Risking Love [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You know what would be the saddest thing in all of life? Would be to come to the end of your years and realize there's nobody you really cared deeply for and nobody caring deeply for you. There's nothing to be lonelier than that, would there? You can choose loneliness, or you can choose love.

I choose love. 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 Unlimited, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going 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.

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.

That's 877-544-4860. Now more on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. This text often, I think, gets quoted and used in ways that's not exactly the meaning. Some people say this is the text that means declare the whole council. It's almost as if they're saying, don't hold back the hard things, also give them the hard things, pastor.

I've heard people use this text as almost like they're saying, don't just give them the good news, give them the bad news. The whole council of God, the whole council of God is good news. There's not a part of the council that's bad news.

There's not a part of the council that's not loving. For us within charismatic tradition, often we'll say, well, this means don't withhold speaking about the Holy Spirit. Well, we're sure we should speak about the Holy Spirit, speak about everything Jesus spoke about.

Actually, the word council here, it literally means plan. He's saying, I didn't shrink back from telling you God's whole plan. In other words, for whatever reason, God chose to put Paul in Ephesus way longer than other places.

Some of you have been walking through this study of Acts with me. You remember a text some weeks back in which Paul tried to go towards Ephesus, tried to go towards Asia Minor, and the Holy Spirit wouldn't let him. We don't know how the Holy Spirit didn't let him, but then eventually saw a man in a vision, a man in Macedonia saying, come here. And that's why they went to Europe. And now we find out it just wasn't the right time.

That's all we can say. It wasn't the right time. He did want him to go to Asia and he spent over two years in Ephesus. And he spent house to house and in the local gathering place, he spent time teaching them the whole plan of God.

You know what he was doing? He was showing them Jesus on every page of the Hebrew scriptures. He was showing them in all the law and all the prophets and all the wisdom and all the Psalms. He was showing them this has always been about Jesus. And the more he talked about how Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises of God in the Hebrew scriptures, the more the Jews leaders despised him.

The more they felt threatened, except for those who came to faith. And he said, but I didn't hold back from that. If it was good, I wanted you to have it.

If it's good, I want you to know about it. I didn't care what happened to me. It's all about the grace of God. Verse 24, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to test, this is all I cared about in your midst, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. That's, I like that phrase, the gospel of the grace of God. The good news of the grace of God. That's worth spending your whole life on, is the good news of the grace of God.

That's what it's about. What blessing is, is to want to impart grace, to give someone something good that they don't deserve. That's what it means to want to bless somebody. Yes, you don't love and bless your children because they deserve it. You love and bless your children because they're your children.

You want to bless and give grace because you love, not because the person deserves it. Verse 32, and now I commend you to God and the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among those who are sanctified. I can't be with you forever, but I have poured grace into your life and I commend you to that word of grace. I commend you to the gospel of the grace of God that it might now dwell richly within you and continue just to build you up.

He's saying over and over, do you see this language? I just wanted to bless you. I just want to bless you.

I've just wanted to bless you. This is what Christian love looks like. And of course at verse 35, the famous verse, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

It is. These are words that don't appear in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They're only here, but Jesus must have said it all the time. It's almost like he's saying, you remember what Jesus used to always say, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. A lot of people think that what this means is that if you give somebody $5, that God's going to give you $10. Now God might give you $10 because the word says you reap as you sow and God loves to increase those that sow.

And he loves to make you a balance so that you can sow all the more. So I believe that God gives increase, but that's not what it means to say it's more blessed to give than receive. Now it means something far deeper and better than that.

No, it doesn't mean you make a transaction and therefore you got something more than you had before. No, it means that in giving the blessing is happening. This is by far my favorite verse on giving in the whole Bible. It is more blessed to give than receive. As you are giving, you are experiencing the reality of blessing. Blessedness is being experienced as you give.

Let me give you a couple examples. When a woman, a mother nurses her newborn baby, as she gives the child milk, her own body releases hormones that make her happy. You could say a mother nursing a baby is giving, right? But in the giving, there's an unspeakable blessing that is just built into the woman that just delights in being able to provide life to this child.

