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Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. We know at a certain level, shame works.
Shame is essentially the lie that says you don't measure up as you are now, and it's up to you to find a way to make yourself acceptable. 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 today's message in the series titled Exponential Grace as presented at Reynolda 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. It can 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. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching in the series Praying with Power.
Here is Alan Wright. You ready for some good news? Our God of grace gives us the opportunity as His ambassadors to be part of the plan whereby His love goes on and on and on. That He gives us the privilege of imparting this grace to the generations. And as those who, both for our children or in our marriages or amongst our friendships and where we have influence in relationships, we are given a privilege of being a co-laborer with Christ. And who Christ is and what Christ did is shaped by the ministry of His own grace. I want to talk to you today about developing in your home, in your life, a palace of grace.
Because people thrive best where there is no shame and instead there is grace. We're going to look in Romans chapter 5. Paul begins this most excellent discourse that will take place over the next four chapters which is both a description of what it means to be justified by grace through faith and a crescendo-like conclusion that invites us into the Spirit-led life rather than the life under the law.
A life that is lived in a palace of grace is a life wherein we know spiritually that we are royalty and that we are accepted in the beloved through the unmerited gift of Jesus Christ. And this is extraordinary what Paul has to say here in Romans 5 about the power of that gospel at work. He says at verse 1, therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame. Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Here is my primary focus. Again verse 5, hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. It happened to me again this week with my kids. We homeschooled and so we got a lot of flexibility and one day I wanted to go out and play some golf. I wanted to get some, I was ready to wind down a little bit so I went and my Bennett who just turned 18 this week, I said Bennett let's go play some golf.
And it was a beautiful day. He said dad, he said I mean I'd love to he said but I've got some physics I got to do some problems and I've got I'm filling out some college applications I really need to get on all this stuff. And it's beautiful outside and we homeschool I'm the principal of the home school. You know what's up with this and so being the highly inspiring and motivational parent that I am I said to him blow it off dude.
Come on let's go. No dad I need to get this stuff done and so I said all right okay I'm proud of you for wanting to get your work done. I went to go my 13 year old Abigail just turned 14 yesterday I said Abby I said this is a beautiful day we could go ride bikes take a walk go to the park do something fun you want to go play and go have a little fun. She said dad I'd love to she said but I've got I've got an essay that I'm working on and I got some Spanish that I need to do. So being the inspiring and motivational parent that I am and the principal of home school I said blow it off it's a beautiful day come on you could do that later you know why do now what you could put off till later I mean you know just like no dad I mean I walked away I was just like what's wrong with this picture there's a role reversal that has taken place here and then I chuckled and I laugh and I say this is actually of course the thing every parent ever dreams of is that your child would take ownership of their life and want to pursue something not because there's a threat of a bad grade or a threat of punishment hanging over them but because for some reason has gotten into them to be invested with their life. What is it that motivates people in life? About 1993 I was doing fine minding my own business pastoring a Presbyterian Church in another city and everything was going well and God sovereignly orchestrated it that there would be a new touch on my life from the Holy Spirit that would cause an abounding joy to come in my life that I'd never tasted before I I was I mean I was never I don't think I was I don't think I was an unpleasant person to be around but I was not I wasn't as happy as I am now and earlier I was a more pressure-packed person inside at least I was I mean I could go out and have fun and I like to do things and all but inside there was a lot of pressure that's all I can say is like there's a lot of pressure to do it right a lot of pressure to to make it right a lot of pressure to look okay and even in the pastorate I found myself I was I was too perfectionistic I was too I was working too much I was concerned about too many things and I took too much responsibility for others all this was going on in my life and I was kind of pretty and and God just touched my life so much in 1993 and began an incredible healing and really made me a different really made me a different person so what I'm saying is really the person I am now is is very different than than who I used to be thanks be to God well we had been wanting to have a child we wanted we not been able to conceive and anybody's ever wanted to be a parent and you've not been able to see if you know there's a unique pain that goes with that and and you realize that you know this this that many many parents can just take for granted that they were able to have children it's not something to be taking for granted because every child is just a miracle and we we had been so longing to have a child and we were beginning to be very concerned about whether we'd be able to have children well our dear friends in this Pentecostal evangelist friend of mine we were down at renewal meeting down in Florida in January of 1994 after all of this change you've been coming in my life and and we were sitting in a hotel room together before or after one of these meetings and we're just we're just brimming with faith and love for God and we just love them and and they opened up with us and said we've been trying to conceive a child we would like to have children we haven't been able to so far and we said we've been and we're that same place and my friend he's just got that kind of faith he said well you know what we need to do we just need to pray in agreement right now that God just give us children right away of course I got my Presbyterian theology working over here like you know listen you can't control God and you know you know we pray more