You're Called in Hope [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. What does despair do? It leads us to a point of saying, I might as well give up.

That's what people do. I might as well go ahead and sin. I might as well give up. When hope comes into your heart, a hope of a calling, it changes everything. 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 Ephesians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, 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 as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.

Or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. And we who are in Christ could be assured that even though we might stumble and we might fall and we might sin, there never will be a gulf between us and God. The crescendo of Romans chapter 8 is this, what could separate me from the love of God?

Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And likewise the story of the prodigal son, which this answer says, there's another example. Fellowship was broken from the father and the son had to come back and reconcile before they had fellowship.

No! This is exactly the opposite of the meaning of the story. Jesus told this story to describe the love of the father, which is unimaginable. A son who is so shamed the family that he takes his inheritance and says, in his essence, I wish you were dead father, goes off to a faraway land, squanders it amongst the pigs of the prostitutes and the father loves him. And the son rehearses a speech in which he says, I'm going to tell him I'm not worthy to be your son, just make me like one of your hired hands. But what happens is that the son who'd been living as if he weren't a son, when he's seen in the distance, the father runs to meet him. And the reason he runs to meet him is because he's still his son. He immediately puts a robe on him, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, and he says, we're going to kill the fattened calf and have a party.

Why? Because this son of mine was lost and has been found. The whole point of the story is that even though the son was living as if he weren't a son, he still was a son. He might've been out of the father's fellowship because he was in a distant land, but the heart of the father always was inclined towards his son. You, when you're a child of God, you might rebel, you might sin, you might wander to a faraway land and you'd be foolish to do so.

Who would want to live amongst the pigs when you got lamb chops on your daddy's grill? And this is what happened to this boy. He said, I want to go back home.

I'd rather be a slave back home than be living here in this poverty. But when he gets back, he finds out I still am a son. How much of this comes down to is how is it that people are actually transformed? And Paul is asserting that people are transformed not by the uncertainty of their salvation, but by the certainty of it. So what he's saying is, I want you to know this. And he says, I want you to know it in your heart. You know, you mean when you know something by heart, you know, you ever tried to memorize something and for a while you're like, uh, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. You know, I'd say I can, I can maybe say John one verse one, but then there's another time where you don't even have to think about, you memorize that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. It's just, I know that by heart or two plus two equals four, you know, you know, most of us, we don't have to think about that.

Um, you do, you do other more complicated problems based on two plus two equals four, but you just know that two plus two equals four. You just, you know, you just know that, you know, that I'm talking about the difference in knowing something. I'm gonna tell you the most dangerous thing I did on this trip. It was not facing 12 different airplanes and, uh, flying in from Port Moresby to Ucarumpa in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. We were flying at 10,000 feet amidst clouds, uh, and, and, and amidst peaks of mountains that were 11,000 feet.

And I was sitting up front with the headphones. I was talking to other pilots that, uh, I said, uh, you do, uh, know where the peaks are, right? And, uh, it, it was like, but that wasn't the most dangerous thing we did. The possible malaria and dengue fever, that wasn't the most, I'll tell you what the most dangerous thing we did was on the way back. We spent a couple of days in Australia and I rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the road. I'm telling you, this was scary stuff. I don't know if you've ever done this before.

Uh, I was scared. I, I, the, the, the, the, the, the wheel is on the right hand side of the car. This is not good because oncoming traffic is very close to you then. You know, normally you're driving, you're on the left side and your passengers over there are the one having to face the Mack truck, zooming in two feet away from you, but now you're over there driving and, uh, everything's on the left. I said, Abby, I said, uh, the first thing we did was we, we got into the car and I said, all right, I'm going to drive around the rental car parking lot for a while.

I did. I just drove around and she said, all right, daddy, practice putting on your blinker because the blinkers on the wrong side is called the indicator. And, uh, so I had to learn how to indicate. And, um, and I drove around the parallel while we pulled out of the riddle thing.

