Pastor Alan is on the road and you're invited. Check out pastorallen.org for more information. But if you live in the Carolinas, you're invited to a men's event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on February 27th. And if you're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, join us at the Epic Conference open to all in late February. Plus, catch Pastor Alan preaching at Sojourn Church in Carrollton, Texas on March 1st.
All the details at pastorallen.org. Hmm. Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Your Jericho walls are going to tumble.
So I bless you. To keep on marching. What if the Israelites had stopped after the sixth lap? What if some naysayer had whined, this didn't work, and we've been laughed at for six days now, marched around these same walls for six days? I've had it.
I wonder how often we give up one day too early. I wonder how often we quit one day before the breakthrough. Maybe the thick walls that have been blocking your progress are the kind that only come down After seven days of marching, Maybe the sweet fruit of answered prayer that you need most is the kind that comes from knocking day after day. Maybe the breakthrough is just around the corner.
So, I bless you to keep on marching. Those walls are coming down one day, and God wants you to be there. To see it. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. All of the ministry of Jesus would continue.
There's no clearer place in all of the New Testament. Where we seek Absolutely for sure, Jesus is saying, my good work, including my miracles, are going to continue and they're going to continue through you. That's amazing. 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, Abide, taken from John 14 through 17, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire broadcast today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, which 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. At any point, contact us at pastoralen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Alan Wright. The second kind of existential question that I think is getting answered flows from this, and that's okay.
If we get to see the Father, Then how? Mm-hmm. How are we? You're going to go to the Father, you've said. Where does that leave us?
Where are we in connection? with God and all of that. And to answer this question, this is where Jesus starts using language about being in the Father. Verse 10, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? And the words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father.
dwells in me, does his works. Believe me, I'm in the Father. The Father's in me. Or else believe on the account of the works themselves. Look at this word again.
The little word in, it just keeps coming. I am in the Father. The Father is in me. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. In seeing the sun, You see the Father.
And what he's saying is something It's really important for you to understand who God is. He's saying you can't understand or see the Father. Except through seeing me. We're now treading upon mysteries. But we're speaking about God as a triumph God, Father, Son.
and Holy Spirit. That He is one God. We only have one God who is the creator of all that exists. But who he is Is one God in three persons, not three manifestations of God. Not three modes of being.
It doesn't do just to say he's the creator, he's the redeemer, he's the sustainer. But this is relational language. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co- Eternal. One God, three persons, and you can't wrap your mind around this, and you can hardly come up. with an illustration to explain it.
But why it's so important? And why Jesus is saying, you've seen the Father in me. is that to really understand God You must understand he's a relational being. in his own personhood. To say God is love means that there is.
some one to love, God not only has love, in His actual essence of being, there is love, perfect love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So God was Father before he was creator. He is just who he is. This is a mystery. It's profound. But it's absolutely beautiful and essential.
to understand him. Therefore his father of the beloved Son Jesus. who has sent his Spirit into the heart of every believer. It's Father's Day. This is a text about the fatherhood of God.
And oftentimes, people ask me, they say, well, How can I have a positive idea of God as Father when my earthly father was so imperfect? And I get that question a lot, and I can understand that. I loved my dad. He was brilliant. I just always admired him.
You know, I was the youngest and I would sit at the dinner table and he would talk about world events and things and had no idea what they were talking about. But I thought, gee, my dad is smart, though. I'll never forget that. He was on TV, so he was famous in our city.
So everywhere we went, people knew my dad. And he was always kind and he always spoke to people and I was proud of him because he was a famous TV man. He told us spy stories at night of the same characters and he told these stories that I loved. When I was a little boy, I'd get out of the bathtub and he would put the big towel around me and give me what he called the drying machine, like this. I loved the drying machine.
My kids, I gave them the drying machine. Abby, she loved that drying machine. She'd be like two years old. Daddy, drying machine. Calling on that.
We kept Mia, grandbaby Mia, for three days last week, first time that the parents have been away from her. And I got her out of the tub one night and I put the big fluffy towel around little Mia and I said, now the drying machine, she said, I don't like the drying machine, Daba. Generational blessing just getting stopped right there. Can you believe that? My dad coached my Pee Wee football team.
