Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you today to grow in stature. After Christmas, after the manger, after the shepherds and the magi and Herod's danger, what happened? Jesus grew. Luke tells us that the Messiah grew in wisdom and stature and favor.
God grew taller. Yes, well, Jesus was sinless and perfect and gaining height every day. You aren't, of course, made to grow physically taller forever. You'd outgrow every pair of pants and every bed and every ceiling. But you are made to grow in your standing.
You're made for increase in influence. And I bless your place, therefore, amongst your peers, your stature in your surroundings. May you flourish and grow in health and strength. All your days. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
The very first words. That we have recorded proceeding from the mouth of the Lord is: let there be light. It's just fascinating to me, also. Like the ancients, they didn't understand that light has to come before life. They didn't understand photosynthesis.
They didn't understand physics. They didn't know nothing of the principles of the cosmos. Nobody had ever proposed a big bang that started all this. Nobody had any notion that light is the thing that is traveling faster than anything else in the cosmos and stays at a steady speed forever. And all kinds of complicated and amazing physics revolve around light, that light had to come first.
They didn't know that. It's just recorded in the Word of God, the very first words from the mouth of God: let there be light, and there was light. 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 am Daniel Britt.
Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series, Empowered, 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. 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. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. It was an obscure book.
It wasn't on anybody's bestseller list. the chances of that happening. By coincidence. are simply so astronomical. that I think you'd have to say impossible.
Of course we know It was God. And here's the thing. We didn't need Ken Geyer's The Reflective Life. We had a copy. God sent it to us.
So he could know, we could know. That word that Carl gave her. was a word from heaven. And God says, I'm with you. in the middle of this hard time.
And it changed everything. Mm-hmm. Jesus. comes and walks next to the sad Here's about the grief. and then turns on the light.
And it's more than enough. At verse 27, beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures concerning himself. If you are, and we'd love to pray for you today about this, if you are interested. and learning to be more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
So that you could receive revelatory words that would be encouraging for others. As you begin to learn about anything prophetic, remember this. All That is prophetic and revelatory will be consistent with and flowing with the revealed word of God. The beginning place of Jesus revealing himself was he began to tell them what the Bible was all about. I think he was explaining to them that it never was about laws, morals.
or simply a way of conduct. but that the whole of the scripture, starting with Torah and the prophets, was pointing to Jesus, and it is one big story of redemption. Your word, the psalmist said, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. He was lighting up the path for them.
So verse 28, they drew near the village to which they were going, and he acted as though he were going farther. I was at. Jesus light.
Okay, I'm going on. But he really wasn't ever planning to go on. I don't know. What's that? But they, the text says, urged him strongly.
to stay. Maybe it's just like God designed us such that our hunger for God opens us to God. And Jesus wanted them to want him.
Someone has said God waits. to be wanted. Please stay with us, they said. It's toward evening, the day is now far away. far spent, so he stayed with them.
The word stay, minnow, same word for abide in me and I'll abide in you. Same word for branches abiding on the vine. He just stayed with them. Part of getting revelation is just not being in such a hurry. But instead, just inviting Jesus to stay with you for a bit.
and being willing to stay there too. Just noticing. Verse 30, when he was at table with them. He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. and their eyes were opened.
And they recognized him. Not sure if this is. Communion, the Lord's Supper, the language is like the Lord's Supper. It's very much the same language he used at their last meal together, the Lord's Supper. But something happens here.
Something happens at the table. We don't believe that communion, the Lord's Supper, is a merely symbolic act. It is A means of grace. It's a It is a It is an encounter with Jesus who's still the host of the table. A mystery?
The communion. I w I'll take you back for just a moment, show you something just Fascinating about the Word of God and fascinating about what was happening in this moment of their eyes being open. In Genesis 1, In the beginning of all things, we read in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and the darkness was over the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light. and there was light. and he saw that the light was good. The very first words That we have recorded proceeding from the mouth of the Lord is: let there be light.
