Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Here's today's blessing. You aren't getting older. You're getting newer because God loves to do new things. Like a blossom that suddenly bursts forth, Isaiah extolled, God delights in every blooming thing, every sight of new life and beauty, a new year, a new way, a new you.
God loves new things. One day, he'll make all things new. Until then, may you have spiritual eyes to see God's fresh grace every day, all day. All year long. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
When they watched Jesus, Be scourged. and beaten. and mocked and crucified. and put in a garden tomb. There's hardly a word to describe that level of disappointment.
Despair. Like when all of your hopes feel dashed. everything you've built your life on. Seems Gone. That's what they're feeling.
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 Brittick. 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. Uh It is the worst day of their lives. And yet, It is the greatest day in history. Because Jesus has come forth out of the grave.
Jesus has proven that every one of his promises were true. Jesus has defeated death itself. Jesus has assured heaven for every believer. Jesus has made a public spectacle of all the powers of hell in the heavenly places. Jesus is triumphant, risen, and the king of kings and lord of lords.
And he's right next to him. It's the greatest day in history, and for them, because of their. darkened minds at the moment It feels like the worst day of their lives. What if The worst moment of your life, you're standing right on the dawn of the. Best thing that ever happened to you.
Uh it is possible.
Sometimes you just need to turn on The light. I'm taken by this Jesus of ours who comes and walks with these depressed disciples on Resurrection Day. He is seven miles north of Jerusalem. And I think, what would I be doing if I'd been raised from the dead? I think I probably would have found Herod.
And just gone. I'm back. At the very least, Gather a huge crowd on the temple steps in Jerusalem and make your point. Told you so. But not our Jesus.
He will show forth, the texts will later tell us, many signs and wonders and evidences of his resurrection. But here we see him on Resurrection Day. Walking with the depressed. If you're depressed, There's something about who Jesus is. Yes.
Yes. He wants to be near you. And he's not in a hurry. He's not scared of your despondency. He is familiar with grief.
He is acquainted with rejection. There is value. And being like these disciples and admitting your disappointments. It's like grief. You can't really go around it.
You go through it. It's not an invitation to wallow in it. But it is an invitation to be honest.
So much I've seen over the years of pastoral ministry. that healing begins when we are able to admit What we are feeling, and then pause long enough to go, why am I feeling that way? It's complex. But I think it's really important. Life skill.
To allow the Holy Spirit and wisdom to help you. Like your feelings are like a check engine light on the dashboard of your Car, they are reliable indicators that something's going on in your soul. We had hoped. I think part of what Jesus is doing is just helping them process in their movement towards revelation. What are you discussing?
Why is this making you sad? What is going on here in your soul? He doesn't just immediately open up their eyes. He walks with them. Jesus comes to people In the darkness.
In him was life. And life was a light. And the light has shone in the darkness.
Sometimes what Jesus does. He's so kind. He might do this for you today. It's to just Reveal the reality of his love and presence. As you're walking through, Your disappointment.
And when he does, It changes everything. It's very possible that the thing you think absolutely needs to get fixed. That's not really the answer. The answer is Prophetic revelation about God's presence in the midst of the thing that needs to be fixed. Our dear friend Carl Greer will be here ministering in our midst.
I first met Carl about 28 years ago. We had had for the second time A friend and mentor named Jack Deere come visit our church, and it was teaching us a lot. about how the body can be equipped. to do ministry and the supernatural giftings of the Holy Spirit. And he asked on his second visit if he could bring with him Someone he had discipled, a businessman in Texas named Coral Greer.
who Jack said had one of the most beautiful revelatory type gifts he'd ever seen. Of how God just spoke to him and ministered through him. And he said, And I would like for the people to see. That The way God's design the church is that ministry is not supposed to be for the few professionals and pastors. but rather it's for the whole body.
And every person flowing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God gives them, And Carl's a businessman. He's a real estate developer, and he has this beautiful gift. I said, please come. He said, sometimes Carl even shared in public gathering a word that he feels like the Lord's giving in that moment. And I said, he's welcome to do so.
So we had an evening worship meeting and at the end of it My wife and I were sitting on the front pew. And we were in the middle of one of the hardest times. that we've ever been through. Ann's younger sister Mary had a battle against a cancer that eventually took her life. and it was a sad time.
It was a hard time. A time in which we've been praying a lot deeply. Um Carl had never met us before, and he didn't know about Mary, and he didn't know anything in our life. But he paused in that service and he looked down at my wife and he said, I'm a little reluctant. You're the pastor's wife, but I feel like the Lord's giving me a word for you.
And could I share? She said, sure. And he said, I don't know what's going on in your life. He said, but I see this picture of you kneeling by your bed and praying. And he said, I think.
The Lord just wants you to know. You are close to his heart he hears every prayer. And he wants to affirm. What a deep woman of faith and prayer you are. And he went on and ministered to her.
It was beautiful. And we wept, and it was so encouraging. And we got about a week away from it. I remember we had this conversation. Not that we were doubting the word, but we were just conversing about it and going.
You know, could that could that have just... Ben almost for anybody or something like that. Not doubting the word, but just still longing for God's reaffirming presence. And we'd gone to the Christian bookstore back then there was such a thing. and I had to pick up a book and Ann was browsing around.
And she goes over to this Christian living section, and there are all these books, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books. And she had pulled out this one book, only one copy of it in the store. By an author named Ken Geyer, who we had never read any Ken Geyer, to my knowledge, and pulled out this book by Ken Geyer. It was called the Reflective Life. And she walked over to me and she said, I think I want to get this book.
I said, well, what book is that? And in a moment of Stupid husband like yeah. I was like, honey, I came to get a book for me. We don't need to just keep spending our money on books. And, you know, me, who's got a million books.
everywhere you look, books, you know? And I said, are you really gonna read? I'm like, just You know, she's like, I really want this book for some reason.
Okay, get the book. And we go home and she starts reading it in the bed at night. And she's been so nourished. Ministering to Mary by day and reading Ken Guy or The Reflective Life at night. and reading me excerpts.
Listen to this, honey. Listen to what he says here. And we were being nourished together. And I said, that really is good stuff for us right now. About a week or so after that, she'd been reading the book.
A package came in the mail to our house, and it was from Carl Greer. And Carl had a note in there and he said, when I got home, He said, I've been praying for you. And he said, for whatever reason, the Lord put this book on my heart. And I thought maybe it would really nourish you. And we opened it up and it was Ken Geyer's The Reflective Life.
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 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. Or 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. How was that? 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. Light is energy. Darkness is the absence of it. 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, 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.
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Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio now with Pastor Alan here at the bookmark, where we're placing this for today's teaching called The Power of Light. And by the way, I know, Pastor Alan, this has been a key term that you have used in your ministry for quite a number of years as we have previously called this radio program sharing the light.
That's a powerful image. It's a powerful image that. Light itself brings life. Yeah. There's no life except for light.
And I love dispelling the darkness, right? That's why we exist as a ministry. Like, That we have an enemy that wants to try to cloud or obscure the light. But that's all that's happening. God's light is always there.
And whether it be lies that we've believed, curses that have been spoken. Traumas that have become part of our way of thinking, all of these things that shape. How we're viewing the world, and God's word and God's Holy Spirit comes like light. into the darkness and into that darkness he comes with a A revelatory, glorious new way of seeing things.
So that's the power of light. Yeah. 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.
