Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When you experience God, you get to taste and see that the Lord is good.
The taste of grace is such a sweet savor that then you become hungry, not because you're in a wilderness, but because you've just seen that it's the sweetest taste you could ever have, and you just want more of Him. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.
Merry Christmas. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, He Alone Is Worthy, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're 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. It can be yours 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, 877-544-4860. More on this later in today's program. But now let's get started with the teaching for today.
Here is Alan Wright. Can't have someone else eat your food for you, and you get the nourishment. Each of you eat of it. And in verse 16 he says, as much as he can eat, and also you shall take each an omer according to the number of persons that you have. So people are taking and eating different amounts of manna, some more, some less. The manna matches the need. God's grace is sufficient for you.
And you might need something different than someone else, but that's the way God works. Verses 17 and 18, the people of Israel did so, they gathered some more, some less. But when they measured with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.
Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. So no one had any lack as long as they counted on the food being there every day. And nonetheless, if they tried to, the one thing you couldn't do is hoard it. Because if you did, it rotted. Verse 19, Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it till the morning. They didn't listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank.
And Moses was angry with them. So wouldn't it be nice to be able to hoard God's grace and say, boy, that was just great. I've got that, and now I know that I've got provision from the Lord, and I trust Him today, but it's just wonderful. I won't have to trust Him tomorrow.
He just doesn't do that, does He? You can't hoard it. Grace is daily. Give us this day our daily bread. If it's what we need today, Lord, God loves a trust relationship. It's the orphan part of our hearts that has a hard time with this, right? I've always loved all the beautiful stories of adoption. My heart's just moved by all the people I know have adopted.
Some of you have. But I was talking to a dad one time, a little boy that they had adopted when he was about two. He'd been through a lot of troubled times in his life. And one of the things is like children that have been in orphanages, most of the time, they don't have their own toys. They share the toys.
And so it's real hard to get the concept that you could have something that's yours. And so this little boy, when he got adopted, he loved to have toy cars. He loved, they had these little toy cars he'd play with, and they kept disappearing. And until finally his dad found them, they were all tucked up under his mattress. This mattress is full under little cars, like he's afraid. Because if you've never had the experience of I'm provided for today, and I get up tomorrow, and I'm provided for, and I get up the next day, and I'm provided for, if you don't have that, your heart, your orphan heart, thinks I need to hoard.
Hold on to it now, because it might not be here tomorrow. And God didn't even give him this object lesson. It's like you try to pile up some manor in the corner of your tent, and it's got worms in it. Yeah. So every day. And sometimes God just will surprise you with a provision that you could have never imagined, like what is this and where did this come from? And you feed off of that experience in your life. I was thinking about a story that maybe I told some years ago, but what a beautiful, miraculous kind of provision story from our friends Ron and Sandra Block.
Ron Block's markedly one of the best folk guitarists in the world. He and his wife Sandra, they're just wonderful people of God. We love them. And Sandra told a story that their daughter Erica, all these pieces fit together, but she wanted some chickens. They lived out in a rural area. Mother said, no, we've already got too many animals. They had horses and a dog and all this. And some other kept saying, no, we're not going to raise chickens.
The little girl wanted chickens. Once around this time, they were given some hardwood flooring that had come from an old building. And so it was going to be cool. They're going to restore some things in their house and put down this new floor. And so they had to box up everything in order to put down a new floor. And you just get different boxes and bins and stuff. And so one big bin that they boxed up and it was in some corner of the house.
They never looked at it again. You know how that is. You've got boxes in your attic. You're like, once you load it in there, it's like, are we ever going to look at this thing again?
That's one of those things. Well, so that's why there was a bin that was tucked in the corner somewhere. Well, years later, their beloved dog died. And now Erica comes and goes, now the dog has died. Can we get chickens? Well, Sandra's heart was tender and she said, okay, we'll get some chickens.
So this is all leading somewhere, by the way, I'm telling you a Providence story. And they get these baby chicks. And so the chicks go into like a little shoebox at first, and then they start growing fast and they're going to need something else. Now to understand the power of this story, there are three things that start happening that are all going to be expenses that come along in their lives that weren't really budgeted for. Their son, Ethan, is getting ready to graduate from high school and they wanted to give Ethan a really big graduation party.
And so they had started planning on that, it was going to be expensive. And then to their surprise, Sandra's sister who lived in Canada called and said, we, our family with our five kids, we want to come visit you this summer and we want to stay for a couple of weeks. Well, Sandra was very excited about that because she loved her sister, but you know, if you're going to host somebody else and their five kids for a couple of weeks, now you've got some more expenses because there's going to be a lot of things that are going to be going on. And so they got the graduation party for Ethan and now Sandra's sister's coming and that's going to be an expense they hadn't expected. And then a third thing happened, a friend I'll call Bessie approached Sandra and said that she had a need, a financial need and Sandra didn't hesitate.
