The Return to Joy [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. And this is what relationship with God is like. And this is how you can know joy. And this is why I can say to you with Isaiah, no matter your wilderness, you are not stuck.

There is always a return to joy. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.

Merry Christmas. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Joy of Every Longing Heart 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 available right now. And 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, 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. You can always return to joy. That's the default position of the Christian life. The kingdom of God, Paul says in Romans 14, consists, it's not a matter of eating a drink, but it consists of a righteousness and peace and joy. If you're going to be in this kingdom, the kingdom of God, it's righteousness through the blood of Jesus and joy and peace. And that's the nature of the kingdom of God. If there's something that's not righteousness, joy, and peace, that's not, you're not tasting the kingdom of God.

This is what the kingdom of God is like. Paul said the fruit of the Spirit. So when God is in you, this is what you get.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. It's through the Spirit. And there is a fullness to this joy that is altogether better and different and eternal. I think to say that everlasting joy will be on their heads is not just to say that you will one day in heaven have no more sorrows and have only the positive emotion of joy in your life. I think it is to say something of the quality of the joy that it is eternal in its nature. Joy is God's thing. It's like love, and it comes from God. And there is no lack of it. There's a super abundance in God because it's like, could God ever run out of love? Is there any limit to love? No, there's not. You know what that feels like, that you love, and that doesn't mean you have one child you love, then you have another child, you love that child.

You have one friend you love, you love another friend. You don't run out. You don't have to portion it out. And joy, likewise, is not a scarce commodity in the triune God. He is by nature joyous, and this is why you're made in His image. So to have everlasting joy, as Isaiah prophesied, is to have a joy that has the characteristic of heaven. When you experience authentic joy here on this earth, which I do every single time I meet with you and worship God with you, it is a taste of heaven.

It is a taste of heaven. And so Jesus, in His beautiful discourse in John 15 where He's talking to the disciples about how there's a promise of the Holy Spirit and how they will be able to be like branches abiding in a vine, He has this to say at verse 11, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. That's what Jesus wants.

He wants His own joy in you and that joy to be abundant in you. That's what the Christian life looks like. That's what the Christian life looks like. And all of this is characterized by why Isaiah prophesies as a return to Zion. Zion is an image of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and the place of the Holy of Holies and the place where the people of God are joyously reconnected with one another and with God. We won't look there, but the writer of Hebrews comes back and captures the image of Zion and says of us as Christians, you've come to the new Zion. It's not a physical place. It's an invisible place. And it's more real than any Temple Mount. And it is the place where by the blood of Jesus, you are connected up with the people of God and forever connected with God Himself in an intimate, joyous relationship. You've come there.

The Zion. So the pathway to joy is a pathway there to the relational delight of God over your life. What we're learning in brain science, what scientists are learning is that parts of your brain that just release joy light up when you, in relationship, see someone else accept you and delight in you. So this starts when you're a little baby. And babies can see about 12 to 18 inches. And then after that, I guess everything's kind of murky or something. But it's quite convenient because the main thing a baby needs to see is her mother's smiling face as the mother holds her, feeds her.

They can see about that distance. And babies look at faces, and they like faces. Even babies can tell the difference in a face on a screen versus a real face. And what happens is that when the baby sees a mother smile, the baby and some design of God feels an attachment and begins to feel secure and begins to feel joy. And what happens in turn is around the six-week mark, seven-week mark, the baby begins to smile back at mom and others. And when mom sees that, and I was like laughing with our daughter-in-law about this this weekend, it's like, God knows about week six, you need to smile about right now.

You hadn't slept in six or seven weeks. And then when you see that smile, like I might have a picture of a random baby smiling, well, look, it's my own grandbaby. So Abby got one of the, that's my daughter holding me up, she got one of the first smiles. That was right around six weeks.

That was a little over Thanksgiving. And when you smile, can you even help yourself when you see a baby smile at you? Oh my goodness, I don't even care whose baby it is.

I just go find a random baby and that baby smiles. Something inside of you explodes with delight. It's joy. It's joy.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Seeing as Jesus sees. It's the title of Pastor Alan Wright's newest book just released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Alan Wright invites readers into a new simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life.

As you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes, you'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. 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. Listen, beloved, joy doesn't come through you buying all the things you think you need. Buy them, enjoy them, find them, that's great. It doesn't come through that. It doesn't come through the things that you accumulate. It doesn't even come through you getting all your circumstances as perfect as you want. Joy comes more by someone looking at you and smiling.

So much so that some researchers I read this week say there is no authentic joy except through relationship. Have you ever had something like this happen? Some years ago, I bumped, I was in an odd place, I bumped into an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen in years. And this just popped into my mind in preparing this message this week. And I remember it so vividly. He was a dear friend. We played golf together.

We laughed together. And he had fallen on hard times. And he didn't fare well. His soul didn't fare well during it. He had walked sort of away from his joyous relationship with Christ. I had heard that he'd started drinking far too much.

And things weren't going well. And I bumped into him. I hadn't seen him in years. And I saw him across the room. And I looked at him. I'll call him Johnny. And I smiled. I said, Johnny. And he looked at me soured, weathered, sad, and disconnected. And then he scowled and said, I don't even know you. So what did my soul feel? Deflated.

That's sadness. That's a sigh, an inward sigh. So I stepped closer to him. I said, Johnny, it's Alan. He leaned in and looked. And all of a sudden, a huge grin came on his face. He said, Alan? I said, yeah, Johnny.