polite prayers like you know would you please God maybe if it be your will you know do something good he didn't pray like that he was just like let's pray prayer agreement I didn't have much faith really honestly but he had faith and I had faith in his faith and a little bit of faith I did have I said well I'll join with him we joined hands and I said Lord God you said we just thank you that children are blessed and we just we just claim and receive from you the blessing of children we will have right away and so I said amen and Bennett was born in September 27th and three weeks later their their daughter Sarah Sue was born so I knew going into the whole parenting gig that this was a miracle that had taken place and and I decided we're gonna try and experiment that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series before God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful he blessed them before God called Abraham to father a nation he blessed him before God released his son into ministry he blessed him why because blessing is God's secret strategy to empower you to be all he made you to be when others affirm you but most of the time it's because you've proven your worth maybe you did well on a test accomplished a goal or proved yourself competent such affirmation is nice but it's not the way of God God's strategy is to declare your worth before you have done anything to prove it in the kingdom of God blessing is the fuel for your productivity not the reward for it maybe you need your heart to be healed from old wounds caused by others withholding their blessing or maybe you're ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring either way Pastor Alan writes the power of blessing will change your life change how you interact with others as you discover the ancient skill of the Hebrew patriarchs as they bless their children learn how to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject curse most of all drink in the unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ get motivated God's way with Alan Wright's seven message CD album the power of blessing when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the gospel is shared when you give to Alan 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 Alan 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 pastor Alan org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright this new thing that I was discovering of joy and the abounding grace of the Lord Jesus said what if and what if we could we could just have an environment of grace and instead of instead of shame they experiment would a kid ever find motivation in life because see here's what I think most of us have bought into we tend to think that if you if you give people unconditional love and unconditional acceptance if you show unmerited favor towards people if you assure people of a blessed future and a blessed destiny then they're not going they're not gonna try they're just gonna get lazy and we we do this because we know at a certain level shame works shame is essentially the the lie that says you don't measure up as you are now and it's up to you to find a way to make yourself acceptable and knowing that every child every spouse every employee that people around us what they want is they want love and acceptance they want to have that more than anything else and knowing that what we tend to do and sometimes it's just very subtle but we tend to just withhold that love and acceptance we tend to withhold the grace because then we'll just make you run harder after it and yet what we realize is if this will motivate somebody then we can always dangle it in front of them just a little bit and the thing that happens I think so often in so many of our homes is that and in our lives our relationships is that we may even say well we're gonna have have a lot of grace here but when we introduce law and shame in the midst of that it's the same thing I've been saying about the gospel in recent months where I've made this point that if I told my wife 99 days in a row I love you I'm never gonna leave you and then the hundredth day I said I'm not sure if I love you and I might leave you unless you measure up that one day that 1% sort of wipes out the other 99 doesn't it Paul says that a little bit of law a little bit of shame it infects the whole loaf that's what happens and so I think what happens in most of us most of our upbringing and most of our lives is because you know people sometimes get a little desperate and they want to motivate we just introduce a little bit of law and shame and this is the great temptation that I have found in parenting and in pastoring over these years and that is that if first it seems like that this grace thing isn't working you know you just kind of after a while you try and say well I tried that now I'm gonna come over here I'm gonna shame somebody into it now if it doesn't work and so I wanted to have this experiment with this little boy that was born into our lives I just want to have an experiment with the kids and and it listen we have by no means done this perfectly and I could I could fill up the day with times that I've messed up lost my cool whatever but I'd say my intent was to build what I now would call a palace of grace and not a not about a physical structure but about something that is invisible about an environment and which and which people can know that they are assured of of blessedness that they are assured of an identity that is that is full of expectancy and joy where there is a quick forgiveness and there's very little condemnation what would what would happen if you had an environment like that would somebody be able to thrive in that environment and so I just were he's been a sentimental week for me because my boy turned 18 this week and 18 he when we came to this church that it was one and he's 18 and he's a man and he's he's he's filling out college applications he's gonna vote in the election he said the other day said why could not have had a better election than this one to vote in but he's gonna he's gonna vote you get out and vote too and and and he's 18 so I'm sort of I'm sort of sentimental because it goes very fast it was very very fast but it makes you go back and reflect a little bit about what actually works and I just want to can I just give a testimony grace works it works it doesn't work on cleaning up rooms but it works on every thing works on us no it works grace the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ we're in grace unmerited favor and gift of saving power in our lives is given to us through Christ who died for the ungodly this is what Paul is saying later in Romans 5 Christ he died while we were still in our sin and were his enemies that's how powerful the grace of God is that the grace