Seeing As Jesus Sees [Part 27]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. It's like, okay, I'm going to pause because we can't really look. We can't really connect and look until we pause and go, my life might be so distracted. I'm trying to process so much.

And that's the first thing a pause does is it helps us see through the chaos to what really matters. 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 here with Pastor Alan in the studio today as we are excited about this brand new book that's out now.

It's Seeing as Jesus Sees How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. We're moving into a new section of the book today. Before we get to it, I want to remind you that if you've bought the book, let us know this month only when you let us know that you've already purchased the book somewhere.

We'll send you a free video series and a companion daily reading guide plus a group study guide. All in this bundle is our thank you for supporting the launch of Pastor Alan's new book and the important message here. It's an over $100 value and it's yours simply when you buy the book at your favorite retailer and then let us know you've done so at seeingasjesussees.org.

Seeingasjesussees.org. And the author of the book is sitting with me today, Seeing as Jesus Sees How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. Of course, this book now has been out for several days and we're excited to see how the Lord is using it, already hearing great stories. And Pastor Alan, it's good to be with you as we dive into our discussion today. And the topic is practicing and you have a chapter by that same title that we're going to unpack some themes from. Well, it's so, so good to be in studio and to be talking about these truths that we're already hearing so many reports from people that have been reading the book and really having their eyes opened and a new way of thinking about their own spiritual growth.

I think we all, anybody that's tuning in shares the desire. We want to be more like Jesus, but how does that actually happen? Well, when you begin to see by the power of Christ's own spirit within you, you begin to see more through his eyes that just naturally changes you. So, that's what we've been talking about and that's what is the promise of the pages of this book. But now we're really where the rubber hits the road and that's the daily practice of this. What is actually happening? How do you do that?

Okay, this is where someone says, I love the idea of asking Jesus for his eyes and seeing more as Jesus sees, but how do you do it? What can I do to put myself in that position? And that's what we're going to talk about today. Well, practical is right up my alley. I love self-help books. I love how-to books. And so, I always flip through the pages and find, okay, give me a checklist. I don't know what that says about me spiritually. I always want a checklist.

It's like I want to go back to the law. But I think this is something good here, Pastor Alan, that we've been leading up to. And I love the way in the book you really wet our appetite, okay? It makes us that our want-to has changed in wanting to put this in practice. Now, we've said all along, it's as simple as that breath prayer.

Yes. And you know, early on in the book, make mention of these disciples on the road to Emmaus on resurrection day. And they are so dejected texts that says that they're standing still, they're looking sad, and they don't even realize that they're with the risen Lord Jesus, right?

It is such a great picture that we'll talk about in some more detail today and tomorrow's broadcast about just think about it. And it's what I want our listeners to just think. Just think about those disciples on the Emmaus road. And they are absolutely despondent because they don't see it correctly. They think Jesus is dead in a tomb and their hopes are gone.

But instead, He's standing next to them. So that text in Luke 24 is all about the opening up of eyes. And it's a beautiful story because it's in the breaking of bread where their eyes are opened. Well, once their eyes are open, and they see just one thing that they see differently, Jesus is not dead in a tomb, Jesus is alive, just as He said He would be resurrected, and it changes everything. So that becomes our model for us in the same way that they had a big pause where they were standing still, and Jesus connects with them, they connect with Him, they fellowship, they have a meal.

And then they start looking at life totally differently. So we're going to be talking about that in a practical way, pausing, connecting and looking. The book is seeing as Jesus sees how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy. This brand new book that's written by Pastor Alan is out and you can get it wherever you find good books. You can download it, you can get the audio book, you can get a traditional hardcover, all of those wonderful places online or in a bookstore, you can walk into and grab that and make it part of your daily practice. That's what we're encouraging you to do. It's as simple as a breath prayer, but I like what you're talking here about Pastor Alan in this section. It's the pause.

The first step of practicing is just to pause and take a moment to say, okay, this is something now that I'm going to do. And you've done everything that I think every husband has done. When we go to look for something in the refrigerator, you ask your wife for some assistance. And there was a moment there where I think if we just take a deep breath and pause, we might could actually find the mustard in the fridge. Well, I'm the worst.

I'm the worst at this. You know, I go to look, look for something in the refrigerator and unless the mustard is right there, you know, on the front center shelf, I just can't see it. And you know, we got any mustard. Uh, yes, it's in the fridge. She was, you know, 10 seconds later, you know, I'm hollering about, I don't see it. Look harder. It's in there. You know, 15 seconds later, I pretend like I'm looking hard. I still don't see it. And then she's got this line. It's like, well, it's there. You might have to touch something. My own daughter, my grown daughter. She'll say that to me.

