Unearned Blessing [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright Here is Alan Wright.

I was in the car. I'm thinking, how can I respond right now with my teenage daughter and show her, you know, something biblical? So I started, I started with the imprecatory Psalms.

You know, those ones of David things about, you know, dashing people on the rocks and stuff like that and what you could do to my enemies and that kind of thing. And so I was just like, man, and I just kind of went around just sort of depressed about this for a little while. And finally I said, okay, I can be depressed about this, or I can just step back into reality and say, a scratched up Toyota Avalon that runs great is a better blessing than no car at all. And how many people in the world there are that would just love to be able to have a car like this. How blessed I am to be able to have transportation. How blessed, how blessed I am to be able to afford to have this, to live in a country where I can own this car and drive, you know, and you say, well, that's pie in the sky thinking that. No, it's reality.

I'm telling the truth about that. I'm talking about being in touch with a greater reality. And what happens when you realize how blessed you are, it will carry you through the little adversity. Somebody scratches your car.

You don't fall into a pit because at least you got a car. You understand what God's done in your life and it'll carry you through some of the adversities. I was talking to a good, dear friend, executive director of Sharing Light and elder in this church, Jeff Deaton this week about a story I had forgotten, but it's one of his God moments, a big unearned blessing in his life, a God moment that just illustrates this so well. Years ago, 1995, Jeff and Mary Deaton and their kids, they were living outside of town and they really wanted to live in. Their kids were going to school in town. Their life was here in town and they were beginning to say, we really want to move into the heart of Winston. And so they started looking at houses and they were looking at houses, looking at houses.

And on this particular day, I think it was on a Saturday, they were, Jeff I think was with one kid and Mary another or something. They were looking around different houses, not together. And they came upon a house on a street less than about a mile away from the church here that they just individually saw this house. It wasn't for sale, but they fell in love with the house. They just said, I wish that house was for sale.

I love that house. They did this individually from each other. Came together and they said, did you see anything today? Both of them said, I saw a house today I love, but it's not for sale.

And it was the same house. They're like, that's the house we want, but it's not for sale. Well, they wrote their realtor, a lady, another lady's in our church and they said, we see there's a house for sale down the street from this one.

So they, well, let's just ask about that. Would you send us the specs on that house? So she sent them the specs on the house.

Well, guess what? It wasn't the house that was for sale. She sent them the specs on the house that wasn't for sale that they'd fallen in love with because little did they know the house had just gone up for sale.

There was no sign in the yard yet. So immediately realtor sent it back and she said, I'm sorry, I sent you the wrong specs. That's not the one you're asking about, is it? They looked at it and said, no, we don't think you send us the wrong one. You send us the right one. This is what we want.

And it is for sale. Wow. And they came to church the next morning. They were neutering all. They came, went to Bill Rice, the Sunday school class, and they had taken prayer requests at the end of the time. And they said, any prayer requests? And Jeffrey Mary said, you know, we have this strange thing. There was this house we fell in love with. We wanted to maybe move into town with this house and it was a house. It turns out it is for sale, but we'd have to sell our other house, all this, you know, but we'd just like the Lord to confirm and bless all this. And Jeff, and then they prayed about it that Sunday morning, went home.

I'm telling this is the truth. This story, this is what happened. They went home that afternoon and were at their house out of town, their house where they were living. And somebody came up and knocked on the door and said, we love your house.

Have you ever thought about selling it? Are you kidding me? And two days later, they had sold their house and bought the other house. Now what's interesting about this story, Jeff says, and many things interesting about it, not least of which is it's just a hop, skip, and a jump from the church. He had no idea he was going to become an elder in this church, the director of Serena Light, and lived half his life through this church. Man, he had no idea that the Lord was setting all that up. But what he also didn't know is that strangely, when they began the transaction for the purchase of the new house, it became quite contentious over a number of points. And he said, in any other circumstance, you just given up on the thing. But he said, we knew it was God. And so we just stayed with it.

And they just love their house ever since. When you see the blessing, then when you go through the difficulty, it changes it. When you go into the promised land, God said, and you live in cities that you didn't build, and houses that you didn't construct, and you reap harvests from olive trees and grapevines that you didn't plant, and you drink water from wells that you didn't dig, I want you to be blessed by all this. I love you. I want you to prosper.

Enjoy it. Be wonderfully happy in the promised land. But just don't forget where it came from.

That's all I'm saying. Because if you forget where it came from, then you'll start seeing your life as being self-made. And when you see your life as self-made, and you go into the adversity of life, and you need a miracle on your side, if you think it's all about you, you won't have miracle-believing faith. You won't be able to you won't be able to see into the reality of what I've done for you by bringing you into this kingdom.