I haven't seen you forever. And he came over and gave me an embrace. And we smiled at each other.

What was happening right in that moment? The awakening of joy. This is how joy comes.

This is the return to Zion. This is the promise of God. For every single believer, there is a highway, a holy way that is found only through the gift of Christ and his precious shed blood on your behalf, where you can know, beloved, that you have been so thoroughly forgiven that he doesn't even see your sin. That's what I want you to think about when we take communion today. Every Christian, think of this, he doesn't even see it.

You are not stained in his eyes. And in fact, you have been given the righteousness of Jesus, and you can know this meditate in this, worship in this, receive this, and revel in it so much that you can come to the place that you know that when your father holds you and you look up into his eyes, what you see on his face is a giant grin. This is why he told the priests that they were to every one of them that they were to, every time they gathered, to lift their hands as if they were placing them on every congregant's shoulders and speak these words, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord be kind and gracious to you. The Lord make his face smile upon you. Because God was saying, I want my people when they're in Zion, I want all my people, I want all my children to be energized and fueled by my smile. I want them to feel a connection that brings an attachment and makes them secure as people of God.

I want them to know that I delight over them. And so what happens is that in our relationship with God, we are even more so than the natural picture of a baby with a mother. We in the spirit, we receive the smile of God and we feel his acceptance and we feel his affection and we know his love. And then we smile back and there's something in God that is absolutely delighted by the joy of his children.

He is most satisfied when you're most happy. And this is what relationship with God is like. And this is how you can know joy. And this is why I can say to you with Isaiah, no matter your wilderness, you are not stuck. There is always a return to joy. When our baby Abigail was born, she was born into a squall, a storm of adversity and sorrow in our home.

Maybe the hardest time ever. Anne's baby sister had contracted a rogue cancer that eventually took her life. She would face chemotherapy. Anne had a health scare herself during those years. My father had a neurological event that had him hospitalized, potentially never to recover. Our nephew was born with special needs that threw her other sister and her family into trauma, living back and forth to the hospital.

Our church was for just a season understaffed. And it was just a storm of sadness. And Anne says she remembers nursing the baby. And as she's trying not to, she can't help herself because as she slows down enough to think about it all, she cries.

So, whereas baby Bennett was born into a giant pool of joy and laughter in our house, Abby came into tears. There are times in which there are feeble knees and weak hands and anxious hearts. There are wilderness times.

I don't know anybody who hadn't had wilderness times. So we grieved and received the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And He did comfort us.

And I cared for my dad. And he found his way out of the hospital, at least for a season. And sister, they began to find grace and manage with their new special needs kid that they loved.

And we got some staff at the church. And we returned to joy. We returned to joy. But then we looked at our little baby girl, and she had not. If you look back at our one-year-old pictures, you can't find Abigail Wright smiling. And you know what we didn't do? We didn't say, well, I guess this is our melancholy child.

That's not what we did. We said, no, your name is Abigail, which means in Hebrew, my father's joy. And you are made for joy. And we began speaking the prophecies of Isaiah and the oil of gladness over her life. And we would put her to bed at night with the assurances of our biggest smile. And then I'd whisper prophetic prayers of her destiny of joy.

And we had awakened her in the morning. And we would have joy. And we would show her joy. And if she ever did smile, we would stay with that smile forever. And if she ever did laugh, I'd get on the floor. I'd roll with her and laugh with her. I'd do anything I could because she's Abigail. She's her father's joy. We said, this isn't your destiny. And I can't point to a day it happened.

It just happened. She found her laugh. If you don't know Abby, well, she's about one of the happiest people I've ever known because there is always a pathway back to joy.

You get there by seeing your Father's face in heaven smiling on you. It's why I start every message asking if you're ready for some good news. And at the end, I tell you that's the gospel because every bit of what God has done in His revelation of Jesus Christ to us is to invite us into a kingdom where the default posture of the human heart becomes joy.

You were made for this. From the time you were a baby, you were made to come in and see your mom smile and then start laughing and sometimes get terrified and go back to joy. That's the normal Christian life. Always the return to joy. Alan Wright, our Good News message, the return to joy from the series, Joy of Every Longing Heart.

He stayed with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day right here at Christmas in just a moment. Seeing as Jesus sees, it's the title of Pastor Alan Wright's newest book just released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Alan Wright invites readers into a new simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because, after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life.

As you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes, you'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. 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 in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. During this Christmas season, the conclusion of the message, the return to joy.

Pastor Alan, what's your closing word today? Well, I sure pray that everyone's had some joy on Christmas day, and that joy is much more than the opening of a few packages. And it's even more than the good cheer of maybe having had the chance to be with people we love. It's something deeper and more lasting than that.

It is the actual fellowship of God and recognizing that his face shines upon you. He's a father who takes delight in his children. And we are like babies that when they see their own parents smile, something inside of them lights up with joy. And we have that in the spirit.

And that's what God wants. He wants you to see on this day after Christmas that the coming of Christ is the expression of God's great delight and love for you. And the more that you see that, the more you see the delight that God has in you and the love that he has for you and Jesus Christ, then in that sense, as you see his smile, you return to joy and it becomes the posture of your life. May you be not just this Christmas season, but to every listener, may you be filled with the joy of the Lord. 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.