Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: a Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. for your life. Your soul is getting bigger in order to be better. It might be nice to bless you to become an instant success, a scratch-off winner, to have the promised land just handed to you whole hog. But as much as we'd like a shortcut to glory, God doesn't usually dole out his promised lands that way.
Little by little I will drive them out from before you, he promised, until you have increased. Exodus 23.30. Israel needed more people, needed to increase. No point in planting vast fields that they couldn't nourish and protect. It's a blessing that God gives your soul time to grow before dumping all his blessings in a lump sum.
You're increasing on the inside so you can handle the vastness of the promised land that God has in mind. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Just Be mature enough in the Lord to just stop and say, What am I really feeling? This I feel stressed. I feel anxious.
What is this and what is causing anxiety right now? About what am I anxious? What am I worried about right now? 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'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Untroubled Heart, as presented at Renolda 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.
So, as you listen to today's teaching, today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastoralen.org. That's pastoralan.org. or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But right now. Let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright.
Okay, church, are you ready for some good news? Aw, A-W-E, all. Oh. shrinks anxiety. There's this dice.
So The bigger your God, The smaller your fears. You could think of it when the Bible talks about the fear of the Lord. It really means awe of God.
So, another way to put it, as ironic as it sounds, as we're learning about the healing of anxiety, is that the fear of the Lord. heals all other fears. Boy, it's a beautiful spring morning. Isn't this spring? I mean, every, this is when I love being a North Carolinian right about now.
And the flowers are awakening. The world is coming to life again. How does it know to do it every spring? But it does. The dogwoods are beautiful.
They're starting to burst forth. And it makes you want to be outside and breathe in the pollen. And it just. Yeah. It's just beautiful.
There's a bird that's made a nest and a wreath on our front glass door. And we could take our grandbaby and hold her up. And you see little baby bird squirming around in there. It's springtime. It's fantastic.
It's wonderful. And it makes you want to maybe go to the mountains or go to the beach. You know, you got in North Carolina, we got, we're so gifted. We're so blessed. We're a couple hours from the Blue Ridge Mountains and just a few hours from the beach.
And I found it to be the case. You got some people, you're mountain people. You just want to see those beautiful peaks and vistas. And some people love the beach if they had a choice. Let's just out of curiosity, let's see a show of hands.
How many of you, you're the mountain people, you'd rather go to the mountains than the beach and get those cool, crisp... Breezes and yeah, the vistas. How many people? You're more of a beach person.
Well, this crowd's got a little bit more beach people in those moist sea tropical breezes that are blowing. I love the beach. I love the mountains. I mean, there's nothing like the Bruel Ridge Parkway, somewhere between, you know. Wilkesboro and Blowing Rock and you can come up these vistas that just take your breath away.
But there's something to me about the beach. When I pull over the bridge at Ocean Isle Beach and suddenly you see the ocean in all of its majesty and vastness, I feel my blood pressure go down. I feel it's like, you know, we have a thing we call, we say, you got to roll the window down and throw all your worries into the waterway on your way over. I can't take them on the island, you know. We love stuff like that, right?
It makes you. Feel better just to see. You know, but let me offer you a third choice. Maybe some of you are not beach or mountain people. How many people, instead of seeing the beach or seeing the mountains, what you would really like to see?
Is the Back bumper of a car in front of you and a traffic jam on Silas Creek Parkway. Anyone want to go? Like I had on Thursday. We're spoiled. We don't get many traffic jams.
But it added 17 minutes to my drive-in. I was like, that's just bad. It's such a ridiculous question, right? Like, who prefers the view of a traffic jam over the mountains or the beach? Like, why have you been asking a question like that?
I ask it in all of its ridiculousness because I want to make a point. What you look at Does impact you, doesn't it? The beholding of the awesome, the beautiful, or the vast. Does something in your soul, doesn't it? But if you're fixated on simply the immediate, the mundane, And the blase.
That does something inside your soul. One of the great writers, Jewish writers of the last century, Abraham Heschel, has said, the beginning of awe is wonder. and the beginning of wisdom. is all. Or pressure.
precedes faith. It is the root of faith. We must grow in awe in order to reach faith. It's a mysterious and wonderful irony. That awe, the experience of something greater.
and more wonderful than us. can make us feel small. But in a good way. Because it takes us out of our usual self-absorption. And then we become less anxious.