He started out his career as the weatherman on TV and so he came to every one of my school classes at some point in the year to teach about weather and I would sit there beaming with pride. My dad, the TV weatherman, had come to my class and everybody thought that was amazing. And then in fourth grade he left home. And he was gone. He came back for a while and then in 10th grade he left for good.
And people ask me, so, well, how do you have such a positive view of God as your Father when you experience that much pain? of your dad's departure and that That's at all so easy. I never struggled with that. I was like, Because all the things that were wonderful about my dad, He's smart. smarter than me, he's more creative than me.
He can spin a story or give you the drying machine or coach my football team and everybody knows him. And he's like, everything that is wonderful about who he was, I'm like. God's like that. But perfectly so. And then I would think of the things that I missed from my dad and how he wasn't there.
There's so much in my growing up. And I say All that my dad experienced in his struggles and imperfections. God's not like that. He's the God who's always there. And so I always have loved God, my Father.
who is the best of any earthly dad. And is not what any earthly dad who let you down is. He's the perfect. Father, show us the Father, Philip said. We'll be okay.
It'll be enough. We'll be energized. We will be awakened. We'll be fueled. We'll be fine.
If you could show us the Father, but how is it if we get to see Him? that we're in him. Because you say you're in the Father, the Father's in you, but how is it that we are in this relationship? Jesus is saying, you have been experiencing the Father. John makes this clear in the prologue to John in the first chapter, verse 14.
The word became flesh. and dwelt among us. And we've seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. full of grace and truth. You're saying We've seen the glory of God in Jesus.
And in verse 18 of chapter 1, no one's ever seen God. The only God who's at the Father's side. has made him known. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.
Are you ready for some good news? In a world filled with confusion and false advertising, Jesus knew exactly who he was and exactly what his work would accomplish. He did not leave us guessing. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What if the Christian life is not about striving harder?
but about abiding. Living with God, not just under Him or for Him. But in him. Living as secure, spirit-filled children of God, not as spiritual orphans. Living with the Holy Spirit as our live-in teacher, helper, reminder, and guide, so we do not have to rely only on our own voice.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17, a powerful digital audio series that explores Jesus' most intimate words to his disciples. Through teaching from these chapters in John, you will discover the freedom and confidence that come from living in Christ's finished work. As our thanks when you give today, you will receive digital access to Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17. 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 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. You've seen Jesus, and so you've seen. God. And in this final discourse, Jesus is not only saying this beautiful, staggering truth that.
He is one with the Father. He's God, and you've seen the glory of God. But he's saying that in this way that you have been relating with me over these three years, this is the. Ongoing nature of your relationship with God. I read a good book this week by Sky Jatani.
It's called Simply With. He proposed that there are four wrong postures by which Christians often. Think. Of their relationship with God.
Some. think of Christian life being all about life under God. Like You know, I mean and it is important that we come up under the principles of God. I mean like one nation under God and and but but to think of the Christian life being like you just need to get all of the get your life back in order in the order of God and come up under all of the rules of God That's not the picture in the New Testament of the Christian life And Jitani says, some people think of it, you might say, life over God. And this is where there is a way in which you could.
study and adopt all the principles that are taught in the Bible. and they could work for you. I'm talking about You reap as you sow, sowing and reaping. And I'm talking about Loving others and forgiving. And all you could, you could put into practice a lot of noble principles.
And you could do that without even really having to relate to God. It says, or some people think of it as like your Christian life is life from God. It's about God as a provider, and He is a provider. And he does want to provide. But he's not a vending machine, and this is not what he's primarily interested in, just being.
a dispenser of good things for you. Or Jitani says, we can think that this is maturity. is living life for God. I think a lot of people think, you know, it's like, if I could just get to where instead of living for myself, I'll just live for God and I'll do all these great things. And here's what's tricky: you are made for important purposes.
In fact, the Bible says you were created. for good works before the foundation of the world. There are many beautiful purposes God has for you. But but the the real picture of what it is to be a Christian is not in Under, over, from, or for God. It is Simply being with God.
This is what God wants.
So what Jesus is saying... Is you have seen the Father in me. And I'm in the Father. And the Father's in me. And everything that you do is going to be in me, in my name.
