The Joy and Power of Authentic Community [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright.

God's love for you can be unconditional, because you have been through your simple faith in Christ, been found to be in Christ. And therefore you are reckoned with the righteousness of Christ, and you are shown in the very best sense of the word God's unmerited favor, his agape. 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, Unspeakable Joy, 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 Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.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 Allen Wright. We've been duped by this message that says, greater joy comes, the less committed you are. What a life from the pit of hell. As I look back over the course of my life, I have to just bear this testimony. The things that I've been most committed to are the things that caused me the most joy.

Now, they might have been some of the hardest things, but my marriage of over 31 years has been absolutely great. If you say, what's been the greatest blessing in your life? I'd say, my marriage. And you say, well, what have you sacrificed more?

What have you given? I'd say, probably my marriage, or raising their kids. Any parent can tell you this, I mean, you can't even sit down and write down the number of sacrifices you made for your kids, and you just do it. But if you say, well, what's also the greatest cause of joy? Where's your blessing in your life?

What's the relationship with kids? Ministry fits into this. I love passion, I love ministry, I love writing, I love teaching. I make a lot of sacrifices, but there's so much fulfillment, so much purpose in that friendships, real friendships that you stay committed to.

It just means something. I've loved that the Lord has allowed me to be here, it'll be 20 years this November, and there's some value in sticking around somewhere. I'm not saying that every pastor needs to do that, and please don't ever let me wear out my welcome, but I love you, and I tell you, there's something beautiful about that. I like being in one community for a long time.

I know that's not possible for everybody, but I'm just saying that what I have found in life is that the things that I've been most committed to have actually brought me the most joy, and that seems to be running exactly opposite of the spirit of the age and the message of this culture. What Paul is just doing here is just very open, very transparent, very passionate, very affectionate. He's writing to the Philippians, this is all about our relationships.

He calls them beloved. Now, in the ancient Greek world, there were several words for love. Our language in English, we miss out by only having the word love.

It doesn't tell all the story. In the ancient Greek, they had a word for the romantic, passionate type of love called Eros. In the paganism of that ancient Greek world, the confusion over Eros, not understanding its beauty and the wonder of what God has created with this kind of romantic love for husband and wife, would often become confused with a kind of a idolatrous yearning for intoxication, led to cultic prostitution, all of this. This word comes into the scriptures in a beautiful picture of love between a man and a woman in a covenant relationship. There's a word also in ancient Greek for a friendship type love, Philane.

It's a word, when you ever see that word, Phil, that little root like Philadelphia, city of brotherly love, that's where it's coming from. There was a concept also called Agape. This preceded the New Testament. Agape, interestingly, came from this Greek idea from a word that meant to breathe, like longing for.

It actually had an ancient Greek, the idea being preferred. It's an interesting thought that the word that comes into the New Testament for love, that unconditional love of God that we so cherish, that Paul calls, and throughout the New Testament, the agape of God, really comes from an older concept about being preferred. I think in so many ways this makes sense, as I'll try to explain today, for a lot of people who have a hard time ever believing or receiving or experiencing and feeling the love of God, I think so much of the answer of this will be unveiled today as we talk about what it really means to be accepted in Christ himself. There is a way in which this love is set apart and distinct from every other form of love because it's seeded in choice. I just talk about this a lot, but a covenantal type of love is absolutely different because what it means is that you love someone because you're in a committed relationship, because you're in a posture of choosing them. It's like a parent who loves his or her own baby. It's weird. You start loving your child before the child's born, or if you adopt, you start loving the child before you've adopted the child. It's because it's your child. This is the nature of this love, agape.

More to say about that in a few moments. The word for beloved is agapetos. It's just a noun form of agape, loved ones, beloved ones, and it's beautiful. One of the things that's so beautiful about being God's beloved and the beautiful thing about calling someone else beloved is that this is a definition of your life that isn't really about any characteristic intrinsic to you.

It's not really about any of your particular good or bad qualities, and it's certainly not about any of your accomplishments. For to label someone beloved is not so much to say something about who they are intrinsically, but it is to say something about the one who loves them. In other words, you can be beloved and you could be unaware of it.

Whether you know it or not. The prodigal son, when he was in a faraway land amongst the pigs and the prostitute, was his father's beloved. I love this, that if you wake up in the morning and you have had a hard time and you have begun to have those feelings about yourself where I'm seeing my worst trades, and you're wondering where you're going to find your sense of worth, the answer is not really so much to start buoying yourself up by trying to rehearse to yourself the things that are good about you, although there's nothing wrong with that, but the answer really is to say I'm beloved. The fact of the matter is that once you know yourself beloved, it changes everything else in your life. I noticed that as I go through the scriptures, look at the references of beloved, something jumped out at me, that oftentimes this word beloved was used in conjunction with a moral imperative, with some exhortation, some instruction, some correction, or some warning. Oftentimes the word beloved would be used in connection with such exhortation. For example, Romans 12 19, beloved, do not avenge yourselves. First Corinthians 4, 14, I do not know what it means.

