Building Hope [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. We use the word like, I wish it would be so, but I'm not so sure it will be. That is not at all the idea in the Bible.

Instead, the idea in the Bible is a notion of certainty about future blessedness. 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 4 through 7, 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, beloved, are you ready for some good news? Three words. There is hope. There is hope. The world has grown dark, but there's hope. There is much despair all around us, but there is hope. There is confusion and angst and hatred, but oh, there is hope. Hope and the glory of God.

Hope that never will put us to shame. Hope that energizes and transforms every facet of our life today. This hope is what Paul turns his attention to in Romans 5, where we have been learning so much about the justification, the crediting of Jesus's righteousness to us and the imputation of our sin to Jesus. That now when we come to chapter five, we can turn our attention to how much hope this produces. Hope.

How it's built. What we're going to talk about. My doctor wanted me to read a book called Younger next year.

That's insulting right in of itself. Younger next year implies that, you know, you're not getting any younger, so you need to do something about that. And so I put it off for a while, but I did get to it first, a little humor from some older people.

I've sent me these things. One fellow sent me something said my goal for 2023 was to lose 10 pounds. Hallelujah.

Only have 14 to go identify with. I don't know why this one struck me as funny. Someone said, I just did a week's worth of cardio after walking into a spider web. You know, someone said, I didn't mean to brag, but I finished my 14 day diet food supply and only three hours and 20 minutes. There's a there's a good old person.

I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going with this. Oh, a thief broke into my house last night. One old guy wrote he started searching for money, so I got up and searched with him. So I read younger next year. The author said, whatever you call it in our forties and fifties, our bodies switch into a quote default to decay mode.

Thank you for that information. And it said, in the free ride of youth is over and the absence of signals to grow your body and brain decay and you age. So how do we keep ourselves from decaying? By changing the signals we send to our bodies. The keys to overriding the decay code are daily exercise, emotional commitment, reasonable nutrition and real engagement with living. But it starts with exercise.

And then this line, which I'll tell you, becomes the theme of the book. You have to exercise all the time. You know, in other words, you have to put your muscles under stress regularly. Let's think about that for a moment in the natural and we're drawing an analogy here spiritually, but in the natural, you have to put your muscles under the strain of feeling uncomfortable regularly. And it's the design of God that that you feel in your muscles, your body uncomfortable and exercising, preferably six days a week. It's more comfortable to lie on the couch muscles atrophy.

When we lie on the couch, we have to do the things that make us feel uncomfortable in order to be more healthy. And the most startling quote from younger next year was this said, a man who's 30 pounds overweight, smoking a pack a day, but exercising every day has a lower statistical mortality than a thin sedentary nonspoker. This is not an invitation to be overweight and smoke, but it is a point to say, wow, how much God made our natural body to exercise.

For muscles to feel under pressure of something, even if it's just a brisk 25 minute walk where your muscles are under a little bit of stress. If that's the case in our physical being, then we mustn't be surprised that there is a way in which something happens in the spirit when our souls are put under the stress of the world and the adversities and the sufferings of this world. So what Paul is going to show us in this text is not that God delights in our suffering or that we are thankful for the suffering, but there is a way to rejoice in our adversities and reframe your thinking about the difficult things that you have to bear up under because there's a process of building hope. So I want to, I want to, I want us to see in this text what hope really is biblically and how this sort of spiritual muscle grows in our souls. Verse one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, that's what he's been talking about in Romans one through four. This incredible exchange wherein Jesus through the gift of the cross and resurrection takes the sin of any believer into his own being and gives his righteousness so that God, for the believer, looks upon it as if Jesus had committed your sin and he looks upon you as if you had lived Jesus' meritorious life.

That is, that is justification. That is what it means to be credited with righteousness. Credited with righteousness. And so now Paul's turning our attention with this, therefore, since we've learned all about this justification by faith, here are some of the amazing benefits. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And it starts here because there is no comparison between the importance of having peace with your friends or brothers and sisters and the necessity of having peace with God. That we need peace with God more than we need peace with anyone. And you can understand this like you need peace in your most important, whatever your most important relationship is, you need peace there more than you need it anywhere else.

Right? This is a wife came home screeching into the driveway, so excited, ran in the house, said to her husband, pack your bags. I won the lottery.

And he said, wow, should I pack beach stuff or mountain stuff? She said, doesn't matter. Just get out. I don't know why my wife keep laughing out loud at that one. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't need you anymore.

It doesn't matter. Just get out. Every husband knows happy wife, happy life. You need to have peace and your most important relationship or all the other relationships in which you might have peace don't really matter. I could be happy with everybody at work and happy with my friends and at peace with everybody and then at home, nothing but strife. And my life is just strife filled. If I've got peace with my wife, I can put up with a lot of other strife filled relationship in my life.

Well, this is in a more cosmic way. What what is being said here, the great joy of our justification is that you have peace with God. And this this notion of peace is not like, oh, you have serenity and and happy feelings now with God is much bigger than that. It is to say that, as James said in James four for that friendship with the world is like enmity with God and that when you're in Christ, there is something that is more akin to enmity with God that has now become friendship with God.

Wow. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. 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 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.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. It is to say that the problem of the hostility, Paul says in Ephesians, between us and God. And you say, well, I don't feel like I was ever hostile towards God.

This is the way Tim Keller puts it. When you sin, you not only break his law, but you assume the right or authority to do so. You claim kingship over yourself and your world. But God claims kingship over the same things.