I've always thought about the power of wonder and marvel and awe. But in studying for this whole series on the healing of anxiety and taking Jesus up on his offer to receive his own peace. I've been reading some secular literature as well, including, as I've mentioned, Jonathan Haidt's book, The Ancient Generation. And I found it curious that this secular and NYU professor, erudite. man who was an atheist included a chapter a sub-chapter on the importance of all.
in the diminishing of our anxiety. And said that though he himself was an atheist, he highly encouraged spirituality that could help produce all in your life. I want to say, Jonathan, just come on over to our side. It's there. Just take David up and join with him in Psalm 8.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you've set in place, what is man that you're mindful of him? This is David saying, it's just awesome. And yet you also consider me. I feel so small in the midst of such grandeur. And yet you're mindful also.
of me. It does something to you. Awe is really what we mean by the fear of the Lord. More about that later, but the famous Proverb 9. Verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, or Psalm 34, 9, oh, fear the Lord.
You his saints. What is this invitation to fear the Lord? He's loving. He doesn't want us to be afraid. Those who fear him have no lack.
I'm just going to go deep into this idea of the all of God. And I want to help you into this powerful notion how the experience of the transcendent, that which is bigger and better and more wonderful than you are. can be the best thing for you. and help to alleviate anxiety. And in to do so, I want to take you to a fascinating story that many of you have heard, maybe many times, that took place on the Sea of Galilee and invite you into a boat with some terrified sailors.
Because there's a real surprising twist in this story. It's Mark chapter 4. Um That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Do you ever feel like your heart just can't rest?
Like no matter how much you try, peace always seems just out of reach.
So many of us wrestle with anxious what-ifs. leaving our hearts restless and unsettled. But Jesus offers us something the world cannot give. His own peace. the calm of his very heart.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is the untroubled heart. A powerful digital bundle, including audio messages and a digital study guide. In this series, Pastor Alan unpacks Jesus' promise from John 14, 27. I leave you peace. My peace I give you.
I do not give it to you as the world does.
So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. With practical insight and biblical encouragement, You'll discover how to quiet anxious thoughts and rest in Christ's peace that endures. When you give today to support Allen Wright Ministries, we'll send you the Untroubled Heart digital bundle as our thanks. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-500. Five four four. 4860.
That's 877. Five four four four four four four four four four four four four. 4860. or come to our website. PastorAllen.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again. is Alan Wright. Mark chapter 4. Verse 35.
So begins the account. On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, Let us go across to the other side.
So imagine you're there, it's evening, it's been a long day, busy day of seaside teaching by the Savior, large crowd. have been hanging on every word. every parable, but now the throngs are gone and it's time to finally relax. And Jesus says, let's go across the lake to the other side. And you wonder why.
Why now? Good teacher. We're We're all tired. And if you're one of those experienced sailors, you know that it's a dangerous time to get on the lake also. because the 9,000 foot elevation of the mountains causes a lot of cold air to come and intermix, especially around this time of day, with the Air above the below sea level Sea of Galilee that can produce sudden squalls that come up out of nowhere and it can be dangerous.
Jesus wants to go to To the other side, and now it's getting dark, and it's late, and you're tired, and this is when storms pop up. But You go. Verse 36. After leaving the crowd, They took him with them in the boat. Just as he was.
And the other boats were with them.
Now you're in this boat mid-journey. And we've all experienced this before in a humid North Carolina afternoon. where there was no thunderstorm in the forecast. But you suddenly feel That It's austra. You know what that feeling is if you've ever been in it?
Where all of a sudden a strange wind starts just swirling and it's got that warm, moist feeling to it, but it's starting to swirl and you look and the sky has gotten dark and you're like, oh no. You do not want to be on a golf course in the middle of the golf course when this happens. And I which I have been. It's a frightening thing when it catches you by surprise. That's what happens with these disciples.
Verse 37, a great windstorm arose. And the waves were breaking into the boat, so the boat was already. filling so now your heart is throbbing like the thunder and you're trying to bale water like lightning speed, but it's not working and the sails are tattering. We have found a boat. We, they, the archaeologists, found a boat.
On the very seashore of the Galilean Lake, that was submerged for many years in the sands and remarkably preserved. They call it Peter's Boat because it dates back to the first century, and they think it's the very kind of vessel that they would have been sailing in: this 17-foot wooden vessel that was no match for this kind of seismic storm that had arisen. And in the midst of all the bailing and bobbing and boo-hooing, you realize somebody is missing. Where is the rabbi? And this is what we read at verse 38.
He was in the stern. asleep on the cushion. It's just kind of funny. And I wonder sometimes as a student of the scriptures why God chose to insert certain details. But why this part about he was on a cushion?
He was on a tempura pedic. He's got a my pillow and he's lying in the And he is. Comfortable. Jesus is quite comfortable during the scariest storm that they'd ever seen. Taking a nap.
Without apology. on purpose. And I wonder if he's down there napping, just waiting for somebody to come get him. You know, don't you just wonder? I'm napping, but he's got one eye open, like.
