Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you today to grow in stature. After Christmas, after the manger, after the shepherds and the magi and Herod's danger, what happened? Jesus grew. Luke tells us that the Messiah grew in wisdom and stature and favor.
God Grew taller? Yes, well, Jesus was sinless and perfect and gaining height every day. You aren't, of course, made to grow physically taller forever. You'd outgrow every pair of pants and every bed and every ceiling. But you are made to grow in your standing.
You're made for increase in influence. And I bless your place, therefore, amongst your peers, your stature in your surroundings. May you flourish and grow in health and strength. All your days. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
If someone had perfect love, then nobody would have fear of coming to that person to learn from them, and instead they would throng about them no matter how many failures they've had in their life, because here is hope in front of my very eyes. And he loves me. That's God. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. 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 Filved as presented at Renolda 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 today. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.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. Let's turn to Galatians chapter 5 as we continue to learn about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Galatians is one of those epistles of Paul in which he has, like he did in Romans, he has explained the importance.
of realizing we are not under the law. He associates the law with the flesh or the sinful nature. He says that if we put ourselves under the law, then it's like putting ourselves back under the bonds of slavery. And we We have been learning about how In that sense, the law stands in contrast to the spirit. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
But today, in this text, as he turns his attention towards the fruit of the Holy Spirit, He's going to let us know. That While our freedom is accomplished by Jesus Christ, that what we do really matters. And A lot of Christians struggle with this because as soon as we talk about what you do really matters, we immediately think and interpret that as law and try to put ourselves back up under the law to try harder to be good Christians. And I want to show you a different way. From Galatians chapter 5.
Five, starting at verse one: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then. And do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
So, even in that verse, you see. He announces the freedom. And then as soon as he announced it, he also says, stand firm in it.
So here's what Jesus has done: He's made you free.
Now, you stand firm in this. Verse 13, you, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.
Now, your translation may say the flesh. The NIV uses that phrase, the sinful nature, because. The flesh can be misleading.
Some people think that's talking about our physical body, and that the Bible doesn't teach that physical things are bad and spiritual things are good, but the carnal nature or the part of us that is inclined towards. The things of the world and the things of sin, and not inclined towards the things of the Spirit. That's what he's talking about.
So He says, do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out, or you'll be destroyed by each other.
So, verse 16, I say, live by the Spirit, and you'll not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Holy Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
And I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Let me pause here in case I forget to say anything about that. I don't think that when you see the references to the kingdom of God, that you should limit your thinking. To one day we're saved, we go to heaven, and we're in the kingdom of God. Jesus' primary teaching was: repent, change your mind, the kingdom of God is at hand.
And so clearly, Paul is not saying that you're saved because you avoided doing all these bad, sinful things. Everything Paul teaches us is that we're saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus. by faith through grace and no other way.
So, he certainly can't be saying that if you just don't do all these bad things, then you'll be saved, and if you do these bad things, then you won't be saved. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying instead of I believe is that. If you Are you living your life like that, you're not going to be appropriating, inheriting, and receiving. The stuff of the kingdom of God.
He continues verse 22. is love. Joy Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
Since we live by the Spirit, here he is again. Since you've been filled by the Spirit, since you've been born again by the Spirit, since we live by the Spirit, then here comes the command: let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other. And then chapter 6, verse 7. Do not be deceived.
God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction. And the one who sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life. And what literally that could be translated is who sows into the Spirit.
Let us, verse 9, not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not. Give Yeah. Who? wouldn't want The fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace.
Patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Who wouldn't want that? When ministers come into a church, they have to be, in our denomination, they have to be approved by our presbytery.
So they're examined. About their knowledge of the Bible and theology, but they start out in front of. All these elders and ministers start out. Their examination by sharing their testimony of how they came to know the Lord and how it was that they were called into the ministry. And the greatest that I ever heard that I have never stopped laughing about, and this must have been a dozen years ago.
Is a dear brother in our presbytery, a minister named Howard Finkel. Howard is a delight. He loves the Lord, and he is articulate, and he is quite a bright theologian. He grew up in a Jewish home. And And he's one of those people who is very passionate and he enunciates everything very well.
And I think I do a pretty good Finkel imitation. Howard Finkel talks like this. And he talks deliberately and directly, and he's very articulate about whatever he's talking about.
Well, Howard Finkel gave his testimony in Florid Presbytery. And I thought this was the single greatest line of a testimony I ever heard, he said. I grew up in a Jewish home. My mother wanted me to be a doctor. My father wanted me to be a lawyer.
But I chose a different path. and chose to be a drug addict instead. Why is that so funny? It's funny it's funny because It's crazy. Nobody in his right mind would choose to be a drug addict.
