Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.
He's for you. Utterly and completely in love with you and for you and wants to just take you and hold you and kiss you and bless you and speak vision over you and just, and you can know this for sure because Jesus came. You can know it for sure because Jesus came. Jesus came. 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 this series, Increase, as presented at Rinaldo 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. He made the first day, so it was good. And he made the vegetation, it was good. And he made human beings in his own image and he said it was very good. And he said, now multiply that good, fill the earth, right? So whatever's good, more of it. And that's the nature of God.
So you can count on this. He's for the increase of that which is good. And we mustn't be confused when something doesn't seem like it's increasing at the moment because what he is committed to is for your good. And honestly, for the prideful, the increase of status might not be good.
It might not be good at all. The Bible says pride goes before a fall. Pride is horrible for you. So you might be thinking the thing you need most is more status.
But maybe not. The greater gift is to get rid of the pride. For the materialistic worshipper of money might be that money is not what God needs to give you right now. It might be a better blessing to give you less of that so you could have more of trust in Him. He knows what's good. And so what that means is that you can count on Him to be good and to do what's good.
Jesus said in Matthew 7, which one of you, his son, ask him for bread will give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? He gives good things. He gives good things. He gives good things. Increase the good. Right? I think if you turn the story around and say, well, I wonder if the son was really hungry and said, give me a stone, I don't think a good father is going to give an inedible rock to a starving child.
No. Not going to give a poisonous snake to a child just because the child didn't know how to properly ask for what he really needed. He gives good gifts. Which means that you can trust Him.
Sometimes it may not feel like increase in your life, but God's at work. And He knows how much, and He knows how much you can take. The beagle we had for years, Reecey, we love that dog, but he had some eccentricities. And one of which everybody I'd read, they'd told us that beagles are highly motivated by food.
Oh, mercy. Anyway, this dog was not just highly motivated by food. This animal was out of control around food. And so we put the food down in front of the beagle, and the dog, you know that phrase, talking about somebody inhaling their food, you know the way teenage boys do? Well, this dog like literally inhaled the food. Like that. I mean, it was like a vacuum cleaner, wasn't it?
It's gone. And then the dog would go into this hyperventilating. First time we saw it, we thought our dog's dying right here.
What's going on? We talked to the vet, and the vet said, oh, that dog, beagles do it sometimes, eating too fast, too much too fast. Said what you're going to have to do is have to portion it out and feed him little by little.
Great. You can't just get up in the morning and put some food in a bowl and let the dog eat it? No, you've got to sit there and trickle it in. I gave Abby that task. She was the dog feeder and put a little bit in, put a little bit more in, put a little more in, you know, so it wouldn't hyperventilate to death. And I'm telling you, the dog, sweetie, there was never a time that dog would have stopped eating, was there? I mean, there was no limit. I mean, if you put, kept putting food, the dog would keep eating. I'm sure the dog would eventually just pop.
I mean, there was no, and you don't want a popped beagle. So you have to sometimes, if you love, sometimes you limit so that the increase of good, because there's something more important than the dog just having one more helping of dog food, and that is the dog having more health, more health. Health is the good thing. Health is the good thing.
So, right? A parent doesn't just, child wants more ice cream. Okay, more, more ice cream. Okay, more, more. No, the parent knows what I want more for you is health. That's what needs to increase. So we'll give you a little bit of ice cream, but not too much of it.
And then we become adults and we don't have anybody to regulate that for us. God, I want to keep saying this over and over, God has the long view in mind when He thinks of blessing. He's a father. He's thinking about your growth, and He's thinking about generations. He's not just thinking about blessing your life. He's thinking about blessing a thousand generations through you.
Oh, I want you to believe that. That's what this Psalm says. The Lord has remembered us, verse 12, He will bless us. He'll bless the house of Israel. He'll bless the house of Aaron. The house, that means the descendants of, the family of, the lineage of. When a seed is in the ground, it doesn't look like a blessing.
In fact, it looks like it's gone. A farmer got a seed in hand and that seed looks like it has some value because you know within that seed is the potential of a harvest. But you put the seed into the ground and there is a time before the seed germinates where all you can see is ground and you can't see the seed and the seed is going through a process of transformation. That doesn't feel like increase, but it is.
It is because the life of that plant, that fruit tree is in that seed and the good farmer sees the fruit though it's still in the ground and God's like that. What this means is that sometimes things look like they're becoming less when they're actually becoming more. 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. Remember it well. The moments that might look like they're the least blessed moments of your life, the least increase might actually be the very gateway to the greatest increase. And until you breathe your last, because Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 15 of the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It's sown in weakness, but it's raised in power.
It's sown in natural body. It has raised a spiritual body. It means for us that when we breathe our last and it feels like that we are decreasing and decreasing and decreasing, we actually are coming to the dawn of the increase that God has always promised us.
He's for you. Utterly and completely in love with you and for you and wants to just take you and hold you and kiss you and bless you and speak vision over you and just, and you can know this for sure because Jesus came. You can know it for sure because Jesus came.
