Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: A Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. for your life. I bless you with the certainty of your adoption in Christ. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry Abba, Father.
Romans 8.15. It means you belong. to him now. and forever. He won't unfriend you.
He can't undo his eternal word.
So he can't un-adopt you. He has spent too much on you to let you go now.
So revel in the joy of your place in the family of God. Child of God, you're his. Period. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. The same lie, you don't measure up and you need to, or else you're not going to be loved and accepted, can move us.
And rebellion or it can move us into religion, it can move us into giving up or into perfectionism, but it's at the same Root. 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 Renilda Church in North Carolina.
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More on this later in the program. But right now. Let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright.
Okay, people of God, are you ready for some good news? This whole world saying You ought to be ashamed of yourself and shame on you, but in Jesus Christ there is an entirely different message. Shame on you. Off You. Did you ever hear about the old couple who'd been married about 60 years and they had all these jokes that they told you over and over?
And so many, uh, so many times that they finally just numbered them, one through seven. And one morning at breakfast, the old woman Just starts chuckling and her husband goes, what? She goes, number four.
Well, we've got a certain number of those at Renalda, and this one might be up at the top of the list if you've never heard it. It's probably my favorite. Man walks into a pet store. And as he comes in, there's a parrot up at the front. And he walks by the parrot and the parrot goes, What?
Wow. And uh man looks at the parrot and Barrett says. You're fat. Your wife's ugly. That man couldn't believe it.
He walked around a little bit, came back by a pair of. You're a fact, your wife's ugly. And the man's just like, I cannot believe this. And it just kept happening. Every time he goes near that bird, he'd just insult him.
You're a fact, you're a fucking, you're a fan. And finally, he went back and he told the pet store owner and he said, This bird of yours is insulting me every time I get near him. And pet store owner said, I've had it with that bird. He said, it was not going to happen again. He went up there, opened up the cage, grabbed that bird, shook it around a little bit, and said, Parrot, I am so tired of you insulting our customers.
Said, I'm going to put you back in this cage. But if you tell that man one more insult like that, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to wring your neck. He threw that bird back in the cage.
So the customer walked around the store, did his shopping, and as he was leaving, He walked by the parrot again. And the parrot whack. Mm-hmm. And the man said, what? And the pair are sad.
You know what? I've told that one enough. I just call it number one. If I just say one, everybody can just laugh at that one, you know? It's like, you know what?
It's like the best definition of shame that I could give you is some voice. inside of us. that saying there's something wrong with you. But shame as a strategy of hell, really. That's why I would call it.
A primal deception. A fundamental lie from hell. It adds to the to the you know what with There's something wrong with you and unless you can figure it out. and improve it.
so that you're better than you are now. Unless you can do that, you're not going to be fully loved or accepted.
So shame. doesn't say I made a mistake, it says I I am a mistake. Shame doesn't say I did something wrong, it says there's something. wrong with me. that renders me less likely to be accepted or loved.
And it's that thought that then fuels so much either of our drivenness to try to make up for that deficit. Or moves us towards just giving up. Altogether. and saying why try. Which is what?
rebellion and even depression can look like.
So, the same lie, you don't measure up and you need to, or else you're not going to be loved and accepted, can move us. And to Rebellion, or it can move us into religion, it can move us into into giving up or into perfectionism, but it's at the same Root. This is something I started learning about 25 years ago or more, and I would say has been part of a life mission, the Lord's. given to me and it's been good for me this week. to go back and reconnect.
to all of this. because it is if anything more important for us to understand from a gospel perspective. At the time that I first started writing about shame and we were talking about it, there wasn't much conversation. Thankfully, one of the things God's used is a secular researcher named Brene Brown. who taught at University of Houston.
and gave a TED talk that went viral in which she talked about shame. She's since written a lot. And she studied a lot about shame. She defined shame as the intensely painful feeling or experience. of believing were flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging.
So shame is an N-word awful feeling That tells us that We're We're not good enough. And The Gospel also tells us that We're not good enough to merit heaven. But what Shame says is that you need to try to merit it. You need to be better than you are. And it means, therefore, you need to cover up whatever's wrong with you.