Bolly. Nobody chooses the fruit of the flesh. Let no child When you're talking, what do you want to be when you grow up? No child says You know, I mean, they say an astronaut, a fireman, or a policeman, or, you know, and scores of them say a pastor. That's what I want to be.
But the. No child, you say, what do you want to be? They say, well, I hope to maybe be a drug addict and live most of my life in jail. Um That's Alan Wright. and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special teaching called Five Ways to Pray in the Spirit. In this practical and uplifting guide, Pastor Alan shows five simple and biblical ways anyone can pray in the Spirit. you will discover how praying scripture aligns your heart with God. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. Call us at 877-544-455-455-455- 4860.
That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Um Today's teaching now continues. Here once again. is Alan Wright.
I have uh A little practice when I sit down with engaged couples and we're starting to learn about communication. And I do a little exercise where you get to talk for 60 seconds. The other one listens intently, repeats back what they heard so you can learn about communication. I usually start with this. A little exercise.
For the next 60 seconds, groom, we'll start with you. Share what it is that you're so excited about, about getting married. You could share your dreams, how you envision marriage being, why you're delighted that you're going to be able to be married, how wonderful it'll be. Do you have 60 seconds to share? And it's always a delight to overhear that conversation.
But nobody has ever sat there in my office and said, Well, I envision for our marriage. Discord, jealousy, and maybe, if we're lucky, some fits of rage. Nobody chooses bad fruit, but what was funny about Finkel's comment is that, on the other hand, he absolutely did choose that path. Paul answers this. By saying God isn't mocked.
Whatever you sow, you reap. And everything operates in life according to sowing and reaping. He has said elsewhere that Everything reproduces after its own kind, so you will reap what you have sown, and to the measure you sow, you'll reap. And so it is in the things. of the spirit.
And what he's saying Is that The connection is between the seed that's sown and the fruit. And he turns our attention not to trying to manage the fruit. See, we try to manage the fruit. Which means I don't I'm doing bad things. I'm going to try harder to be a good Christian.
And it doesn't work. But the gospel The good news of the gospel is that while you cannot manage the fruit, you have been given by God an unlimited potential to sow into the Spirit. And the problem is that it's like a mustard seed. And a mustard seed is very small, and you can barely see it. And so Since you can't barely see it, you don't think it's powerful.
Because you don't connect the little mustard seed with the really big plant that will grow from it. But Paul keeps turning our attention back to how you sow. It's sort of like uh It's sort of like just the way we eat food and live our lives. Don't really think that it's going to be related to it. I mean, nobody chooses lung cancer, but a lot of people choose to smoke.
Nobody chooses coronary disease, but we choose potato chips and nacho cheese. And we don't choose. I know we can't talk about this in church, but we don't choose obesity, but we do choose the ice cream. See, I don't think about Okay. I don't think about the, you know, the ice cream, the bite is so good.
You know, it is good. And there's nothing wrong with eating ice cream. I mean, I recommend ice cream, but But But I I don't I don't think about it, it's like the seed, you know, it's just like, well, this is just a bite of ice cream. I don't think about. what that's going to add to you know, my life.
Let's go. In other words, we don't tend to think about the seed. And then here's the fruit. Or like, oh no, what I do about the fruit, let me manage the fruit.
Somehow, something's got to change. What we see. The connection. And understand Paul's saying. The flesh, the sinful nature, is not going to want to sow into the spirit.
The sinful nature is going to want to sow into the sinful nature. And what he's just saying is that that sowing will produce its fruit. It will. produce its fruit. And It must be that something changes.
Where instead of hearing law, When we hear about sowing into the Spirit, We hear grace. And that. That's what's changed for me. I have wonderful news that Shame Off You, a book I wrote some years ago, has helped a lot of people. The publisher, the parent company, Random House, is.
Re-releasing Shame Off You under a new title. They want it to have more general appeal, and so they kind of gave it a title that sounds more like a secular self-help book because they want, although the book hadn't changed at all, and it's about The cross of Christ, the grace that is sufficient, how shame is really only Is only healed in Christ. The book's the same. But they wanted to give it a broader title and cover and so forth and put it in an inexpensive book, and hopefully, it'll get out into more places. And so that's fantastic.
But we've been kind of having a conversation about the title that they've won because the publisher gets the right to the title. And I just wasn't sure that they should change the title to what they changed it to. It's called Free Yourself, Be Yourself. finding the power to overcome your past. And so Obviously, if you just look at it, it's kind of a more secular-sounding thing, and it's kind of a self-help.
And I said, Well, you know, the problem with that is, I mean, we don't free ourselves, right? I mean, I've had this conversation with the public. I said, Jesus sets us free, and we need to come to Jesus to be set free. And I mean, what am I supposed to do? Pray with people, and they come up to me and ask for prayer, and I say, I don't come to me, free yourself.