What joy there is in being able to provide life for another person that you love with your entire heart. If an athlete gives himself to the physical endeavor, I mean runs the race with all of his might. At first, the muscles hurt. At first, the cardiovascular system is kicking in and the lungs and a part of you wants to say, I want to stop and not give myself to this.

But very soon endorphins get released in the body so that as the athlete gives himself to the track, to the endeavor, he begins to feel alive. If you love someone, I wish I could explain this mystery. If you love someone, the blessing is not what you get because you love them. The blessing is loving them. Have you ever seen somebody in love?

Look at them. They're floating around because they just love. The happiest you'll ever be is when you're giving. It's not give to get, it's give because you're getting why you give. It's more blessed to give than receive. Paul's saying, I just loved sharing the gospel and sharing my life despite how much suffering would come to me.

I just love you. This is the heart of God. So affection and blessing that wants to give.

One more illustration of that. Our daughter, Abby, you talk about our dog, Recy. She was the great lover of Recy.

There were many an afternoon that that homeschooled a little girl. If Bennett was off playing with somebody else, that dog was her buddy in the backyard, romping around, loving that dog. She loved Recy so much. I can't remember if it was maybe her ninth birthday or something like that. Her birthday was coming up. I said, Abby, what do you want for your birthday? Your birthday is coming up. She said, Daddy, I don't want anything for my birthday. I just want whatever you were going to spend on my birthday to let's get stuff for Recy. She wanted to get toys for the dog and the new collar and a new leash and a new bathtub and a new whatever.

If we could just go over, she was saying, here's how you could bless me most. Give me the capacity to give more to this dog. Honestly, as you grow in the Lord, that's what you'll feel. It's just what I feel more and more.

Lord, what I want you to give me is a greater capacity to be a blessing to this world. That's your joy. That's what Christian love looks like.

That's what relationships look like. 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 pastoralan.org. God's always been there. In every moment, you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment, you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment, you 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 Alan 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 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. 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. And then finally the C of the ABCs, I'd call this word care. It just says it plainly at verse 28, this is what you do when you love. You care. You just care deeply.

He said, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. He's just saying, I want you to care. Here's the deal.

I think this is why we resist love sometimes, is whatever you love, you care about, even if it's a groundhog. And there are just times we'd be like, I know I just feel it as a pastor. I'm like, what would it be like to just not care about people? You know, I mean, every now and then I'm like, can I just have a vacation?

I'm just not caring. And I've got an evangelist friend. His name's Richard. And he has, for the last 30 years, he's spent more time in hotel rooms than he has his own home.

He lives on the road and he lives in restaurants. And he goes in, he does meetings that last three to five days at a church and he leaves, or sometimes he's been there as long as three to five weeks. And God used him to touch my life and God used him to touch many, many lives. And I love Richard, but I'm a pastor. I'm not, I'm not evangelist. I'm a pastor.

I've been in one place for 24 years and plan on staying as long as I can. And I like being planted. I am, I'm officiating weddings now of babies that I baptized. That's fun. That's fun. Evangelist doesn't do that. And sometimes when we are joking with each other, Richard and I, and we're fantasizing about our jobs, you know, and like, man, it'd be nice to be who you are. I'll joke with him. I'll say, oh, how nice it is to be an evangelist.

I said, because all you got to do is you blow in, you blow up and you blow out. And I said, you know, you'd leave it to the pastor to handle everything after you leave, you know? And he said, and then he'll have off days and he'll say, oh, to be a pastor, you don't live in a hotel and you get to stay forever and you get to see the fruit of your labor over time.

Can I just be honest with you? This is a very, this is a very personal chapter, so I might as well be very personal with you. This is a portrait of Paul.

Let me just tell you what I feel as a pastor. It's like the great high priest of Israel symbolically had on the vestment that was worn, the breast piece vestment. There were 12 jewels that symbolized the 12 tribes of Israel. It symbolized the people of God. The people of God were symbolically on his heart.

And he would wear that when he would go into the Holy of Holies. That's what I feel. That's what I feel for you. Our church has gotten a lot bigger in the years that have gone by.

We have four campuses. I don't come anywhere near to knowing everybody, of course. Nonetheless, every single one of you, I carry on my heart.

And you know what? There are times, if you love people deeply, you know what I'm talking about. There are times you just like to have a little vacation from it.

