Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I'd like to bless you to have the eyes of Jesus. To bless is to speak a positive vision and faith rooted in Scripture that's empowering. Receive the blessing from John chapter 1. May God give you the eyes of Jesus so you'll see everything as He sees it.
Through Christ's eyes, as he promised Nathaniel, you'll see greater things. Under a cloudless open heaven, may you have the Savior's own clear vision so that you'll see yourself more blessed than broken. You'll see others' potential more than their problems. And you'll see the world's hope more than its Heartaches. God's grace is all around you.
You'll see. When you have the eyes of Jesus, it changes your perspective, which changes your thoughts, which leads to empower you into new behaviors. That's the way grace works, and that's the gospel. And that is today's blessing. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
The very earth shook. Tombs split open. It fell dark. everywhere. and the one whose name is Jesus, he died for you.
all who accept that saving sacrifice. are not only forgiven for their sins, but they're given a new name. 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 called Daniel, 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 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. Contact us at 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. Same thing in Daniel chapter 4, verse 7.
At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Beltashazzar after the name of my God. This is the way the Bible's talking. And In chapter 4, it begins to shift, and Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges Daniel as Daniel. In chapter five, the queen of the new king, whose name is Balshazzar. Actually, he calls him Daniel, and then later in Daniel chapter five, Belshazzar the king.
Flat out calls him Daniel. In Daniel 5:13, the text says, Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king, my father, brought forth from heaven. Judah. I think the point is He's Daniel. And no empire can change that.
No earthly realm. could change it. In the spiritual battle Therefore It is very important to not fall for what the enemy is trying to name you. And it's also important. to remember Who your enemy is.
Love the story of David and Goliath. Do you remember when David comes in, he first speaks to King Saul? And he's urging King Saul to let him go and fight Goliath. And Saul tries to label David because Saul Is jealous and mentally unstable and has no faith or courage, he says to David, You are but a youth. You can't fight him.
David doesn't receive the label, you are nothing more than a youth. And instead He talks about his years as a shepherd. And he says, The Lord has delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear. And he who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine as well. That was David's name for Goliath.
He didn't call him the giant. He didn't call him the great warrior. He didn't do like all the other Israelites and sit around and think about the size of his sword and his shield and how much all of his armor weighed. He just called him the uncircumcised Philistine. That was all that mattered to David because circumcision was the sign of the covenant, and what he was saying was.
Who is this man who's not in covenant with God to defy the armies of the living God? Don't let somebody who's out of covenant with God. tell you who you are, they don't know who you are. I love the name Daniel. God is my judge.
It's like the whole story of Daniel. It's making this point. God. Is the supreme king, and he's over everything. It might look like that Nebuchadnezzar is in charge, but he is not.
It might look like that Darius The new king is in charge. He is not. It might look like Belshazzar is in charge. He is not. It might look like the whole Babylonian Empire.
Is in charge. They are not. In fact, we will see a dream coming up very soon in the story in which there will be four empires that will come, one after the other, until there is one. That is made of stone, that is not cut with human hands, and it destroys all of the other kingdoms, and this kingdom is eternal. It's a it's a story about the invincibility, supremacy, and power of the one supreme God.
And that God, Daniel says. is my judge. He's the one that matters. You could throw me in a lion's den, but you're not my judge. What God determines is what will come to pass.
be a wonderful thing. To ever come to the point in your life Where you quit trying to please everybody else because you come to this basic awareness that what God thinks about you is all that matters in the end. Daniel.
So there's this emphasis on Daniel. whose name suggests God My Father in heaven is the only one whose opinion ultimately prevails or matters. who is a young man Who goes through a period of preparation. who is like a foreigner. In a culture that's unfamiliar.
And yet he He is so wise That people go, wow. And he's promoted And yet at the same time He is persecuted. And he is thrown into a tomb-like den of lions, sealed with a stone. And while he is in that tomb, the mouth of the roaring lion is shh. Shut up.
by an angel And Daniel comes back as if alive Again, sound familiar?