You might have to touch something dad, meaning that you got to do some looking. So I think that revelation may be like that too, where what we're saying is we don't reveal truth to ourselves. Jesus does. We see, so revelation is like, it's the unveiling of something. And we don't, we don't, we can't bring about that revelation. We're not the light.

Jesus is. We need him to turn the light on, but there is that which we do. And it's kind of like, well, you might have to touch something. We really are, uh, in the very first place, just pausing from the ordinary.

And I just can't overemphasize this to all of our listeners. I've found my life to be greatly transformed by practicing, and I don't do it perfectly by any means, but practicing a pause. 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, 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 order the 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 pre-order your copy of Alan Wright's newest book and discover and start seeing yourself, others, and the world through Jesus's eyes. A pause that in the first place is to acknowledge that I could be just overwhelmed by so many distractions. There are a zillion things in the refrigerator and I'm staring at them and seeing none of it. So life is sort of like that. Maybe some of our listeners have heard about a famous study in 2000. The psychologist set up a gourmet jam display in an upscale grocery store and the table featured 24 different jams. So any shopper who came by and he sampled the different spreads received a coupon for a dollar off of a jar of jam. So on a different day though, instead of setting up 24 different jams, the researchers reduced the jam offerings to six, six different jams out there. And so it was interesting to see what happened. The large display, the one with 24, it attracted more interest. But the small one, the small, only six, they were 10 times more likely to buy than the people who were attracted to the large display. Isn't that interesting? So people might be drawn to more choices of jam, but they're more likely to buy a jar of jam when there were fewer choices.

So lots of other studies have validated this kind of same thing. And I think what it is is we're paralyzed by an overabundance of choices. And that's part of what the pause is. It's like, okay, I'm going to pause because we can't really look. We can't really connect and look until we pause and go, my life might be so distracted. I'm trying to process so much. And that's the first thing a pause does is it helps us see through the chaos to what really matters. Now, seeing as Jesus sees how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy by Pastor Alan Wright, the book is out now and available wherever good books are sold.

And as we're talking about putting this into practice and really, as you talk about getting rid of the distractions and taking a focus and obviously talking about seeing as Jesus sees. But as you're talking about the jams there, I'm reminded very similarly, we were in a tourist town and there was an apple barn restaurant. And we went to the apple barn to buy apple stuff. And you walk in there and they suddenly are bombarding you with blackberry and peach and pear and fig and all these wonderful, and some fruits I like better than apple. But I said, no, we're here for apples.

They do apple, they do apple well. And when buying a car and you focus in on a model that you're shopping for, suddenly you see like Toyota Camrys, if that's what you're shopping for, you see Camrys everywhere now that you're on the road. And I think if you're looking for mustard and you finally get in your mind, it's a yellow bottle or a brown if it's brown mustard, then suddenly the distractions seem to fade away. And I think it's what you're talking about can be the same when we focus in. When you pause in this simple prayer, Jesus, how do you see this? That prayer itself causes you to pause. The prayer itself will help you breathe and say, okay, I don't want to be distracted.

I really need to be able to see accurately. But part of it also, Daniel, is that is a pause from the busy-ness from the doing, just doing all the time. You know, I think that's part of this as we've been talking about. And as I, as I talk early in the book about the primal temptation, it really, the temptation is you must do something to be like God. You know, you must eat of this tree that my mentor Dudley Hall called the due to be tree, do this, eat this, and then you will be like God. But that was the very thing that blinded them. So pausing it doesn't mean that we're trying to say accomplishments don't matter or that there aren't important things that we're supposed to be doing.

Of course there are. But the pause is also to defy the tyranny of busy-ness and the false promises that come with, oh, if you'll just do more, then you'll be more. And I think when we pause, it's almost like a miniature Sabbath.

I love what Jewish scholar and author Abraham Heschel called the Sabbath when he described it as a palace in time, because in the Hebrew mindset, it's not physical structures that matter. It's the rhythm of life and a pause. It helps us focus away from all the distractions, and it also helps us to quit doing for a moment.

And we need both. As you talk about the practical steps taken to get to the ultimate goal of this book to see as Jesus sees, you have one that talks about pause from denying. Would you say this is just a moment to be honest, to look at the situation and call it for what it is and then take that to the Lord? I just really feel like this is the model we have of this prayer to get Jesus's viewpoint. This model from the Emmaus Road disciples in Luke 24 is so helpful because the text tells us that not only were they standing still, but they were looking sad. They were devastated.

They couldn't hide it. And I just really like Daniel that Jesus did not hurry them into the celebration. And I think that's the voice of discouragement is avoid voice of angst who among us doesn't have a long we had hoped list. And I think that it's really important that we not be in denial of what God has said, but we need to be in denial of what God has said.