Because if people find out that, then you'll be even less connected. and less attached and less loved. And so shame puts us into patterns of hiding. And as we are learning about about the healing of our angst. about discovering the very calm of Christ.
and what it means to be blessed with an untroubled heart. I can't think of anything more important to talk about than shame. Because I think in one sense it is the source. the primal source of anxiety in the cosmos. As I'll show you from Genesis today.
But simply put, when you have an idea that I don't measure up and I'm kind of here. But I need to be like this. That gap between What we are and what we think we ought to be. In that gap, The fuel for all of our anxiety. Because what if I can never be that?
then I fear being rejected. And When will it ever be enough? And shame never lets you know when it is. Enough.
So what happened in the beginning was that God made A paradise And he put a man and a woman into that. Paradise. gave them a vocation of tending the garden. And They were man and wife. And I always found it so interesting that of all the things.
that God could tell us about what a relationship looks like before sin came into the world. of all the things Did he kill it? decide to include in the Word of God. to describe what a relationship in paradise looks like. He only gave us one verse.
It's Genesis 2.25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. The Picture of a relationship. in paradise. is there's no shame.
And as soon as they ate from the one forbidden tree, And they rebelled against God, introducing sin into the world. What we learn immediately at Genesis 3, 7 Is the undoing of the paradise in this way? The eyes of both were open. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together.
and made themselves loinclaws. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears. You've believed it in your mind.
Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like.
for any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of The Five Love Languages, says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love. After all, it's a match made in heaven.
It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. 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 eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright.
When God In his heartbrokenness, he comes and says. Where are you? Adam says, I was hiding Because I was afraid.
So Sin into a sinless world. And when it did, shame came. into a shame-free world. And as soon as Shane came in, There was anxiety. Brene Brown says, shame is all about fear.
I might would say before that, fear is all about shame. In other words, if We could get Our shame healed, I think we're going to get most of our anxiety. Healed. And this is why It's got to be here at the center of this. Sermon series, but it's got to be more than that, it's got to be at the center of our very lives.
And we want to pray for you today. I think because I've Been teaching about this for 25 years and done conferences all over the world. I think that today For someone It's going to be the first time you've ever heard this and you're going to find out. That's been at the root of so much of all of my issues, and I didn't know it. And if so, We're going to pray for you today.
And it's the beginning of a marvelous journey. to a whole new way of living. It's wonderful. And I like to help By first health, and you envision what that would be like.
Some of us have been swimming in a culture of shame and families that brought shame and teachers and religions that brought shame that were just always in one way or another telling us we weren't quite good enough and always seemed to be moving it in front of us so that it was dangled like a carrot and we're running after it. And so, what does it even feel like to not feel ashamed? What is that freedom? How sweet would it be? And I want to get you thinking about that.
And the best way that you can think about that is to think about little kids because shame is something that really kind of gets learned over our life. But we don't, we come in and, like little toddlers, it's just so joyful to watch them. Week and a half ago, we got to go. with our family and our grandbaby Mia to do something that she probably wanted to do more than anything else in all the world, and that was to have dinner with Minnie Mouse. I want to just set this up and say anybody can go and have dinner with Mickey and Minnie Mouse as long as you take out a second mortgage and you.
You're willing to not think about it because everybody wants to be with Minnie Mouse. And at this restaurant, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and other characters will come around, visit you at your table, and they will also. Do the thing that Mia loves to do, maybe more than anything, and that is to dance, to celebrate. And she just wanted to dance with Minnie Mouse. I wanted to say that to preview how sort of outgoing this extroverted granddaughter of ours, some little children have fear of these big characters that come around, not her.
She wants to hold them, embrace them, just hug them, kiss them, just you name it, and especially Minnie Mouse.
So, Mickey Mouse is the star. Minnie mouse is a sidekick, but not to Mia. Minnie is everything, which was summed up in the fact that when Mickey and Minnie were at our table, And Mia is just talking to Minnie Mouse. And it's clear Minnie Mouse needs to move on to some other kids. And so she tries to move her over to Mickey.
