Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. This blessing comes from Psalm 118 verse 24. There are plenty of challenges in every day. Any day can present a conflict in need of resolution. Any day can present a battle in need of fighting.
Any day. can present a mountain in need of climbing. but every day. Every single day You have a cause. A choice.
Acclaim. You can. Rejoice. Today, this day. You have cause to rejoice and be glad simply because God made the day.
Bad things happen in our days, but there are no bad days because God makes no bad things.
So I bless you to marvel in the day. just because it exists. And because you're alive, to see it. This is the day the Lord has made. May you rejoice.
and be glad in it. Everything that God makes is good, including this day, and that's the gospel. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Please remember. Jesus Christ did not come to bring shame upon people.
He came to bear our shame. Why would God want to put his people to shame when he has explicitly promised that they will have no more shame? 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 Philved 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 today. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. I used to be scared of the Holy Spirit. Um And yet I so wanted the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And last week, I spoke to the subject: why wouldn't everybody want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? If you think about who he is. He is the giver of life. He is He is God. a third person of the Trinity.
He has all understanding and knowledge, the most marvelous. Teacher, utterly creative. He has joy and love and peace. in the essence of who he is and imparts that to all who receive him. He is He is the presence of Jesus to us, to disciple us.
Who wouldn't want to? be totally filled with the Holy Spirit. And we spoke about that Last week, setting aside some of our apprehensions and some of the Um some of the things we might fear about Receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Well, there's one other thing. That should be mentioned, and which I devote today's message to, and that is that many people. And I was one of them, was concerned. That to be fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit. that uh somehow it would make Me shut off my brain.
And the intellect and creativity and all those things that I had valued would somehow be greatly diminished. And today I have good news, just the opposite. Here's true. Father, we pray that you would open up the eyes of our hearts and show us wondrous things from your word. That you would let there be the Very illumining power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
So the words from these pages would come alive to us. And that by this word and by our joint testimony. that we would find new victory and that we would find Today, Lord, that we are being freshly empowered and filled. with every grace from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
So we'd just devote our time to you, and I ask to be a mouthpiece. A vessel for you. I love you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
I want to read two texts, Luke chapter 24. And then John 16, Luke chapter 24 gives us the account of Jesus. Resurrected Jesus, encountering two disciples who were on their way to the village of Emmaus, which was some seven miles from Jerusalem. And an incredibly fascinating conversation ensues. A transformation takes place in the minds and hearts of these disciples.
It's Luke chapter 24, verse 14. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened, and as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing together as you walk along? And they stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened in these days?
What things? He asked. About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God, and all the people, and the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they'd seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tube and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.
And he said to them, How foolish you are, and how sore of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, Stay with us, for it's nearly evening.
The day is almost over.
So he went in to stay with them. And when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it. and began to give it to them. And then their eyes were opened. And they recognized him.
And he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us? They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. And there they found the eleven and those with them assembled together, saying, It's true, the Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the.
The bread. And I read the text. to highlight the transformation that took place In their understanding. because of this encounter with the risen Lord Jesus.
Now, John chapter 16. As part of a beautiful discourse that Jesus shares in the Gospel of John 14-17, that Jesus is telling the disciples about the fact that he will go away, but it is much better that he goes because the helper, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, Who in our text today he refers to as the Spirit of Truth will come. And I just want to read this small section in John 16. Verse uh twelve Where Jesus says, I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.
When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He'll not speak on his own. He'll speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine. and making it known to you.
All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine. and make it known to you. In a little while, you'll see me no more, and then after a little while, You'll see me. I grew up in a family that valued the intellect.
That was apparent to me as a child. My dad uh was uh a newsman. And so he would come home each day, usually a different story or something he'd been working on, and it was always fascinating. To hear what dad was talking about with all the politics and government actions and things happening around the world. But I was the baby in the family, the youngest of three boys, and most of the time I basically did not understand what anybody was talking about.
And I remember I wanted to know what they were talking about. I just didn't know what they were talking about. And I just wish that just once I knew some political figure's name or something that was in the current events that I could join in the conversation. Um but when I did, it was kind of pathetic. And uh so.
I learned early on that sometimes it's best to just sit there and look smart. But I knew that there was that the value of the mind was an important value in our home. We also like sports. I liked sports a lot. And so I played most all the sports, and I was like every kid.
You know, I wanted to. Be accepted by my peers, and I wanted to have approval from parents, teachers, and coaches, and all. And uh So I decided that it would be wise to try hard and do well.
