Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. So Adam's sin was imputed to all of us because we were born in Adam, but when you're born again in Jesus Christ, his righteousness is imputed to you. It's summed up in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Lord is our righteousness. 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, He Alone is Worthy, as presented at Reynolda 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 Allen Wright Ministries.
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Here is Allen Wright. So I've been trying not to say too much about our flood saga at our house because nobody wants to hear it. But here's what happened. In short, it was a clog because a broken pipe where roots had grown in, clogged it up, backed up water out of that septic line, flooded my hole downstairs. So the disaster company came. They said, we got to pull off your entire hardwood floor and then we got to cut into all the walls and get the sheet rock out and we got to come in and we got to dry it and then we got to treat it and we got to clean it and we got to dry it and then you can start repairing it after that. And I was like, what do I do with all this stuff? They said, we're going to put it in two pods out in your driveway.
And so life's been dealing with that. But I told the disaster guy, I said, he's a great guy, Charles. I said, Charles, here's the thing. This was before Thanksgiving. I said, I got my kids and my grandbaby coming on December 17th today and we're going to get all cleaned up, get a new floor in so that we can at least have them come because you know, we got to.
I said, it's the goal. He said, Mr. Wright, you're not going to be in by December 17th. I said, Charles, I rebuke that. I just absolutely rebuke that. And where's your faith?
Give me some faith. Anyway, I've been working this thing, right? The things that you can do, and I'm telling you one thing, if you've ever been at a project like this, you ever notice if you don't stay on top of it, nothing happens. It's like, it's like this whole, this whole, what's that, what's that principle of physics where everything tends towards disorder? Entropy. It's just like, like everything is just, you know what I'm saying? If you don't stay active, weeds take over your garden. So you got to just be on this all the time.
You call it, Hey, you know, plumber, I have four different cameras going down the pipe. I look at that, you know, you're just constantly, and if somebody doesn't show up, you've got these dominoes lined up and they all got to be in place. Well, the most important domino was I ordered this beautiful floor and it said it'd be there in five to 10 days. So the latest that it would show up would be Monday.
It's past Monday. So I had floor installer lined up for Monday and Tuesday, small Christmas miracle to be able to get a floor installer that quickly lined up for Monday and Tuesday. And the dominoes are in place.
They are falling one after the other. We are going to be in this house. I get an email from the floor provider saying, sorry, there's been a delay to your order. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no delay.
There will be no delays here. And, uh, but I, there's a big company. I can't, I'm not in charge of that. I finally got somebody on the phone, took an hour, got somebody and I said, where is my floor? And they said, well, I can tell you this, it's in our distribution center in Savannah. I went in and told my wife, sweetie, babe, I said, uh, bad news. I said, uh, got an email said the floor is being delayed and this could just ruin all the dominoes. And she said, well, what do you know? I said, it's in Savannah. She kept, she said, can I drive down there and get it?
I said, that's not the way it works, baby. It, no, it's deep in a warehouse or something that you can't go get it. And so now all of a sudden the one thing that's like, I can't control is getting the floor. It's got to get here, but I can't control that. So I'm just, yeah, I got prayer records going out floor, you know, Hey, by the way, Wednesday afternoon during our Christmas staff party, I got a text from the floor provider and it said the floor is in.
I moved my God to Thursday and Friday. We got a floor in now. So anyway, that's right. My point about whole story is, isn't life kind of like this?
You do all you can do and what you do matters a lot, but if the floor provider is unrighteous, this whole project isn't going to be right. If the maker of the car's not righteous, the car's not going to run right. So in the end there is someone or some thing that's higher than you that in the end you're either benefiting from or suffering because of, and that's just the way it is. So in America, we have a hard time understanding how dire this is because we don't have a king and we've got a really good system.
Our founders were inspired to set up where there is checks and balance between these three branches of government. It's a good thing because we don't trust people enough to have a king. We revolted against a king and came here and started a new way of a democratic kind of government, a republic, right?
So we don't, we get real worried about our election and all uptight and election's real important, but we don't have a king and you know, we got Democrats, we got Republicans, they come and go and you know, you're not a king. But if you're in a monarchy, if you're in a monarchy and you get a tyrant and you get an unrighteous king who's only selfish and goes after idols and is bad for everybody, that's what had happened to Israel. With one bright spot, King David. Here we are Jeremiah 23 one, listen to the word of the Lord. He's the one who's established things such that higher authorities in your life end up impacting you.
