The Big Setup [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Would God ever make something more glorious than He?

Of course not. And this glorious God who is so awesome and above all and is so beautiful that He is more fragrant and glorious than the most beautiful red rose. This God who is artist and creator and power of the universe, He lives in us. 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 More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8 as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the 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 as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

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

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? It's all a big setup.

God's at work rigging your blessing. What did you think of that video? That's some trick shot, isn't it? I think about 70 different maneuvers by this teenager.

His name's Cree Ostner. Got bored, I guess, during COVID. Spent a couple of months putting it all together, gathered all this junk around his house, lawn chair, dartboard, skateboard, paint cans, everything. Put it all together so that one little shot at the beginning triggers all of these reactions like dominoes, one upon the other, until finally you get this amazing end result. And I want you to see it because I want you to think about your own life and think about the blessings in your life. And if you were to go back and kind of trace it back and how all the dots got connected, it kind of blows your mind. I was thinking this week about, she said, what are the greatest blessings in your life? I tell my wife, my kids, my grandbaby, my church.

How do those great blessings come about in your life? I got to thinking about it. I said, well, my wife, how'd you meet your wife?

I met her in a Bible study at University of North Carolina. And then you got to go, well, why were you at the University of North Carolina? And I said, well, I mean, I didn't even think about it.

I didn't really even think about going anywhere else. Well, why? I said, well, because I grew up watching Carolina basketball. Well, why'd you watch Carolina basketball?

I think about it. Well, my mother loved Carolina basketball because she loved a point guard named Phil Ford. And my dad loved football, but yeah, I don't remember him loving basketball that much. Well, why were you watching so much basketball with your mother? Because my dad left home when I was in the fourth grade. And a lot of times it was just mom and me.

They're watching, we'd be pulling on Carolina. So when it came time for college, I knew I was going to Carolina. Well, why were you in a Bible study at Carolina?

Well, that goes back also to the fact that dad left home. And when he did my mother crumbled down on her knees. And she said one night, God, if you're real, I need to know it because I feel like I'm sinking down. And if you don't, if you don't reveal yourself to me, then I'll probably just go down and take these three boys with me. And a few days later, a woman who was awakened that very night by the Holy spirit came and told my mother said, I was awakened in the middle of the night with you on my heart.

Is there anything you need? And my mom told her what was going on in her life. She introduced her to Jesus. My mom told us about Jesus. We fell in love with God.

So that's why I was at Carolina. And that's why I was at the Bible study where I met this beautiful, cute girl who was so deep spiritually. And I fell in love with her.

Well, how does that relate to you being at Rinaldo? Well, part of the way it relates to this is the fact that, that she was from Winston-Salem when I fell in love with her, I started visiting Winston-Salem and I fell in love with Winston-Salem while I was still in college. I thought I love this town.

I remember thinking I could envision living here. You know, it's weird how God will put a desire down in your heart and then later fulfill it. So we went to seminary for three years in Atlanta, and then I went and served in the church for seven and a half years in Durham.

And then this call came from Rinaldo. And that's a whole other story about how that blessing came about. But the fact of the matter is I already had a desire in my heart that I think God had planted there because he had gotten me to Carolina and got me in a Bible study where I'd fall in love with this incredible woman who was from Winston-Salem where I would find out I love Winston-Salem.

And so I knew that when I was saying yes to the call of God, I was also saying not just to a church, but to a city. If you were to chase all of your blessings back, you probably will find out like me, if you said, well, what was the worst, worst thing that happened in your childhood? I'd say, well, my dad leaving home. But if you said, well, what are the best blessings of your life? How to tell you? I said, my wife, my family, my grandkids and my church.

Well, how those come about? I'd say, well, Jesus back in his related to my dad leaving home. So in that sense, good thing my dad left home. Worst thing ever.

Best thing ever. So God is able to work together. The word is synergy, synergos. He is able to bring things together that you wouldn't be able to figure could fit together for your good. And so we come today to what is one of the best known and most loved verses in the Bible, which is in what someone has called the best chapter and the best epistle in the best book that was ever written. Romans eight and 28.

We've been learning a lot to get us to this point. We learned first of all, in the opening chapters of Romans, why everything went so wrong, the problem of sin. And then we have learned what God has done in Jesus Christ to set everything right.

And that's called justification. That's called Jesus becoming our righteousness, fulfilling the law that we couldn't fulfill so that when we accept Christ, we're given the gift of his own righteousness, not by our merit, not innately righteous, but God looks upon us as if we'd never sin. And then we learn in Romans five that hope has a process that there is a way in which our suffering produces an endurance up under the weight of it, which produces character.