It's just fascinating to me, also. Like the ancients, they didn't understand that light has to come before life. They didn't understand photosynthesis. They didn't understand physics. They didn't know nothing of the principles of the cosmos.
Nobody had ever proposed a big bang that started all this. Nobody had any notion that light is the thing that is traveling faster than anything else in the cosmos and stays at a steady speed forever. And all kinds of complicated and amazing physics revolve around light, that light had to come first. They didn't know that. It's just recorded in the Word of God, the very first words from the mouth of God: let there be light, and there was light.
And note this well. Throughout the story of creation, what you will not see is God saying, and let there be darkness. He darkness is not a part of creation. Darkness is the absence of light. And that's all it is.
There is no place in all of the cosmos where darkness is like an actual thing unto itself. Even when we talk about a dark hole or dark matter, it's not that. It is. Just the absence of light. You block the light.
And you have darkness. Therefore, There is absolutely no comparison. between light and darkness. You're not talking about two different created forms of energy. Light is energy.
Darkness is the absence of it. Light is brilliance. Darkness is the absence of it. So Light always defeats darkness. always dispels darkness, and darkness cannot dispel light.
Somebody told me this morning about How well the horned owl can see. I couldn't believe it, so I looked it up between services. Indeed, the great horned owl, and if you could have a pitch dark night, no stars, no moon, no nothing, total darkness, which is hard to envision because we always have somewhere a little bit of light, but if you had total darkness, and put the owl on the goal post on one end of a football field. And then at the 50-yard line, put one birthday candle. The owl could see a mouse in the other end zone.
A little bit of light. Which by the way Does it not give you hope if you're in a dark place? to think it could start with a tiny Handle. And does it not give you more confidence in your own ministry and wherever you are and whatever you do, you are the light of the world? The pressure's off, just go and just Be a person who loves Jesus.
Be that. And you are a light, and there's a candle, and somebody's going to see something they hadn't seen before. What's interesting is the way the story turns from the beginning in Genesis 3. God had been walking with Adam and Eve and talking with them. is clearly and closely as I'm talking with you.
Like you talk to your best friend. Please understand the way that God fellowshipped in paradise. is the heart of God. He wanted to talk and walk. with the people he made in his own image.
And that's never changed. But this happened. Sin came into the world. And it happened this way in Genesis 3:1. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
That's the first. Lie and the woman Corrected that. But then it goes on at verse 4: The serpent, here's the next lie, said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.
So the serpent convinced the woman that she would see better if she disobeyed God. And as soon as she and her husband sinned, what happened was darkness. They began wanting to hide. They wanted darkness. They didn't want the light.
They wanted darkness. They didn't want to be seen. They didn't want to be seen by each other. They didn't want God to see them. They didn't want to see each other.
And this is odd. In verse 7, the eyes of both were opened. And they knew themselves to be naked.
So it's an ironic statement. It's like their eyes are being opened, but they're being opened to darkness.
Now what I want you to notice is this, that in Genesis 3, the pattern... They're offered food by a supernatural being this This satanic figure, the serpent, They eat. Their eyes are open. And they know That they are no longer They're no longer in fellowship. And then they're expelled from paradise.
Supernatural being offers food, they take it, they eat, their eyes are open in the wrong way. There was creation, there was light, there was perfection, there was beauty, there was fellowship, and then there was sin, and there was curse. But look at Luke 24 again, 30. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. and their eyes were opened.
Sounds real similar. And they recognized him. So in Genesis, it's creation and light. And then a conversation with the devil. the liar, the taking of food, the eating of it.
and their eyes being opened to shame and fear. and nakedness, but in Luke it's the great reversing. It is a story of creation, and then there was a fall. But now, this is a story of what happened after the fall: there was a recreation, and there was a reversing of the curse, and the breaking of the bread. Oh, hallelujah.
In Genesis, they were shut out of paradise, but in Luke, they are welcomed into the presence of the king in the kingdom of heaven. At verse 33, they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed. Joy. How does despondency turn to joy? How can despair turn to hope?
