Blessed to Be Secure [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. The answer is not to withhold the blessing so that then they'll try harder. All that does is it creates more insecurity, and they act more like an orphan.

What we want for them to act like an heir, and if you're going to act like an heir, you need to know yourself as 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, The Power to Bless, taken from Pastor Alan's book of the same title and 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 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 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 Allen Wright. Sometimes you find yourself just holding on to the book and clinging to the promises. If you walk with God long enough, there are going to be times where you're just clinging to the promises, knowing that He is coming for you. When we feel like orphans and people around us feel like orphans, we don't need the Bible to become just another rule book about how we should act. It really is more a picture book of the beautiful pictures about who our family is, who our Father is, and where we're headed.

It's a cruel jest, Martin Luther King Jr. said, to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. So Schiff and Zinni, they waited for their boots and held onto their book and to the promises. It was interesting and fitting that Jay and Jane said they picked up Schiff and Zinni on Easter Monday, the day after resurrection, 2008.

And all that the kids had on them were the clothes on their back and the photo album. And Jay laughed and said, and the orphanage said, and when you get them some new clothes, we'd like you to send those clothes back. I would like to note that when you come into the family of God, you do not come with any of your own goods and none of your own righteousness. Isaiah prophesied, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

My soul shall exult in my God for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. You come in naked and you get clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. So they had to wait a few days before they could get all the paperwork and get out of the country. And so they had to go stay in a hotel. So they took these four-year-old orphans to the Sheraton in Addis Ababa. They had never seen green grass before, much less had they seen a hotel like this with its lovely fountain and a giant swimming pool in the back, which they'd never seen. It was interesting, Jay said, with all of that stuff there, they were mostly fascinated with the elevator buttons and just kept pushing them. I guess blessing is like taking Ethiopian twins to see their first green lawn or refreshing pool.

And when you bless your words or painting pictures of others' lives that are more glorious than any marbled hotel, you're painting a picture of the spiritual riches that are in Christ Jesus. During all those long months of waiting, the staff at the orphanage often would sit down with Schiff and Zinni and look at the picture book. And they would say, this is your new home in America. And so when the twins came, they really only knew the words Papi and America. And so it was really cute, Jay said, when they finally made the long trip back and pulled up in front of their lovely house, that Schiff just stood in the front lawn and went, America.

He would find out there's more to America than that lovely house or neighborhood and that freedom and honor and grace were going to be lavished into his life. Schiff and Zinni went to our preschool and then they grew up in our neighborhood. And then they grew up in our neighborhood.

And it's a beautiful thing when a love comes and gets you like that, isn't it? So Jacob adopted. He wanted to assure them that they were secure. A lot of people have thought over the years and centuries that for some reason it's better to withhold blessing, love and affirmation because they're afraid that it would go to a child's head. The opposite is true. We don't become self-absorbed because we are secure in love.

The opposite happens. Tim Keller's put it so well, you only think about your big toe if your big toe is hurting. Otherwise you don't even think about it. And you don't think about your ego unless your ego is hurting. People that have to think about themselves, self-absorption, are actually insecure, not vice versa. The secure person doesn't even spend time thinking about him or herself. You're secure. You can think about others.

You can think about the Lord. There was a big study in the mid 20th century from Harry Harlow. It proved that, well, it proved that all the ideas that had been up to that point for parents that had been advised not to overly coddle their kids so they could toughen up their kids, well, they just weren't true. There was very interesting and controversial experience where they took baby rhesus monkeys and they didn't have their actual mother. They just have surrogate mothers that were basically made of wire.

And some of them were just wire and some were wire that were covered with soft cloth so that at least when the baby monkey would come up they would feel the softness. And it was very interesting they would take the wire only mother and put milk with it and then they had the soft surrogate mother with no milk and on the whole the rhesus babies preferred the soft mother even though there was no milk. And they said that when they would take the babies away from these surrogate mothers and let them be away for three days it didn't toughen up the little monkeys instead they became insecure afraid and clingy. And this just began to rattle all the ideologies of the day and psychologists began to say wait a minute you don't create security by less contact comfort of a baby and that's when it really began to change. Of course the Bible has always said this, I learned to trust that my mother's breast.