He said, I want you to just know that you know that you know I'm the one who's brought this blessing. And the key to this is to know that it's all unearned. The key is then the priests would hold up that sheaf of grain and say, thank you, Lord, for the first fruits of the harvest. What they're saying is, we didn't make the soil. We didn't give ourselves this land. We don't make the sunshine. And we don't make it rain.

We can't grow anything. But you're the giver of this fruit. And so we lift the very first fruit up to you to acknowledge we didn't earn it, but it's such a blessing. And we know that there's more to come from this. That this is the first fruits of much, much more blessing. We didn't deserve it.

We didn't earn it. But boy, are we blessed. Dave Ramsey, financial advisor and a Christian outspoken man for the Lord, is always famous for when somebody calls in and says, how are you doing, Dave?

He always answers the same thing. Better than I deserve. How you doing? Better than I deserve. He's actually touched on a profoundly deep theological point that's absolutely true. That at any given point in our life, the theological truth is that because we were born in sin, we are justly deserving the displeasure of God.

We are justly deserving eternal separation from God and punishment, because if God is just and we have done what is wicked, then that wickedness should be punished. And so the very fact that we are saved, the very fact that we are loved, the very fact that there is still grace in our lives, all of that means that every single day I'm doing better than I deserve. Well, it was interesting.

I was I got to thinking about him that and I somehow got googling around. I stumbled upon an atheist who had written a blog and talking about how much she loved Dave Ramsey and how much this advice about getting out of debt had changed her and her husband's lives and all of this. And she said, I love Dave Ramsey. She said, just one thing I can't stand is that thing he always says about better than I deserve. She says, I don't know why he says that.

He said, it must be tied into some religious notion of his. She said, but I don't get that. She said, I feel like I do deserve some things. And you know, if we worked hard, we do deserve something. Well, she's missing the entire point, because the whole point of this is not to say that there aren't things that you deserve. There are things you deserve. There are things that you're entitled to. There are things that when you pay for it, you should get something in return.

When you work for it, you should get the compensation that was promised you. So there is such a thing as deserving. The whole point of this is not to say that there's nothing in your life that you deserve. It's just to say that the best things in your life you never could have earned. It's to say that what the real God moment of unearned blessing was about, about those things that you never were entitled to. That's what I'm talking about.

See, look at the difference of this. You go and you buy a car and you see cars are kind of on my mind here. And you go and you look for a year for the unscratched Toyota Avalon and you buy the car and you negotiate the price and you work out the terms of the sale and you sign the papers and you hand over a check or whatever, sign the loan papers or whatever you're doing. And then the dealer hands you the keys to the car. And when you get handed the keys to the car, you might smile and say, thank you, it's a pleasure doing business with you. If indeed it has been a pleasure. You might thank the dealer for the seller for happy negotiation and for his good work.

Or he might think of something like that. But what you don't do when you have just spent your hard-earned money to buy a car is when they hand you the keys, you don't go, oh baby, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me this car. Oh, I'm just beside myself with... You don't do that because of course he's given you the keys to the car. You just paid for it. You deserve it. You don't get thankful and excited and joyful about things you deserve. of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Allen Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen 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 Allen Wright. But imagine you are my wife who decades ago we were in, some of you don't know this story, we were in Los Angeles visiting her uncle and we went down to the farmer's market and it's right there at CBS studios. And I said, wouldn't it be fun when I go saw a show or something over there? I said, that'd be fun to do. And they said, well, you can't get tickets to those things. You got to write in. So let's just go over there and just knock on the door at the window at CBS and ask them. So, okay. And we went over and they said, you know, it's so strange.

So normally people, you get a month in advance. They said, we got three tickets left for The Price is Right. I said, let's go. And it was like, oh, let's go. I said, let's go.

It'd be so fun. And so we went and I and her cousin, Max, and then we got to sit at the top of the studio there and watch the show. And first person to call down was my wife.

Come on down. Yeah, some of you don't know this story. You got to see the video sometime. And my wife won everything that she did in that show. And the second thing that she won was a car. Now here's what she did when she won the car. She went... And she started, did you guys see that? She started running off the stage in the wrong... First she kissed Bob Barker.

They instruct you to kiss Bob Barker. She said, running off this way. And they said, no, you got to go that way. She was running off this way.

She was out of her mind. You just won a car. And we just were flying back home.

It was just like somebody on the plane had been at the show. He said, are you the woman that won a car? She's like, yeah, I won a car.

Do you see how different it is to be given a car versus buy a car? When you see something as a gift, what does it do? It causes joy in your life. Gratitude and joy have the same Greek root in the New Testament.

