A Hope and a Future [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If your soul ever feels like saying of the Lord, he does know where he's going with this, doesn't he? Come to Jeremiah 29 and 11.

I know my faults, don't you? You can trust in it. 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 Brin, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Remade, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I sure 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 today's special offer.

Don't miss it. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. We're going to be more on all this later in the program. But right now, let's dig in and get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. It was a fresh insight to me about the image of old Jacob in his deathbed, crossing his arms and placing his stronger hand of blessing on the younger son. And how all of this explains so much about blessing and how it prefigured the cross of Jesus Christ, wherein God took his hand and extended it to the younger, to you and me. And it has become one of the most beloved stories in the Bible to me and the substance and fabric of my most recent book. But this was many years ago where it was a very fresh revelation to me. And we were doing our sunrise service at St. Peter's World Outreach Center, who is a sister church to us in many ways.

And so when we were doing the sunrise service, we would rotate where we would do it, host it here and there. And if it's hosted there, then I would preach. And so I had this fresh joy about this revelation. I thought I'd preach Ephraim and Manasseh's story. And so I did, and we just loved being with them.

You know, our congregation, primarily Caucasian, their congregation primarily African-American, and we'd love being together. And so I get up to preach. Well, the Ephraim and Manasseh story is, it's a story. And it leads to this, you know, revelation of the crossing of the arms. And what does that mean and everything? So you got to get there. You got to get there. So I'm preaching it. And I'm just going along. I'm telling a little bit about Jacob. I'm telling a little bit about the deathbed moment.

I'm kind of letting this thing build. Well, our music director at the time was a man named David Smith, who David was just fun. He was just a barrel of fun, in addition to being very gifted. And so he'd been over there doing music with the St. Peter's man, and he was sitting out there on the second row. And there were two ladies, two St. Peter's ladies in front of them, who were like old matriarchs in the church, clearly, you know. And David told me later that in the middle of my sermon while I'm starting, I'm trying to weave this story, but I haven't made any points yet, you know, that one lady leans over to the other and David hears them say, he does know where he's going with this, doesn't he? I just thought about that.

Wouldn't that just be great? These two matriarchs at St. Peter probably have known and loved Jesus longer than I've been alive, you know, and they're like, I hope it's just sitting rambling and that there's going to be a punchline at the end of this. If your soul ever feels like saying of the Lord, he does know where he's going with this, doesn't he? Come to Jeremiah 29, 11. I know my thoughts toward you. You can trust in it.

They are plans for welfare. The Hebrew word here, you know, it is Shalom. Shalom, say it with me, Shalom.

It is most commonly translated peace, but it means so much more than peace. I realized how much more Shalom means than merely the absence of conflict. When some many years ago, I heard the preacher of my youth preach a sermon on the peace of the war. And many years later, I preached something similar myself because I saw him point out that when David called Uriah the Hittite up from the battle, he asked Uriah about how the war was going. But the phrase he used is tell me how is the Shalom of the war?

How's the peace of the war going? Because Shalom means total well-being, prospering, spirit, soul, and body, and life. I know the plans, that is my thoughts that I have towards you.

I myself know them. And they are plans for Shalom and not for evil. This is contrasted with the good word that we read about in verse 10.

There's a contrast here. I do not have thoughts towards you of evil. It is almost so fundamental that you would think we didn't need to say it. But I am surprised sometimes that even Christians can become confused about good and bad. And we can sometimes attribute the bad to God and the good to the devil and get it all mixed up.

And y'all, it's not that complicated. There is good and there is bad. There is that which is holy and that which is unholy. And God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.

He doesn't ever have a bad thought. I still chuckle thinking back here in a Pentecostal evangelist many years ago who was sort of preaching satirically about how we can get so complicated in our thinking about, you know, what's good and what's God doing and how is he sovereign over this and yet this, you know. And I just think it's so funny because the way he started it, he said, God, good, devil, bad.

And then he just kept going like this for like 20 minutes. Joy, good, depression, bad. Health, good, sickness, bad. It just kept going through this like, and it's just so funny because like, why would we have to ever talk like that?

It's not that complicated. A few weeks ago, we had in Forsyth County, 1300 new cases of the Omicron variant of the virus in one day. 1300 new virus cases, bad. This past week, one day, there were 13 new cases.

13, not many. That's good. It's not that complicated. I know the thoughts that I have towards you and they are for shalom, total well-being, prospering of spirit, soul, and body.

I know them. I've got it all worked out. You don't see it maybe yet, but my thoughts are for shalom, not for evil. He doesn't conspire for evil. He doesn't invent and inflict wickedness. It's not in him.

He doesn't have that kind of thought. I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord for shalom, not for evil to give you a future and a hope. I love this word to give because it means in the end that these plans that God has are free. He wants our repentance and he wants us to hunger for him and he wants us to long for him and he wants us to let go of our sin, but never forget this beloved of the Lord. His good intentions towards you are 100% free. In Jesus Christ. And to give you a future.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God.

The values of our country have changed suddenly. Most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview. It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon through our special offer this month. You can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture.

The way Daniel did when you give before the end of the month. We'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series Daniel a favored foreigner. You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land.

God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. 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. Okay, now I really want you to get excited about some Hebrew words because this word future is Aharit, Aharit, and it means more literally the latter part or the end or the close, the ending of something. He says, I know the plans to give you a good ending. Like my wife, she's got one question. If somebody says, hey, you ought to watch such and such movie. She says, is the end good? If you say, well, you know, I can't tell you that might mess it.

No, I'm not watching it. Just you tell me, she's just like, I'm not going to sit there and go through the blood, sweat and tears and then have the thing in bad. The Lord says, I know the end of this. There's a good end to your story. That's how you keep going.

