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. It's something to think about for 3,700 years how these Jewish dads have been blessing their kids, saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh, and no one seems to know why. I'm convinced that part of the reason is the meaning of that word, Ephraim, twice fruitful. But just know this, God has a plan for you to bear much fruit.
That's the gospel. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. No plan of God can ever be swallowed up or burned up no matter how hot the fire. And ever since, the story's been the same. The fires of adversity have never squelched the people of God or the power of God.
The martyr's blood has served only as the seed of the church. The more they're pressed and persecuted, the more they flourish. 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. But king, turn up the heat.
Yes, your royal stubbornness. The heat is now four times as hot. Every degree of heat, you see, the king was playing into the Lord's hand. God was just like egging the poor king on. Don't you just wonder sometimes you're reading the Gospels and you're just like, Jesus.
It feels to me like you're egging these Pharisees on a little bit here. I mean, just why you gotta heal on the Sabbath? I mean, just. Don't do that. And they won't be nearly as mad.
I mean, and definitely don't come to them and say, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you're a brood of vipers. Just tone some of that stuff down. But sometimes you get the feeling he's just egging them on. And Nebuchadnezzar says, Turn up the heat. And he looks at their peaceful faces and he gets mad.
His stomach turns with bitterness. Magai can, my guy will. I tell you, we'll see about that. Turn up the heat. But, king, yes, turn it up.
Okay, yes, your royal idolatrousness. The fire is now five times as hot. No one, I mean, no one says the king will defy me. Turn it up again. Are you sure?
Yes, turn it up. We'd like to report your royal temper tantrumness that the fire is now seven times hotter than normal. Good. And the young Hebrew men must have known the words of Zephaniah. He was prophesying just some years before they got deported.
I'll gather those of you who mourn. for the festival.
So that you'll no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I'll deal with all your oppressors. and I'll save the lame and gather the outcast. And I'll change their shame. and to a praise.
The Lord exults over you with singing. and brings you into the festival of his praise. He wants to bring you into the festival of his praise. He wants you to bring you into a place. of spiritual exaltation.
He wants you to bring you into a place where you're given the gift Of the freedom to worship the Lord and thank the Lord. No matter your circumstances, He wants to bring you to a place like Paul who said, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, Rejoice.
Sometimes all you know is just to praise His name. You don't have an answer for your dilemma. You don't know how the Lord's going to fix it. You don't know what He's going to do. And you don't know how to face down the enemy.
So you just praise His name. You just tell Him that you love Him. You just tell Him that He's wonderful. You exalt Him for who He is because it is for this that you were made to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. My God can and my God will, but no matter what's going on, I'm going to praise Him all the still.
And all of this just made Nebuchadnezzar get more upset, and He turned the fire up until it was as hot as it could get. Seven is the number of completion. It's like this fire can't get any hotter than this. Nebuchadnezzar, he should have stopped while he had a chance. He should not have turned that fire up so hot.
Because when the king's henchmen came to the door of the furnace, The heat was so bottled up and so hot. That the flames leapt out of the door and killed the idolatrous.
Soldiers. If they just left the fire like normal. Then they might have lived. But instead, no, they had to keep turning up the heat.
So that when they tried to kill God's sons, it backfired on them. The weapon formed to slay the sons of God. didn't succeed. but instead they died by their own fire. They died.
by their own hatred. They fell judgment. to their own Anger. The idea of taking what the enemy meant to harm you and turn it into something for your good. It wasn't new.
with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. No, it wasn't new at all. It was a plan as old as time. As you remember what happened in the beginning, And the serpent he slithered into that garden, that thief, that ancient liar. Deceived and lured Eve and Adam into eating of the fruit and disobeying such.
that they forfeited their paradise. under the leadership of the serpent. But the Lord spoke to the serpent. and foretold it all. He said there is going to be enmity between you and the seed of the woman.
And you, serpent, will strike At his heel, But he will crush your head. The Lord was announcing ahead of time exactly what was going to happen. That you are going to inject your poison by striking at the foot of the seed of the woman, But it's going to be rather convenient because while you're hitting his foot, He's going to leverage the moment. and crush your head. Makes me think of Joseph.
I love the story of Joseph, the beloved son of his father Jacob. But Jacob's brothers hated Joseph because he was so loved. That's one thing that's hard to understand in life, but sometimes people hate you just because you're so loved. People that don't know love. Hate people that do know about love.
And when the father made Joseph a special multi-colored coat. The serpent whispered into the brothers' ears Who does he think he is? prancing around in that special coat of his. If I was you, I'd turn up the heat. And so they hated Joseph.
and they mocked him. And when Joseph had a dream of his brothers bowing down to him, the serpent whispered again, Who's he think he is? Are you really going to bow down to him? I'd turn up the heat if I was you. And so they turned up the hatred.
