Seeing As Jesus Sees [Part 30]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Jesus, how do you see this? It's an invitation to instead of being one who believes the serpent who says, if you will eat this tree, if you will do this thing, then your eyes will be open.

We go, no, here's how our eyes are open. We connect with Jesus and we ask Him to let us see as He sees. And that grace removes the veil.

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. Sitting today with Pastor Alan Wright, the author of this great new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees and still excited that the book is out. I know even more so for you, Pastor Alan, but we're grateful for all the labor that went into it. And as we're sitting here today at a plane's coming in for a landing towards the end of this book in our discussions, at least here on the radio. And it's been a delight to turn the pages with you. Well, it's been so wonderful being in studio and to think of really down to our last days of kind of talking through some of the main points. A couple of days ago on this broadcast, I said that how much I'm attracted to the to-do list or the practical chapter of the book that's here that we just talked about the other day. And that's a good thing if it's in the right order and for the right reason.

But if you stand it alone and say, okay, that's a formula and Seeing as Jesus Sees is a formula to put God in the box, then we got a problem. Yes. There's a classic study, Daniel, 20 years ago, these researchers, they made a short film and it featured teams of people moving around passing basketballs. And one teams wore white shirts, the other wore black.

After it was produced, these research assistants spread across the Harvard campus to run an experiment and it became the most famous of its kind. So the participants were given a straightforward, simple task. Watch the video and count the number of passes made by players wearing white. Okay. So you're supposed to watch how many times does someone wearing white pass the basketball? Okay.

Very simple. Well, after participants watched the video as maybe some, some of our listeners might even pause and done the same thing. But after, after they did, they were asked for their tally of passes.

How many? Well, the correct answer was 34, but that doesn't matter. That's not the point of it at all. The researchers were testing something else halfway through the video, a girl wearing a full body gorilla costume walked right into the middle of the players, face to the camera, beat her chest, and then walked off the gorilla.

This is true. You got to see the video. If you, if you've never seen it, you just got to see it to believe it. The gorilla is on camera for nine full seconds.

Okay. The, if you watch this video, that gorilla is there for nine seconds in the middle of people passing basketballs. And after asking participants about their tally of the passes, you know, how many, how many times did white shirted players pass it? After they asked them that, then they, the researchers would say, Oh, did you notice anything other than the players? And if the participants said no, then the researchers asked, did you notice a gorilla and roughly half, and it still works this way, roughly half the people that watch this video do not see the gorilla.

The psychologist got a term for this. They call it inattentional blindness. The subjects, in other words, were concentrating so hard on doing their task, counting the passes that they were blind to the gorilla that's right in front of their eyes, which really makes me think of Jesus. When he called the Pharisees blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. He didn't mean you're blind to everything, but you're blind to what mattered. They saw the importance of the law, but they missed the matter of justice and mercy and faithfulness. And they were counting out every little spicy to make sure they tithe exactly 10% and straining their wine to make sure they didn't accidentally swallow us ceremonially unclean gnat. But they were missing the affection and the delight of God and the beauty and the wonder of the gospel, because they're so busy trying to do it right.

So that's what a big part of the reason I wrote this book is I don't want anybody counting basketballs and missing gorillas. Paul- Seeing as Jesus Sees is the title of the book by Pastor Alan Wright, Tell a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. And we're in the studio today coming down towards the end of our special broadcasts of these discussions around it. And we're in the chapter that really is the final chapter talking about unveiling. So with perspective, with vision, seeing with clarity, how do we get there? Yeah, it's a simple prayer.

Jesus, how do you see this? And it requires us just by that breath prayer, it requires a pause. It empowers us to connect to Jesus spiritually. And then it employs a commitment to look again with fresh eyes. And as we do that, I think what happens is that we are allowing, we're inviting Jesus to lift the veil that instead of living the kind of Christian life where we think that our change is gonna come simply because we try harder to be a good Christian, that instead he opens our eyes to truth and to beauty and to wonder.

And what comes with that is incredible, incredible victory. And Daniel, a lot of people, I think a lot of well-meaning Christians have a bit of this veil that remains because there's a little bit of law that's mixed into the purity of the gospel. And I've said this before, but I think it's an apt illustration. If I said to my wife, I love you unconditionally, I'll never leave you or forsake you. But and I said that maybe 99 days in a row, but then on the hundredth day, I said, I changed my mind.