I became a confident secure soul when I was loved. So what we want to do is we want to bless people so that they become more secure and this is to say that we are in a sense not literally adopting but we are partnering with God to release the spirit of adoption the mentality of adoption. And if you're blessing someone who's not yet a believer you're not blessing them as one who has been adopted but one who can be adopted one who God wants you see. So the blessing for someone who doesn't know Jesus yet is essentially to say God loves you infinitely and nothing could ever stop him from loving you and he's traveled all this distance and he wants you that's a blessing but for the child of God we're joining in with what Paul says in Romans 8 15. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you've received the spirit of adoption of sons by whom we cry Abba father the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. You see the the first ministry of the Holy Spirit after we are born again is to bear witness to our spirit that we're children of God that you've been adopted. Roman adoption is something we know a whole lot about I've spoken about it in past sermons because of Justinian's institutes we know very very much about what it was like in the first century so we know exactly what Paul's imagery is here in in first century Rome an affluent family that had no heir might want to adopt a grown son to be an heir and often it was a slave that they had affection for adoption was the only way that a slave could come into what was called the patria potestas the power of the father so adoption was to bring a slave into the power of the father and the primary motivation is to carry on the family name and the inheritance any property or debt that the one who's being adopted had previously is completely forgiven once they're adopted could have owed the whole world everything but when you get adopted by a new father all that debt was cancelled according to Roman law and you lost all legal standing with any previous family because you are now totally legally a member of the new family and though Roman law allowed a father to disown a biological son Roman law did not have any provision for a father to ever disown an adopted son and all of that the forgiveness of debts and the taking on of a full new legal entity and the assurance you could never be disowned is all the background of what it means to be an adopted child of God that every one of your debts all of your sin is completely forgiven it doesn't matter how great it is when you're adopted it's gone and you have you have been severed from the kingdom of darkness in the world and you've taken an identity with a new family and that's who you are that's who you are whether you're feeling it whether you're living it whatever but that is you are in the family of God and as such you will never be disowned hallelujah that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series need some inspiration and practical help to bless those you love in conjunction with the exciting release of Pastor Alan's new book the power to bless we put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love the tool kit includes an audio message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly as blessings the blessing scriptures are categorized so you can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month we'll happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the resources are available for immediate digital download or available in cd and booklet partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life today the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support now we are in our final days of offering this special product we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright God's traveled far too great a distance to just turn his back on you because you're having a bad day and so we bless people so they'll be more secure we bless people so that they know themselves to be heirs rather than orphans there's so much that could be said about this but I've just jotted down a few notes about the contrast between the way the orphan heart and speaking figuratively compares to the heart of an heir and let me just give you a few of these you can chew on this but for the orphan they they tend to grasp at things as if there just won't be any more most of the adoptive parents ever talked to that especially when they've adopted internationally like the Helveys did and maybe kids that are four years old or something like that that they're so used to being in an orphanage where they didn't have their own stuff and everything shared that as soon as they get something they feel like they need to hold on to it so there's this classic behavior of hoarding and I've talked to parents you know I've got one friend who adopted internationally and his little boy loved little toy cars and he said that it for years he would find those cars hidden everywhere under mattresses pillows behind books and everything you know just so afraid you're not going to you're going to lose your cars that you got to grasp everything but see the heir doesn't think that way the heirs give as if there's plenty more and I'm not just talking about financial I'm just talking about with your life yeah you give you find that out there's I'm not going to run out because God doesn't run out and he's my father orphan thinks that authority is something to be feared or if not feared then to just be used for your advantage and I know this is this is controversial in this day and time you know sometimes authorities aren't to be trusted sometimes they don't behave they would as they should but the heir doesn't look on authorities this way the the once you're an heir you think of of your of your father or your mother or an authority figure in your life is someone who who could bless your life and could promote your life and you think of it that way you see so the idea of being able to yield to an authority is not difficult for an heir it's difficult for an orphan you're afraid somebody's going to take something from you the orphan has a trouble with a relationship until they start feeling like an heir and so for the orphan it's more about being right than it is in the than being in relationship you see at every juncture in our lives we're in relationship and there's also right and wrong and we're making daily choices about which places are going to be our ultimate emphasis is it always about I have to prove myself right or is the relationship the thing that's so valuable not that we excuse wrong but if we're constantly constantly constantly having to defend defend defend our right I'm right I'm right I'm right and the heir