My Steps are Ordered [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You're not gonna utterly fall because your father, your daddy, is not going to let you fall that far.

He cares too much for that. So wonderful. 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 called Providence as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout today's 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 in your study 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 that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Let your heart be honest with God, not to curse God, but to lift up an honest voice that says things don't feel right right now and it hurts. So psalms of orientation and disorientation, and then Bruggeman said, and psalms of reorientation, when you see what God was up to and you see how it comes together. So this is a psalm we would call psalm of orientation. This is a psalm when life is well ordered.

And this is God's plan. In the end, all things are well ordered, but sometimes life doesn't feel that way. But when you look at it from God's perspective, when you look back at it, and when you see it, and ultimately one day when you see it from heaven, you're going to see is there was more order to your life than you realize that your steps were ordered.

That's what they're saying. And the idea of life being a series of step is to say that God uses this metaphor throughout his word to talk about your Christian growth and your discipleship and your relationship with him as like a walk. Proverbs 16 9, the heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Psalm 119, 133, keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Jeremiah 10 23, I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Proverbs 20 24, a man's steps are from the Lord.

How then can man understand his way? Paul spoke of the Christian life as a walk, for we walk by faith, 2 Corinthians 5, not by sight. Ephesians 2 10, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. It's an astounding thing to say God's already prepared beautiful things for you to do in his name, but you walk him out.

We walk in them. Galatians 5 16, Paul says, I say walk by the Spirit. So to say that life is a series of steps, it is a walk, is a beautiful image, because it means in the first place, beloved, you're going somewhere. You are moving somewhere, and it means that like a walk, like a journey, you are taking it one step at a time. You don't get from point A to point Z without going through point B and C and D. That's the way God designed it. We'd like to just get from here to the destination, but that's not the way of life with God.

The way of life with God is more like a walk, and to say that you're on a walk means that you're really taking the steps. You are not a plaything of fate. You're not a marionette puppet that is merely being maneuvered by God. It's much more organic than that.

It's much more free than that. You're thinking, you're deciding, you're walking, you're taking your steps, you're thinking and deciding, but at the same time, there is this invisible mastermind at work, and so it leaves you then to this question like if life is a walk, and we're taking the steps, and yet the psalmist says, you order my steps. How is that? How can it be that God is at work while we're actually taking steps that we decide to take? We're making choices.

We're doing what we're doing, and we're really deciding, and yet God is superintending. How can that be? Well, we're talking about mysteries here, but there are ways that you can imagine it. I was thinking about Ann, who was a kindergarten teacher in early years, and my wife, one of her favorite things, I think if she could just have a job, it would be if there's some kind of job where you just gift people prizes. She just likes to give people surprise blessings. That's sort of like her favorite thing, and so one of the things she did with her kindergartners was in order to teach them their numbers and their letters, they played bingo. They played bingo, and so she'd be calling out the numbers and letters, B12 or whatever, and they had their little beans or whatever. They put them on their spots, and they're learning their numbers.

They're learning their letters. They go, and then sometimes bingo, get bingo, and they have a little prize for them, but the problem that she ran into was that there were some children that just didn't seem to be winning, and that she couldn't stand that, so what she started doing, sovereign Ann, you know, it's not that hard to trick a four or five-year-old, and so she's just walking around, and she'd call out, you know, a number, 072, 072, and then she looked down, and she'd go, man, Charlie has not won yet, and he's going to need N23, and he's going to need 069, you know, and so she'd be going along, and then she'd pull out something, and she'd go, whatever it was that, you know, Charlie needed, and she'd call out N23. He'd take his bean, put it on the number, and then she'd walk around. She'd make sure nobody else was getting ready to win, and then she'd look down, and she'd reach in, and just call out Charlie's number, and Charlie goes, bingo, and she'd, Charlie, that's incredible.

You win. You did it, man, and he gets a little prize. Was Charlie doing, was he moving his pieces, and learning his numbers, and doing the thing? Was he doing it? He was doing it, but he, but the mastermind of blessing was invisible to him. Why couldn't God be doing that with us all the time? It doesn't demean the power of your steps. It blesses the power of your steps. What a thing Paul said, we're created for workmanship, for good works, right from the beginning, and then we walk them out. So you're walking it out, and you're like, man, I really, bingo, I just, I just got that.

