Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to walk in constant expectancy of the favor of God. because you have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints. It's the words of Paul in Colossians 1.12. because Christ paid it all.
none of your weaknesses or faults. can disqualify you from the favor of God. You're under his favor during the night and during the day, and in the storm. and in the calm. Whether you Feel it or not, His right hand rests upon you.
Whether you see it or not. the grace of God goes Before you, Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright.
So much of our selfishness, so much of our self-absorption is somehow rooted in this feeling that I'm supposed to have some rights and some privileges. And we somehow know this, and we over-assert ourselves, and our selfishness comes through, or we try to climb up by squashing others, or we shrink back. But if we can get in touch with what it is we lost, then we can know what it is that Christ came to give us back. 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 am Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series, Empowered, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. Uh 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. 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. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright.
Uh People of God, are you ready for some good news? In Christ, you've got more than power. You've got Authority. Yeah, yeah. The four Pevensey children, evacuees from London to the countryside during the time of the war bombings.
or passing time playing hide and seek in the big old drafty house of the professor. when the littlest, Lucy, The littlest. She decides to hide in a big wardrobe in a big dusty room. And she steps in and feels the clothes, the... garments that are hanging and the coats and steps a little further back.
And then a little further back. And next thing you know, something has changed. Lewis's words. She noticed there was something crunching under her feet. I wonder if it's a very good thing.
Is that more mothballs? she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. but instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, She felt something soft. and powdery. and extremely cold.
Little Lucy Pevency. found herself crunching along in the snow. not realizing that she had been magically transported from one realm into another. A move from one kingdom in which she was an ordinary little girl. Overlooked.
and no authority. to a realm called Narnia. And the story of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. and all of C. S.
Lewis's famous The Chronicles of Narnia, tells their journey. That starts with being transported into the kingdom. but then becomes a process by which they eventually take their thrones. Pretty soon the older siblings, they join her, Edmund, who's initially the disobedient one, and Susan and Peter. They all join Lucy there.
Edmund is easily duped by the white witch's allure of uh little candy, a little Turkish Gelite. And they have a big conversation with the beavers, these talking beavers, in which the beavers are so excited. that finally They're here. Mrs. Beaver says, At last, at long last, I never thought that I'd see such a day.
And the children are just wondering, why are they calling us daughters of Eve and sons of Adam? And what is so special about us? Are we just like these normal little kids? And Mr. Beaver is particularly excited that maybe the ancient prophecy will come true.
When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Kerperavel enthroned, the evil time will be over and done. And you realize pretty soon. That this is going to be a story, a drama. The plot is going to center on this question. Will these four kids ever believe That they really all are called to be royalty in Narnia.
Will they ever sit on those thrones? Will they ever walk out their royal assignment? And will they ever take their stand? against the wicked white witch. And so the drama develops.
They feel so underqualified. They're kids, after all. But what's odd is they're the only humans in the realm. All these other talking creatures, none of them are qualified to sit on those thrones. Just these four children.
It's brilliant. and beautiful. and delightful. And for anyone who's a Christian, you can immediately begin to see. It's telling our story.
If you are a Christian, it means that you have been. Colossians 1 says, transported Not by magic, but by the grace of God. From one kingdom. into another. from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the light.
of his own beloved son. You have been born anew. and brought into a new realm. In fact, the whole of the message of the gospel was announced like this. Repent, change your way of thinking, the kingdom of God.
is at hand. It is around you. It is here. And now Believers, you are in that kingdom. You walk this kind of unusual life where on the one hand You're in the kingdom of this world where you may not even be respected, but in the kingdom of God.
You are called royalty. And the question of Christian growth. is will we ever take those thrones? Sit in that seat. Walk in a way that is befitting the authority that we've been given and have the confidence to take our stand against all the schemes of the evil one.
We've been learning all fall about power. The Greek word dunamis, from which you recognize dynamite, like power is wonderful. Like, it's like. The power of God and learning to live by His power, and He's got all power and might and can do miracles, and all that's wonderful. It's only fitting to conclude with This idea of authority, which comes from the Greek word exusia, from the Prefix x meaning out of an usia.
meaning being or substance. Power is something that comes upon you, it's something that fills you, it's something, but exusia is about that which is out of your own being, it's out of your own identity in Christ. It's in this sense that authority in a real sense is more important than power. Much more to be said about that, but we walk out our lives. Because of our authority.