And I think that's really important. And I think that that's what God has said. He's the voice of discouragement. He's the voice of denial about the disappointments that we've had. I don't think Jesus hurries us past the expression of our pain and every single effective type of psychological therapy, no matter what it is, it has to lead to a greater self-awareness in the first place.

And I think this is biblical. If you're angry, the first thing to admit is, okay, I'm feeling angry. If you're afraid, the first thing is admit I'm feeling afraid. I'm feeling anxious.

That's why my heart's beating faster. You know, we're tempted to deny those feelings. We're tempted to, and even as Christians, sometimes we're thinking like, well, I should just, I should just be okay. Praise the Lord.

You know, I don't think God's that way. And so, uh, a pause, a pause for those disciples and same thing for us. Paul's from distraction pause from all the doing, but also pause from the denying.

There's not a shortcut to glory. And when you pause like this, you're, you're connecting up. You're giving yourself the chance to connect with him.

Pause before you can connect. The book by Pastor Alan Wright, which by the way is out now, it's Seeing as Jesus Sees, and that's our topic today here in the studio. It's how a new perspective can defeat the darkness and awaken joy. And in the days that have followed the release of the book, or even leading up to the book, I'm sure Pastor Alan, you've been asked a bunch of questions, either in interviews or by people in your church or whatnot, who found out that, Hey, there's a new book here that you've written.

And they kind of probably want to cut through all the chapters and get down to the chase. Okay. And in these five minutes that we have to talk, uh, boil it down.

What, what do I do? And that's really what we're talking about are the practical points of this. And we've come through really a few discussion points on pausing and, uh, and you have some others here like connecting and attuning. Well, so think of it as three steps, the Jesus, how do you see this prayer causes a pause and then enables us to connect and then enables to look in a new way. So pause and connect and look, and we're taking our model from the Emmaus road disciples who had is, is clear as clear of any story in the new Testament.

Where someone's eyes are open. It's those disciples who were depressed, and then their eyes were opened to see everything from the perspective of the risen Messiah and everything changed. So the first, first step that I think the prayer itself leads you into as a pause, but to say, Jesus, how do you see this?

As soon as you say Jesus. And I deliberately, as we've spoken about an earlier broadcast, I really felt like that, you know, though it is beautiful and appropriate to pray to God as father, because he's our father. And then sometimes we can speak to the spirit spirit of the living God, follow fresh on me. But I think for this, for this, it's helped me to, to speak this to Jesus.

It's biblical to do that. And when you say Jesus, you you've not only pause from all the distraction and doing a life, but now you're letting your soul be connected to him. You're saying I'm I want to be connected to you.

And a word for this is being attuned. All right, with good news from his latest book, Seeing as Jesus sees. Please stay with us. Pastor Alan's joining me back here in the studio sharing a parting good news inspiration to see as Jesus sees in just a moment. 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, Allen 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 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'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 pre-order your copy of Allen Wright's newest book and discover and start seeing yourself, others and the world through Jesus's eyes.

Now with closing inspiration directly from the new book, Seeing as Jesus sees, here's Pastor Alan Wright. When you pray, Jesus, how do you see this? You put into motion a three step process, a pause, pause from all the distractions and a pause from even the denying of our emotions and our, it lets us get more in touch with that. And it's a pause from all the doing. So you pause and then by saying, Jesus, how do you see this? You're saying what you see matters most to me. And our souls begin to attach to him and we attune with him. And then what we do is we dare to look again.

Maybe I haven't seen it right. And now by being connected with Christ, I'm going to see it differently. So that is an unpacking of an amazing process in which you are now repositioned to see everything in life differently.

And I just would say, Daniel, over time, as you practice this, I don't want all our listeners to know you can become better and better at it. Some years ago, I received a big glossy magazine that I hadn't ordered. It was called Cigar Aficionado. Daniel, I'm pretty sure I had not subscribed because I've never had a cigar. And I didn't even know there was a magazine about cigars. Sometime later, I was with a group of guys and one of the fellows produced a box of pricey Cuban cigars and he offered it to everyone.

And other guys were ecstatic. I said, I don't know. I said, but I do have a magazine on the subject.

I don't know anything about cigars, but there are a few things I do know about. I know some things about golf. You know, you can attest too many golf illustrations, but that's what I play low. I can tell you about, I can tell you about golf and degrees of loft on wedges and the grain on Bermuda greens and, and different golf ball compressions, you know, aficionados, they, they sacrifice a lot to pursue a particular interest.

And because what you love most, you end up devoting to. And I want to invite all of our listeners into that sort of life. Jesus, how do you see this? You're saying I would be delighted to be an aficionado of the vision of Christ himself. So keep pausing, connecting, and looking, and you're on your way to being an aficionado of the wonders that Jesus promised you'd see. 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.