And my Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is called the Spirit of Jesus in the New Testament. He is Jesus' own spirit, will indwell the believer. And therefore you are in me. This is Breathtaking. Because what Jesus is saying is that in some mysterious way, You and I have been invited into the fellowship of the triune God.
Is telling in John chapter 20, verse 17. After the resurrection, Mary is trying to hold on to Jesus, and Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me. For I've not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them: I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Pause and look at that to my father and your father.
The way that Jesus understands His relationship to the Father is, He's saying, very similar to the way He understands your relationship to the Father. The way the Father loves the Son. It's the way the Father loves you. And the love that you're invited into is the love that the Son has for the Father. And the goodness and the power of the Father that He has poured forth in His Son over three years in earthly ministry is the same that the Father wants to pour out in all of His children.
You're in Him. He's your father. How beautiful. To be a father means to For a healthy father, it means to have chosen, to will, to give up one's personal freedoms and personal bliss in order to. To be tied up with the happiness of your child.
The father is the Servant of the child. Ben and Amy got away for the first time since Mia was born. She's two and a half, and they got away for three days, and we kept Mia. It was fun. We were at the beach and we played and we did all the things that the parents do.
It's just totally different, grandparent, when you have them 24 hours a day and you realize I'm not able to hand them off to the parents to do the hard things. And so we do all of the things, the fun things, the hard things, and it was like reliving a little bit like the memory of all those things of parenting. And I'm like, oh yeah, the parent is serving the child. That's what is happening here. I thought that the parents would be pining away and be texting all the time and saying, can we FaceTime and how's it going?
You know, three full days away. And like we didn't hear anything from them at all. I finally sent them a text. I said, Well, everything here is going really well. Mia's really cute.
All we got was a thumbs up, and back to them. And so We're just doing all the parenting stuff, and you realize that's what a parent does: they tie up their life with the child. And a father uses his strength. This is what a healthy father does. He uses his strength for the well-being of the child.
He's got a power that could destroy the child, but instead he uses it in advocacy for the child. The father has not only tied up his happiness with the well-being of the child, but is committed in a covenantal relationship in such a way that when the child hurts, the father's heart hurts. But no amount of waywardness or woundedness in the child can override the love. that is indelibly etched into the Father's heart. Can we see the Father?
Yes. You've seen him in Jesus. How are we in a relationship? You are also a son, a daughter. of God.
As the Son is in the Father, So you are in the sun. And everything you ask in my name is being heard from that perspective. Wow. Um Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message, all in from the series Avide. Please stay with us.
Pastor Alan is back here, joining me in the studio, sharing a parting good news thought for all of us 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.
Are you ready for some good news? In a world filled with confusion and false advertising, Jesus knew exactly who he was and exactly what his work would accomplish. He did not leave us guessing. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What if the Christian life is not about striving harder?
but about abiding. Living with God, not just under Him or for Him. But in him. Living as secure, spirit-filled children of God, not as spiritual orphans. Living with the Holy Spirit as our live-in teacher, helper, reminder, and guide, so we do not have to rely only on our own voice.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17, a powerful digital audio series that explores Jesus' most intimate words to his disciples. Through teaching from these chapters in John, you will discover the freedom and confidence that come from living in Christ's finished work. As our thanks when you give today, you will receive digital access to Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17. 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 877-544-455. 4860. That's 877-544-4860.
Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan as we place the bookmark in this teaching all in. And for someone listening right now, Pastor Alan, what's your Final word for today.
Well, I think so often as I reference in this message that people. Can think that being a follower of Jesus is like life under God, like, you know, system of rules, or even for some, it's like life over God. God, like faith is a formula, or that life is from God, or even that life is for God. But as Sky Jitani's book, with he talks about, it really is that being a Christian, being a child of God, is about life. with God.
And that's a great image. And that's what I want to leave our listeners with. This is what it means. It's not even, being a Christian is not even mainly about what you can do for Christ. It really is about Being with him.
And you see it over and over in John chapters 14 through 17. This is the invitation that be with me, Jesus is saying. That's really what it is. We're attached to God now and forever. Thanks for listening today.
Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860. 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 pastoralan.org.
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