Pastor Alan is on the road and you're invited. Check out pastorallen.org for more information. But if you live in the Carolinas, you're invited to a men's event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on February 27th. And if you're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, join us at the Epic Conference open to all in late February. Plus, catch Pastor Alan preaching at Sojourn Church in Carrollton, Texas on March 1st.
All the details at pastorallen.org. Um Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing, a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. If your spiritual progress feels slow and your victories seem small, good. God gives His people their promised lands. Little by little.
That's exactly what he assured his people through Moses. I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all your enemies, but I will not drive them out from before you in one year. Little by little I will drive them out from before you. Exodus 23. 27 to 30.
God has a promised land in front of you. A unique destiny in this world. and he's likely to give it to you. Little by little. So I bless your soul to delight in today's little bit of progress.
I bless you to find joy in one more small step into some new spiritual territory. You'll get it all eventually. You'll conquer it all. But it'll be little. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
What it is to grow in the Christian life really is like an orphan coming to believe him or herself an heir. 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, Abide, taken from John 14 through 17, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina.
If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire broadcast today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, which 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. At any point, contact us at pastoralen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here. is Alan Wright. Long process and then finally it comes to just a couple months before Jay and Jane will bring Schiff and Zenny home to America.
And so Jay and his son, Cole, go over to visit and make preparations and then they would be coming back in just a few months. The kids didn't speak any English, except Schiff knew two words. Puppy was what he called J, and he knew the word America. And that was all I knew. And Jay, of course, and his son, they didn't speak any Amharic.
They didn't know the language.
So they had an interpreter help them some. as they were trying to explain, we're going to be gone for a while and then we'll come back. But what they did, I thought wisely, they brought a photo album. and left it with the kids. And, you know, a photo album, it had a picture of the house, the dog, the big brothers, you know, just all the stuff.
They leave and they left a photo album and said, you know, this is where you're going to be living. This is your new home. And we're going to be gone. And then in a couple of months, hard for kids to understand time, right? They don't understand time.
We'll be back. You know, a day can feel like an eternity to a kid. We're going to come back and we're going to take you to be with us where we are, and you'll be part of our family. And so they flew away. But there's this in-between time.
Where they don't get to see Poppy and I can't remember what they call Jane. But they had a book. I think about that and how If you walk along with Christ, I promise you, there are going to be days where you're wondering, where is the Father now? Maybe it's when you're experiencing grief upon grief, or maybe it's just the searing pain of life, or maybe it's in a crushing disappointment where you just don't understand what God's up to. And there's just part of you that's like, where are you?
And you will have days. Where you just, I don't feel his presence right now. I'm so glad he gave me this book. I'm so glad he gave me his promises. I'm so glad he gave me a thousand pictures of his grace on these pages that keep reminding me of the promise that he'll never leave me nor forsake me and that I can be secure in him.
The gospel is recorded in the word of God opens up the heart and quickens the faith and builds us up on the inside. This is why we spend time in the word of God daily is because we're living and saturating ourselves in the good news of the promises of God that awakens our faith even in the midst of the times where we can't feel them.
So, this two months go by, and they finally make the long trip over here. You know, I wish I had time to tell you about all the little stories, but you know, that's just a delight to watch the world through these little kids' eyes. I mean, they spent the night in a hotel before they flew back home. Of course, they'd never been to a hotel. The kids had never even seen a green grass before, much less a swimming pool or an elevator or any of those things.
And just watching it through the wide-eyed wonder of that. And, you know, they finally got here to Winston-Salem, and it was so cute when they pulled up in front of the house, this lovely house, the JJ house. And just remember, you know, Schiff's been looking at all the pictures of the photo album. And he just stepped out of the car and he looked up and he looked at the house and he said, America! It would take them a while before they realized America is not just a house.
It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. And I think, in some ways, it's like that for us. children of God. You start out And you only hardly know what's happened to you.
You just got adopted. Holy Spirit just came into your heart and waked you up to the love of God, and something inside of you said yes to His saving mercy. Yes, you believed in Jesus. Yes, and then you're adopted into this family, and you come in, you don't know anything except Papi, Abba, Father, and kingdom of God. What is this?
And then you begin to. To just grow. And what it is to grow in the Christian life really is like. an orphan coming to believe him or herself an heir.