Jesus came. I like to think about that last supper, which was the Passover feast that Jesus was celebrating and he reinterpreted it or gave its authentic interpretation of what the Passover always been pointing to. The Passover was the feast the Jewish people remembered how God delivered them out of their bondage by the blood of a lamb, and so they would celebrate and eat lamb and eat unleavened bread, have a little bitter herb in there to remember the bitterness of slavery, and they sing. They sing. And they sing the Hallel, which are Psalms 113 through Psalms 118. Hallel like Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Yahweh the Lord. Praise the Lord. So they just eat and praise the Lord. Eat and praise the Lord.
I like that. Just eat and praise the Lord. Pass the lamb chops. Praise the Lord. But some Psalms are sung before and some during, and then some are at the end. And Psalm 115 was sung at the end of the Passover. So I like to think of that, that on the night that he was betrayed that Matthew 26 says that Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples and said take it, it eats my body. Took one of the Passover cups and gave significance to it, saying this is the blood of the covenant that's poured out for you, for your sins.
Drink it. And then in verse 30 of Matthew 26, after that, we're just told this, and when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And it might have been this hymn.
Could you imagine it? I went online, I was just trying to listen to the songs like, you know, we don't know what tune it would have been, you know. And modern Judaism, they've got even contemporary songs that they'll take Psalm 115, put it to, you know. But they might have been singing it, you know. Peter, who denied Jesus three times, singing the Psalm. Judas, who had an idol of money, they're listening to Jesus sing the Psalm with them. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Not to us, not to us. Not to us, not to us, Lord.
They're walking on their way to the Mount of Olives, preparing to be betrayed, to be handed over to the chief priests and the authorities who would crucify him. Why should the nations say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens.
He does all he pleases. And then imagine the Lord of the universe, Jesus with them there, singing about the futility of the idols. Jesus of Nazareth, mocking the idols along with the disciples. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak. Eyes, but do not see. Ears, but do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel.
Feet, but do not walk. Oh, they're just singing it out. And is anyone noticing the sweet irony of it all? Is that the one true living God is there with them singing it. They make their little idols out of silver and gold and put little mouths on them, but they cannot speak. And yet here in their midst is the living Word of God who has become flesh, who does speak, who spoke and taught them, who spoke and cast out demons, who spoke to storms to be still and spoke words of comfort to those who had been condemned by the world and who had eyes and could see, could see, could see into the hearts of men and women, could see what was really happening, who could see Zacchaeus in a tree, who could see a little toddler in a crowd just singing about the idols who had feet but could not walk. Did they remember that the one who was with them had walked on water, who had hands but could not feel?
Did they remember when they first saw him touch a leper's open wounds with his hands? The true God was singing with them. Oh Israel, trust in the Lord, they sang. He's their help and their shield. Oh, house of Aaron, trust in the Lord.
He's their help and their shield. Oh, Aaron, they're just singing and singing and I like to imagine as they're singing, the Lord has remembered us. He'll bless us. He'll bless the house of Israel. He'll bless the house of Aaron.
He'll bless that maybe, just maybe Jesus became the cantor and began singing it solo at verse 14. May the Lord give you in grace, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. May the Lord give you in grace, you and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord. And the Messiah is singing, knowing that what he himself is going to do while he sings increase over these disciples is that he is going to decrease and decrease until he has to gasp for breath. He has to cry out to God, I feel forsaken. I'll just quote a Psalm. My God, my God, why have you forsaken? Who bleeds and decreases the volume of blood in his body, decreases in glory as they mock him. And as the Son of God decreases and decreases until he has only one breath left, he uses it to say, Father, forgive them because the Son of God decreased so that you could increase. The only human being, Jesus, who ever lived a righteous life and deserve nothing but lavish blessing instead chose the path of decrease on the cross so that he could with power and love and enduring might sing Psalm 115 over the disciples and over you. May the Lord give you increase.
He bought that for you. Everything good in you is designed by God to increase. That's the will of the Lord. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's good news message is titled Made for Increase.
It's in our series Increase. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio as he's sharing his parting good news thought for the day in 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 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. Pastor Alan is back with us right now in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day as we bring the conclusion of this teaching Made for Increase.
Pastor Alan. God has a long view when we have the short term view and he really is mindful of the long term gains. Maybe this is why he's so regularly referred to in covenantal language as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's a God who can see the end from the beginning and he sees how something that is small now can increase and increase and increase. And when you begin to think about just exponential growth and you think of growth in terms of something that then multiplies and multiplies, it really becomes staggering to think of it. But God just thinks of increase in exponential terms and so it's like a father had two sons he says you can get a dollar a day for two weeks or I'll give you a penny that doubles in value every day.
And one child selected one option the other. And for a while it looks like that the guy who's getting a dollar a day is really winning. But then by the time you get to day 10 it starts looking differently and then in the end the child who's taking the penny a day is going to make way more than someone getting a dollar. A penny that doubles every day and keeps doubling. It's just exponential growth is such a it's a mind boggling thing.
Well but you're part of this. You're made for that kind of increase. That's when he was talking to Adam and Eve and he's talking to us and he's not just talking about our physical human reproduction. He's talking about everything good in your life is made for increase.
