Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. The shepherd's tales were preposterous, improbable. and true. When God's miraculous grace breaks in, what is there to do? but to receive it, take it, hold it.
Feel it. As Mary treasured and pondered the goodness of God, May your soul find enough quiet. to sift through the evidences Love is grace. and ponder yesterday's God moments today. You are a treasure hunter who has happened upon gold.
I bless you to see. Enjoy. and ponder. The riches. of his grace.
Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. If you're just exploring Christianity, maybe you say, well, you believe in God. Because maybe it's too hard to believe all this came by accident, then you start with this. God is a maker. A creator.
And the Creator has far more power than what is on display in the creation. 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.
Um 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. The things that we face in life are a lot more like that heavy stone. Like that we don't have any power over.
And I just was seeing how the spirit of the age was just like trying to say that you are somehow innately powerful, you know, and there's a real yearning for the superpower and all that. The contrast of that with Christianity is so marked. Because the gospel teaches us that we are powerless. without God. And in fact, the beginning point of the Christian life.
And it is really the beginning point of real transformation as is seen in the 12 steps. is to admit we were powerless.
So that's what AA says. We were powerless over alcohol. And then, and only then, did you realize you're powerless to pick up that stone? that you say there must be a power that is higher is either impossible or there must be a power that's higher than I. And so I was just, I kept reading this book.
There were some good things in it, but then it was just like, don't lose your power. And I just thought, you know, this is probably a message that we need to. Come back to, and I don't think I've ever just preached a series on the dunamis of God, the power of God.
So I'm very excited about getting going with this. Part of part of Experiencing the power of God in the first place is in being born anew. And becoming a new creature.
So, on the one hand, we become Christians when we realize we're powerless over sin. We are powerless to save ourselves and therefore we can't solve our own guilt problem. and we turn to God. And if you're just exploring Christianity, this is the beginning point. where you acknowledge that you have a sin problem.
And That sin problem is not something that you can solve, and the guilt. And debt that's associated with that is not something you can resolve. And so you look in the gospel and you see it's a story of redemption. It's a story of God who loves you so much. that he came As the word became flesh, So that we Whoever would believe in him would have, John 1 says, the right to become children of God.
And once you accept Christ, you have a new position. You're now a co-heir with Christ, whether you feel like it or not. You are. And also, there is something that has changed within you such that you are called a new creature in Christ.
So there's a sense in which even just becoming a Christian. is changing your capacity your ability the dunamis that is in you because you are new. C.S. Lewis in his famous Mere Christianity said, for mere improvement is not redemption. Though redemption always improves people, even here and now, and will in the end improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine.
So, you see what he's saying? Just getting better, that's not what redemption is. That's not what it means. Although, that when you are born again, that many things do begin to improve, and one day you'll be glorified, and it'll improve in a way that you can't even now imagine. He continues, said, God became man.
to turn creatures into sons. not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to bruise a new kind of man. It's not like teaching a horse to jump better and better. But like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it's got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game.
But there may be a period while the wings are just beginning to grow when it cannot do so. And at that stage, the lumps on the shoulders, no one could tell by looking at them that they're going to be wings, may even give it an awkward appearance. I just love that. When you become a Christian, God's not just trying to make you a better old you. He's making you a new you.
And uh there is a sense in which as a Christian that that in the Spirit you've been given new wings. And therefore, is power and capability that begins to flow in you. But even that was a gift from God. It's not your own power. And so there is that, but most of the time when this word dunamis appears in the New Testament, it has the sense of.
The actual A presence of God that enables you to do what there's no way that you would be able to do. Dunamis, as I mentioned, is prevalent in the New Testament 119 times. You recognize this from the Greek in words like dynamite or dynamic. This ancient Greek word always referred to the ability to do something. And it just became a word that means having the power to carry something into effect.
It is therefore related to the concept of power as we know it or energy as we know it, like the very power and energy that we see on display that might be lighting up lanterns or running air conditioning this morning. Where's all this energy come from?
