Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You know what gratitude does when God's done something in your life? Thank you, thank you, thank you. Lately, when I listen to Pastor Wright preach about blessing and God's love and provision, I can't even describe what I feel.
It's so awesome. I feel engulfed by love and acceptance. I feel God's love like I've never felt before. 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, thankful for you and your partnership of the gospel here with Alan Wright Ministries.
And I am joined in studio today by Pastor Alan on this Giving Tuesday. What a year this has been, but it's a special kind of a day here. And you know, we, I think we're marking this year by the milestones as we do with any normal year. But I think we look forward to special holidays when we just come through Thanksgiving. And now we're here at this day that has been marked as Giving Tuesday. And it feels normal. It feels normal to do something like this.
I know. There's so many of our traditions and customs we've had to alter. But this is one thing, Daniel, that no pandemic can stop us from doing, and that is giving. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than receive.
And you know, I think people misunderstand that often. I think that they think, well, if I give, then I'll get this bigger blessing back. But I think what he meant is that there is blessing in the act of giving. Anybody has ever poured themselves into something that they love and you give yourself to it, you have joy in it, right? If you like to run and you give yourself to the exercise, at first, it feels kind of strenuous.
It might even hurt a little bit, but then there are endorphins that start being released in your body and you feel so good. Well, in the same way, I think that there's just a blessing that comes while we're giving. So it's fun today to just set apart this special day, Giving Tuesday, to share about some memories, some testimonies, some thoughts and insights as we consider all that God has in front of us. So with a very, very special word of gratitude to all of our partners and to all who have been blessed by this ministry and want to help bless others.
Well, we are thankful to be on the radio, but as you'll hear, this program is, maybe that's where part of it started, conferences and radio, but as technology tends to do, it gives us more opportunities to share the gospel and the good news. And we're thankful to our partners all year, and especially on a day like today, special Giving Tuesday today. And people are giving all around the world on this day.
So as you mentioned, that generosity is something that we affirm. It's been a great year. If you want to look at it from the perspective of wow, God really set us up with some golden opportunities for what none of us expected in a pandemic 2020 kind of year. Well, it's very interesting throughout all of the various sadnesses and loss and uncertainties and conflicts of a pandemic year, a year that was filled with racial unrest and political divisions, that in the midst of it, I think that more people have heard the gospel this year than ever in the history of the world. And we are so thankful that we were already positioned on the radio, positioned by podcasts, positioned by video and devotionals and all the things that we already were doing for so many years so that when pandemic came and people were shut up in their homes and isolated, that we're still able to share the gospel. But I think, Daniel, that there's been a tremendous shaking of the world.
Someone has said it's like when you shake and separate wheat and chaff. And there's something that happens when all of the things we normally count on for our comfort and our sense of security, when all that gets shaken away, it can leave us hungering for God in a way that we never did before. And so it's left us here at Allen Wright Ministries, it's left us hopeful throughout the year, praying for those that are hurting most and wanting to do all we can to help, but hopeful that the sound of the gospel moving forward in ways that maybe have been unprecedented. And like many, many ministries, there's been a time in which we've had to ask our partners and new partners to be sure to faithfully join us. So it's good to be with you here on Giving Tuesday in this, well, one thing we can count on, you can always give.
That's the truth. And right now, if you feel led to give and support a great ministry, Allen Wright Ministries, we're here at pastorallen.org and many ways to give there, pastorallen.org. It's safe, it's simple, or through the telephone, 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. You mentioned the position and God positioning us for such a year as this. Are you ever encouraged like I am to know that maybe it's not even what you said last week, but sometimes people do some digging and there's a great archive at pastorallen.org where you might hear something from last year or two years ago that's still ministering. God's truth is God's truth. And you know, Daniel, when we started this ministry so many years ago, part of what went through my mind was I thought, well, if there's something God uses to bless one person, He can bless 100 people. And if it blesses 100, it could bless 1,000. If 1,000, 10,000.
And if 10,000, then 100,000. In other words, a blessing from the Lord by a revelation, a piece of good news, it can just keep going on and on. So we have that in many, many different forms now. And throughout our radio broadcast over the years, it's been such a joy to hear from listeners.