And when they saw Joseph coming from the distance one day, The serpent whispering in their ears, Here comes that dreamer. You better turn up the heat while you got a chance. They took him and they conspired to kill him and threw him into an empty pit. And while Joseph was in the dry cistern, they had a picnic talking about what they were going to do. And some passers-by came on their way to Egypt, and the serpent said, Why don't you turn up the heat and sell him into slavery?
Make a few bucks off of your brother Joseph. And they sold him into slavery and took him to Egypt. And while he was there in his master's household, the master's wife tried to seduce Joseph, but he was too holy and uninterested in such lust because he had a destiny over his life. And he knew the Lord, and he said no. And the serpent whispered into the woman's ear, turn up the heat.
And so she lied and said that Joseph had tried to attack her. And they threw Joseph into a prison. And while he was there, a long while, it was like a hot furnace. And the enemy was taking great delight that he had somehow trapped Joseph and put him away. And yet, at the right time, at exactly the right moment, Joseph was called forth out of that dungeon and he interpreted Pharaoh's dream.
And Pharaoh was amazed. And Joseph was put on the throne of Egypt, not just so he could save all the land of Egypt, but so through his wisdom they could save all the known world. But not just so he could save the known world, but so that Joseph's own brothers could come and bow down before him just like. Like the dream. And Joseph, when he revealed himself to him, saw them trembling in all their fear.
And he said, Don't be afraid. He said, It was for the saving of many lives that God sent me here on ahead of you. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You meant it according to wickedness of the serpent's temptations, but the enemy's plan backfired on him. And he came and he wept upon their shoulders, and God blessed them all.
A man named Moses. He told the Pharaoh to let God's people go. But the serpent whispered to Pharaoh, Who's he think he is? This Moses. You're the most powerful man in the world.
Just turn up the heat. And so. They started making their brick slaving duties all the harder and oppressed them all the more. And after a series of plagues that kept coming against Egypt, finally Pharaoh told Moses to take his people and leave, and so the Hebrews exited in haste. And they were free.
Till the serpent whispered in Pharaoh's ear Who do they think they are? They were your slaves. And now you just let him go? The more Pharaoh thought about it, the madder he got. Turn up the heat.
Bring out all the army. Bring out all the chariots. Bring out all the weapons. Are you sure, Pharaoh? I mean, you remember all the things that happened before?
No, I don't care. Get everybody. Get every weapon we've got. Bring everybody. And he began to pursue them all the way to the Red Sea until there was a great sea in front of the Hebrew people and a great army behind them.
And Moses lifted up that rod and The waters parted, and the Hebrew people began moving through the sea. Oh, Pharaoh should have let him go when he could. He shouldn't have turned up the heat. Because he had his whole army at stake as they went. galloping into The Red Sea.
swallowed up and engulfed in the waves. Their hatred, had backfired. on the serpent. Once again. It makes me think of another boy named David.
The least likely one to ever be heralded as a hero. A shepherd boy.
So David goes to take food to his brothers that are actually there to be fighting the battle against the Philistines. But all the Israelis are too afraid, and the Philistine keeps coming out and taunting them day after day. And David, who knew the Lord, says, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? This man out of covenant with God to come and defy the armies of the living God? And the whisper of the serpent came into Eliab's ear, David's older brother, and said, Who is this baby brother of yours?
He's come down here to try to show off. And Eliab mocked him and said, With whom have you left those few sheep? And he despised his brother.
So David went and talked to King Saul himself. And King Saul, listening to David, also listened to the whisper of the serpent, who said, Who is this boy? He just wants to take over your throne. He wants to get all the prominence. And Saul said, You can't do it.
You're only a youth. You'll never be able to fight against him. But it was that David insisted and prevailed, and so he went out to fight the great giant Goliath. And Goliath, when he saw David coming, Goliath laughed. He said, You come at me with sticks and stones.
And he heard the whisper of the serpent, Turn up the heat. And the Bible says the Philistine drew near to meet David, but the giant should have stopped while he had his chance because the stone flew and sank into the giant's forehead. And the Bible says there was no sword in David's hand.
So David ran and stood over the Philistine and wondered, How am I going to cut off his head? And looked down and realized that the enemy had a sword that had been formed against him. And he took and he decapitated the giant with his own sword. The giant's sword backfired on the serpent once again, and so it went. Story after story, day after day, year after year, century after century, the powers of hell just kept trying to turn up the heat.
The foolish serpent thinking that he would win by turning up the heat of sin, the heat of tyranny, the heat of adversity, the heat of temptation, until finally. There was a Roman Empire that emerged There was this hot in sin as it could get. Wickedness was rampant. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Orgies and drunkenness and Roman gods on every street corner.