Well, the energy of the world basically comes from the sun. And virtually all the energy of the Earth is originated from the sun's energy, whether it be direct energy like solar power. or fossil fuels that get buried deep in the earth that once were plants, that got their energy from a process of photosynthesis. The sun is the source of our energy. in uh speaking in terms of physics.
The sun's so huge that it could house 1.3 million Earths in it. Its surface. Burns about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the core of the sun is burning. at twenty seven million degrees Fahrenheit. I don't even know how to wrap my mind around that.
The sun produces, I read this week, 386 billion billion megawatts of power every second. I think. I don't I I don't even uh understand that except The article said that that's more energy in one second. than humanity has used in all of its history.
So the sun burns. More energy. I mean produces more energy in one second. than humanity has used in all of its history.
Every second, the sun. converts 4 million tons of matter into pure energy through nuclear fusion. Which of course, raises the question if that's how powerful the sun Then How'd the sun get there? In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis 1.1. And the earth was without form and void.
and 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.
Now that's a big bang. Yeah. If you're just exploring Christianity, maybe you say, Well, you believe in God. Because maybe it's too hard to believe all this came by accident, then you start with this. God is a Maker.
A creator. And the creator has far more power than what is on display in the creation.
So, the greatest imaginable force to us. the sun which provides all of our power, all of our energy. is a dim reflection. of the unlimited power and energy that exists in God Most High. As big as our sun is, by the way, big enough to house 1.3 million Earths, it's not that big of a star.
Canis Majoris, the big dog star. is about 1500 times the sun's diameter. And A star more recently discovered Stevenson too is thought to be two thousand times the sun's diameter. You could fit 10 billion sons. inside the Stevenson 218 star.
compared to Stevenson 218 star, our sun. is like a grain of sand next to a beach ball. How powerful is our God? When God said, Let there be light, and stars were born and started burning throughout the cosmos. Unimaginable energy.
It's pulsating throughout all of creation. Dunamis had been let loose. God has all power, and all dunamis therefore belongs to Him.
So as we talk about the power of God, The first thing to Remember. is that there's nothing. Nothing beyond his power. And what we see in this text about the promise of the Father. I'm sending the promise of my Father is that this shared power.
of God with his children. has always been his plan. It was not some new idea that he had at Pentecost. In the Old Testament, there were prophets that used to speak God's word. They're They had revelation and visions from God.
It was a powerful thing. There were priests who were put in a position By being born into the right family. And going through the right processes, they could be a mediator between God and the people. That was a beautiful thing. And there were kings that were anointed to lead, commissioned by God, and govern wisely and fight on behalf of the people.
that they help them prosper.
So prophets and priests and kings were special offices in the Old Covenant. That periodically they would experience uh a kind of anointing or power from God. But there was no expectation that all of God's people in any way would experience or. share God's power in this way. except for those special prophets and priests and time to time.
But God was making it very clear. Of what His desire was, and what was going to happen, like in Ezekiel 36. The prophecy said, I will put my spirit within you. and cause you to walk in my statutes.
So He's promising there. This is what I'm talking about what Jesus meant by the promise of my Father. Part of it is the promise that he gave, starting with the prophets. that I'm going to put my spirit within you. Yeah.
When my spirit's within you, He's going to cause or enable and empower you to walk out the life. that I've called you to walk out. Or, like Joel chapter 2 famously, it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. The promise is that the Holy Spirit, with His power, It's not going to be just for a few, prophets, priests, and kings, but for everybody that's a child of God.
And as we've seen in John chapter 16, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage. Did I go away? If I don't go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send them to you.
So this is what he means by the promise of my Father. The Holy Spirit and His power is not some kind of random power. But the whole giving of power to the Christian is connected to the promise of God and is the climax of one beautiful redemption story.
So when the Spirit came at Pentecost, The Apostle Peter when he preached the first Christian sermon. He connected the coming of the Holy Spirit. With the promise, Acts chapter 2. These people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: In the last days it shall be, God declares, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh.
