Bless the Lord [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. God is glorious and He knows He's glorious. But He takes joy when you know He's glorious.

When you can see what God sees, it causes Him joy, and you have a fellowship with Him. 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 think the key to understanding this is, at least for me this week, is just to think like a father. Because in the midst of this song, it says that the Lord is like a father who has compassion. And I think the way to understand this is to think, well, how is a father, how could a father who has so much more wisdom than the child, so much more resources than the child, be blessed by the child?

And I'm just going to suggest to you three ways as we think about this together. And the first is that, well, I'll just put it simply, that when we bless God, we cause God joy. Now this is tricky because God's already infinitely joyful. He wasn't sad before you came along. He's doing all right before we had church today. And if we hadn't had church today and nobody blessed his name, he's going to be just fine. He's not going to be depressed in heaven. He is joy. He is joy.

And so how can you cause God joy when he's already joyful? Anne and I were married for 10 years before we had kids. And this was really by Anne's design.

I think I would have started earlier. She said, listen, we're going to have kids and once we have kids, we'll have them forever. And she said, so let's enjoy our marriage. So we had 10 years and it did enable us just to really build a real deep, fun, intimate marriage during that period of time. And we did some things. Boy, I mean, we did some things.

Like when I was in seminary, one summer, all my professors said, we'd like you to go work in the hospital as a chaplain all summer. And Anne said, you know, that'd be good, I'm sure. She said, but you know what I suggest is we go to Europe for a long time.

I said, well, what are you talking about? She said, this was her rationale. She said, we got a chance here. We can break the piggy bank and go and do this and travel all over because once you start your work and then we have kids, we would never take a trip like this until the kids were out of the house and you were retired and then we might be too tired.

So she convinced me of it. We took this big thing off the summer. You know, we went all over Europe. We had a great, great time. We just, what I'm saying is that before we ever had kids, we were having a good time. We had joy, we love those years. I mean, if you said, were you empty because you didn't have kids?

I'd say, no, we were not. We were having a great time and we had joy. And then we had our first baby boy and oh, how he calls me joy. I was like, what I'm saying is I was totally joyful before we had kids and then we had kids and I was more joyful. Well, I thought you said you were totally joyful. No, I was, I thought you said you weren't empty. No, I wasn't empty. But then when we had kids, I was all the more joy. You see, joy is kind of like love.

It doesn't have a quantity assigned to it. Every parent who's ever had more than one child knows this. You have this child, you love that child with all your heart and you're just like, man, I don't, part of you is like, I can't imagine loving a child, another child.

Then you have that other baby. You're like, I love this child. So you realize that there was not a limit to love, right?

And you don't measure it. So you had one child, so much love. Two children, now you get so much love. You'd say it just, your love just multiplied, but it wasn't limited before. This is the way it is with God. There is a way, and I speak of a mystery in which God can be completely joyful unto himself. He was joyful before he ever made creation, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He made the world out of the overflow of his joy and delight. But what happens when you bless him is that it causes his heart joy. It's a great mystery, but it must be true because Jesus in describing the Father and describing the nature of the kingdom of God and describing what happens when a sinner repents, when someone is lost is found, he tells a series of parables in Luke 15 about lost things.

A shepherd loses a sheep, one sheep out of 100 and goes and looks for the one sheep. And when he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders and he brings it back, and Jesus says, and he is rejoicing, or he talks about a woman who loses one precious coin and goes and looks for that coin and when she finds it, she comes back and calls all her friends and says, everybody rejoice with me, have joy with me because I have found it. And then he tells the story of a man who had two sons and one of them went off and lived in riotous living, but came to his senses and when he came home, the father was joyful and had a party and celebrated and Jesus is saying, this is the way God is. When you bless him, when your life comes into alignment with his, it causes him joy. You see, there's a sense in which God is absolutely complete and yet he is filled up afresh with a joy that comes from you speaking blessing over him.

J.I. Packer in his classic, Knowing God, says that we have in previous chapters made the point that God's end in all things is his own glory, that he should be manifested, known, admired and adored and this statement is true, but it is incomplete. It needs to be balanced by a recognition that through setting his love on men, God has voluntarily bound up his own final happiness with theirs. It follows from the very nature of these relationships that God's happiness will not be complete till all his beloved ones are finally out of trouble. God was happy without man before man was made. He would have continued happy had he simply destroyed man after man had sinned, but as it is, he has set his love upon particular sinners and this means that by his own free voluntary choice, he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again till he has brought every one of them to heaven. He has, in effect, resolved that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours. Thus God saves not only for his own glory but also for his own gladness. This goes far to explain why there is joy, God's own joy in the presence of angels when a sinner repents and why there will be exceeding joy when God sets us faultless at the last day in his own holy presence. The thought passes understanding and almost beggars belief, but there is no doubt, according to scripture, that such is the love of God. God is supreme and he is sufficient unto himself, but he loves you as a father loves a child so he has wrapped up his heart with you and when you bless him, he is joyful. Wow.

