Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I once saw a beach sunset so beautiful I couldn't stand to see it alone. Too beautiful to hog it for myself, so I ran indoors to beckon my wife. The wonderful Anne was busy unpacking and cleaning and settling in. She hesitated.
But as the sun was dropping fast and the sky was on fire with a thousand hues, I sprinted in again and pleaded, you must see this. The sweetheart submitted, and soon we held hands in the dunes as the sand turned to gold, and the sea glowed amber and the sea oats danced. and the palm trees clapped in celebration of God's artistry. I think Jesus invite you into discipleship today. like I invited Anne into the sunset.
Come And see The Savior says he wants you. to see what he sees. I bless you to take Christ's hand. And watch. For Wonder.
Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. I don't care how much failure and folly and sin and shame you have experienced in your life. When you receive Christ and His saving work on the cross, His forgiveness is so full and the imputation of His righteousness so complete that to God the Father, you smell just like Jesus. 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 called Daniel, 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. It can be yours for your donation this month 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 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.
There would come a time in which his dad would lay his hands on him, bless him prophetically, release an inheritance into his life, and set him apart for special destiny. And this time had come, and so Isaac had told his firstborn son Esau to come, prepare a meal for him, and they would feast together, and then he would give him his blessing. But what they didn't know was the younger brother Jacob, that conniver, that scoundrel, that deceiver. He had conspired with his mother Rebekah, and Jacob, who had always tried to get himself in a place to be blessed, Jacob, who'd always wanted to be his brother Esau, he finally pulled the ultimate deception. He pretended to be Esau.
And the way they did it was they put some goat skins onto his hands and his neck, because Esau's skin was very hairy. And then they took Esau's best clothes and put them on. On to Jacob.
So he comes in. To his blind father, wearing the clothes of Esau. At first, Isaac is a little suspicious. He says at one point, he said, the voice is the voice of Jacob. But the hands feel like Esau's.
And the pivotal moment of this incredible story comes when he finally leans in. To smell him. This is what is recorded in Genesis chapter 27. Verse 26, come near and kiss me, my son.
So he, that is Jacob pretending to be Esau, came near and kissed him. And the Bible says, And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments. and blessed him. and said, Ah the smell of my son. is the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
May God give you of the dew of heaven, and you and of the fatness of the earth. And plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you.
You see the deceiver Jacob The sinner, Jacob. convinced his father by using the smell of Esau. Isaac had been suspicious of the voice. But when he caught the smell. Here's what's happened.
That smell message went straight To his limbic system, his entire emotional memory. All of it. Engulfed him just the way I was standing there at the shower at the Driftwood Hotel, or the way Sammy's father was with his boy's face down next to his. All of a sudden, all of it just overwhelmed this father. Just the the the the smell of his son His firstborn son.
He remembered what it was like to have given birth to this son and come into the family and how it was a blessing from the Lord. And he remembered how he'd grown. He remembered all the times that they'd had together. And he remembered his son's hard work. And he remembered the love that they shared.
All of this. He's not even, it's something that's bypassing his rational mind. And he's just, he's breathing in the pleasing aroma of his firstborn son. The problem was it wasn't his firstborn son. It was the deceiving, sinful secondborn who didn't deserve any of the blessing at all.
And so what happened is that just moments afterward, when Esau comes in, having prepared this meal and ready to receive his blessing, Esau says, I'm ready to receive my blessing. And Isaac said, Who was it then that came just a moment ago? And he realizes, he realized he had blessed the wrong son. And Esau says, well, just bless me too. And Isaac says, I cannot.
He said, I have blessed him, and indeed he will be blessed. There has been an irrevocable blessing that was imparted to the secondborn because he smelled like the firstborn. What? Irony. The image cannot be missed.
Because the secondborn, though he was an undeserving sinner, smelled like the firstborn, he received the blessing of the firstborn. The secondborn was reckoned to be the firstborn, not because he had performed. like the firstborn. but because he smelled like him. This whole incredibly unfair drama foreshadows the great redemptive plan.
Of the cross, where there was a similar exchange, but this time it was no accident, it was the sovereign, gracious plan of God. the firstborn of all creation, Jesus, He hung upon the cross. And he became, the scripture says, our sin. Paul declares that God, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, made Christ to be sin. Peter says, 1 Peter 2:24, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.
What this means theologically is that our sin was imputed to Christ in simplest terms. It means that God the Father looks upon Christ on the cross. as if all our sin were Christ's sin. It's not that the Father believes that Christ sinned. or that Christ ever did sin.