We always love to hear from you. I was glancing back over the years of testimony and I was noticing one here, Daniel, that pointed it out because I'm seeing the letters are in all capital. Thank you.
Three times all capital and 10 exclamation points. You know what gratitude does when God's done something in your life. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Lately, when I listened to Pastor Wright preach about blessing and God's love and provision, I can't even describe what I feel is so awesome. I feel engulfed by love and acceptance. I feel God's love like I've never felt before. You know, if you encounter God's love, if you experience God's love, then healing takes place. Transformation and empowerment and joy takes place.
That's a big part of what we're about, Daniel. It's a ministry not just for the head, but for the heart. So many people that have, well, they know it's the right thing to believe God loves them, but to actually experience and know God's love up close. So testimonies like that really bless me because they give a lot of hints at what this ministry loves to do. And that is to share the unfettered good news of what God's done in Jesus Christ and help people know who they really are in Christ. Maybe you haven't been able to put your finger on it, but you know, there's something different here about the good news of the gospel and the way that it's presented. And that gospel message is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries.
This broadcast you're listening to is only possible and made possible by listener financial support. And so thank you. It's a day for us to say thanks as well. When you give today, we encourage you to be as generous as you can. When you come to PastorAlan.org, you're sharing the gospel to so many there.
And also through the phone at 877-544-4860. Putting our finger on it though, I alluded to that. This has been a year of preparation, maybe even the last year going back to 2019, a preparation of refocusing our vision here at Alan Wright Ministries. Yeah, it's been a wonderful year in the midst of such a troubled year. And one of the things that we became aware of, and it's important for any ministry, any organization, and honestly for any individual, and that is instead of just working hard and wanting to do as much as you can, sometimes you need to just stop and make sure you have a really clear focus about why we exist. What is it that God has uniquely called us to be and to do? And so we went through really a year-long process of discovering that sense of clarity of vision and implemented it.
It partly resulted in the change of the name of the ministry to Alan Wright Ministries, but that is as much as anything just to be simple so it's easy for people to find us. But here's what we discovered, Daniel. We have realized that while there are so many good Bible preachers and teachers and there are a lot of biblical resources that are out there and Bible studies that are available and sermons that are available and even daily devotionals that are available, that there's a unique place God has for us. We really believe when you discover your identity, this is who I am in Christ, this is what God's done for me in Christ, and therefore this is who I am.
When you see that in God's Word and when it becomes real to you, out of that identity then you begin to live. So let me give you an example of this. Both our kids, thankfully, Bennett and Abby, were very studious. They stuck to their academics and both did really well. And I remember one time when Bennett was still, I think, maybe in high school because I never pressured him to study. He just studied. And he excelled in his academics. But I remember once asking him, I said, you know, why is it that without me pressuring you, you have such a good work ethic about your studies? And he said, well, it's not that complicated. He said, I think I'm an A student, and so I just do whatever it takes to make the A. That's the way it works, right?
Instead of trying to, you know, like for parents, you know what I'm talking about, is trying to try to constantly be haranguing your student to study harder is much better to get an identity in them so that then they see themselves in this way. This is the way we live our lives. We live our lives. If we think that we are valuable, then we're going to invest our lives in that direction.
If we felt like we're worthless, and our identity was that we are just simply abandoned or rejected and not of any real value, then we'll live in accord to that. And so we realized that so much of what we do just by the leading of the Holy Spirit, it just keeps coming back to this, who you are, who you are in Christ. It's about a revelation. It's about a revelation of God and about a revelation of yourself.
It's not something you just figure out on your own. And so we realized that we exist to help people well to see their lives in a whole new light. And so it's been a beautiful thing to gain that sense of focus and to make sure that everything we're doing, we're helping people to know their identity in Christ.
And so in that sense, you know, rebranding is not about, oh, you got a new logo or something like that. Although I think and I hope that our listeners have enjoyed our new website with all of its beautiful images and the ease, the user-friendliness of that. But it really has been a year of clarifying, which relates greatly to our great passion to bless people and speak blessing into their lives, the subject of a forthcoming book next year.
Yeah. By the way, today is Giving Tuesday, and we're in the studio with Pastor Alan. Not only how thankful we are for your partnership in the gospel, but giving the opportunity for those who never even realized.