I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. First Corinthians 10, 14, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. First Corinthians 15, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Second Corinthians 7, beloved, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh. Ephesians 5, 1, be therefore imitators of God as beloved children. My beloved, as you've always obeyed, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Paul says.

Therefore, James says, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak. Beloved, I entreat you, Peter says, as strangers and sojourners abstain from fleshly lust. It's not just that I think God calls us beloved before he has something hard to say to us, although that's tender and beautiful. I think it's that the order of this is essential for us to ever live a godly life, is that you are not called beloved because you're living a godly life, you're called beloved because you're beloved. But being beloved is the fuel for you to live a godly life. So whenever God wants to talk to you about steering you down a right path, correcting you from wrongdoing, bringing about a conviction of sin in your life, exhorting you or even warning you or even bringing a correction in your life, God comes to you and essentially calls you beloved.

It's the tender expression of a father to his children. It is the love of God that is expressed to you saying, before you hear anything else that I've got to say to you about how you need to live your life, I want you to understand this, first and foremost, you're beloved. And if you know you're beloved, it's going to empower you. It's important to understand yourself as beloved.

And it begins with knowing this, and this is the central theological point, and this changes everything. And this is how you can move more deeply into the experience of God's love is dwell on this, meditate on this. Christ is the beloved one. We are beloved in Christ. We are blessed in Christ. We are chosen in Christ.

We're favored in Christ. At his baptism, there was a voice from heaven that said, this is my beloved son. This was the father speaking of Jesus. This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased. After one instance where Jesus performs mighty miracles, the word here quotes Isaiah in Matthew 12 and it says, behold, my servant whom I've chosen my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. And then this pivotal moment of the transfiguration, where we read about Matthew 17, he was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. This is Jesus. He's a peer transfigured with Moses and Elijah. And this bright cloud overshadowed him and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Have you ever thought that joy is a delight reserved for those who have no problems, or have you ever assumed that some people are just born with a joyful personality? If so, get ready for some good news. Joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ, no matter the circumstances of life. Though Paul was in jail when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, he spoke of joy 16 times. No matter what you're going through, you too can discover the secret to unspeakable joy as Pastor Alan Wright leads you through a life building exploration of Philippians. When you make a gift to Sharing the Light Ministries today, we'll send you the new CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, as our way of saying thank you for your partnership. Your gifts are the only way we're able to continue broadcasting the message of grace all over the nation. Happiness may rise and fall with happenstance, but joy is ever-present in the spirit.

So become a partner today and discover joy like never before. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. And today is the last day this special offer is available to you. 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. He is the beloved one.

Okay, so Jesus is the elect one. He is loved with the perfect eternal love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There was love before there was a world. There was love before there were stars in the sky. There was love before you and I or any other human being ever walked on this earth. Love is not something that came about because humanity came about. Humanity came about because there was love. Love preceded all things. Love profited all things.

Love is from everlasting to everlasting. God is love. And the Son is loved perfectly by the Father. He is the beloved. He is the one who is loved. He is the one who is in the Father's bosom.

He is one with the Father. And so what Paul understood by revelation from the Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter one verse six is that we are accepted in the beloved. It means that in Christ we're accepted by God. It means that in Christ we have been chosen before the foundation of the world. It means that there is unmerited favor that is poured out upon your life because of your simple childlike faith in Jesus.

This is the gospel. That though there was a great gulf of our sin between us and God and we could never reach God. He came and died for us so that the punishment that we deserve was put upon him and anyone who would simply believe this and trust in him. Anybody would trust in his name. Anybody would trust in Christ. You are thereby accepted unto God 100 percent all your sin forgiven and you're accepted how? In the beloved one. You are blessed in the beloved one.

It's so powerful. This week we had 1,400 freshmen coming into Wake Forest University. This is just here near adjacent to our campus.

Welcome to all the students. And last week I guess it was I got a call from a lady that I grew up next door to. It was a childhood friend, Mary Simon. Her name is now Mary Shacrow. She called and said Alan. She said I hadn't talked to her in years. We called up a little bit on the phone. She said I've got a dear friend here in Connecticut and she's bringing her son down, a freshman at Wake Forest.

I just so want them to be comfortable. I remember so well like that. We just took Bennett back for his senior year at Baylor. I remember it goes like that.

I remember the day of dropping him off in Waco, Texas. There was a little cookout or something they had where the families were together and there was going to be like some ice cream or something. You're supposed to enjoy this warm time together and then say goodbye. The freshmen all go in one direction and the parents go off in the other direction. It was kind of their way of saying parents get out of the way.

I'll never forget that. We're just sitting out there. We eat our hot dogs. It's just about silent. Nobody's talking about anything. It's like there's some impending moment. We're all kind of dreading. We just kind of ate the hot dogs in silence.

Everybody's like I don't want any dessert. We just kind of stare at each other. We said oh we're just going out there. We just get them high.

It's just as terrible. We knew of one person, some friends who had a relative in Waco. We met with her because you just want to have somebody. Just somebody. What if his car breaks down? He needs a trusted mechanic.

What if you need a referral to a doctor that you can't find on campus? What are you going to do? You just want somebody. My friend Mary was calling to say would you just reach out to them? I said well sure. I've been texting that mom and texting that young man. I let our college minister know to reach out to him as well.

