Foolproof Prosperity [Part 2]

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless.

God has the value and he's deposited it in you, this treasure and an earthen vessel which has made you infinitely valuable. 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, Foolproof, 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. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper if we're happy to send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org, that's pastorallen.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. We'll have more on this special offer later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Allen Wright. He said, I had my credit card stolen the other day, but I didn't bother to report it because the thief spends less than my wife. I didn't write it.

I didn't write it. Just reading what somebody else wrote. One guy wrote and said, I'm currently boycotting any company that sells items I can't afford.

That's a good thing right there. One guy wrote and said, I won $3 million in the lottery this weekend, so I decided to donate a quarter of it to charity. Now I have $2,999,999.75. Quarter, get it, quarter.

Well, just one more. One guy wrote and said, money isn't everything, but it certainly keeps you in touch with your children. Wayne Grudem, who's a reformed theologian of our day, just put it very plainly, money is fundamentally good because it is a human invention that sets us apart from the animal kingdom and enables us to subdue the earth by producing from the earth goods and services that bring benefit to others. That's all money is.

This is all it is. And without money, all we would have is a barter system. And I'm glad we got money instead of a barter system because I'd be up a creek if all we had was a barter system.

I was just thinking like I go to the car dealership, find the car that I want, and I said, okay, this is the one I want. I said, now I've got sermons and books and pastoral care. What do you prefer? And I said, how many sermons would this cost me? And I just fear the guy would say, I don't like your sermons. They're too long. And I'd have to say, but I can make it shorter.

I can make it shorter. How many short sermons do you need? And he said, no, I've got some books. I could barter some books for you. I've written some books. And he says, I like Tim Keller better. But I've got inspirational writings.

What about we could trade some of the, no, I like Max Lucado better. And well, how about some pastoral care? I could give you some pastoral care. No, actually my marriage is good. I had a healthy family growing up. Life is good. And I don't really need any pastoral care right now.

I'm not sick or anything. So it doesn't work. It just doesn't work.

When I was really laughing, I was thinking, what would poor Pastor Chris do if we were on a barter system? Because you just can't, you can't, you can't get goods and services in exchange for snarky comments. That doesn't, how many witty, sarcastic sayings does it cost me to get a car?

You see, you just can't get it. Money, all that it is, listen beloved, all money is, is a more sophisticated means of exchanging goods and services in this world. That's all it is. And so as such, it's a good thing. But how ridiculous it would be to think that money, which is nothing more than that, is something to be revered and worshipped in an idolatrous way.

You'd be missing the whole point. Third John, John says, Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you, or prosper is the word some translations use. That you may be in good health as it goes well with your soul. That you may prosper, your body may prosper, your soul may prosper.

Because when you love somebody, that's what you want. Webster defines to succeed, to prosper as to succeed in an enterprise or activity, especially to achieve economic success. But it also can just mean to become strong and flourishing. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, God's able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. He says you'll be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

The whole narrative of the Scripture affirms this goodness of God. He makes Adam and Eve and puts the pinnacle of his creation, these human beings, puts him in this lavish garden of paradise, and says you can eat of the fruit of any of the trees, except for one that will be poison to you, but the rest of them, yours, it's just a garden of paradise of delicious fruit, beauty, and wonder. When the people of God are set free from their slavery in Egypt, does God say to them, now I want to give you a land of barrenness where you will scrape by. He says I want to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.

And He actually instructed them to plunder the Egyptians on the way out. So obviously God is not against all these good things. In Proverbs 3, look back at it. Verse 16, the things that are mentioned.

Long life, riches, honor. Verse 17, ways of pleasantness. It means delightfulness and favor. Verse 17 is the word shalom, peace. It means total well-being, wholeness. And verse 18, wisdom is a tree of life. Here's the image of the tree.

The tree of life in the original garden from which life itself flows. And verse 18, called blessed. It's a beautiful word that it is about this comprehensive nature of how a life that is lived by the straight and narrow wisdom, that word actually comes from the word for straight, is a blessed life. So all of this God is affirming. But at the same time, beloved, the Scripture is equally clear that Christians aren't immune from suffering.

This is where I think we can go wrong. There's no guarantee. These aren't meant to be like, oh, guarantees, you know, that you are going to have these specific blessings. It is to say that in general, the life of Christ flowing in you doesn't produce bad things, but produces good things. But if your definition of prosperity is that you don't face trouble, then you are denying what Jesus said, because He said in this world you will have trouble. And the apostle Paul and almost all of the early disciples and the faithful people were persecuted for righteousness, experienced hardships, they experienced things that are common to humanity, and none of this meant that they were unblest. In fact, Jesus said you're blessed even when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake. And there were times where He warned of the lure of the idolatry of money. He warned the rich that they could be idolatrous about their money and have difficulties. And all throughout His ministry, He cared for the poor. So what do you make of these two things where God clearly is affirming these beautiful things, pleasantness, peace, long life, riches, and honor, and yet we have this Scripture that is also filled with this constant reassurance that even in your troubles, God's going to be with you. What do you make of all this? And I'll give you a couple clear principles.

