Gratitude in the Gray [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. I suppose if you've ever felt dirty from something wrong you've done, maybe Jesus just felt that for every person, past, present, and future. Every sinner's sin was put upon him, and he knew that this was coming. This was what was in front of him.

He was headed towards the greatest stress any human has ever or ever will go through, and what did he do on that night. Before he took bread, the text says, he gave thanks. 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, You'll See, 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. Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news?

There's always, always, always something you can be thankful for. We are in a series called You'll See. It's about learning to see through the eyes of Jesus. And we are today going to celebrate communion together, even though we're not together physically, we're together in the Spirit. So it's fitting that we go to this text in Luke chapter 22. That is the foundation of what we call the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist.

Luke 22, verse seven. Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat it. And at verse 14, and when the hour came, he reclined at table.

So they're in a reclining position, lying down on one elbow and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

And he took a cup and when he'd given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink the fruit of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. So he's predicting that he's going to suffer and that he won't celebrate this Passover feast with them until the consummation of the kingdom.

Seems to be what he's saying. Verse 19. And he took bread and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you due in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after they'd eaten. So now this is another cup after they'd eaten saying, the cup that is poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he's betrayed.

And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this. Well, how's everybody doing? I hope that you're hanging in there.

I would like to say that I'm such a powerful man of God and so full of the spirit that I have perfect peace in the midst of a pandemic. And I have to be honest, I don't. I've had some restlessness. I try to feel like I'm not feeling anxious, but I had a dream this week that proved me wrong. It was related to the classic dream that I've sometimes had where I'm back in college and there's an exam and I've never been to the class or read any of the books.

But there's a variety of that. In the dream, I'm embarrassed to tell it, but anyway, in the dream. I'm in college and I've I've gone to the class. I've taken I've taken I've read the stuff and I'm taking the final exam and it is an essay exam and it's got four different essays. I'm writing in what we call it at our school a blue book. It's a common sight of a little stapled together notebook paper and a blue cover and you write your essay exam in the blue book. And it must have been an open book because I had a lot of different papers around and I wrote the first three essays and felt good about them.

Only my dream now. And then I got to the fourth essay and time was starting to run out and other people were were were already finished with their exam. They were turning in their exams and there was a lot of movement in the room and I was like, oh, no, I'm not done. And I was just I didn't know what to do. So I scooped up my papers and I left the classroom and I went down to a library into a big room. I don't know if I was supposed to have done this, but I did some dream.

And so you never know what happens. So I'm in there and I go into this big room in the library and that big tables and I go over to set all my stuff down table. I'm running out of time.

I got to write my fourth essay. Well, when I got in there, I couldn't believe it. But there were renowned people in this big hall of the library and some of them were matriarchs of the church. And it's very hard for me not to stop and be polite and talk to the matriarchs of the church.

So I was trying to be polite to them, but I had to tell him I had to finish this exam and I felt like I was being rude. And so finally I said, I've got to move tables. I scooped up all the stuff.

The clock is ticking. I scooped up all my stuff and I go all the way across the big room in the library, put my stuff down on a table. And I start to finish it up. Time's running out and I get my blue book and I'm trying to find it and I can't find the blue book. Where's the blue book? I'm scattering frantically around looking for my blue book. I can't find it.

I've already written three of the essays in the blue book and I can't find the blue book. And then I trace back over. I look at the table where I was.

I can't find it. I'm looking around. Now the matriarchs of the church are surrounding me. What are you doing, pastor? You know, it's funny in dreams how it doesn't occur to you that I wasn't a pastor while I was in college. But anyway, it doesn't make sense in a dream.

Can't find the blue book. And this is what I felt like. You know, you feel like a dream, like I just tossed and turned all night looking for my blue book that I couldn't find when I woke up. And I was like, oh, I'm not in college.

So I'd like to say that I've been anxiety free, but my dream, I think, revealed that it's hard not to have a little churning restlessness. People say, well, what's harder about this? I said, well, we're trying to reinvent the way we do church. And it can be a little nerve wracking.

I mean, you know, there have been some cases where it hadn't turned out so good. Like, well, we got this fellow here is a British vicar. We got a video to roll. But check out what happened to him during his live stream. He's just politely given his message.

Teaching away. And oops. He's on fire.

You wonder what am I anxious about? Or what about this lady? We got one more video.

