Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You, like Jesus Himself, are the beloved in whom He is well pleased. And I can tell you, if you ever were to see God face to face, what you'd see is a radiant countenance and a smile that you've never seen anything more glorious in all of your life, because the Father celebrates His children.
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 we've called Saver, 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, an audio album called Saver. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries, either a CD album or a digital download of these audio messages. So as you listen into today's messages, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.
Contact us at PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860, 877-544-4860. More on all of this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. There's no such thing as shining a beam of darkness into a bright place and making it darker, but you get the smallest amount of light into a dark room and you begin to light it up. Let there be light, and light's just pulsating throughout the cosmos, and God steps back and just says, that's good right there.
That's what I wanted to do, and that's it right there. Or you take the day in which He created the stars. Wow!
I remember some years ago I preached a series on Genesis 1 through 3, and for a non-scientific preacher to try to learn a little science was pretty exciting and exhilarating to just read about it. Our sun, our star, an ordinary sized star, 93 million miles from Earth, 10,000 degrees on its surface. Think about this, is vast by comparison to the Earth. You could put a million Earths into the sun, a million Earths into the sun.
That would be if the Earth were a golf ball, it'd be filling up a school bus. That's how much bigger the sun is than the Earth. But as large as our sun seems to be, it's only a medium sized star. Scientists have discovered much bigger stars. The biggest one they've discovered is the Canis Majoris, the great dog star, the big dog star. And the big dog star is so massive. Remember, our sun, a million Earths fit into it. But the big dog star, so big that it would take seven, not million, not billion, not trillion, but seven quadrillion Earths to fill it.
Can't even wrap my mind around that. Seven quadrillion. If the Earth was the size of a golf ball, you'd have to fill up Mount Everest to get an idea how big that one star is. It's one star. Astronomers estimate there are probably 400 billion stars in our Milky Way alone. And they estimate there are probably more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe. You multiply that, and the number you get is inconceivable.
It's 10 to the 24th. That's a one with 24 zeros behind it. Whatever that number is, that's how many observable stars there are. That's how many stars there are likely to be. God, that was a pretty good day when He made the stars. He said, whoa, that's good.
But He hadn't even come to the pinnacle of His creation because He was going to create humanity in His own image. The word celebration comes to us from Latin. In the 15th century, it was primarily used to speak of celebrating the mass. Celebrate is a word that came into common usage in association with worship. Celebrating the mass, celebrating the worship service. That's where the word comes from.
Celebrare. It means to assemble, to honor. It's quite different, by the way, from amusement. Amusement comes from the prefix ah, which means not, and muse, which means to think. Amusement is to not think. It's okay sometimes to just be amused because you just want to quit thinking about anything, but I just say celebration is entirely different.
Amusement is some kind of frivolous thing to get you to not think, but celebration makes you think and be filled with wonder. The opening chapter of Genesis tells us that God is good and that everything that He makes is good, and therefore, because He's good, He celebrates all that is good, and therefore God celebrates. And anyone who walks closely with God starts picking this up, and you start realizing that you just have to celebrate. I think of David when he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. David was anointed by Samuel and told he was going to be king of Israel, but little David didn't know how much adversity he was going to face before that ever actually came to pass.
He had to run for his life for years from the insanely jealous King Saul. But when the time finally came that David was going to go take the throne in Jerusalem, and they wanted to bring up the Ark of the Covenant, which was the visible symbol of the manifest presence of God. So David was going to take the throne that had been promised to him, knowing he had been sustained by the grace of God, and that he had with him the very presence of God.
And listen to what happened in 2 Samuel 6. And it was told King David, the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him because of the Ark of God. So David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Lord, had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod, the garment of a priest. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. You know what they did? They were going from Obed-Edom into Jerusalem, and as they're making their way up, they went six steps. And he said, oh, stop right there. We're going to have a festival right now.
I imagine that's what they did. They take six more steps, stop. We're going to have a little praise fest now. Take six more steps.
We're going to just, we're going to celebrate all the way there. What a picture of life. It's similar to what happened with Joshua when he led the people in conquest of Canaan. The previous generation had died out because of their cowardice and their unwillingness to take hold of the promises of God. But God opened up the Jordan river for Joshua, and he was leading the people through. And this is what happened to Joshua 4. He called 12 men from the people of Israel, whom he'd appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the Ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you.