And he designed it for the principle of blessing to be able to flow. But look what he says, woe to the shepherds. That's the metaphor for Kings. Woe to the Kings, to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who care for my people. You have scattered my flock and driven them away and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds declares the Lord. Then I will gather, I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I've driven them and I'll bring them back to their fold and they shall be fruitful and multiply. You've had bad Kings, he said, so I myself am going to do what a King should do.
That's what he's saying. And it's going to cause you to be reunited and together and fruitful and multiplying just like Adam and Eve were commissioned to do from the very beginning. Shepherd means King. It may be that when David said the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he meant a King. It could be that when Jesus looked out on the crowds and had compassion for them because he said they look like sheep who don't have a shepherd. He could have been saying they are people who don't have a good King.
At verse one of that Jeremiah 23, the problem begins with the Kings don't understand what the Lord is saying. They are sheep of my pasture declares the Lord. They're not really your sheep Kings. They're mine and you are my steward. You are my appointed one. You are my under shepherd. They're my sheep of my pasture. And he said that verse two that you have scattered the flock. You've driven them away and you've not attended to them. Bad leadership scatters drives away and is inattentive to the needs of the people.
That's what it looks like. So if we were to take time and go back and look at the chapter before our chapter, if we looked at Jeremiah 22, you'd see a litany of woes to the bad Kings because this is what Israel has had. Almost all have been bad Kings. David is an exception. Josiah is an exception, but after Josiah, here comes all these bad Kings and he, he names them. Like for example, in Jeremiah 22, 13, he says, this is son of Josiah Shalom. And he says, woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by injustice who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages.
You're using your people so you can have a fancier palace detestable in the eyes of God. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. In a world that often feels overwhelming, we all seek moments of encouragement and hope as a heartfelt thank you for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. When you give today, we're excited to send you our blessing box featuring 24 beautifully crafted cards filled with encouraging blessings from Pastor Alan. Each card offers daily inspiration and scripture on themes such as hope, strength, your identity in Christ, Thanksgiving and much more. This unique resource can be yours. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your blessing box.
These blessings are designed to uplift your spirit, providing encouragement whenever you need a boost. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from 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. The gospel is shared when you give to 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. That was one of Josiah's sons, Shalom. And then if you were to look at verse 21 of Jeremiah 22, another son of Josiah, Jehoiakim says, I spoke to you in your prosperity, Jehoiakim, but you said I will not listen.
This has been your way from your youth. You've not obeyed my voice. Another attribute of a wicked King. They run after idols. They don't listen to God. They don't want righteousness. And then to the son of Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 22, 30, this is to Kaniyia. Thus says the Lord, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah. This is what God says ultimately about wicked Kings.
They're not going to forever have the throne because God has promised to do something better, a better David. There's one King that's not mentioned in Jeremiah 22 by name, but he's there. He's there because all of this talk about righteousness and this is the King who is the last King of the Southern Kingdom of the people of God, Judah before 586 when Babylon sacks Jerusalem, deports all their people for 11 years, it was the rulership of Zedekiah. And the reason that's important, we'll come back to in a moment, but it's because Zedekiah's name contains the word righteousness in it.
And yet he was an idolater. All of this, these bad Kings in Jeremiah 22, it all stands in contrast to the promise of the King who would be righteous, like David, but better. Again, Jeremiah 23, five behold, the days are coming declares the Lord when I'll raise up for David a righteous branch. Isaiah 11 one, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. The whole hope of Israel is that God would fulfill his promise that he made to David in 2 Samuel 7 and said, I'll never remove my steadfast love from you and someone from your lineage will forever be on the throne. And that's what they were looking for. Someone who like David would expand their borders again, establish peace, bring prosperity and just be righteous.
I mean, David has terrible sin with Bathsheba, but his heart was a worshiper of God and one who was attentive to his people. They just want something like that. They're looking for the righteous branch. The one is of David's family and is so righteous.
We need that King. That's why by the time Jesus was born, they had grown a huge anticipation that the new King would be coming soon. That's what the Magi had heard, traveled all that distance. So this righteous branch shoots up from a stump like a tree that's fallen over and then there's this big stump that still has a little life in it and a green shoot comes up from it that could become an even better, more glorious tree. The righteous branch, the new good shepherd who will not scatter, but will gather the sheep so they won't be lost and they won't be afraid. They will be saved and secure.
That was the prophecy. Can you see Jesus in this? So here's what's beautiful.
I want you to see this. A little bit of Hebrew here because it's really beautiful and powerful what's happening. That the new King would be called the Lord is our righteousness because it stands in contrast to the last King God's people ever knew, Zedekiah. So whenever you hear Yah, it's short for Yahweh and Yahweh shows up in your Bible in capital letters, the Lord.