When's Peter going to get down here and say something about this? Like, you know. Oh, but how would you feel, you know, if you're there? I mean it's important like. You know, you feel like you're dying, and Jesus is dozing.
You feel like you're drowning, and he's down there dreaming. And maybe it was Peter. I don't know. He was always the impetuous one, thought he was bold. Maybe he was the one who hollered out and got Jesus.
Verse 38, they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? It's one of the most ironic statements anywhere in the Bible, especially on the lips of the disciples. Do you not care that we're perishing? And the irony, of course, is Jesus was quite happy in his heavenly raiment as the triune God in all eternity, and he came for the express purpose to set his face resolutely toward Jerusalem so that he Himself could take upon himself the sin of the world so that. All of us who had fallen short of the glory of God and were lost in our sin and shame would be saved.
He came to die because he cared that we're perishing. And yet, the whole world is accusing God and shaking their fist against him. Do you not care that we're perishing down here on this earth if only they knew? He gave it all. Because he cared more than they cared.
He loved them more than they could love themselves. He loves you. He cares. More than you could fathom. But it didn't feel like it at the moment.
Do you not care that we're perishing? Jesus doesn't answer the question. Mm-hmm. God doesn't always answer all our questions. He just arises, doesn't defend his napping.
But verse 39, he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace. Hush, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm, I think, as a description. of a glassy lake. Then he spoke to them.
And he said, why are you so afraid? Why are you so afraid? You still have no faith? It's an ancient rabbinical teaching method that's built around the power of questions. Rabbis, Jewish rabbis, tend to ask a lot of questions.
In fact, they often will answer a question with a question. Famously, one time a student came to his rabbi and said, Good teacher. Why is it that you often answer a question with a question? To which the rabbi responded, What's so wrong with a question? Questions make you think about.
What's going on inside of you? God doesn't ask questions because He needs the information. When he said, Adam, where are you? It wasn't that the all-knowing God needed. A location.
He wanted Adam to think. about his situation. Where are you? I've been wanting to suggest to you all throughout this series that the beginning point of healing from anxiety. is starting with that very question.
Why? Are you anxious? Which means admitting when we are anxious. I cannot overemphasize this enough. The beginning point of healing Is when you start feeling whatever that stress reaction does to you and Now you're being short with somebody or you're retreating and becoming reclusive or you're getting outright angry or you're starting to get depressed and you don't know why or you're Got all this self-righteousness and smugness coming out, or whatever, however, it squirts out in you.
to just Be mature enough in the Lord to just stop and say, What am I really feeling? Just I feel stressed. I feel anxious. What is this and what is causing the anxiety right now? About what am I anxious?
What am I worried about right now? All the way. help you so much. Why are you afraid, Jesus said? You know, he's fully God, he's fully human.
And he didn't always use his divinity to take a shortcut and get around the things that humans have to go through. Pastor Alan Wright. Today's good news message, awe over anxiety, from our series, The Untroubled Heart. Hey, stick with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio, sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment.
Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free, and just a click away at pastoralen.org. Do you ever feel like your heart just can't rest?
Like no matter how much you try, peace always seems just out of reach?
So many of us wrestle with anxious what-ifs. leaving our hearts restless and unsettled. But Jesus offers us something the world cannot give. His own peace. The calm of his very heart.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is the Untroubled Heart, a powerful digital bundle including audio messages and a digital study guide. In this series, Pastor Alan unpacks Jesus' promise from John 14, 27. I leave you peace. My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does.
So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. With practical insight and biblical encouragement, You'll discover how to quiet anxious thoughts and rest in Christ's peace that endures. When you give today to support Allen Wright Ministries, we'll send you the Untroubled Heart digital bundle as our thanks. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-500. Five four four. 4860.
That's 877. Five four four four four four four four four four four four four four. 4860. Or come to our website. PastorAllen.org.
Back here now with Pastor Alan. We're sitting in the studio together and placing a bookmark on this teaching, Awe. That's A-W-E, awe over anxiety.
Okay, so this has to do with grandeur and praise, right? There's a whole growing body of research, even in the secular world, about how experiencing the beauty. of the natural world around us, the experience of awe and wonder, Uh how it helps lift anxiety. Mm.
Well, I think all of us can identify at some level if you ever had a chance to. be in front of a majestic ocean or stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Or even just be amazed at the intricacy of a flower in your backyard. that there's something about that experience that takes us out of our own Cycle of self-absorbed thoughts. And in that, there comes freedom.
But this is God's truth, and He's made us for awe, ultimately of Him.
So awe wins out over anxiety. Much to be learned. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org. Or call 877-500.
five four four forty eight sixty. That'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 pastorallen.org.
That's pastorallan.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
