Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. We do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed. That's Paul's blessing to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 4, 16, and to you. You aren't withering on the vine, you're being renewed where it matters most. The hydrangeas that adorn our house in front grow brown and gangly in the gray of winter.
If you didn't know better, you'd think they were dead. But you mustn't be fooled by their apparent decay. The real life is inside, down deep, root deep, hidden deep. In expectation of spring, we trim the withered stalks back and well. You should see them now.
inwardly. You're being renewed.
So it's time. to blossom again. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. The God who sets a table before you. is here.
This God walks with you through every door, down every trail, into every unknown. He's present with you, Christ with you, Christ before you, Christ behind you, Christ in you, Christ beneath you, Christ above you. Christ on your right, Christ on your left, Christ when you lie down, Christ when you sit down, Christ when you arise. Jesus is here. in the person of the Holy Spirit.
And you'll never ever believe her. be separated from him. 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.
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More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Alan Wright. At the core of all things that are wrong is that people don't yet know me.
That's what's wrong. He's saying something of such massive importance here. That the whole problem of the world is that the world does not know Jesus, the whole root of all things that are wrong. Is this really what is wrong? Yeah.
There are a lot of things that are wrong. Of course there are many things that are wrong. You could get a long list of hate and racism, abortion, sexual confusion, rebellion, murder, hypocrisy, religious shame, poverty, injustice. All of this list goes on and on endlessly. But what is really wrong, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is going to convince and convict of.
Is that people don't yet know me? They don't believe in me. That if that happens, then everything else changes. This means that the primary task, therefore, of his body on earth is not to correct the world about. Issues as much as it is to introduce people to Jesus and to herald Christ.
I don't say that you shouldn't speak up about issues. I think we should. But the Holy Spirit wants to show the world what's so wrong. And what is so wrong. He says, is they don't know.
The wonderful Messiah. And then Jesus says, the Holy Spirit's going to show you what's right.
So that for every believer The righteousness of Jesus is imputed to the believer and becomes credited to you as if you were righteous. That Jesus is going to the Father and we belong to Him, the Holy Spirit has a work. in the life of the believer showing you on an ongoing basis. that you belong to him. that you're a child of God.
that everything about Jesus is right. and that his gift to you in his saving work, His forgiveness of sins and the imputation of his own righteousness. It means for the believer That the Holy Spirit is not primarily following us around. to tell us everything that's wrong with us. Jesus has repeatedly said that he is the Spirit of truth and he'll teach you.
So I like to think of the Holy Spirit. as the best teacher in the world. And this means, as I read someone who said this week, the Holy Spirit... will help you Discover what needs to be done in a better way, and we'll teach you. But the Holy Spirit is not a nag, he's a beautiful teacher.
And as you know him and you love him, you'll want his teaching. You would like very much In any arena of your life that you would like to get better in, if you could have whoever was the master teacher of that arena in your life. If they would come and teach you, you'd give almost anything for that, wouldn't you? The Holy Spirit is that to you.
So God does not want us walking around primarily With a sin consciousness, but more with a righteousness consciousness that we've been set apart as holy under God. And that everything about Jesus is right, and He wants to continue to teach us and lead us into that.
So in that sense, I love And I want to love. Anything that's wrong in my life for the Holy Spirit to show me so that it can get better. And we all have that.
So he's come and he convinces or convicts the world in regards to sin. that the problem is sin. Nobody comes to know Jesus. Until the Holy Spirit comes. convinces that person the problem is sin.
You think all these other things are the problem, but the problem is sin that has separated you from God. And until you come into a A knowledge of Jesus that sin is going to continue to be your problem. But as regards the believer, he says, I'm going to the Father. And the righteousness of Jesus has become our righteousness. And the Holy Spirit wants to convict you or convince you of that day in and day out.
And then Verse 11. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. It means that Jesus has conquered. And the Holy Spirit. is going to make that gnome.
So What are you saying? It's better that I go. The best thing that ever happened to you would be that I go and the paraclete will come. He'll convict the world about the main problem behind it all, that people don't yet believe in me. and they don't know about the power of the blood that I've shed.
They don't know about the power of knowing me as Savior, and that's what they need to know. But the Holy Spirit is going to be at work in the world, convicting and convincing people who are far from me that they need me. And he'll herald And proclaim and keep convincing you and all believers of what is right, of me, the way and the truth and the life, and he'll keep drawing you to my heart. And then the Spirit will be at work convincing people that the devil has been defeated and that I've been victorious.
