Celebration and Contemplation [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The celebration is going to happen, and it's going to happen for all eternity, and it's not a party over nothing.

It's a party and a celebration of the grandeur of the God who came and made this world, and then came back and redeemed this world, and one day will come back and make it all his own. Hallelujah. 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 Word and Spirit, The Beauty of Ballots, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, 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 Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you this resource, today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You've now gotten into a celebration that's just for the sake of the celebration, and you've completely lost sight of why you're even celebrating. You see, don't just celebrate.

Think about what you're celebrating. It's an interesting scene, a moment when Jesus in Luke 10 has sent out 72 of his followers, and he authorized them to start doing miracles in his name. And they come back so excited.

You can hear the celebration in their heart. The 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

What is he saying? The disciples have gone out, and they've seen miraculous things happen. They've actually cast out evil spirits. They've seen their power over evil. In the darkness, they've seen people be healed, and they come back, and they're just like, woo-hoo. I mean, rightly, they should be celebrating. They're like, man, we go out there, and we proclaim the name of Jesus, and even the demons are cast out. And they're expecting Jesus to go, man, that is cool. And instead, he's kind of like, yeah, that's great. That's great. He said, but I want you to understand, that's not a big deal to me.

He said, you've got to understand the reason that's not a big deal to me. I've already seen Satan fall like lightning from the sky. I've already seen the ultimate demise of all evil. I know for sure the ultimate victory that is ours. I know all of that.

He said, no, that's fine. You know, you'd be happy about that, but here's what I really want you to be rejoicing in. Here's where the real substance of this celebration is. Think about this. Your names are written in heaven. Your names are etched into the book of life. It cannot be that you will ever be plucked from God's hand. You have been engrafted into me and I into you.

You're not just using a force field by pronouncing my name. You are demonstrating that you're a child of God. I want you to think about the deepest things of this. Don't just celebrate for the sake that you saw a few marvelous things happen. I want you to celebrate the whole depth and richness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The role of celebration is so essential because it is a pervasive theme that runs all the way through the scripture that the kingdom of God is like a party.

That's where Matthew 22 is about. But the party is a substantive party. It's not an empty one. I can't stand celebrations that are void of any real substance. I can't stand celebrations that are void of any real substance. I can't get... I can't work up a party attitude about that kind. Maybe I was just an old soul even back in high school.

I just... I had friends. They were like, oh, Friday night, who's got a party this weekend, you know? And the whole idea of going to a party, standing around, sneaking around to drink beer and get drunk and then go throw up somewhere, I just did not... It just was never appealing to me. I couldn't...

I didn't... I'd rather... I mean, even as a high school student, I'd rather just have a long conversation with somebody and talk about something and they do that. If I go to a party, if I was at the party, I'd just want to find somebody to talk to, maybe a little bit of an introvert within me. But I think also, it's just like, I can't... How do you get all whooped up over something that's nothing?

I'll tell you, let me give you an example of this. The one night of the year, I cannot get all excited about it and everybody seems like it's a big thing, but I cannot get excited about it and that is New Year's Eve. I do not want to be crowded around in Times Square partying over nothing. I mean, what is the celebration? Watch a ball drop and we announce it's a new year, it's a new year.

Nothing new has happened. If you want me to really celebrate, something new needs to have happened. Something worthy of commemorating. What are we even commemorating? We're not even remembering or commemorating. We're not celebrating anything. In the ancient world, they thought that time was cyclical. So that's why they had these big New Year celebrations. It's like time starting all over again. I wish time would start all over again. It's the same old body. You've got the same creak in your hip.

You've got the same stiffness in your neck and you might wake up with a little sleep feeling bad the next day. It's no party at all, but give me a good wedding feast or give me a good birthday celebration or give me some occasion. Give me an Easter morning or give me a Christmas day. I'll find something in there and it'll cause a celebration to rise up within me. What I'm saying is that celebration is the theme of scripture that runs all the way through the scriptures, but it is not a celebration that is void of substance.

It is the ultimate celebration because it is the celebration that is ultimately deeply celebrating the one thing that can be celebrated and will be celebrated for all eternity. John got a vision of it in Revelation. This is what's going on in heaven.

Oh my. He said after this, Revelation 4, I looked and behold a door stand open in heaven and first voice which I heard said to me like a trumpet, come up here. And he began to look and he saw a throne in heaven and one seated on the throne and he saw 24 other thrones. And then he saw four living creatures all about the throne, never ceasing night and day to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come. And he saw them cast down their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. And then he saw a scroll that no one could open until a little lamb that looked like it had been slain came and they realized that this little lamb, this one who looked like he was so weak was going to be able to open up the whole inheritance of the people of God. And they sang a new song of Revelation 5, 9, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. He said, verse 11, I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders and the voices of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying in a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in the sea to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. I'm telling you, there's a celebration is going on in the cosmos. You can get in on it or you can stay out of it, but the celebration is going to happen and it's going to happen for all eternity. And it's not a party over nothing. It's a party and a celebration of the grandeur of the God who came and made this world and then came back and redeemed this world. And one day we'll come back and make it all his own.