Sound familiar. Interestingly enough, when the story of Jesus. is being told in the Gospels One of the early important points Is the angel coming to Mary and coming to Joseph? and telling them what they should call this boy. You're going to be given the right to give him his name.
But you shall call him Jesus. You shall call him Yahshua. Yeah. Yahweh, Shua. is salvation.
Jesus is just the transliteration of his Hebrew name, Yahshua. You shall call his name Yahshua. Because the Lord saves. And this boy is going to be your Savior. Get his name right.
Don't call them by the wrong thing. What's interestingly is that in the birth narratives of Jesus, it really begins with the story of John the Baptist being born. The son of Elizabeth in Zechariah. Maybe you remember the story. It's very fascinating.
Zechariah is told by the angel that Elizabeth will bear this child. And the angel says, And you shall call his name John. And Zechariah is like Well, what will be a sign unto me that I'll know all this is really true? Listen, if an angel comes to you and tells you something like that, don't ask for another sign. Yeah.
So he says, the angel says, here'll be a sign, you can't talk. Until the baby's born, you cannot talk. Lest you ask another dumb question. But anyway, no. Yeah.
And so for the nine months of her pregnancy, And all that's going on, Zechariah is just having to go around trying to motion to people and write things down. And then the baby's born. And it's eight days later at the circumcision when they're getting ready to name him. And Zachariah can't talk, but an angel had given him the instructions of the Lord: you shall name him John. And they get ready to name the boy Zechariah.
Now, if you've been struck mute for nine months and you were told to name him John. You'd be like Zechariah too. They're getting ready to say, Well, everybody's like, I think we'll call him Zechariah. I mean, you know, Zechariah Jr., right? And.
And Zachariah's over there like, no, no, no. No. Right, what? And they're like, what? What?
You say, come on prepared. And then he writes, his name is John. And they say, okay. John, and then his mouth is opened up and he can talk again. That that starts the stories.
And an angel comes to Mary and Joseph said, call him the right name. And then all throughout his life. People are calling them the wrong name. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
He's amazing in his first sermon, he's amazing, and he says incredible. Incredible things that are just so anointed. But people say, Is this not the carpenter's son? They said, Is this not Mary's boy? Calling him the wrong thing.
Yeah, he's the carpenter's son, but you're missing it if you think he's the carpenter's son. He's the son of God. And then they say, Is he not the brother of James and Joseph and Simon? My you're missing it. He is their natural brother, but he is the firstborn of all creation, the first fruits of many sons.
He's not just brother. to James and Joseph and Simon. He will be brother. to millions upon millions. People had a hard time getting his name right.
So Jesus came to his disciples one day and he said, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they responded, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah. or one of the prophets. Jesus said, But who do you say that I am? And Simon replied, You are the Christ.
the Son of the Living God. And Jesus was delighted. And said to him, Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And then he says, You're not Simon. I'm going to tell you who you really are, Simon.
Is your old name. It means shifting sand. But he said, You are Petros. You are Peter. You are the rock.
and I will build my church upon this rock As soon as Peter knew the right name of Jesus, then he could hear his name from Jesus. And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds went before him and followed him, and they were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this? Who is this? That's the question.
And the crowd says, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. But they still only saw in part. He was more than a prophet. He was more than the son of David. He was more than a political messiah who had come to set up an earthly throne.
He was the king of Israel, but he was the king of all of Israel. He was the king of this certain genealogical nation, but he would be the king of all who in the spirit are born again and engrafted into that Israel. He is more than they knew. And he came riding in, preparing for his own death, where they would place the placard over his head on the cross that read ironically, King of the Jews. And they mocked him and said, He's the king of Israel, so let him come down from the cross.
