Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Because God celebrates, so can you. Today's blessing is grounded in the refrain of Genesis chapter 1, and God saw that it was good. God saw it was good. God saw it was good.
After each day of creation, God celebrated his own handiwork. Though the creation hadn't been completed, God erupted in joy at the conclusion of each day's progress. How, unlike most of us, we tend to wait until we finish the task, earn the degree, reach the mountaintop before we celebrate. I'd like to bless your soul. for celebration.
Here's today's blessing. You haven't arrived. You haven't finished it all. But your soul is ready to celebrate anyway. You haven't checked off every box, you haven't swept every corner, But your heart is ready to rejoice.
Yesterday's history, Tomorrow isn't here. But today, this very day, I bless you to find cause for joy. I bless your eyes to see the tiny delights. I bless your ears. to hear the quiet giggles.
And I bless your mind to see what God has done, not what you wish he'd done. Your father celebrates every day, and he's ready to bring you. Into the party. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Jesus came because he loved you so much that he himself paid the debt, that he himself took upon his own being your sin and mine, so that anyone who trusts in him will be able to have that burden of guilt and condemnation lift off their life because you are 100% forgiven.
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, No Worries, as presented at Ronalda 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. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. You can learn more about it. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org.
Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. More on all of this later in the program. But now. Let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. In America, where you've seen statistics that church attendance has declined, it is true. This number of people. Who you're reading about, the nuns, the N-O-N-Es, the ones that say, I have no religious affiliation, has risen by about 10 percentage points. But what sociologists say is that when people now fill out surveys, They're much more likely to feel free to be honest because what's happened to our culture.
Is that It's no longer this big pressure to go to church. I remember my first job. That was uh many years ago in youth ministry right here in this town. and I was helping to launch a new church. And one of the things we did, believe it or not, was we went around once a week and knocked on doors.
and introduced ourselves, me and the pastor, and invited them to church.
Nowadays You gotta be careful. You knock on somebody's door, they'd be liable to call the police on you. But in that day, they would at least be polite to us. And I would say that most of the time the response that we would get would be, oh, I'm already a member of a church. And I would say, oh, well, that's great.
What church? And oftentimes they'd say the Methodist church downtown or the, you know, and they wouldn't even call out its name. And I'd say, well, which church? And they'd say, you know, one downtown. And I said, oh, you must be talking about such and such.
Yeah, yeah, that's it. I said, well, that's great. You know, I hadn't seen the pastor there in a while. I've drawn a blind. What's that pastor's name?
And they'll go, uh, uh. That person would have filled out a survey and said, yes, I go to church. But they didn't really go to church and they really weren't a Christian. I think it's better to be in an environment where if somebody's not a Christian, they can say, I'm not a Christian. than to just put it down because it's the sociological acceptable thing to do.
And this is marking some of the difference in the way the surveys are. The other thing to say is that the mainline church has had a precipitous decline in the past decade. But churches that affirm scripture, that talk about a personal relationship with Jesus, emphasize the importance of sharing the gospel and hold to a literal understanding of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all the churches that believe that are growing. On the whole, that's what the statistics show. But Christianity across the world is growing.
Interestingly, just in case you're interested in it, the number of atheists worldwide is declining. In 1970, there were 165 million. Today it's estimated to be 138 million. The reason I want to give you all this statistics is just to say, I think it's important. as thinking people and as Christians to walk in the light.
And that means the truth of what really is going on. And I don't want to just join into a chorus of negative voices for no reason whatsoever. You know, why is it that we only hear the negative things?
Well, one reason is that news is about stuff that happens, not stuff that doesn't happen. Right, you're never going to see a reporter saying, I'm here right in the middle of this huge metropolitan area where there's been. No terrorism today. Or ever. Most cities in our country, there's never been any terrorism of any type, of any sort.
But has that ever been reported? Of course not. News people are doing their job. They're reporting stuff that happens. And there's another part of us that somehow, I don't know if it's in our sin nature.
What is this that we're a little bit morbidly fascinated by bad news? Maybe sometimes we're just a little bit glad it happened to somebody else. It makes me feel like, boy, that was a bad tornado they had over there. I'm glad we don't have that hanging around. And maybe we have a little bit of that going on.
We get glued into the bad news. Isn't that weird? Like you just all of a sudden, if we started playing a video and I was in here preaching and somebody started showing bad news up there, everybody turned and look at the bad news. I don't know what that is exactly, but we're a little bit fascinated by bad news. But here's the thing that I think most of all that makes us withhold good news and withhold our blessing is that we're afraid it'll go to somebody's head.
Now, a daughter who's been raised in blessing pretty much every day of her life. And she knows the difference. She texted a couple weeks ago and she said, Well, she said, I went in to visit my professor in one of my classes because we hadn't had any grades given to us the whole semester. And she said, I just want to see where I stand because we ain't got any papers back. We've made presentations.
We hadn't gotten any grades, and I just want to see how I'm doing.
