Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: a Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. for your life. Every poison needs a unique antidote. Every pox needs a specific solution. Every pandemic needs a distinctive vaccine.
But you have a medicine available that works wonders no matter the malady. a joyful heart. Amidst the troubles of the times, I bless you this day to have a merry heart. May your heart be light and your laughter be hearty. May your meditations be delightful and your contemplations hopeful.
Go ahead. Drink deep of the joy of the Spirit. There's no fine print. A joyful heart is good medicine, and it has no harmful side effects. That's today's blessing.
That's the gospel. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Great news. I found the cure for my anxiety. All I need is for everyone I know to tell me definitively that they aren't mad at me every 15 seconds forever.
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 Renolva 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 pastoralen.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. Starting a new series today, I call it simply the untroubled heart from this intimate discourse of Jesus with his disciples in John chapter 14.
Let's focus in on these verses starting at verse 25. The words of Jesus, these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, The Holy Spirit. whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. and bring to your remembrance All that I've said to you. Peace I leave you.
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid. Are you ready for some good news?
In this troublesome world, there's one thing that need not be troubled. Your heart. Jesus offers us his peace. the calm of his Very Heart.
Well, I hope you've got a good start to your new year. I hope you had something fun on New Year's Day. I had a wonderful New Year's Day. I was actually out of town at the beach that day, late in the afternoon. I thought, you know, I'm going to go out and try to squeeze in some golf holes before it gets dark.
And I called up one of the local golf courses there and said, Can I just come walk? They said, sure, sure, come anytime.
So I got out there. It wasn't until about 3:30.
So I thought, I don't know if I'll get done with nine holes before dark, but I'll get as many as I can, have a nice walk, just hit some golf balls. It was a pretty nice day. And so I went out and played nobody on a golf course. I had it to myself. And I uh I actually Played pretty well.
I was surprised. I had a nice birdie. I was playing pretty well.
So I was feeling happy. It was just like. Perfect day. And I got done on hole number nine, and I thought it would be pitch dark by that time. It was after five o'clock, but there was just some ambient light.
There's still a little bit of light. And I just thought, you know what I'm going to do before I go back to the car? I'm just going to practice a few chip shots here on the ninth green.
So I put a dozen golf balls out there just to practice a little 15-yard chip shots because the short game's where the score is, if you know that. And so I'm practicing a little bit of those chip shots, and I'm hitting a dozen balls onto the green. And It's getting dark and all of a sudden I hear a man yelling. And I thought, Oh no. I'm worried I've done one of the rudest things you can do on a golf course is to not be aware that there was somebody behind you that was ready to play, and you're up there fiddling around on the green, and it's dark, you know.
And I thought, oh, I thought it was empty. I didn't think anybody was on the golf course. And I turned around dreading to see if there was somebody out there waiting on me, and there wasn't. And it was nobody in the fairway, and there was nobody there. The staff had gone home.
There's nobody on the golf course. I had to myself. And then I hear this man yelling, and I realize. It was some old dude who had come out of his house 250 yards down the fairway, and he was yelling at me. I thought, man.
I thought I'd make it at least one day into the new year with nobody in the world yelling at me. And this man is yelling, going, what are you doing? You know, like, I said, this man hates me. And I'm like, what? I'm chipping some golf balls.
He said, go to the range. You look like you got a bucket of balls out there. You're going to ruin the green.
Now There's this thing, if you don't play golf, when a ball flies up high in the air and it lands with some spin and force onto a golf green, especially if the golf greens are soft, it will leave what we call a divot or a ball mark, and you fix those. You know something about me, I love golf. And I like nice golf courses, and so I hate it when people don't take care of a golf course. I take care of golf courses. I would never do anything that would be damaging a green.
In fact, that very day, it had bemoaned me that I was out there walking, hardly leaving a footprint, and yet there were some people who had unthinkingly, had driven their golf carts through some soggy areas and left tracks. I hate that kind of thing. And now I'm getting yelled at and accused of ruining the green. And I'm not leaving a single ball mark on it. It's just tiny little chips.
The greens were firm. There was nothing. And it's getting dark, and he's 250 yards down there yelling at me. There are several options for responses if that Huh.
