Seeing As Jesus Sees [Part 20]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. We're joining in with his tears, and we're joining in with his yearning, yearning that any parent would feel if their child were wayward, yearning that leads us into prayer, and yearning that joins us with Jesus, I think, in interceding for this world.

That's a better place to be than just lost in anger. 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 sitting with Pastor Alan today with a special series, Seeing as Jesus Seeks, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. And this is a brand new book that has just been released.

It is out now. The wait is over, and we are celebrating it as we go through the themes of Pastor Alan's latest book. And by the way, today we're moving into a new section of the book divided in not just chapters, but also different parts.

And this one is going to be Seeing the World, so we'll dive into that in just a moment. But I do want to let you know that if you get the book and let us know that you have already purchased the book, we're happy to send you a wonderful bundle free of charge. Free gifts like the daily reading guide, a study guide, and a companion video course. All is our way of thanking you for supporting the launch of Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Seeks. All of this is over $100 in value, and it's yours simply when you order the book, buy it right now, and then let us know you've done so at this special website, seeingasjesusseeks.org. That's seeingasjesusseeks.org. Or PastorAlan.org, our website that's been there for a while.

You know how to get there and you can connect that way as well. Pastor Alan, it's good to be with you again, and I'm excited about turning the page and moving into this next section. Well, Daniel, I love these conversations in studio where we get to give little pieces of insight from the book. So much more in the book, of course. I wish we could talk about all of it, but that's why the book's there. You can get it and read it. But yeah, to turn to what in the book I label a new section and a whole new part of this, and that is seeing the world through Jesus' eyes. We've talked about seeing ourselves, seeing others, but what about this big and often frustrating, scary, broken world?

How does Jesus see this fractured planet? I tell a story in the book about when I was in second grade and I got a new leather peewee football for Christmas. You know, I don't have a lot of early memories from my childhood, but I remember the feel of that ball.

I remember the smell of it. I was going to have the best football in the neighborhood. I loved that football.

And I think it was the very first day, the very first time we took to play with it and we were playing, I remember we were across the street at my buddy Bob's house in their front yard playing some three-on-three football. And in the middle of the game, one of the kids bobbled a pass reception and the ball just rebounded into our usually quiet pine top road, but with terrible timing. A car was coming in that exact moment. And it sounded like a loud firecracker. It was like a big pop, you know? It just popped. It just popped the poor football. And I retrieved that flattened ball. And I remember just standing there and, and my friends, everybody in silence. And, you know, it looked odd because the leather was still brand new, but the laces and the laces just, it just popped. And other kids started saying, sorry about that, Alan. I wish we could fix it, you know, but there was no fixing it. And I remember I was just a kid.

I might've been six or seven. And I just slinked back over to my house, went to my room and cried. And the more that you feel ownership of something, the more you grieve. So my friends, like the football's like, sorry about that, Alan, but it was my football.

So my grief ran deep. And I think that Jesus saw Jerusalem for what she was designed to be. He saw the world when it was brand new before it had been run over with sin, you know, and, and Jesus made it all. And I just think that that's part of it is that if we can get more, his eyes, we, we see the world through its tragedy and sort of like with my football, who's to blame for that, right? I mean, was it the person, the kid, why didn't you catch the ball? Well, why did the quarterback have to throw it over there or even myself?

Why do we have to use my new football for the, for the pickup game? But I think when Jesus looked at the world, partly he grieved because it was broken and it wasn't so much about this one thing or this one person or this one institution that's ruined it. It, it was what he made was so, so beautiful.

And it was a, it was a tragedy. And I think in some ways it helps to dilute our frustration and anger. If we will allow ourselves to see what Jesus, and instead of having misplaced anger, we experienced the authentic grief of the world is not now what it was designed to be. And we, in that sense, weep with Jesus and experience his comfort in the midst of it. But if all we do, Daniel, is go around in frustration and rage against the world, it just leaves us not only angry, but empty and sometimes can lead us down a terrible path of destruction. So Jesus saw the world through tears. You mentioned in this chapter also that it's much like a parent. You come at it from a parental point of view and think about, okay, any good, any good parent, non-abusive parent is going to approach even discipline, hurt. You talk about even administering good medicine to a sick child is something done with great compassion and tear, not beating them over the head with, with a lesson.

