The Beauty of Balance [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Great athletes have great balance, and one of the greatest golfers today, he's named Dustin Johnson, can hit the ball a mile, and I knew he had great balance when I saw a picture of him standing on an exercise ball hitting golf balls. 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 Balance, 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. Everything in the human body is designed according to balance.

The whole world is. So it should be no surprise that when Jesus came and He showed us what a true human being is, what we saw in His life was balance, every aspect of His life. Let me give you sort of a little pictorial series of snapshots in Jesus's life and see if it doesn't prove the point.

If you want to follow along, I'm starting in Mark chapter 1. First, little snapshots here of a couple of scenes in His life where within just a few verses, you'll see what seems to be exactly opposite going on in His life. If you were to just choose out one aspect of it, you'd miss who Jesus was.

You'd miss what true humanity is. So you got to put them together. Mark chapter 1, verse 32. Mark 1, verse 32. That evening at sundown, they brought to Him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city, there's the key, the whole city was gathered together at the door, everybody, right?

Huge throng of people. And He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him and they found Him and said to Him, everyone is looking for you.

Did you catch that? That in the evening, it says, the whole city was at His door. He was with people intensely. And the next morning He gets up. And the reason He's getting up so early is because He wants to sneak out of town to go get some time to Himself. This is Jesus sneaking out to get some time alone with the Father.

This is Jesus who is having to sneak out just to be alone. I know there are extroverts and there are introverts and some people get their energy from being with people. And some people are more energized by their own inner world of ideas or with just a few people. But every person, right, needs time with people and time alone with God. There's nothing wrong with that. And sometimes even my wife, who is the ultimate extrovert, I tend to be more of an introvert.

Of course, being a pastor over the years, I've had to adjust to that to get myself more balanced out in that. But I've got a wife and a daughter, both extroverts. You know how you know you're an extrovert?

It's if you're brushing your teeth and you step out of the bathroom while you're brushing to step into the bedroom as if you're going to talk to somebody. I'm like, can you not be alone just to brush your teeth for a few minutes? And you know you're an extrovert. You like people a lot like that. I don't have any desire to step out of the bathroom while I'm brushing my teeth.

I'm quite okay to be alone in there for a while. What I'm just saying is even my wife, true extrovert, sometimes she'll just come to me and say, I'm peopled out. And we all understand what that means. Doesn't mean you don't love people. Doesn't mean you don't love people. Just means you're peopled out.

Can you believe that? Jesus got peopled out and needed to go be with his father and have some time alone. And everybody, it's such a funny scene. Oh, very hard, Jesus.

They're assuming you don't need any time alone. And even Jesus did. It's not a sin. It's part of balance. It's a good thing to have a quiet time. It's a good time to have quiet time with God. Good thing to have a devotional life. It's a wonderful thing to have time with people in prayer.

It's a good thing to have time and prayer yourself. Okay, here's another snapshot in this pictorial album of Jesus's life. Just a few chapters later, Mark 4. Mark chapter 4, verse 35.

Mark 4, verse 35. On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let's go across the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was, and other boats were with him. And a great wind storm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear, and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? He is, in just a few verses, he is asleep, and then he is rising up and rebuking a hurricane.

Who is he? Is he the one who calms storms, or the one who can sleep through them? He's both. He has times in which he is just absolutely resting, and times in which he is demonstrating his power over all creation. Takes a nap one minute, rebukes a storm the next. And what's interesting is the disciples were so afraid of the storm, but after Jesus rebuked the storm, in some ways they were more afraid of Jesus.

He was awesome, and yet he was taking a nap. Okay, let me give you one more. John chapter 2. We could just go all the way through Jesus' life, but I'm gonna give you one more of these snapshots. In John chapter 2, I love this.

This is something in the same chapter you can see what happens. This is John chapter 2 verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

And perhaps you know the story. They ran out of wine, which was a terrible demonstration of no hospitality. You don't run out of wine at a wedding party. It was a mark of the festivity. It was their drink of the evening. And so when Jesus turns the water into wine, it's not so everybody can get drunk. It's because it's a matter of hospitality.

