From Now On [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Jesus began His ministry by speaking a series of blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit. And when Jesus was teaching, people just wanted to bring their little children to Him.

Why? So He'd bless them. I tell you with almost a hundred percent certainty, when those little children came up to Jesus and He put His hands on them, He would say many things to them, but He was certainly saying, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. 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 From Now On, as presented at Reynolda 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's a flip style desk devotional for your kitchen counter or your desktop that's filled with blessing for every day of the month. This 30 day flip style calendar comes from Pastor Alan's latest book, The Power to Bless, and it's yours free for your donation this month as our thank you gift to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer, truly a unique item. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or you can call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now, more on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here's Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? From now on, everything can change. Everything can be different from now on, from this moment forward. We are launching into a new series today that finds its roots in the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, which I described last week and which is the substance of a book that I've written that's coming out here in just a couple of weeks. And so it's really a life message.

It is something I've been thinking about for over a decade. And as part of that blessing, there is an interesting attention I've given to the names of these two boys that were blessed. And Manasseh is one of the names of Joseph's two boys. Here's what we read happens when Joseph brings his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to Joseph's father, Jacob, as Jacob is nearing his death.

Verse 20 of Genesis 48. So Jacob blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And that blessing, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh, has been on the lips of Jewish fathers every Sabbath for 3700 years. Just think about that. It is certainly the most important family blessing and all of the Bible.

It is mandated. It is something that's been spoken over and over every Sabbath. May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And yet who are Ephraim and Manasseh? And why Ephraim and Manasseh?

Why not Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elijah, Abraham and Isaac, you know, famous Bible heroes. And so it's been a big pursuit of mine to learn what is the importance of being like Ephraim and Manasseh. And part of my study has taken me to the fact that Manasseh means forgotten all my troubles. And what happened is that Joseph, as we'll see today, who was persecuted terribly and went through trouble after trouble, is elevated by Pharaoh because of his prophetic gifting.

And he becomes second in command in Egypt. And he begins a program of saving up grain during seven years of plenty so that they'll be ready for a prophesied seven years of famine. And we read it Genesis 41 verse 50. Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. And verse 51, Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all of my hardship and all my father's house. Manasseh means in Hebrew forgotten all my troubles. Is it possible that we can live our lives like Manasseh, that you be as Manasseh, meaning as one who has forgotten all your troubles? And the answer from the gospel is yes. Yes.

We are not defined by our past, but we are privileged by the gospel of grace to live from now on. And I want to talk to you about that today and for the next few weeks. I was watching Shark Tank, one of my favorite little shows I like watching is these wealthy business entrepreneurs who listen to people pitch their new inventions and decide whether to invest their own money in the invention. And I don't know, I find it kind of fascinating.

And I was watching a recording of one and saw a shark I hadn't seen before. His name is Daniel Lubetsky. And he has founded a company called Kind.

You might recognize these snack bars purported to be healthier snack bars. And while watching the show, I was really taken by the fact that Lubetsky shared just a little bit of his story as to why he called his company Kind. He said that his father, who was Lithuanian, was taken to a Nazi concentration camp and was liberated by American soldiers and the kindness of those American soldiers always stuck with them.

And I looked up the story and found out there was even more to it than that. So when Daniel was nine years old, his father, his name was Roman, told him the story of Roman's time in the concentration camp. When Roman was 12 or maybe 13 years old, he was separated from his family. He was taken to Dachau. And there he was nearly starved to death like most of the other Jews who had been incarcerated there, most of whom were killed.

And he was 12 or 13, and he was skin and bones literally. He was possibly going to die. And Roman said that as he was leaning up against a fence one day, a Nazi soldier came by, saw the gaunt child who was nearing death. And the soldier looked to the right and looked to the left and then threw at Roman's feet a half half of a nearly rotten potato, half of a nearly rotten potato. And that adolescent Roman took the morsel and found some nourishment from it. And he lived not so much because of that morsel of food, but because of some sense of hope that it put into his heart that in the midst of such a dark place that there was at least one small act of kindness, that Nazi soldier could have been shot for aiding one of the Jews. And Roman told his son Daniel that story when Daniel was nine years old. And this is what Daniel Lubezki said. He said, I have thought about that story of that soldier's kindness towards my father in the concentration camp. I've thought about that story every day of my life.

And so I named my company Kind. It was acquired in November by the Mars Corporation for $5 billion. Daniel Lubezki's net worth is $1.2 billion. But that's neither really here nor there to the story. Because I want you to think about this because I as I read this, I just was I'm just I'm just stunned by this story because wouldn't you think that it'd be far more likely that Lubezki what he would have thought about for his whole life every day would have been the atrocities committed against his father.

The disadvantages that they had, the persecution they experienced as Jews. Wouldn't you think that if he was going to train his brain to think in a certain way that it would have been more likely filled with questions like, why do so many bad things happen to us Jewish people? Why do why do so many bad things happen to my family? Why did my father have to go through that? If he was going to make a commitment in his heart?

