Hardening of the Oughteries [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Even in the best and most Spirit-infused places, you can experience the ought-tos. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see yourself in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Free Yourself, Be Yourself. 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 could 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 or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. For a period of time during seminary, I had the great, great privilege of working at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. And this was a pretty high church with the liturgy. And, oh, the pastor I worked with, what a wonderful, Spirit-filled man of God.

And some of the most beautiful people of God I've ever met at that church. But my first time preaching in that church as a very young man, as a seminarian, and I had focused so much on the message, and I delivered the message, and I felt like the message was great. I just hadn't stopped to think at all about what was supposed to come next in the service. It's like I'd finished my message and I just didn't know what to say. And so my wife still laughs at me about this. My first time of preaching in that grand pulpit, and I got to the end, and I said, Amen. And I looked down, I was groping around to find the bulletin, and realized we were supposed to sing a song. And so I stumbled out the words, Let's all gather together and sing hymn number such and such. My wife later said, Gather together? What do you want us to do, clump her in a little closer than we were or something?

It's just that I just didn't know what to say next. And that was part of what it was like, you know, I want to make sure we do this right. One time at First Presbyterian Church, this is the way the service would start with 11 chimes at the 11 o'clock service. The organist would chime, dum, dum, dum at 11 chimes. And then we were trained at the ninth chime, all the pastors, we'd all stand up at the ninth chime, and that would cue everybody else to stand up. And then we'd start singing the doxologies.

And that's how the service would start with the doxology. Well, one time the pastor was gone. And so we were less disciplined. And so the other pastors and all out in the hallway, and we're kind of trying to get our act together and get ready to go in. And all of a sudden somebody said, Wait a minute, he's in there chiming the hour.

The organist was seated where he couldn't tell whether the pastor was in there or not. And so he had been chiming the hour. And we were just running in and the hour had already been chimed.

The people just went ahead and stood up and started singing the doxology without us. So that worked out just fine. So I just realized that for some people that have been in the really formal church that sometimes somebody needs to say, You know, it's not about doing it right. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes spirituality is not eloquent.

And it's okay. Because the Lord looks on the heart. I was also in a kind of conservative Bible church growing up. It was so priceless to me that when we all really came to a personal relationship with Christ, that somebody invited us to this fantastic evangelical church with a great evangelical preacher.

And that shaped my life as much as anything has ever shaped my life. I also got involved in parachurch ministries that really emphasize quiet times with God, devotional life, spiritual disciplines, witnessing and really help cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus. I was very thankful for that. And I was very thankful also in college to be involved in a parachurch ministry and a Bible church that, again, emphasized the importance of God's word, emphasized the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus, emphasized the importance of having quiet devotional times of prayer and Bible study and emphasized evangelism. And so I was very thankful for the churches and those ministries that I was involved in and met some of the most wonderful people. And everybody said that it was important that you spend time with God, which is absolutely important that you spend time with God.

But this is just, again, through the shame filter. Here's what I began to hear was, whereas in the formal church, I felt like I got to do it right, in the more kind of conservative Bible church, I started getting the idea that the whole thing is about making sure that I never miss a quiet time. We had accountability with one another. We'd say to each other in our Bible study, we'd say, listen, have you been having your quiet times with the Lord every morning? And in the first place, I wasn't really a morning person, you know, and it always seemed like it was more holy to spend time with the Lord early in the morning. And, you know, like the real saints are up at like four a.m. And I started thinking, you know, doggone it, said, I'm up so late, I could actually count this as being for tomorrow.

I'd be more spiritual than the really holy people. But anyway, we'd remind each other, we'd say, have you been having your quiet times? I remember one time in a Bible study and one of the real, you know, we thought spiritually mature said, I got to confess, I hadn't had a quiet time in a month.

And we were like, you know, like you just announced that, you know, he had robbed a bank or something. And I started getting this idea that, you know, if I had my quiet time in the morning, then that day would go well. But if I didn't have my quiet time, then God probably was going to be like this.