It's a matter of a symbol of the party still going, and we're still able to serve our guests. And so he said to them at verse 8, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it, and when the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the sermons who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you've kept the good wine until now.

So here's Jesus, the life of the party. And then just a few verses later at verse 13, John 2 verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And in the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers that overturned their table. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. And his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me.

And one minute he's laughing. He's at the center of a party of the greatest celebration that would take place in mid-eastern culture, a wedding. And then the next moment he is driving people out of the temple, violently turning over money changers tables because he is so zealous for the house of the Lord. These money changers, what they'd do is that people would come from distant places and they would have to buy their lambs for sacrifice. They'd have to buy their animals from the temple to make sure it was unblemished. They'd have to get one from them and they'd have to buy it using temple currency. And when they exchanged their currency for the temple currency, they were sitting in there charging an exorbitant exchange rate.

So they were making a killing off of people who had come to worship God. And Jesus saw this whole mockery of the worship of God and what the temple was never meant to be. And he was absolutely furious. Who is this man who one minute is making more wine so the party can continue and seems to be the most happy-go-lucky guy in the world. And the next minute he's driving people out of the temple with fury in his eyes.

That's Alan Wright and 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, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I tell you, he's amazing. He'll surprise you. If you had never heard of him and you had just an opportunity to read the gospels, this is the Jesus you would see. In his wonderful book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Phil Yancey said he grew up with a Sunday school image of Jesus as sort of just this milquetoast character who basically could be summarized as a nice guy. If we don't watch it, that's what we end up teaching children in Sunday school. Jesus was nice.

You be nice. And it gives a very small and dim picture of who Jesus really is. And then Phil Yancey said he went to Bible college and he began to see Jesus in some new ways. And he wrote, it dawned on me that virtually all the portrayals of Jesus showed him wearing a mustache and beard, both of which were strictly banned from the Bible college I attended. And then he asked, questions now loomed that had never occurred to me in childhood. For example, how would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified?

What government would execute Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? He also writes, Jesus I found bore little resemblance to the Mr. Rogers figure I had met in Sunday school. In my prior image, I realized Jesus's personality matched that of a Star Trek Vulcan.

He remained calm, cool, and collected as he strode like a robot amongst excitable human beings on Spaceship Earth. But that's not what I found portrayed in the gospel. Other people affected Jesus deeply, obstinacy frustrated him, self-righteousness infuriated him, simple faith thrilled him. Indeed, he seemed more emotional and spontaneous than the average person. Not less, more passionate, not less. That's so true of Jesus. He's not just a little robot. He's like more passionate.

It's not like he feels things more deeply, not less than we do. He's the one who was the picture of abundant life. Nobody grieved more deeply than Jesus.

Nobody laughed more heartily. Yes, he writes, the more I studied Jesus, the more difficult it became to pigeonhole him. He said little about the Roman occupation, the main topic of conversation amongst his countrymen. And yet he took up a whip to drive petty profiteers from the Jewish temple. He urged obedience to the mosaic law while acquiring the reputation as a law breaker. He could be stabbed with sympathy for a stranger, yet turn on his best friend with a flinty rebuke, get behind me, Satan. This is Jesus. See, what I'm saying is if you start contemplating this, you'll start seeing into some of the mysteries of the wonders and glory of God. I studied poetry in college.

I remember always being taken by poems that had to be really seen in pairs by a romantic poet named William Blake. The first of which is like a little child that is speaking to a lamb, like it's a catechism for the lamb. Little lamb, a catechism for the lamb. Little lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life and bid thee feed?

By the stream and o'er the mead? Gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, woolly bright? Gave thee such a tender voice, making all the veils rejoice? Little lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee? Little lamb, I'll tell thee. Little lamb, I'll tell thee. He is called by thy name, for he calls himself a lamb.

He is meek, and he is mild. He became a little child. I a child and thou a lamb.

We are called by his name. Little lamb, God bless thee. Little lamb, God bless thee. A little child who's observing the little lamb, giving it a catechism.