That's Alan Ryan. We'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind, you're in for a wonderful surprise. God's word and God's spirit were never meant to be separated. Word and spirit always belong together.

The key to abundant life in Christ isn't knowing your Bible. The secret isn't being filled with the spirit. The answer is both word and spirit. Though some traditions emphasize studying scripture and some traditions emphasize the spirit, the path to real Christian growth is the fullness of both word and spirit. As someone once said, all word, no spirit, you dry up. All spirit, no word, you blow up. Both word and spirit, you grow up. When you make a gift of support this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on CD or digital download titled Word and Spirit.

It's about the beauty of balance. Embrace the fullness of God's word and his spirit and grow like never before. With word and spirit, you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well. And remember, when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries, you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day. 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. There's got to be a celebration because there's a substance to it.

Okay? We're not talking about celebrating for nothing. But there also is, and that's why it's so closely linked into it, there's a contemplation. The celebration of substance has with it a contemplation of what it is that we are celebrating. And meditation is something that makes space in your heart, in your mind, your soul, your very being, to allow the fullness of all of God's wonder to soak into you.

Like a little sponge, you're just taking it in. I don't know why this image jumped in my mind many, many years ago. My wife and I had a wonderful fast-paced trip around Europe, and we actually went down into former Yugoslavia. And I remember, I'll never forget, there's a beautiful, it's now in Croatia, a beautiful national park there at Plitvice. And they have these gorgeous waterfalls and lakes. They call them descending lakes because it just looks like one lake goes into the next lake. And as your clear waters are just absolutely beautiful, we weren't there very long at all. And I remember this Yugoslavian tour guide who was offering up reflections about her perception of Americans. It stuck with me.

And she's an American. She said, I'll run in here and go, where are the lakes? And they take a picture and then they leave. Went to the Dixie Classic Fair this week, as always. I did eat fried Oreo. But the most fun thing, really, it was so unusual, was in one of the exhibit halls in the corner behind some nets. Periodically through the day, you could feed live butterflies. Give you a little stick and a little sponge thing at the end.

They dip it down into some sugar water. And you go in and all these flowers and hundreds of butterflies in there. And if you take your little spongy thing, put it in front of the face of a butterfly, the butterfly would crawl off of the flower and onto the little end of the stick.

And you just stay there. And you could bring the butterfly right up to your face. I just studied the wings of a butterfly. I just contemplated the eyes and the little tender legs of a butterfly. Never been that close to a butterfly. And that little butterfly just let me just stare at it.

What was I doing? I was contemplating a butterfly. You don't run through a butterfly house crushing butterflies as you go. You go slowly through. You let it come in.

You let it come in. So if you could contemplate a butterfly, you could contemplate the Word of God. Jesus, according to Luke 5 and other instances, we are told, often pulled apart to a private or desolate place in order to pray and meditate.

The Son of God did. When Jesus said in John 15, abide in me and I'll abide in you, what was he inviting us to? Similarly, when he speaks and says, I'll stand at the door and knock, he's speaking to the church. He's speaking to Christians. See, God is already omnipresent.

He's already here. And so if he's saying to abide in him and we have already theologically we've been connected with him, the abiding, the practicing of the presence of God is where you are making space both in time and in your heart for the infilling and awareness of the goodness of God. Richard Foster said in his celebration of discipline, what happens in meditation is that we create the emotional and spiritual space which allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in the heart. Now keep in mind it's a big, it's a vast world of difference between Christian contemplation or meditation and what the world thinks of when we hear the word meditation. It is not like Eastern meditation. Eastern meditation is all about emptying your mind, but Christian meditation is about filling your mind. Eastern meditation is about detachment and becoming impersonal with this kind of sense of just being connected to this impersonal force. But what Christian meditation is about attachment, it's about growing closer to God, it's about being filled up with his presence, and it is about becoming more and more personal with God. People wonder, well, how do you meditate?

I loved what Rick Warren said. He said, do you know how to worry? If so, you know how to meditate.

And everybody knows how to worry. It is where you get some negative thought in your mind and then you toss it over and over in your mind. You think about it from all the different angles. You think about all the different possibilities.

You think about all the things that could go wrong. Christian meditation is just the opposite of that. And the easiest and best place to start if you want to have a more contemplative life is learning to treasure and ponder the scriptures.

Instead of just reading through a text, sometimes just stop and envision yourself there. Let your imagination be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. See yourself there as Jesus is teaching next to the Sea of Galilee. Feel the breeze off of the Galilean shore coming up and brushing across your face. Envision what it would be like to be amongst the crowd and those who were hungry to hear from this religious leader who was so different than everyone else.

Watch him pick up seeds and scatter it and say a farmer went out to sow seed. Hear it for yourself. Envision yourself there. You see, you begin to think about the scriptures this way in a meditative way. You can also meditate upon God's goodness in creation. You can not only contemplate a butterfly, you can contemplate a sunset. You can contemplate the wonders of it.