I might get hit by a bus. And of course, how silly all that is. And what I've come to understand now, of course, is that, yes, all the spiritual disciplines are really important. And that reading my Bible, I love the Bible and I love prayer, but it's all about cultivating and being with Jesus. And every time I open the word of God, it's about being filled with the gospel, about being filled with good news.

So it's not something that I do as a nearly as much as a duty as I do as a love and something that's just very, very natural. Because if you take this through a shame filter, it can start becoming like the people that read their Bible a lot and pray a lot and witness a lot and evangelize a lot, that these are the really, that's what it's all about. And you can end up substituting a real relationship with Jesus for all the things that Christians are supposed to do. So if you ever have been in a moralistic or legalistic or behavior-oriented church, then I need to just say to you, you are accepted not because of your behaviors, but you're accepted because of the behavior of Jesus Christ. And what you have received by faith through grace is a free and utter gift from God. And it's not earned even by reading your Bible a lot or by witnessing to others as important as all of that is. I had a sense of revelation about this one I heard somebody teach some years ago about the way in which Jesus discipled people. Because we tend to say to people in the more moralistic settings of Christianity, we tend to say, if you will behave all the right ways, believe all the right things, then you could really belong.

You know, get your beliefs down, get your behaviors down, and then you can really belong. But if you go back and you look at Jesus's ministry, that's not really the way he did it. He just called to himself a tax collector, some bumbling fisherman. He called to himself some impetuous disciples.

He even called one who would ultimately betray him. But what he said was, come and be with me, belong with me, be with me, and then over time, your beliefs will change. And as your beliefs change, your behaviors will change. With Jesus, it was belong, then believe, then behave. That's instructive to us, I think, in the body of Christ. I've also been in the liberal mainline church. It turned out that I went into a denominational church as my first job doing youth ministry, and I decided to stay in that denomination for that period of time, and so I went to the denominational seminary. And while I was at that denominational seminary, I met some of those wonderful people in the world.

I had some professors who were spectacular. And I loved the people, even the ones that were far more liberal in their orientation, and by liberal, I mean much more liberal in their understanding of the Scriptures, less likely to believe the Scriptures to be literal or to be the Word of God, less likely also to believe in the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus, and were much more prone to just say, let's be accepting of all people, all lifestyles, and all behaviors. And so I was a little bit of a fish out of water there as an evangelical in the liberal environment. And I want to say that many things that are beautiful about that environment, and that is that people want to be accepting and open-minded, and that is a good thing. It is a good thing to be accepting of others. It's a good thing to not become so narrow and so exclusive in our thinking that we start bringing against other people a shame that accompanies an intolerance. But what I found in this environment was that they wanted to be accepting of others, except sometimes me. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back, as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them, but how? What's missing might be the timeless power of blessing. We all need a positive, faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. Without it, we'll never rise to our God-given potential.

With it, we can let go of the past and move forward confidently under the favor of God. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing in your life, and if you'd like to learn how to speak life and empower the people you love, contact us today to get Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless. We have a very special offer this month. When you make your gift of $40 or more to Alan Wright Ministries, we'll send you two copies of the beautiful hardcover book, one for you and one for you to share as a gift. As an added expression of our gratitude for your generous gift, we'll also include a DVD with two important video teachings with additional content on blessing from Pastor Alan. Your gifts, and only your gifts, make this ministry possible. So please partner with us to help us reach thousands of people every day with the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. And when you do, you'll become empowered to change the world God's way by the power of blessing.

As the year draws to a close, your gifts matter more than ever. In this final month of the year, your partnership is pivotal for this ministry. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

We are in our final days of offering this special product. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I was different. You know, everyone was like that. I was like, you know, I remember one time I was taking a doctorate level course in marriage family therapy and counseling. And one of the assignments was to take a biblical image that describes marriage. And so I chose the image of covenant. And I wrote some about the biblical notion of covenant. And then I wrote about marriage as a covenant. And as part of that, I said, therefore, I remain married to my wife, not primarily because the ups and downs of my emotions, but I remain married to her because we are in a covenant relationship that we have made vows to one another and we have covenanted our love. So love is not a feeling.