All right. The second way that I think that like a child unto a father that you bless God is that you are able to come into an alignment with the truth of God that brings God great pleasure because God wants you to walk in the light. See if I can say it simpler than that. That when you bless God and you announce how wonderful he is and you recognize that he is the forgiver of your sins, the healer of your diseases and the redeemer of your life, you are proclaiming truth about who God is and when you see and walk in the light rather than in the darkness, the father just loves this. Mark Twain is the one who said that when I was 18 years of age, I couldn't believe how little my father knew and at age 21, I was amazed at how much he had learned in three short years. And what blesses a father is when a child matures into an understanding that the father has wisdom. I'll tell you right now, any father, if your child comes to you and says something like this, Dad, I know I've messed up my life at different times and sometimes I just haven't recognized how much you have to offer me, but I know that you have a lot of wisdom and you've lived a lot more life than I have and I'd like to ask you about this situation and I'd like for you to talk to me about it because I'd like to glean some of your wisdom.

That's pretty nice, isn't it? Dads don't get that happening very often, but that blesses the father, why? Now, if that father was insecure and had a lot of emptiness, then the father might say, well, good, finally, you know, I'm not good, I am, but what a real father, a loving father delights in is that the child has come into the maturity of seeing things at a higher level, that to bless someone is to announce a positive vision over his or her life, but it is a true vision and if it's not truth, then it's just wishful thinking.

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 writes, 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 blessed 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. And today is the last day this special offer is available to you. 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 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. If I say to you that God loves you and God has a wonderful plan for your life and I see God working in you, I've announced truth over you. When you bless God and you ascribe to Him the glory that is His, you are announcing a truth statement.

You're walking in the light. And when God receives this, there is a delight to the heart of God because He doesn't want you or I stumbling about in the darkness. And God enjoys the fellowship of those that are walking in the light. He is at all places at all time.

He's omnipresent. And yet, the Bible says that God inhabits the praise of His people. That when there are people that are blessed in His name, that He is manifestly enthroned in the midst of that praise.

Because it is like aligning yourself with the truth of who God really is, okay? So we bless God because God is infinitely joyful, but you can cause Him joy and a mystery. And because when you bless God, you are announcing the highest, greatest truth. Instead of focusing on your adversity, which is one level of truth, you're focusing on a higher truth and that is about who God is and how supreme He is and that blesses God to see you in that light. And then the third way that we can bless God is, as again, is a beautiful paradox, but when you bless God, you are recounting in gratitude and thanksgiving, you're recounting how blessed you are.

Let me say it this way, when you bless God, you're recognizing that He has blessed you. And the thing that delights a father more than anything else is to see his child blessed. If my child will let me bless him, that blesses me more than anything else. Nothing blesses a parent more than for a child to prosper. Does a parent like it when a child says, thank you for this? Yes, but the real blessing for the parent is to see that the child has truly enjoyed something, that the child is truly filled with something that is good. So this is why on Christmas morning, ever since our kids were little, they don't come downstairs until everything's ready and the video camera's rolling, right? Because it's the great delight of the parent to see their faces when they see the presents and the tree and all.

It is the delight of the parent to see the wonder in the child. So when we had an opportunity four years ago to go to the Grand Canyon, I'd been to the Grand Canyon before and my wife had been there many years ago. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon. It had been a long time since I'd seen it. I wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but what I was actually watching when we stepped up to the first breathtaking threshold and look out over that unspeakably majestic canyon, I was not looking at the canyon, I was looking at my kids.

I wanted to see my kids see the Grand Canyon more than I wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Years ago, another picture of this, I was out on the beach. When we get to the beach, I like to run out, say hello to the ocean, say hello to the sky, and my wife likes to come in and start getting things unpacked and cleaning the sink. And so I ran out to say hello to the ocean and the sun was setting and at Ocean Isle Beach at a particular time of year, even though we're on the East Coast, by the slant of that particular island, at a particular time of year, the sun sets, just a little bit of it's setting behind the ocean itself and the sky was just glorious. And the pier was silhouetted against it and the hues and colors were warm and beautiful. And I saw the sunset and it was setting fast. And so I ran back in and I said, and you gotta come see this. She said, I'll be there in a minute, I'm just gonna unpack.