So who are these guys on the radio and what are they asking me to do? And it's really a wonderful, wonderful partnership to know how far and wide this gospel message is going, thanks to listeners like you. And so out of the generosity that is flowing throughout today, Giving Tuesday, you're invited to be a partner by giving at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org or toll free 877-544-4860.
877-544-4860. Pastor Alan, you mentioned our website, great new website, lots of wonderful resources there. But I'm going to put you in a category which could be unfair and you'll correct me. I have a friend who thought the internet would be a fad and it wasn't going to last. So if I were going to put Pastor Alan, probably not in that category, but on social media, when social media came out and became this whole thing, were you one of these who thought, I don't know what that's all about. And all of a sudden now you've got a Pastor Alan Facebook and social media platform that has an amazing reach. Yeah, well, I was that way. And I was like, and every step of the way, when there's some kind of new digital form of connection with people, I'm like, how can we be any more connected than we are?
And then you find out that God can use all of this. Allen Wright Ministries has, I guess we're somewhere over 300,000 followers. And if you're not following us, please do and tell other people about it. We're always posting inspirational content there. Daniel, I think it's important that people know there's so much more than just radio that's going on with Allen Wright Ministries.
The radio broadcast you hear is also available by podcasts, but we also have two other podcasts. We have a podcast that is weekly in which Pastor Chris Lawson, my executive pastor and a church historian, an excellent scholar, PhD, sits down with me and we spend, oh, usually about 20, 25 minutes talking about how grace actually works. We call that podcast Inside Grace.
So if you're not going to live by law and moralism, how does grace work? And we take some of the most important and timely and relevant topics and we apply the gospel. Inside Grace with Allen Wright, be sure and subscribe. And every day we also start with a blessing podcast that just a few moments that every day you could start by having a positive vision spoken over your life.
It will strengthen you and encourage you. We have all kinds of resources at pastorallen.org in addition to our daily devotional and blessing that goes out to so many, many thousands. And we're always excited about new opportunities that arise. Our podcast is available through pray.com and many doors of opportunity that continue to open for us. But all of this, Daniel, like you say, the world's changing so fast and things we would never imagine that make it possible for us to be able to proclaim the gospel in ways that, well, who could have ever imagined? You know, even during the pandemic when we began to take our services online and put much more attention on that, Daniel, it was astounding what we saw that many weeks that though we may normally only have at our church a couple thousand people, we started having as many as a hundred thousand people that would be viewing the sermon online.
That's available online still. So God's used this very difficult time. Sometimes, Daniel, it's life or death with people.
It really is. You know, we cherish hearing any comment from anybody about how God's using this ministry, but every now and then you get those that stay with you. I remember this one came from a listener in Utah who said, I feel like I'm living in the middle of nowhere. I'm a disenfranchised Mormon looking for light.
I feel isolated, alone. I'm looking for a Christian faith. And I found Alan Wright on the radio. I love his sermons.
Please send me access for more. He's literally saved my life. Well, I hadn't saved anybody's life, but God has. The message of the Gospel to someone that's been swallowed up in legalism, it's life saving. I remember another message from a listener in Texas. Your messages are like salve being applied to a deep wound.
What a blessing to hear that. And she went on to say, I've been close to suicide many times, and many times your message have given me hope. You know, I think when you support and partner with us in this ministry, you may not realize it, but the message you're sending forth very well might be life and death for someone.
It is for anybody who happens upon this place on the dial, a message of encouragement and it's a message, as we said, that's imparting blessing and identity about who you really are in Christ is bringing revelation. But you never know on any given day. For some listener, it might be the turning point of their life. It might be a matter of deciding to live.
It might be the day that hope comes back. So thank you, listener. Thank you.
Thank you. We need your partnership now more than ever. New doors are opening and there are lots of reasons to strengthen the position that the Lord is giving us as we move forward.
And so you're part of that partnership when you give it Pastor Alan dot o R G Pastor Alan dot org or call today 877-544-4860 877-544-4860. Now, Pastor Alan, you mentioned a moment ago about a new book that's coming out and it really is something again, I think with with a lot of what you hear through your teaching, it's the gospel. And for those of us who grew up hearing the gospel, it's true truth that doesn't change. But your presentation of it is so fresh and eye opening. And I think the power to bless is is also that way.