So What is this? Primary work of the Holy Spirit that he's describing. It all is about Jesus. Jesus is the answer, Jesus is righteous, and Jesus is victorious.
So What I'm only gonna say Is that the reason it is better that Jesus physically left the earth is because Jesus came spiritually back to the earth in the Holy Spirit. And in an unprecedented new era of a new covenant, because we have been so thoroughly justified, just as if I'd never sinned. that there has been a restoration. of fellowship with God. That is something the earth hasn't seen since before there was sin in the world.
And God has a renewed place of up close intimacy with believers. It means that it's all, therefore, about Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is drawing us back to Jesus because He is Jesus in the Spirit. It's to your advantage that I go away. Jesus says, in part because I'm one physical person in one place, and I could fellowship with you, Peter, today, or I could fellowship with John tomorrow, and I could fellowship with James the next day. But when the Holy Spirit, my Spirit comes, he will be everywhere, in every place, at every time with every person.
I've thought about this so much this week. Like if Jesus had stayed physically on the earth and had kept teaching and kept doing his miracles just like he did, and because he's the Son of God, he's immortal. And let's imagine that he was crucified for our sins and he was raised from the dead, but then instead of ascending to heaven, he just stayed on earth in a resurrected form. And you go, well, that'll be, I mean, the part of me is like, well, that'd be wonderful. Could the church of Jesus have grown?
I suppose so. I mean, in today's technological world, we could have live streaming of Jesus. He's live in Jerusalem, and he just healed a lame person, and the whole world watched it live. And people would celebrate that. Or we could have Jesus teaching at a mass crusade, and you might be able to be there physically in person and see Jesus.
Just like you went to a Billy Graham crusade or something, you might be able to. Jesus, I'm pretty sure, could be a pretty good evangelist. And so maybe the church would continue to grow. Why is he gone then? What would we be missing?
What you would be missing, beloved? Is it you and I? would be able to observe Jesus. And see Jesus. And hear about Jesus.
And maybe even attend one of his meetings and see Jesus in person sometime. But what we would be missing is that you and I would not be connected to Jesus. He would not be able to say, Abide in me, and I'll abide in you. There would be no attachment with the Son of God. It would be mental ascent and maybe even delight in who He is, like you would have of some celebrity.
But what He has offered here and what He has taken delight in and tried to assure these disciples and wants us to know it's better for Him to not be here physically where He can fellowship with one person at a time. It is better for Him to be spiritually where He could abide with you, and you could abide with Him, and you could be forever connected to the Son of God. Here's what we'd be missing if Jesus had stayed on the earth physically rather than ascending. The church wouldn't be the church. Church wouldn't be the church.
We would get together and we would talk about Jesus' latest teaching and talk about some of his great miracles, and we would celebrate all of that. But guess what? We would not be his body. And him the head. We would be his followers.
But we would not be organically and mystically connected to Jesus as the head of the church. and all of the ministry of the church would no longer exist as it now exists. Oh, praise God for the body of Christ, every person filled with the Holy Spirit. I wish every one of you could have been here Tuesday night. We had over 200 women gather for a worship and healing gathering here from all of our campuses.
The presence of God's Spirit was just palpable, and a spirit of worship and beauty and prayer taking place all over that room. just prayer stations and celebrating the Lord's Supper together and people receiving healing and people being encouraged and it's like a little piece of heaven that's there. And here's what's happening. The body of Christ ministering to the body of Christ. And here's the beauty.
Not only is there ministry here in the Holy Spirit, ministry in that corner in the Holy Spirit, ministry over here, ministry as we're worshiping in the Holy Spirit, but guess what? I don't think that we were the only healing and worship service going on on planet Earth on Tuesday night, do you? No, he's ministering somewhere in the Mideast. He's ministering in an underground church in China. He's ministering somewhere down in the global south and Central America and some great outpouring of the Holy Spirit there as well.
It's to your advantage I go away because the church gets to be the church. If he hadn't gone to heaven, There'd be no gifts of the Holy Spirit. It wouldn't be that some have a gift of teaching, and some a gift of prophecy, and some a gift of mercy, and some a gift of helps and service. Because these things come to us because the Holy Spirit is literally within us. We would no longer have this statement of Jesus that in our weakness his strength is perfected.
