Rebuilding on the Rubble [Part 2]

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

Well, what in your life do you consider ruins? Look at it and ask the Lord to take it and build a tell out of it and say, Lord, I'll take you up on your promise to rebuild. And then look to Jesus. 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 From Now On as presented at Rinaldo 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, a copy of Pastor Alan's book, Lover of My Soul. This 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. That's 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. Another reason they like to go build on these tells is that the walls of these cities were built to last. And that, as I was saying about the heavy building blocks, there were parts of that city wall that could be recaptured and could be built on so the foundational protective wall was easier to rebuild on those houses.

And related to that, the houses themselves were usually made of mud bricks, which they, unlike thick rock, would disintegrate over time and essentially would become workable clay again. So those bricks that once were bricks then become clay and they become adaptable in the potter's hands. And some of your life, when you've been through the difficult things, some of it, you feel like that part of me turned to dust and has gone back into clay and God can remold that. So there are parts of your life that are foundational and they're building blocks and God can use that to rebuild foundations. And there are other parts that feels like, boy, that just crumbled and has turned to mud again. And that's okay because God can take that and build it back into brick, build it back into the vessel that He needs it to be so that there's something that's moldable about your life still.

And there's something that was moldable, adaptable from the tell. And of course, and this might have been the most important reason they built on the tell, is that it was the best defense in the ancient world to have an elevated location, to raise the height of a city as much as possible. And so often there would be no elevated site in the plains of the Middle East or it'd be so difficult to even access a higher place. But those earlier layers, they added so much weight that then the next layers that got built on them, this became a very sturdy place and it would be high and lifted up. And because of that elevated, elevated site, these things are possible for the city. One, it's much more strategically positioned to be protected from enemy onslaught. And secondly, it was a much more wonderful and beautiful vista from which to see life.

The city will be rebuilt on a ruins. And you've been through things. I've been through things.

We've all been through things in this world. And I think what God would want to say is how you can live from now on, how you can live positively, hopefully from this moment on, instead of being relegated to the past and instead start living this day from now on as if you hadn't had troubles and start realizing that God can elevate you to a new place like a city that's been rebuilt on the mound of ruins so that you will be in a strategic new advantage in the spiritual battle. You've learned some things over the years and God's teaching you some things now. Some of the mistakes that I've made, some of the tragedies I've faced, some of the rubble of the past, you know what? I realize now it's just served to build up the foundation to where I don't fall for some of the same tactics of the devil that I might have years ago before some of the rubble.

Don't look back over your past and wallow in your mistakes. Realize that God's built up a new place for your city to be rebuilt where you've got a strategic advantage. And there are ways the enemy can't get to you now because you're in a new elevated place. And it also means that through the lens of God's grace, you can see what you didn't see before. You can see beauty where you didn't see it. You can see further than you did before.

You're less likely to fall and you're more likely to see the expanse of God's grandeur. There was one more thing. I saw the website about why people built it tells and this makes sense. The owners of the ruined houses and their families that were their heirs, they had claim to the property. And so it made sense that they could return to their own property and rebuild it. So all said, the property though in ruins still belonged to the prior inhabitants.

If you own a piece of property and a storm knocks it down, you might have rubble, but you still have the property. It's still yours. Maybe that's the most beautiful thing of all is that you've got a claim spiritually over this life that God's given to you. And He came in the person of Christ to restore dominion and authority. And maybe God's calling you it's time to reclaim it. God's a restorer.

You can count on it. You can count on the fact that this is the nature of God because in the first place, this is how God defines Himself. Look at Isaiah 44, 24. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb. I'm the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, this is God defining Himself for us.

Okay. Says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited and the cities and of the cities of Judah, they shall be rebuilt and I will raise up their ruins. He's defining Himself. God's telling you who He is. Isaiah 61, 4. They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the form of devastations.

