Foolproof Self-Worth [Part 1]

Alan White, pastor, Bible teacher and author of his latest book, the power to bless proclamation of the gospel should have this result in the in that we love ourselves. Esther Allen welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. Deliberate excited for you to hear the teaching today.

In the series proof is presented and rebuild the church in North Carolina.

If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program. I will 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 as you listen to today's message go deeper if were happy to send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastoralan.org that's Pastor Alan.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 will have more on this special offer later in the program but now let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan Wright now we come today to the end of our proverb series and that every time I get to the end of the series. I feel a little bit sad, like I'm I'm leaving something unfinished but I hope that what happening for you if you've been part of the study with us is what happened for me and that is that you fallen in love with the wisdom of the Proverbs and it will be part of your life may be more than ever before. For the rest of your days are you ready for some good news when you're a Christian, God has accepted you through the sacrifice of Jesus, so to be a Christian means to be someone who has been though you do not deserve it has been radically accepted and utterly lobbed and as one who is radically accepted and loved by God. He gives you an invitation to likewise except yourself in Christ. I want to talk to you today about the person that you might be the quickest to John, the slowest to forgive and the most likely to condemn.

It might be that person is yourself. Proverbs 19 verse eight Proverbs 19 verse eight fitting conclusion to our study of Proverbs this one verse. Whoever gets sense ever gets wisdom ever get a sense love his own so he who keeps understanding will discover good price with parental moments come when you least expect them. You can't predict them or manufacture them.

But these moments that you never forget and it's good to tell the stories over and over and one of the most famous stories, and our family that some of you have heard numerous times is one that we tell over and over because it was so delightful to us to hear these words, her little boy's mouth, but also because of the great truth that is behind it and all that it means. And basically what we want for our kids. Then it must've been about nine years old around third grade or so. He and I were driving to the golf course where we spent a lot of time together in his growing up years and all on the roots out of nowhere in the backseat. My little boy says dad can you be addicted to gambling. I knew where it was coming from because not long before that a world famous golfer.

It had just been revealed had blown $1 million in Las Vegas and was revealed that he had a gambling addiction and he must've heard about this on the golf channel or on the golf show watching tournament or something and I thought of now we homeschool our kids so they be sheltered from all these things and where they are is nine years old and is wondering about addiction as and how in the world am I going to address this touchy subject, which he's too young to even have to worry about such things, and I thought about all of the years of pastoral ministry where I have loved and served and help counsel and work with people struggling with addiction.

And I thought about all of the complexities of shame and the inward angst of the sold and how it is that most addiction is ruled by some type of inward insecurity, anxiety, and how we try to mask these feelings with temporary coverups and I thought about the complexities of the way the brain works and the addictive process and all of that and I thought how I'm I going to explain this to him.

I said well yes Bennett you can be addicted to gambling. He posits that I don't understand. That said, he is rich. She's famous and he gets to play the best golf courses in the world.

Why would he go around blowing his money on gambling and I finally put it this way to him as simply as I knew how I said well Bennett I said I happen to know a little bit about this golfer read a little bit about his growing up and he didn't have a happy growing up. He didn't have a happy family and I think he got some wrong thinking. In his mind about his own life and I said I actually just think that he doesn't feel very good about himself despite the fact that he's famous and wealthy and gets to play all the best golf courses. I don't think that he really in the in feels very good about himself and that makes it person have bad feelings and when you have those kind of bad feelings that sometimes you look for something else that seems a little bit exciting or something to try to take your mind off of way that someone might feel about themselves that put something like that stumbled around with that and he was quiet for a very long time, until finally he just blurted out innocently will I love myself.

I did rather famous line in our family.

Now I love myself and I just chuckled from the front seat to drive and I feel a great minute. You probably will be addicted to anything if you love yourself. And he just summed up as a whole lot of what our goal in parenting actually is and the proclamation of the gospel should have this result in the in that we love ourselves and I want to talk to you today about what this means, because there's a lot of confusion about this, but the proverb here in 1980 is very clear.

Let me give you a couple other translations the way they render the verse and in RSV, the new revised standard version puts it well to get wisdom is to love oneself.

