Why God Isn't Disappointed In You [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. A lot of us might spend too many of our days trying to cause God joy by our own performances or something, not realizing that what He delights in most is our own well-being.

The hope of God does not put us to shame because, and here is the emphasis, God's 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 am Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, It's All Right Now, from Romans chapters four through seven, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, we sure 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, and you can contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

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

Here is Alan Wright. I once knew of a church whose church mission, their motto statement was to cause God joy. And I remember at first being very drawn to that. I thought that's a delightful thought, the joy of God. But over the years, I've thought about it a lot because it leaves you then because, well, what does cause God joy? And I think a lot of us are confused by that, that sometimes we think what causes God joy is that we just served him really well. Preach a great sermon calls him joy. Show an act of sacrificial love calls him joy. But I think after having been a father and now a grandfather, that I'd have to say that that's not really ultimately the thing that makes a parent joyful, though you can be really proud of a child who does well at something.

It's not really that that causes them the most joy. You wouldn't even believe the antics that I will go to to get grandbaby Mia to smile. I do almost anything. I stand on my head.

I'll talk like Donald Duck. It's humiliating, you know, the things just to get one smile, because to see her smile or get a giggle out of a grandbaby, it does something inside of you. It just makes you it is it makes you so happy. The happiest that a parent can be is when their child is happy. If you want to cause a parent joy, be joyful. And if you want to cause God joy, here's how you do it.

You're joyful. In other words, what happens is in the parent's heart, they want their child happy and healthy and content and at peace. And when a child is like that, that is what makes the parent the happiest and the parent has a hard time being happy if the child isn't happy.

And so there's nothing like the laugh of a child to bring joy in the parent. I think God's like that. I think God's like that. And that a lot of us might spend too many of our days trying to cause God joy by our own performances or something, not realizing that what he delights in most is our own well-being. The hope of God does not put us to shame because, and here's the emphasis, God's love. This is the agape of God. And love is something that's a little confusing in our own culture because we've only got one word love.

And so what does it mean? Little children are funny when they talk about love. And I stumbled across this this week of what some little children said about love. Rebecca, age eight said, when my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time.

Even when her hands got arthritis too. That's love. A little boy said, uh, love is what makes you smile when you're tired.

That's good. Emily, age eight said, love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.

My mommy and daddy are like that and they look gross when they kiss. Noel, age seven said, love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt and then he wears it every day. Tommy said, love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well. One little boy said, love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left them alone all day.

Karen, age four. When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down a little stars come out of you. And maybe one of those brilliant statements I ever heard from a boy named Bobby, love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. The agape of God. Because there are four words for love in Greek.

C.S. Lewis in his book, The Four Loves speaks of them. Storge love is affection, eros like romantic love, philos like friendship love, agape, God's love. And to understand the nature of God's love, Lewis writes about a parallel concept of pleasure. And he says and helping to explain what God's kind of love is like, he starts with this idea of pleasures and says there are need pleasures and there are pleasures of appreciation. So need pleasure.

Is there something that you really require? And when you get it, it's very it's a great pleasure. It makes me think of the hot, hot summer football days and practices long practices.

My dad was our peewee football coach. And you put all that gear on and go out there and practice and all that heat. And on the way home, he would stop and pull into the 7-Eleven and let us get out and get a big, big bottle of Gatorade, lemon lime Gatorade cold out of the refrigerator at the 7-Eleven. And I'm telling you, it was almost worth all the heat and all the sweat just for the pleasure of drinking that Gatorade. I mean, there is nothing more delicious and satisfying when every cell in your body is thirsty to drink in that lemon lime electrolyte filled cold drink of Gatorade. Just chug it. Just chug it.

It's just that is a need pleasure. I'm glad nobody told me that when I turned 50. That the doctor would ask me to mix up a concoction.

You know what I'm talking about some of you, if you're over age 50, if you're over eight, I read somewhere, I think they're lower in the age to 45. So there you mix in the laxative and how many ounces then of this stuff do you do? It's a million, 128 ounces or something. And you drink it. You're not thirsty to start with. You're not even thirsty, but to prepare for a colonoscopy, you have to drink it. And so I mixed it with green Gatorade. That is not a pleasure by the time you're drinking your hundredth ounce of Gatorade with laxative in it. So there's a kind of a, there's a kind of a deep pleasure that can come because of some deep thirst inside of you. That if you didn't have the need, you didn't have the thirst.

It wouldn't be a pleasure at all. But CSO says there also is a pleasure of appreciation. And that's like when my wife and I were taking a walk this week and we rounded the corner on river bend drive and it was a warm afternoon and there was a gentle breeze. And if you had this happen before and especially in the spring, suddenly just the way that the wind shifted, it was a breeze and it just came upon us. And I'm not sure if it was gardenia or sweet honeysuckle, but all of a sudden the most beautiful aroma that just catches you by surprise. And we just pause and say, what is that beautiful smell? And we're looking around trying to figure out where it's coming from, what it is. And it just caused us pleasure, unexpected, unneeded, but appreciated.

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 ourselves 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.

So I think C.S. Lewis in this beautiful little book, The Four Loves, is talking about these need pleasures versus pleasures of appreciation so that then he can begin talk about the different ways that we can experience God's love and the different kinds of love that there are. That the same way that an appreciation pleasure is something that you just appreciate because of what it is, the thing in and of itself. And there is a way in which the more that you know of it, the more you appreciate it, right?

Like some art expert who can appreciate art in a way that someone else might not be able to. Some years ago, I received in the mail a big glossy magazine that I had not ordered. It looked like I'd had a subscription to it, came with my name on it and all, but I was sure I hadn't ordered it. It was the magazine is Cigar Aficionado. And I was pretty sure I hadn't subscribed because I've never had a cigar. And I didn't even know there was a magazine about cigars.