Wouldn't you think that it'd be more likely that the commit would be, I'm never going to let somebody hurt me like that ever again. But instead, what it did to him that one half of a rotten potato at his father's feet at a concentration camp, what it did to Daniel Lubezki was it made him think about kindness every day. And doing something kind for people, because that's what life's all about. And what I want to say to you today, and we'll talk about this more in coming weeks, is that because of the growing body of research and neuroscience, we are learning what the Bible has always taught us. Whatever it is that you set your mind on, you get better at.

If you just remember your own phone number easily without hardly thinking about it, it's because your brain has gone over that number so many times that your brain literally gets wired to become good at remembering your own phone number. And if you spend your time in this world thinking about all of your troubles, your brain will get very good at identifying all your troubles. If you spend a lot of time over and over and over worrying about the future, you will become an expert at worrying. The brain literally wires itself in that direction.

The brain thinks this is what we need to be good at, so let's get good at this. But if you were to find a way to, instead of dwelling upon the troubles of the past, to think about even the smallest acts of kindness, of the goodness of God, of the grace of God throughout your life, then what happens is your brain literally gets wired for it. And this is why Paul says, when you come to Christ, you have an opportunity to have your whole thinking changed. That's what repentance means, is to change your way of thinking.

I think it's no coincidence that when Jesus came, he said the message is, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent means to change your mind. Let your whole brain change. Let your whole way of thinking change. And this is why Paul said in Romans 12, we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds. You can have a wrong interpretation of your life, and it will set your life on a destiny that is not God-given.

So everything can change from now on. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Wouldn't it be nice to set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world? This month's special offer from Alan Wright Ministries will help. Coinciding with the release of Pastor Alan's new book, The Power to Bless, we have created a flip style devotional for your desk or kitchen counter. The beautiful spiral-bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration, utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the new book. Use it day by day for four weeks, so you'll keep the promises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you.

As Paul wrote to the Philippians, whatever is true, noble, right, and pure think on these things. So make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, and we'll send you the inspirational flip style devotional as our thank you for your partnership. Each spiral-bound devotional comes with a convenient easel-style stand, so you can keep the day's inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again, is Alan Wright. Every day Daniel says, I think of that story.

What is it that you think about every day? And today I want to bless you to be a Manasseh, someone who is so attentive to the blessings of God now and in the past that it's as if you've forgotten all of your troubles. And there is no picture in the Bible of a man who did this better than this man named Joseph. You know, it's interesting, all of the Bible heroes, all of the great Bible heroes have these gaping flaws that the Bible stories don't hide at all. I love that about the Bible. It is earthy.

It's real. I mean, even Noah, who was the only righteous person on the earth. Next thing you know, he's in a scene of drunkenness and Abraham, who was the man of faith lied and said Sarah wasn't his wife.

And Moses tried to resist the call of God. And David was an adulterer and the list goes on and on. But Joseph, it's hard to find anything like that about Joseph.

Maybe some people said he was a little uppity or something. I don't even read the story that way. And here's Joseph whose story occupies more of Genesis than any other patriarchal character. Almost all of Genesis 37 through chapter 50 is about the story of Joseph. And Joseph is a man who went through so many troubles and yet had such an incredible mind. And I want to show you that today and give you an insight into how this all points us to the answer for our lives. What happens with us in our mental narratives is that we when we ponder our troubles over and over, then life feels like it's cumulative as if as if all of the things are mounting up and it makes us feel weary. See, the thing that makes us weary is when we feel like that we can't actually start afresh because we're carrying the past with us.

One of the theories of depression psychologists call learned helplessness . It was based in some early research that's very cruel sounding. They took a dog and put it into a cage and would electrify briefly one side and administering that electrical shot. The dog would jump over to the other side of the cage where it was no shot. And then they would administer electrical shock on that side. Dog would jump back over and they would keep doing this and the dog would learn to jump. But then they did something.

This is the part that seems so cruel. They would administer the electrical shock on this side. Dog would jump over the other side. There's electrical shock there.

Jump back over here. Electrical shock there. And what they found was that if our dog tried and tried to find a place where it wasn't experiencing this unpleasant electrical shock, that eventually it just gave up and huddled in the corner of the cage motionless.

And even when they turned off all electrical shocks and the dog could go anywhere in the cage, the dog would just stay huddled in the corner. It learned I'm helpless and I might as well give up. And this is part of what goes on with depression is that sometimes life just presents itself and you feel like I've jumped here, I've jumped here and everywhere I go, it seems like it keeps hurting. And the problem therefore is that when the moment of grace is there, where it really is possible that you're going to be able to move on, the depression takes over and you can't move on because of lack of energy. So when our minds get set on the troubles, the failures, the sin, the regret, the traumas, the wounds, and our minds constantly are on that, then it makes us very weary.