If you're a scientist, let your heart be filled with a meditation of the God who could make all of this. You can meditate your God moments. You can remember what God has done.

You can tell the stories often. You can let it become the framework of your life that God's faithfulness has been evidenced in your life over and over. You meditate on these things.

In other words, it's what's filling you, filling you up. Those that experience both celebration and contemplation, they find a rhythm of life in which these are connected in a way that, as I said earlier, the celebration leads into contemplation and the contemplation leads and erupts into celebration. Over 31 years ago, when I married Ann, I married celebration. Most of my life had been contemplation. I was a very serious-minded person. I was suspicious of people who celebrated too much. How intelligent could they be?

Do they not understand all the world's problems? How could they celebrate when there are so many problems? And I met Ann and I fell in love with her, and I thought there was something wrong with her. Oh, I could maybe celebrate a birthday a little bit and give me a good Christmas, and maybe I'll give a nod and a wink to Thanksgiving, but other than that, we've got serious things we got to get done. And I wanted to contemplate, and I like to think about everything. And here I had married celebration.

I mean, I'm telling you, I thought there was something wrong with the woman. And everything is celebrated. And I started spilling over into me, and I thought, wow, there's joy in this celebration. We had kids. I'm so glad that I married celebration before I had kids. Kids need to be celebrated. Celebrate your kids.

They need to be celebrated. I mean, little Bennett, I don't know how old he was, and he was looking, learning to make letters, and he made the letter C. And he came in and he said, look, I made the letter C. And the old me, the old just contemplation, no celebration me, would have said, come back when you've written a novel. But no longer, because I had married celebration. And she said, you made a C. That is fantastic. That is so awesome.

Wow. And little Bennett starts celebrating and dancing around. He said, we have to have a family dance. And so I've told you before, it inaugurated the family dance in the Wright family. And to this very day, you can call for a family dance over any matter that is worthy of celebration.

And we pull the blinds down and do the stupid. My college senior Bennett, oh, a couple months back, had something good happen. And we just got a text from him and he said, family dance. And we all danced around and videotaped ourselves and sent him a text of it.

I sure do hope he deleted that. There needs to be a wedding, a marriage between celebration and contemplation. Because I tell you, I have learned, and I've learned a lot from my wife, but I have learned, yeah, the world has got a lot of bad things in it, but we are called and made to run on a fuel of joy. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice.

It doesn't mean you need to dance and run up and down the aisle and shout, although you can, but it means that there's an attitude of the heart that comes forth in a glad celebration. You know, it's just, it's like if you've got a team, a football team that never wins and you've just gotten out of the practice of ever being able to celebrate and they finally get a touchdown, you hardly know what to do with yourself. Like, did they just score? They just scored. I think we just won.

We ought to sell. That was nice. That was nice. But instead, if you've got a team that wins all the time, you just come to the game an hour early and you sit there, you start shouting before anything happens because you're anticipating they're going to score soon. They're going to win the game and you shout and you shout and you shout. I'm saying that's what the Christian life is. And it's a life of contemplation because I'm telling you, the victory that has been won is so amazing. His grace is so amazing. It makes you wonder. It makes you think.

It makes you think. Think about His love. Whatever is true and noble and right and pure, lovely and admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, think about these things. Toss them about in your heart.

Ponder them like a treasure that you don't want to rush by. Celebrate and contemplate and you will grow up in Christ. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, celebration and contemplation.

And Alan Wright will be back here in the studio with us in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind, you're in for a wonderful surprise. God's word and God's Spirit were never meant to be separated. Word and Spirit always belong together.

The key to abundant life in Christ isn't knowing your Bible. The secret isn't being filled with the Spirit. The answer is both word and Spirit. Though some traditions emphasize studying scripture and some traditions emphasize the Spirit, the path to real Christian growth is the fullness of both word and Spirit. As someone once said, all word, no Spirit, you dry up. All Spirit, no word, you blow up. Both word and Spirit, you grow up. When you make a gift of support this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on CD or digital download titled Word and Spirit.

It's about the beauty of balance. Embrace the fullness of God's word and his Spirit and grow like never before. With word and Spirit, you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well. And remember, when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries, you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day. 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. Celebration and contemplation. Cue the applause. There it is.

You're listening to the series, The Beauty of Balance. And Alan, I love how you painted that picture there. And I think that's our takeaway for today really is that because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, there is victory. Celebrate. But in that celebrating, you have the momentum to keep moving forward. You're thinking about his love. What does that do for your tomorrow?

What does that do for next week? How do you live your life in that? I think that celebration leads to contemplation and contemplation to celebration, unless we get a distorted image of either of them. And I always was thinking, well, I'm more of a meditative person. I met my wife and who she celebrates and celebrates. And that's what led me to think really what God wants is a marriage of celebration and contemplation in our hearts for every single believer. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.