Yeah. You know, I think that Jesus is as, as, as perfect compassion and love. Cause God's love is perfect. Jesus has a love for all. And he has a huge desire for all to be saved. First Timothy two, four, and he desires for all to love him, but he's not really though he's sovereign.

He's not forcing isn't force feet. And I tell a story about in the book when Bennett was little and he, he was just a toddler and he got diagnosed with an ear infection and the doctor gave us an oral antibiotic to give them, you know, with a medicine dropper. And, uh, maybe some other parents can identify with this, but it was the first time we'd ever, the first, his first ear infection, I guess the first antibiotic we'd had to administer like this. Well, he despised it so much. He wouldn't swallow it. He just would not swallow it.

He would spit it out and he would gag on it. He would, so he wasn't getting the medicine and his earache was raging on. And we call the doctor said, what are we going to do? And doctor said, I tell you this, but you've got to pin him down, hold his nose and force him to take this medicine, which sounded like child abuse. And, but I remember that awful moment.

We just pressed him to the floor and, uh, I pinched his nose and, and my, and my wonderful Anne, she's fighting back the tears, you know, and she squirts the antibiotic in and he has to swallow it and he swallowed it. And I'll never forget. I'll never forget this little toddler. He, he soon as over, he cried, he looked straight at us and he said, do you think that made God happy? I guess by age three, he'd figure out the most important question in our home. It makes God happy.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Wondering what you need to do to find more freedom, wonder, and joy. What if you don't need to do more as much as see more, what if victorious breakthrough and enduring transformation comes not by striving, but by seeing for years, pastor Alan Wright has been practicing a new spiritual discipline, simple prayer, Jesus, how do you see this?

It's brief enough for a single breath, but deep enough for lasting life change. It's a prayer Christ loves to honor because the savior came to open blind and blurred eyes. Jesus is after all the light of the world in his new groundbreaking book, seeing as Jesus sees Alan Wright leads readers into a fresh kind of Bible study where they're invited in close side by side with the savior to see themselves, others in the world through Jesus's eyes. There's good news on every page because divine revelation and spirit filled living is a reserve for the spiritually elite.

Every Christian can live with wide eyed wonder and spirit revealed vision for a limited time. When you ordered a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over a hundred dollars of bonus resources or the book visit seeing as Jesus sees.org or come to our website, pastor Alan.org. And you'll also receive a free six week seeing as Jesus sees companion video series from pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan.

So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources. Christ called to discipleship isn't an invitation to strive to do what Jesus would do, but to come and see what Jesus sees. So pre-order your copy of Alan Wright's newest book and discover and start seeing yourself, others and the world through Jesus's eyes. The question is kind of complicated, you know, because it makes God happy for this good medicine to heal this boy. Doesn't make him happy that that Bennett was sad about it. But I think if we can begin to look at the world through Jesus eyes, that we'll realize that though no one wants to be sad, grief is better than rage. There's a balm for sorrow. Blessed are those that mourn.

They will be comforted. But when we mask our grief with anger, there's not much solace for that. And so we're joining in with his tears and we're joining in with his yearning. Yearning that any parent would feel if their child were wayward. Yearning that leads us into prayer.

And yearning that joins us with Jesus, I think, in interceding for this world. That's a better place to be than just lost in anger. Can you quote Larry Crabbe, who has written about this anger that seems to bubble up in our society, even among Christians that feel like, and maybe they feel like it's justified anger. But I like what you, I like how you referred to what he said about it being misplaced.

I really think that Larry Crabbe had one of the most helpful ways of describing what causes anger, the unhelpful kinds of anger that we have. And he says this when we have a desire that we've tried to turn into a goal and it gets blocked. And that makes a lot of sense to me. If you think of the difference between a desire, which is something that may be really a good thing, you long for it, right? I desire for the world to be more loving place.

