Anyone Can Be Blessed [Part 3]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The definition, therefore, of your life, beloved, is you are the holy ones blessed and favored of God. Believe that. Believe that. What's your work as a Christian?

Believing that. 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 Galatians 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. It can be yours for your donation this month made to Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, you can 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 this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. The call of Abraham is reminiscent of the beginning. Because in Genesis chapter 1, the very first interaction of God with humanity is He blessed them. And He said be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.

And in the Galatian province, the Judaizers were trying to reverse the order. They were saying if you'll get circumcised, you'll be more blessed. Obedience does not produce God's love. God's love produces obedience. The problem of humanity from one point of view is the lack of belief in blessedness in God. In one way of looking at it, isn't this the way sin got into the world? Adam and Eve had unlimited fellowship with God and lived in paradise. And there was no good thing that God wanted to withhold from them or would withhold from them according to God's good pleasure and grace. What was the means of the serpent's temptation? It was essentially to say, I notice that there's one tree that you can't eat from.

Looks good to me. Looks like man's me. Looks like maybe you're missing out on a blessing. Maybe God is withholding some blessing from you because you're something that you need to do. You need to go eat that fruit or that tree and you'll be more blessed.

As soon as there is an idea that you're not fully blessed, it opens the door to the tempter's snare. And this pattern continues on through the story of the whole old covenant. Because what happens is that then the first brothers Cain and Abel bring offerings to the Lord and the Lord affirms Abel's offering but not Cain's. He doesn't say to Cain, I reject you and you're not mine and you'll never be mine. He doesn't say to Cain that you're under condemnation. He just affirmed Abel's offering. But Cain assumed himself unblessed and of the assumption of unblessedness and the assumption that his brother was more blessed.

The fury rose up within him a murderous spirit and he killed his brother. And God said, what have you done? Your brother's blood, Abel's blood cries out to me.

A pattern. Jacob. The irony of the whole story of Jacob is that there was a prophetic word that Jacob, though he would be the younger, would be the one who would be blessed as if he were in the position of the older. And yet Jacob never believed himself blessed and so he's always grabbing at it, always deceiving, always striving, always conniving. People who believe themselves unblessed have strife in their heart and angst in their souls because you're trying to get yourself into a position of being blessed.

How can you ever be at peace if you're trying to get yourself into a position of being blessed? And the irony of Jacob's story is that all the while that he was striving, it had already been announced that he was the blessed one. And this just lives on because the brothers of Joseph, all of Jacob's sons, they look at Joseph and say, he's blessed. We're not blessed. We're the blessing that we want from our fathers. And considering themselves unblessed, they seek to kill their brother Joseph.

It just goes on. Even David, even the man after God's own heart, who had everything at the time in which the kings normally went out to war, instead he was at his palace and he had everything that a man could have ever wanted. This worshiper of God himself and yet he saw one woman and he thought, I'd be more blessed if I had her. I'm not fully blessed.

I don't have her. And so he arranges for her husband's murder and takes Bathsheba as his own and God has broken hard about it. He said, Abel's blood is crying out to me and now Uriah's blood is crying out to me. And he said, David, as you understand, when you start acting as if you're unblessed, you introduce cursing to your family. The sword will not leave your family.

And oh, how it didn't. Amnon, Amnon, had a toxic attraction to his own half-sister, Tamar. How could you get to that point where you think, I'm not blessed because I don't, I'm not sleeping with my own sister. He takes his sister. When Absalom, Tamar's full brother, David's son, Absalom finds out he hates Amnon. He kills him. Now Amnon's blood's crying out to God and Absalom forms a revolt against David.

And one day his beautiful hair gets caught in the branches. The general Joab comes and slaughters Absalom. And David cries, oh Absalom, Absalom, oh my son Absalom. If you think about it, almost all of your temptation would be quenched and the tempter's snare extinguished, broken off of you, if you really believed you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 1. I think of it like this, just whatever measure of righteousness you want to for the moment, take the Ten Commandments. Let's just think about a few of the Ten Commandments. The Lord your God's one God, you shall have no other gods.

Make no graven images, no idols. You know when the people of God formed that golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain, they were having a festival to the Lord. They didn't reject Yahweh the Lord.

They just said, Moses has been gone a long time. We're not feeling very blessed right now. Maybe we need something in addition to the blessings of Yahweh and they made the golden calf. People who consider themselves fully blessed in the Lord would never make an idol. What need would you ever have for an idol if you already believed yourself totally blessed in Jesus Christ? How could your work become an idol?