Somebody told me after the first service. that I should have blessed them. And I should have walked down with the finest sleeve of golf balls, new golf balls, and said, Here, I am so sorry for any perception of my wrongdoing. God bless you in this new year. That didn't occur to me.
I didn't think. I didn't. I didn't think of that one. But there were some other, like, there were some other conversations I had thought about having with him. Like running down there and like, you know, having words with him about it all and maybe kicking him in the shin.
But I decided that wouldn't be good to have your pastor in the headlines of some Brunswick Beacon newspaper on a brawl on the golf course.
So. I thought the only thing to do, I wanted to chip a few more balls, but the only thing to do was to. Gather up the golf balls, put them in my golf bag, slink back to the car. And drive away. I was supposed to be picking up some food to bring home for dinner.
I called Ann and I said, what am I picking up? And I said, first I got to tell you this, I just got yelled at on the golf course. And she said, Why? I said, I don't know, just chipping some balls and somebody yelled at me. And uh I was driving.
And I thought, you know. This is this is this is This is weird. In my brain, I know. Alan, you didn't do anything wrong. And that man's got issues and, you know, don't let this in any way spoil this perfect day.
And I'm like, right, I'm not. But you know, somewhere in a deeper place, regardless of what conversation's going on in my mind, in a deeper place, something felt different than it did before. One moment, there's blissful joy. I've been in the Word all day, and then I've been on the golf courses. I've just sounded and blissful and peaceful, and now something feels.
different. This is a silly story, right? But I'm just saying, do you see what that feeling is? I felt a little unsettled all of a sudden. I felt different.
I felt a little weird and angsty. That Is a heart that wasn't troubled, that now, at least in a little bit, is troubled. And a lot of times, what happens is that the heart, this deep inward command center of our being. Is feeling troubled, and we haven't even identified what is going on. Or why are we even feeling that?
And it's It's unsettling at best. Debilitating At worst. In October, I was at a theological roundtable in Texas for a couple days. We sit around a bunch of pastors and we talk about Texts intensely all day long for a couple days. It's wonderful.
And we're taking a break. At lunch, sitting around, and someone brought up a book written by a secular.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. I'll be referring to it in a moment, called the anxious generation. And was talking about what social scientists and psychologists are now calling an epidemic. especially in our young generation of anxiety. And while This participant was speaking, it just an image came up in my mind, just like It's hard to describe how little spiritual moments happen, but it just.
came out of nowhere seemingly and I saw this picture Of us putting a hand gently on a thousand shoulders. and saying, don't be afraid. And in coming days and weeks I realized It was the Lord instructing me towards this for our New Year's blessing and for a whole sermon series. that is upcoming. I want to just call it the untroubled heart.
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. It's about discovering the calm of Christ. I feel so spiritually pregnant with this. about what God's going to do. I felt like that when the Lord started showing me that this was the New Year's blessing in the new series, that it came with promises.
I felt like he was giving me some promises that. This is going to help a lot of us. get more freedom from that unsettled feeling that I was describing. And it's going to help. Hundreds of times.
To Break free to a new level of joyous living that they hadn't been having. And for some, I think there's a promise. that there's going to be a cure. for anxiety disorder. All of that and more.
I think's in front of us. It is such a relevant thing for us to be talking about in coming weeks. Jonathan Haidt in his book, The Anxious Generation, this Secular social scientist and psychologist at NYU. starts his book with this word picture. and says, imagine that you had a 10-year-old daughter.
who was being recruited to be part of the first human settlement on Mars. And You didn't know about it, but she wanted to go. And you find out about it. and wondered, had any of the scientists thought it through? Like what might happen to a child developing muscular and skeletal system if they're raised on a different planet.
It has a very low gravity. And you realize people don't really know how that's going to change the structure of that adolescent's growing years and what their body will be like afterwards. or that nobody really thought through. what it would be like to not have the same kind of shield. Around an atmosphere that the Earth does, and experience more ongoing radiation, and what it might do.
to a child's brain or something. And so, of course, you as the parent would say no. You can't be part of this. other planet where we don't even know how it's going to shape you. And yet he says That's what's happened.
