Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing—a biblical, faith-filled vision for your life. I bless you to be doubly fruitful. For 3,700 years, Jewish dads have blessed their kids with the words, "God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh," partly because Ephraim means twice fruitful, flourish, grow, bear much fruit. I bless you to find energy for your work through your sense of destiny. God has woven unique gifts and aspirations into the fabric of your life that position you for a role that no one else can fill.
You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. That's from Ephesians chapter two, verse ten. It's something to think about. For thirty-seven hundred years, how these Jewish dads have been blessing their kids, saying, "May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh," and no one. Seems to know why.
I'm convinced that part of the reason is the meaning of that word, Ephraim, twice fruitful. But just know this: God has a plan for you to bear much fruit. That's the gospel. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Allen Wright. There's a walk, and there is a cultivation to the process of accessing the grace and power of Jesus, spiritual fruit.
Is under attack. It's fruit we don't produce it. 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 Gateways to Grace, 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 right now, which can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. 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 eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty.
That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. While at our website, please let us know how we may pray for you. Submit your prayer request to our prayer wall and be uplifted and encouraged as the community around this ministry starts praying for you and receive notifications as you're. Request is prayed for. That's the prayer wall at Pastor Alan dot org.
We're honored to stand with you in prayer. More on all of this later in the program, but right now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Allen Wright, and he talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians five. Twenty-two.
The fruit of the spirits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And if we live by the Spirit, he says, let's also keep step with the Spirit.
So the fruit, something that comes as a byproduct, not something that you make. I don't make a tomato. It's it's it's it's a tomato is a gift. Like love and joy and peace, you can't just say I might have more love. It comes like a fruit.
But he says, if we're going to live that way by the Spirit producing fruit, if we live by the Spirit, let's also keep in step with the Spirit.
Now he's talking about a walk, the way Jesus was on Earth walking with his disciples, and they literally walked together. But walk means a way of life. The practices of your life, and so it is in the spirit. It's like a walk; we're keeping step with the spirit. We're walking with Jesus in the spirit.
We're talking about what are traditionally called spiritual disciplines. Here are a few definitions, and then I'll give you my own. But Dallas Willard, who we'll reference often, has written a lot about this, and he says the disciplines are activities of mind and body. Purposefully undertaken to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order, that there is a way in which you are you are just cooperating with the kind of transformation that God wants to bring in your life. John Mark Comer, who has been one of the modern writers helping us a lot with think about.
About becoming countercultural and apprenticing with Jesus, as he calls it, he says the disciplines are the practices of Jesus. I like that practices that are based on the lifestyle of Jesus that create a time and space for us to access the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and in doing so, to be transformed from the inside out. I like that they're practices that create time and space. For us to access the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, that's the way to look at it. Eugene Peterson called the spiritual disciplines the rhythms of grace.
Here's my crack at a definition of what we're talking about: the spiritual disciplines, biblical and Christ-like habits that serve as gateways to God's grace and that foster the life-giving, daily friendship with Jesus that, over time. Grows us more into His joy, power, character, and likeness. That is the aim of Christian spiritual growth: is you're becoming more like Jesus. First John two six: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. Ephesians four twenty four: Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God and true righteousness.
In Romans eight twenty nine, those whom he foreknew, who he also predestined, what to be conformed to the image of his son. This is the path that we're on, becoming more and more like him. We were made in his image in the beginning, and it was broken by the sin of the world. But Christ came to restore us, and we're growing. Years ago, there was a you know huge movement.
Of course, people wore the wristbands and all. What would Jesus do? A noble aspiration, but there's a significant flaw in saying what would Jesus do. It assumes that Christlikeness is something that can be merely analyzed and then imitated. But we know in reality, that's not the way we change.
We can't just be in a situation and say, "Well, I feel impatient." What would Jesus do?
Well, he'd be patient.
Okay, I'll be patient. If it were that simple, we would all just do that. No, instead, there's a transformational process that's much more like like fruit emerging over time, and it's a process of getting there. When I was a kid, I loved tennis, and we would play at the Green Valley Pool. We had three courts there, and I knew all the people that played tennis there.
And I remember when I was eight or nine years old, there was a guy who was maybe seventeen. I Thought he had the most beautiful tennis strokes of anybody I'd ever seen. His name was Art, and I wanted to be Art. He didn't know I wanted to be him, but I did. I wanted to stroke a backhand in the same way he did.
He seemed to float around the court. He was so graceful. I remember one day seeing him. He had on a red shirt with an alligator on it. I didn't have any of those alligator shirts, but I wanted one.