And both those roots are connected to Charis, the word for grace. Gift and joy and gratitude are inextricably connected. And what God is saying is, I want you, my children, to have a life of joy. I want you to prosper in the land that I'm sending you into. I want you to enjoy cities that you didn't even build, wells that you didn't dig. I want you to enjoy the fruit that you never even planted. I want you to enjoy all these wonderful things. I want you to enjoy the fertile soil.

But I want you in the springtime, when the first grain comes in, I want you to come and bring it down to the temple and let the mediator lift it up towards the heavens. Take that from the ground up to the heavens and say, thank you, God, because you're the one from whom all blessings come. Because if you'll do that and you'll remember and frame your entire life in the context of being blessed, it will cause your life joy. And if you don't and you see your life as an entitlement, then every time you miss something, you'll become bitter. Everybody either looks at life as a gift or an entitlement. And the people who see it as a gift have joy. And the people who look at it as an entitlement are bitter because not everything's going to go your way. The old cliche is true, the best things in life are free. Think about what is the greatest blessing in your life.

Who are the happiest people in the world? A toddler giggling with a new puppy. I know puppies can cost something, but you can also get one for free.

A mother with her newborn baby. How about a walk on the beach with a spectacular sunset? How about a conversation over coffee with a really good friend?

Can't buy one of those, can you? Honeymooners enjoying their new love. Build your life on discovering your unearned blessings. What good things have happened in your life that you had nothing to do with? Think on these things. Train your heart to recognize the blessings of God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For by a man came death, by a man also has come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all dies, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the first fruits and then it is coming those who belong to Christ. What's he saying? He's saying Jesus is our first fruits.

I get this picture. The Passover meal, one of the spring feasts, the first celebrates by the slaughter of a lamb, the roasting of it, and remembering how the shed blood of the lamb delivered them from slavery. And then the second part of that spring festival was called the Feast of Unleavened Bread Pastor Chris preached about last week. And leaven is a symbol for sin and they would remove all of the leaven from their household until there's one crumb left and a father would bring a feather and just sweep it onto a wooden spoon and take it out and burn it, a sign that God takes our sin and cast it as far as the east is from the west. So the first part of this three-fold festival, the Passover, remembering the blood of the lamb, you were saved. The second, remembering that you are sanctified by his grace, by him removing your sin from you. And in the third part, the first fruits. And you know when they would bring the first fruits before the Lord? The text said on the morrow after the Sabbath, that means Sunday morning.

And here's what happened. Jesus came and for anyone who had eyes to see, it all made sense. For John said, behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And on Passover, he consecrated the feast and he reinterpreted it all. And he said, it's my body, it's given for you. And he was, in the dark hour, crucified. And he was dead and he was buried.

And through that cross, he had taken upon himself the penalty that was due to all humanity. And in the Sabbath, his body was in the tomb. But early in the morning, on the morrow after the Sabbath, some glorious bright light burst forth from that tomb and a stone was rolled away. And Jesus emerged up from the ground as the first fruits.

He was raised up. And the promise is anyone who's in Christ will in the same manner be raised up. And the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, Paul said in Ephesians, is at work in you now. So that your ultimate unearned blessing, the greatest God moment that you can live and bank on is that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of all who will be raised in Christ.

And you can count on this, that just as certainly as Jesus' body was raised from the dead, that when he comes back and the trump shouts, the bodies of all those who died in Christ will be raised up from their graves. And we will live with him forever and forever and forever in glorious freedom and beauty and joy. This is our destiny.

This is our life. So no matter whatever's going on in your life, when you come to church on Sunday morning, what we're doing every single Sunday morning is we're just waving the grain before the Lord. We're just lifting up Jesus, our first fruits. He is our evidence that we who are in Christ are going to live forever. And so it just causes us joy, no matter whatever we're going through in life. God is on his throne and Jesus is no longer in the tomb. You are blessed.

So I say bingo. And that's the gospel. Allen Wright and today's good news from God. It's the teaching unearned blessing in the God moment series. And Allen is back here in the studio in just a moment with today's final word.

Just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace.

Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life. But your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Allen Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, I love the story and I love this teaching because so often I think we as Christians have a hard time just letting go and being excited about who we are in Jesus, the status we have in Christ. But God made the way for us.

He made the path there. So yeah, bingo, we're in, we're in the family and hold your head up high. And I think, don't you think the Lord, I mean, he wants us to have that sense of bingo, something wonderful has happened. Yeah. And it's just so important that what we realize is that it didn't happen by luck. It happened instead by his amazing providence. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.