Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing—a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to trust in the cleansing, redeeming blood of Jesus. What can wash away your sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make you whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. To say nothing but the blood can wash away your sins is to say that nothing other than the blood has any power to wash you. But it is also to say nothing other than the blood is necessary to wash you. Your salvation, your wholeness, your healing, does not depend upon the blood of Jesus. Plus, anything, nothing, nothing, nothing.
But the blood. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Allen Wright. There is a deep spirit alive within you. You are alive, a living spirit, and your spirit is longing for the Word of God. And the more that you feed on the Word of God, the more that the stuff of the world does not appeal to you, and the Word just cleanses and cleanses and cleanses.
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 "Gateways to Grace" as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you are 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, which can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
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More on all of this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Allen Wright. She doesn't know this, but one of the presents that we have for her is sitting in a big box downstairs in our house. It is a toddler-sized grocery shopping cart, because evidently the Nana Puddin went with her one time to some store, and they had a little toddler-sized grocery cart, and she loved it and pushed it everywhere. And so there's a box down there, and I haven't opened it yet.
Because I know it's going to be a thousand pieces. It's probably come over here from some foreign country, and it's going to be translated into some instructions that I'm not going to be able to understand. How many people have ever tried some instructions? You're like the people that translate this don't really speak English. One time we had something very difficult to put together, and I was struggling with it, and none of it made sense.
And there was one line in particular we laughed about. It said, "One time fits all." (Laughter) That's become a phrase in our house. One time fits all. Like, what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything.
But so you just say it wherever you want to say it. One time fits all. And so I'm dreading opening up this box and looking. But I hope that it does have an instruction manual, and I hope that it's clear enough, you know, because you need it. We we we we almost got divorced the week after our honeymoon by me trying to put together a gas grill and read the instructions for it.
I am. Thankful for the instruction manual, but if the Bible is nothing but an instruction manual, it doesn't make sense of how the psalmist would speak of it. Psalm one nineteen: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.
Nobody says of their car manual, "My car manual is sweeter than honey to my mouth." No one says of the gas grill instruction booklet, "It is greater than all the spoils of all the earth and the joy of my own heart." And even the psalmist who. Didn't even have the gospels; just had the witness of the Torah and the prophets, and said, "But I love your word. It's got to be more than a mere collection of principles and instructions." Start seeing the Bible as more than an instruction manual, and start seeing it as the the story of God. I've used this illustration before. I just can't think of a better one.
How foolish it would be to take some great epic story and reduce it to principles, which is what we often do with the Word of God, like taking Cinderella and trying to reduce it down to some morals. Can you imagine like that? The preacher says today's text is taken from the book of Cinderella, chapter one, verses two through forty-eight. Let's all turn there together. The title of my message is "Tough Times Produce Tough People." Tough times produce tough people.
Now. In our text today, we observe that Cinderella had an especially tough life. In the first place, her beloved mother died. That's a tough ordeal. Then, to make matters worse, Cinderella's father married a woman who had no affection for her new stepdaughter.
But instead, Lady Tremaine abused Cinderella emotionally and forced her into menial labor. Cinderella's stepsisters made matters even tougher as they demeaned her daily. Cinderella had Had a tough life, but notice how well she handled it. Here are three principles for staying tough during tough times. Number one, Cinderella remained positive.
She kept a good mental mindset. Remember, attitude determines altitude. Point number two, I've preached a little bit myself. I've used that line before. Point number two, though she was alone.
Cinderella made friends with the animals. Furry friends are forever friends. If you look hard enough, you can find others to help you through your struggles. And point number three: Cinderella made the most of her time. The clock will strike midnight for you one day.
Are you ready? Y'all, let me just give you this little pointer: a way that you could tell preaching that's not really gospel centric. If you could listen or preach something and come up with three good points and all like that, and you basically don't need a bloody cross and an empty tomb and a powerful Holy Spirit flowing in your life. That's not really gospel preaching. If you could just take three points and just as well put the name Buddha or Muhammad or or Mother Nature behind it and just still apply the principles, you haven't really gotten the gospel, have you?
The Bible is not this instruction book where we come in and try to just glean out some principles. How silly it would be to say that's what Cinderella is about. Cinderella is not about how tough times can produce tough people. Cinderella is about a person who had no chance because of her weak place in life, and yet there was a prince who found her. And there is authentic love, and there is magic.