But it's not that our kids got raised on Mars, but they got raised on a new digital planet. And he points to the convergence of two technological advances that happened around the same time in 2009 and 2010. Two things happened. iPhone developed a forward-facing camera, selfies. And The social media platforms develop their algorithms for likes.
So all of a sudden You could take a picture of yourself, instantly post it, and immediately get feedback on whether it was liked or not. And he argues convincingly that Those that were maybe 10 years old at that time and then had their adolescence through that. whole time. their brains got wired differently and he calls it the great rewiring. of our youth.
This all points to the reasoning, he argues convincingly. for what's been called an epidemic of anxiety. I could give you so many statistics, but I'm going to give you just one. Here it is. A 2023 study of American college students found that 37% of students said they felt anxious always or most of the time.
And 31% felt anxious. about half the time.
Now just pause and think about that. of our college students. that age group. 70%. Feel anxious.
Half or more. of the time. I'm going to say is that little feeling that I felt driving away from the golf course. which is a silly little story and a mild little angst. That feeling is what our young people the study says.
are feeling pretty intensely almost all the time. This is extremely relevant. Not just because so many of us are facing this kind of angst in the world. but it's also extremely relevant. Because if it's not your issue, I guarantee you it is for somebody very close to you.
We all need to learn how we can help one another. We all need the grace of God. It's relevant also because anxiety is just particularly destructive. We'll learn more about that in coming weeks. Irma Baumbeck said worry is like a rocking chair.
It gives you something to do, but never gets you anywhere. Ha ha ha. But anxiety doesn't just take you nowhere, it takes you backward. That's the thing I hate about it. Is it it it it When we're worried, we get weary.
And when we're weary and worried, we're at our worst, aren't we? And it hurts us physically. We're learning a lot about that. Our cardiovascular system is damaged by that kind of anxious stress. It hurts.
Our relationships. And then there's this, it just feels awful. I want to feel more like I felt before the guy yelled at me on the golf course. You know, don't you? I'd like to live with that kind of freedom, and I want that for everybody.
And that's what Jesus wants.
Sometimes humor helps and people who deal with anxiety have found humor can help. And I came across some tweets of people trying to describe what's going on in their brain when they're anxious and as funny but telling. Here's one who wrote this little dialogue: anxiety. Hey, what are you doing? Me.
Nothing, just relaxing. Anxiety. Would you like to think about all your failures? Me, what? No.
anxiety and away we go. Or somebody wrote this.
Somebody tweeted this. Anxiety. They hate you. Me. Who hates me?
Anxiety. They This part of what's diabolical about this is it's so vague sometimes. What am I even feeling and why do I feel this? You know, if we didn't do anything else except just Help one another to get more honest about what's going on and get away from the surface, surface, surface, surface down to the heart of what's going on in us and loved each other right in the middle of it, we'd have a lot of healing. Or this final thing, somebody tweeted this.
Great news, I found the cure for my anxiety. All I need is for everyone I know to tell me definitively that they aren't mad at me every 15 seconds forever. But the main reason this is relevant. is because it's so relevant to God. Jesus really cares about this.
God really cares about this. Alan Wright, our good news message, discovering the calm of Christ. It's from the series The Untroubled Heart. And stick with us. Pastor Alan is back with us 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 to click away at pastoralen.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 Allan 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 in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And Pastor Alan, as we kick off this new series, it's the untroubled heart. This very first message was actually preached at the beginning of a brand new year.
For a little context, new year, new message, and you can't go wrong with a series. to calm our hearts and spirits.
Well, the the yearning to preach this series that where we'll be for some time now arose partly out of an awareness that there's an anxiety epidemic. It arose also out of a kind of vision that I had that I just wanted to see person after person just receive as if from the Lord himself. This encouragement, don't be afraid. Mm-hmm. Like comfort from God.
But also, I wanted to just learn as much as I possibly could about what the gospel has to say and how the gospel is effective. in calming our fears. And so we begin here. With this and incredible promise that it's Jesus's own peace, his own heart. that he yearns to share with us.
My peace I give you. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-577. 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.
