Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Good news. God is working it for good. The Bible doesn't say all things are good. It says for those who love God, all things work together for good.
There's nothing so bad that it can dethrone God or divert His good plans. Joseph's brothers meant evil. The cross was evil. But God is good.
So he can take what he hates and weave it into what he loves. Child of God, I bless you with confidence today. God is at work. And what you understand and what you don't. The story isn't finished.
Your Father is working all things. For your good. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Would God ever make something more glorious than He? Of course not.
And this glorious God, who is so awesome and above all, and is so beautiful that He is more fragrant and glorious than the most beautiful red rose. This God, who is artist, and creator and power of the universe. He lives in us. 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 More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8 as presented at Renold 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.
So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Um Are you ready for some good news? It's all a big setup.
God's At work rigging your blessing. What'd you think of that video? That's some trick shot, isn't it? I think about 70 different maneuvers by this teenager. His name's Cree Ostner.
Got bored, I guess, during COVID, spent a couple of months putting it all together, gathered all this junk around his house, lawn chair, dartboard, skateboard, paint hands, everything, put it all together so that one little shot at the beginning triggers all of these reactions like dominoes one upon the other until finally you get this amazing end result and i want you to see it because i want you to think About your own life and think about the blessings in your life. And if you were to go back and kind of trace it back and how all the dots got connected, it kind of blows your mind. I was thinking this week about like, she said, What are the great, greatest blessings in your life? I'd tell my wife, my kids, my grandbaby, my church. You know, how did those great blessings come about in your life?
And I got to thinking about it. I said, well, my wife, how'd you meet your wife?
Well, I met her in a Bible study at the University of North Carolina. And then you got to go, well, why were you... Why were you at the University of North Carolina? And I said, Well, I mean, I didn't even think about it. I didn't really even think about going anywhere else.
Well, why? I said, Well, because I grew up watching Carolina basketball.
Well, why'd you watch Carolina basketball? I think about it.
Well, my mother loved Carolina basketball because she loved a point guard named Phil Ford. And my dad loved football, but he had to remember him loving basketball that much.
Well, why were you watching so much basketball with your mother? Because my dad left home when I was in the fourth grade. And a lot of times it was just mom and me there watching. We'd be pulling on Carolina.
So when it came time for college, I knew I was going to Carolina.
Well, why were you in a Bible study at Carolina?
Well, that goes back also to the fact that dad left home. And when he did, my mother crumpled down on her knees and she said, One night, God, if you're real, I need to know it because I feel like I'm sinking down. And if you don't. If you don't reveal yourself to me, then I'll probably just go down and take these three boys with me. And a few days later, a woman who was awakened that very night by the Holy Spirit came and told my mother, said, I was awakened in the middle of the night with you on my heart.
Is there anything you need? And my mom told her what was going on in her life. She introduced her to Jesus. My mom told us about Jesus. We fell in love with God.
So that's why I was at Carolina, and that's why I was at the Bible study where I met this beautiful, cute girl who was so deep spiritually, and I fell in love with her.
Well, how does that relate to you being at Renaulta?
Well, part of the way it relates to this is the fact that she was from Winston-Salem. When I fell in love with her, I started visiting Winston-Salem, and I fell in love with Winston-Salem. While I was still in college I thought I love this town. And I remember thinking, I could envision living here. You know, it's weird how God will put a desire down in your heart and then later fulfill it.
So we went to seminary for three years in Atlanta, and then I went and served in the church for seven and a half years in Durham. And then this call came from Ronaldo, and that's a whole other story about how that blessing came about. But the fact of the matter is, I already had a desire in my heart that I think God had planted there because he had gotten me to Carolina and got me to a Bible study where I'd fallen in love with this incredible woman who was from Winston-Salem, where I would find out I love Winston-Salem. And so I knew that when I was saying yes to the call of God, I was also saying not just to a church, but to a city. If you were to chase all of your blessings back, you probably would find out, like me, if you said, well, what was the worst.
Worst thing that happened in your childhood, I'd say with my dad living home. But if you say, well, what are the best blessings of your life? I'd tell you, I said, my wife, my family, my grandkids. In my church, well, how'd those come about? I'd say, well, she's a back, and it has related to my dad leaving home.
So, in that sense, good thing my dad left home. Worst thing ever, best thing ever.
So God is able to Two Work together, the word is synergy, synergos. He's able to bring things together that you wouldn't be able to figure could fit together for your good. And so we come today to what is one of the best known and most loved verses in the Bible. which is in what someone has called the The best chapter in the best epistle in the best book that was ever written. Romans 8 and 28.