Love is a decision. I was saying things like that, the image of covenant. Well, I got done presenting my paper and there was a woman in the class who had previously shared about three different marriages that had gone bad for her, three different marriages from which she experienced divorce. And she'd shared some about the pain about that.

And we had compassion for that. But when I got to that point, I was stunned because she got this and she said, well, it sounds like to me that you're just not willing to admit that your marriage is failing. And I was like, really? I'm like, now I got to be ashamed that my marriage is working.

You know, I mean, it's like, it's just like, what are we what are we saying here? I remember having this distinct feeling also. And I'll just hear me right about this, that it's not because I was rich. It's not because I, but I do, I have, as a white American male, I've had so many advantages. And I realize that, right?

And I'm aware of that. But there were sometimes the environment where I felt like that what was being said was, you ought to feel ashamed of yourself because you have too much. You ought to feel ashamed of yourself because you have too many advantages. You ought to feel ashamed of yourself because you're too blessed. Life's been too easy for you. I remember feeling ashamed like, you know, whatever you do, don't let anybody know that, you know, you got a good marriage.

I mean, what, what are we talking about? And so all of the many, many different friends that I've had in that liberal, that can become its own form of shame, can it? And then, amongst my friends, all the different fellowships in the charismatic church. I don't really like the word charismatic because I don't think there is such a thing as a non-charismatic Christian because charismatic comes from the word charis, which is grace. And it comes from the word grace that we get the word gifts of the spirit, the charismata. So that's where we get the word charismatic. And so it's really a word that doesn't have much meaning.

It carries a lot of baggage with it now. But I'm a Christian. I just want all of God. And if God has gifts for us, I want those gifts, you know, and, and I began to experience some of this. And I remember the first time that I went to a charismatic meeting. I was in college and my Bible study that was more of the evangelical Bible church model of things, we all decided we were going to go, because there was a healing evangelist that was on campus and we were all go experience this. And the healing evangelist talked to me and people were worshiping in ways I'd never seen them worshiping.

And they were, there was some dancing and some carrying on and, and all our Bible studies sitting on this little row together like this, you know, like deer and headlight. But he got to this closing prayer and, and he said, every head bowed and, you know, and he asked, gave an invitation for salvation. And then he said, and how many people would really like to be filled with the spirit?

I didn't even really know exactly what that meant, but I just thought, you know, yeah, I do. And so I, every head bowed, every eye closed and I put my hand up like this. And then all of a sudden the evangelist called and said, there, a whole row of them right there together. Everybody in my Bible study had raised their head. They want to be filled with the spirit.

Didn't know what it meant. So they said, come down here. We were the only ones in the whole room, evidently that weren't filled with the spirit. And so we went running down there and all of a sudden people started gathering me. About five people got around me. They started pushing on my stomach and telling me that out of me would flow rivers of living water. And I was like, brother, if you don't stop pushing on my stomach, something else is going to flow out of me in a minute.

And, and I was like, oh, this, I just got to get out of this, you know, meeting. And it was so funny. My wife, who later became my wife and was actually in that Bible study, we all went out of the building after with like, oh, that was terrible. Wasn't. And she was just real quiet.

We said, did something happen to you? And she actually had a wonderful encounter with God in those, in those meetings. But it's that kind of experience that makes you start feeling like that I'm ashamed that I don't have whatever gift or manifestation you have. See, this is the thing that all my friends in charismatic churches are so, you know, when you experience something of God, you want other people to experience it. And so you want them to have it.

And so you want to try to help them to have it. And, and this is one of the things that happens with charismatic. I had a missionary friend and he, he was, he was in a missionary in Brazil and he one time, this actually, he's very sane person.

He's very, he would never lie about this. There was a move of God that was taking place amongst this people. And when the presence of the Lord would come in strong in their meetings, there would be a literal glow that would come over like a radiance on some people. Must have been something like what was happening with Moses back in the Old Testament. I don't know.