We wouldn't be experiencing the power of God, the Holy Spirit, working through us as the body of Christ. We would be following Jesus. We might even love Jesus from a distance, but we wouldn't have him in us. And it would mean there would be no fruit of the Spirit. Because love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
These are the fruit that Jesus says, he's like the vine, we're like the branches. And this fruit happens because we abide in him. Because there's life that comes through the vine, the life comes through the branch and it goes through us and produces fruit. We wouldn't have that. We could try to emulate Jesus.
We could try to say, what would Jesus do? and try harder to do what he would do, but we wouldn't have the mystical. Beautiful attachment to Jesus, wherein there is an inward power that is worked within us. You would know about Jesus, but you wouldn't know Jesus. You wouldn't know him.
All the billions of the people on earth that would want to know Jesus if he were here still physically, people wanted, you wouldn't get to know him. There'd only be a handful of the billions of people that would ever get to know him. But now you know him. And you can get to know him better and better. That's what he wants.
It's to your advantage that I go away. Because a helper will come. Can you imagine? That the real miracle the real grace of God. The real plan of God.
Jesus is saying, I'm going to always be with you.
Someone sent me a beautiful excerpt from Summer Joy Cross's book, The Emmanuel Promise, I thought would be a beautiful way to Have you have a moment to Let your own spirit commune with the Holy Spirit. And so I want to just Have you think about what you need from God? Just think about Some anxiety you're wrestling with. Think about some wisdom that you need.
Some loneliness that's lingering. Maybe a disappointment. You need Jesus. And you would like to have him. And you do.
So maybe I invite you just Why don't you close your eyes and just listen, take in these words? They're not mine. They're from Summer Joy Cross. The God. who holds all the universe in order?
is here. The God who spoke And out came the Milky Way, is here. The God who creates and recreates and lovingly makes a mosaic of all our broken pieces. is here. The God who had you in mind before the foundation of the world.
is here. God who sees you and knows how the brokenness of the world bears down on your shoulders. It's here. The God who hears the talks that swirl inside your mind. and treat you tenderly is here.
The God who knows how many hairs are on your head, who catches your tears in a bottle. is here. The God who sets a table before you. is here. This God walks with you through every door, down every trail, into every unknown.
He's present with you, Christ with you, Christ before you, Christ behind you, Christ in you, Christ beneath you, Christ above you. Christ on your right, Christ on your left, Christ when you lie down, Christ when you sit down, Christ when you arise. Jesus is here. in the person of the Holy Spirit. And you'll never ever believer.
Be separated from him. And if you don't know him yet, that's the invitation. That's what you're being invited into. To allow the Holy Spirit to convince you that sin is the problem. That's what keeps you from God.
and there's only one solution to sin. and that is that Jesus paid it all. And you let him. You let. The cross of Jesus and His shed blood be the payment for your sin, and put your trust in Him.
And the Holy Spirit comes. Wow.
So In that sense, might be the craziest thing you ever heard a preacher say, but Good thing Jesus isn't here in the flesh, huh? It's to your advantage that I go away. Because if I do The helper will come. And he's come. And that's the Gospel.
Esther Alan Wright. Our good news message from the teaching today, Good Thing Jesus Left, from the series, Abide. Please stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life.
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That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan at the conclusion of this teaching. Good thing Jesus left. And then these parting words of Jesus.
You'd think that as Jesus is bringing things down to a, he's landing the plane here, you'd think he wouldn't drop this one. This was kind of like, okay, we're going to need a little more time to unpack this. But the ways of Christ are not our ways. Not our ways. You know, to think it's to your advantage I go away and Jesus saying this.
I've thought about this a lot, Daniel, and I thought, what if Jesus had stayed physically, you know, kept teaching, doing his miracles? Today's technology, we could broadcast them all over the world. We could instantly have through social media every single one of his teachings made known. We could see live action of him healing the sick. Who knows?
Maybe the church would have grown if Jesus had stayed on the earth, but what would be missing?
Now here's what would be missing. you could see Jesus on T V from a distance. But you wouldn't likely have a relationship with him yourself. That was limited. mainly to these twelve men and to a group of other followers.
But You and I and people in all the different countries of the world if Jesus were still physically on the earth, we'd hear of his great and wonderful miracles. But we wouldn't know him. But what we've been offered in the gospel is a real friendship with Jesus. Every single disciple, every single follower, every single child of God, an up close relationship, with the very Son of God. Maybe that's why, he said, it's better.
Then I go away. It's to your advantage. Because now we can all. Have a close personal relationship. with the Lord of the universe.
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