And out of that character comes this hope in which we abide. And we discovered that in chapter six, that there is a way in which God through this glorious gospel truly sets us free. So we're no longer slaves to sin, but we discover in chapter seven that there still is a battle with the old nature, the flesh, he calls it, the old part of us that used to just rely on ourselves and was selfish apart from God.

So you're spiritually born a new, but you've got to struggle going on. And then thanks be to God, he says, it's Jesus Christ who delivers us. And we get to chapter eight, where we're spending, we're spending weeks in chapter eight, the best chapter in the best epistle and the best book that's ever been written. And here in chapter eight, we discover that God dwells in us. And I asked you to pause with me in that message to think not just about, oh yeah, how glibly we say, I've got Jesus in my heart, but to really reflect on this creator who has made a thousand billion suns, that all are burning at 50 million degrees Fahrenheit. A glory and heat so intense we can't come within a hundred million miles of it. And would God ever make something more glorious than he?

Of course not. And this glorious God who is so awesome and above all, and is so beautiful that he is more fragrant and glorious than the most beautiful red rose. This God who is artist and creator and power of the universe, he lives in us. And then what we learn in Romans eight is that he is abiding us by the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of adoption. And we saw that the spirit of adoption is it worked to convince us that we are children of God. And this is what brings us to these glorious verses of Romans 8, 28, 29 and 30.

It begins with really knowing yourself to be a child of God, because notice who the promise is for. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. And this is Paul's phrase here to describe every Christian. He doesn't mean here that some days as a Christian, I love God. And some days I don't feel like I have much affection for him.

And on the days that I love him a lot, that he's really working for my good. No, this is a phrase, a way of saying for Christians, for those who's the ruling force of their life has been, they love God. They believe in Jesus. They've accepted what God's done. So for those who love God and that, that means that this promise of Romans 8, 28 is for the children of God.

It's not for everybody. It's for the believer. It's not, it's this, this promise is not for the unbeliever. It doesn't mean that God doesn't love everybody, but there are promises in God's word that are just for his children. And what those promises do, if you're a child of God is they bring joy and assurance in your life. And if you're not yet a believer, this kind of promise should make you want to just immediately say yes to the saving grace of God. Those who love God, he's at work, bringing all things together for the children of God, the Holy spirit, convincing us that we're children of God so that we can believe Romans 8, 28 it's for us.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus, answering the two biggest questions of life, what went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV scripture journal, immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights, prayers, and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek portable journals amplify your study enrich group sessions and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures. Help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. 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. Got to spend a whole week at the beach with a family, which meant that grandbaby Mia was there. Oh, she's just getting cuter, seven and a half months old. And, um, we just haven't just having so much fun. I don't remember if I've told you, I've decided on my grandfather name. I, uh, I, I've thought long and hard about it. Now I know everybody says, if she starts calling you something else, you just got to go with that.

So it may, it may change, but I thought long and hard about it. And, and the Holy spirit we learned for Paul and Romans eight bears witness to our spirit that we're children of God by which we call out Abba father. So in America, uh, we, we might have the first words of a baby to call a father might be dad, dad. And so we get daddy, but in a lot of cultures, especially in some middle Eastern cultures, um, they realize that one of the easiest things a baby says, and they say early on is Abba Abba Abba Abba. And so, and so Abba is an Aramaic expression for daddy. And it's, it's extraordinary to think of this, that God by the Holy spirit wants to not only bear witness to your spirit, that you're a child of God, but, but does so in a way that you become like a little toddler.

And the way that you would think of God as your father is not as the great omnipotent omnipresent paternal presence, but as daddy. Oh, it's just fun. All week long, just getting to play with, play with his baby. I love babies. That's love babies. You know, I've found little things, you know, one thing I love about little Mia is that she she'll let you love her. She'll let you love her. She's on the move and she's thinking that she's doing this, but, but, but if you're showing her some affection, she's got a way she can just lean into it.

And one of the things I've just, you know, you find these silly, stupid little things that you do and a grandparent will do anything to get the baby to smile or be happy. And one of these things that I don't know how to discover, I had her up just close to my face like this and around on her cheek and near her ear and then back on her neck. And I'm doing this sort of a helicopter like sound like, I don't know if it's kind of tickles her when I do it or it sounds funny, but I'll just go all over the back of it. And she'll just lean back into it. She'll press herself into the, into her. I like watching her.

