Foolproof Self-Worth [Part 2]

Allen Wright, pastor, Bible teacher, and author of his latest book, The Power to Bless. Either rebellion nor religion will ever lead you into self-love.

Both will lead you to hate yourself more and more. 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. Then something begins to happen inside of your soul where you begin to go, well, I must be valuable. It must be that I account for something. It must be that I have merit in my life. It must mean that my life matters. And out of this is born faith and confidence and hope that moves you towards the future.

I can make a difference. You see, both law and grace can motivate people. But what law does is it simply motivates you by instilling fear. If you don't keep the law, you will be punished. And fear is an inadequate motivator, and at worst it is hellish. Because the more that you try and fail, the more miserable you feel about your own nefesh. You don't love your own life when all you do is dwell upon all of your inadequacy to meet the law.

That's why living by the law is never going to enable you or empower you to love your own soul. But what grace does, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ brings to you a radical acceptance that comes not by your merits but by Christ's. And when you receive that and you know it and you live by grace, faith can fill your life. God loves me. God died for me. God came for me. I belong to God. I've been made holy. I'm clean. I'm holy. I'm redeemed. I'm forgiven. I'm a child of God.

I am who you say I am. And the more that you believe it, the more you can believe that you could love your own life. That's the way of God. Remember some years ago I was studying what I guess is my favorite Scripture. The story that we call the story of the prodigal son. The story really of two sons and a lavish prodigal father. And this younger son who, in Luke 15 and we won't turn there, but this younger son who squanders his inheritance, he asks his father for the inheritance early, shames his family, goes to a faraway land, and just rebels and lives in fleshly riotous living, and squanders his money amongst the prostitutes, and his friends take advantage of them.

They're not even friends at all. And he's left all alone and hungry and destitute. And for a Jewish boy, the unthinkable, started associating with a pig farmer.

The pigs were unclean animals to him, and he was so hungry he wanted to eat the pig slop. And in the midst of all of this, as Jesus tells the story, this boy came to himself. He suddenly just came to himself. It's a picture of the moment of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

It's the picture of the moment of the way in which God reaches us. It says that he came to himself. What he meant by that is that all of a sudden he said to himself, he said, what am I doing here amongst the pigs? He said, my father is wealthy, and he has servants in his house that are living far better than this.

What am I doing here? In other words, there was just a little piece of him that began to go, you know, why am I here because this is not who I really am. See, repentance in our life doesn't come because somebody condemns you. Repentant comes when somebody blesses you. Repentance comes by the kindness of God, the scripture says. It comes when you begin to see that your life is destined for something more than it is right now. In fact of the matter, if you want somebody in your life or in your own life to really be able to repent, the greatest thing that could ever happen would be they love their own soul. See, the seeker of wisdom, the one who loves instruction, the one who loves to grow emotionally and psychologically and intellectually and spiritually, the one who wants that is someone who in great measure loves his or her own life. And that prodigal son, I remember studying that story and just thinking, you know, the problem with this boy is that he didn't care about anybody but himself.

And I probably preached it like that for years, but I remember one day just meditating on that story years ago and as I just thinking on about and literally saying to myself, well he didn't care about anybody but himself. I heard a voice and I've come to recognize the promptings of the Spirit within me in these revelatory moments, you know, everybody gets them differently but God speaks to you from His Word and He'll just speak to you about in a moment. You ever have that happen? You're just studying the scripture and all of a sudden it's like a light just turns on. You just see something like you'd never seen it before and I heard of a voice.

It was, it was the, it was the prompting of the Spirit within me as I was saying that boy didn't care about anybody but himself and I just heard a voice say he didn't care about himself. Would you just think of somebody that you love, maybe it's a grandchild or maybe it's a parent or your own sibling or friend or child or spouse, somebody you just love with all your heart. Will you just get them in your mind for just a moment?

Think of one person. Would you ever in a million years encourage that person to shame their family, rebel against their father, go into riotous living in a faraway land and waste all that they have on prostitutes and sin and the flesh? Would you ever want them to wind up in that place? Would you ever encourage somebody you love to do that?

Of course not. Who would you do that to? You'd have to hate somebody to do that to them because those whom you love, you protect. We protect the things that we love. We cherish what we love. We treasure what we love. If you see someone that is in self-destructive behavior or you wonder about some of the issues in your own life, you ask yourself, is this the kind of thing that anyone would do to someone that they love?