She said, yes, we'll help you. And so three things, Ethan's graduation, Sandra's sister and Bessie, and they all came the same time and unexpended financial expenses. Okay, back to the chickens who grow fast and they outgrow their shoebox. And so she's looking around for another place to put the chickens while they're growing and she sees this bin sitting in the corner, says that'd be perfect place for them.
Put the chickens in the bin. So she goes to empty out the bin and she'd empty out the bin that's been cluttered up with stuff for years and she starts going down memory lane. She empties the bin and at the bottom of the bin is a wooden box and on top of the wooden box is a picture of Ethan when he was a baby who's getting ready to graduate. And so she's sentimental about that. There's Ethan. She thinks about Ethan.
She thinks about the upcoming graduation party. She remembers the expense coming up of that also. And then under Ethan's picture is a piece of cardboard. I'm talking about in the middle of this big bin that hadn't been open for years. And then there's a wooden box and on top is Ethan's picture. And then there's a piece of cardboard. And in the cardboard are all these pins and they are pins for curling events that her sister had participated in because her sister was on the Canadian national curling team.
You know that thing we see once every now and then on the Olympics where they, I don't know, they're brushing the ice and the little disk or whatever. I still don't understand what they're doing, but she was very good at this and she had these pins. They were like metals and for some reason she'd given them to Sandra and they were all pinned into this piece of cardboard. And so first she saw this about Ethan and then, oh, there's her sister who's getting ready to come visit.
And y'all, you can't make this kind of stuff up. She pulls up the cardboard and underneath the cardboard is a picture, an old picture of their dear friend Bessie who had just come that week needing financial help. So there they were, Ethan and her sister and Bessie at the bottom of a bin that hadn't been opened for years. And then this wooden box and she pulled up the picture of Bessie and looked in the bottom of the little wooden box and there was $4,000 in cash.
You can't make this stuff up. She said she thought she maybe had a faint, faint memory of stuffing some cash down there. Maybe Ron had a gig sometime that paid him in cash and they thought, well, maybe we'll need some cash around sometime. And so they had a great graduation party.
They had a wonderful time for two weeks with her sister's family and they helped out Bessie and had just about the right amount of money left over. And God just wants to show you, I can provide and I will provide. You just don't necessarily know where it's coming from tomorrow until you get into tomorrow.
That's the story of Manna. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. In a world that often feels overwhelming, we all seek moments of encouragement and hope as a heartfelt thank you for becoming a monthly partner with Alan Wright Ministries. We're excited to send you our blessing box featuring 24 beautifully crafted cards filled with encouraging blessings from Pastor Alan. Each card offers daily inspiration and scripture on themes such as hope, strength, your identity in Christ, Thanksgiving, and much more.
These blessings are designed to uplift your spirit, providing encouragement whenever you need a boost. This unique resource can be yours with our thanks as we welcome new monthly partners to the support family of Alan Wright Ministries. 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. And he says this in Deuteronomy 8 three, the word says, he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna.
Don't miss this. He's saying that the wilderness experience was not happenstance. He was bringing them out of Egypt's slavery to take them into a promised land. But the pathway through the wilderness was deliberate because there in the wilderness, you'd have to have manna. He let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. And this is why he did it, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. He gave him a physical object lesson, a physical hunger to teach them that when you wake up tomorrow, there's going to be more manna. And the next day you get up and there's more manna and you get up the next day and there's more manna. He wanted them to discover grace and that God's grace is sufficient. So the manna wasn't just the provision, the manna was the promise.
Just get enough for today and there's going to be more tomorrow. And so they were feeding on a flaky white substance, but what they really were feeding on is the promise. This means the promise is even more precious than the provision. If you're hungry physically, what you want most is food and the hunger occupies your mind so that all you can think about is your next meal.
But it's not the next meal that you need the most. What you need the most is the assurance that there will be a meal when the time comes for the next meal and God was teaching his people that man does not live by his moment by moment provision. He lives by the promise that he'll be there. So God took the people out of slavery in an instant, hold up a staff part a red sea, dance on the other side, say goodbye to Egypt, but then he led them to a place where they were hungry and he wanted them to experience a massive shift from relying on the food of the slave masters who were using them to relying on the promise of food from the God who loves them. So when Jesus is ministering and there's a large crowd that gathered and they were hungry and they bring forth a boy who has these little loaves and fishes and they hand them out and the food just keeps going, it makes everybody start thinking about manna. And they were all crowding around Jesus all the time. So he goes over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and then a group of people finds out he has and they boat themselves over and find him, try to get to him.