And the first is this. God loves to share His wisdom, and that wisdom is ultimately perfectly seen in Christ, and that wisdom is the most valuable thing you could ever pursue in your life. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive, faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. When you give this month, you'll not only receive the best-selling book, but you'll also receive a free five-session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book.

The video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. 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. I think essentially the principle that God is getting across in Proverbs 3 from Solomon's life and from the person of Jesus himself is to say that get wisdom, get wisdom, get wisdom and make it the focus of your life. You'll probably be surprised how many other good things will follow along with it. And the second thing is to say that because wisdom is the priority that all these other good things health, law life, and financial prosperity, all of this is seen in Proverbs 3 and throughout the Scripture as byproducts. It is to say that when the wisdom comes, then there may be many good things that come from that.

And don't be surprised by that. But you would really miss it if you were just pursuing the lesser treasures. Because you'd be better off with very little and a humble little meal in a happy place with a peaceful home than you would with all the riches of the world where people aren't even getting along with each other and there is no wisdom that is expressed in relationship, right? Isn't it something you get around someone wise and what you notice about them is their wisdom, not the good things that have followed.

I love it. One of the great privileges of my life is I was able to enter ministry as a senior pastor as a young man and even came to this church as a young man. And naturally, automatically, I just wanted to gravitate towards men older than me who are wise. Because you want to have wisdom, one of the ways you're going to get it, get around wise people. I like to pray with them. I like to hear from them. I like to learn from them.

Nobody's going to have perfect wisdom, but there are people who have gained wisdom by walking for a long time with God. Get around those people. Cling to those people. Get wisdom. Don't go to people who have plenty of money or plenty of popularity because they could give you some money or give you an in for something. Go and get with them to get their wisdom.

It's far more precious than anything else you could get. And I love being around people like that. You know, I was around somebody this week. I thought, this is a wise man. Somebody in our community that I really love dearly, a good friend, and someone who's been in this community ministering for a long, long time, and he has become famous worldwide.

He's one of the best-selling Christian authors of all time. Gary Chapman. And we were meeting this week. Some of you know Gary. We were meeting this week because he'd probably shoot me for announcing, but there is this man who's 80, and he looks like he's 60, and he acts like he's 40, and he is still just ministering all over the world, and he just wanted... We don't meet because we're strategizing for how our ministry of restorations could link with stuff that they are doing in other churches to help marriages in our community. And this man, I'm just giving you one example.

I'm just giving you one example. This man has written one book that sold over 11 million copies of five love languages that has helped so many marriages where people have learned that there are different ways that you express love, and it's really helped communication and love being expressed so that marriages could flourish, and written so many other books and still travels all over the place. But you get around a guy like this, and especially you get around Gary, and you realize if you know him, he never set out in his life to say my goal is to become wealthy or famous or prosperous in these ways. He didn't even say my goal is to become a renowned expert on marriage.

He didn't say that. What he did was he was counseling people in ministry, and he wanted to help them. And so he drew near to God to say how could I better help them, and God gave him an idea, and he put it into a book.

And as a byproduct, many of these other things have come to pass. And you see, when you get around a wise person too, when they do have accolades, and their lives flourish, and they're doing many good things, they don't discount them, and they don't say, oh, well, that's nothing, and they don't run away from it, but they know they're just lesser treasures anyway, and it never deviates you away from the place of wisdom. Wisdom is the thing that you want. It would be so foolish to pursue a byproduct rather than the life-giving source itself. It's like Aesop's fable of the farmer who had the goose that laid golden eggs, and each morning the goose would lay a golden egg, and finally, in his greed, the farmer said, I want to get all the gold out of that goose, and went and killed the goose and opened it up and saw there was no gold inside. And so he'd killed the goose that was making the golden egg, because he was idolatrous about the gold, and he had the goose. Well, this is essentially the deepest truth you could understand about what to pursue in your life, is that Jesus came in the Sermon on the Mount, and as He spoke about not worrying about your clothing and not worrying about the food that you'll eat, because look at the sparrows of the air and look at the lilies of the field, how God feeds the sparrows and clothes the lilies with such beautiful splendor that not even Solomon in all of his raiment was as glorious as they.

These beautiful lilies. And He said, don't worry about these things. And in that context, He said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you. Because what this means for us, therefore, beloved, is that God is a Father.

He is not a vending machine. And I think this is where sometimes the confusion comes, is because if you understand that God loves for His people to prosper, you could come over to a place where you think the goal is the prosperity. And some people start thinking, therefore, that the Christian Gospel is an invitation to like you're treating God like a vending machine. You put your coins in and you're supposed to get out your blessing. That's not...

