the Egyptian court.
God sometimes will just do this. He did this with Daniel during the exile. Daniel was Hebrew, but he got promoted in Nebuchadnezzar's court because Daniel was so smart and visionary.
Well, here now is this Jewish man, Nehemiah. He somehow has gotten into this position. He's cut bearer to King Artaxerxes. I think that Nehemiah thinks everything's going well. 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. Pastor Alan, we're kicking off this series, Nehemiah, and placing the bookmark here.
Well, what inspiration started your journey down the trail of Nehemiah?
Well, Nehemiah is one of the best instances in all of the scripture of watching how the call of God works out in. and otherwise ordinary person's life. We preached this series a bit ago as we were beginning at our local church some series of expansion plans. Which is always fitting when you're thinking about this. But what's really fitting about Nehemiah.
is the understanding of vision for your life, how vision comes. How God works and how His grace can be at work, even when there's opposition against that vision.
So, to our listeners, here is: it is a wonderful way to begin your year. is to be okay Lord give me vision For all the ways that you would like from me to be following you this year, what it is that you're doing in my life, and we live. By a sense, as we're talking about today, vocation, which is calling, rather than mere ambition. And in the coming weeks of going through the story of Nehemiah, I can promise our listeners, you're going to not just learn. About how God's call can work itself out in your life, but many of the kingdom secrets of living out a joyful, committed type of discipleship.
And being used by God for very special purposes, even when times get difficult. It's a great way to start out the year. 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. That's pastoralan.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
