Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and bears witness to your spirit that you are a child of God.
And knowing God as your Father becomes your great, great delight to see your life as a son or a daughter. 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 Increase as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now available to you for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. I went home to review the message that I had for the next day. And it so happened that this message that was in the midst of a series about how we're made new in our minds, and it was on Jacob blessing his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh. And I remember looking at that message that night before going to bed, and I looked it over and I thought, this is just not that revelatory. It's not my best.
It's not really. And then the thought came that my spiritual father is going to be sitting on the front pew tomorrow. And so I just kissed my wife goodnight. And I went back down to my study and I said, Lord, I think there's more here.
And I stayed up until the wee hours of the night and worked on that message again. And it wasn't because my spiritual father would be in church the next day and I wanted to make him proud. It wasn't that it was that my spiritual father would be in church the next day.
And he was already proud. I'm talking about what a dad does. I'm talking about the power of the blessing of a spiritual, of a spiritual parent that calls you up. It's not a calling up by shame that says, if you'll do more than it's the calling up by the deepest sense of a fatherly insight, a fatherly insight, motherly nurture that sees into the essence of someone who they are and what they can be and interacts with them on that basis.
And it brings you up. And we all need it. Every single one of us needs it. This power is not just for those who've missed having a mom or dad at home, but it's for, it's for all of us because none of us had perfect parents.
And it just is something that we should all seek out. When our son Bennett went to the sixth grade young man in our church, Sean Dice asked if he could mentor Bennett. And we said, of course, Sean's one of the finest, godliest young men ever knew. And so he devoted six years just pouring into our Bennett.
We kept weak. Wow. You know, Bennett had a good home. But how thankful I was for another spiritual father to come along, talk about things that, you know, maybe Bennett wouldn't want to talk to me about.
I don't know. And it was amazing. And Sean was the best man at his wedding. Would the world be different if everybody had that? It changed the world. It changed the world. There's another wonderful spiritual leader who helped father me for a season named Gordon Dalby, a brilliant man, brilliant man, brilliant man of God who wrote one of the pioneering books for men's movement called Healing the Masculine Soul. It's deep. It's rich.
It's an amazing book. And when Gordon was 20 years old, he was kind of a prodigy. He was so smart. And he has already graduated.
And he went to teach math for the Peace Corps at a boy's high school in Nigeria. Several months after being there, a student asked him how in America is a boy called into manhood. Gordon didn't even know what he was talking about. He said, what do you mean? He said, I mean, when is it that the boy is called away from the mother and then brought amongst the older men to be in the community of men?
Gordon said, I don't know what you're talking about. And he said, what happens in your village? And so the boy explained that in his Nigerian village, that there was a ritual in which a boy lived with his mother until puberty. And then at the right time, the village elders, the older men came and appeared outside the mother's hut and they beat drums. And they said, come out, come out, son of our people, come out. And the mother would come and this sort of ritual, this sort of game, the mother would come and stand at the front of the hut and say, no, no, you can't have them.
You know, it's just a wonderful picture of the way this thing works. Like you can't have them. This is my baby boy. And they would beat the drums louder and say, come out, come out, son of our people, come out. And the mother would cry. And then after a long enough time, the boy would step out in front of the mother and he'd go amongst the old men of the village and they'd go out to take him to live in the forest for a while. And there they teach him how to thatch roofs and how to plow gardens and how to hunt and all the things that the men did. And then when the time was right, they'd come back to the village and the boy would have his own hut.
And now he was a man. And that boy was asking him, what do you do in your country? And Gordon was like, when you're 16, we'll let you drive a dangerous machine. When you're 18, you can go to dirty movies. And when you're 21, you can drink liquor. You couldn't really think of any other rituals we had.
Then we're missing something, aren't we? Having heard this some years ago, I proposed to the elders. I said, let's have a father-son retreat and we'll call some 16 year olds and such.
We'll call them into manhood. And they all thought that was a great idea. And so we did.
We went to a nearby campground for a weekend retreat. And our plan was after giving instruction and men would teach about godliness as a man. And we'd talk to our boys. The idea was that the father would welcome his son into manhood. And I had an idea in mind about how we'd have a closing ritual and that the father would have his own version of come forth into the community of men and embrace his son. But I remember saying to the elders that night, I said, but you know, there may be some boys that they don't have a relationship with their dad or their dad's not there. And I said, we might need some surrogate fathers to come spiritually and stand in and to be there and nurture a boy and to welcome them into manhood. And I said, do you think any of you men might be willing to do that?