Because when Moses said, who shall I tell him sent me? He said, tell them Yahweh, which is rendered or translated, I am who I am or I will be who I will be. Yahweh, considered by the Hebrew people too holy to even utter out loud. Yahweh, Yah for short when you see it in words.
So where do we say it all the time? Hallelujah. Hallelu praise Yahweh, the Lord. So Zedekiah comes from Zedek, righteousness and Yah. And the name Zedekiah means the Lord is righteous, but Zedekiah was not. Unrighteous King, all the people suffer. Righteous King, all the people are blessed.
May not seem fair, but it is what it is, is it not? It's why we do care about our leadership, right? It's why bad King after bad King after bad King, wicked idolater, selfish, fleshly, wicked King after wicked King in Israel. And finally it rains down suffering on all the people and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded, sacked Jerusalem and took their people away because their Kings were so bad. Yeah.
Right? So we're all praying about the Hamas Israeli war. You know, things get complicated, but this much wasn't complicated. Terrorists came over a border and on purpose killed innocent people and delighted in slaughtering the innocence just to terrify because their mission is to wipe them out. And in our understanding of just war and the history of the world and today that justifies war against that people.
And that's what's had to happen. Now we've got like, gosh, we care so much about people that didn't sign up for this war. I got an email this week from a friend who has a Christian Palestinian pastor in Gaza. Please pray for him that no house got nowhere to live. Everybody's now had to flee down south in Gaza. Got Lebanese pastor friend who's saying, pray for us.
We don't want the war coming for us. And everybody's having to get displaced from the lower regions of Lebanon to get up closer to Beirut where they're safer away from the skirmishes. The thing's awful. It's a mess.
Right? And so lots of people in Gaza that are suffering so much and they, they didn't want the Christian pastor and Palestinian in Gaza, he didn't want to invade Israel. He didn't want to go kill the Jews. He didn't want to do that. But his wicked, stupid leaders, terrorists who were at the helm did and everybody's suffering. And that's sad.
I'm just saying unrighteous leadership and lots of things don't go right for people under that. Righteous King and all kinds of things go right. Alan Wright, today's teaching, worthy is the righteous branch of David from the series.
He alone is worthy. Merry Christmas to you. I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio sharing his parting good news. Thought for us all in just a moment in a world that often feels overwhelming. We all seek moments of encouragement and hope as a heartfelt thank you for your partnership with Alan Wright Ministries. When you give today, we're excited to send you our blessing box featuring 24 beautifully crafted cards filled with encouraging blessings from Pastor Alan. Each card offers daily inspiration and scripture on themes such as hope, strength, your identity in Christ, Thanksgiving and much more. This unique resource can be yours. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your blessing box.
These blessings are designed to uplift your spirit, providing encouragement whenever you need a boost. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from 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. The gospel is shared when you give to 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 good news parting thought for the day. And if you ever want to just simply be amazed and say, wow, a lot, you start pulling the thread of prophecy as to the lineage of Jesus, tracing it back to David and even back before that. And in that you find worthiness, you find the righteousness, and that's Jesus. And this, to go back to this text that we had today from Jeremiah 23, in the, in his days, Judah will be saved, Israel, Jerusalem.
And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. And this is to say Yahweh, the covenantal name for God, is our tzedekah, our righteousness. Yahweh is our righteousness.
This is just extraordinarily beautiful in its prophetic power. Because what this is saying is not only that was it prophesied that someone from David's house and lineage would be on the throne forever, but that, that there would be a way in which the righteousness of this King is somehow becoming ours. The Lord is our righteousness. And this is what's beautiful about being a Christian is that it's not our own righteousness that saves us. And it's not our own righteousness that purifies us or, or justifies or, or glorifies us. It's the righteousness that is imputed to us.
It's just such a powerful thing to think of. God looks upon the Christian as if you had lived the meritorious life of Christ. That's what it means to be imputed with his righteousness. Well, when you think like that, Daniel, it changes everything. The Lord is our righteousness. And all that was prophesied and fulfilled in Jesus, the savior of the world. So your wow then turns to thanks.
Thanks. As we're looking towards the end of the year, just a gentle reminder here before life gets too incredibly busy with holidays. As a listener funded organization, Alan Wright Ministries exists to proclaim the good news of the gospel, and we could not do it without your help. End of the year giving is very important. Yeah, Daniel, especially those that if you've thought about maybe helping us, this would be an excellent time to do that is that we start coming to the end of the year. We know that there are many wonderful ministries and charitable opportunities that compete for our attention. If you've been blessed and you want to see the gospel of radical grace announced to others, your year end giving is vital for us to be able to continue the ministry.
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