How could that even happen? How could you make an idol out of money if you believe yourself totally blessed? Sabbath. You should remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

The Lord your God rested on the seventh day, so shall you. So this was one of the laws of Israel, Sabbath. Why are people tempted to not keep Sabbath?

You think that'd be the one thing that everybody go, yay, let's keep that. That's a great law. How could that turn into such a stumbling block? Because the whole point of Sabbath was to remind you that you're a human being, not a human doing. And that your value on this earth and your value to God and in the family of God is not based on how much productivity that you might have. It is based instead on your relationship.

That the relationship is primary. And so every week, build it into the Jewish week, the cycle of living, that you remind yourself that not only is it important to rest physically, emotionally, psychologically, but it's important to remember in this palace of time, as one Jewish scholar called it, that you are primarily about relationship. And you have to learn that you don't have to think about producing something every day.

That's what it was all about. The reason that we struggle so much with Sabbath is because when we stop producing, when we stop doing, we become discontent with ourselves because we feel as though if we're not doing something, that we're not valuable. But if you found out how blessed and valued you are in Jesus Christ, you could rest.

In fact, so much so that the author of Hebrews says there is a rest that is available now, a Sabbath in Christ that's not one day a week, but it's every day and every moment of your life, you're not striving, you're resting in Christ. Adultery. Who's going to commit adultery if they already think I'm blessed with the greatest spouse in the world?

You don't commit adultery then. Who's going to... covetousness. The whole point of covetousness is that you look around and you look at what somebody else has and you go they're more blessed than I am.

People that feel like they are already sufficiently blessed, they don't have a need to look at what somebody else has. What I'm just saying is isn't it true that if you believed God like Abram did that you are fully blessed even though you may not have tangible proof of everything in your hand right now that this is the definition of who you are, wouldn't it pretty much be your spiritual victory? This is what faith believes. And when Abram believed it, God reckoned it or counted it as righteousness unto him. You are justified by the grace of God what he's done in calling you and saving you and dying for you and being raised from the dead for you and pouring out the Holy Spirit for you all that he's done in the gospel. You're saved by what God has done and that's his grace through faith which is simply believing it. It is in short to say that it is believing yourself blessed is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian and it changes everything.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you, I'll never forsake you, wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me. If you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear. What if I don't measure up?