And I'll never forget one elder Lacy Bellamy. He said, I'd crawl up the mountain to do that. You're made for this. Men, you're made for this.
Women, you're made for this. You're made to be a spiritual parent. We went and we had a great weekend and there were some boys there that didn't have a dad and they had a surrogate that was there for them to stand in and be a spiritual dad for the weekend. We got to the closing ritual and what it was was we put all the men, all the dads in these two lines, like a gauntlet, you know, facing each other. And so it was going to be a blessing line. And the idea is the boy would come up, start at one end and he'd start walking down through this gauntlet of fathers. And first on one side, a man would put a hand on his shoulder and the instruction was speak one word to him that just comes to mind.
Whatever comes to mind to bless him, one word. So he'd just go by and put his hand on his shoulder and say, peace. And then the man on the, he'd keep walking a man on this side would say, prosperity. And then he would say, courage. And he would say, favor. And, you know, and it would just walk down this line of men like that, you know.
And so that's what the boys are doing. And they get down to the end and their dad was down there and he would give them a big embrace and say, welcome to manhood and the community of men. And it was, it was sweet.
It was just beautiful. But what tore me up, golly, and I was going to get all emotional about this, but I'll never forget it. There was this, there was this kid that was 16 and didn't have a dad. And I can't remember if it was Lacy or one of the other elders was down there to stand in. And this kid got up, started walking down that line. And the first man, the first father that put a hand on his shoulder and spoke a word of blessing over him and the kid couldn't contain himself. He stopped and he turned and just held on to that man. It was so pretty. He stopped and he took hold of every man. It took forever to get him down the gauntlet. I was like, you're supposed to just walk on, but he couldn't do it. He just, he just said, I'm just, I, it was like, he was saying, I've got a moment where I can drink in some, some father's blessing that I hadn't had. And I'm going to take every bit of it. And I had to fight, just take your time and go down for every man.
That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand-new six-week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God-given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100-year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full-length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. 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. Today's teaching now continues.
Here once again is Alan Wright. Girls need something similar. That's why Paul gave this instruction in Titus. Titus 2, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They're to teach what is good and so to train the young women. Train them to love their husbands and their children.
Show them how to do this. We're made for this. We're made for this. And it's the great yearning I think that we have. So crazy that anybody wants to be a parent in the natural sense, isn't it? You know, when you think about our bent and our sin towards selfishness, that anybody would ever want to become a parent. When normally it seems like the things we crave are more sleep and more money and more time for ourselves and all these things.
And so why would anybody want to be a parent where you give up all of those? And yet in the natural sense, it's one of the deepest, most visceral longings that we have. That somehow we want to mix up our own happiness with the welfare of another. And somehow we want to commit heart and soul to something to someone who may have no way for many years to pay it back and might not even appreciate it.
Why would we want to do that? It's the same reason we cry at that grocery store commercial. It is what we're made for.
And there's no way around it. And this longing within us never stops. Even if you had five children of your own and raised them, you still are a parent and there's still somebody that needs you to spiritually parent them.
In his healing, the mask and soul, Dalby says starkly, in America, we eliminate men from productivity when they reach age 65 to make a way for younger men who move into positions of authority with gaping wounds that can be healed only by a blessing from the same older men they have dismissed. We grow into this, beloved, when you become a Christian, you're a little child, you're a babe. It's interesting what John has to say in his first little epistle, 1 John 2. Here over the course of a few verses where he's talking about these sort of stages or progressions in our growth, he says, I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. So this word, little children, like the new ones in the faith and the delight of our heart is that when you become a Christian and you're born anew, what you principally know is that all that weight of guilt and all of that condemnation and all of those sins that have been so heavily burdening you now have been removed from you and they've gone to the cross and you've been set free and you're forgiven and the blood of Jesus covers you. This is the beginning of the Christian life and if you don't yet know the Lord, it is as simple as saying yes to the saving grace of Jesus.