We've been learning a lot to get us to this point. We learned, first of all, in the opening chapters of Romans, why everything went so wrong, the problem of sin. And then we have learned what God has done in Jesus Christ to set everything right, and that's called justification. That's called Jesus becoming our righteousness, fulfilling the law that we couldn't fulfill, so that when we accept Christ, we're given the gift. Of His own righteousness, not by our merit, not innately righteous, but God looks upon us as if we never sinned.
And then we learn in Romans 5 that hope has a process, that there is a way in which our suffering produces an endurance up under the weight of it, which produces character, and out of that character comes this hope in which we abide. And we discovered that in chapter Six, that there is a way in which God through this glorious gospel truly sets us free, so we're no longer slaves to sin. But we discover in chapter 7 that there still is a battle with the old nature, the flesh, he calls it, the old part of us that used to just rely on ourselves and was selfish apart from God.
So you're spiritually born anew, but you've got this struggle going on, and then. Thanks be to God, he says. It's Jesus Christ who delivers us. And we get to chapter eight, where we're spending weeks in chapter eight. The best chapter in the best epistle and the best.
book that's ever been written. And here in chapter 8, we discover that God dwells in us. And I asked you to pause with me in that message to think. Not just about, oh yeah, how glibly we say, I've got Jesus in my heart, but to really reflect. On this Creator who has made a thousand billion sons.
They're all burning at 50 million degrees Fahrenheit. A glory and heat so intense we can't come within a hundred million miles of it. And would God ever make something more glorious than He? Of course not. And this glorious God, who is so awesome and above all, and is so beautiful that He is more fragrant and glorious than the most beautiful red rose.
This God, who is artist and creator, and power of the universe, He lives in us. And then what we learn in Romans 8. Is that He is abiding us by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of adoption. And we saw that the spirit of adoption is at work to convince us that we are children of God. And this is what brings us to these glorious verses of Romans 8, 28, 29, and 30.
It begins with really knowing yourself to be a child of God because notice who the promise is for. We know that for those who love God, All things work together for good. And this is Paul's phrase here. to describe every Christian. He doesn't mean here that some days as a Christian I love God and some days I don't feel like I have much affection for him and on the days that I love him a lot that he's really working for my good.
No, this is a phrase, a way of saying for Christians, for those whose the ruling force of their life has been they love God. They believe in Jesus. They've accepted what God's done.
So for those who love God. And that that means that this promise of Romans 8.28. is for the children of God, it's not for everybody. It's for the believer. This promise is not for the unbeliever.
It doesn't mean that God doesn't love everybody, but there are promises in God's word that are just for his children. And what those promises do, if you're a child of God, is they bring joy and assurance in your life. And if you're not yet a believer, this kind of promise should make you want to just immediately say, yes. to the saving grace of God. But those who love God He's at work.
Bringing all things together for the children of God. The Holy Spirit convincing us that we're children of God.
so that we can believe Romans 8, 28. It's for us. Got to spend a whole week at the beach with family, which meant that grandbaby Mia was there. Oh, she's just getting cuter, seven and a half months old. And boy, we're just having so much fun.
I don't remember if I've told you. I've decided on my grandfather's name. I've thought long and hard about it.
Now, I know everybody says if she starts calling you something else, you just got to go with that.
So it may change. But I thought long and hard about it. And the Holy Spirit. We learn from Paul in Romans 8, bears witness in our spirit that we're children of God by which we call out Abba, Father.
So in America We might have the first words of a baby to call a father might be dad da. And so we get daddy. But in a lot of cultures, especially in some Middle Eastern cultures, they realize that one of the easiest things a baby says and they say early on is: Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba. And so Abba is an Aramaic expression for daddy. And it's extraordinary to think of this that God By the Holy Spirit.
Wants to not only bear witness to your spirit that you're a child of God, but does so in a way. that you become like a little toddler. And the way that you would think of God as your Father is not as the great omnipotent, omnipresent, paternal presence. But as Daddy Ah. Oh, it's just fun all week long just getting to play with this baby.
I love babies. I just love babies, you know. I've found little things, you know. One thing I love about little Mia is that she. She'll let you love her.
She's she'll let you love her. She's on the move and she's thinking that she's doing something, but if you're showing her some affection, she's got a way she can just lean into it. And one of the things I've just, you know, you find these. Silly, stupid little things you do. And a grandparent will do anything to get the baby to smile or be happy.
And one of these things that I don't know, I discovered, I had her up just close to my face like this, and around on her cheek and near her ear and back on her neck. And I'm doing this sort of. Helicopter-like sound, like Oh yeah. I don't know if it kind of tickles her when I do it or it sounds funny, but I'll just go. All over the back, and she'll just lean back into it.