And you're left with the answer, no. This would be what you do to someone that you despise. And somebody is already full of self-hatred. Beloved, heed this well. You will never draw them into repentance by adding condemnation to those who already loathe their own lives. This is why the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

It is hope for a whole new way of seeing life. Folly is a symptom of hatred of self. Self-love, on the other hand, produces obedience and diligence and self-control.

Self-absorption, which in its strongest form is a disorder called narcissism, produces fleshly living and self-centered living because the wounded soul, the ego that is empty or hurt, is always requiring attention. But when you love your own soul, you don't have to think about yourself and you don't have to center your life around yourself. To love yourself doesn't mean to center everything around yourself.

It means to be free enough that you can give and love and serve and care about others as you care about your own life. The problem with our culture and the problem with that prodigal son was not that he loved himself too much, but he was too absorbed with himself because he didn't actually love himself. You can't help anybody else really until you love and accept your own life. Lee Ann Payne, author and counselor, has put it well. If we are busy hating the soul that God loves and is in the process of straightening out, we cannot help others. Our minds will be riveted on ourselves, not on Christ who has our wholeness.

When we hate the self, we are self-conscious rather than God conscious. 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 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. If you want to know how it is you feel towards yourself, maybe just start with one of the greatest descriptions of love, of course, ever penned. 1 Corinthians 13, Paul said, Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not sist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Love is patient. So are you patient with yourself? Or are you quick to condemn yourself? Love is kind. Are you kind to yourself?

You're merciful. Or do you brood over your own flaws? I like the way the new international version puts it, Love keeps no record of wrongs. This is one of the real marks of love. Love doesn't have an interest in keeping and rehearsing everything that's been done wrong.

You can know you really love somebody when you just find yourself forgetting all the wrongs because you're so focused on how much you do love the person. How do you treat yourself? Do you keep a record of your wrongs? You brood over your regrets? You find yourself being shaped so much by your own failures?

Or do you know that you're a new creature in Christ? There's a cycle, I think, to this process and by which we hate ourselves and the world sets it up. It's not a world that's set up to have you have authentic love of yourself. The world is set up for either a superficial artificial move towards self-absorption and merely satisfying appetites of the flesh, which I'm saying is not self-love at all.

Or it is set up to constantly inform you of why you should not like yourself at all. The problem begins with this for all of us, the world is founded by God and justice. God is just. I don't care what anybody says, everybody believes that there's a right and a wrong. Just break in line in front of somebody, you'll find out.

Just get in front of somebody in traffic, they'll find out. And everybody believes in right and wrong. And if you believe that in any measure of justice it means very simply that what is good should be rewarded and what is bad should be punished. And if you don't have that you don't have justice.

And this is just the world we live in. And I would make an appeal to believer or non-believer or seeker or whoever you might be, whatever religion, that you do have somewhere a notion of justice. And knowing that there is a underlying design of justice that good should be rewarded and bad should be punished, we are aware either consciously or unconsciously of what is bad about our lives. And when we see something that is wrong we know that it should be better. And when we have no success in correcting it, that is living by the law, then we condemn ourselves. And this really is the issue biblically because God came in the person of Jesus Christ to save you, not condemn you. So when you're in Christ if there be any condemnation it is your own sin nature talking to you or it is the very voice of hell. And it's a problem that John articulated in 1st John 3 19, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him. For whenever our heart condemns us, so what is it that condemns us? Not God, our own hearts. Whenever our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart and He knows everything. Beloved, John says, if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. What he's saying is that the whole genesis of a beautiful, powerful, prayerful, obedient life with God is that your own heart doesn't condemn you. What I'm saying is that God who paid an infinite price to save you is broken-hearted to see you condemn yourself. And so much of the battle therefore is not letting our own hearts condemn us. But when there is self-condemnation it is often followed by self-curse. I would say in our family this would be the number one thing when our kids were little you're likely to get disciplined for and that is cursing yourself.

We had no room for that whatsoever. I have zero tolerance for self-curse because it is an expression that follows out of a form of self-condemnation. And I'm talking about when we're so quick to say I stink at this. Oh I can't do that. Oh I probably won't be able to succeed at this. And even when something's going well we say well yeah it's going well now knock on wood.

Oh yeah I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And all these things that we say are just expressions you see of something that began with the seeds of self-condemnation and that self-curse is often followed by some kind of self-sabotage. And this is this is unseen most of the time where you feel like you're coming up against some invisible ceiling. You rise up to a certain place and you just can't seem to go any further than that. And usually it's because there's something within us that thinks that we're just not the person that would be able to do that. And so we limit ourselves and we sometimes just sabotage ourselves. And sometimes in our relationships even when things are going well and we just find a way to sabotage the thing.