But I. I asked, I asked at one point, I asked the editor about this conversation in one of our conversations, and I said, Well, I mean, how he said, but this, this, I said, how does this give hope to people? You know, he said, I mean, I said, why even the self-help titles? Why are people even drawn to it? He said, it's this.
He said, because to say free yourself. Is to say you're not stuck, you can do something. And that is a message of hope. In other words, there is a part of the announcement of the gospel. That is to say Jesus has accomplished all of this for you.
Your sin has been paid for. That the jail cell has been opened. Step out. And the announcement that you can step out. is part of the good news.
Now, if you see it as a law, That you'll fail at and put you under more condemnation, it's not good news. But if you understand the announcement, sow into the spirit. If you understand it as good news, then it becomes. An exciting Prospect to live your life in that way.
So, when I hear Paul say, God's not mocked, you reap what you sow, I no longer hear bad news in that, like, oh, yeah, well, see, that just shows I'm doomed. I've made so many mistakes.
So, there you go. And we just try to manage the appearance and manage the fruit. Instead, I hear it. Wow. I Can sow in the Spirit and reap more from the Spirit.
There's more love, there's more joy, there's more peace, there's more patience to have than what I have now as I sow into the Spirit. In other words, you have unlimited Incorruptible seed that you can sow. Anytime you want to. And it will reproduce after its own kind. That's good news.
And so God has always operated this way with his people. He is sovereign, and he has all power, and he has all. All of the plans are his. But in Here's Sovereignty, he commands us to To be obedient and to follow him and to participate with him. And in that command is the promise.
Change your way of thinking. Don't hear a command as an opportunity for you to fail and come under condemnation. See the command of God. As the promise of God that empowers you to succeed at what He's called you to do.
So God called Moses out of a burning bush. He says, I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. For you will deliver my people out of their bondage. God is going to be the one who delivers them. God's the one who brings the plagues.
God's the one who gives the instructions about the lamb. God is the one who opens up the Red Sea. God is the one who does all of that. But Moses is the one who's Giving the instruction, the word of God, holding up the staff as the red sea parts, participating with that which is God. God's work.
So if God says, Yeah. Go. Announce to Pharaoh that my people are going to be set free. Go and lead the people out of. Then it must be God's got a plan by which He's going to enable you to do that.
So the promise is in the command. He tells Joshua: Joshua comes up to the edge of the promised land. And he says, Joshua? I'm going to give you every place you step your foot in. He describes the exact boundaries of the promised land.
He said, It's yours. It's free. It's yours. I've given it to you. It is yours, it is your inheritance.
Now, Go step your foot into the promised land and take it. They come to the Jericho walls. And he says, I'm going to give this city into your hands. And here's what you do: you walk around it. It doesn't seem like that has any important part in it because God's the one bringing down the walls.
And all they do is march around it. The only difference really between Joshua And the people who followed Joshua and their Predecessors 40 years earlier who died in the wilderness was not a change in the promise. The difference was. Joshua went into the land and took it. Alan Wright.
Today's teaching in the series called Filled: Why Wouldn't Everyone Want the Fruit of the Spirit? Stay with us. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word. This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is a special teaching called Five Ways to Pray in the Spirit. In this practical and uplifting guide, Pastor Alan shows five simple and biblical ways anyone can pray in the Spirit.
you will discover how praying scripture aligns your heart with God. 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 877-544-455. 4860.
That's 877. five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Alan, if I'm honest, I feel like as far as the controversial issues go in in this series, we've had a few, but this one seems to be one that I've not encountered too many people that shy away from this other than maybe praying for patients, you know, things like that. In your ministry, how have you seen people misunderstand the fruit of the Spirit?
Well, I don't think so much misunderstanding the fruit in the sense of, well, oh, somebody would say, oh, I don't want love, joy, and peace in my life. Nobody really says that. I think what. I see and this uh much of the subject of this message is Well, Paul says, don't be deceived. You reap as you sow.
If you sow into the flesh, you sow into the sin nature. From that, you'll reap. Um, and if you sow into the spirit, you reap. I think what the bigger issue for us is that we all want love, joy, and peace. But it's interesting that sometimes we'll sow to the things of the flesh instead.
You sow orange seeds, you're gonna get oranges, and you'll never get apples from orange seeds. And that's kind of what Paul is saying.
So it's not a, but it's a really good news message in this sense, Daniel, that. If you sow into the Spirit, you reap from the Spirit.
So we have, we don't live under law. But we do live by the principles of sowing and reaping, and it gives us opportunity to build our lives. around the habits of Sowing into the things of the gospel.
Sow in your heart and your thought, Laya, in the things of the Spirit, and you'll reap from that more and more fruit. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