And I immediately started it. We had GPS going. It said, enter roundabout. Y'all, we have some traffic circles, but ours are a perfect.

Symmetrical circle with pretty flowers planted in the middle. That's not what a roundabout is to them. They just, anytime that there are a bunch of streets coming together, they just call it a roundabout and put some, uh, you know, give way signs up there. And so, uh, the immediately first thing I pull out of the rental parking lot, the GPS said, enter roundabout, uh, take second left. And so I, I turned over to the left and I was headed back into a parking garage.

Um, and so it didn't start out well. It was nighttime. Um, I drove up the highway, I pulled off our exit. Um, and then I got onto these roads where traffic is going different ways. Thankfully it wasn't much traffic at this point at night.

And the GPS, I didn't like this GPS. It would come on and say, turn right, but you'd still have 200 kilometers before you're supposed to turn. I'm like, what, what, what, what 200 meters before you're supposed to turn like, what, what do I turn and say, turn right. And I panicked and I turned right. And I thought, I think I'm going the wrong way on a road.

I turned around real quick and in my panic, I just turned right and went right on into the oncoming traffic. Uh, but I only did that once I pulled over and I told Abby, I said, Abby, I said, here's the deal. I said, you can say anything you want to me about driving. I will not get mad at you. I said, you, I need you. We are not going to listen to the radio. We're not going to talk about anything. You're just going to sit there and say, stay to the left, dad, stay to the left.

You say whatever. And so what I tended to do was I did it too. And she kept saying, see, this is, she's getting her learners. She's got a learner's permit. She said, this is why it's hard. See, uh, it's hard to stay in your lane, isn't it? And because I kept drifting over to the left, why wouldn't I drift to the left?

Why do I want to be out there near the middle? So I'm over there and she would just say, dad, you're on the white line. And after a while it just, she didn't say, daddy, you're on the white line. She just say white line.

And, uh, so she must say that a hundred, white line, white line. And, uh, you would say to me, listen, do you know how to drive on the left-hand side of the road? And I'd say, well, I know that if you're in Australia, you're supposed to. And, uh, I did drive over there, but I don't know it. When I got back in my car here, I didn't even have, oh, man, I said, this is so sweet. You can just drive the car without thinking about it. I don't have to think about which side of the road to be on. You could listen to the radio, talk to somebody, maybe glance away for a moment to notice something beautiful in the sky.

Didn't have to just say, like, because I know it. God wants you to know this hope, every fabric of your being, your emotions, your inmost spiritual being, your mentalities, everything in your life to be built upon this is foundational knowledge. You're a child of God.

You belong to Him forever, and something good is going to happen. Because, see, hope is incredibly powerful. Hope, as I have sought to establish in recent years by way of illustration, is like a child at Christmas time. It's not the little girl who says, I hope I get a pony for Christmas, but not going to get a pony, because that's just wishful thinking.

That's just saying, I wish I'd get a pony, but I probably won't. And a lot of people think that's what hope is. It's like, well, you're going to go to heaven. Well, I hope so.

I don't know. I hope I've lived a good enough life and I'll get into heaven. That's not hope. What Christian hope is instead is pictured in the little girl on the day before Christmas. And you say to her, why are you so happy? And she said, don't you know tomorrow is Christmas. And you might say, well, do you know what you're getting for Christmas? And she say, well, I don't know everything I'm going to get, but my parents love me. I know they got some presents for me, and it's not going to be a poisonous serpent in that box.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. The theme of blessing runs through the narrative of scripture like a golden thread. God blessed Adam and Eve so that they could be productive and joyful in the world. The patriarchs blessed their children and grandchildren. Jesus blessed the little children.

And as he ascended to heaven, blessed his disciples. The apostle Paul said, we need to learn to bless even our enemies. What is this mysterious biblical principle called blessing?

Why is it so powerful? How can we learn to bless others? In his newest book, The Power to Bless, Alan Wright answers those questions and more as he leads readers into a deep revelation of how anyone can learn to speak life and empower the people they love.