And he had these white shorts, and he wore Fred Perry tennis shoes. Eventually, I got a red shirt, some white shorts, and some Fred Perry tennis shoes, and I think the same tennis racket that Art had. But guess what? That didn't make me Art. You can't go from being an eight or nine year old.
To suddenly be in a seventeen-year-old who's been playing tennis for the last ten or twelve years of his life, you know, and practicing and taking lessons, there's a process to become art—a noble aspiration to be there. But it was going to take lots of time on the tennis court, right? I can't just say I want to be art and then I'm art. We're talking about the beauty of the opportunity of of a process of growing that does require discipline. Paul, who is the announcer of grace, right?
The one who advocated for a theology of grace, but he also said, "First Corinthians nine, do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize?
So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating in the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, so there is." There is a pathway. There is a there are gateways to this grace, and we can choose to open those gates. We can choose to be on that path, and that requires making space and time, and that requires some some discipline. When I was in fourth grade, my mom came to know Christ in a personal way, and she introduced me and my two older brothers to to Christ, and and I accepted Him, and and I was a Christian.
And I would say I loved God, even as a fourth grader. I understood what it meant that He died for my sins. I understood that. There was a way that I could talk to him, and I began to talk to him. But I didn't, I didn't really grow that much.
I wasn't around other kids who talked this way. I didn't, I didn't have that much opportunity to grow. But when I went to high school in tenth grade. I got invited into a ministry called Young Life, and I got invited into a small group of guys. It's called a campaigner group, and we would study the Bible and pray and share and spend friendship together.
And we had a wonderful leader, an older upperclassman who loved the Lord, and I began to really grow. And I am forever thankful for Young Life. And one of the things that I was so thankful that I learned is that there is a cultivation that is necessary. Like the garden is like a heart, and we have to cultivate that garden. And so, one of the things I was taught was how to have what we call a quiet time.
I'm talking about a daily devotional time with God. And it might be that it includes scripture, meditation, prayer, praise, or just quiet to learn how to, in the busy world, take time to be with with the Lord and foster friendship with Jesus. And I was so thankful to learn that in young life, and it was so helpful to me because I got started on the path of knowing that. Even though the grace of God is free, that there is there is a there is a life of discipline that comes alongside in order to foster friendship with Jesus and the fruit that comes, which brings me back to my tomatoes. There's nothing like going in your own backyard and picking your own vine-ripened tomato.
I just didn't know it was going to take so much work. I started getting some little tomatoes, and I was overjoyed. And I was watching them begin to ripen. And one day I went out to say, maybe they're ready to pluck. Maybe I'm ready to eat one of my own savory tomatoes.
And I was thinking about what I would use it for, and how I would eat it, and what it would be. And I went out, and horror struck. The bottom of all my tomatoes was all rotten. Yeah, terrible. It was horrible.
After some weeping and gnashing of teeth, I contacted my sister-in-law, Kathy, and I said, "What is this?" She said, "Oh no." She said, "That's that's an absence of calcium." And you can fix that," she said. "It'll take care of it, but you'll need to get some application." I looked it up online. It's called flower end rot. I just called it bottom rot. And you could take and get some eggshells and crush them up and put them in the soil.
Or one said you could even get some tums, boxes of tums, and Crush them up and put. I said, I'll just go to the store. Went to two different places to find the calcium concentrate that can be mixed up to spray onto the plants at dusk with two different applications five days apart. The concentrate was thirteen dollars plus tax. And I'm now up to seventy-three dollars, and I don't have a tomato.
And I'm now not only watering, but I'm spraying calcium on the plants, but. There's nothing like going in your own backyard and and plucking your own tomato, and so thankfully that seemed to cure them. And I had some other green tomatoes that were growing, and I'm like, okay, now we're off to the races. And one day I went out to bless the tomatoes and speak life over them. And when I got out there, horror struck again.
This was even worse. There was a most hideous green monster on there. Munching away, it was awful looking. It's gross, and I I contacted my sister-in-law. I said, "What is this?" She said, "Oh no, that's a tomato worm." She said, "You got to do something about that.
They'll they'll wreak havoc." I looked it up. It's called the green tomato hornworm. Brown moths evidently lay some kind of eggs on tomato plants, and when they emerge, they come out of these caterpillars. And they say, if you don't watch it, they could consume a plant in one night. And they have these hideous white sacks on their back, which is some sort of wasp cocoon.
I said, how do you get rid of this? What kind of spray am I going to buy for this? And it said, the best advice is to hand pluck them. Hand pluck the thing? Are you kidding me?