And transformation, and she became what she was always destined to be by a power beyond herself. That's what it's about. The Bible's not just about these morals, despite all the wisdom and instruction that's there. And I'm not saying don't glean it, glean it, but never forget it's one big, beautiful story. Find yourself in it, and find the Savior.
In it, Tim Keller has said there are two ways to read the Bible. The one way is to read the Bible as if it's basically about you, what you have to do in order to be right with God, in which case you'll never have a sure and certain hope because you'll always know you're not quite living up. You'll never be sure about that future. Or you can read it as all about Jesus. Every single thing's not about what you must do in order to make yourself right.
But what God has done to make you absolutely right with God, and Jesus Christ is saying, unless you can read the Bible right, unless you can understand salvation by grace, you'll never have a sure and certain hope. But once you understand it's all about me, Jesus Christ, then you can know that you have peace. You know that you can have this future guaranteed, and you can face anything. The first way to fall in love with the Word of God is to stop seeing it as mere morals, principles, and instructions, and see it as the beautiful story that it is. Here's the second way: start seeing Scripture as spiritual food, and bring your deepest appetite to it.
First Peter chapter two, Peter says, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that you may grow up into salvation." This is like saying, if you've ever seen a newborn wake up in the night crying, wanting only one thing—milk—you can become like that. If indeed you've tasted, he said, verse three, that the Lord is good. When you get a taste, Jesus said in John six, truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. He's talking about the miracle of the manna in the wilderness. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
And they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst." Over and over, you see in the Bible this this this image of the Bible being like food.
Nowhere more powerfully and stark than in Ezekiel chapter three, where the Lord sometimes gives his prophets these strange things to do to teach object lessons. And in Ezekiel three one, he said to me, "Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, speaking of the word of God, and go speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you, and fill your stomach with it." And then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. If you want to fall in love with the Word of God, then whatever appetite you have for fulfillment.
Whatever you long for to have meaning and purpose, or joy, or just delight, that appetite that you have within you, that you're yearning to satisfy, remember it is God's word and His truth and His good news that you're ultimately yearning for. You connect your appetite to the food. You let your appetite draw you. To the food, that's what's happening when we take in God's word, as John Piper put it. If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God.
It's not because you've drunk deeply and are satisfied. It's because we've nibbled so long at the table of the world, our souls stuffed with small things. There's no room for the great.
So what happens is that you taste and see that the word of God is sweeter than honey. You start realizing that this is actually what your appetite is for, and it draws you in. And things that you might have pursued to satisfy that appetite seem Distasteful to you, it becomes like junk food to you, and now you want the authentic, and you're drawn in. You'll love the Word of God when it becomes to you like a feast for your soul. Here's a third way to fall in love with the Word of God: stop seeing Scripture as condemning, and start seeing it as cleansing.
This is what the word says of itself. Paul in Ephesians five, he says, "Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Because he's drawing an analogy.
Now he turns to what Jesus has done for the church, and he says at verse twenty-six that he might sanctify her, the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. Jesus saw the word as cleansing. John fifteen three, he said, "Already you're clean." To his disciples, his followers, because the word that I've spoken to you, John seventeen seventeen, he prayed, "Father, sanctify them in the truth. And your word is truth." See, you don't go to the Bible looking for steps to try to become a holier person. You come to God's word, and the word itself is cleansing.
You are, as a Christian, when you come to the word, you're being reminded who you are and whose you are, and this is where you become aware of your holiness. I have a dear, dear pastor friend who loves the Lord, loves the word of God as much as anybody as I know. And he learned a habit of reading the Bible when he was a young person, but he went to college. He was really wayward, but he said that even on his worst nights, where out drinking the most, he'd come back to his dormitory room, and he'd open up the Bible and read at least a few verses, because he thought it just makes me somehow feel more clean to do so, and it does. It does.
Coming into the Scripture is like getting a beautiful bath. If you come to the Word of God rightly and in it you see the glory of the gospel and you believe the truth of God's Word, then what you experience is not about how you can be better. It actually is making you better. How does this happen?
Well, it's because something mystical is taking place. Since all of Scripture is God breathed, inspired in Spirit, the breath of God's in it. Then, when the Scripture fills you, it is like an infilling of God. It's like God breathing into you. The water, the Word, is cleansing us in invisible ways that we might not fully understand.