You might not be good enough for me unless you improve on my leave. Well, what would that one day of conditional love do to the other 99? It would cancel them out. It would contaminate all the days of grace. You can't have 1% of conditional love mixed in to your notion of how God loves you. Paul told the legalism tainted Galatians, a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. See, law always blinds and grace is the only thing that removes that veil.

And that's what I've been wanting our listeners to hear. And that's what I want people to see when they read this book, that when Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 6, the letter kills, what he's saying is even 1% of law comes in, puts the veil over our eyes. And Jesus came to take that away, to let us see life through an unveiled look that comes only by the grace of God. It doesn't mean that Jesus shows us everything, but we have a share in the mind of Christ. And these things, 1 Corinthians 2, 9, what no eye has seen nor the heart of man imagined, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Their wonder and beauty and glory and grace and truth and clarification and the clearing up of confusion and so much more that comes if just that veil can lift and it comes through the grace of God. Jesus, how do you see this? It's an invitation to instead of being one who believes the serpent who says, if you will eat this tree, if you will do this thing, then your eyes will be open.

We go, no, here's how our eyes are open. We connect with Jesus and we ask Him to let us see as He sees. And that grace removes the veil. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.

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 a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over a hundred dollars of bonus resources. To order the book, visit SeeingAsJesusSeas.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. Pastor Alan Wright with us today, author of the book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy.

And if you've been listening for the last several weeks, you've heard us here in the studio talking about the themes of this book, and we're coming down to the final moments here, and we'll be back in the pulpit at the next broadcast with teaching from Pastor Alan. But Pastor Alan, we can't let you go without getting an update on the story of Joy. And Joy's story is told throughout the book, bits and pieces of it. That's not a real name, but I do like the name Joy that you've chosen for her, for this book. Well, we haven't spoken much of Joy's story.

Really hope every listener will get the book. And if no other reason to read it to discover Joy's story, she, in a lot of ways is the hero. Jesus is the hero of the story behind Seeing as Jesus Sees, but she is like a heroine. She is another beautiful character in this book that's real. I met her when she was 13 and her family was new in our church and she loved the Lord.

Young Joy did. But her story, Daniel, as I chronicle openly for the first time ever in the book, is one in which a great deception came upon her. It all came about after a very traumatic experience when she was young and she was invited to pray over a friend of the family that had died and in the process of faithfully really asking God for a miracle to raise this young man from the dead. Instead, something got miscommunicated in her own heart. And she had that feeling that due to be tree, you know, if I'll just pray harder, if I'll just stay with it, you know, then maybe God will raise him from the dead. And it's one it's one thing to pray with faith.

It's another to take it on as if it's all about you. And somewhere in the middle of that, she was demonically attacked and it caused her to become so depressed and so confused that she literally could not see. Her eyes had become dilated. She was taken to the hospital catatonic and unable to eat or speak. I tell her story in the book, Daniel, of a long process of how God was at work to open her eyes spiritually.

It took a long time. But after years of prayer with her, therapy, family support, beautiful family, Christian residential programs, regular ministry, that a faithful woman in our church, Grace, joined me and pray for her and just walked with her contending, you know, like, devil, you can't have her as horrible demonic affliction. But eventually she was able to begin to reenter life somewhat. She was able to begin to have some spiritual vision. And I'll never forget the day that I thought, boy, she's really getting well.

When she came to church one day and said, I want you to meet my boyfriend, Josh. And I'd always wondered what would would would Joy ever be able to have the kind of miracle that she could live a normal life? You know, there was an old, dry, wooded area just off of their house that sometimes she would go and walk. And when she was trying to recover, she got sometimes paint pictures in there just in the hardest days at that old barren field. But Joy became engaged and it was the middle of COVID.

No venues were open or available. So they decided to have it at their house. Well, I just won't tell the whole story. It's in the book. But that old barren field had become lush and blossomed and flowerful.

This young woman who hadn't been able to eat or drink or smile or speak had her her wedding day. Oh, I really want you to hear Joy's story because though her story is so stark and so and so pointed about how acute spiritual blindness can be in this spiritual battle that we face. Everyone needs to know there is a spiritual battle that's going on. And it is a battle for our spiritual site. It's about truth and deception. And if we can't see, then we're deceived and we can't see the truth and we can't see the truth about ourselves or about others or about this world. And there's so much that's at stake. And so every single one of us, God has come in the person of Jesus Christ to lift the veil, to take away that horrible block that comes of trying to live up under the law, the due to be tree, and instead to invite us into the tree of life and to share in his great invitation of discipleship.