Who knew? I didn't have anything against cigars. I just don't know a thing about cigars. And so about a week later, I was with a group of guys, and one of them brought out a box of pricey Cuban cigars and he offered everybody one.

And the other guys were ecstatic. I declined. I said, I don't I don't it'd be wasted on me.

I thought about telling them, but I do have a nice magazine on the subject, but I didn't think that that would help my masculinity at all. And I don't know anything about cigars, but there are some things I'm an aficionado of. I'm a golf aficionado. Oh, I could bore you with details about golf. I want to go to the master so bad. I just want to go down there. I just want to walk around. I want to see the grass. I just want to look at the grass.

I could go to the master. Grass. I can recognize a pro golfer from 200 yards away by his swing when I can't see his face. I could talk to you about dimples on a golf ball and spin rates. I could talk to you about nuances of golf that would bore you out of your mind if you don't care a thing about golf. But I'm sort of this, you know, I appreciate it. I like it. That's the way pleasures of appreciation are.

They can grow. And there's something that's really important about this. Often with couples in premarital counseling over the years, what I'll do in our first session is ask the bride and the groom separately to write down 10 things that you really love and admire about your future mate. And I'm doing so towards the end of teaching them how to bless each other, which I think is an essential for marriage. And sometimes they sometimes they, one or the other struggles to come up with 10 things.

And I realized we got our work cut out for us. Usually what they write is informative, let you know something about their feelings for one another. But I found over the years that most of the time, initially, most of what they write down in their list of 10 is stuff like, I love how you have supported me through difficult times, or I love how you make me feel so inspired, or I admire how patient you are with me and things like that. And they're fine and they're compliments of sorts, but do you see how these are sort of need pleasures rather than pleasures of appreciation, how they are related to their own framework of need. And so then I'll ask them, okay, let's write another list, this one, a little bit different. And this time I'd like you to write down the things you admire and appreciate, but this time they must be true of the other, whether or not you exist.

That's a different, that's a different thing, right? And as deeper, and so it might be as simple as you have lovely eyes. That's true of you, whether or not, you know, whether or not I'm being blessed by them or not, or it might be as deep and profound as something like you have a beautiful way of discerning thoughts and feelings and needs of others.

And I think you have a gift of spiritual discernment, you see. So need love is like a need pleasure, Lewis says, and yet there's something that's like gift love. And this is sort of like a baby who has need love for its mother. Baby loves the mother. She has milk, she touches, she holds, she smiles, but the mother's love is more like gift love. Like, like I can't help myself, but love you. And all I do serve you and feed you and hold you and stay up at night for you and change your diaper. And I just give because I just love. And it's not because of, of something that I needed from you. I just need to give it.

And C.S. Lewis says, need love says of a woman, I cannot live without her. Gift love says, I long to give her happiness, comfort, and protection.

Appreciative love gazes and holds its breath and is silent and rejoices that such a wonder should exist even if not for him. And interestingly, and Lewis says this, our love for God begins with need love because we need God. We need, we need to be forgiven. We need to, we need his smiling face. We need, we need his teaching. We need his, we need everything from God and Lewis. And it's not wrong. It's not bad.

In fact, Lewis says it would be a bold and silly creature that came before its creator with the boast. I'm no beggar. I love you disinterestedly. Oh, we, we sing, I need you. Oh, I need you because we do need him.

And this is how we start our journey. We're babies and he feeds us and he holds us and he saves us and he, he protects us and he cares for us and we love him. And so in one sense to ever love God, Lewis says man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense, least like God for what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help.

That's, that's God, limitless power and we are a cry for help. So our love begins like that. But God's love is not need love.

He has no need. It's gift love from the get go. And this is God's love. Lewis says, this is primal love, gift love. In God, there is no hunger that needs to be filled only plenteousness that desires to give.

I go into all of this because what Paul's talking about in verse five is the agape of God. It's essential that we, we know this is the nature of the love of God. He doesn't have a need that needs to be filled in his love towards you. He is love. He is love.

That's why there is nothing you could do to warrant his love because he already loves. So having experienced the love of God, Paul says in verse five, the agape of God, it's a different kind of love. He goes on to say at verse six, that there is a way you can think about all of this. So on the days that you don't feel God's love, here's what you need to remember. He's saying, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. He died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love. So he's given us his love, but he's saying, now, here's how you should think about his love. Here's how he has demonstrated or proven his love. He shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So it's an argument from the greater to the lesser.

He's saying hardly would anybody die for anybody. Alan Wright, our good news message, why God isn't disappointed in you. From the teaching, it's All Right Now, an in-depth study of Romans chapters four through seven.

Stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining us in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Seeing is 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 ourselves 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 weeks 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 with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day, as we place the bookmark and continue next time with more of this teaching, why God isn't disappointed in you.

Pastor Alan, have you ever had anybody almost argue with you though? No, no, God, I think he is a little bit upset right now. I think that we get confused between, on the one hand, our sin is a violation of who we really are in Christ. And in that sense, God, no, he does not look with a delight upon our sin. He convicts us of that sin so that we can be changed.

But there's a very difference when we think about our personhood and who we are. And to understand the gospel more deeply, when Paul says, while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. To really think about that, and this is where I want all of us is thinking about this all throughout this day, is that if God died for you, knowing all of your sin, what does that say about how you can't really disillusion God? Because if he already knows the worst about you, then it's impossible for you to think about you in that sense to be a disappointment to God. It's not an endorsement of our sin.

It is a clarification of who we are in the eyes of God. 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.