Mia leans into Minnie, puts her arm around her, and says to Mickey, Mickey, take our picture.
So, I mean, it's just. It's really, but this is what I want you to see. I'm talking about shame-free living, okay?
So, Mia, even from she was one, she knew how to do a little spin when she was dancing like this.
So, that's her thing. It's like, do your spin, Mia. And so she puts her hands up and she does it, and she just dances like this. And so we go to this scene, and all of a sudden they start playing music all over the restaurant, and Minnie Mouse is dancing. And Mia's got to go and get right into it, you know.
Now, remember. These characters got these big things on, they can't really see what's underfoot.
So it could be a little bit dangerous, but I want you to watch this to see a little childlike, shame-free joy. But then notice, I'm gonna narrate a little collision, a small collision here. That for a lot of us could have just moved us right off the dance floor, but not me. Let's take a look at this. Just dancing, all right.
And Grab, she wants to get the full town. Here we go. Spin move, boom. But the hands stay up and the dance continues.
Now. She's back in it. She didn't have the little bump. But I want you to see this in slow motion. Because watch this here, Minnie almost crushes her.
But what the child is like. Sachet's off. I'm right back at it.
Now this is what I'm talking about. This is a picture because I feel like don't you feel like in life is like when you get in there and you goof up There's a part of you wants to just sachet off into the shadow and stay there, you know? And we just are busting, laughing, you know, because she just kind of like. Almost just gets squashed by Minnie Mouse, come right back into it. I'm talking about.
The kind of life that God actually wants us to live. He did so in the beginning. Can you just imagine with me for a moment? Paradise. Where Adam and Eve have zero Fear of rejection.
Not one shred of it. Never ever a moment where Adam Hears Eve say something and he takes it the wrong way and thinks that maybe she doesn't love him. Never a moment where Eve feels like that she doesn't measure up in Adam's eye. Never a moment where they feel like the covenant. could be violated or broken.
Never a moment where they felt like I need to be better, look better, or act better than I am in order to be loved by. This part. Never a moment in which they felt like they didn't measure up. This is paradise. This is heaven.
And if you've ever had even a single moment in your life. Even A fleeting moment. Where you felt that Most pure and utterly undefiled and absolutely unconditional love. If you felt it even for a fleeting moment, you've tasted something of heaven. If you've ever felt 100% accepted just for who you are, and you didn't need to perform or pretend or be better in order to be loved, that you were already fully loved, if you felt that even for a moment, like a breeze that blew by, you've experienced paradise.
It's what God made in the beginning, and it's what God will have in the end. for every single one of his children. Gordon Dalby said, Hell is the place where you bear your own shame. Heaven. is the place where there is no shame.
Uh Alan Wright, today's good news message titled Shame Off You, and it's from the series The Untroubled Heart. He stick with his pastor Alan as back in the studio Acey shares his 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 pastorallen.org. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears. You've believed it in your mind.
Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like.
for any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of The Five Love Languages, says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy His embrace, revel in His love. After all, it's a match made in heaven.
It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright 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 eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty.
That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan Wright. You know, in the music business, if you have a hit song and then you come back some years later and you re-cut that hit song, they call it a remix.
So when I see this message is titled Shame Off You, and I've hung around these parts for enough time to know that was a great classic series. But this is a well, you tell us. Is this a remix?
Well, I think that the healing of shame. which when we say shame, we just mean That awful sense of feeling like I don't measure up, and I've got to do something to improve myself to measure up if I'm really going to be loved. That haunting shame that came into the world as soon as sin came into the world. Daniel, that, as you know me well, that call on my life to help people be healed of shame, that is. Part of my life mission.
And so it's always there. And so as soon as we began to think about the healing of anxiety, I realized we must. think about how the shame has to get healed. Because I really think shame Is the greatest cause of anxiety in the whole universe? and God has a healing answer.
is called grace. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-557-1. 544-4860. 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 pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production. of Alan Wright Ministries.