And it's interesting, Jesus is sort of confrontational in John 6 26. Jesus said, truly I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you. For on him God has set his seal and saying, you worked really hard to come over here to see me, but he's saying something really prophetic to them is what you really should spend your effort on is not food that perishes, but he's talking about the food that is Jesus himself. And they said to him at verse 28, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Because the human soul just gravitates to moralism, what do we need to do in order to get?
They want a transaction. And Jesus says this, one of the most explicit places on the lips of Jesus where he says it, but it's absolutely at the heart of the gospel. Jesus answered them verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe in him.
You believe in him whom he sent. And there had risen a common belief in the first century that the Messiah would recreate the miracle of the manna. One of the Jewish rabbinical midrashes, these commentaries on scripture that came out sometime just after the first century said, as the first redeemer was, so shall the latter redeemer be as the first redeemer calls manna to descend as it is stated, behold, our cause will reign bread from heaven. So the latter redeemer shall cause manna to descend.
So there's this expectation. At John 6 31, they say our fathers ate manna in the wilderness as it's written. And at verse 32 and 33, Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So now Jesus has fully taken the story of manna and he said, it is all about me. It was pointing to me.
It was pointing to grace. And at verse 34, they said, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus just said to them, verse 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.
They began grumbling. They said, well, how could he say this? This is just Joseph's son. And so we come back in verse 47 and Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna and the wilderness and they died, but this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread. So Jesus is saying like manna in every way, except he's the perfect manna for the soul, for your life, for everything you need. There's a spiritual hunger that's inside of you. And that hunger is put there by God. It is a design of a human being that you physically hunger and that you spiritually hunger.
And if you're here and you don't yet know Jesus and you wonder what is the restlessness of your life, that's what it is. It is a hunger for God that is put inside of you. And that hunger and that sense of, I can't quite seem to be satisfied in this world.
I can't seem to get whatever it is that I really, really need. That is a gift from God and is actually a sign of health. That's when you cease to hunger. It's when you you've covered it all up. It's when you've become so, so satisfied by the lesser things of life.
That's where something's really gotten unhealthy. But it's in the it's in the hungering for God that you you seek out to God. I don't I don't understand all this mystery, beloved.
I just so want life to move along where I just don't have any problems and I don't have any wildernesses. But I just know that the times that we hunger the most for God are the times where somehow our souls are just aware of how much we need him. And then when you when you experience God, you get to taste and see that the Lord is good. The taste of grace is such a sweet savor that then you become hungry, not because you're in a wilderness, but because you just seen that is the sweetest taste you could ever have and you just want more of him.
Wow, worthy. Worthy is this Messiah who is the bread of heaven. He is the only one. He is the most wonderful God you could ever have. He's the bread of life. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, our good news message. Worthy is the bread of heaven.
And it's from the series. He alone is worthy. Hey, stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for this Christmas season and today in just a moment. In a world that often feels overwhelming, we all seek moments of encouragement and hope as a heartfelt thank you for becoming a monthly partner with Alan Wright Ministries. We're excited to send you our blessing box featuring 24 beautifully crafted cards filled with encouraging blessings from Pastor Alan. Each card offers daily inspiration and scripture on themes such as hope, strength, your identity in Christ, Thanksgiving, and much more.
These blessings are designed to uplift your spirit, providing encouragement whenever you need a boost. This unique resource can be yours with our thanks as we welcome new monthly partners to the support family of Alan Wright Ministries. 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. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day.
I know C.S. Lewis, plenty of thinkers and theologians, and even radio Bible teachers by the name of Alan Wright have talked about this, where you have an appetite, you have a thirst, and it's going to point to something. And that's what we're talking about here with the conclusion of this teaching, worthy is the bread of heaven. And maybe you're listening today and you're just hungering for something more in your life. Maybe you've yet to start a journey with Jesus. And here at Christmas, remember, this is Christ's mass.
This is, this entire celebration is because of the advent, the coming, the birth of Christ. And yet maybe that journey is yet to begin for you. And here's what I would point you to, a hunger in your soul, hunger in you for something more. Is there something in you that says there's got to be more than just getting others' approval or accumulating stuff?
There's got to be something more. That hunger for something more is proof that there is something more. And that hunger is what draws you to God. So I bless that hunger within you.
And when you come to Christ, you to find out He's all that you need, the bread of heaven is yours in Christ. 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.