How can such sorrow become such happiness and gladness. Jesus was already raised. He did nothing new for them. Except Turn on the light. Yeah, yeah.
in your life today. If in the breaking of the bread, Kind of scales fell from your eyes. And you saw him? When we believe something that's a lie. We believe it.
Because we think it's true. Our bodies telling us it's true. Our feelings are telling us true.
Sometimes an unconscious part of our limbic system, an unconscious brain, is telling us it's true.
So it feels real. That's why we need God. to come and shine the light on it. Maybe just one candle for you today will be enough. Lies that might be fueling depression feel true to you.
Liza could be tearing up a relationship, but they feel true to you. Lies that are fueling the fears that keep you awake at night feel true. to you. The spiritual battle, brothers and sisters, is not won generally. By shouting at the darkness or trying to even push back the darkness.
The spiritual battle is won by turning on the light. Jesus is here. and the light has come. There's power. And the light.
of Jesus Christ. The darkness wants to say you're suffering. For no good reason.
So you should despair. But when the light turns on, you see something about how suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. In the darkness, the disappointments. are screaming at you. You will never be able to make it.
It will be one disappointment after the other because that's what you see. But if you could see Jesus standing next to you in the light, you would see. that there is no finality to a disappointment. but you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You move through the seasons of difficulty.
and that your adversities do not define you. In the light, you see a different definition of your life. in the darkness can feel. Like you're not worth that much. Because of the rejections that you've experienced, it, but in the light.
In the light. of the Lord's Supper. You'll see. He died for you. And he would not die.
for something that is worth less. He would only die for that. which is priceless. Yeah, so I'm gonna go ahead and do that. always dispels.
darkness and that's the gospel. That's Alan Wright. Our good news message today from the teaching, The Power of Light. It's in the series Empowered. And I encourage you to stay with us because Pastor Alan is back here in the studio sharing a parting good news thought before we leave today in just a moment.
Allen Wright Ministries is more than just a daily radio broadcast. Here are Daniel and Pastor Alan explaining another layer. Pastor Alan, we love putting resources into the hands of believers and those who are looking for ways to improve their life through the good news of the gospel. And those resources show up in a variety of ways. One of the coolest ways I think though is every day a resource called the Daily Blessing pops in my email inbox.
And what a way to start our day. This is absolutely free. It's the best way to start your day or to Pillow your head at night. Put this down into your heart, the sound of a blessing. And by that, we mean a positive biblical vision spoken in faith over your life that helps shape your identity for who you really are and with it fuels you for a positive future that God has intended.
It's a world that's real quick to curse. You don't have to go very long into your day before somebody is ready to speak negative things over you. We need the true word of God spoken over our life. And so, Daniel, I write a daily blessing every day and would love to send it. All you have to do is just give us your email at pastorallen.org and we'll get you signed up and start including you.
PastorAllen.org is your next step. Simply drop by on your phone, tablet, or computer today. That's pastorallen.org and be blessed with a fresh word from the Lord today. Thank you in the studio to share Pastor Alan's good news thought for the day. As we come to the conclusion of this teaching, which is the power of light.
Pastor Alan, what's our closing thought?
Well, I think that for some of our listeners right now, you could understand that There's something that If you're depressed, there's something fueling that. If if you're feeling hopeless, there's something behind it. If you've lost all of your energy. There's a reason. And Chances are that what's happening is some form of darkness and I don't mean That means direct demonic oppression, which it can mean.
But what I mean is that there's deception. that somehow hell has blocked the light of God. But God is rich in mercy, and his kindness endures and. His love. I want to say to whoever that listener is that's in that hopeless place, his love for you is as sure now as it ever has been.
And these lies that are underneath even the darkest depression, they can lift. and so I'm speaking light to you. That the light of God and his revelation of the love of God, it comes right into whatever darkness you're facing. Because, beloved, there's no battle between darkness and light. The light has come and the darkness comes.
can't do a thing about it. Uh 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. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