The world kept calling Jesus wrong name after wrong name. They called him a drunkard, they called him a glutton, they called him demonized, they called him a son of a carpenter, they called him an outcast, they called him every wrong name you could imagine. But the only name that Jesus ever believed was the name that the Lord God had assigned to him, Yeshua, the Lord is salvation. And despite every word of mockery and name that was called him, even from all the demons that persecuted him while he hung on the cross, Jesus just remembered the day of his baptism, for he remembered what his father had called him: my son, in whom I'm well pleased. Beloved, discard all of the names of the enemy empire and hear your father.
Name for you, son, daughter, in whom, through Christ, he is well pleased. Because a great exchange has taken place. And whatever you were. is gone. and the new has come.
He who knew no sin became sin.
So that we who were full of sin Instead of being labeled sinners, would be by this miraculous exchange. reckoned is the righteousness Of Christ. It doesn't mean that I have innate goodness. It means I have ascribed righteousness that's imputed to me. It means God knows my name.
And he's written it. in the Lamb's Book of Life. One winter's night in North Korea, Richard Manning and Ray Brennan. huddled inside a bunker a hundred yards behind enemy lines. It was january, nineteen fifty two, Snow was falling on the two marines.
who happened to be best friends, They were preparing to crawl through enemy territory and sweep the trail for mines.
so their troops could move Ford in an assault at dawn. Here's how Richard described what happened next. We were passing a chocolate bar back and forth. Ray took the last bite. when a grenade lobbed by an undetected North Korean landed squarely in the center of the bunker.
Ray was the first one to spot it, almost nonchalantly. He flipped the candy wrapper aside and fell on the grenade. It detonated instantly. His stomach smothered the explosion, and I was completely unharmed, untouched. He looked up at me, winked, and rolled over dead.
Eight years later, Richard was taking his vows to become a Franciscan priest. For years the Franciscans had acquired a priest to change his name to another saint's name as a symbol of his new identity. But the year that Richard took his vows, the Catholic Church decided to let priests. choose their own first names. That's how Richard Manning became Brennan Manning.
Beloved author. It made sense. If you're going to take someone else's name, Take the name of the one Who loves you most?
So Richard exchanged his name for the name of the one. Who died for him? two thousand years ago, There was another explosion, that of a grenade. but of cosmic significance. The very earth Shook.
Tombs split open. It fell dark. everywhere. And the one whose name is Jesus. He died for you.
He absorbed into his being the full wrath of God against all sin And thus All who accept that saving sacrifice. Are not only forgiven for their sins. But they're given A new name. And when you come to the very last of the book, in Revelation 22. You will read.
that this is the scene in heaven. the throne of God and the Lamb. will be in the city. And his servants will serve him. and they will see his face.
And his name will be on their foreheads. His name In all of who he is, is put upon us. Live your life. Therefore Paul says it this way. whatever you do.
in word or in deed. Do everything. in the name of the Lord Jesus. There's a battle of empires to name you. And God has won.
Don't pay attention to what any other Enemy Empire label shoe. Stay focused on what God calls you. That's the gospel. Alan Wright. And today's teaching, What's Your Name?
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Satan labels you, but God names you. And there's an important difference. And I think that's what you're talking about today. And so for the person who has realized. It's time to reject the false labels.
What's the next step?
Well, you know, one of the things that. is important in reading the Bible. Is understanding that the Word of God is Telling you who Christ is so that anyone who's in Christ can know Who he or she is in Christ. One of the things, Daniel, to do is to approach God's Word and instead of just reading it for Oh, here's how I can become more and more convinced of what a sinner I am, though conviction of the Holy Spirit may be very important. Read the Word of God.
And look for who your new identity is in Christ. And maybe even go through and write down those things that are most important to you. Because Ultimately, you're going to believe somebody and what they're saying about who you really are. And there's only one true and trustworthy source. of information about who you are and that's your maker.
So I really believe in digging into God's word. to discover who you are in Christ. 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.
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