Healing the Unaffirmed Soul [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Even if you have been stained and marred and no one has ever told you or affirmed to you what a treasure you are, it does not change the fact that you are of infinite worth in the heart of God. 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 today's message in a series titled The Power of Blessing, as presented at Reynolda 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 Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching in the series Praying with Power. Here is Alan Wright. I have, we have a few of the Tom Clark figurines, this craftsman that makes a lot, mostly they're little gnome figurines and, but also have some realistic looking ones.

I have the figurine that's of a preacher leaning on this pulpit. It's called Parson Patterson. And for years, Parson Patterson was just lying around somewhere. I wasn't even sure where Parson Patterson was, not in any place of prominence.

This was years ago and I was in a store and I looked and there were some of those Tom Clark figurines and they had a glass case and they had these, some of these gnomes and figurines back then. And I looked and then the glass case, the place where the really special ones were set apart, there was Parson Patterson. And I said, wait a minute, Parson Patterson is special. And I looked at it and Parson Patterson was, at that time, this was years ago, was selling for $450. And I was like, whoa, Parson, I'm going to put you on a prominent shelf right here, you know, and had my wife not given it to me, I'd have sold it right then.

But anyway, so this week I got to thinking about this for illustrative purposes. And I thought, you know, I'm going to check and see what is Parson Patterson going for today. I mean, it was $450 15 years ago. What in the world, that thing might be worth $2,000 or something. I went on eBay and Parson Patterson, guess how much it's going for? $100.

I took Parson Patterson, get back down on the lower shelf where you belong. Ever seen the PBS's show, the Antiques Roadshow? People bring in their old stuff and they hope that they're going to find out it's worth a million bucks. And they say that actually the average item is worth about $100. People bring it in. It looks like it worth about $100, probably worth about $100.

But every now and then it's different. And one of the biggest finds in recent times, a woman named Claire, 30 years ago, she'd been at a yard sale. She was getting some furniture for a little house or apartment she had. And she had this one little section where she wanted to just get a small table.

She knew about the size that she needed. Didn't want to spend much on it because it was just going to kind of go in a corner. And she was at a yard sale and there was this piece. It was kind of really mildewy and kind of dark all over, but it was the right size and shape. And she thought, well, I could dress that up.

I could refinish that or something. And it was $30. And Claire told the lady, she said, only got $25.

And the lady said, all right, you can have $25. She took it home and she got some linseed oil and turpentine or something out. And she started kind of cleaning it off.

And she's like, wait a minute. And underneath it, it was really beautiful mahogany. It had some inlaid work in it and all. And she thought, you know, this is a nice piece.

And she kept it for 30 years. And it took it to the PBS Antiques Roadshow. And the expert appraisers became wide-eyed when they saw it and began to inform her that this comes from the Federal period and is made by two of the greatest cabinet makers in Boston at that time who made furniture for only the wealthiest and finest customers. And this piece that you have here is one of the finest that they ever made. Look at the intricacy of this inlaid work. And we're so glad that you didn't try to refinish it.

And on and on they go. And finally they said, it's worth between $200,000 and $300,000. And Claire loved that table so much that recently she sold it for $490,000 at an auction. What would happen if you fought yourself to be a $25 piece of junk and found out that you were a $490,000 masterpiece? Well, what would be the difference in the way you would treat something? If you spent 25 bucks for it and you didn't know it was worth a half million, you think back, you would treat it differently. Things that we don't value we treat differently, don't we? Something that's not valuable, what do you do? Well, you don't highlight it, talk about it, and praise it.

If you bought a $25 dirty table at a yard sale and somebody wants a tour of your house, that's not where you take them on the tour. You don't talk about it. In other words, you don't praise something that's not valuable. You praise something that is valuable.

If there's something that's not valuable, it's often simply ignored. Just you're silent about it because, oh no, I had Parson Patterson for years. I never mentioned him to anybody. Just ignored him until I saw him in a cabinet for $450.

I apologized to him and I began to talk about Parson Patterson to other people. You just ignore something that's not valuable. You don't praise it.

You just ignore it. You don't necessarily mistreat it. But if something is not valuable at all, you don't mind dealing with it carelessly. If it's a $25 table from a yard sale and somebody puts down water glass on it and it's condensing and leaving a ring, you don't care.