And You're like a police officer. You've got a badge and a gun. The gun represents the power. You've got some dunamis. But the badge is the authority.
And you'd like to never use the gun. You just carry your authority with you. The authority that once was lost has been restored in Christ. I was thinking about the Grammy Song of the Year from 2009, one of the biggest songs of all time, from one of the biggest bands of all time. It's a it's a song, a story about Dominion lost and about the longing for authoritative rule that was once known but gone.
The Coldplay artists who wrote the song said the initial melody came like that in the middle of the night, and most of the lyrics, but they spent over a year finalizing the lyrics to Viva La Vida. Long live life begins with these haunting words. I used to rule the world. Seas would rise when I gave the word Now in the morning I sleep alone. sweep the street.
I used to own. Wow. Like a ache of the human psyche like like it's like words on behalf Of all of humanity. He continued. I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemy's eyes.
Listen as the crowd would sing Now the old king is dead, long live the king One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me, And I discovered that my castles stand Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. Bands like Coldplay rarely reveal the meaning of their lyrics.
Sometimes art just transcends what anybody even knows they're writing.
Some people say there's imagery from the French Revolution in this, but I know that. The lead artist in Cold Play grew up in church, and don't you see the biblical imagery? Pillars of salt, like Lot's wife, when she looked back, pillars of sand, like building your house on the sand rather on the rock. It is like a picture. Of what I think all human beings.
feel faintly somewhere within their souls. Like I don't feel like I'm supposed to be on this world, in this world, just to be trampled on. That doesn't feel like the way I was made. There's something in you. that knows.
That you were made more for majesty than you were peasantry. There's something in you that knows you weren't designed to be dominated, but to have some sort of dominion in a meaningful way. Maybe that's why that song became so popular. It's like it's touching something. deep within us like a Like a time I used to rule the world.
Like what Adam and Eve had and Genesis 1, 28, and God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion. Or like Seas would rise when I gave the word, like Like there was a time when human speech Meant something so powerful that speak the word and the animals would have their names. That there was a time when it was just play. Just, I would roll the dice and feel the fear in my enemy's eyes, that just enjoying the fellowship with God and fellowship with one another, and just laughter and delight, and a kind of authority in which the serpent would not gain any foothold, but would slither away under the sound of our joy. In which that was It wasn't a big sweat, it wasn't big drudgery, and it wasn't shouting, and it wasn't clawing, it was just.
It was just walking in this posture. I think it's important to get in touch with what we're aching for because if we don't get in touch with this, That in this world, we'll try to find it in some way that is. Sideways. This is behind so much of our narcissism and our cultures like.
So much of our selfishness, so much of our self-absorption is somehow rooted in this feeling that I'm supposed to have some rights and some privileges. And we somehow know this, and we over-assert ourselves, and our selfishness comes through, or we try to climb up by squashing others, or we shrink back. But if we can get in touch with what it is we lost, then we can know what it is that Christ came to give us back. Suddenly, when sin entered the world. The perfect joyful Fellowship and attachment with God was just suddenly forfeited.
And God said, what have you done? And outside of the garden, they found themselves.
Now, with the snake being the de facto leader, the ruler of this age.
Something was Was lost. And God Does not throw away something that's broken. He repairs it. He restores it.
So God had a plan. If Genesis 3 Is the story of how humanity lost authority? the whole rest of the Bible. is about what God has done. to give it back.
and to give it back to human beings. You know, we say I'm only human. Like when we make a mistake. or when we sin, I'm only human. That's not what we should be saying, y'all.
To be human is wondrous. It's part of the beauty of the Chronicles of Narnia is these children, they're the only humans that are there. You got all these other talking animals, but the humans are like. Yeah. You understand.
You're the tentacle of God's creation. You understand you're his image-bearer in the world. You're his representative. You're the one who's like God. You're the one who is the masterpiece that he's made.
You're human.