When might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the Gospel of Grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the Gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the Gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. 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 wonder if I've been putting all this time thinking that I'm lined up right and then I realize it wasn't even the truth. And what would happen is if you have always had this little feeling that I'm not totally blessed and the reason is I haven't performed well enough. I wonder if the Gospel broke through that today. What would happen is that you'd have to start lining up everything else in your life and you'd have to have some people around you sometimes who'll go no that's not lined up right brother. See that's what real Christian accountability and that's why we need the body of Christ is we had to come in here saying you know I don't feel very blessed right now and somebody's got to say well I understand I can weep with you if you're going through a difficult time but I need to I need to correct this one piece of alignment you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Now here's the thing that is so interesting about it is that after God speaks this incredible promise Abraham goes through 25 years of no child that's a long time to be given a promise the promise of blessedness which is all wrapped up and you're a father of a nation and you got 25 years and your wife was already beyond childbearing age you're already old and now 25 years go by before you have the child but here's the question I think the the biblical question that emerges from all of this was Abraham blessed when God told him he was blessed or was he blessed when Isaac was finally born he was just as much blessed before he had Isaac as he was when he had Isaac because the promise was as good as the blessing the Isaac was just a manifestation of the blessedness some years ago it was time for Bennett he turned 14 and he was going he needed to get some new clubs he had basically been playing with junior clubs and such and he needed some some new new irons and so we've been looking for months and and he knew that on his 14th birthday he's going to get some new golf clubs and we actually went down we got fitted with it had a pro fit him with it looked at them found exactly the set we wanted I had it set apart and but it's still a couple months until his birthday and he knows he even made a little bit of a alluded to them a couple times about his new clubs and I said you don't know you're getting those new clubs which was not true because he did know he was getting the new clubs and I knew he's getting the new clubs why we've been down at golf galaxy trying out all the clubs getting fitted on all these things he knew his birthday was coming he just didn't have the clubs yet and then the day came and it was his birthday and sure enough there he was he got the golf clubs holding him in his hand and the question was was he blessed more because he held the golf club because he was more because he held the golf clubs in his hand than he was before no he never would have said you know I'm not blessed I don't have any golf clubs he knew the promise was as good as the holding it the promise was was just as exciting the promise was just as good the promise was was just as real as if he held it in his hand Abraham had 25 years of just living on promise but the promise was was a joy to him because what happens is if you believe it it changes everything it means you go through the hardest times in your life and you might grieve you might have to let go of things you might you might be broken you might feel like things are torn asunder but what doesn't change is the inward certainty that the definition of your life is blessedness Oh beloved what God has laid up in the treasures of his kingdom for us are beyond our imagination wow we live as a people of the promise we live as a people of faith it is the certainty that assurance within that Hebrew says this is what faith is it is an inward assurance of the thing you don't you don't have it necessarily yet but you have it you have it even if you can't prove it but you have it it is who you are and this is why the gospel must be announced over and over and over last thing to say which is absolutely essential to the understanding the call of Abram is that the promise of blessedness to Abram he'd be a father of a nation he'd be a father he'd be his name would be called great but that is so linked to the second half of that verse that is inextricable and that is that you will be a blessing it is so close and so inextricable that you can rightly say that the blessedness of Abram is equated with the fact that he is a blessing that what made his name great is that he would be the father of a nation and that all nations would be blessed through this one man this goes far to explain why Jesus continually evidently said it's more blessed to give than it is receive if you want to be great then you'd be the servant of all because what blessing in the end really is the life of blessedness is that you know you are a blessing this is a huge part of what God says to you today when he says to you you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ he's not talking about cars and houses he's talking about you are a blessing when he tells Abram you're gonna be blessed yes he's gonna be a father of a nation and there would actually be other physical blessings that would come in Abrams life but the real blessing he says is that you are gonna be used to be a blessing that's the greatest thing in life it's Father's Day and I read this week maybe you saw it the new report has come out for a middle-income family it cost two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars to raise a child two hundred thirty five thousand we had we had difficulty conceiving our first child I began to wonder if we would it gave me just a small small glimpse of what some of you experienced if you've never conceived your own children biologically there's a yearning that's there and and I had that yearning and and after some time we finally we had this baby boy but I just think yeah just give me a chance to spend that two hundred and thirty five thousand dollars just sign me up for that just sign me up for that I'm laughing down here Jeff Deaton is down here as a fertility doctor and elder in our church and that's what they come in they come in that's what they they're they're not paying you the big bucks they're signing up to think two hundred thirty five thousand dollars per child for the rest of their life sign me up for that sign me up for spending the money spending the time sign me up for not getting to do what I want to do but instead doing what my kid wants to do sign me up for the exchange of my life for his that's what you're doing why the greatest blessedness is defined by the fact that you are a blessing you are wired in that way and all Paul is saying to the Galatians is you are justified by grace in the same way that Abraham was he just didn't have the name Jesus to give it but he saw it in faith but you have not only the name but he was publicly crucified before you and I proclaimed that gospel to you there is no other good news except Jesus Christ and in him in him you are forever blessed beyond belief believe it that's the gospel Alan Wright today's teaching anyone can be blessed it's part of a three-part teaching series on this topic in the series greater series of Galatians and Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor Alan org imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you I love you I'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said I'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up I don't think I'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if I don't measure up when might I be rejected when the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian Church the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called Galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of God when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org Alan Galatians is about keeping the main thing the main thing not mixing the gospel and when we really focus in on what the promises of God say to all of us who are followers of Christ that means that the blessing is there right we're we're highly favored we're greatly blessed individuals and it's for everyone it's for anyone no because the gospel is so pure and so wonderful no one is disqualified so that's what I want to just say to anyone listening today you feel like maybe you've been disqualified maybe there's been something in your life that has caused God to no longer have love or favor towards you and I want to say that no that's not true that the gospel is is absolutely pure and powerful in this sense it is for anyone who will receive this good news God loves you absolutely fully and forever if you think that there's something that's disqualified you if you think that someone else can be blessed but you can't then Paul's message to the Galatians has extraordinary news for you if all of the merit that God is honoring is not yours but Christ then the only question is does Christ have merit and so you turn your attention towards Jesus in that way and know that God is a God of blessing and anyone anyone regardless of your past or your abilities or your merits can be blessed today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries