If God is for Us [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The opposite of the Gospel is to say you ought to be a little bit worried, a little worried about your salvation, a little bit worried about whether God really loves you, a little bit worried about whether or not you're going to make it, a little bit worried about whether God might withdraw His hand from you, because the more you worry about that, maybe then you'll try harder. And that's the diabolical spirit of religion.

And what Romans 8 tells us is God's Gospel is entirely the opposite of that. Hallelujah. 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 Granola 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. With God, contrary to what a lot of people have experienced in various religious expressions, God and His plan of changing your life so that you gain victory over besetting sins, have all your desires change, and begin to invest yourself in the things that matter, His plan to conform you to the image of Jesus, His whole plan of glorifying you and changing everything in your life, that plan is built upon Him reassuring you that He's for you. And that's just entirely opposite of the spirit of religion. The spirit of all religion, that which opposed Jesus and put Him on the cross, the opposite of the gospel is to say you ought to be a little bit worried, a little worried about your salvation, a little bit worried about whether God really loves you, a little bit worried about whether or not you're going to make it, a little bit worried about whether God might withdraw His hand from you, because the more you worry about that, maybe then you'll try harder. And that's the diabolical spirit of religion. And what Romans 8 tells us is God's gospel is entirely the opposite of that. Hallelujah. Because it would change your life if you believe that God's for you. Think of it this way.

You only submit to someone you believe is totally for you. Had my annual physical with my doctor this week. I was having lunch with a friend beforehand. I said, oops, look at the time I got to go and get my physical. He's at me and laughed and said, lucky you. Who wants to go to the doctor's office and get their physical and be poked and prodded?

And it's funny what we'll submit to, isn't it? If you think somebody's for you, we go and pay them money. Pay them money. Pay them money to walk in there. And the first thing they do is they come back here and step on the scale in front of everybody. Step right on here.

The big numbers going across there so everybody can see it. And I want to say, I weigh myself pretty regularly, but when I do so at home, I do so under favorable conditions. I haven't weighed myself in the evening or after a big meal ever. And I do not weigh myself with heavy garments on and thick leather shoes and stuff in my pockets. I want to say, can I, can we go somewhere private and I could, you know, and we'll get my real weight. But no, you step up there. You got your heavy clothes on and it's going to be the most you've weighed the whole year. And they look at it and then there's a lady taking there.

She's calling it out. And there you go. You weigh too much. And we say, thank you so much.

How much do I owe you for that? And then they take you back to a little room. And the nurse came in and she said, have you had your flu shot? No. You know, have you had your booster for DTaP? You know, you got a baby in the family now.

You know, we want to be vaccinated against whooping cough. Have you had that? I don't know. Do you show that I've had it? No, it's just that I'll tell you what, we'll make a plan here. I'll come in and jab you in both arms with a sharp instrument in a little while. How about that? Great. Thank you. How much do I owe you for that? How many days will my shoulders hurt from when you do that?

Oh, it'll hurt pretty bad. That's all right. Oh, thank you. And she leaves and says, here's a little gown.

It opens in the back. Sit here alone with nothing to do in this chilly room in the gown. You fine with that? Sure.

Thank you for that lovely gown. Doctor comes in. He's my friend. He's been my friend forever, but he still said, have you been eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and doing your exercises? No, haven't, doc. Okay.

He makes some notes. Lie on this table. Let me put a cold metal instrument on your chest. Thank you for that, doctor. And we won't speak of why the gown opens in the back.

We're not even going to talk about that. And you leave and you say, well, let's make an appointment for next year. Isn't it amazing how thoughtlessly, in a sense effortlessly, we submit, yield, obey obey those that we believe are totally for us? As soon as I don't think you're for me, I'm not going to share my life with you.

I'll guard myself. But if I believe you're for me, at some point, I'll say, here I am. Obedience and yieldedness in the Christian life with God does not arise from fear of God's punishment, but through confidence, assurance in his love. If God is for us, we can give him everything. It's always been God's plan. He's always intended to bless you. Jeremiah prophesied it, Jeremiah 32-40, I'll make an everlasting covenant with them.

I will never stop doing good for them. And listen to this, I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me and they will never leave me. How is God going to get you to worship him and never leave you? He's going to give you assurance after assurance after assurance after assurance that he's got a big Easter bag for you.

Look here, find the magic egg. He is assuring you. He is giving you himself. He is giving you his word. He is guiding your steps. He is making circumstances work together for your good. He is designing big setup in his providence to show you that he's for you. How do you know somebody's for you? I mean 100% for you.