This lady, she's just singing her heart out. But do you see what's happening to the poor drummer in the back? The tree is falling on him. He's back there and trying to get the tree off of him. He finally manages to get it up. He gets to get the tree back up. And there it comes again. She's just singing her heart out.

And he's back there having a WWE wrestling bout with a tree in the back. And this goes on throughout the whole song. My point is that you're going to understand that everybody is trying to figure out a new normal and a way to be during these weeks.

And it can be tough. And I thought it was fitting, therefore, in thinking about gratitude, to come to the story of Jesus at the Last Supper where they're celebrating the Passover because he knows what's in front of him. He knows what's going to happen. He is going to be betrayed by one of the 12 disciples around that table, sold for some silver pieces. He's going to be arrested, given a bogus trial, condemned to die, though 100% innocent, flogged until his flesh is peeling, and beaten so profoundly that many scholars said people died before they ever were crucified.

But he will be nailed with Roman spikes to cross timbers where he will hang until he suffocates. But I don't think the physical suffering is the worst thing in front of him over the next 24 to 36 hours of his life. The emotional pain of being abandoned, of being lonely, and the spiritual pain of the demonic persecution, an open field day for every demon to mock the Son of God. And he would hang there until he felt what it feels like to bear the weight of the sin of the world.

And who can describe what that is like? I suppose if you've ever felt dirty from something wrong you've done, maybe Jesus just felt that for every person, past, present, and future, every sinner's sin was put upon him and he knew that this was coming. This was what was in front of him. He was headed towards the greatest stress any human has ever or ever will go through.

And what did he do on that night? Before he took bread, the text says he gave thanks. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. In God's design, blessing isn't the reward for productivity.

It's the fuel for it. Now, more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing, and we're here to help you craft it. This month's special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, but from your own heart that will encourage and empower. Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card.

They'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. He gave thanks in the middle of it, in the midst of it. And sometimes we act like we're going to give thanks once we get through the difficult time and everything is okay. But what we have to learn from today's text is that we need gratitude in the gray.

We need gratitude in the midst of pandemic. The context of our text is the Passover feast. It is rooted in the story of the Exodus. The people of God were slaves in Egypt.

He heard the cry of their hearts and he sent a deliverer named Moses. Reluctant though he was, Moses eventually accepted the assignment and he went to Pharaoh and told him to let God's people go. Pharaoh was stubborn, would not let the people go, and so God brought a series of plagues against Egypt. And in so doing, Pharaoh just hardened his heart. But the final plague was the one that convinced Pharaoh to let the people go.

It was a plague of the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians. And so on that harrowing night, a destroyer came through all of Egypt. But the Hebrew slaves had been given instructions by a revelation that God had given to Moses. That if they would take a lamb into their homes and they would slaughter that lamb and put the blood of the innocent lamb over the doorposts of their homes, that on that night of the Passover, that wherever the destroyer saw the blood, there would be no harm. And so it was that all the Hebrew people were spared by the blood of the lamb, but all the firstborns of the Egyptians perished that night in every home that was either a dead child or a dead lamb. And the people of God escaped because Pharaoh and Egypt sent them out and they plundered the Egyptians and took their wealth on their way. And this is the story of the Exodus. And at Passover, the Feast of Passover in Judaism, the people of God were instructed to remember the Exodus. So the Seder meal includes unleavened bread and bitter herbs that remind them of the bitterness of slavery and lamb, the Passover lamb.

There's an egg that reminds you of new life. And you'll notice four different cups. Four cups of wine might be that it's one cup, but three different pourings and four different pourings of it in the midst of the feast. And the third of those cups was called the cup of redemption, or sometimes it's called the cup of blessing.

That's what Paul called it in his letter to the Corinthians. And after the meal, the host would pick up the third cup and would speak a blessing saying, Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. So that's the context of Jesus's words of breaking the bread and then lifting the cup. It's in the middle of the Passover feast, and he is reinterpreting the entire feast to say it's all about me. Every Passover lamb was pointing to Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Every time they broke the unleavened bread, it was prefiguring the gift of Jesus's own body on the cross.

And in the middle of the Passover, Jesus is still there singing the songs and lifting the cup and blessing the Father and giving thanks, even though he is headed towards the cross. Gratitude is so, so powerful. I want to talk to you about why gratitude is so very powerful. And the first reason is this, is that gratitude recognizes grace. It takes the attention away from ourselves.