I know the Aharit. He doesn't give you the ending right away. I suppose for the same reason an author doesn't start on page one and tell you the ending of the story. Why read the story? You're living it and a hope and the word is tikvah, tikvah. Will you say that great word with me? Tikvah, tikvah. I know the Aharit and the tikvah. And this word for hope literally means cord. Why would the Hebrew word for hope be the word for cord? Tikvah is an important word in Israel because the national anthem of Israel is called HaTikvah, the hope. It's really one long sentence, poetic sentence that reads, oh, while within a Jewish heart beats true a Jewish soul and Jewish glances turning east to Zion fondly dart. Oh, then our hope it is not dead, our ancient hope and true to be a nation free forevermore, Zion and Jerusalem at our core. That hope, that's the tikvah. And the word tikvah gains a sense of not just hoping but waiting. So hoping and waiting are united in Hebrew thought so that this root of tikvah is what is used famously in Isaiah 40, 31. Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. Those who hope in the Lord, those who wait because hoping and waiting, hoping and waiting are essentially the same thing. If you lose hope, you quit waiting on something. And if you do have hope, then you just keep waiting on it, right?

A little girl that's excited about Christmas because she thinks she's getting a pony, she keeps waiting expectantly for Christmas. So the waiting is the hoping and the hoping is the waiting. Tikvah, it is the word cord and it is inseparable from the Aharit. So the positive ending to the story is integrally related to the tikvah. In other words, you can't have tikvah unless you have confidence in the Aharit.

You can't have hope unless you have confidence that God has a good ending. That He already knows. So why does it mean cord? Literally it means strands of woven material that come together in a flexible rope. It's because there's only one place in the Old Testament that I know of that tikvah is actually used in its literal sense and it is in the story of the taking of Jericho. Maybe you remember the story that Joshua comes, leads the people, they march around these huge walls that archeologists have discovered fragments of.

There was massive walls that miraculously come down under the shout of the people of God. But in the midst of this story is this intriguing narrative about a prostitute whose name is Rahab and she is somehow woven into this story as maybe she has an inn and anyway, these men that are Hebrew spies stay at the rooftop of Rahab's and the king of Jericho gets some kind of word that perhaps Rahab is harboring spies. So he goes and says, I demand you bring them out and she lies to the king. And she says, well, they were here but they left right before dusk when the gate closed.

And so they haven't been gone long and if you pursue them, you'll be able to find them. So the king and his men leave and go in pursuit when the two spies are up on the rooftop. And so this is what happens that afterwards when she saved them in Joshua chapter 2 verse 12, she says to them, now please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them and deliver our lives. She was saying, I believe though I'm a sinner in a pagan land, I believe that you worship the true living Lord and we've heard of him and we've heard of the Red Sea and I believe you're going to take over this land and you're going to take over our city and when you do, I want you to save me and my family and I want you to give me a sign of that. So verse 14, they say, if you do not tell this business of ours, the spies say this, then when the Lord gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you. And so she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was built into the city wall. And at verse 18, they say to her, behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. You shall gather into your house, your father and your mother, your brothers and all your father's household. They're saying, here's what's going to happen.

You wanted a sign, here's the sign. Take this crimson tikvah, take this red cord and hang it down from this same window by which you lowered us down by a rope. And when we come in amidst of the destruction and the conquering of Jericho, we'll come find you.

And if you'll have your mother, your brothers, your household, anybody who's here under the sign of this red tikvah, we will save. And she said, verse 21, according to your word, so be it. And so it came, on the day, verse 20, the people shouted, the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down. So people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.

They devoted all those in the city to destruction with the edge of the sword. This was chaos. This was war. This was crumbling like an earthquake of massive walls, and suddenly a city is overtaken with Israeli soldiers and their swords drawn and taking it over, and this chaos of dust and fire and ruin. But, verse 22, the two men who'd spied out the land, to them, Joshua said, go to the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore. And so they went, and they looked for the red tikvah. Because there was a covenant. In the middle of conquering Jericho, the general found the spies in the middle of the chaos and said, keep the covenant. Go look for the red cord and get her in her household and bring them out to safety. So while the land was trembling and walls were falling and blood was shedding, Rahab and her family kept looking at a cord dangling from a window and saying to one another, wait here. Do not run away from here.

They're coming, and they did. That's why tikvah means hope or waiting. I, myself, in a way that nobody else can know, the Lord says, I know my plans for you, my thoughts towards you. And they're for shalom, not for evil. To give you a wonderful ending to the story and a tikvah of red blood streaming down from the Savior's brow and hands inside and feet. That red blood running down the cross, that's your tikvah.

That's your red cord. That's your hope. That's how you can count on it. So we had scallops wrapped in bacon. I had ribeye steak and favorite desserts and laughter and tears. And I went home and started looking through a book of blessing. And I just looked at my beloved. I said, you've been planning this a long time.

She said, oh, yes, I have. It's possible there's a wonderful plan that God has in store. You just hadn't seen it yet. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's teaching, a hope and a future.

It's from our series, Remade. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview.

It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture. There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, A Favored Foreigner.

You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else. Thanks for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And the first piece of good news is, Pastor Alan, we can all relate to you. We've had that thought, maybe we want to slip into a wine over. Well, do I not matter?

Do they not even remember? And oh, how surprised. And we will be, really when we get home and know the whole story of all the things the Lord had planned for us, our hope and our future. A hope. It really means the ladder, the end. It means a good ending.

You've got a good ending to your story. God knows it, we don't know it. That's why we're still in suspense.

The close of it all is going to be good. And a hope, a tikvah. Like a red crimson cord that identified Rahab for the Hebrew spies. It's hanging over your life, hope. Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you've got a future, a good ending, and a hope, the promises of God for you.

A future and a hope you can count on. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching, delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.