But God thinks of it by this imputation as if Christ were the one who had committed all of my sins. And in this same incredible divine exchange, Through this incredible sacrifice, Not only is my sin imputed to Christ, But through faith, his righteousness is reckoned to be my righteousness and yours. In other words, through the cross, there was an exchange in which Jesus becomes our sin, and He smells of our sin, and we become as if we were His righteousness, and we have taken on the aroma of Christ. Romans 5:17 says, We receive the free gift of righteousness. Paul quoted Genesis when he said, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned as righteousness through grace by faith.
We have received his righteousness so much so that Paul in Second Corinthians two fifteen can say pointedly, we are the aroma of Christ to God. What this means, beloved, is: I don't care how much failure and folly, and sin and shame you have experienced in your life. When you receive Christ and His saving work on the cross, His forgiveness is so full and the imputation of His righteousness so complete that to God the Father you smell just like Jesus. It means that the Father wants to bring you close to his face. Just to.
Smell you. It means that not only do you need to have no fear of approaching God in your time of need. but it means that the Father is intensely attracted to you. By the sheer aroma of the adornment of Christ, you have been clothed in the garments of Christ. You can draw near to him.
With full confidence. That you will never be a stench. in the nostrils of God. Draw near unto God. and receive his mercies.
Draw near unto the Father. He loves you so. You're the aroma. of Christ It's hard to convince ourselves of this because we don't see ourselves that way. And it seems to me that this is the fundamental difference.
Between those that walk through the fire and end up On the other side, feeling embittered or continually ashamed versus those who do not. It has so much to do with understanding who God is and who you are in Christ. Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego had an unshakable theological foundation before they ever went into that fire. Remember what they said? Our God can deliver us from this.
Fiery furnace, and our God will deliver us from this fiery furnace, but even if He doesn't, We're still going to praise the Lord. We're not going to worship your idols because this point is already non-negotiable in our hearts, the goodness of God to us. This is a very clear image for us theologically. God did not author the wickedness of this fire, nor the fury in Nebuchadnezzar's heart. But through Nebuchadnezzar's sin and through the raging fire, God brought glory unto himself.
And he walked with them through this fire so that they would be protected and on the other side, not even smell of smoke.
So, God is above all things, and God has greater wisdom than we can imagine in his ways on our ways. And so, it is something that every Christian can say no matter what. God can, God will, and if he doesn't do it the way that I envision, he's still on his throne, and I'm going to praise him still. That'll change a whole lot about how you come through your adversities. Because what a lot of people do is they think that if they have a lot of adversity, then they may not be as blessed as someone else that they see.
And the message of the Bible is exactly contrary to that. In fact, Jesus said, Blessed are you when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake. Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. Don't ever interpret your circumstances when they get difficult to be something that's dethroning God or removing the goodness from God's heart. There's some things we don't understand.
It's not, on one hand, it's the most complex thing imaginable. On the other hand, it's not that complex. It is that we're in a sin-broken world. And we're going to face troubles and tribulations and trials. We're going to face them just like other people.
And sometimes we'll actually be persecuted just because we love God. But this does not take God off his sovereign throne of grace. Because the fact of the matter is, whether Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had perished in that fire or lived through the fire to tell the day, the fact was that God loved them and they were gods, and nothing could ever separate them from God. And what this means, beloved, is that we can count on this: that as the aroma of Christ to God, we are blessed and highly favored no matter what. Boy, this year's Super Bowl was some kind of anomaly.
I mean, what are the chances? that two brothers would end up coaching against each other in the Super Bowl. The chance of this is so fantastic, you can't even. How could you possibly imagine this ever happening? You know how hard it is to become even a college football coach of a division III school?
You know how hard it is to become a football coach of a major college? How hard it is to become a coach of an NFL team and then be the head coach of the NFL team and then to make it to the Super Bowl. And two guys from the same family show up in the same Super Bowl competing against each other? How could that be possible?
Well, part of the answer He came up to me when I was talking to To Barrett Johnson, our new campus pastor, and he had done a little meditation for the men's group. Wherever Barrett is listening, this is your induction to our staff, the Pastor Steele and your illustration. And uh And somebody tells Barrett, you'll know you're really on staff. when I steal it and I don't give you credit. But anyway um He was the one who gave this idea because I didn't know this, but John and Jim Harbaugh's father, Jack, was the one who, when he was a child, He was out playing one day with his friends, and they'd play football, and then they'd run into somebody's house, and somebody's mom would fix them a peanut butter and jelly syringe.