How do you know? Whoa, stop and just think for one moment. Think of somebody you're totally for. Maybe it's a family member or friend. Just think of them. I can't help it right now. I'm thinking of Mia Joy Wright, five-week-old Mia Joy Wright.

I rocked her to sleep yesterday. That's fun. Think of somebody you're totally for them. 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 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 pastorallen.org. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing might be the timeless power of blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. Without it, we'll never rise to our God-given potential.

With it, we can let go of the past and move forward confidently under the favor of God. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing in your life, and if you'd like to learn how to speak life and empower the people you love, contact us today to get Pastor Alan Wright's new Amazon bestselling book, The Power to Bless. And when you do, for a limited time, we'd like to send you four additional life-changing resources to help you discover the power to bless. We'll send you Pastor Alan's video masterclass and study guide called Speak Life, and we'll also include Pastor Alan's new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Contact us today to get Alan Wright's beautiful hardcover book, The Power to Bless, and receive the four additional life-enriching resources. It's time to learn how blessed you are in Christ and to discover the power to bless. Learn more at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Also, when you do this, think of someone in your life who you would say, who you would say, that person has been, is, and always will be totally for me. You've got somebody like that.

What are they like? How can you tell? How can you tell someone's for you? Well, deep down, it means they thoroughly want what's good for you. They earnestly want you to, in the best sense of the word, prosper. They want that, and there's not one shred of their being that doesn't want that. And you can tell partly by the way that they celebrate, because they truly celebrate you. Let me tell you one little way.

Here's how you know who is totally for you. You can tell them good things that have happened in your life, and it's not bragging, because they're not going to feel the least bit threatened by it. You got to have some people like that. To me, that's what family's for. It's like, if my child calls and tells me in Washington, I just got a surprise promotion at work. That's not bragging.

That's my flesh and bone. That's like it happened to me. You see what I'm saying? You can tell by a celebration. You can tell by a celebration. You know, it's like when you watch a sporting event, you know, you're pulling for somebody.

Every now and then it's weird, and you're sort of divided. I was sort of like, I went to Carolina, but I love my weight in Forest Deacon, so I'm sort of a little divided and watching this game that, how does Carolina keep pulling these things out this year? But anyway, some years ago, some years ago, I was with my brother, David, who also went to Carolina. And as you know, Carolina people have a hard time pulling for Duke, but my father-in-law went to Duke. My wife sort of likes Duke. This is before I had a son who went to Duke Law School.

This was before that. And we are together watching the national championship. I can't remember what year it was, but it was back in those years where Duke seemed like they were winning it all the time. And Duke's playing for the national championship. Carolina had been long out of it. And so my father-in-law was there watching, and for his sake, my brother and I said, we're going to try to pull for Duke. We're going to try. And so we acted like we were pulling for Duke, right? And I was doing a pretty good job of it, mainly by being quiet. And Duke would leave and be like, okay, okay, you know.

And my father-in-law's there, and he's gripping the thing like that. Well then at one moment, and my brother David had been doing a good job with this until it got to a key moment in the game, and a call from the ref went in favor of Duke. You know, it was one of those blocked charge calls.

And it went in favor of Duke at his key moment, and David just, all of a sudden, he lost his mind, and he just said, that wasn't a charge. And we realized, you've been pretending this whole time that you're pulling for Duke, but now we can tell by what you celebrate, or don't celebrate, who you're really pulling for. You can tell if someone cannot celebrate good things in your life, they're not for you.

They're jealous of you. And if somebody is going to be totally for you, and completely celebrate your prosperity, they've got to be so secure in themselves that nothing threatens them, because they feel better for you having had your success. This is our God. He is not threatened by your blessedness. He died to give it to you, and the more you receive it, and walk in it, the more glorified He is. If God is for us. You can also tell if someone's for you by the way they sacrifice for you.

It means they actively work towards your good. We go down and visit the grandbaby on Saturday, and we've done it for the last few Saturdays, and you know, they're still in that mode where they're getting two hours sleep at a time, and we don't just go to hug and kiss the grandbaby, though that we do, but Ann says y'all need some groceries? Yeah, we do need some groceries. All right, we'll stop by the grocery store.

Went and found the most wonderful Harris Teeter in Charlotte, biggest one I've ever been in. Everything costs twice as much as the ones here. Got about three bags of things, you know, $150, three bags or so. Y'all want to get some supper? We'll order in.