I ran back out, it's going faster and faster. I said, honey, please, you've got to come see this sunset. So she said, all right, she comes out to see the sunset. Why did I want her to come see the sunset with me? Was she gonna make it prettier?

No. Was she gonna do something to make the sun more majestic? No, it was just gonna be, it was just that my joy was increased by her beholding the same beauty that I behold. God is glorious and He knows He's glorious, but He takes joy when you know He's glorious.

When you can see what God sees, it causes Him joy and you have a fellowship with Him. My wife, she has a Cadillac and that's a little bit older model, but we bought an extended warranty on it. And so she can take it right into the Cadillac dealership and get the work done on it. And a few years back, she'd taken it in and at the Cadillac dealership, they treat you nice. You know, I've been to the Cadillac side and I've been to the Chevrolet side and you know, they take care of you, the Cadillac side, you pull in this air conditioned garage and they, you know, and she called me up later to tell me about having dropped the car off. And she said, the people at the Cadillac place are treating me like a princess. And I said, well, honey, you are a princess.

She said, I know that, see, but it just seems like the Cadillac people are the only other ones that know it. When you say I bless you Lord, because you're the forgiver of my sins, the Lord says, I know that, I'm just glad you see it. When you say you are the one who heals my diseases, the Lord smiles and says, I already know that about myself, but it sure blesses me that you see it. When you say you redeem my life from the pit, the Lord says, yeah, I know that too, but it sure does bless me to know that you know it because you come into agreement with the glory of God himself.

You're looking at the sunset with him. You are blessing God by letting him see your breath be taken away by the Grand Canyon. When you worship him, when you get lost in your worship of him, when you bless his holy name, you are blessing God because this is what God wants. John Piper says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Your father wants you to know that you know that you know your sins are forgiven. And when you see it and you bless him for it, he takes tremendous delight in that.

He does not hold your iniquity against you because he's come in the person of Jesus Christ and taken your place on the cross and paid the full penalty so that the Psalmist says, your sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. I read a little story this week that said a man died. He was being escorted by the angel into heaven and the man was kind of worried about his sin getting broadcast up in front of him or something when he got to see the Lord and the angel said, oh, don't worry, I've already buried all your sin. And the man said, where did you bury it? And the angel said, I don't remember. And he said, well, what about the Lord?

He might bring it up. He said, oh, no, he doesn't even know that you sinned. You know, that's really the way the Bible teaches this.

If it's the east from the west, you can't get, in other words, there is no calculation to that. It is infinite. Oh, and you think on this and you think about how he has paid the price in full, not in part, and something catches up in your soul and you just say, bless the Lord, oh, my soul, who forgives all my iniquities. The Lord's taken delight in that.

You're blessing him because you're recognizing what he has done for you. And so what happens here is that the, the Psalm grows like a crescendo because David, he just like, you can see him, he's getting more and more excited about this. And he starts out, bless the Lord, oh, my soul, all that's within me, bless his holy name.

But then it grows by the time you get down to verse 20, he's like, let's expand to this thing. Bless the Lord, oh, you angels. Now he's not only speaking to himself, he's speaking to the angels.

He's speaking to the cosmos. You mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of dominion, in all places, of all time, everything, praise the Lord. And so he gets a vision.

He starts realizing that this is not just about me. This is about you. This is about everybody. This is about all the saints. This is about the angels and the archangels. This is about creation. This is about what we were destined to do. This is what we were designed to do, that we are the ones who are called upon to just bless his name in God, who is already completely, 100%, totally, thoroughly sufficient unto himself, is blessed when the creatures bless him. You cause God joy and bring him delight, even while you bring your own soul into order. When you bless God, he is blessed.

And that's amazing, but that is the gospel. Alan Wright, it's today's teaching in the series, The Power of Blessing, and we invite you to stay with us. Alan is back here in just a moment with additional insight on today's teaching for your life and today's final word. 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. And today is the last day this special offer is available to you. Come to our website, pastoralan.org.

What a way to end this series, Alan. I think this is so key and very eye-opening. Would you say to the person listening right now that a high degree of blessing is coming in agreement?

Yes, absolutely. And just get this through your mind. God is most blessed when you are most blessed.

This is his nature. Any loving parent can understand this. I'm happy to see my children be happy. That doesn't mean that there's not discipline, there's not time, but it just means that when you are richly blessed of God and you return that in thanksgiving to him, he is so, so blessed. It's amazing, Daniel, to think of it, but we do call God joy when we bless his holy name. I think learning what we've learned today, you can go back now and reapply it to the entire series and have that vision of what it really means to live with blessing, to be a blessing, and to bless God.

Amen. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

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