When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. I just love this because Joshua has not conquered a single city. They're going to have to walk around the walls of Jericho. They're going to have to face the Philistines. They're going to have to face all kinds of adversity and fight many battles. And they're going to, they're going to conquer the land that God had given to them. But the first thing that happened was God opened up the Jordan river for them, and they walked through and he said, we're going to stop right here and celebrate this right now.
That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. With so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks, sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most. Right now in a hurried, worried season, God invites you into the present.
Modern day life coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness living in the present is God's idea. And the Bible unveils the way pastor Alan Wright invites you to save her life each day. When you make your gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace.
Each moment in the moment, every day of your life. 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, pastorallen.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. When you're far from God, what the enemy does is tempt you to cease celebrating the goodness of God in the moment and focus on what you don't have. Wasn't that the primal temptation? The way the serpent slithered into the garden and began to lure Eve and subsequently Adam into eating of the tree in the middle of the garden was essentially to say, are you sure that you are blessed? Because something's being withheld from you. Let's focus for a while on what you don't have. Think about it. If you were to have that, you'd be like God.
Well, they were already like God. But the primal temptation that still comes to us is to not celebrate each step of the way, but think I can't celebrate yet because I've not eaten of the tree that's in the middle of the garden. I can't celebrate yet because I'm not eating yet because I haven't measured up. I haven't done this.
I haven't become this. I need to do something else or be someone else before I could truly celebrate the goodness of God in my life. So you can get tricked into believing that what is good is bad and what is bad is good and you can miss it all. And God has an answer for this. He loves you. The thing that you can take away from Genesis chapter one is so beautiful because it means if God doesn't have to wait until something's finished before he celebrates it, it means that God doesn't have to wait until you're finished to celebrate you.
Such an awareness is marvelous in every facet. It means that God's basic orientation towards you, his attitude towards you in Christ is one of celebration. See, he's like the father in Jesus's famous prodigal son parable. The son who has wasted his inheritance and humiliated the family and brought scandal upon their name comes to his senses and returns home after his long wayward time and the father sees him from a distance and runs to meet him.
Hallelujah. He does what no Hebrew patriarch would ever do, hiked up his robe and started sprinting down the dusty road to embrace his son, the son who had humiliated him, had wasted his fortune. And he came back and said, kill the fattened calf because the son that was lost to me has been found. Here's Luke 15 23, and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate.
He celebrates what? The son is back. People thought he was dead. Here he is alive.
He was lost and he's been found. He's not celebrating that the son has become a straight A student. We don't know that yet. It's not celebrating that the son has proven that he can be a savvy businessman and take over the family estate. He's not proven that. He's not done anything to earn a place back in the family or prove his worth or to measure up to the standards of his older brother. He's not done any of that. All he's done is he's just come back home and the father's just so excited. He just can't.
He just can't stand it. The text says they had to celebrate This is the story, maybe the greatest story Jesus ever told, to describe to you who God is. He's the God who just celebrates every turn in your life towards that which is holy and good and wonderful.
He's a God who, if you think a mother celebrates her baby's first couple of steps, how much more so your father in heaven who loves you perfectly. And it's, it's powerful for the Christian because this is what has happened. Though the first Adam was lured away from the truth, fell into deception, and forfeited his inheritance, God in his infinite wisdom and mercy, and forfeited his inheritance, God in his infinite wisdom and mercy and might, sent a second Adam. That's how Jesus is described.
He is God but he is human. Born as a human and a human being lost dominion in the earth by his sin and so God sent a human being into the earth to restore it. And anyone who trusts in him, the scripture says, is now in Jesus in the second Adam. Before Christ you're in the first Adam and in that sin, but when you accept Christ you're in the second Adam. What it means, beloved, is you're in a whole new race. And dominion has been restored and your rightful fellowship with God has been restored and you have become what the Bible calls a new creature. And what I'm saying is that if you can envision that God celebrated his creation step by step in the beginning, how much more can you imagine that God celebrates you as his new creature in Christ? Luke 15 7 in that same chapter about parables of lost things, Jesus says, just so I tell you there'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. That means to change your mind and change your direction and see the truth. One sinner repents the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.