I desire for people to know Jesus, right? But goals, Crabbe clarifies, are those objectives that we have in life that we can actually do something about, right? So someone says, well, I desire to live a long and healthy life.

Well, that's a great desire. But the goal might be, well, I plan to eat healthy and exercise and to make regular visits to the doctor and so forth. Those are goals.

That's something you can do. So a goal is something that you act on. A desire is something you pray about and accept you can't control it. But what happens when you have something that really is a desire, but you make it a goal? A wife might make her a goal to have an emotionally sensitive husband. Well, that's not something you can control.

It's a good thing, right? But if it's a goal, then as soon as you feel like it's being blocked, you get mad about it. We get mad when our goals are blocked. So we can't confuse desires and goals.

And I say more about that in the book. It's really important because if you can clarify, hey, this is a desire and it's not yet been met, then you know what it is to yearn to pray and maybe to grieve with Jesus. But it doesn't leave you in the lost place of needless frustration and anger that can really hurt a lot of other people. With that, I've heard it said this way, that it could be said to be very unchristian to expect an unbelieving world to act Christian. Exactly. If we just walk around angry, like, why aren't you acting Christian? It just is betraying the fact that we don't understand that people that don't know Jesus and don't have the love of Jesus aren't going to act like it. Would that you had known, Jesus said on another instance, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets.

How often when I've gathered your children together as a hen gathers a brood under wings and you were not willing. You can hear him like, oh, that you would have known what makes for life. Oh, that you would be different. And I think I want to be joined in to that longing with Jesus for the world, knowing that I can't make it my goal that everybody is suddenly nice. I can't control that, but we can intercede and we can have Jesus's perspective in that. The book is Seeing as Jesus Sees. It's written by Pastor Alan and it's now out and available.

The subtitle, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. Now, when you get the book, because it is available, whether you order it online or go to your favorite bookstore and walk out of the store, pay for it, walk out with it, you've got it in your hand. However you do so, let us know that you have obtained the book and we'll be happy to send you, as our way of saying thanks, a wonderful package, including a daily reading guide, a companion video course and a study guide. All is our way of saying thanks for supporting the release of Pastor Alan's new book. This is over $100 value and it's yours simply when you buy the book and let us know you've done that.

Seeing as Jesus Sees.org or PastorAllen.org, ways that you can contact us. We're in the section on Seeing the World and specifically a chapter simply titled Weeping. And you have some good stories in here and a few in this chapter alone about Bennett. And another one has to do with an accident on a retaining wall, it seems.

Yeah. You know, every parent goes through these kinds of things, but when he was little and our driveway had a retaining wall, it was a brick three foot high wall. And Bennett just liked to walk on that wall, which I didn't want a three year old walking on that wall.

I didn't trust him to not fall down in the yard, much less off a wall. So it was, it was, and he was a very obedient kid, but that, that was something about that for that little boy. He just went very tempting.

Oh, very tempting. Well, one day I hear him screaming outside. I was out maybe in the yard and he had, he was out in the yard and I was an, I went flying to him. Thankfully, he had not crashed the whole distance to the concrete, but he'd fallen halfway. And then his little leg slid off the wall, his blood going down it, you know, he'd scraped it real bad.

And I'm looking at it, trying to ascertain the depth and the extent of the injury. And he's crying so loud, you know, that I could barely make out his, his words, but what he was saying was I didn't listen to you. I didn't listen to you. I didn't listen, you know, in a moment like that, that's no time to, to discipline the child. The lesson had already been administered, you know, and so my love for him, disobedient boy is way bigger than my frustrations.

As I take him in my arms, I told him of the dangers, but he didn't see my wisdom until he fell. So I think of that when Jesus says, would that you had known, but now they're hidden from your eyes is to say, the reason for all this pain is your disobedience, but your disobedience flows from your blindness. You see, so Jesus, he, he hates the iniquity, but he stirred with compassion for people that are trapped in sin because he knows that it's like they're blind. In other words, he didn't expect spiritually blind people to see what they can't see what you said earlier.