How about that? Yeah, I'll go pick it up for you, and Ann's over cleaning up the kitchen, wiping counters down, helping. Yesterday, they finally, first time five weeks, they said, you know what? Baby seems happy. Maybe we'll go out and do something for about an hour.

Y'all go right ahead. We're right here. You know somebody's for you because without thinking about it, they're sacrificing for you. So if you know who's most for you, think about who has sacrificed the most for you. The gift of Jesus Christ is inexpressible because Christ is God, and He is therefore of infinite, immeasurable worth, and this is what God's given for you. If God did not spare His only begotten Son, if God does that, you can know that He'll give you everything else. That's what Paul is saying here. It's an argument from the greater to the lesser. He's saying He made the ultimate sacrifice and gave you the infinite gift, so why would you ever think that He wouldn't give you something in addition to that?

I think it was D.L. Miller who said it's like if you went into a jewelry store and the jeweler loved you and decided to give you the most expensive diamond in the entire shop and you were walking out after having been just blown away by this lavish gift of something worth tens of thousands of dollars and you said, could I have a small box to put it in and a bag to carry it in? You wouldn't expect them to say, you wouldn't expect them to say, well no, I'm not going to give you that. He already gave you His treasure. Of course, He's going to give you something to carry it in.

If God is for us, I think we can join hands in this prayer room and ask Him to help us in our current struggle and He is not disinclined to do so because He already has proven that He's for us by the gift of His Son and He has given us His own life through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Paul says elsewhere in Ephesians 1 verse 13, in Him also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. He is the deposit. He is the guarantee.

He is the earnest. Whatever word you want to use here, in today's lingo in the real estate market, He is the non-refundable due diligence fee. That's the way it works in today's real estate.

You're buying the house, you put down a due diligence fee, wherein during the due diligence period you have the right to withdraw from the contract, but your due diligence fee is non-refundable. And so when the market has been such a buyer's market as it is, the amount that people are willing to put down in due diligence has risen. And back in the day, you know, people put a thousand dollars' earnest money down or something, that's it, and they just pull it, but it's a different market. We have been through so much, you know, sadness this year, my mom's death, my father-in-law's death, so we've sold two houses this year. Just sold Ann's dad's house, beautiful house down in our neighborhood, a little house that a lot of people wanted. So we sold it, first day, went for more and we asked. People put down $7,500 due diligence fee and had a due diligence period. Realtor called us five hours before the due diligence period was over and said, I don't understand why, but they're withdrawing.

He said, you're kidding. And they said, no. And we said, well, okay. And we really weren't that worried about it because we got to keep the $7,500. Said, all right, well, we'll just, you know, put it back on the market, take a couple days, spruce it up a little bit, put it back on the market. So a few days later, we put it back on the market, sold in one hour for an even higher price than what the other people had paid. And they said, listen, we're going to give you $10,000 in due diligence fee, and we'll close next week with cash. We said, okay.

And it started rolling around next week. And I was sort of hoping they'd back out to Alan Wright, our good news message. If God is for us, it's from the series Providence and pastor Alan is back here in just a few moments sharing a parting good news thought, unpacking some of his teachings 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. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing might be the timeless power of blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. Without it, we'll never rise to our God-given potential.

With it, we can let go of the past and move forward confidently under the favor of God. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing in your life, and if you'd like to learn how to speak life and empower the people you love, contact us today to get pastor Alan Wright's new Amazon bestselling book, The Power to Bless. And when you do for a limited time, we'd like to send you four additional life-changing resources to help you discover the power to bless. We'll send you Pastor Alan's video masterclass and study guide called Speak Life, and we'll also include Pastor Alan's new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Contact us today to get Alan Wright's beautiful hardcover book, The Power to Bless, and receive the four additional life-enriching resources. It's time to learn how blessed you are in Christ and to discover the power to bless. Learn more at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day.

And throughout this series, we've had some references, not only to the birth of your first grandchild, granddaughter, but also just coming through a tough year and how appropriate a series of providence with the highs and lows of life. So if God is for us, there is hope for tomorrow. If God's for you, if He's 100% for you, what ultimate good thing would He want to withhold from you? If God's 100% for you, then what enemy of your soul could ever prevail against God, who is your chief advocate? God didn't spare His own Son, and He gave you His Spirit. He has shown Himself, proven Himself, and wants you to know it.

He's totally, completely for you. The picture in the scripture is altogether relational and life-giving and organic. And so though we speak of a mystery, the scripture speaks of human life as being granted free will, free will, so that every choice that you make matters.

And yet God is mystically and marvelously involved in the details of our lives so that He works in through. 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 pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.