Now, you must understand that When there is any root Of shame, the simple sense that says, I'm not sure that I really measure up. That as soon as a child has that feeling that I don't think I measure up, and there's probably something I need to do to measure up so that people. then I'll really be accepted.
Well, as soon as that little seed is there, it can go one of two directions, can't it? And they're almost equal in opposite direction. One direction is to say, well, I don't think I can measure up, so why try? I might as well not try. And that's one way of escaping, isn't it?
Is just. to rebel. And uh If you just act in such a way that nobody should like you, well, then you'll never be disappointed that people don't like you because you weren't acting like they'd like you anyway. It can be a real Uh You know, nobody thinks it through consciously like that, but that's what happened. That's Alan Wright.
and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Do you ever feel like your home could use a little more peace and encouragement? This Giving Tuesday's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special Good News for Your Family study bundle, including two DVD series with study guides, Good News for Your Marriage, and Good News for Parents. In these sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife, Ann, show how God's grace can strengthen communication, restore joy, empower forgiveness, and help raise children without pressure or shame. Their practical wisdom and Christ-centered encouragement will equip your marriage and your parenting with hope and confidence that only the gospel can give.
We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again. is Alan Wright.
You can go another direction and say, I'm going to try to just be as perfect as I can possibly be so everybody will accept me.
Well, I chose that route.
Now, society applauds people that go that route. Parents like them, teachers like them, coaches like them, and so forth.
So I decided to go down. And here were the things I was focusing on: I would stretch and train my body physically for sports. and I try to stretch and train my mind for ac academia. And in sports, I wasn't always the best. I was a pretty good little athlete in some things.
I got pretty good at tennis and soccer, but I played bunches of the sports. And uh you imagine me as a as a football running back. I was. I was for a while. And but.
Imagine me as an ice hockey rink. We had ice hockey in Greensboro. I actually loved hockey. And I never got the trophy for the most valuable player on the team. But three different times I got a trophy for Mr.
Hussell. That was Mr. Hustle. Mr. Hustle is code language for you're not that good, but you try hard, so we're going to give you something.
And uh So I thought I'd try hard at sports and I would try hard in the classroom. And I found out I could do well in the classroom. That was something I could do. I never really thought I was necessarily smart enough to be, but I kind of figured out how to take tests and all that. And I'd love to make those A's.
And.
So I I wasn't really unlike other kids in the sense that in our culture we really emphasize sports and we really also emphasize who can do well intellectually, and those are the things we get trained in. But as Christians, we understand that we are spiritual beings. Yeah. And we're not really trained much spiritually, are we? I mean, even if you're in a good church.
Yeah. There are a lot of good churches in it. It still seemed that. The the training up in the Familiarity and the ways of God moving in our midst. And what it is like to be in the presence of God, and how one releases their spirit into true worship and communion with God.
And How in the world do we have an experience with an invisible creator that we can't see or touch and all of that? We're not trained in that. We focus on training right here.
So, you go to school as required by the government, and all your training is focused right here. And even if you're in a good church, you go to school for eight hours a day and then you go to church for one hour. We are focused on the intellect. And I grew up in a home that valued the intellect.
Well, as I grew up. When our family was besieged by divorce and the pain of that, and my mom met Christ and she introduced us to Christ.
So, really, as a little fourth grader, I I I accepted Christ. But I didn't have a sense of knowing him. I wanted to know him. I wanted, I remember longing as a kid. I just had a longing, I always had a longing.
I want to experience God. For some reason, do you have these kind of rogue vague just rogue memories that still live vividly to you? One of them for me is I remember as a child being in the ocean jumping waves by myself. Just I'd go out there and just jump waves and just stay in the ocean. And I can remember, I couldn't have been more in about fourth grade, and I can remember just being out there and just talking to God.
and and and and singing little songs to God. And yet, I didn't feel like he was talking back to me. And I so wanted him to talk back to me. But I was talking to him, so I remember I would do things like: Lord, if you're really there, then just don't let this next wave hit me when it comes by. And I'd have little moments, you know, and I'd say, that must be God.
But don't you just sometimes wonder: is there not some better way to encounter God than having a wave not hit you because you laid out a fleece or something?
So I grew, and then in high school, through young life, I really was cultivated in me how you can have a personal walk with Christ. And it just made me hungrier. And I liked to sing, and I liked to worship. I always wondered. Though, if there were more to the encounter of God than what I'd experienced.
And I got off to college. And For those who go to college, many people find it to be this way.
Well, in the first place, you can't believe how much reading they're asking you to do. But. Man. In addition to that, Many And especially in the secular university where I went. The professors have a sense that it's part of my job to stretch you intellectually.