You ever wonder why that's going on? And when it plays itself out to its fullness self-hatred shows up as self-punishment. Withholding blessings from yourself or outright hurting yourself. Listen precious ones.

The studies now show that one out of five girls is either actively or experimenting with cutting herself. The answer is to have a heart that does not condemn yourself, but radically accepts yourself and loves your life. There is so much at stake. Self-acceptance is born and only born from the acceptance of Christ. Because none of us have a parent or an authority in our life that loves us perfectly.

There would be some doubt some place to that wondering am I really loved? But in Christ when you find the grace of God you discover not an inward righteousness but the righteousness of Jesus. And we find a forgiveness that is not rooted in your merits but rooted in the merits of Jesus. And when you see the gospel and you see what God has done for you in Jesus, then it changes everything about who you really see yourself as being in this world.

Let me put it plainly like this. Without Christ, without some way of knowing yourself radically loved and radically accepted, you're left with one of two choices. Either to try to call the sin in your life something other than sin and pretend it's not there, push it under the surface, mask it with an addiction, call it morally relative, whatever you might want to do with it so that you don't have to face it, think about it, or even acknowledge how wrong it is. And that's one pathway, it's called rebellion. But there's another pathway and it's called religion. And it is where you decide that in order to be accepted and loved you need to do everything right, you need to please people, you need to do the right things in order to make God love you, you need to make other people love you so that you'll finally get that approval. But what I'm saying to you today is that neither rebellion nor religion will ever lead you into self-love.

Both will lead you to hate yourself more and more. And the person who comes finally to the place of saying, I can't help myself and I need to I need to trust in what God's done for me, you come to the gospel. And the gospel announces something so beautiful it's mind-bending and it's ramifications. It is God saying to you that He loves you so much that He wanted to remain just while exercising His mercy. That God refused to say, I'm not going to become an unjust God and let sin go unpunished, but I'm not going to become a God who's not merciful because I am the God who is full of love and mercy.

My steadfast love endures from generation to generation and I can do no other. So how could it be that God would be both just and loving? God came in the person of Jesus Christ who lived a sinless life and died the death that we should have died so that in the cross of Jesus Christ all of your sin was punished. So God executed justice through the cross and Jesus bore your sin. And when you accept Christ what happens is that God does a miracle. He makes you into a son or a daughter. You are born again. You're a new creature in Christ. You are a new entity. You are your same person physically, but you are spiritually brand-new. You are an heir and a co-heir with Christ and God is just in blessing your life because He has already put the punishment on Jesus and He has credited Jesus's righteousness to you. So God is just in showing you love.

He is both just and He's merciful and what this means for your life is that you instead of despising the life that God has bought with the Son's price of the cross instead of disdaining the life that He's created and made and put a glorious destiny into, you can without boasting say thank you God for this life. Thank you for this mind. Thank you for this body. Thank you for this destiny. You can laugh about your failures. You can look to your future with hope. You can fill your days with confidence and you can wind up saying in the very best sense of the word I love myself. And when you do it changes every single thing about your life. God does not want you live in your life motivated by fear but by faith. And if you loathe your own life and are constantly trying to fix it to make yourself acceptable it's a life of fear. And God wants you to know that you've been found accepted in the beloved and therefore you can accept yourself in Christ and pursue with all your heart and mind the wisdom of God. You can want to prosper in the best sense of that word to thrive and flourish not because you need to prove something but because you're so loved you want to make a difference in somebody's life. Whoever is pursuing wisdom loves his own soul and that's the gospel. Alan Wright in a wonderful way to conclude this series on foolproof and today's teaching foolproof self-worth. Please stay with us Alan is back in the studio sharing a 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 or come to our website PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio with Alan Wright sharing our parting good news thought for the day and Alan I can't think of a better way to end than that because you know if you've been listening to the whole series about wisdom one might think well I got to get all that wisdom before I can have self-worth but really it's just the process of seeking the wisdom that really proves that you do love yourself. Exactly it draws you unto Christ and people will know well how do I accept myself?

Here's how. Accept Christ. Because the more that you accept Christ the more that you really believe that Jesus took the punishment for your sin the more you know that then and only then will you be able to accept yourself by saying though I'm not deserving I am forgiven. Yeah. Though I didn't earn it I have been given the righteousness of Jesus and therefore I can look upon my life not only as meaningful but as holy and clean and purposeful in other words the more you accept Christ the more you can accept yourself and the more you accept yourself the more you honor and glorify your Creator. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.