In other words, it's not coincidental. or random power, it's the fulfillment of the promise Of the Father. It's God's plan being worked out. The power of God, therefore, is inextricably connected to his own redemptive plan through the ministry death. and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He's always planned this. And then This is an important phrase here. Stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. To experience the power of God is, this is an apt analogy, is like clothing. Clothing is used in several ways as a metaphor in the New Testament.
I mean, sometimes the image is put on Christ.
so that our outward Behaviors are matching an inward reality. And there's something like this with the power of God. It's like. His power clothing you But it's Him and His clothing, His covering, His mantle on you. And Clothing is, in a sense, that which is to be a reflection of who we actually are.
Like if you see a woman and she's dressed in a white dress, you say, well, she must be a bride. Or you see someone with all of this fireproof gear on and a helmet and an axe, you say it's a firefighter. Or someone in a white space suit, you say that's an astronaut. The wedding dress doesn't make a woman a bride. A firefighter's outfit doesn't make someone into a firefighter.
But if they are that, then it is the reflection of who they really are. And so to be a Christian. Is to have the very power of God as part of who you are, and it's like something that you wear. And a lot of times, and maybe some of you have experienced this, that in those times in which you experience the power of God, it can have very much the sense of or the feeling of as if you are clothed. Whether you call this the presence of God, the anointing of God, the power of God, but oftentimes you can begin to sense that there's something different in this moment.
And we're going to be looking at all these texts and seeing this intriguing thing, like even sometimes with Jesus, it said then the power of God was present for him to heal the sick. And sometimes you just begin to sense that there's power, and oftentimes I'll sense that. Feel, I mean it's maybe not the best word, but like becoming aware that you're in this moment, you're clothed by something that's supernatural, that's not you, and it almost feels like a mantle, almost feels like something that is has wrapped you up. Maybe when you experience a supernatural love for someone, that's what you experience. Or maybe some of you are intercessors and you begin to experience a mercy that begins to envelop you, and you know that it's like something has wrapped you up in the very compassion of God.
So it's not your power, it's his power, but it's very much like clothing and it is fitting for you.
So he's making it plain that this is transcendent power. It's God's own power. Alan Wright in our good news message today, clothed in power from the series Empowered. 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.
Allen Wright Ministries is more than just a daily radio broadcast. Here are Daniel and Pastor Alan explaining another layer. You know, Pastor Alan, through this radio ministry, it's often been said that this is a friend, a friend in time of need. It's a friendly voice. It's that encouragement I needed to hear, and the Lord used this ministry.
Well, how about your email inbox? Do you think there's ministry there? The daily blessing is such an encouragement. The daily blessing is a positive vision. It's rooted in scripture, so it's full of truth.
And it's something that I believe God leads me into and inspires. And you receive it in your inbox, and you can read it. There's also a video of me presenting it, and you can just take it in. it becomes something that I think gives strength for the day. and helps root you in God's idea about you.
The world's got all of its negative messages. And Daniel, we need to fill ourselves with God's truth and God's plan. And blessing is in the Bible. A mystical kind of power, really, a thread that weaves together so much of the whole narrative of scripture. And it's much neglected.
It's right alongside of prayer in its terms of its importance. And we need to bless and be blessed. And so let me bless your life day by day, morning by morning, or in the evening. And it's absolutely free at pastorallen.org. Just give us your email address and you can start receiving a daily blessing.
Click on to pastorallen.org today to learn more and take advantage of this opportunity. Again, that's pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day as we place the bookmark here in this teaching clothed in power. Pastor Alan. To be clothed with power is an image that is like So much in the scripture where you are putting on Christ.
And this is Christ's image that you will receive like an anointing, like a mantle. And it's one of the images of being empowered by the Holy Spirit. To be clothed with power is to wear God's own power. Isn't that an enthralling thought? 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.