Come and you will see. And so it's a new pair of eyes that he offers. Joy's a great example, a wonderful testimony. But the pages of this book, just like the pages of scripture and all of us can attest to are lined with stories of people who said I once was blind and now I see.

Pause, connect, look, and Jesus is going to show you writers. Alan Wright, our good news message today from the pages of the book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, How a New Perspective Can Defeat the Darkness and Awaken Joy. The book is out now. It's available at PastorAlan.org.

If you'll come to our website or any place where you enjoy shopping for good books online, in a store, audiobook, Kindle, those sorts of things, it's available. Hey, Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio, sharing his 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, 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, and the world through Jesus' eyes. There's good news on every page because divine revelation and spirit-filled living isn't reserved for the spiritually elite.

Every Christian can live with wide-eyed wonder and spirit-revealed vision. For a limited time, when you've ordered a book from Amazon or your favorite retailer, you'll receive over $100 of bonus resources. To order the book, visit SeeingAsJesusSeas.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' eyes. Back now with Pastor Alan Wright and some closing inspiration directly from his new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees. Here's Pastor Alan. Well, it's been a wonderful privilege to spend some time in the studio, Daniel, with you and with our listeners. I like to think of these times as if we were getting to sit around the living room and just talk about some important biblical concepts. It is, I think, the primary call on my life and my main passion in communicating to you, our listeners, as I would any friend or any parishioner, to communicate how the gospel, and that means good news, how the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ and of his finished work and of his ongoing advocacy for us, how that gospel and the fullness of that story, how it has power to change our lives. A lot of Christians think that we are changed by, oh, we're saved by grace, but then more or less it's up to us in the process of sanctification. But it's not so. We are changed by the same grace that saved us and we're on this journey.

So how does that work? How does it work out that if it's not going to be by greater self-effort that we're changed, how are we? And what I hope to show in my new book, my new book, Seeing as Jesus Sees, is that so much transformation comes by simply connecting with Christ and seeing yourself and others in the world through his eyes. It is the central attack of the enemy to blind us spiritually. So Jesus came promising that his mission was to open the eyes of the blind. He said, I'm the light of the world.

He said, whoever follows after me will not stumble about in the darkness. It is the commitment of Christ himself to open up spiritually blind eyes. It is his delight. It is joy to lead us by the hand and show us what we're not seeing. It's for this reason that Paul prayed that the eyes of our heart would be enlightened so that we could see what's the hope of our calling and their inheritance we have in the saints and the power of God at work in us so that we could see what we weren't seeing before. So Christian growth is in large part a matter of seeing day by day, moment by moment, and Jesus is ready to help. So we've been learning and I've been putting into practice now for about four years in my life and I tell you it changes things and I encourage you to do this all throughout your day, moments. Just pray a little prayer. It's brief enough for a single breath but it's deep enough to change everything in your life.

Jesus, how do you see this? When you pray that, you're put into process, a spiritual practice. It starts with a pause because if you pause, just take a breath and just pause and pray that prayer. Then a lot of the distractions have to be put on pause for a moment so that you can quit the busyness and all the doing, sometimes the denying, not being in touch with what you're really frustrated about or what you really need.

You just pause and then it is a connecting. It's a connecting with Christ as a connecting with Christ himself. This is spiritual. It's mystical. It's mysterious. It's powerful, but we abide in him.

He abides in us. And when you pause to connect with him, you're allowing the space spiritually, mentally, to connect with him, to attune with Christ himself, to attach to him. And once you have attached, then you're ready to look again. To say, Jesus, how do you see this? Is to position yourself spiritually to say, I want to look with new eyes. I don't want to look at this the same old way that I've been looking. Jesus, how do you see it?

I want to see it as you're seeing. And what happens is that the great promise of scripture that we would have a share in the mind of Christ, it begins to take place in our life and we begin to have answers. We begin to have more clarity, but we also have a sense of beauty and wonder that we hadn't seen before. It's been changing my life and I hope for every one of our listeners, I hope that you've enjoyed this journey with us as we've kind of walked through some pieces of the book, but there's no substitute to Daniel to getting the book itself. And I want to thank you, Daniel, for our time in the studio. It's been a real delight to talk about seeing as Jesus sees. 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.