So there's a guy that's been on my heart this week. Well why? Is it because he's more likable than the other freshmen? I know. I didn't even met him. Is it because he's a better student or smarter? No, no, no, no.

Is it because there's something that just attracts you to him and you want to take care of him? No, no, no, no. Why? Because Mary Simon called me and asked me to do it.

I grew up next to her. What I'm saying is I don't know. It seems so arbitrary but this is the way it works is that there are people in your life that you have affection for or that you set apart in your heart in some way. It wasn't because of that person.

It was because they were connected to some other means. So in other words, this young student I've been praying for because he was in Mary. And I just think this is so important to understand, beloved. If you wonder how God could love you so, just imagine the love that is from everlasting to everlasting and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before any of this ever existed. This is the nature of God.

And though we have made all these mistakes and we have had so much sin in our lives and that we look at your life and say, man, I've made a mess of things or whatever might be in your days or your darkest and most frustrating. You can just simply understand this about who God is, is that God's love for you can be unconditional because you have been through your simple faith in Christ been found to be in Christ. And therefore you are reckoned with the righteousness of Christ and you are shown in the very best sense of the word, God's unmerited favor, His agape.

Charles Spurgeon said it so powerfully. Christ was thus chosen both in the divine and human natures. So are all His people chosen in Him. Blessed fact, the same register which includes Christ as firstborn includes all the brothers and sisters. And until the flames of hell can consume the record which certifies Christ as the Son of God, our sonship in Christ towards God must remain safe from all the attacks of satanic craft. Disprove Christ's sonship and you disprove ours. But prove the union of Christ with God as His Son.

And since Christ's people are in Him, you prove their sonship too. Look down the red roll which God wrote with His eternal finger according to the counsel of His will. And you see the names of all those who will enter into eternal life.

They are all there secure because the first one is secure. And until the pen of hell can run through the first one in the catalog, it shall never be able to run through any of the others. For there stand the names of all the elect covered, protected, and defended by the name of Christ, which stands at the head. We are in that book which is sealed with seven seals, which none but the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open."

Just as good news. You're the beloved because you're in the beloved one. And the nature of this love is that it is eternal and that it spills over. And so that love needs a place to work itself out. And it works itself out in our relationships. We do that here through community groups. The loneliness is, according to sociologists, epidemic and it need not be. We cannot be healthy human beings without practicing the love of God towards one another.

We can't. There's a growing dispute and body of research about the practice of solitary confinement for prisoners. It's so interesting that some of the most hardened criminals who seem to be so sociopathic that they act as though they would never want to be around another human being, that nonetheless find if they are put in a solitary confinement and for 23 hours a day don't see anyone and get one hour of isolated recreation in the back end, they find it to be intolerable. And in fact, what the sociologists are saying is they often become having hallucinations and become extremely enraged.

They'd rather be beaten or tortured in other ways. I'm just saying it's a stark image, but the devil wants to keep us in solitary confinement. The wolf loves the lone sheep. The wolf wants to attack the lone sheep that gets isolated. And in the body of Christ, it must not be so.

It must not be so. It doesn't mean you need to get into a group and the first night you get in there, you bare your soul of every single thing that's ever gone on in your life. That's not what it means, but it does mean you start practicing the love of Christ. You're the beloved. And in community, we are able to demonstrate that for others. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright in the conclusion, not only of the teaching, the joy and power of authentic community, but we're here at the end of Unspeakable Joy. And what a great series. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word. Please stay with us.

C.S. Lewis said, no soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. In other words, joy isn't an elusive dream reserved for a select few who have no problems or for those who were born with a joyful disposition. Actually, joy is a fruit of the spirit available to all in Christ. No matter what you're facing, you can have the joy of the Lord in the midst of it.

The apostle Paul did, though he wrote his epistle to the Philippians while imprisoned, he spoke of joy 16 times. Alan Wright's newest CD album, The Secret of Unspeakable Joy, takes you chapter by chapter through Paul's explanation of the secret of joy in Philippians. When you make a gift today to Sharing the Light, we'll be delighted to send you the new CD album as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Become a partner today and discover the secrets of unspeakable joy. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. And today is the last day this special offer is available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, I'm reminded of the quote from John Wesley that says, if your heart is as my heart, give me thy hand. And it's just saying, you know what? We don't have to agree on everything, but if we're in community under the name of Jesus, that's powerful. And it brings a joy that really passes all understanding.

And as we have this title here, it's an unspeakable joy. It is as stark as this statement that the Christian gospel doesn't just save you, save you. It lets you out of solitary confinement.

It means you're no longer alone. We as Christians are no longer hiding and we're no longer disconnected. And so to be beloved is to be beloved in Christ together. And that fellowship is so powerful. It cannot be torn down and you cannot remove it from the face of this earth.

If you try to forbid it, then people will find underground houses in which to meet because we are made not just for God, but for one another. And what a fitting conclusion to this powerful epistle of Paul's about unspeakable joy. There is only going to be joy where we have authentic community. Let's make sure we have it. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.