Hope for the Unblessed Soul [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. She took me and my brothers to the godliest matriarch and patriarch in the church, I think for a period of time every week, so that the man of God could lay hands on us.

You wonder why I love church so much. 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, The Power to Bless, taken from Pastor Alan's book of the same title and 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 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. Isn't this something, this is the substance of the Old Testament narrative. This is our story.

What's the difference between people who are blessed and who aren't? This is the story. And the other side of the story is Joseph, this blessed son, the son who knew his worth. He never despairs. He's tempted. He's tempted by his slave master's wife, but he refuses.

Wow. Those that have been deeply authentically blessed have some mystical greater resistance to sin. I've watched it over and over and over again. If you want to gain greater power in overcoming temptation, get more blessing in your life. And Joseph never gives up on God, never gives up on the dream that he has. And when a great opportunity arises, Pharaoh says, I want to put you in charge, second in command of Egypt, Joseph doesn't say, well, oh no, not me.

I can't see myself doing that. He says, I'll gladly take it. That's the other thing about the affirmed soul, the blessed soul, is when the moment of promotion comes, the one who has an authentic inward security says, absolutely, I'm ready for it.

There's no self-sabotage in him. He is just a remarkable man. I wish we had time to just go through all the story of Joseph and just look at all these moments in his life and he is enslaved, imprisoned, and yet Joseph, unlike every other major character in the Old Testament, is never really portrayed as having a major gaping character flaw. It's like God just wants us to see, here's what a life can look like when a father has blessed his son. Here's what it can look like when a soul has been profoundly affirmed and a great dream has been born into a child's heart.

Here's what it can look like. And oh, wow, Joseph, when he finally is providentially reunited with his brothers who have to come to Egypt to find food because Joseph has wisely administrated a plan to save up food in preparation for a famine that he has seen by his ability to interpret Pharaoh's dream and then he's reunited with these brothers. Look at this in Genesis 43, verse 29, he lifted up his eyes, Joseph did, and saw his brother Benjamin that he'd never seen before, his little brother, his mother's son, Rachel's son. He said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me?

God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out, look at this, look at this, because his compassion grew warm for his brothers and he sought a place to weep and he entered his chamber and wept there. Instead of feeling slighted for all the years that he didn't get to spend with his little brother Benjamin, what's happening? He's weeping for joy because he feels so blessed.

Most people feel even more blessed at every kind expression of God's grace to them. And he's able to see his brother, he's blessed to be in the position he is and then when he finally makes himself known to his brothers, look at the spirit of this man. Genesis 45, verse 1, Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, make everyone go out for me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph, is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence.

They were, they were so scared because they knew what they'd done to him. And Joseph said to his brothers, verse 4, come near to me please. And they came near and he said, I'm your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.

For God sent me before you to preserve life. Do you see the passion? Do you see the delight? Do you see the love? Do you see the emotion, the breathtaking grace? How is it possible?

How can you be abused like that? How can you be mistreated by people like that and then have such lavish blessing to give to them? The son who knew his worth had treasure to give. The man who knew himself blessed had a great blessing to give and he's reunited with them and then he's reunited with his father and brothers. And Joseph goes to Pharaoh and asks for provision for his family. Pharaoh gave him the best land, Genesis 47, verse 10, Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, the best of the land in the land of Ramesses as Pharaoh had commanded.

And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents. And this love and blessing that just flowed out of Joseph, the prince of Egypt, just continued to the very end. After Jacob died, after the father died, the brothers are still frightened. They thought maybe that now our dad has died, Joseph's going to take out his fury on us. But at Genesis 50, verse 18, the majesty of it all, the providential awareness of Joseph who said at verse 18, his brothers came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, do not fear for am I in the place of God as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. The difference between those who were blessed and the son, the sons who were not. Is it that dramatic?