So much of the story of the Bible could be summed up that way. Will these once-orphans ever believe that they really are heirs and co-heirs with God? And this process or this rhythm, I don't know what to call it, is. what is pointed to throughout all the Bible and is the most important thing you could understand about what basically Christian growth looks like or how it happens. It's all outlined here that, and I'm going to show you, that it starts with receiving and being in love with God, so being loved.
and then living that out. Like you begin to really believe I'm so loved. And you start living like that. That's where that security starts showing itself in both joy. Courage.
as well as just in obedience. Not because I need to obey so that I'll be loved, but I'm just so loved that. I don't feel as much of a need to push somebody right now. I don't have to trample somebody and wedge myself in next to pudding because I've got some love already. And then you have it to give.
This really is, call it sanctification, Christian growth, whatever you call it, be loved, live loved, and give love. And that's really what's being described here. This inward powerful, loving Nature of God moves forth, proceeds from the Father through the Son. in the Holy Spirit with adopting purposes. This is why I love Ephesians 1, 3 through 6.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So he's a father. And he has blessed us in Christ. It's not in our merits, it's all in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him, that's adoption language before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and blameless.
That we would be so filled with His love that we would become transformed by it. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. This isn't like some Weird predestination notion where it's all fatalism, and you know, you just sit around and wait for God to do. No, this is just language of adoption that is saying, This is what's happened to you. This is the nature of the heart of God.
The Holy Spirit. is a spirit of adoption. And all of this is to the praise of His glorious grace.
So His grace is glorious because His grace gets all the credit. Schiff and Zenny don't get credit. They didn't merit their adoption. They someone in the distance loved them before they ever even knew them. This is the nature of the Christian life.
This is love. Not that we first loved God, but he first loved us. This is what changes you.
So, God is by nature a father who seeks to adopt. That's what He is. He's not A father in a sense of like, it's a metaphor. I mean, we use lots of metaphors and a lot of biblical metaphors. He's the rock, he's the cornerstone, he's the good shepherd.
But Father's not a metaphor where we looked and said, Oh, they're earthly fathers and maybe God's like that. No, the Bible says all earthly fathers got their name from God. God is Father. J.I. Packer says Father is the New Testament name for God.
Because it's his very nature, as we saw last time, God exists in three persons. He's one God, but three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because he is in and of himself relational. Love is relational. And God, within his own Godhead, with his own mysterious triune nature, is love.
He's a father. And he's a father who longs to adopt. Why? Because he wants to give joy and he wants to help. That's Alan Wright.
And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Are you ready for some good news? In a world filled with confusion and false advertising, Jesus knew exactly who he was and exactly what his work would accomplish. He did not leave us guessing. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
What if the Christian life is not about striving harder? but about abiding. Living with God, not just under Him or for Him, but in Him. Living as secure, spirit-filled children of God, not as spiritual orphans. Living with the Holy Spirit as our live-in teacher, helper, reminder, and guide, so we do not have to rely only on our own voice.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14-17, a powerful digital audio series that explores Jesus' most intimate words to his disciples. Through teaching from these chapters in John, you will discover the freedom and confidence that come from living in Christ's finished work. As our thanks when you give today, you will receive digital access to Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17. 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 877-544-455. 4860. That's 877-544-4860.
Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. I was talking to a grandfather last week who looked really happy. I said, What are you doing?
He said, I'm getting ready to go and teach my grandson to fly fish. And it's the expert fly fisherman. And it's just like, that's what any healthy father, this is what you feel. I'd like to teach you something. It would be my joy to impart something that would help you.
God is this but perfectly. This is who God is.
So he is a father who is looking to adopt. And when Jesus says, I'll not leave you as orphans, of course, he's not talking about in a literal sense, James and Peter and John were not literal orphans, but he's saying, spiritually, this is the condition of humanity when people don't have yet God as their Father. If you're new to Christianity or new to hearing about the gospel, you'll hear the phrase children of God thrown around, like everybody's a child of God. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that everyone is made in the image of God.
And everyone is precious in God's eyes. Everyone is infinitely valuable. But not everybody's a child of God. Instead, there's a huge separation. because of sin between us and God.
And so the condition of humanity is that we're orphans. We don't yet have God as Father. We have Him as Creator. and a lover from the distance. But It's when you accept Christ.
And you accept that He purchased salvation for you.
So that you could be a child of God. This is what John says in his prologue in chapter 1. He says that Jesus came so that anyone who did believe in his name would have the right to become A child of God. Not an orphan any longer.
So when he says, I'll not leave you as orphans, he's saying that that's your condition if you don't have God as your father. And I'm not going to leave you that way.