Do you really know who you are and who made you? And then, later, the same poet wrote a poem called Tiger. Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night. What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? And what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder and what art could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, what dread hand and what dread feet? What the hammer, what the chain, and what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil, what dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears and watered heaven with their tears, did he smile to his work to see? Did he who make the lamb make thee, tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forests of the night? What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? There are lambs and there are tigers in the world.

And the same God made them both. Recognizing all of this, grace and truth and spirit and word and work and rest and celebration and contemplation and awe and intimacy, all of this dynamic balance that makes up our life is so essential because our health depends upon it. The health of our homes, the health of our relationships, the health of our physical body, and most certainly, if I've learned anything over these three decades of ministry, it's this, the health of the church. And that's why we've sought to build our church on balance, grace and truth, word and spirit, right? But not only is it your health, but healthy things grow. So that is to say that our effectiveness in this world depends on it.

If your health depends on it, so does your effectiveness. I apologize for all the golf illustrations and sermons, but you must understand that basically, I've got time with God, time in the church, time with family, and maybe some time writing, and then all that's left is time for golf. And there's just nothing else to my life. It's just not any more complicated than that.

So, sorry, this is what you get. But can I just tell you, the golf swing depends upon balance. It's not that you just stay like this and you don't move. Well, you're in balance, but you didn't hit the ball.

You have to get your weight back and you have to get your weight through. But if you use your balance going back, you never get back to the ball and it doesn't go anywhere. You lose all your force. You lose all your strength.

You lose all your force. And so great athletes have great balance. And one of the greatest golfers today, he's named Dustin Johnson, can hit the ball a mile. And I knew he had great balance when I saw a picture of him standing on an exercise ball hitting golf balls. I can't stand on solid ground without losing my balance.

And he's out there standing on an exercise ball with a full swing. In other words, you're going to be stronger and your mission's going to go further when you are balanced, which is in the end to say your destiny depends on this. Imagine if Jesus had not had this dynamic balance, if he'd only been busy but never had been with the Father, or if he only had been with the Father but never ministered to people. Imagine, just think of a plane. It can only fly with its two wings. And the tightrope walker who is utterly balanced is confident to go higher and higher and higher.

Your health, your growth, your mission, your effectiveness, and your destiny depends upon this. So in the end, it should not be surprising that the ultimate picture of this amazing swing of things that seem to be completely opposite is pictured in the Son of God, who is at a point of utter weakness on the cross, utter weakness, and dies a real death and is buried. And on the third day emerges in utter strength with a resurrection power and reigns on high, the Son of God, the Son of Man, who came to take away the sin of the world. That's our Jesus.

William Blake was right. Jesus is the lamb and he is the tiger. Jesus came as the little baby and he will return as the victorious warrior. He is your humble servant and he is your mighty king. He is the crucified and the resurrected.

He suffered quietly. He rose triumphantly. He forgave sinners compassionately and he rebuked demons violently. He is utterly awesome and unexpectedly approachable. He is infinitely glorious and gloriously merciful.

He runs the cosmos and carefully counts the hairs on your head. Devils cower at his name, but toddlers are comforted by it. Religious Pharisees are rebuked by him, but desperate sinners are renewed by him.

You might find him glad or mad or sad and he might not act in the way that you wish that he had, but you can be sure of this. He is always good and he is never bad. He is grace and he is truth. He is perfectly God and he is perfectly human. He is Jesus and he is the picture of balance and that is the gospel. Alan Wright in the conclusion of today's teaching the beauty of balance, but it's really just kicking off this entire series with more to come.

Plus Alan on the way next year in the studio with additional insight on this for our lives and today's 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, pastorallan.org. Alan, the beauty of balance and as we look at Jesus, we realize who our God is. We're finding that because of that perfect balance in Christ, that makes him more approachable, I think.

It does. Jesus, what we see is the balance in Jesus, how real he is, but ultimately the expression of the one who is both God and human. We're drawn to him as our Lord, and yet he can understand us and we can know we're understood because he also was human. What a picture. And in that sense, he is everything to us. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.