It feels like it's all cumulative, you see. Another thing that happens when we think about our troubles is it makes us worried, worried about the future because the more you think about the troubles of the past, the more your mind starts predicting troubles in the future. So worry is just the meditation of all that's gone wrong and how it therefore seems to be an indication that things will probably still go wrong. And when we're anxious and worried, we're insecure. And when we're insecure, we're at our worst. We have our, our almost all of our sin has to do with being insecure. This is all saying, this is why God so wants us to be as a Manasseh, as if we don't even remember our troubles, like Joseph was.

And what happens also, and this is the deeper part of this is that when we are focused on our troubles and we look back over all of the pain of the past, and that's where our minds are, it causes us to create unconscious false narratives about our lives. And this to me, beloved, is the point of inner healing that we all need. And we all need it at least in some measure.

Some of us need it in deep measure, others less, but we all need it because what happens in this life is the people from whom we need love and acceptance don't give it to us perfectly. Even the best parents don't give it perfectly. Let's say that there's a good mom and, um, but she's had a really hard week and she's having a really hard day and she's just cleaned everything up. And a little, little Susie, two year old spills the milk on to off the table onto the floor. And it's because a two year old doesn't have the dexterity and the two year olds are going to spill milk. But mommy's really tired that day. And so when, when Susie spills the milk, mommy rolls her eyes and goes, I just, mommy just cleaned that floor.

Let's not ruin mommy's clean floor, you know, just something like that. And the, and so what's the two year old thinking? Well, the two year old's brain is very limited at that point. And that brain is developing, uh, researchers now understand at a very fast rate. It's very, um, plastic.

It's very moldable. Our brains have what is called plasticity. They, they, your brain even still is changing.

It's changing. And so that child's brain is forming and, and when the child spills the milk in and of herself, the child doesn't really feel bad about that because it's just spilled milk and a child just doesn't have much dexterity. But when the child sees a look of disgust or shame on her mother's face, even a small look of shame or disgust, the child goes, there's something wrong about what just happened that is associated with me spilling the milk. And the child's brain says essentially what's wrong with me and begins to have the idea that I need to not spill the milk so that I don't lose mommy's love. Now that may be an exaggerated statement and in most healthy homes, thankfully what happens is mother then later she cleans it up and she comes and she scoops up little Susie. She says, it's all right, sweetie, these things happen.

But in some homes that's not the way it goes. And sometimes it's just over and over and over that every, every day and one way or another, there is the message that you're messing up. And see the child, a two year old doesn't have the capacity to say, well, you know, mom's had a hard week and she's got a lot of stressors in her life right now.

And actually I don't have the manual dexterity to prevent the spilling of milk. So this is not about my issues. It's about hers. I'm sure she'll work it out with her therapist later. That's not the way a two year old thinks, right? Two year olds don't think that way.

The two year olds just go into something wrong with me. And what I'm just saying is that simple illustration is that you see how we can associate wrong beliefs with memories of our lives. And therefore inner healing is needed because most of us in one way or another are not interpreting our narrative properly. The fact of the matter is no matter what trauma you've been through in life or how much rejection that you have experienced, that God wants you to know that you are infinitely loved and he's always been with you.

And so somehow there has to be a way in which we experience the the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit as regards our memories that lead to wrong narratives of our lives. Alan Wright, today's good news message from the series from now on. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing our parting good news thought for the day.

Stick with us. Wouldn't it be nice to set your mind on God's blessing instead of the curses of the world? This month special offer from Alan Wright Ministries will help. Coinciding with the release of Pastor Alan's new book, The Power to Bless, we have created a flip style devotional for your desk or kitchen counter. The beautiful spiral bound devotional offers 28 days of inspiration utilizing some of the most moving excerpts from the new book. Use it day by day for four weeks so you'll keep the promises and assurance of God's blessing right in front of you. As Paul wrote to the Philippians, whatever is true, noble, right and pure, think on these things. So make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today and we'll send you the inspirational flip style devotional as our thank you for your partnership.

Each spiral bound devotional comes with a convenient easel style stand so you can keep the day's inspiration in front of you and fill your heart with God's blessing. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back now with Pastor Alan in the studio. From now on is this new series and Pastor Alan, what is our parting good news thought for today? What would it be like if you could, in the words of the Ephraim Manasseh, bless him, be like Manasseh whose name means forgotten all my troubles? I think that's what happens when we bless one another and when we receive God's blessing. What would happen if instead of dragging the past with you all the time, you could live from now on? I'll tell you what would happen.

Liberty, joy, destiny, all of that would be unveiled. And God wants that for you. He doesn't want you in any way drugged down by the condemning voices that tell you that you've had too many failures and too much trauma and too much trouble. It's part of the meaning and message of the new book that's just come out, that you could be like Manasseh. It means forgotten all my troubles and we're blessing you that you could live from now on. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.