There's nothing in the Scripture that's anywhere near that. People, when they put money into a vending machine and it doesn't get them the candy bar, they get mad. Have you ever seen the videos of people when they don't get the... they have hidden videos of people, what they do to vending machines? They kick them. They beat them. There's one guy who fought a vending machine and it fell over and killed him.

It's just crazy. You don't relate to God like quid pro quo, I'll do this for you and you do this for me. This is a God who has everything and you are His creature who has nothing. And God has given you everything that you have. And you don't have something valuable enough to come and bring an impressed God. God has the value and He's deposited it in you. This treasure and an earthen vessel which has made you infinitely valuable. If you get wisdom, that's the root.

Like the tree of life that comes up and it's likely to have fruit. But you pursue the root, not the fruit. Only a fool would spend his life pursuing the less valuable thing. The wise person pursues what is most valuable and wisdom is the thing that is valuable. Part of the key to Proverbs 3 is verse 16 because in this personification of wisdom, it says long life is in our right hand and riches and honor are in our left. The right hand is the strong hand. The right hand is the strong and the blessed hand, the favored hand, the more important hand. And so in the right hand of wisdom is life. Life itself, eternal life, life abundant. In the left hand, lesser things, riches and honor that follow it.

You just want to get all of this in proper order. It leads you then to this conclusion that the one who is perfectly wise would perfectly pursue wisdom at every point and so every other good thing would come along as a byproduct of that pursuit and that perfectly wise one is Jesus. You see, Jesus always put wisdom first. He related to His Father and He listened.

He had the ultimate listening heart. There never was a time that He said yes to the devil. Never was a time He said no to the Father.

He just was at one with the Father. And so the perfect wisdom of God is flowing through the person of Jesus and it meant that when temptation came, He resisted the temptation. The devil tempted Him and said, I want to give you riches and honor here in this world.

Jesus resisted that. It was because wisdom told Him so. He had a different mission and so He stayed on course for His mission. His mission wasn't riches and honor in this world.

So He stayed on course. It simplified His life. It left Him unconcerned with the things that He wasn't getting done because He had wisdom. And He received much popularity in this world, but also persecution. But it didn't stop Him when He got the persecution. And in fact, He was obedient in this wisdom, even unto death on the cross. And when He faced the hardest and most difficult thing imaginable and went to the cross, there it was that He had in His life the expression of the very wisdom of God.

Because the wisdom of God that no angel even could have understood is that without the cross, there was no saving of humanity. For God is just and holy and sin must be punished and yet God is merciful and a justifier. So at the cross, He became both just and justifier. He became the one who was able to be righteous and merciful at the same time. And when God's wrath and mercy met at the cross, what looked like foolishness to the world was the very wisdom of God. And through this, anyone who trusts in Him is saved. And the Bible says that though Jesus humbled Himself, then the Father exalted Him mightily and He reigns supreme over all of the cosmos.

There's the picture. It is an invitation to live a life in Christ, which is to live the life in wisdom. God's a good Father and He wants good for His children. It doesn't mean you're going to have a life without troubles.

It means that you have a Father who is your constant provider. And so when it looks like the provision is running short, the temptation is to orient your life towards the byproduct. But the invitation from God is never lose sight of what is essential, and that is Christ Himself. Well, I think I'm going to just stay a preacher rather than a model. I think I just will because you know, you've got to do what you've got to do.

And so I'll just put that career on hold. Actually, the fact of the matter is, isn't it true that if you can find out what's most important, then the things that aren't important to you begin to take their place. And that's the way of the wisdom of God. Walk in the wisdom of God and then watch and see how much He adds unto your life. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright. Been a lot of wisdom in this series about wisdom. It's called Foolproof.

And today's teaching, Foolproof Prosperity. Please stay with us. Alan's back in the studio as he shares his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything? Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now, the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales, but this month, Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. When you give this month, you'll not only receive the best-selling book, but you'll also receive a free five-session video course in which Pastor Alan teaches how to bless and covers content not found in the book.

The video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Back here with Alan Wright in the studio. Our parting good news thought for the day, and I'll just say this to get us into it. I know there have been plenty of books actually written and pulled from the Old Testament on business and leadership.

There's lots of wisdom and practical advice. So as we're talking about foolproof prosperity, there's that. Exactly.

So here's what the takeaway is from this, I think. Okay, God's not a vending machine, and Christianity's not a formula. So we don't relate to God in this sort of quid pro quo.

If I do this, then you're obligated to do that. Let's be very straight about that. But having said that, when you get the wisdom of God, often prosperity follows that. Because what God wants us to do is not pursue the prosperity, but pursue the wisdom, pursue a relationship with Him. The relationship that you have with God and Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing that you could ever have. And you'll find that He doesn't just have wisdom, He is wisdom. So you're invited into a relationship with the one who is wisdom. In other words, pursue the root, not the fruit. If you pursue the root, wisdom, you're likely to have the fruit, prosperity. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.