Wouldn't that be nice? Sometimes I just think, goodness gracious, I had officiated more funerals by the time I was 30 than most people would go to in their whole lifetime. I remember, just even as a young man, I'd be like 38 years old and I've just come out of preaching a funeral of someone in deep sorrow and talking to somebody else who's 38.

And they hadn't even been to a funeral. Sometimes I just have to remind myself, not everybody's hurting. And there's something important about rhythm in life. I mean, you got to understand that, I mean, I goof off, I play golf, I find ways to just be, you know, you need to have light conversations.

There are times you just need to joke around and you just, you know, I'm not saying this means you walk around heavy all the time. And I'm not saying it makes you codependent. There's an unhealthy attachment that we can have. I don't have time to talk about that, but love's not love if it's love because you are being forced to, or because you feel like you have to, or else you're not going to be loved. That's not love. That's codependency. What I'm talking about is, this is what is not comfortable about being a Christian.

You love more than the world does. It's not comfortable because it means you care. And you might look out and go, well, look at the world, they don't even care. Well, a whole lot of people, they don't even care. They don't care what's happening to people. In fact, sometimes they're happy as the bad things happening to people. It's a harder thing to care.

But it's a far more blessed thing. You know what would be the saddest thing in all of life? It would be to come to the end of your years and realize there's nobody you really care deeply for, nobody caring deeply for you. There's nothing to be lonelier than that, would there? You can choose loneliness, or you can choose love.

I choose love. I would say those are the ABCs of authentic loving relationships. There's a lot of affection.

I think every parent, you could take this chapter and learn from it. A lot of affection, a lot of affirming how much you care and love. It shows, right? It shows. Shows delight in people. Go smile at somebody this week.

Is anybody else sick of the spiritual malaise that's falling over our whole land and people walking around like the end of the world is coming? Smile at somebody. They'll go, what are you smiling about? I just am glad to see you. Affection and blessing, that means I want the best for you, and I care. I want to talk about something I'm absolutely positive I'm right about, and that is this.

Whichever side of the political aisle you're on, whichever way you see things is going, I can tell you this for sure. Here's the big call on your life right now. Love somebody.

Messy, risky, out of the comfort zone. Love. Love never fails. We're constrained by love because we're made by God. You might not think it's the best way, but it's the way He made us in His own image, and His nature is risky love. So risky that He came to this earth and set His affection first upon 12 men who would break His heart.

One of them would betray Him for some silver. Another would deny Him three times, and all of them would abandon Him when He was on the cross, and He loved them. This is God the Father whose love put His only begotten Son on a cross, knowing there would be a moment in which the Son would say, ally, ally, some atomic time. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that in that moment of God-forsakenness, a great exchange would take place in anyone who trusts in Christ, who had been separated from God's love, would be reconnected forever. So that anyone could know now and forever the love of God. The love of God. The groundhog is on the loose, and I'm still trying to get permission to do the least expensive way of, but so far extermination has not been allowed because there's a heart attachment to the rodent. If you can be attached to a rodent and it hurts your heart, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, you get attached to a human being and it's going to hurt your heart, and yet it's going to be worth it because the greatest gift of all of life is love, and that's the gospel.

Alan Wright. Good news message today, risking love from the series Unlimited. I encourage you to stick around. Pastor Alan is back joining us in the studio and sharing a part in good news thought for the day for you in just a moment. 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 Alan 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 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. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Back here with Pastor Alan, sharing a part in good news thought for the day. I've never considered myself a great lover or a consumer of poetry, but I do love good song lyrics. And in that sense, I suppose you could say I am a lover of poetry.

And here is this one that came to mind. I am loved. I am loved. I can risk loving you. And that's the message.

That's the message. To love is risky, but it's worth it. What in this life that is of any real value doesn't require some risk, but the ultimate aim of life and the very design of our souls and what matters most is love. To love and to be loved. And it is risky because to the extent that you love, when you have to say goodbye, it hurts more. And to the extent that you love, there can be disappointment and it hurts more. But oh, without love, life loses all its meaning. So be loved by God. And in that great perfect love, find the strength to love others deeply, just like Paul loved the Ephesians.

It's risky, but it's worth it. 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 Allen Wright Ministries.