Okay. I love the dialogue between the Pimvency kids and the Beavers. After hearing about the prophecy that four humans would take the thrones at Ker Paravel, they're confused and they say, well, I'm confused. Isn't the witch human? And Mr.
Beaver says, she'd like us to believe it. But she's no daughter of Eve. No, no, there isn't a drop of real human blood in the witch. And then Mr. Beaver has one of the greatest lines in all the chronicles or Narnia.
Take my advice. When you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now. or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet. It's not, I'm only human, it's I'm human. Given authority in the beginning.
to rain in the earth. Image-bearer of God, the maker of all things. What happened was when the first Adam sinned, His sin was passed along. It was imputed. to the rest of humanity.
So the Bible says we were all born in sin. because we were all born in the first Adam. And because he was a sinner and we were born in him, that means that we were born in sin. It doesn't mean you come in the world doing bad things. Although it doesn't take you long to do bad things.
But it means that you're in a condition, a position, think of it that way. But when you become a Christian, And this is the thing, if you're just exploring Christianity, which is just the greatest news ever. Is What happens is by accepting Jesus, What you're really doing is you're accepting the fullness. Of his work on your behalf, and that included living a sinless life. Because God had a plan.
And that was The first atom failed in the mission. But he didn't give up on humanity. He would send a better human.
So Jesus came fully God, but fully human. as the second atom. What the first Adam forfeited, the second Adam regained. And if in the first Adam, everybody who's in him has his sin imputed to us, when you become a Christian, You get not only the restoration of fellowship with God, but now you're in the second Adam. the sinless one, and his righteousness gets imputed to you.
So to be a Christian is to move from one realm into another. And when you start in that new realm, And you start reading about who you are, there's a part of you that goes, who me? And the process of Growing up as a Christian. is like the Chronicles are Narnia, of moving in the direction of accepting your place of royalty in the kingdom of God. And knowing who you are, so that you can sit in that right seat and then walk it out.
And take your stand. Yes. Watch my knee as Classic book on spiritual authority by that title: Sit, Walk, Stand. And he's pointing to these three texts from Ephesians, back to Ephesians. Chapter 2, look at this.
At verse 4 again, but God, who is rich in mercy, Because of his great love with which he loved us. This is why God's done all of this for you. Because he is so deeply merciful. And he has so much love for you. That's why.
That even when we were dead, in our trespasses. made us alive together with Christ. By grace you've been saved. And verse 6, and raised us up together. And made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So you see that. All of this is in connection with Jesus. Uh Okay. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message today. Are you ready?
Sit. Walk, stand. It's from the Teaching Empowered. And we'll have more from Pastor Alan here in the studio, aparting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Do you ever feel stuck?
Stuck in old fears, old failures, old patterns, or the feeling that you're never quite measuring up? Many Christians know God has called them to something greater, but they wonder if they'll ever have the power to live it out. The good news is that God doesn't just give instructions for Christian living. He gives power for Christian living. Right now, our featured resource from Pastor Alan is the Empowered Bundle, Living in the Power of the Promise.
This digital download includes a complete study guide along with full uninterrupted audio messages from the Empowered Teaching series. You'll discover that the power of God isn't something you have to earn or achieve. Jesus has already paid the price. Through the Holy Spirit, you can receive freedom from guilt and shame, victory over strongholds, and confidence to walk in the fullness of God's promises. You are qualified because of Christ, and God wants to clothe you with power from on high.
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4860. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now sitting with Pastor Alan.
Well, did you notice I said they're sitting with Pastor Alan?
So next we've got to walk and stand. That's the teaching today. Sit, walk, stand. And we're placing the bookmark here with more teaching on the next edition. Pastor Alan, what's our good news closing thought?
Well, in Christ, you've got more than power. You've got authority.
So in the Greek language, power is dunamis, and authority is exusia. And we're talking about the exutia and what is that authority and what does that mean for us? And this whole sit, walk, stand is taken from. The fantastic work of Watchman Nee, who was the one who authored this idea. If you look in Ephesians in chapter 2.
And at chapter 4 and chapter 6, you'll see all of those about who we are in Christ. You're seated with Christ, and therefore you're called to walk with Christ, and you take a stand against the enemy. Sit, walk, stand. 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. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