It's a totally different perspective. Well, Daniel, this is the favorite book I've ever written. I believe it's the most important because it's a life message. When we bless, we do what God does. Instead of waiting on someone to perform and then affirm them. What blessing does is it speaks in a powerful scriptural way about potential. And what happens is we rise up to live out of the blessing that's been spoken over us. I didn't have the blessing spoken over me from my own dad, not for any particular reason other than maybe he was part of that generation that thought, you know, don't affirm your kids too much. It'll go to their head. But blessing is a simple thing.
I mean, I was thinking and I write about in the book, maybe a simple example is the best one. When Bennett was little, we played a lot of golf together and he was a good little golfer. And I remember he must have been 10. I remember one day we went out to play and he messed up on the first hole, made a double or maybe even a triple bogey, which for a good golfer, you feel like I've blown the whole round.
It's frustrating. Golf will bring out all the frustrations. I could see his little face turn a little bit red. He wanted to get frustrated, but instead he held it together and pulled the patients together and went to the next tee box. And I had a good hole and ended up having a good round. I remember we're riding home and I said, Bennett I said, you know, I saw that double bogey on the first hole.
That's really frustrating. I know what that feels like. I said, I know you felt like maybe losing control a little bit there, but instead you pulled it together and you ended up having a good round. I said, that was a real mature thing. I said, you know what the Bible calls that is self control.
It's called a fruit of the spirit. And I said, I can see even as you're young age that you're emerging as a young man of self control. And I believe that this is going to be a mark of your life. And I've noticed, I've noticed this, that men who have a lot of self control go far in this world. That's just riding home from it, of course, but that's a blessing. That is a positive faith-filled vision.
It's rooted in scripture. It's keen because of the observation that I uniquely had over his life. And just speaking, it doesn't take much time.
Would that take maybe a minute or something like that? Yeah. Well, I think a lot of listeners right now realize I've never had that spoken in my life, something like that, for much less the deeper, more powerful and pervasive kinds of blessing. Everybody needs to receive blessing and everybody needs to learn how to give blessing. It's God's way. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve. He blessed them. And then he said, be fruitful and multiply.
Often we've reversed the order. We've thought, well, if you'll be fruitful and multiply, I thought if I perform well and I'm productive, then I'll be blessed. That's not the way it is with God. He blesses so that we can be productive. Blessing is not the reward for your productivity.
It's the fuel for it. And in the power to bless, Daniel, I am so excited to unveil a very mysterious blessing. Maybe our listeners have heard me preach on it before, the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. Every Hebrew father was instructed by the Lord in the word to bless their sons. Every Sabbath, every Shabbat, there's a Hebrew father somewhere saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And nobody knows why.
These are relatively obscure characters. And using the lens of that particular, what I would say is the most important family blessing in Israel, in the Bible. Using that as a lens, I'll show not only the meaning of that, but all the essentials of blessing. And it includes, the book includes step-by-step instructions about how to bless. Anyone can learn to bless. And we've got a blessing worksheet.
We make it very easy. This, Daniel, as you can see, I'm very excited about it. And pre-order is available now. By the way, when you pre-order, you not only get guaranteed by Amazon, they will, whatever the price is today, they'll refund you any amount if the price goes lower before the book is released February 2nd, you'll be amongst the first to get the book, but also you will be able to get, when you let us know, a free audio book.
So that's a great value. We'd love to be able to send that as well. And so pre-order the book, help others learn about it as well.
We're very excited about it. This is right in the sweet spot of everything God's called us to do. And that is to help people have a genuine revelation of who they are in Christ to see their lives in a whole new light.
You can learn more about that and connect over to the new book and of course all the resources. And on this special Giving Tuesday, be a part of the giving family. It has been a joy to be a part of this program, this ministry, and thank you for your part in this as well.
Some folks join in at $10 a month, some at $30 a month, $50 a month, wherever the Lord leads you to give, especially on this Giving Tuesday, we would invite you in at pastorallen.org, or by calling 877-544-4860. And so with that, Pastor Alan, I guess we're now on to wish everybody a Merry Christmas. As we head into throughout this Advent season, may the Lord bless you and keep you and be kind and gracious to you and make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace now and every day through this whole Advent season. Amen. Amen. Amen. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
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