Contact us today to get your copy of the Amazon bestselling book. And when you do, for a very limited time, we will send you four additional resources to help you discover the power to bless. Along with the beautiful hardcover book, you'll receive Pastor Alan's video master class called Speak Life and its corresponding study guide. Also, we'll send you Pastor Alan's brand new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Everyone needs to be blessed and anyone can learn to bless others. So contact us today to get The Power to Bless bundle, Pastor Alan's book, two video courses and two study guides. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. 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. The expectancy of something that you know that is good, that is coming, even though you may not be able to define every detail about it, changes everything. In fact, it changes it so much that if on the 10th of December that little girl were walking through the mall with her mom and she said, I want that toy. And whereas if it were in the middle of July, she might say, I want that toy, I want that toy now. But on the 10th of December, her mother says, I don't know, Christmas is coming.

The little girl say, okay. Okay, I can forego something now because something good is coming. And the more you know that something good is coming, the more you could face all kinds of adversities, right? Oh, and it can become so real to you that it's like you can hardly say which is better, the hope of the thing or the thing itself. I mean, you go to a little girl on the day before Christmas and see her delight and waiting for Christmas to come and compare it to her a day after Christmas, after all the presents have been opened, I'm not sure which is better.

I mean, a little girl day before Christmas is just, I just can't wait. Well, you're so happy because there's just so much possibility. And there's a sense in which it can become so real to you that you say, have you ever caught yourself saying it is so close I can taste it? You know, I feel it's like, I know it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, other good things coming.

It's so real to me. It can be like that for us as Christians. That's what Paul's praying. I want you to know it so you can taste it. I want you to know that Holy Spirit's a deposit within you guaranteeing this rich inheritance that is to come.

Know this for sure. This is why I get so frustrated with anything less than the pure undefiled gospel because anything less than the pure undefiled gospel isn't good news at all. If the good news is Jesus loves you and he died for you and you can be saved by believing him and you also need to make sure you're living a holy life and that you've had proper amount of confession and done enough penance and you've made enough sacrifices in your life and been a religious person, that's not good news. Because how are you going to know if you've done enough? You're going to be lying there on your deathbed saying, you know, it might have been better if I hadn't been created because I don't even know if I'm going to be with God.

And the good news of the gospel is so rich and so powerful because what happens is that we are transformed and moved by good news that is laden with hope. How did Jeff and Cissy Desjardins go on for 27 years? They go on 27 years because of hope. I mean, if you think that you come to a day and you wake and you go, we're not going to be able to complete a New Testament. We're not going to be able to get this done.

We're going to probably die of malaria before that happens. I mean, if you think like that, then what would you do? You would give up. The point of this is that the seeds of despair when they come to fruition lead to hopelessness and it's hopelessness that causes us to be less energized and therefore we give up. Hope provides energy. Call and hope provides motivation and transformation. We are not going to live more holy lives because we're worried that we're not saved.

We're going to live more holy lives because of the ever increasing certainty that we are. When I was in the 10th grade, I decided I was going to go out for the high school soccer team. I thought I could make the high school soccer team as the 10th grader.

So what did I do? I ran all summer long. I went out and practiced with a buddy of mine.

We practiced all our individual skills. The reason I was doing all this was because I believed I could make the team. I did not try out for the basketball team. I like basketball. My particular stature is not designed for basketball. And so I wasn't trying out for basketball. I didn't think I could make the basketball team. I couldn't make the basketball team.

I love basketball. I couldn't make the team. I was hopeless to make the basketball team. So what did I do?

I didn't try to make the basketball team. Why would anybody ever think that hopelessness would energize us and move us into living holy lives? What happens instead? What does despair do? It leads us to a point of saying I might as well give up.

That's what people do. I might as well go ahead and sin. I might as well give up. But when hope comes into your heart, a hope of a calling, it changes everything. Hope is inseparably connected with calling entirely contrary to the message of the spirit of the age which says simply look inside yourself and find your inner self.