I just, I just did that. Look at, look at what I did, and I think as you grow up in the Lord, you start going, wait a minute, how did I get to that place, and why did that happen, and you start tying it together, and you go, my steps are ordered. The promise of this psalm is not just for direction of steps, but it is for the foundation, or the security of those steps. Some translations render this, you establish my steps, because the directing, and the establishing, it relates to a Hebrew word for shoring up the foundation of something, like Psalm 1836, you gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. Or Psalm 40, verse 2, he drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. It's, it's like these are images of when you are in some tangled mess, and then there emerges in the woods a pathway that is sure, and clear, and solid that you can take. Well, that's what you step in that, right? It is to say, it's like being lifted up out of something where it was a bog, and you would just be stuck, and then put on something that is solid, right?

So when you walk, you don't walk in sinking sand, you find something solid to walk on, and something that is a broad enough, big enough, sturdy enough place to walk, that you can walk it. And what the psalmist is saying is, the Lord directs our steps partly by giving us those sure places to walk. And sometimes I think he just directs our steps by, we're trying to go somewhere, and it's like, that is not a good place to walk, we're trying to go somewhere, and it's like, that is not where you're supposed to be going.

This is not where you're supposed to be going. And you're just positive it is, and you're just trying as hard as you can, and you just can't get, you just can't, you can't get there. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing 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 PastorAlan.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages, says the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. 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 think often of this scene where Paul and the traveling companions are trying to decide where to go next to preach the gospel. Acts 16, verse 6. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

How? How were they forbidden? Verse 7. And when they'd come up to Messiah, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. I'm just so curious about that verse. They attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. How did the Spirit of Jesus not allow them? So passing by Messiah, they went down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul. In the night, a man in Macedonia was standing there, urging him, saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us.

Verse 10. And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. What happened here? Well, something happened here, like what happens with us? They tried to go a certain direction, and for some reason, they just couldn't do it. And we say, Well, the Holy Spirit didn't allow them. The Spirit of Jesus didn't allow them to go. Well, how'd that happen? Well, you know, we want to think, Well, they were so super spiritual compared to us that, you know, the Lord just spoke to them clearly.

I don't think so. I think they tried to go, and they couldn't get through. They couldn't get in. They couldn't find their way. Somebody got lost.

Somebody tried to preach. It didn't work. They're bearing no fruit. Nobody wanted them. Nothing was working. Nothing was good. And finally, they said, I don't believe this is where we're supposed to go.

And then somebody wrote down, The Spirit of Jesus did not allow us. You look back, and you're like, Why didn't you go this direction? Well, I don't know. I tried to go in that direction. It didn't work at all.

Couldn't do it. And the door got closed. But when God is like getting bogged down, and then I stepped over here, and this was solid. He's directing and establishing.

He's upholding. And some translations render this because He, the Man, delights in God's way. But the New Living Translation has it, The Lord delights in the way, His way, the way of His child. It's probably both because you more, the more that you know how much God delights in your way, in the details of your life, the New Living Translation has it, the more you know that, the more you delight in His way.

So I don't know what the official preaching rule is on this, but I think there is a certain number of sermons in a row that a preacher is allowed to talk about his new grandbaby before it gets her down. I don't know how many it is, but I haven't reached it yet. I haven't reached it yet, and we'll, I'm sure you'll let me know when we get there.

But anyway, it's not there yet. So, you know, it's so fun. Like we had guests here this week, Carl and Chrissy Greer. We had to take them to that.

We had to drive them to Charlotte yesterday, take them to the airport, just in case we want to run by and see little Mia. And you know what's, what's, I mean, I'm trying to think, what's the most fun thing about this? I mean, I like, I like holding her and watching her grow and, but it's really fun to watch my own son hold his baby girl and talk to her and delight in her. That's what that's what, that's what a new parent does. They just delight in every, you know, it's just cute that I'm just like, now you, now you know, now you know why I cared so much about you for all these years.