Right? To be careless with something means you don't care about it that much. It's not valuable enough to take care of, so you deal with it carelessly. If something is not valuable, it is often used for something other than its true original and noble purpose. If something's cheap enough, I mean, might as well use it for kindling or firewood or might as well just use it as a place to put old stuff.

on it or whatever rather than a prominent piece of furniture that was made by Boston's finest cabinet makers to be a card table. You see? And if something is reckoned to be without value, sometimes you just discard it. It's a tender thing. To think that way of your own soul. But if someone is not praised, if a child is never praised, not affirmed, what does the soul conclude? We know things that are valuable we praise. Things that aren't valuable, we don't. If someone is simply ignored, no attention given to them, if someone is simply ignored, no attention given to it, what does that soul conclude?

Nobody has to say you're not valuable. If they just remove praise and sort of ignore you, what are you left to conclude? Or if there have been people in your life that have dealt with you carelessly, careless words, careless actions, unpredictable, capricious, angry, never knowing what's coming next, careless treatment, what does the soul conclude? And some, I know I touch on tender things here. Way too many have experienced what it's like to be used for something other than your original noble and true purpose in this world.

To be used for someone else's pleasure, to be used for someone else's corrupt need, what does it say to the soul? And some, and most of us who come from brokenness experience at least a little of this, the feeling of being discarded. When my family broke up and I was in fourth grade, nobody said anything to me like, Alan, it's your fault. No, they wanted me to not feel that way.

They would never have wanted, nobody would have wanted me to feel like I was being discarded. It is usually an unconscious thing. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you did well on a test, accomplished a goal, or proved yourself competent. Such affirmation is nice, but it's not the way of God. God's strategy is to declare your worth before you have done anything to prove it. In the kingdom of God, blessing is the fuel for your productivity, not the reward for it. Maybe you need your heart to be healed from old wounds caused by others withholding their blessing, or maybe you're ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring. Either way, Pastor Alan Wright's The Power of Blessing will change your life. Change how you interact with others as you discover the ancient skill of the Hebrew patriarchs as they bless their children. Learn how to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject curse.

Most of all, drink in the unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ. Get motivated God's way with Alan Wright's seven message CD album, The Power of Blessing. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan 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 Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4869.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. But there's something that happens when you've experienced brokenness and abandonment and all of this that the devil wants to break apart everything.

Why? So that your soul will conclude that because I was discarded, I must not be valuable. What I'm saying is that there is a spiritual battle from the time that you breathe your first breath on whether or not your soul will be affirmed and know who you really, really are.

And so here are Joseph's brothers and what are they to conclude? Daddy has made a beautiful ornate robe and showered his praise and given attention and cared for Joseph. And for us, there is no special garment. There's no special praise. There's no special blessing.

There's no special attention. What does the soul conclude? The soul concludes I am not valuable. And this becomes the devil's playground. Now, and thankfully for most of us in this room, I know that what happens with how this plays out in Joseph's brothers is much, much more severe.

But the dynamics are here. And what happens? Joseph has a dream, verse 5, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. What is really happening here is that Joseph's brothers, having an unaffirmed soul of their own, not knowing their own worth, they do something very destructive. They essentially just compare themselves to Joseph.

And this is one of the things that happens when we're not affirmed. When we don't know our own value, we find ourselves always trying to compare ourselves to somebody else. Because if you don't know deep down your own blessedness, if you don't know that, then you're looking for it, right? And you're looking for it by trying to find where you stand with others, right?

Where are you with this? And maybe you can find somebody else that seems less valuable than you. But when there's somebody that seems more valuable, i.e. Joseph who's so lauded, there's something inside the unaffirmed soul that compares and takes real objection to that. I want to just point this out because this is something I think all of us can identify with in some degree. And that is, when this happened, do you notice that what's going on is these brothers are now living their lives in reaction to Joseph rather than in relationship with God.

This is one of the problems. When we have kids that grow up unaffirmed and they don't know that deep worth and they're comparing themselves to others, then as soon as you're doing that, as soon as you're living your life in reaction to Joseph, instead of having a relationship where you're hearing what God is saying to you about who you are, you're in now a life that is either reacting against or getting addicted to the other person. Bottom line to this is that the brothers dream no dreams of their own. They just respond to their brother's dream.