They shall repair the ruined cities, the devastation of many generations. Joel 2 verse 25 famously, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten the hopper, the destroyer, the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you, I will restore. You know, over and over you just scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture, God is defining Himself saying, this is my nature. It is my nature, says the Lord, to restore. It's not my nature, the Lord says, to abandon something and just let it be forgotten or annihilated. It is the nature of God to restore what has been broken, what has been crushed, what has been left for ruins, God loves to restore.

And He's proven Himself over and over. See, when Adam and Eve sinned and He had warned them that disobedience meant death, He didn't annihilate Adam and Eve, did He? No, there was a spiritual death that came to them, but immediately God offered the first real blood sacrifice by killing an animal in order to take animal skins into leather garments to cover them and cover their shame. And from that moment on He made a plan of restoration of Adam.

And Jesus, we don't have time to talk about this, but Jesus came, the Bible says, as a second Adam. His plan was not to annihilate humanity, but to restore. When the people of God were in their slavery in Egypt and they cried out to God, God didn't just leave them in their slavery, He wants to restore their freedom. He didn't ever intend to leave the Israelites in Babylon when they were exiled there by Nebuchadnezzar.

He always intended to restore them, that's what Jeremiah's prophecy is about. And God's not going to scrap you. He won't annihilate you. You will one day leave this earth and God will take the very dust from which we were made in the beginning and He'll remake you, but it'll be yourself, same body. He will glorify your body.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. 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. Just this weekend holding the hand of one of my dearest, dearest friends, Bill, who went to his glory. And if you ever experienced that holy, holy time of watching someone transition to heaven, you realize breath is fleeting. And we either are going to believe, well, that's it, we're annihilated, it's over. Or there is a God who says, there's so much value on your life and who you are that I am absolutely committed to make you new. And when you go to heaven one day in a glorified body, it's the ultimate fulfillment of Jeremiah 30 18. I will rebuild the city on top of her ruins.

I'll make glorious. You can count on this because God's nature is such to be restored. He's proven himself over and over to be restored. And I want you to see that you can count on it because of the compassion of God. Notice again in verse 18, this is what the Lord says, I will restore the fortunes of Jacob tense and I will have compassion on his dwellings.

He's compassionate. And the next chapter in Jeremiah 31 nine with weeping, they shall come and with pleas for mercy, I will lead them back. I will make them walk by Brooks of water in a straight path in which they will not stumble. For I am father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. I wish I had time to talk to you about this is we've been speaking some about the mysterious blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh and Ephraim was the younger of Joseph's sons, but Jacob crossed his arms and took the strong right hand, the symbol of blessing that should have been reserved for the firstborn Manasseh and instead extended it to the head of Ephraim as a picture of the grace of God that would come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. But here is Jeremiah prophesying the word of the Lord, I'm a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. The one who didn't deserve blessing has received my blessing and I have, the Lord says, adopted you. This is why we bless everyone to be as Ephraim and Manasseh. This is why it's the most important Old Testament family blessing that exists because to say may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh is to say may you receive the blessing that you didn't deserve and may you know yourself to be adopted as an heir of God.

This is the nature of God. He's a father who has heirs and he cannot abandon them because of the compassion that he has. His compassion is pictured maternally in Isaiah 49, 15. God is a father but he has no gender and he has expressed in his being also the maternal. Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget yet I will not forget you. God's saying if you've ever watched a mother and her baby, you know that there's just no way just something happens in the love attachment of the mother and the baby, something organically, biologically that's taking place. She can't forget her baby. She can't just go, oh, wait a minute, I hear my baby crying. Wonder what that's about. Her whole being is designed to be able to feed that baby, to nurture that baby.

She cannot forget the baby. Compassion is woven into her being, God is saying. He's saying there's something about God that's like that. He said in verse 16, behold, I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.

Your city is before me all the time. So when Jesus came, what did we see in Jesus? Yes, he healed people because it brought glory and signs and wonders but he mainly healed people because he loved them. Matthew 9, 36 said when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. I'm saying God is full of compassion. He's just spilling over with compassion for you and this is why he restores.

I think any parent who's ever had a child who had something that broke, you immediately know what it feels like. I want to help glue it back together for you. I want to restore it for you.

