Why God Isn't Disappointed In You [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. What does cause God joy?

And I think a lot of us are confused by that. Sometimes we think what causes God joy is that we just served Him really well. 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.

Okay. Are you ready for some good news? In this world, there are going to be lots of things that you find out that you're disappointed in, and they're going to be people that are disappointed. But beloved, you are no disappointment to God. You are His delight.

In fact, I'm going to show you in Christ, you can't be a disappointment to God. I was in the fifth grade, one of my best friends, a guy named Bruce, he was mischievous. By today's standards of mischief, it wasn't mischief at all, but I was a goody two shoes, and Bruce, he didn't mind getting in a little bit of trouble. But I was always the teacher's pet and the one who did everything right, and Bruce was always trying to bring me over to the dark side. The last day of school on the long bus ride home from Blumenthal Elementary School, I was in fifth grade, and there was this custom that had developed on the last day that kids, pranksters would try to sneak a squirt gun into their backpack, and on the way home squirt people on the bus. By today's standard, it seems quite tame, doesn't it?

But it was a big deal. He tried to get me to smuggle a squirt gun into my backpack. And finally he convinced me, and it went against my nature to violate all the school rules, and I put a squirt gun down in the backpack. And first time ever, don't you know it, that day the teacher decided to search all the backpacks.

Before letting us, school would just finish, it's out for the summer, I'm getting ready to get on the bus, and the teacher comes over, and I'm her favorite. She thinks I'm perfect. And comes over and searches the backpack, searches Bruce first, because she knows he's going to have, he had three squirt guns in his. And she just like I said, Bruce, can't take these squirt guns on there, you know. And then she came over kind of perfunctory to check mine, because of course she knew I wouldn't have fallen into such grievous sin.

And she went through, sort of through and down at the bottom she found a squirt gun. Oh, I still feel it. I feel it right now when I tell the story. That look on her face, just devastated, like she thought she had one good student, you know.

And just shook her head to Allen, like that. Like, like, you too? Just disappointed. And that's something I can remember that feeling from fourth, from fifth grade, and feel it still.

It's a terrible feeling for some authority to be disappointed in you. And a lot of people think of God that way. A lot of people think that our life is sort of like a backpack filled up with stuff, you know. And that every now and then the father tells the son to do a surprise search of the backpack. Some people think judgment day will be like that, you know, like Jesus, go over there, search those backpacks.

It's the last day of school. You know, like, like he's going to open up my backpack and first they'll find some books, you know, maybe you find some of my own books. Oh, you wrote some books about Jesus. Okay. That's in your favor. And then digs a little deeper and he starts finding old Kit Kat wrappers and stuff down in there.

And like, what are you eating? And, and then eventually digs down to the bottom, you know, and finds a squirt gun. Like Allen, I'm disappointed. It's a hard thing to think of living with any authority in your life who's disappointed in you, but how hard is it to think of living with God like that? And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul has words for us today that speak of the love of God, God's kind of love that has been shed abroad in our hearts so that we would sense his love. But then Paul goes on to show God's love through a beautiful logical argument from the greater to the lesser. And in the end, what it does is shows us how not only to live in that love, but how to think about that love. And it leads us in the end to realize that we can't disappoint God because he already knows what's in the backpack. Verse five and the ESV hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Who's been given to us. I like the new living translation. So this hope will not lead to disappointment for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. So this is the promise of God and everything that follows this in verses six to 11 is to say what you have experienced of the love of God.

There's a way to think about all of this. Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story that in it told a story, a sort of a common little story that had been told in different ways in Spanish culture about a father who had a wayward son who had brought shame upon the family and the father was seeking him out to find him and to forgive him and welcome him home, but he couldn't find him simply by wandering the streets of Madrid. So instead he put an advertisement in the local newspaper, El Liberal, and the advertisement said Paco meet me at the Hotel Montaña at noon Tuesday. All is forgiven.

Love, Papal. And on Tuesday he went hoping that his son might be there and found that there were 800 young men because Paco was such a common name. They were all hoping maybe it was their dad who was telling them all is forgiven. The idea of having a father or a father figure be disappointed in you is particularly painful. Some years ago, maybe 20 years ago, I had been discipling along a young man and he had at some point made some, I thought, poor decisions. And when I was talking to him about it afterwards, because his decisions had hurt some other people, I said, I'm disappointed in the way you did that. And I didn't say I'm disappointed in you. And I didn't say, you're a disappointment.

And I just said, I'm disappointed in the way you did that. And some three or four months later, he told me it was the most devastating thing he'd ever heard that he felt like it was his father telling him he was a disappointment and made a decision. I'm just not going to use that word in conjunction with anything I'd say to anybody, because it's so easily construed as if there's a father who just thinks of his son or daughter as a disappointment. And the idea that he's not proud of me is something that drives us. And it fuels perhaps most of the problems in our whole culture, in a culture that's become increasingly fatherless. And if you've had a father or a mother or another authority figure in life, it holds a really high standard for you.

And you haven't met those standards and you feel like you're disappointment to them. It's very natural in one sense to start projecting these same thoughts towards God. And of course, we want to please God.

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 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. His teaching now continues.

Here once again 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. 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, 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 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 CS Lewis 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 Riverbend 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. 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 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 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. Right here now with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day, as we place a bookmark here and come back with more teaching next time, why God isn't disappointed in you.

And this is important to have sink in. Yeah, I think I've told this to some Christians before, and they say, well, you know, I know there are things that I do that wouldn't be pleasing to God. And it's not to say that every single thing that we do, of course, when we sin, that's not something God desires for us. And God doesn't find pleasure in our sin.

He's not pleased with that. But God is a father. And this is what's so important is that the hope of God does not lead to disappointment and then lead us to disappointment. And you don't ever have to have the feeling that you're a disappointment to God. He came in love for you, knowing ahead of time, everything that's wrong with you. And so let his love be poured out afresh in your heart today, knowing that though we do things that are contrary to God's will, we are his children and he loves us.

And in that sense, you'll never be a disappointment to God. delivered right to your email inbox for 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.