And that is part of their job. And some want to stretch you in a way to make you rethink everything that you have ever believed. And that's not really in and of itself bad either, to rethink everything that you ever believed. But it's a painful thing to do. It's a very painful thing to do.
And what happened to me as I'm in this intellectual pursuit in college? I I went through a process where at the same time I was yearning for God, but my mind's being stretched. And I did start reconsidering everything. I never had a time in which I just didn't believe in God anymore. I never had a time like that.
But by the time that I was a senior in college, I had become oppressed. By Thoughts. Doubts Wonder if It's all a fable that we've made up to soothe ourselves. Or Wonder if Uh Wonder if It's just, I grew up in America and I happen to be around Christians, so that's otherwise I'd be a Muslim. And so, how could any of it be?
Wonder if it's. How can God love people when there's so much suffering? I was just asking all those questions. I had all those thoughts. It began to be oppressive to me.
And I was My senior year, I had been dating a girl for a long, long time and um And I knew that I needed to end that relationship, but it was traumatic for both of us because people, everybody, including us, thought we'd probably get married. We weren't supposed to, I did know that. That was painful. And in the midst of all of this, I've got these these Kind of oppressive thoughts. I began to have headaches, some I couldn't sleep well.
And yet there was another part of me that was just like yearning To know If God is real. Both things going well at the same time. Yeah. And it became my concern. as one who had valued thinking.
My whole life. It became my concern that when I read some of the Accounts from the Pentecostals and others about supernatural things that would happen. It was it was part of my concern that um It looked like that this was anti-intellectual stuff, and that was kind of scary to me. And fact. I I would have not come across as an intellectual snob and Now, Ann, who knew me during this time, and we began dating during that year, but.
She never called me an intellectual snob, but I was. Yeah. What she laughs about to this day is, I started trying to learn about the Holy Spirit, and I'd pick up a book, you know, and she'd say, Well, what about reading this book? And what the first thing I do is I turn it over and I look on the back to see the credentials of the person who'd written it. And if they were non-credentialed, meaning there's no postgraduate degree there.
I'd say one pass reading out. What could that person know?
So she was very patient with me. You remember, honey, those times we would walk over to the Arboretum, and I just fell in love with Anne, and she. She didn't have all the answers. Nobody. Who's going to give you an answer about why they're suffering in the world?
I mean, you could read every philosophy book, you're not going to get. an intellectual satisfaction of that really. But I would go over and I would ply her with questions. We'd talk. She had peace.
Well, if she couldn't answer the question or didn't try to answer the question, but it didn't mean that she. started wavering on whether she believed in God, and that was attractive to me. Um Sometimes that happens, doesn't it? You just are around other people and you realize they know.
something in a way that I don't know it. And if you're hungry, you get attracted to be around people like that. And we spent a lot of time together. But this is what had happened to me. I had a false dichotomy that had developed in me.
I came to the assumption, wrongly, of course. That things of the spirit were in conflict with things of the mind. And that if one is to be fully yielded to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. That you're going to have to turn off your brain. In fact, some of the things that I had heard people say sounded sort of like that.
You know, you just, you know, your problem is you're just too intellectual and you need to shut off your brain, and then God can really do something, you know, in you. Alan, right, and I've heard this before, and I agree, it's a big problem, a big myth to overcome. And it's our teaching today: How the Spirit Heightens the Intellect. The series filled. Alan is in the studio, and we're back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life.
And a final word. Do you ever feel like your home could use a little more peace and encouragement? This Giving Tuesday's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special Good News for Your Family study bundle, including two DVD series with study guides: Good News for Your Marriage, and Good News for Parents. In these sessions, Pastor Alan and his wife, Anne, show how God's grace can strengthen communication, restore joy, empower forgiveness, and help raise children without pressure or shame. Their practical wisdom and Christ-centered encouragement will equip your marriage and your parenting with hope and confidence that only the gospel can give.
We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Alan, for someone listening right now and they really have believed that they've got to turn their mind off, is this simply a moment to remember that God created our minds? It is. And it is really, I think, one of the most important messages in this series and a really important message just in general because there are a lot of people, I think, that are in the very position I was in.
And I wanted. To have the deepening experience of God's grace and the power of His Spirit, I really was afraid that somehow I was going to. Have to cut off my intellect, and it was going to diminish. And what I realized, of course, is the maker of the universe who made your mind, the more of him you have in your life, the sharper your mind's going to be. There are times that the spirit might transcend what the mind can comprehend, but even in so doing, The mind gains understandings and peace that wasn't there before.
Don't ever be afraid. Of the Holy Spirit, He will not turn your brain off, He will turn it on. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