They'd run back out and play late into the summer evening until they finally play and kick the can under the street light. And he said one day to one of his friends, and he didn't have much material things, but he just said to one of his friends: he said, Has anybody got it better than us? And that became his motto. As a parent. And that's what he would say to his boys who were growing up in a really small two-bedroom house and they were all crowded into this bedroom.
And he'd go and his boys and he'd say, Man, you guys sure are lucky. Y'all get to be in this bedroom together and y'all can talk as much football as you want to into the wee hours of the night. Man, he said, Does anybody get it better than us? And they're like, No, and he'd say, I got to ask him this question: Who's got it better than us? And his family, the kids all say, Nobody.
And so Uh interestingly enough. This carried on into their football coaching. You can see some video clips of all the 49 or all the players, these big 300-pound linemen and all the everybody put their hands in here, and they're out there before the Super Bowl, and there's Coach Harbaugh, and he's saying, Who's got it better than us? And all these big burly guys are like, Nobody. Who's got it better than us?
Nobody! They're shouting our festal shout. Stephen, you get to your weakest moment and you get ready to breathe your last on this earth. I hope some angel will just remind me who's got it better. And I just remember, I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing, and the best is yet to come because all of heaven is ours, and just say.
Nobody. One of the keys, I think, to the healing and transformation of our souls when we have been through a lot of adversity. is on the other side. to discover our identity in Christ. is highly blessed.
What this means pointedly. Your adversities and failures or even the abuse or shame you experienced. does not define you. Yeah. you have been given a different set of clothes.
In the end, All real healing of the soul. Has to do with encountering the presence of the loving Jesus. in the middle of the fire. Nebuchadnezzar sees this fourth person walking around. Is it an angel?
Is it a manifestation of Jesus? We don't know. We just know. Is God He's with them. They were thrown in all bound up and now they're unbound.
And he's walking with them. in the heat. He's walking with them. and the adversity. Everybody I know that gets deep healing of emotional pain.
and healing of deep seated memories, Everybody I know. That really experiences that in one way or another, experiences the love of Jesus. And the presence of God. In the midst of that memory. God is outside of time.
He's not, you can't wrap your mind around this, but he's not confined by a linear sense of time with a beginning and an end. He is in eternity, which means he's in your past. And he's in your future. And he's in your present moment. I can't understand that, but I can imagine it.
and what it means. is that That place of woundedness. It's not something that Jesus just has to speak to you now about with hopes of healing. He can enter into it. What I'm saying is, in a very real way, the fire you walked through.
You can invite Jesus. to be with you in it. and show you his presence. and his love. And we want to pray with you.
We want to pray that God would today Do afresh. work of his healing and cleansing. Bring in wholeness. He loves you so much. He loves you with all heart.
of his being. He made you. And he bought you back by a very dear price. As hard as it is to believe, in the same way that the Father enjoys fellowship with a co eternal Son of God, So it is the Father. enjoys the sweet savour of your fellowship.
Drawn near. unto the Lord. and be healed. That's the gospel. Alan Wright.
In today's teaching, Smoking or Non-Smoking. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.
It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a Favored Foreigner. You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well.
Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Allen Wright Ministries. 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. Alan For the person who is listening right now and wow, this is good teaching. It's have a close fellowship. To stay to stay with it, right?
To understand. that I'm going to trust God even though the fire may be hot.
Okay, all of those things. But what happens when I do fail? Does it break that fellowship you just talked about? That's what's so important about this message, Daniel, is that to us, our own sin and our own lives are often a stench to our own nostrils, right? And we're all honest about it.
And so sometimes we just end up despising ourselves. But what it means to be the aroma of Christ to God really comes down. To an amazing truth that in Christ we get The clothing of Jesus in terms of metaphorically his righteousness. We're really his. And so, what this means for us is that God doesn't.
smell the smoke. He instead smells Jesus on us. And And I just have to live with that. And I encourage all our listeners, live with this. Day by day, as a growing meditation in your heart, you have become the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and therefore you can be confident.
In approaching God, it doesn't mean you don't sin. It doesn't mean that you don't still need to have change and transformation in your life. Of course, we all do. But what it means is that your position with God has changed. And I just think it's such a beautiful.
picture to think of having. Like being freshly clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. That's who we are. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