She'll press herself into the. I like watching her with my wife because my wife, she's just a master with little kids. And so one day we're just sitting in the couch on the beach at the beach, and Ann's got these silly sunglasses on and got her tongue way out, making these funny faces. I don't know, Mia thought was funny. She starts laughing.
We're all just laughing. Twice, Mia fell over laughing. One time we were doing this laughing like this, and Bennett was there. He had work some of the days, and he's up in another room working, but he hears the laughter. He comes running down just because he's a dad who doesn't want to miss his baby laughing.
I like watching a baby with her dad. I like watching Mia with Bennett. Ben has got a beard, and Mia. Mia, she'll like to be held by him, and sometimes she likes to touch things with her, not just her hands, but her feet. And I get so tickled sometimes she'll be grabbing at his face, and she'll take her feet up all into his beard.
It it's it's an extraordinary thing. Because Bennett, like any father, is a thousand times stronger than that baby. And if he were evil, of course he could crush her or squash her without. hardly any effort. But instead, what does he do?
He uses his superior strength to bless his child. He's a thousand times A thousand times more knowledgeable than this baby. And he could use all of that knowledge. to simply outmaneuver her or manipulate her. But what he's really using all that superior knowledge is to organize and work.
On her behalf, doing what she doesn't even know that he's doing on her behalf. An extraordinary thing to think of, but Most of what a father does for a baby, the baby never even knows. How much more so As your father, your Abba. been at work with his superior strength. And superior intelligence.
on your behalf. The reason the Holy Spirit As his first work in the believer's life after we're regenerated, The Holy Spirit's first work. after bearing witness to Christ is to bear witness to you that you're a child of God.
So you begin to feel like a toddler in the arms of God such that you could call out to the Creator of the cosmos, Abba. Da-da! The reason the Holy Spirit So wants to convince you of that. Is because when you know that he is your dad da. When you see him that way, You can believe Romans 8.28.
There's no point in trying to think about what all the rest of this means. If you don't think much of God as your Father. The imminent Theologian of last century, J.I. Packer. Said if you want to see Um Some measure of a person's understanding of the gospel and what it means to be a Christian.
then look and see how much they make of God being their Father. And he also had this to say. That God, before he made us, was infinitely happy in and of himself. But when He made us and then adopted us as His children, According to the scriptures. the heart of God is so tied up with our own well being that in the words of theologian JI Packer, God has tied up His own happiness with ours.
And will not know. In his own divine heart, unmixed happiness, Packer says, until he has all of his children out of trouble. This is the love of God. This is How Romans 8:28 is possible, it is because It is for those who are the children of God. In other words, those that love God.
And He says in that verse, are called according to his purpose. And so these are two. Synonymous phrases, they're saying the same thing. Those who love God, that's another way of saying Christian. and those who are called according to his purpose is another way of saying Christian.
To be called. Alan Wright, our good news message, the big setup from the series More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8. And Pastor Alan is back here in the studio in just a moment for today's parting good news thought. Stick with us. Did you know Alan Wright Ministries is much more than a radio broadcast?
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Visit pastorallen.org today. That's pastoralen.org. Back here now in the studio to share our parting good news thought from the day. From Pastor Alan and the big setup.
So, in the, well, pardon the pun setup of the message, he featured a video. I call it domino effect kind of stuff, but I love these. It is very elaborate backyard setup. This one particular guy on YouTube. Teenager named Cree.
Gathered a bunch of household items, lawn chair dartboard, paint can, skateboard, everything to create what's called technically a Rube Goldberg machine, you know, series of actions, you know, set in motion, like dominoes. One thing touches another, touches another. It started with a basketball through hoop, I think. And then it just had all these household items. It was so elaborate, been viewed millions and millions of times on YouTube.
And the reason I played it is like our lives are more like that than we realize. God. is outside of time and he is able to arrange for blessings that you wouldn't think that this What happens today might be linked to a blessing that's going to come days from now or years from now. But that's what I believe Paul is affirming here in Romans chapter 8 when he talks about. the predestining power of God.
The longer that I walk with God, Daniel, the more I have to admit it's all a big setup. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above. Every blessing ultimately, in one way or another, it's been orchestrated by God. And this is what it means for God to Predestined for God to ordain and foreordain. It doesn't mean that everything's left up to some kind of fate and everything's been prearranged.
It just means that God is more at work on our behalf. Then we realize it's a big setup in the sense that he's got one thing linked to the next, to the next, to the next that will bless your life. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