I like watching her with my wife because my wife, she's, she's just a master with little kids. And, and so one, one day we're just sitting in the couch on the beach and at the beach and, and, and Anne's got these silly sunglasses on and got her tongue way out, making these funny faces. I don't know Mia thought was funny. She starts laughing. We're all just laughing twice. Mia fell over laughing. One time we were doing is laughing like this and Bennett was there.

He had to work some of the days and he's up in another room working, but he hears the laughter. He comes running down just because he's a dad who doesn't want to miss his baby laughing. I like, I like watching the baby. I like watching a baby with her dad.

I like watching Mia with, with Bennett. Then it's got, Bennett's got a beard and, and, and Mia, Mia, she'll, she'll, she'll like to be held by him. And sometimes she likes to touch things with her, not just her hands, but her feet.

And I get so tickled. Sometimes she'll, she'll be grabbing at his face and she'll take her feet up all into his beard. And it's, it's extraordinary thing because Bennett, like any father is a thousand times stronger than that baby. And if he were evil, of course he could crush her or squash her without hardly any effort, but instead, what does he do? He uses his superior strength to bless his child. He's a thousand times, a thousand times more knowledgeable than this baby. And he could use all of that knowledge to simply outmaneuver her or manipulate her.

But what he's really using all that superior knowledge is to organize and work on her behalf, doing what she doesn't even know that he's doing on her behalf. It is an extraordinary thing to think of, but most of what a father does for a baby, the baby never even knows how much more so has your father, your Abba, been at work with his superior strength and superior intelligence on your behalf. The reason the Holy Spirit as his first work in the believer's life after we're regenerated, the Holy Spirit's first work after bearing witness to Christ is to bear witness to you that you're a child of God.

So you begin to feel like a toddler in the arms of God, such that you could, you could call out to the creator of the cosmos, Abba, dada. The reason the Holy Spirit so wants to convince you of that is because when you know that he is your dada, when you see him that way, you can believe Romans 8 28. There's no point in trying to think about what all the rest of this means if you don't think much of God as your father. If you don't think much of God as your father, the eminent theologian of last century J.I.

Packer said, if you want to see some measure of a person's understanding of the gospel and what it means to be a Christian, then look and see how much they make of God being their father. And he also had this to say that God, before he made us, was infinitely happy in and of himself. But when he made us and then adopted us as his children, according to the scriptures, the heart of God is so tied up with our own well-being that in the words of theologian J.I. Packer, God has tied up his own happiness with ours and will not know in his own divine heart, unmixed happiness, Packer says, until he has all of his children out of trouble. This is the love of God.

This is how Romans 828 is possible. It is because it is for those who are the children of God. In other words, those that love God. And he says in that verse are called according to his purpose. And so these are two synonymous phrases.

They're saying the same thing. Those who love God. That's another way of saying Christian. And those who are called according to his purpose is another way of saying Christian.

To be called. Alan Wright, our good news message, the big setup from the series More Than Conquerors, the study of Romans 8. And Pastor Alan is back here in the studio in just a moment for today's parting good news thought.

Stick with us. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus, answering the two biggest questions of life.

What went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV scripture journal. Immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights, prayers and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek, portable journals amplify your study, enrich group sessions and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures. Help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. 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 now in the studio to share our parting good news thought from the day from Pastor Alan and the big setup. So in the, well pardon the pun, setup of the message and featured a video. I call it domino effect kind of stuff, but I love the, it is very elaborate backyard setup. This one particular guy on YouTube, a teenager named Cree gathered a bunch of household items, lawn chair, dartboard, paint cans, skateboard, everything to create what's called technically a Rube Goldberg machine, you know, series of actions, you know, set in motion like dominoes, but one thing touches another touches another. It started with a basketball through a hoop, I think. And then it just had all these household items.

It was so elaborate, been viewed millions and millions of times on YouTube. And the reason I play it is like, our lives are more like that than we realize. God is outside of time and he is able to arrange for blessings that you wouldn't think that this, what happens today might be linked to a blessing that's going to come days from now or years from now. And, but that's what I believe Paul is affirming here in Romans chapter eight, when he talks about the predestining power of God. The longer that I walk with God, Daniel, the more I have to admit it's all a big setup.

Every good and perfect gift comes down from above. Every blessing, ultimately in one way or another, it's been orchestrated by God. And this is what it means for God to predestine, for God to ordain and for ordain. It doesn't mean that everything's left up to some kind of fate and everything's been prearranged. It just means that God is more at work on our behalf than we realize.

It's a big setup in the sense that he's got one thing linked to the next, to the next, to the next things that will bless your life. 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 pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.