No repentance. That the nature of heaven is that it is filled with ongoing peals of thunderous celebration over every single sinner who ever sees Jesus Christ and turns towards him and towards the truth. Every single good thing that would ever happen in your life. Every single moment of grace that you discover God's goodness towards you. Everything wonderful in the smallest degree or in the largest heaven is rejoicing and celebrating.
That is mind-bending to conceive this, but it surely is the picture of heaven and it is the picture of your life in Jesus Christ. If you ever wondered how God feels about you, there you have it. If you ever have been one who struggled to think that if you turned and looked at the face of God that he might be shaking his head and disappointment at you, I'm here to tell you today, beloved, he is the God of perfect love and all of heaven is celebrating every single good moment in your life and God looks through you through the lens of the blood of the finished work of Jesus Christ and you haven't been found in Christ as his child.
You, like Jesus himself, are the beloved in whom he is well pleased and I can tell you if you ever were to see God face to face, what you'd see is a radiant countenance and a smile that you've never seen anything more glorious in all of your life because the father celebrates his children. All this means something wonderful. It means that you don't have to require yourself to be perfect before you can celebrate the goodness of God in your life. And it means that sometimes at the lowest moments of your life, what you need to remember is Genesis chapter one. When you're in the middle of something that's not finished, when you're in the midst of a journey and you so want to get to the end of that journey, you can remember Genesis one, that God's inviting you to live in the moment and celebrate what is to be celebrated today.
If God didn't have to wait for a prodigal son to prove himself but just celebrated the fact that he was home, how much more can we celebrate every evidence of God's grace in our lives. And when you're at your lowest, you need it the most. You may have heard me tell of author Leo Baskaglia's story. When he was young, his father came home one day, despondent, and informed the large family that he might have to go bankrupt.
He learned that his business partner had absconded most of their business's funds. And Baskaglia's father didn't see any way out. And there was great sadness. And there was great sadness and anxiety. And Baskaglia said that his mother did the oddest thing. She went and gathered up some of her jewelry and sold it, and went by the market and bought all the ingredients for a feast, and came home and prepared an enormous feast.
And some of the family members scolded her and said, why have you done such a thing at a time like this, when we could least afford it? And she said, because we need joy and celebration now in the midst of this darkness, not later when we pass through it. I want you to know God is infinitely joyous, because He is infinitely good, and everything He does is good, and causes Him, in His own perfection, joy all over again. I'll sum up Genesis 1, recollecting a funny story. A pastor sent me a picture that an elementary student in Sunday school had drawn. The teacher had been teaching about Genesis 1 and the creation story, and invited the class to each draw a picture of what they'd learned about God creating everything in Genesis chapter 1. And this particular child drew a picture, a little pencil drawing, had a tree and a little grass and the sunshine, and there's God. And it looked to me from the stick drawing that God has on a hero's cape, and the little bubble, you know, dialogue coming out of God's mouth that's describing everything, it just said, nailed it.
That's about as good as you can get for Genesis 1. God created everything that exists and stood back and said, nailed it. If God can celebrate every step of the way, so can you. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, and you can find something to celebrate today, even if the progress isn't 100% complete. Alan is back with us in the studio, sharing a parting good news thought for the day as we wrap up this teaching on Celebrate, Enjoy the Journey, but our series continues in Safer. Stick with us here in just a moment with so much worry about yesterday's failures and so much hurry getting ready for tomorrow's tasks. Sometimes it's hard to focus on the moment that matters most right now in a hurried, worried season.
God invites you into the present modern day life. Coaches call it mindfulness, but it isn't a new psychological program and it isn't rooted in Eastern religion. Mindfulness living in the present is a new thing. It's a new thing. It's a new thing.
It's a new thing. The present is God's idea and the Bible unveils the way. Pastor Alan Wright invites you to savor life each day. When you make your gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's eight messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. Make your gift today and learn how to savor the textures and flavors of God's grace each moment in the moment, every day of your life. 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 in the studio, Alan, to share our parting good news thought for the day enjoy the journey and you really have no excuse, right? We can find something to celebrate. Well, let me just say as a parting thought to all of our listeners, you do not have to become perfect before you can celebrate. You don't have to finish the job.
You don't have to prove in yourself. You don't have to have all the final reports in before you celebrate. There's something in each and every day to celebrate and God showed us that right from the design of creation. So look for something to celebrate today. That's part of what it means to savor the goodness of God. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
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