I've never seen this. I don't know what to say, but he said it was like there was a glow that would happen. And so they were all marveling at this. And, and our missionary friend, you know, they were amongst, amongst that for a while and he saw it with his eyes. Years later, he went back and the church had split and you could guess it, the glows and the no glows. So that's what my wife and I, we always joke about whenever you start seeing the thing and people are like, no, your problem is you hadn't had this manifestation.

And we go, the glows and the no glows. The fact of the matter is that in the kind of liberal mainline church, I felt sort of ashamed that I had too much. But some fellowships, you can feel like you don't have enough. You don't have enough manifestations of blessings and prosperity in your life or you don't have enough spiritual gifts or you don't have a particular spiritual gift or you don't, you don't, you don't raise your hands enough or you don't sing or you don't shout enough or you don't, whatever enough, you can start getting that, that sense. So even in the best and most Spirit-infused places, you can experience the ought-tos.

It can be in any environment, can it? I ought to be more accepting. I ought to be less tolerant. I ought to be reading my Bible more. I ought to be evangelizing more.

I ought to give more. I ought to serve more. I ought to pray more. I ought to get up earlier and be with God. I ought to have more gifts. I ought to have more manifestations of the Spirit.

I ought to, I ought to, it's enough to give you the hardening of the arteries. The gospel is much sweeter and freer and more beautiful than all of that because Jesus came, the Bible said, full of grace and truth. He wasn't 100% grace, 50% grace, 50% truth. He was 100% gracious, 100% truthful, and there was something about Jesus that the sinners loved. They wanted to be around him. They flocked to be around him.

Why? Because he was the very expression of the love of God and the power of God and he never hesitated to speak the truth but what he would never do is shame people and so the very ones that were afraid of the religious leaders of that day, they all came to Jesus. And I think this is just an invitation for the body of Christ to be the body of Jesus Christ, full of grace and full of truth. Instead of loading up people with the hardening of the arteries, let us announce the gospel which is a celebration of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

And I think if we're that sort of body, the world would come running as the gospel. Alan Wright, you're listening to today's good news message, hardening of the arteries. It is from the series for yourself, be yourself and I trust we can all find healing in this today. Our good news closing parting thought with Pastor Alan is coming up. I encourage you to stay with us. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them but how? What's missing might be the timeless power of blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. Without it, we'll never rise to our God-given potential.

With it, we can let go of the past and move forward confidently under the favor of God. If you'd like to replace every curse with blessing in your life and if you'd like to learn how to speak life and empower the people you love, contact us today to get Pastor Alan Wright's new book, The Power to Bless. We have a very special offer this month. When you make your gift of $40 or more to Alan Wright Ministries, we'll send you two copies of the beautiful hardcover book, one for you and one for you to share as a gift. As an added expression of our gratitude for your generous gift, we'll also include a DVD with two important video teachings with additional content on blessing from Pastor Alan. Your gifts and only your gifts make this ministry possible. So please partner with us to help us reach thousands of people every day with the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ. And when you do, you'll become empowered to change the world God's way by the power of blessing.

As the year draws to a close, your gifts matter more than ever. In this final month of the year, your partnership is pivotal for this ministry. Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.

Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. Back now with Pastor Alan in the studio in our closing good news thought for the day.

Alan, somebody is listening right now and they just need a little something to hold on to for the next couple of days. And all of the different churches I'm talking about that I've been part of and anything that's good can get infected with shame. And so we're not advocating for one particular tradition over another. We're just saying that what we need is a gospel that's pure. Not 1% law, but 100% grace.

And I want to just say take this with you. Grace alone by faith alone is all that you need. It's never Jesus plus your own performance. It's all in Jesus. And that's the liberating force of hope.

And that is the gospel. We have in the past, Daniel, aired messages on the radio that were from the original series that I preached originally called Shame Off You. But much more recently, we put this into a conference format and just a setting that I love where we have maybe 30 people that are learning and growing through all these messages about healing from shame. And we just thought this would be a fantastic teaching to air on the radio and share with all of our listeners as if you were in the room with us, the group of 30 or so people.

What I would say is the most liberating truths I've ever discovered. 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.