So now I'm hand plucking hornworms. I got eighty dollars in this thing. No tomatoes. Facing drought. I'm getting tired, but I remember.
There's nothing like going in your own backyard and getting your own save-free, homegrown tomato. And I thought, okay, we've done it. And the tomatoes look like they're growing, and some were even beginning to redden. And maybe I would get a tomato. Maybe I'm home free now.
And then last week, a tropical storm passed through the Piedmont of North Carolina. With 40 mile an hour winds and about five or six inches of rain, and in the middle of the hurricane, I looked out, and all of my tomatoes had fallen over. This picture depicts only one, but by the end of the storm, all four had been capsized. And I went out in the middle of the torrential rain and tried to prop them up with broomsticks and. Such and a lot of the tomatoes had just fallen off, and a few of them were being eaten by bugs.
But I propped them back up, and I thought, I'm going to keep going because I'm too far in it now. And there's nothing like going in your own backyard and eating your own homegrown tomato. I remember. When I realized that the spiritual life as a high schooler does require cultivation, it would only take years, though, for me to discover there's actually a spiritual battle to rob you of your friendship with Jesus. It's more than you realize, and in this crazy, busy, anxious, depressed world, even more so.
It's easy for The TV just to run with its bad news. It takes a little more effort to turn it off, and maybe take a long walk and listen to the gospel as you walk. But Paul says, if we're going to live by the Spirit, let's keep step with the Spirit. There's a walk, and there is a cultivation. To the process of accessing the grace and power of Jesus, spiritual fruit is under attack.
It's fruit we don't produce it, but it requires cultivation. That's the picture I'm getting with my tomatoes, and there's something in you that's got to want it really bad. I want the love and the joy of Jesus really badly. I want it. That's part of what will change the path that you're on and the way you structure your life.
What you want, we're people who've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and so we want Him. We want intimacy with Him. We want the fruit. It's tricky because it's so important, and you know how much I love grace and how much we speak about the problem of the law. And so it's tricky because you can turn anything into a law.
When I was in high school, my my brothers in Christ and I, we wanted to hold each other accountable. We'd ask each other, "How's your quiet time been going?" And usually we'd be honest and say, "Well, you know, so so." Or sometimes we'd say, "I hadn't had one in ten days. Things are dry, dries, dust." And but after a while, you know, people be holding me accountable. I found myself maybe a little tempted to lie about it, you know. And that's how you know something's gotten into a law.
Either you start feeling really kind of puffed up, like man, I'm having better quiet times than all y'all, or it's feel really condemned because I'm not. We can turn anything into a Pharisaical law. That's what the Pharisees did. Pastor Alan Wright, our Good News Message, the Gateways to Grace, from the series by the Same title: Gateways to Grace. Stay with us.
Pastor Alan is back, joining me in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day. In just a moment. What if growing closer to God isn't about trying harder?
So often, we approach spiritual growth with a list of things we need to do: pray more, read more, be better. But what if the secret to spiritual transformation isn't found in greater effort? But in experiencing more of God's grace, in his book *The Gateways of Grace*, Pastor Alan Wright invites you to discover a fresh perspective on spiritual growth through timeless practices like scripture, prayer, meditation, wonder, and rest. You'll discover how to create space for the Holy Spirit to work in your life. These spiritual disciplines aren't obligations that earn God's favor.
They're gateways that open our hearts to experience more of God's goodness, peace, and transforming grace. When you give to Allen Wright Ministries, you help share the gospel with listeners around the world. And when you give today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's book, *The Gateways of Grace*, as our thanks. To discover these aren't just disciplines; they're gateways. Step through them and discover the grace that's been waiting for you.
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 eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty.
That's eight seven seven. Five four four forty eight sixty, or come to our website. PastorAllen. dot org. Back here now in the studio with Pastor Alan as we place the bookmark here in the gateways of grace.
And I've often heard you talk about how it's grace and truth, and you know you can find maybe on any given day, any of us might lean towards one or the other. But with the Lord Jesus, there is that perfect harmony.
Well, Jesus was full of grace and full of truth, hundred percent truth, hundred percent grace. And the more that I walk with, and the more I realize that. His grace is the truth, and the truth is is great, right? I mean, if you come into truth, that's a gift. That's grace, and it's only by grace that you get revelation of truth, right?
So, and I think the gateways of grace, the spiritual disciplines, are opening us therefore to the grace and the truth of Christ Himself. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAllen.org or call eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. That's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty. 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 dot org. That's pastorallen dot o r g. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.