doesn't think like that relationships are things important the orphan is insecure and wanting to prove something but the air is secure and just wanting to bless somebody when you're insecure you're always trying to prove something trying to prove that you know you should be accepted it creates all these behaviors the the orphan settles often for just the feeling of love and if it's not a feeling that's happening that's happening right at that moment you know if it's not a euphoric feeling of love then they can feel abandoned all over again the air doesn't feel like that the air is is is all into committed lasting love relationships covenantal relationships listen you don't got to be married and be feeling like you got some euphoric feeling of being in love to still be married I've been married for all these years and I still have times of euphoric feelings of love but Ann is my wife because she's my wife and we are in a covenantal relationship and so if somebody's not feeling all tingly in love nobody's going oh no we must not have love anymore see that's the way an orphan thinks oh no I'm feeling abandoned orphans gravitate towards feelings all the time and and it can lead you towards a substance or it can lead from relationship to relationship the bottom line to all this beloved is that the orphan is motivated by fear and the air is motivated by faith and when you bless somebody what I'm trying to show you is a huge foundation of this is when you bless someone you are doing what the world doesn't do you are moving towards them as God has moved towards us in an unconditional love and a process of affirming with genuine discernment about their place in this world of security in the love of God and in affirming that you are building up security and when you're building up security in that person you are rooting them and grounding them in love so that they can be who God designed them to be if there's somebody in your life that you'd like to see change and grow and flourish if there's somebody that's not acting the way they should the answer is not to withhold the blessing so that then they'll try harder all that does is it creates more insecurity and they act more like an orphan what we want for them to act like an heir and if you're going to act like an heir you need to know yourself as an heir well the Helvees are wonderful friends been wonderful to just watch Schiff and Zinni and what happens is then they grow up and you're just part of a big family and it started with a dream and a word from the Lord and this is the nature of our life together as Christians we are the adopted children of God and that makes us one really big family I started in last place but I worked my way up to fourth at least I think a Methodist won it guess I wasn't predestined to win but but it was fun because you know once I finally realize I'm strapped in here and even if this thing turns over I'm not going to die so I might as well put the pedal to the metal and I want to bless you to live your life like that secure in the love of God knowing that you have been blessed and you have been given in Christ the power to bless others and that's the gospel Alan Wright today's good news message blessed to be secure from the teaching the power to bless and Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment need some inspiration and practical help to bless those you love in conjunction with the exciting release of Pastor Alan's new book the power to bless we put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love the tool kit includes an audio message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly as blessings the blessing scriptures are categorized so you can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month we'll happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership the resources are available for immediate digital download or available in cd and booklet partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life today the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support now we are in our final days of offering this special product we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org back here in the studio with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day if someone just tuned in these final moments of and they didn't catch the full teaching or we just need to put the cookies on the bottom shelf to be blessed to be secure where do i find that blessing how do i how do where do i start on that obviously it's with our relationship and our standing with Christ when God created Adam and Eve he blessed them he affirmed them he loved them he never said to them well if you will prove yourselves to be a good son and daughter to me and if you'll take good care of the garden that i'm going to really love you and i'm really going to accept you that's not what he said instead he just affirmed them and blessed them because they were his what did satan do what did that serpent do but to lure them into the feeling ultimately of deep insecurity as soon as they sinned their eyes were open they saw themselves ashamed in the sight of one another and began hiding from each other and hiding from God and God has been committed right from the dawn of time to make it such that we could be secure again he never wanted us to be afraid of him or afraid of others or afraid for our lives what God always has wanted is for us to experience his love and the Bible says perfect love casts out fear there's no greater expression of this than the picture of adoption so when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh the first thing he did was he adopted them he made them heirs they were guaranteed a share of the promised land and God when he comes to you and you find yourself believing in Jesus the first thing the Holy Spirit does is assure you you're adopted as a child of God you belong to God and nothing could ever separate you from his love build your life on that blessing build your life on the assurances of God and avoid the voices that are making it conditional where maybe God doesn't love you so much because you haven't been good enough avoid that voice and drink in the voices of the true gospel and blessing wherever you can and read the Bible this way over and over assuring you of your permanent place in the heart of God when you do it won't make you lazy it'll energize you when you do know your security in the Lord it won't make you selfish it'll make you other centered that's the way it works you've been adopted by God in Jesus Christ that makes you secure and secure people can soar 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 pastorallen.org today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.