Yes, I believe that He's the Son of God and He died for sinners like me and I need to accept His grace that He paid the penalty for the debt of my sin and therefore I can be forgiven. It's the sweetest thing in the world to know you're forgiven and if you don't know it, you can know that today, little children who know their sins are forgiven. But it's interesting in verse 12 or 14, I think it is, He says, I write to you children and He uses a different word, a little bit older child and He says because you know the Father.
You know the Father. So being a Christian means knowing your sins are forgiven and you go to heaven one day but it's more than that. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and bears witness to your spirit that you are a child of God and knowing God as your Father becomes your great, great delight to see your life as a son or a daughter.
But there's another stage that He mentions in verse 13. He says, I'm writing to you young men, the young men in the faith, He's talking about spiritual stages because you've overcome the evil one. It's an image that in our Christian life that after you know your sins are forgiven and you know yourself to be a son or a daughter, you start finding out you've got authority in the name of Jesus. You start finding out that there's power in the Holy Spirit and you have like a young man does who's in the natural pursuing a career, has productivity on his mind, that there's something that happens in our Christian life where we start thinking, I'm going to make a difference for the kingdom of God. And it's not just about me being a son or a daughter, it's that I've got a mission, I've got a purpose, I've got things to do and I'm not going to let the devil stop me. It's a blessing for those young men in the faith. But then He has this to say, verse 14, I write to you fathers because you know Him who's from the beginning. He uses a phrase here to say, you have perspective, you have wisdom, you see things generationally, you see things from the long view, you know that God's been there from the beginning, you know that it's not just about your productivity, you understand all of this. And so you become a father.
I understand Juan's little poem, O for the Want of a Mom and a Dad, O for the Want of Spiritual Moms and Dads. Their chances are that there's someone in your life that is ready to pour into you in a way that could strengthen and heal and encourage you. And chances are there's someone that God's put in your path that you could be investing in them. It doesn't mean that you've got all the pearls of wisdom and all the answers, and it doesn't mean that it's this one-way interaction.
It's kind of like parenting an adult child, right? You have a relationship and a friendship and it's not about controlling and it's not about discipling them to yourself, you're discipling them to Jesus. But I wonder if you would at least pray about that because I'm pretty convinced that the way of God has from the beginning been people who know Jesus spend time with people who don't know them as well. And it almost doesn't matter who it is as long as it's the ones that God has brought into your life. So Jesus came and He just did life with 12 men and the world was changed. Imagine if all of us were doing the same. Everybody needs a spiritual parent and everybody needs to be a spiritual parent.
God's designed you for it. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can change a life. That's the gospel. Allen Reich, today's good news message titled The Importance of Spiritual Mothers and Fathers in our series Increase. Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio as he shares his parting good news thought for the day.
Just a moment. You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six-week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God-given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100-year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full-length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. 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 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Right here now with Pastor Alan, sharing our parting good news thought for the day as we come to the conclusion of this teaching, the importance of spiritual mothers and fathers, and in the overall series of Increase where we've really been focusing on playing the long game.
I mean, this is a great challenge. Well, it was very important to me when I began thinking, researching, and preaching about generational blessing that this is inclusive of everybody, whether you are married or single, whether you're a parent of biological children or not, or a parent of adopted children, not every single person really needs a spiritual mother or father and needs to be one. And we must all think of our lives in terms of the generational impact. And this comes often through the spiritual children, those that we invest in, that we mentor, that we share our lives with, and there's no way to estimate the kind of spiritual seed that gets planted.
And often we don't see all of it, Daniel. You know, when I, when I was young and my dad left home and my parents' marriage had broken and we were all devastated, my mom came to know the Lord and got invited to a great church. And there once in that church, she met these godly couple that mentored many marriages and prayed for them. And so she started just taking me and my brothers over just to have this godly man to bless us and pray for us, you know, because we didn't, we didn't have a dad at home at the time that was doing that. And so just because we've missed things in life, it doesn't mean we got to remain missing them. God can put spiritual fathers and mothers in our lives that can, can not only fill that void, but just bring impartation into our lives that makes a difference for on and on.
And I want to be that to other people. And, and I think every one of us can be called in some way to have someone in their life that you're spiritual mothering or, or fathering, and it makes all the difference. 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.