So I went and visited the professor and asked him, How am I doing? He said, Well, you're doing very well, but I don't want to tell you because I want you to keep trying hard. And she texted me, she said, classic case of withheld blessing, huh, Dad? And I said, yeah, that's it, right there. Classic case.
Yeah. And the fact of the matter is, beloved, that people think that if we give good news that people are going to give up. I'm telling you, it's exactly the opposite. People give up when there's too much bad news. I know this because my two football teams have had a turnaround.
My bailer bears. who two years ago won one game this year are 8-0. Matt Ruhl, the new coach, is fantastic. And these players, you know, when you have a season and you lose about 10 or 11 games, you just start thinking, well, this is about the time in the game where we're going to lose. If you think you're going to lose, you quit blocking, you quit tackling.
Oh, you'll act like you're blocking and tackling, but you're not blocking and tackling because who wants to block and tackle when the game's already decided? But when you start thinking you can win, your whole attitude's different. Mac Brown has come to Carolina, has turned the football program around, and if it weren't except for a couple of bad plays here and there, including one last night, they'd have won a lot more games than they have. But the stadium is full. It's a sellout.
I mean, the last couple years, the students were getting so they didn't even come to the games.
Now they got to go to a lottery to get a ticket to come to a football game. And it's exciting, and football is fun. Why? Because the players have started thinking, you know, we might win. When you think that you're going to fail, You just give up.
It's not bad news that motivates people. It's good news. You know what? I think that something happened at the cross of Jesus Christ. There was more than just you and I having the opportunity to become a child of God.
I think there was something good that happened for the world, don't you? It's interesting, Steven Pintner, who I was Taking all those statistics from about change in the world for the good is actually Jewish though non-practicing and is an atheist. And he appeals mainly to humanistic answers as to why the world's getting better. But listen to this. This Harvard atheist professor He said, though I'm skittish about any notion of historical inevitability.
Cosmic forces are mystical arcs of justice, He says, I'm skittish. I don't want to think about some bigger purpose to all of this. But he writes, some kinds of social change really do seem to be carried along. by an inexorable tectonic force. He's saying as he spent his whole life studying the fact that the world has been getting better.
And he said, it's almost at times, like I have to admit, There might be something behind all of this. I've been reading over the last couple weeks the writings of a man named Rodney Stark. He's a sociology of religion professor at Baylor. He is um highly regarded and A Pulitzer-nominated author who's written over 32 books. Andrew Greeley of the University of Chicago has called him a giant and compared him.
to Max Weber, the preeminent sociologist of last century. And as one of the most highly regarded writers in his field, people are really paying attention to what he's saying. He started his research, he wasn't a Christian. But through the midst of his research, he became a Christian. He's written a book called The Victory of Reason.
It's fascinating. in which he argues that the whole of Western civilization and all the good that's come from it. Is a result directly. of Christianity. That's Alan Wright.
and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download. Are you ready for some good news? Make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade. 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. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. The Christian gospel, unlike every other form of religion, he argues, values the God-given capacity for reason.
Most religions in the world either so emphasize just the mystical. are just the law and obedience. that they don't say what Christianity says, which is God gave you a mind. that can reason. Because you're made in the image of God.
And Christianity values freedom. And the individual. I know we have too much individualism in our culture now. But you must understand throughout most of the history of the world, The sense of the individuals' importance was never highlighted. And he argues persuasively That This ideology of Christianity, speaking from a sociological point of view, was what gave birth to science.
That in the environment of mysticism, And in the environment of Islam, There would never have been the birth of science. But this value on the human mind's capacity to reason gave birth to science, which ultimately gave birth to enlightenment. and all of Western civilization that flows from this. Um I wish I could tell you a lot more about his persuasive argument, but let me just read what this eminent. scholar said in this concluding chapter Of one of his seminal works.
Christianity created Western civilization. Had the followers of Jesus remained an obscure Jewish sect, Most of you would not have learned to read, and the rest of you would be reading from hand-copied scrolls. Without a theology committed to reason, progress, and moral equality, today the entire world would be about where non-European societies were in, say, 1800. A world with many astrologers and alchemists, but no scientists. A world of despots lacking universities, banks, factories, eyeglasses, chimneys, and pianos, a world where most infants do not live to the age of five and many women die in childbirth, a world truly living.
in the Dark Ages. It's interesting, by the way, that Stark argues that one of the reasons that Christianity exploded. And that's the word that Every sociologist will use to describe the phenomenon of the Jesus movement. This man named Jesus was put on a Roman cross. and his mainly rural followers.
Afterwards, began sharing the gospel story. And Paul and some of his associates began going into the Greco-Roman cities. And with in 350 years, the movement had impacted the entire Earth. And he said, one of the reasons for this, which I mentioned almost parenthetically, but I found it of great interest. Is it Christianity?
And the message of Jesus. treated women with such high regard like no other religion ever has. And the women Now and then. seemed to be the ones that were more quick to become spiritually sensitive. and hungry.