And God wants you to be filled with His grace, to hear His voice and your destiny for your life and the ways in which you're to be a blessing, not living your life only reacting to someone else's dream. And these brothers then, this is what happens so often, the unaffirmed are hanging out with the unaffirmed. They are triangling against Joseph. Again, keep the irony in mind, the dream that Joseph had was a dream of how God was going to save the brothers from famine. And it progresses until at verse 18, Joseph has been sent by his father to come and check on his brothers.

Don't miss that. A father sends a favored son to go see on the well-being of his brothers. And what his brothers did at verse 18, they saw him from afar and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. And they said to one another, here comes this dreamer, come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. And then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him and we will see what becomes of his dream. Thankfully, verse 21, Reuben, when he heard it, he rescued him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life.

And Reuben said, shed no blood, throw him into this pit. And what happens is that they strip Joseph of that robe. They strip him of the symbol of his affirmation. They strip him of the symbol of his blessedness and they take the robe and they do an absolutely unimaginably wicked thing. They dip it into blood and take it and present it to their father.

Now their payback comes. You didn't affirm us and so here weep over the son that you presume to be dead. And Jacob lives his life inconsolable thinking that Joseph is dead. But what has happened is that Joseph has been sold by these brothers for some shekels of silver and he's taken off into slavery in Egypt where he works in the household of Potiphar and everything he touches is just turning to gold. And Potiphar puts him in charge of his household. And this causes him to be not only the object of Potiphar's appreciation but becomes an object of desire for Potiphar's wife. And when she tries to allure him and Joseph flees, she grabs him by the him by the robe, he flees, she falsely accuses Joseph. Joseph gets thrown into prison and while in prison God is with Joseph and Joseph shows that he has a prophetic capacity to interpret dreams and the cup bearer knows of this and he says remember me to the king but the cup bearer forgets Joseph and there he is just seemingly forgotten until the time comes that he is remembered by the cup bearer because Pharaoh has had a dream and someone needed to interpret it and so they get Joseph to come to interpret the dream and it is through this that this figure of Joseph who is presumed dead assumed lost forever becomes the the prime minister of Egypt. So that's the story that's going on and the brothers don't know it.

Here's what I want you to see. The contrast, Joseph who is going through extreme poverty, extreme adversity, and unthinkable abuse and false accusation and yet flourishes, brothers who are in the home of their father and yet have no rest, no peace, and no joy have no rest, no peace, and no joy because they were unaffirmed. Do you see the magnitude of the difference between the unaffirmed and the affirmed soul?

So when the process of finding yourself with this unconscious belief that I'm not really valuable, what happens when you come into contact with God? And I find this in the Scripture over and over that there's a pattern of what happens when the seemingly unworthy soul comes into the presence of this beautiful pure God like Isaiah chapter 6 where this call of the prophet Isaiah is so powerful. One of the most magnificent call experiences recorded in the Bible, the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 says, In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim, and each had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. What's Isaiah saying? He's saying by some other translations, I am ruined. He is saying, I cannot be in the presence of God. This is, this is, I, I am, I am so, so unworthy, so, so sinful that I cannot stay here in the presence of God.

I, in fact, am now in mortal danger. And so what does the Lord do? Does the Lord say, uh, no, just quit worrying about it. Don't, don't mind my glory.

No. Instead the Lord at verse six, and one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand, a burning coal that he'd taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

Alan Wright. That sounds like good news right there. It's healing the unaffirmed soul today's teaching and the power of blessing and stick with us. Alan's back here in a moment in the studio with additional insight on this for your life. Pastor Alan Wright's power of blessing will change your life. When you make a gift this month, we'll send you the power of blessing as our way of saying, thanks for your partnership. And when you give, you'll not only be nourishing your own soul, but you'll help broadcast the good news to someone else. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Alan, there is hope. We've identified the unaffirmed soul.

There is hope though. And that is found in the gospel. This is for anybody that's listening right now. It's free for the taking. It's for the Jesus.

It is. And here's the beauty of the heart of God, just like we're hearing just then from the story of Isaiah's call. God moves towards us when we are undone, when we feel unclean, when we feel like we have nowhere to turn. God moves towards us. So our posture is not to become righteous enough in order to move God, but to become aware enough that God's love is for us at every point so that we are here to receive from Him, receive His grace, receive His mercy, receive His kindness. And that's the only way out, Daniel, of the soul that's been unaffirmed in this world is to receive the deep, lasting, eternal affirmation of God through Jesus Christ. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.