To expect non-Christian people to act Christian is like saying, expecting someone who's blind to be able to see they can't. So for this reason, Jesus came to open up, spiritually open up blind eyes. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message from our talk today in the book, seeing as Jesus sees and the chapter we've been diving into is the one simply titled weeping, how Jesus sees the world.

Hey, stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me here in the studio, sharing his parting good news, inspiration to see as Jesus sees 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 it's free and just a click away at pastor Alan.org. Wondering what you need to do to find more freedom, wonder and joy?

What if you don't need to do more as much as see more? What if victorious breakthrough and enduring transformation comes not by striving, but by seeing. For years, Pastor Alan Wright has been practicing a new spiritual discipline, a simple prayer. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's brief enough for a single breath, but deep enough for lasting life change. It's a prayer Christ loves to honor because the Savior came to open blind and blurred eyes. Jesus is, after all, the light of the world. In his new groundbreaking book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, Alan Wright leads readers into a fresh kind of Bible study where they're invited in close side by side with the Savior to see themselves, others in the world through Jesus's eyes. There's good news on every page because divine revelation and spirit filled living is a reserve for the spiritually elite. Every Christian can live with wide eyed wonder and spirit revealed vision. For a limited time, when you ordered a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over $100 of bonus resources. To order the book, visit SeeingAsJesusSees.org or come to our website, PastorAlan.org, and you'll also receive a free six week Seeing As Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan.

So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources. Christ's call to discipleship isn't an invitation to strive to do what Jesus would do, but to come and see what Jesus sees. So preorder your copy of Alan Wright's newest book and discover and start seeing yourself, others and the world through Jesus's eyes.

Back now with Pastor Alan and his closing inspiration directly from the new book, Seeing As Jesus Sees. When we see the world around us in this broken culture through the eyes of Jesus, we don't excuse it. We don't ever excuse sin. Jesus never did. But I do think that through Jesus's eyes, while we might have more sorrow, we'll also understand more.

And part of the reason Jesus came to be human is to understand us. I tell a story in the book about Dean Smith, the Hall of Fame basketball coach from my own alma mater, so I'm a little biased. But the coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for so many years was known for his care that he showed to all his athletes. I've heard a lot of personal stories about Dean Smith and the way he cared for his athletes. But maybe my favorite story about Coach Smith was shared some time recent years by Kenny Smith, who was a former UNC star who turned to TV announcer. During the late 1990s, there was a power forward named Maktar Njai transferred to Carolina for his final two seasons.

He was from Senegal, and he was the first UNC player from African continent. And one day, Maktar just didn't seem himself at practice. And afterwards, Dean Smith approached him and the conversation was sort of like this. Maktar, are you okay? And Maktar looked at the ground and mumbled, yes, coach. Coach Smith, Maktar, look at me.

Are you sure you're fine? Maktar keeps looking down. Coach Smith, Maktar, please look me in the eye.

Is everything okay? Finally, Maktar speaks again. Coach, in my culture, it is considered a sign of disrespect to look someone in the eye. Well, the next day, as the story goes, assistant coach Bill Guthridge was not at practice nor the next day or the next the next and nobody knew where he was. In fact, Guthridge missed a whole week of practice and no one knew why until Maktar received a call from his mother in Africa. She said, there's a man here at my house and he claims to be one of your basketball coaches.

Is that possible? He said that Coach Smith sent him here to learn about our culture. Well, if you really care, you want to understand. And Jesus traveled much farther than Coach Guthridge to understand what it's like to be human.

And I guess I'd like to leave our listeners with this thought. He understands your frailties. He understands human weakness. And on one horrid, miraculous day, he understood what sin and guilt feel like as he drank the cup of suffering to the dregs and absorbed the poison of sin into his own being so they could offer us life.

If you are frustrated with this world, Mrs. Folly, and maybe feeling irate, just ask Jesus how he sees the broken planet and maybe it'll help you. He doesn't excuse the ills of the world, but he does understand. Jesus sees. Jesus weeps. Jesus yearns.

Jesus understands. 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 pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.