Whenever two parties claim absolute kingly control over something, there is war. And that war, when you're in Christ, ends. And you have peace with God. And what this means is something very beautiful to the Christian, verse two. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Access, and this is the idea of being introduced to someone you would never otherwise be introduced to. Every January, for two and a half days, for the last number of years, I join other lead pastors from our denomination in a gathering in Orlando, Florida, at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando.

We could go to Detroit in January, but we decided for Orlando. And we laugh, and we tell senior pastor stories. We let our hair down, and we don't have much hair to let down, but we really enjoy each other, and we learn a lot from one another, and we talk about what we've been learning. We ask questions of one another. And on Wednesday afternoon of this, 10 of us play golf.

And it's one of the most beautiful things in the world. On Wednesday afternoon of this, 10 of us play golf. And it's one of my favorite days, not just of that week, but of the year. And it's just fun to play golf in Orlando in January. The first year I went, one of the pastors sliced his first tee shot, and he said, oh no, I think I'm under the palm trees. And somebody said, yeah, you're under the palm trees.

So we rejoice in that. And so imagine my disappointment this year, when I signed up for the golf, like always, and it came back and said full. I called my buddy at First Prez, Orlando. I said, full. He said, yeah, we're playing a different golf course this year, and we're only allowed to take eight people.

And I was the ninth. The reason it's so disappointing is not just a fellowship with these guys, but there is a wealthy benefactor in First Prez, Orlando, who's been blessing our socks off now for years. He's a developer, and he developed these premier golf communities that we would never be able to play, certainly never afford to be a part of. And he treats us to the whole afternoon.

And it's just luscious. And then he pays our golf and caddies and buys us dinner afterwards. And I was like, oh, I'm a miss this great afternoon. They said, listen, come on out. We're playing a different place. Same guy developed this other place at Lake Nona and said, it's just as nice.

And I said, it's got this gorgeous practice facility. It'll be just come out, hit balls. And then afterwards, join us for the big long dinner. We're going to have on the upper patio of the country. I said, well, that sounds good too.

You know, but I was still disappointed. We pull up to the gate and we say, we're here to play golf. And the guard looks down and he goes, what's your name? We told him. So then we said, we're here. I'll call the benefactor. Mr. Williams. I said, we're here as guests of Mr. Williams. The gate goes up, come right in. Mr. Williams.

He built the whole place. And so we go in and my guys go off to play golf. It's a little bit sad, but it was the prettiest practice facility I'd ever seen.

I felt out of place. I didn't barely wanted to hit balls off such beautiful grass and mess it up and chop it around out there. I went over to get some golf balls to hit. And they said, what kind do you want to hit?

I said, what do you mean? I mean, terrible golf range balls. Isn't that what you hit?

No, they're going to be titleist golf balls. I go down to the end and I'm feeling like, man, this is nice. And it was sunny. And there was a lady down at the very end. I went down next to her a few steps away from her and I was hitting, you know, chopping away at it. Hadn't played much golf laughing, you know, and looking at her, I mean, she is good. I mean, I just watch her swings.

It's like, great hit a couple more hacking at it. And then I look at her and she's like, she's got a perfect swing. And then I noticed she had one of these expensive track man devices that tracks the launch of your golf ball and all this.

And I'm like, good and rich. And then I was feeling more and more out of place, you know, like, what am I doing here? And, but I'm a guest of Mr. Williams. And then somebody came and spoke to her and she had an accent. And I realized after a while I was spending the afternoon hitting balls next to the undisputed greatest female golfer of all time, Annika Sorenstam was right there. And I was just like getting a free lesson, just watching her hit golf balls all afternoon. Then went over the putting green and watched how she practiced her putting, because I was a guest of Mr. Williams and the guys came off the golf course and they said, so sorry, you didn't get to play with us.

I said, that's all right. We went up and we had this dinner on this over private patio and, and everybody knew we were guests of Mr. Williams. So the general manager of the club came out and spoke to us, you know, he thought we were important.

He was kind of disappointed to find out we were Presbyterian pastors. You have been granted access. The justification gives you peace with God, no more enmity, but much more. Through Jesus, you have access into the riches of God's glory.

It is hard for me to believe this, but we must believe this. Because you're in Christ and because your sin has been cast as far as the east is from the west, and because you have been credited with the righteousness of Jesus, so it is as if you lived his meritorious life because of our justification, you have every bit as much in God's eyes, right in his presence, as does the only begotten son of God. Only begotten son of God. Glory to God. We have a hard time with that.

Like I'm like, what am I doing hitting golf balls next to Annika Sorenstam at this posh place, Mr. Williams? Who am I to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies? You're in Jesus.

We make too little of our justification. He paid too dear a price for us not to enjoy our access to the Father. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message, Building Hope from the series, It's All Right Now, from Romans chapters four through seven. Hey, stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio to share his parting good news thought for us all for today in just a moment. 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. Make your day with Pastor Alan and our party. Good news thought for the day as we kick off this teaching. Placing a bookmark here, it's Building Hope. Well, hope is what the world needs now. And every one of the listeners, I just want to say, let our lives be fueled by the hope of the gospel. We are a people called to mere wishful thinking, but we're called to the kind of peace and joy that comes by being assured of a blessed future because of what Jesus has done for us. So there's hope. Whatever you're going through now, let me say it again. In Jesus Christ, there's hope.

There's hope. It'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 Alan Wright Ministries.