of God is powerful enough to redeem your life from the pit that the grace of God is powerful enough to take people who were destined for hell and curse and instead snatch them out from the clutches of darkness and bring them into the glorious kingdom of light of his own beloved son grace is that powerful the gospel is so powerful that it can dismantle every potential and argument that sets itself up against the knowledge of God the grace of God is so powerful that it could transform your life so much that you move from being an orphan to being an heir and an heir with Jesus Christ himself this is our gospel I just want and I have wanted to do this as a parent I want to do it as a pastor and I want I want to just invite anybody who would get excited about it to with your life therefore trust in the power of that gospel and do not be duped by the ways of the world reverting back to old ways of law and shame and accusation and condemnation and shame which work for a short time but produce slaves instead take the route of the grace of God which transformed my life and yours and believe therefore it could transform someone else what I'm saying is if the gospel of grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is powerful enough to redeem our lives from the pit of hell how much more so should we implement that grace in the upbringing of our children and the enjoyment of our marriage and the way that we work in our office and the way that we carry ourselves in daily life grace works this is what Paul says at verse 5 the hope that is produced from this gospel does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us to really understand any part of the story you always have to go back to the beginning of story and remember that there was only one thing that we know about a relationship in paradise only one verse and that is that Adam and Eve were naked and they knew no shame and as soon as sin entered the world fear and shame and hiding came in so paradise was the place where there was no shame and hell in the words of author Gordon Dalby is the place where you bear your own shame and so the restoration with God is going to look very much like what life was like before there was sin except in a new way the sin is forgiven though we may still stumble we are reconciled Paul says with God so it is just as if we had not sinned all of this to say is you learn from the opening pages of your Bible that the atmosphere for growth for humanity is grace the definition of life for Adam and Eve was grace grace means gift everything that they had was a gift and they knew it and this has not changed every good thing in your life is a gift it's just they fellowship with God and he walked with them in the cool of the day and they knew they had not made themselves and they knew they were made in his image he was the Creator so their life was a gift their life was a gift your life is a gift that's grace the garden it was a gift that's grace and in that garden God gave them a vocation a calling they would attend the garden so the environment of grace the the avenue of growth in that environment of grace was not a permissiveness that just anything you can do anything the grace was always accompanied with a calling for living out your life in the image of God and God blessed Adam and Eve and then he said be fruitful and multiply in other words grace is the atmosphere in which human beings grow and blessing is the strategy for human productivity the environment in which we grow best is grace Alan Wright in today's teaching a palace of grace why people grow best in an environment of grace before God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful he blessed them before God called Abraham to father a nation he blessed him before God released his son into ministry he blessed him why because blessing is God's secret strategy to empower you to be all he made you to be when others affirm you but most of the time it's because you've proven your worth maybe you did well on a test accomplished a goal or proved yourself competent such affirmation is nice but it's not the way of God God's strategy is to declare your worth before you have done anything to prove it in the kingdom of God blessing is the fuel for your productivity not the reward for it maybe you need your heart to be healed from old wounds caused by others with holding their blessing or maybe you're ready to shatter that invisible ceiling that keeps you from soaring either way pastor Alan writes the power of blessing will change your life change how you interact with others as you discover the ancient skill of the Hebrew patriarchs as they bless their children learn how to tune your heart to accept blessing and reject curse most of all drink in the unquenchable blessing of God in Jesus Christ get motivated God's way with Alan Wright's seven message CD album the power of blessing when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor Alan's messages in an attractive CD album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the gospel is shared when you give to Alan 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 Alan 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 pastor alan.org shame is a term that is used a lot in our ministry primarily with the focus that shame also known as condemnation is not the gospel and the phrase shame off you is used a lot in fact was the former title of your book it's now titled free yourself be yourself but shame is so often used in the world even in religious institutions and it's used to wield power and it's very effective at that isn't it the reason people use shame really Daniel is because it does work at a certain level right I mean knowing that children want love and acceptance more than anything else sometimes a parent will wittingly or unwittingly withhold that love and acceptance in order to try to motivate the child teachers or coaches and certainly religious authorities do this as well but God's real plan as we're learning in this series is absolutely contrary to that the God's real plan of powerful change for our lives comes through what we might call exponential grace that the deposit of love and blessedness and affirming words of vision over our lives that it's handed down to us from generation to generation and the more that we can receive that grace I think it can displace all the lies of shame and so it's obviously something that's very very central to us but it is absolutely central to everything that's powerful important about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ God changes us by his love he doesn't change us by withholding his love today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright ministries
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-30 07:38:02 / 2024-01-30 07:47:04 / 9