But into that wicked world A baby was born. in Bethlehem one day. King Herod tried to turn up the heat. Killing every baby boy. But he couldn't find Jesus.
It wasn't time. And that baby boy grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and with people. And while all this favor was upon his life, the religious elite began to hate him all the more. and they began to turn up the heat.
Okay. He was the one who had been baptized in the waters of the river Jordan, and John himself had said, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, and hell was greatly agitated. And so the devil himself met Jesus in the wilderness, and he turned up the heat. And Jesus did not succumb, and the Bible says the devil left until an opportune time. And sometimes Jesus would just heal somebody.
and they would persecute Jesus for doing the healing. Or sometimes Jesus would teach, and people would drink in his delicious words of life. And yet, the other teachers said, Who is this? Isn't this Joseph's son? Isn't this the carpenter's boy?
And so it was that great crowds pressed in around him because there was so much favor upon him. And yet, to those that he came to save of his own people, the ones who should have known him best, they rejected him. And it came time for Passover. the best of the Jewish celebrations. The serpent entered one of the disciples and said, turn up the heat.
So Jesus betrayed him. They sang a hymn.
Okay. The devil got madder. They went to the Mount of Olives. Jesus said, Wait here and pray. But the serpent whispered to the disciples, You could take a little nap.
There's no real need to pray. The master might be awhile And so the Messiah bowed amongst the gnarled olive trees, And the LORD said, My soul is sorrowful unto death. And he sweat blood in Gethsemane the fire was almost too hot to take. But the enemy tyrant became more and more intoxicated with his fury. Turn up.
The heat. He cried it throughout the corridors of hell, all demons to the Nazarene rabbi. Turn. up the heat. There was a bogus trial Turn up the heat.
Miss Spiritner's face. Turn out the heat. They stripped him. Turn up the heat. They scourged him.
Turn off the heat. They crowned him with thorns. Turn off the heat. And they nailed him. to the cross.
There had never been a more searing heat of evil than this. And every demon in hell let loose upon the Son of God hanging on the tree, hotter and hotter. How the Prince of Darkness cried, all the heat. All the power of hell. Until finally the Savior breathes his last And they put him in a tomb.
The serpent had struck his heel. The poison had been injected and all seemed lost. On that dark night. And all through that Saturday, While the disciples hid. And the world was shaken.
But on the third day There was a new fire. It was the light of the glory of God. And it burst the tomb open. And suddenly, all the angels and all the demons realized the same thing in a moment. The enemy's plan had backfired on him.
Jesus had to die in order for people to live. He had to take the sin of the world in order for us to become his righteousness. The cross that was designed to destroy Jesus had crushed the serpent's head. The very evil that the enemy had designed served a greater plan of God because no weapon formed against the Son of God can ever succeed. And no plan of God can ever be swallowed up or burned up, no matter how hot the fire.
And ever since, the story has been the same. The fires of adversity have never squelched the people of God or the power of God. The martyr's blood has served only as the seed of the church. The more they're pressed and persecuted, the more they flourish. Are you going through a trial?
Are you going through some heat? Fear not. And don't give up now. Our God can. And our God will.
But I'll tell you what. No matter how it all turns out here on the earth. We will praise him. Still. And that's The gospel.
Amen? Alan Wright. In today's teaching, Backfire. the day the enemy's plan backfired on him. If you think heaven is a misty place where you float around on clouds and pluck angelic harps, you're in for the surprise of your life.
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Or come to our website, pastoralen.org. Alan, for the person right now who is hoping. that this is true, right? Hoping that whatever I'm walking through right now that's bad. I just can't wait for the day when it backfires on the devil.
But I'm still waiting. The patience is being exercised. What do you say to that person?
Well, I think that the picture of our story today is true.
Sometimes it just you're in the middle of it and it feels like the heat's being turned up. The heat's being turned up and it's just getting hotter. and the adversity feels more searing. I think that Daniel, what helps? I mean, it's not easy when you're going through this and you're going, where is God in this right now?
And when is the deliverance going to come? When is it going to backfire? When is it going to happen? I just think the thing that helps me is remembering the gospel story itself. Just remembering that when, I mean, think much of what Christ did on the cross and when it looked like it was at its worst.
And just though it can't get any worse. And then Christ breathes his last. This is actually accomplishing God's great victory. And so, when you're going through something like this, it's not an invitation to candy coat it and say, well, this is not difficult, or this fire isn't hot. No, it really is.
But it is to say, that God has shown me in Christ. that he has a way of taking the darkest moment and doing something very redemptive, And we live just in a sense day by day with hope. and that. We say God. I long for it to be today.
I long for the breakthrough to come. I long for the backfiring against the enemy today. But I'll I'll trust you. and this you have the best timing And you do that day by day. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