So You could be, note this well, a disciple of Jesus for three full years, witness all of his miracles, hear all of his teachings, and yet be an orphan. Because what changes you from orphan to child Is a love relationship and a secure attachment with God that comes only through the shed blood of Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
So his invitation, if you don't know him, is Can I adopt you? And you say yes. This is what understanding the gospel. brings about in your life. And if you are a child of God, What this means...
is that the whole of the Christian life. is a process of ever attuning your heart. to God's presence. that we not be ignorant of his manifold blessings. For if we have, even as Christians, no real interest in being close to his heart.
then we can live like an orphan though we're an heir. And one way of understanding Christian growth is the process wherein people who were once spiritual orphans, not having God as Father, but now having been adopted and proclaimed as an heir, discover daily who they are as a beloved child of God. In other words, one way of understanding Christian maturity is that We live loved. We don't live as though we have no father. We don't live as though we have a father who is limited or gone from the scene.
We live like I'm a child. of a father who has everything. and has unlimited love for me. That's where life becomes a dance. and you quit pushing people.
Now, look back at the first part of our passage, verse 15. If you love me, You'll keep my commandments. I'll ask the father. He'll give you another helper. God wants to help.
To be with you forever, even the spirit of truth. God wants to teach. Whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him. For he dwells with you and will be in you. When the Holy Spirit comes.
You'll know it is I. The New Testament calls the Holy Spirit virusly the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And Jesus called him the helper, the parakletos, the one who comes alongside to help you and advocate for you. I'll be coming to you spiritually. And you'll know.
That it's I, when you receive the Holy Spirit. And you'll know. More than you ever have known. The more that you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the more you'll know you're my child. you'll know you belong.
Paul Who By the unction of the Holy Spirit, understood this maybe better than anybody other than Jesus that ever lived, said in Romans 8:15, You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. but you receive the spirit of adoption. as sons. by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Abba is the Aramaic, it's a Middle Eastern way of saying dada.
It's why I recommended my grandfather's name to be. Grand Abba, and it became Daba for short because it's easy to say. That's why we bad da or aba, or it's like ma ma dad da aba. And Paul's saying, we call God Abba. Da da.
This is how intimate the holy creator of the cosmos. Wants to be with his children. Wow. You've not received a spirit of slavery that leads you back into fear, but a spirit of adoption. Realizing that you're not an orphan because you're filled with the Holy Spirit is the antidote to fear.
Nobody becomes unafraid because we say you ought not be afraid. They become unafraid when they know that they're secure. This is what happens when you grow into the love of God. And he says in verse 15: if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Now, see the rhythm? See the order? Love, then commandment. Be loved, receive love, fall in love with God, and then you'll live rightly. All godly living, which God wants, All holy and right and pure and courageous living, which God wants, flows out of a love relationship with God.
Yeah. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message titled Orphans No More from the series Abide. Stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here in just a moment with a parting good news thought for the day. Stick with us.
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 to click away at pastoralen.org. Are you ready for some good news?
In a world filled with confusion and false advertising, Jesus knew exactly who He was and exactly what His work would accomplish. He did not leave us guessing. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What if the Christian life is not about striving harder? but about abiding.
Living with God, not just under Him or for Him. But in him. Living as secure, spirit-filled children of God, not as spiritual orphans. Living with the Holy Spirit as our live-in teacher, helper, reminder, and guide, so we do not have to rely only on our own voice. This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14-17, a powerful digital audio series that explores Jesus' most intimate words to his disciples.
Through teaching from these chapters in John, you will discover the freedom and confidence that come from living in Christ's finished work. As our thanks when you give today, you will receive digital access to Abide, Experiencing Jesus in John 14 through 17. 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 877-544-455. 4860. That's 877-544-4860. or come to our website, pastorallen.org.
Back here now with Pastor Alan, placing the bookmark here, the teaching orphans no more. Do you think in these parting words of Jesus that because he's going away, there could have been somewhat of a risk that the disciples might feel like orphans? Yeah, I think that you can. Imagine, especially in their grief and sorrow and confusion after the crucifixion, despite everything Jesus had taught them. They're just alarms going off inside of their souls that has them hiding for fear.
Even after Jesus has been raised from the dead, and He has to come and reassure them that they have not been abandoned, that they're loved. Mm-hmm. But when we are not certain of the love of God, and when we feel that I'm going through something, and where is God right now? There's still something in our heart. It's part of the sin nature that still lingers that we wonder well maybe maybe God's not really there and maybe we're left alone.
So these chapters, John 14 through 17 and this passage and this promise from him is especially precious. Because it means no matter what you're going through. that you have this assurance, you are not alone. You belong to God, and that changes everything. 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 pastoralan.org.
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