It's wonderful to get a vacation from yourself. You can't be grateful and thinking about your own performance. Oh, it's just bliss to not be thinking about your own performance, to not be worrying about whether you merit the love of God. Grace is where you do not worry about whether you're good enough to merit the blessings of heaven, but you know that it is something that God and God alone has given to you. Grace and thanksgiving connect us to joy.

Church, some of you have seen me give you this before. I think it's one of the most important word connections in Greek. The word that Jesus uses here, the text uses to speak of Jesus giving thanks is eucharisto in Greek.

That's it transliterated. It means to give thanks. And remember what the word for grace or gift is, is charis. My favorite New Testament Greek word, charis, grace, the gift of God.

And what I want you to see is that charis is in the middle of eucharisto. That this means that grace is in the center of gratitude. It means that all joy comes into our lives through the connection of grace, causing gratitude to well up in our hearts. Brene Brown, secular researcher at University of Houston, who's done so much research famously about shame and empathy, has also studied joy. And she said in 12 years of research with 11,000 different data points of interviews, she said that never one single time did she find a person who was characterized by joy in their life who did not practice gratitude.

Not a single time. Gratitude focuses you upon grace. And grace is the secret of the Christian's joy because we know that God has loved us despite all of our sin. So the first reason that gratitude is so powerful is that it recognizes grace. And secondly, because gratitude causes you to remember God in your life. That's what the Passover feast was all about. It was about remembering.

That's what we learned from Exodus chapter 12. This day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. A memorial day.

And chapter 13, you can see similarly that there's an invitation. Moses said to the people, remember this day. Remember this day, you shall keep it as a feast. In other words, the whole of the Passover celebration was all about remembering.

Remember, remember, commemorate it because what gratitude does is it makes you remember all God's good gifts. I was just looking through my phone with some pictures the other day, particularly stressful day. A lot going on. News continued to be bad as we're watching the news.

More cases of the virus and all. Anyway, I happened to be looking through some pictures and I came upon one. I just had to walk in and say, and look at this, sweetie. Showed her on my phone. It was a picture of us last summer when we had a delicious trip, like a like a second honeymoon up through Vermont and into Canada, all the way up to Quebec City.

And from there, we went up another 50 or 100 miles north to a port where we got on a boat and went out and looked at Wales. And I had caught a picture of her at the front of the boat. Nobody else around her just looking out over this beautiful, beautiful scene where we had seen fin whales 60 feet long and white beluga whales. And it's been one of the most magical days. And it was just her gazing out.

I said, hon, just pause and look at this. You know, that feeling how a memory can just flood your whole soul with not just the recollection of it, but it's like you relive it. When you have gratitude in your life, you remember all of God's good gifts and has put together a book.

She just calls it her Book of Remembrance. Sometimes when you send us a text or an email or a letter and you tell us about something God's done in your life, it shows up in Anne's Book of Remembrance. Miracles are in there, and sometimes we just bring it out and just remember and remember gratitude is associated with how you remember your life and it orients you to reality because the fact of the matter is God has always been there for you. You might not have noticed it all the time. And sometimes today's current pain and suffering can make you think that he's not really there.

But when you remember God, it activates some kind of faith inside of you. Alan Wright. Today's good news message, Gratitude in the Gray. We're in the series. You'll see, and Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for today.

Stick with us. Want to give someone a present this Christmas that they'll never forget? Let us help you give a gift that money can't buy. This Christmas, give someone your blessing, a positive, biblically-based, faith-filled vision for their life. In the beginning, God blessed Adam and Eve and then told them to be fruitful to multiply because in God's design, blessing isn't the reward for productivity.

It's the fuel for it. Now, more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing and we're here to help you craft it. This month's special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically-based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower. Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card.

They'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit PastorAlan.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan in the studio, and I absolutely love this title, this teaching, Gratitude in the Gray.

Well, it's a message that was originally preached in the early days of global pandemic and life. Everybody knows what it's like to feel the cloud of uncertainty, and sometimes life just gets gray, and it's maybe the hardest time to practice gratitude, but it's certainly the most important time because remembering God's goodness is a means of reactivating your faith and releasing your faith. And so we have so much to learn about this, but if you ask Him, God will give you new eyes to see, well, God moments where you hadn't seen Him before and grace where maybe you wouldn't otherwise have seen it.

We want to see all of the grace of God because then we can thank Him for it, and we get thankful joy comes in our life. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.