I really believe that. It's like if you had a cut on your skin and you put an antiseptic on it, because you want to make sure that it's killing away any harmful bacteria that might infect you, and you can't see what that antiseptic is doing, but it's doing it, right? Because you're applying it. I think of the Word of God like that. There's something so cleansing about it.
There's something so powerful in the Word of God. And I think part of what happens, why it's cleansing us, is that there's nothing that muddies us more than deception and wrong thinking. You know, to be pure. Is like having an unmixed nature to something. That's what it means to be pure.
But it's when we're mixed and we're mixed up that we're impure. Have you ever had this happen where you just have a word, just one little word from heaven, and it just changes everything? I don't know why I was thinking about this. It just Just I must be. I should be.
I should be sharing this just because it just came to me from the Holy Spirit. A memory, maybe 25 years ago, of a very precious older man in our church who I loved with all my heart, and he loved me. And we made some changes that in in our facility, and it just really bothered him a lot. And he just lost his joy, and and I mean, he kept coming to church, but I mean, we loved each other, but it was this big thing, this big heavy thing. And and one Sunday, I was just sharing a story about a a twenty four year old who had accepted Christ in our Saturday night ministry that had been enabled by some of the the facility changes we'd made.
And afterwards, he and I happened to be walking upstairs to a fellowship luncheon. As we started walking, he paused, and I looked in his eye, and a big tear—one big tear—started rolling down his cheek. And he said, "Are young people really meeting Jesus in that way because of these changes we made?" I said, "Yes, they are." And then a huge grin came on his face. He said, "That's wonderful. I'm sorry I've been so upset." I said, "Oh, I understand.
That's fine." And we started walking upstairs, and halfway up, he turned to me like a different countenance and said. I feel like the weight of the world's been lifted off my shoulders and gave me a huge hug, and everything changed. Do you see how one little revelation can clear your whole mind and set you free? Who wouldn't want that? We have it in the Word of God every day, all the time.
The Word of God that is so cleansing. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message: Five ways to fall in love with the Word of God. It's from the series "The Gateways of Grace," and I encourage you to stay with us because Pastor Alan is back here in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for our day. Here in just a moment. What if growing closer to God isn't about trying harder?
So often, we approach spiritual growth with a list of things we need to do. Pray more, read more, be better, but what if the secret to spiritual transformation isn't found in greater effort, but in experiencing more of God's grace? In his book *The Gateways of Grace*, Pastor Alan Wright invites you to discover a fresh perspective on spiritual growth through timeless practices like scripture, prayer, meditation, wonder, and rest. You'll discover how to create space for the Holy Spirit to work in your life. These spiritual disciplines aren't obligations that earn God's favor; they're gateways that open our hearts to experience more of God's goodness, peace, and transforming grace.
When you give to Allenwright Ministries, you help share the gospel with listeners around the world. And when you give today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's book, The Gateways of Grace, as our thanks to discover these aren't just disciplines; they're gateways. Step through them and discover the grace that's been waiting for you. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. Or come to our website, PastorAllen dot org.
Back here now with Pastor Alan in the studio, and placing the bookmark here at the midway point of five ways to fall in love with the Word of God. My friend Mark in college named his bed in his bedroom. The word, so that when somebody calls and says, "What are you doing?" he could say, "I'm in the word." And yeah, that was kind of spun humorously out of maybe some guilt associated with the accountability. The thought of, "Are you doing it daily?" I know that early in my Christian life. It somehow I felt like I'm supposed to be in the Word, and felt guilty if I wasn't reading Scripture more.
I never could have known how much I would fall in love with the Word of God if there were a great novel that. Had twists and turns.
Sometimes you can go, I can hardly put it down. It's such a page turner.
Well, how much more so the living Word of God?
So see the Word of God as as one big, beautiful story of redemption, and start seeing Scripture as spiritual food to address the appetite in your life, and stop seeing Scripture as condemning and seeing as cleansing. These are some of the ways that if you see the Word of God rightly. You'll fall in love with the Word of God, and then nobody will after have to say to you, "You ought to be in the Word." Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAllen dot org or call eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty.
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 dot org. That's PastorAllen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