I want you to be able to have it. That's what compassion does. But let me say there's another reason you can be absolutely assured of God's commitment to restore you and restore your world and that is his own glories at stake. There's a very interesting verse that precedes our text today. Verse 17, for I will restore health to you and your wounds I will heal declares the Lord because they have called you an outcast. It is Zion for whom no one cares. What is this saying? What it is saying is that other nations, pagan people, unbelievers have looked at the exiles and they have said, you're outcasts.

Nobody cares about this people. And the Lord is saying here in verse 17, I'm going to restore you if for no other reason nobody's going to tell my people that they're outcasts. They're not outcasts. They're going through a momentary discipline and I'm going to bring them back. Nobody's going to speak this way about my people. You know, it's kind of like as a parent, you're like, you might have to discipline your own children and that's all well and good, but somebody else starts speaking negatively about your children. You're like, huh? No, no, no.

It's one thing for me to correct them, but it's not for you to correct them. And God is saying, I'm committed to showing myself glorious and He's going to bring His people back. God has too much invested in you to let your life lay in ruin.

He's going to rebuild. So look around. Where do you get some ruins?

Start thinking about it differently. Those ruins are good building blocks for what's next in your life. This book I've just written, The Power to Bless, I open it openly telling that I had so many advantages as a child. I'm the greatest mother in the world and wonderful brothers and I had so many wonderful gifts in my life, but my dad left home when I was in the fourth grade and he wasn't around to bless my life. And I wanted it. I yearned to have a dad that would be there to speak out a positive vision and faith over my life and destiny.

And I missed that. But you know what? Out of that part of the rubble of my life, guess what? Out of that yearning to crave that blessing, I went on a pursuit of blessing. I came to understand blessing and I came to find spiritual fathers in my life and I came to receive blessing from my heavenly father and I came to learn about the power to bless so that I could raise my own children in blessing and to learn to be a preacher who just blesses your life and just speaks that over your life.

And now God's given me honor to write a book on the subject. So out of the rubble came a tale and I got to go up on top of it and now able to see and announce in a new way and I'm able to have advantage over the enemy in a new way because of what I'd experienced. If I had not experienced the pain of the brokenness of that relationship with my father and not – if I hadn't had that yearning, if I hadn't had that ruins in my life, then I would never have been talking to you about blessing right now or writing a book about it or helping anybody else. Well, what in your life do you consider ruins? Look at it and ask the Lord to take it and build a tale out of it and say, Lord, I'll take you up on your promise to rebuild. And then look to Jesus. Because if you understand God's commitment to restore out of the ruins, you need to look no further than the cross where He is lifted up in humiliation and exile on our behalf.

Christ our exile who had to experience what it feels like to have His Father's face turned away, to experience what it's like to have the sin of the world literally put into Him so that we who trust in Him can become as righteous. You look no further than Jesus and you'll see how the ruins, the ruins of the cross have become the salvation of the world. This is what the Lord says. I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents and compassion on her dwellings.

The city will be rebuilt on her ruins and the palace will stand in its proper place. God is a master renovator and you are His restoration project. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's good news message, Rebuilding on the Rubble. It's in our series From Now On and Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. God's love, you've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio now, sharing Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And you said it best there, God is using rubble to make new things in our lives.

And that's great encouragement. God does not scrap and annihilate what He's created. He restores.

He doesn't throw stuff away. He's God. He's able to make something into what it was always meant to be. So if Adam and Eve sinned, He didn't destroy them. He came up a plan to send a new Adam that would restore humanity. He didn't leave His people in slavery. He didn't leave the Israelites in Babylon.

And He's not going to scrap you either. I say to every single listener, God has a plan not to throw you away, but to make you new. And so your life is like an ancient tale. It's being rebuilt on what might feel like the rubble of the past. But let God take the things that you would say, well, some of the worst stuff in my life. Let Him build on that to give you a whole new vista, a new perspective, and a new strategic place for advancement in the kingdom of God.