He who keeps understanding to keep understanding mother is to prosper. The new American Standard puts it this way, you gets wisdom loves his own so you keeps understanding will find good and the new living translation to acquire wisdom is to love yourself. People who cherish understanding will prosper as verse literally in the Hebrew reads like this, whoever buys heart literally. That's what it says whoever buys heart out of the mean literally by, but it means to make sacrifices for that. This is what is valuable and hard is a picture of discerning and wisdom so that the discerning heart whoever decides it's worth making sacrifices and and and and doing whatever it cost you to have a discerning heart that's always a whoever that person is is someone who loves his own life and the word for life. There is the Hebrew word Nefesh which is the word that in the beginning when God created a man out of the dust said he breathed into his nostrils and he became a living Nefesh, so to say a Nefesh in Hebrew is not to say soul as opposed to the body like were body and soul are is to say something bigger about the totality of the essence of your life. It is the breath within you.

It is your life itself to say, loves his own so that's Alan Wright will have more teaching moment from today's important series. Something is holding you back if you can important see what could change everything. Is there someone you referencing stock to help them out what's missing. Blessing on Basingstoke and over I learned you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing to Pastor Ehrenreich's new book, it's a blast, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after 370s until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales this month right ministries once send you the book I thank you for your devolution is not only received a best-selling but also receive a free session video place in which Pastor Alan teaches how to blast and covers content not video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today discovered the power to bless call us at 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website.

Pastor our and like today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan writing so what the proverb is saying here what Solomon is telling us is that if you could find somebody who loves to get hold of wisdom and understanding what the Proverbs are all about.

Then you can know for sure that the reason they are doing that is that they love their own life. By contrast, the one who does not love his own life does not pursue wisdom.

So you could say that the fool is someone who doesn't love her except his own life is something that is worthwhile. In other words, the more that you love and have high regard for this life that God has given you and for all that God is done to accept you in Jesus Christ. The more that you understand that the more that you love your own life, the more you're going to be one who pursues wisdom. It is something that is pervasive throughout the Proverbs.

This whole idea.

Proverbs 835 whoever finds me wisdom says this is personified. Whoever finds me wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself.

All who hate me, all who hate wisdom, love and death is a stark statement from the Proverbs, but I want to show you just how powerful and true.

That really is people that reject wisdom people that reject counsel reject understanding who live a foolish life, love, death, you would never want to put it that way but that's that's the way the Proverbs puts it. Proverbs 1532. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reprove gains intelligence.

Not many people have ever counseled with what ever occur to them that they despise themselves, but I just believe that it is one of the greatest problems that we have is that we tend to loathe ourselves and don't even realize it. And it feels so many of our problems.

Proverbs 2920 form is to be one more. This puts it very plainly, the partner of a thief hates his own life now. The people that hang around with other rebellious people in rob people or whatever they partner a thief is they don't sit around at what I'm doing this because I hate my own life but that is the essence that is behind it. The proverb says, surely somebody as soon as you begin to say the problem is not loving ourselves enough so my be quick to say why thought the whole problem of our culture that people are just stuck on themselves and that's all they care about is 11,000. You might think of what Paul said to Timothy in second Timothy three verse one understand this in the last days outcome times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents and so forth that the service you might just say what our problem is too much self-love but I want to show you that what Paul talked about the Timothy and that type of self-love is not the love of one's own life but is self absorption. And there's a huge difference between self absorption and self-love and I want to show you today that absolute essence of what it means to love yourself and how you can love yourself in Jesus Christ because I believe that though this is hard to wrap your mind around that. This is absolutely at the heart of all spiritual and psychological and emotional health in this world, loving and accepting yourself through Christ. So let's talk about this connection between getting wisdom and self love by way of everyday example in our household. This this week we dropped off Abby for second year of college at Chapel Hill and so she starts out her sophomore year. I like any parent have many desires and praying for her. What would I want for her what I want her to wanted to go well with her. I wanted to prosper in her relationships and friendships and in her academics. I want her to grow spiritually.

I want her to be a blessing to other people.

I want to her to have a lot of joy. I want her to continue to be engaged in her major that she should be moving into the journalism school and taking some core courses this fall. I want her to be able to be engaged in those well I want to be able to do her best.

All of those. All of those things that any parent would want for their child for the week began with Abby going down to the coast for rich short retreat with other leaders and the campus ministry she's involved in and so she was in be driving down to the beach and she was driving some of the girls with her so she was walking out the door with to get the car to go and she's in the ground on the beach told my 19-year-old I looked awry nine cents that I now remember once my treasure and she said I am and I said that's right. And I said therefore no distracted driving may be on your bath and she said I know daddy and I said because your what matters most.