No, what we believe is a God who made you, who knows you, who loves you, who designed you, He called you. The call of God is not like the call of any man. His call is not simply a wishful offer.

It is not a mere invitation in which He says well here it is take it or leave it. Instead this is the God who created the world by saying let there be light. In other words if God calls out light, light happens. So what you want from God is a call. It's what happened to people like Abraham. He didn't sit around and say well I'm you know 90 years old. Look in my heart.

What do I see? I think I'll be a father of a nation. Of course not. What did Moses do? He was hiding as a fugitive in Midian and was being a shepherd of some sheep. He didn't sit around look inside himself and say you know I think I'll go and deliver the people of God from their slavery in Egypt. Instead there was a burning bush and God spoke to him. Joseph didn't say you know I think I'll sell myself into slavery, maybe go to prison and then I'll be exalted to second in all of Egypt in order to save my own people from famine.

Instead God gave him a dream. Jesus just came to the disciples and you ever wonder why there's not more information given us when he called the disciples than him just saying follow me. The reason is because when Jesus said follow me there was something that was alluring, something that was powerful, something that was effective. Jesus call so powerful that even a dead man, Lazarus come out.

A dead man responded to his call. When you get called, when you have the powerful call of God that has drawn you into a fellowship with him and directed you in life your hope is going to be attached to that call. And guess what Romans says the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable which is really good news because you know what that means? It means God really is that wonderful GPS system of the heart where you know it comes on says turn right and 300 feet and turn right 100 feet turn right now and then you miss it and you turn left and the voice really should come on and say you idiot I told you three times to turn right back there and now you've missed it. You're on your own now.

Good luck with that. No they got a sweet voice that comes on and say recalculating route. In other words we can get you there to your original destination from where you are now.

Not going to have to take you back and make you do it all over again. The calling of God is irrevocable. You might have stumbled. You might feel like you're far away from God.

But he can get you where you're supposed to be going from where you are right now. Jeff and Cissy DeJournes. What a day it was. We had we had an incredible experience that day. The band I think we got some footage to put up there that band of the Sing Sing group was playing on the beach and they would move down the beach and they would keep keep celebrating and and and then we'd we'd pause and we'd go on and they had a hand-carved canoe that they had made to bring in Jeff and Cissy and the Bibles up to the beach and come walking in after 27 years.

How do you do something like that for 27 years? Because you envision the day you envision the day when a people who never had a Bible have it handed to them. In other words, hope of a calling. That's the gospel.

Alan Wright. The conclusion of today's teaching, You're Called in Hope. Part of our teaching in the series of Ephesians and I encourage you to stay with us.

Alan is in the studio and back here in a moment with additional insight on this today for your life and our final word. 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. How can we learn to bless others? In his newest book, The Power to Bless, Alan Wright answers those questions and more as he leads readers into a deep revelation of how anyone can learn to speak life and empower the people they love.

Contact us today to get your copy of the Amazon bestselling book. And when you do, for a very limited time, we will send you four additional resources to help you discover The Power to Bless. Along with the beautiful hardcover book, you'll receive Pastor Alan's video master class called Speak Life and its corresponding study guide. Also, we'll send you Pastor Alan's brand new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Everyone needs to be blessed and anyone can learn to bless others. So contact us today to get The Power to Bless bundle, Pastor Alan's book, two video courses, and two study guides.

Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Learn more at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860. You know, Alan, I was thinking just this morning, how do you explain hope? How do you comprehend hope and to know our calling and how we're named in Christ and how he sees us using hope?

Not as the world calls it. It's something that God does down in you. And just like we were talking about there with Jeff and Cissia, missionaries who can labor for 27 years, but they don't look at it that way because the hope of what is coming, the hope of the Gospels at work within them. And this is my prayer for everyone listening today that the hope that never puts to shame, that never disappoints, the hope of Christ and the calling that's yours that you can be sure of, would fill your heart today once again, because when you have hope, everything of life and joy and purpose follows. May you have the hope of your calling made sure to you. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.