And women were being converted so fast. This is a message of of such power and hope for women. Not just because the way Jesus treated women was so radically different than every other religious leader they'd ever been around. But Paul, who is preaching all over the world, and writes like he does in Romans 16 at verse 1, commending Phoebe, a deaconess in the church, for How wonderful her ministry was, and how important she was, and how much they wanted to take it. This kind of thing did not exist in the ancient religious world.
And what happened was a lot of these women were married to pagans, and a lot of those pagan husbands became Christians. And because of this, they began to multiply. In the Roman Empire, The average age of a girl being forced into marriage was age 12. Many girls were forced into marriage before puberty. And there was such a despising of women that it was a very common practice to expose infants.
after they were born. And a husband could just mandate that his wife have an abortion, which was truly unsafe. But often would just say they have a baby girl and they would expose it, meaning just take it and put it outside. For the cold, or a wild animal to kill. And because of this, sociologists have learned that the Roman Empire had an imbalance, and there were far less women than there were men.
Men. But in Christianity The average age of a woman In those early times, getting married was at age 18. And the women were respected and they didn't kill their baby girls. And because of it, Christianity began exploding all over the place. But what I want to say to you is that we don't just look at this from a sociological perspective.
perspective We look at it as Christians and say the reason for all of this is spiritual. The reason I believe that children don't die before age five. And we live in a culture where women are valued. The reason all of this has come about is not just a sociological phenomenon of Christianity, but the whole reason that the Christian gospel was born. Here's what Paul said happened.
In Colossians 2, verse 13. He unveils a mystery. And it says, You who are dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with His legal demands. He's saying that what happened was that our hearts were stooped. under the burden, the anxious burden of the law that we could not keep.
And so Jesus came because he loved you so much that he himself paid the debt. that he himself took upon his own being your sin and mine.
So then anyone who trusts in him Will be able to have that burden of guilt and condemnation lift off their life because you are 100% forgiven. And what it means is that Satan and all of the strategies of hell cannot prevail against you because Satan's nothing more than an accuser and a liar. And once you have no debt to pay, there's nobody that can make you feel guilty about that debt. And so, the more you see the gospel, and the more that you receive the good word of the gospel, anxiety lifts, and your heart is able to be free. But what Paul says is that something else happened here.
By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands, he adds this. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. And he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. The word here for disarm, it literally means he stripped them. Like If you had a royal robe of authority, they got stripped off of you.
What he's saying is that the cross of Jesus Christ is not just for your personal salvation, but it is for the cosmic transformation of the entire universe. That would happen in the heavenlies that nobody else could see. was even more dramatic than what you could see with your eyes. that up until that time There had been a sense in which there was a rulership of evil over the earth. But what Jesus did was so full, so final, so glorious, so complete.
That it stripped the demonic forces of their authority in the earth. And instead, we who are in Christ have been given authority. And what it means, therefore, Is that Satan and all of the demonic principalities and powers are nothing more than squatters? who are still fighting and biding their time until the consummation of the age, but the real authority has been stripped from them, and we, therefore, in Christ are no longer the tail, but have been made the head, and love wins. Yes.
And I think what happened, beloved, if you understand it, you could read all of Rodney Stark. It's fascinating. You could read Pintner and what's happening in the transformation of the world. And you can look at all the sociological forces. But I'm telling you that what we believe is that there was a moment in time where God in Jesus Christ did something decisive, which changed the whole cosmos.
And ever since that time, there has been an unveiling that is increasing throughout the earth. And I believe. That the sky is not falling, that we aren't chicken little or loosey-goosey or lucky ducky. I think instead Christianity is on the rise, evil is losing, God's people are winning, and the gospel is more powerful than it ever has been before. That is the gospel.
Alan Wright, our good news message, burying your worry instead of your talent, from the series No Worries.
Well, don't worry, Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Please stay with us. When you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we want to give you Alan Wright's top 10 CD album or digital download. Are you ready for some good news? Make your gift today and discover God's grace afresh with Alan Wright's top 10 of the first decade.
The gospel is shared when you give to 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. 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 now, here with Pastor Alan, sitting and putting a recap, a closing thought on today's teaching, burying your worry instead of your talent. What's your closing thought, Pastor Alan? Daniel, I'm so glad that we're looking at this parable that's so often misunderstood, especially misunderstood regarding this third servant that the master calls wicked and lazy.
So often we read this parable and we just feel scared and Well, kind of worried that one day we're going to get to heaven and God's going to say, You didn't do enough with the talents that I gave you. That's not what this is about. This isn't a parable in the end that is about three Christians, and some of them work harder than others. This is about a third servant who misunderstands the master. He said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed.
So I was afraid. This is a parable about fear and misunderstanding of the master. The master is generous and wealthy. The servant has rejected the master and has instead chosen a life of fear. This is about a person who, in the end, doesn't know the master at all.
Yeah. This is a powerful, powerful, powerful example of how sometimes we read scripture so moralistically that we miss the primary meaning. God our Father is a loving, benevolent, wealthy master. Who has entrusted so much to us? We need not live in fear, but in joy at all that He's entrusted to us.
That's what makes us good stewards, Daniel. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