Now you know what it is. You can't help yourself, but send me a picture of a baby taking her first stroll, and here we are. We went out, look, we went to a restaurant, see that picture sitting over in the corner where there's no human life anywhere nearby, baby down on the floor, you know, there over there for a few minutes, you know, just, and this, look at this, look, she's lying on her mobile, and I got a little video of it. She, she swatched this, isn't she smart? It was just accidentally just kind of, her arm just kind of came up like this, but you know, we're just delighting in that. That little girl's so smart. She's slapping at her mobile already, you know, just when she was born, and they come in and do all these tests at the hospital, and one of them, they can do an audio, an audiologist does a test for your hearing, and we had a little concern because she didn't pass the test in her left ear, so they had to go to the audiologist a few days ago to follow up.

We get this text, she's got a clear bill of health on her hearing, and we're all jumping for joy. There's this little life that doesn't even know it, and she's got people that are delighting in every detail of her life. That's the way God thinks about you. Thinking about every step.

Isn't that something? He's more mindful and delighted in every good step you take than you are, or anybody in this world. The Lord delights in the way of his child, and the psalmist is telling us that though they stumble, they will never utterly fall.

You could think of it from the Hebrew here as staying down because the text says, the Lord upholds them or takes them by the hand. When I was in college and I was helping lead the singing at our InterVarsity group, we had this song that at the time I really liked. It just had this refrain, you better hold on, hold on to God's unchanging hand. You better hold on, and then the girls would echo, you better hold on, and then we'd be like, you better hold on, you better hold on. And I was up there playing the guitar and we had fun, and I was telling me that song came back to mind this week and I thought, that was wrong. That was just theologically wrong. Somebody should have told me. Because if you have a toddler that you're going to walk across a busy street, you do not put two fingers down and let that little toddler hand hold on to you.

No way. You can't take a chance at a dangerous intersection or on a cliffside of the toddler getting distracted by a squirrel or a puppy or anything else and letting go of you. You reach down and take the hand you hold. In fact, I didn't just hold, I didn't just hold their hand. I have wrapped around their hand up to their wrists.

Anybody do that? Round their hand and on their wrist. Because I didn't want them to start wriggling their hand out from them. I'm going to round the wrist, we're going to walk across, and then they're turning around trying to go this other way, and now you feel like, I'm dragging you now. You're sort of walking, but I'm kind of dragging you.

And worst case scenario, you get a skinned knee, but you're not going to be running in front of the car. That's what this means. It is the King James says, it will not utterly be cast down. He's holding on in such a way that you might be pulling this way a little bit or you might stumble. You are going to stumble some, he says, but you're not going to utterly fall because your father, your daddy is not going to let you fall that far. He just cares too much for that.

So wonderful. Spurgeon said of this verse, no saint shall fall finally or fatally. Sorrow may bring us to the earth and death may bring us to the grave, but lower we cannot sink, and out of the lowest of all we shall arise to the highest of all. So he's directing in all these ways that he's delighting, means he's attending to and thinking about. He's playing some kind of cosmic bingo with us where we're doing it, we're taking the steps, but he's sovereignly above it still. He's just smarter than us and more loving than us, and when we're not getting it right, he's helping us, and yet we're still doing it. He's prepared good works, but we're walking them out. This is what the psalmist is saying, and he's opening up a path, and he's putting a sure foundation instead of a bog, and if there's something that we're starting to go in the wrong direction and we're getting bogged down, he's like, no, here is more sure foundation, and he's holding on to us more than we're holding on to him.

This is what's going on. My steps are ordered. Alan Wright, our good news message. My steps are ordered.

It's from the series Providence. I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here in just a moment with a parting good news thought for today based on this teaching. 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 PastorAlan.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal and joy, his embrace, revel in his love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. 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. Now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan. And if I could encourage you to do one thing today, maybe take these words and put them on your bathroom mirror. I got to say, when a preacher looks back at a sermon or in this case, a series of sermons, I don't know if you ever say, okay, that was the pinnacle moment.

But for me and my family, Pastor Alan, my steps were ordered. Now words all around the house. It's a good thing. It flows out freely. It flows out because you then begin to develop expectancy, don't you? And then you rightly interpret the things that happen weren't just chance. And all of a sudden it brings grace and the supernatural into the everyday and makes all of life more wonderful, full of wonder. And I do believe that.

I believe that God's involved in those small, faceted ways in our lives. And so, yeah, put it on your mirror, put it on your dash, put it on the front of your Bible, my steps are ordered of the Lord. 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 Alan Wright Ministries.