Yes. Thankfully for most of us who have not been affirmed at the deepest level, it doesn't manifest in such horrific ways. We've not sold somebody into slavery. We've not abandoned someone unto a horror, horror of lives. But we know what goes on in our souls and the struggles of our souls. And there's Joseph, wouldn't that be wonderful to live with that sort of dream in your heart, to have the whole curse of this world, not find a place to light in your heart so that you're left with blessing after blessing to give, to come to that place that Jesus and Paul spoke of that you blessed those that persecute you. I want that. I want that. So there's hope for the unblest soul.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Listen, for 99 days in a row, someone tells you, I love you, I'll never forsake you, wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me?

If you don't measure up, I don't think I love you anymore. Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't 1% of conditional love poison the other 99%? Well, just 1% of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear.

What if I don't measure up, when might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12-message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians, and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. 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, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Let's talk about some practical steps as I think about this in my own life and I look through the narrative of the Bible. I think it starts with this, admit the real need. Whatever you've missed, it is a godly thing to admit it to yourself and probably to a few others.

I've missed this. Knowledge what you've missed. It's a hard thing sometimes to do that because there's something in us that wants to act like, well, we'll just be all right anyway. I just tough it out and I'll just be fine.

No, we won't. The second thing that's important to learn to do, and we're going to do some specific study on this in our community groups after Easter, is to reject toxic curse. The curse, the Bible says, was taken by Christ. Paul says this explicitly in Galatians.

Because the Bible says, he who hangs upon the tree is cursed. He says Jesus, who deserved only blessing, instead went to the cross into the position of curse and took the curse on your behalf so that anyone who trusts in Him, the curse is lifted, broken forever, and blessing is given. Which means for the Christian, and I've studied this and thought about this for decades in my life as I've helped and ministered with people. It means, Christians, you can rightly claim at every moment of your life before every voice of accusation, you could stand before all of hell and say, no accusation spoken against me is relevant anymore. No generational curse has any hold on me anymore because I lay claim to the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's important to recognize generational sin patterns so that we can be set free from them, but we do not have to ever fear that we're under a curse. We have to merely claim and appropriate the freedom that is ours in Christ. Reject toxic curse.

You need to learn how to do that. And third, seek authentic blessing. Set your thirst in the right direction.

You're thirsty. You're thirsty for blessing and people are looking for love in all the wrong places. And I think what the Christian does is we admit where we've had a deficit and we acknowledge that because Jesus has taken the curse that it doesn't have to be our destiny to live under curse. And instead we take the thirst of our souls and we direct it in the correct pathway. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Put all of your heart's attention towards the blessing of God in Jesus Christ. And I think that part of this means this is why we do not neglect being together as the body of Christ.

This is why we need each other so much. I barely remember it. I was young when my dad left home.

I remember him leaving. I remember the pain that I felt and I hardly remember it, but one of the things my mother did after she met the Lord. She did some good things.

But one of the things she did was she, wow, I'm having trouble getting this out. She took me and my brothers to the godliest matriarch and patriarch in the church. I think for a period of time every week took us to Armin and Nancy Bodie's house so that the man of God could lay hands on us. My dad wasn't there.

He didn't know how to do it. Armin Bodie knew how. You wonder why I love church so much. This is a church that just, if you need it, you stop somebody in the hallway and say speak a blessing over my life.

And the people in this church aren't scared to do it. My mom also, she said every night before you go to bed, boys say you're going to recount two things that are blessings. That's powerful.

She said we're not going to develop an unblest ideology in this household. We're going to think on the goodness of God. I'm going to tell you what's changed my life, and this is what changes our lives, and this is the power of the gospel, is that ultimately the blessing flows from God through people in partnership with His people who speak it. And that blessing has come because God is so gracious. He blessed in the beginning, and He's continuing to do so. And this story of Joseph is one of my favorites, it's just remarkable, but it's only a shadow. Because God sent His only Son into the world to be the perfect Joseph.