And so I drive safe and have a wonderful time so reason I'm saying that is because I want her to know that I have tremendous love for her and that that's the motivation because her life is treasured and matter so much that the motivation for exercising responsibility when you're driving a machine I could say to her, you know how you can get distracted and you know what else, and that you're not a very good driver and you if you wreck the car you're glad to pay for it, but I don't really want to put fear into her as much as I want to put faith in her. So she goes and she comes back in and we have the delightful, going down and getting her into her room at school and we are there along with her roommate and her her her mom member were blessed by the where this dorm is located in those other girls on her hallway and so what we do we say by this is great this what your room looks great.

You're such a great location right here directly across from the library emphasize that point several times and I talked to her about her classes. She said that one of them is going to be a journalism writing class that she heard was hard to say their timed essays and they take off for any misspelled word or anything and I said well if you are writing a new story. You gotta write it. Fasten the underwriter accurately after this to be good training for you and will be instructing your mind. It is a kind of conversation that we have.

I would could do is we could instead go around things I will you better try hard and I know that you tend to lazy and you do and you make good enough grades on novelty for this deal and you and me. There is a time sometimes people are so irresponsible. You just gotta withdraw your support for something, but that's not the approach I wanted to fly what I'm getting at is that in an everyday transition like this what it is that I want is I wanted to love her own soul. I want to love her own Nefesh because in the end fear might motivate us at a certain level but fear is toxic to the soul anxiety produces most of our problems.

In other words, most of our sin behaviors are the result directly or indirectly from insecurity and if a child can say I love myself. Then they want to apply themselves. If you have a mind that you believe in God gave it to you and that you can make a difference in this world then you want to take that mind you want to use it and you want to apply it.

If you're good with your hands and you can make things and you can do certain things so skillfully with your hands because you know the God gave them to you. You want to develop that if you have a craft you want to be able to develop that because you see it is a good gift fear might motivate, but it's toxic house stumbled across this piece of a quote from an interview with Madonna who is according to the book of records. The best selling female recording artist of all time in the wealthiest female musician ever who said in the interview, my drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That's always pushing me. I push past one spell of and discover myself as a special human being.

But then I feel I'm still mediocre and uninteresting. Unless I do something else because even though I have become somebody I still have to prove that I'm somebody, my struggle has never ended and I guess it never will. Fear, motivation never ends. The characters dangled in front of you for acceptance will always move and what that anxiety does is it produces folly. So here's Madonna who is this in many ways exquisitely gifted is trained in dance and ballet in music and and throughout her career he just watched her as she just moved into increasing folly where she had to become more and more raunchy and everything that she did write is just foolishness and fear is associated with that.

But God loves faith. God doesn't inspire us by fear.

It doesn't inspire us by withholding lobby inspires us by giving that love and so that's the posture that I want my kids and it's what I want you. It's what I want in my own life, a life of faith.

The studies have shown that if a baby doesn't receive unconditional love from the earliest time that child have a hard time learning to trust. So trust like all faith is born out of unconditional love wherein you realize that you are loved and your value. If there is someone who is bigger and stronger and wiser than you who loves you these teaching foolproof self-worth. It's in our series on foolproof analogies with us in just a moment.

Back in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day.

Stay with us feel like something is holding you back if you lack an important scene that could change everything. Is there someone you love, peace and stack them back child. What's missing blessing on faith filled vision spoken over, I learned you can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing to Pastor Alan writes new blood to Blacks, which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after 370s until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales basement ministries once to send you the book I thank you for your devotion did this not only receive the best-selling that also receive a free session video place in which Pastor Alan teaches how to blast and covers content not video course includes a detailed study guide perfect for personal growth or small group discussion. Make your gift today and discovered the power to Blacks.

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When you get today. We will send you a special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our banks from Allen right ministries, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor at Gatwick back your distributors your Allen sporting good news thought for the day. I know some may look especially at as Americans as being very self-centered and prideful at the same time. I think that we do struggle a lot in the society with the with us with self-worth with not having enough self-worth and were made in God's image, so chin up. Child of the King. Whoever gets since Proverbs 19, eight says, loves his own soul.

So wisdom is to love your own. So then you we do God, no honor by disdaining that which he loves and blesses we do know glory to God by cursing that which God has died. In order to bless. We don't do any good for ourselves or anyone else when we look upon ourselves as though we have no work so what were learning about is what it really means to accept yourself in Christ. And I know that their listeners are probably going wouldn't be a problem in our country buys just for themselves but what I would have to say to that is no self absorbed, but we don't love ourselves and we have much to learn about this. One of the most important things is to learn the practice of self acceptance rather than self-hatred. That's what today's good news message is a listener supported production Allen right ministries