Do you see it? He came into His own, His own brother, so to speak, and His own received Him not. He came with the deepest of dreams to share with the world, a dream of salvation, God-given destiny for how He would be used for the saving of the world from a spiritual famine.

And yet He was misunderstood at every point. People thought that the bowing down was because He was going to enslave them, but the bowing down was going to save them. And just as Joseph's brothers sold Him for a few pieces of silver, so it was that Jesus' own sold Him for a few shekels of silver.

They stripped Him also of His robe, humiliated Him, and eventually threw Him down into the pit of the grave. But He rose to glorious power, supreme rule at the right hand, not of a Pharaoh, but of the Father and the Creator of all things. There He reigns from on high, and He has all provision and all power and all glory and all capacity for judgment and authority are His.

And yet what has He done with His place in the cosmos? He has set His love upon us so that anyone can come and look into His eyes and admit your unblessed condition, admit all of the wrongdoing in your life. Tell Him that you were the one who had stripped Him of His robe and sold Him for the silver and thrown Him into the pit, and that you deserve nothing but His judgment. And look Him in the eye and tell Him that you're sorry and that there's a blessing deficit in your life and that you don't make any excuses for it, but you need His blessing. And when you do that, look into His eyes and hear Him say, do not fear. Hear Him say, I was crucified for you that you might be saved. I was crushed that you might be blessed. I was cursed so that you could be mine forever and know for sure that you have not only a escaped curse, but can be blessed with every spiritual blessing that is in me for you are now my heir and co-heir forever and ever.

Look into His eyes and see the love and every day open up His book and read it to tell you who you are in Christ to discover how blessed you are and think about His love. In other words, quit trying so hard to correct all your problems and start drinking in the blessing of God. You have it plain to see the difference between the blessed soul and the unblessed. I just want to be the blessed soul, not for my own selfish ambitions, but because it changes everything in my life and can change the world. So here's the fourth thing then, once you have taken those other steps, and I'm talking about admitting your need and rejecting curse and seeking blessing, dream new dreams. Something happens when you're blessed and you don't have to make it your quest to be affirmed anymore because you are affirmed. It's the greatest freedom you could ever have is to not have to think about yourself. What happens for the affirmed and blessed soul is that soul starts looking for a way to be a blessing to the world. And all your dreams start shifting towards how you can serve somebody and bless somebody else.

If you just go by what the world says, your life's going to be a roller coaster. Up one day, down the next, one day on eBay for $450. And then the next day, $3750 or best offer. I'm going to tell you what, I'm going to quit looking what he's worth on eBay, and I'm going to say, Parson Patterson, you got a place, we'll keep you on the shelf.

Still a little dusty. God has shown you His love in Jesus Christ, and nothing ever can change that, and that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's good news message, Hope for the Unblessed Soul. It's from our teaching, The Power to Bless, which incidentally is from Pastor Alan's book of the same title.

And Pastor Alan is back with us here in the studio in just a moment with a parting good news thought for the day. Imagine for 99 days in a row, someone tells you, I love you, I'll never forsake you. Wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me? If you don't measure up, I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear.

What if I don't measure up, when might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. 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, PastorAlan.org. Back now in the studio with Pastor Alan Wright and Hope for the Unblessed Soul as we come to the conclusion of this teaching, still in the series, The Power to Bless. By the way, a book by that same title authored by Pastor Alan and God placing a high, high value on us. There's a blessing and that's the foundation of this, right? Yeah, to bless someone is to affirm a tremendous value. And every single human being has been made in the image of God. And that means every one of the sound of my voice right now, you are infinitely valuable to God because that's the price he paid, an infinite price of his only begotten son. And you can count on this and know it. And so when we bless and we receive blessing, it starts with that, that despite all of the things that are wrong in my life, the fundamental thing about me is that I'm made in the image of God and therefore I am of enormous value.

Well, once you see that, it changes everything because isn't it true, whatever you value, you take care of. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. 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 pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.