Blessed to Be Secure [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. 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.

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.

Daniel Britt, who is our radio announcer and for 14 years, the manager of the Joy FM Network, and I was staff pastor to that radio station. And he said that they have a little thing they sponsor that he'd like for me to consider participating in. It is a little fun race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

I said, what? I've never even been to a NASCAR event. I wasn't even good at Hot Wheels.

What are you talking about? He said, don't worry about it. He said, you're going to not be driving a car. You'll be driving a bus, a school bus. I said, a school bus? I said, I don't know how to drive a school bus. He said, oh, it's just fun.

It's called the faster pastor race. I said, what? I don't know what overtook me. I just said, okay, yeah. And I told my wife, I said, I'm going to race a school bus at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. And so we went down there on that night.

It was drizzling rain. And you know, I just went down there. We're just in some jeans, you know, went in and we pulled up and I said, I'm a pastor.

I'm in the faster pastor. I said, oh, you need to go around the back of the stadium. And they directed me in through the entrance that the race car drivers come in through. And we just drove right into the infield of this epic race car stadium and went in. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

And the, they give us a little orientation that was woefully inadequate. They gave us a hot dog and I was like, you know, are they going to give us some instructions? And all he said was, listen, if you want to take the bus out and just ride it around the infield a little bit to get a feeling for the air brakes, you know, you're welcome to do that a couple of minutes before the race. Here's a helmet, here's an earpiece radio earpiece for your ear. And I'm looking around, you know, and I'm like, what is this?

Because several of the pastors have on full racing suits. I was like, what is this? I thought there was going to be a question and answer time in the orientation. And, and, and I had some questions like, why do we need an earpiece?

What are air brakes? How do you drive a school bus? And can I leave now?

But there was no real question to answer time. And we go out to get into the bus that they let everybody, you know, the each ministry paint. And you can't really see it as well in this photo, but if you look a little closer, there's stuff dangling off of it. The whole thing is dented in all the buses look like they've been crashed.

And I'm like, why are they so dented? And then when I got in and I saw all these roll bars over me and a traditional race five-point harness that was going to go around me. And I'm like, I honestly didn't even know what air brakes were. I'd never driven a school bus.

I had no idea. I did talk to a real race car driver who was going to be in the real race that night. We were just a sideshow.

And he gave me a couple pointers. I'm like, yeah, right. It's wet out there. And I get into this thing. There are thousands of fans there and they just love the faster pastor race. And they can't wait for this sideshow to start. And I'm starting to realize it's because this is not a race. This is bumper buses out here. And I'm sitting there.

They come and they strap me into all these things and all these roll bars. And I'm just, I'm first thought was I'm just going to lag behind, let a Pentecostal win and go home. My wife said she was up in the stands and she was talking to people and they were saying, has your husband ever raced or anything? And she goes, no. And they started me in last place. You know, I was the last in line. It was, I just, it was.

And she was like, no, he hadn't, but he's got this competitive thing in him. So it was gonna be interesting. And I was, I was sitting there like, I just don't want to die tonight. And, but I hate losing.

I hate losing. And so I was sitting there and it was sort of gentlemen start your engines and where they, and the radio was here and all of a sudden started crackling and I couldn't hear them anymore. And I'm, so now I'm like, I'm out here. I'm out here with no, I've got nobody in my ear.

I got nothing. I don't know what we're doing. And I just thought, what am I going to do about it? And all of a sudden this thought, I felt this strap. I looked at all these roll bars and this thought hit me. Alan, you are probably not going to die tonight.

I don't, I don't think they bring the pastors down here to die on this racetrack. We are, I'm in a bus. I got roll bars. I got a thing. And when I realized I'm not going to die, I just said, you know what?

That I'm going for it. It was so funny. It was actually one of the most thrilling things I ever did. I mean, I was started in the last place, but I worked my way up to fourth and y'all the buses, they were hitting each other. They spun out twice. They had to stop and come and tow a bus off of the track.

Some people were running over cones and dragging them around the whole time. I was glad just to make it, make it out of there. But, but as soon as you realize in life that you're strapped in and you're secure, that is when you can put the pedal to the metal. It's when you're insecure that you're going to just lag back. And I think that the, the power of blessing is in part this, it's like when we release the love and acceptance that is in Jesus Christ, it's like we're strapping people into God's love.

And it's completely counter-cultural. Because in the world, blessing is withheld like a carrot that's dangled in front of us to try to get you to run faster. If you'll win the race, then you'll be blessed. And it's not the way of God, because what that produces in us is insecurity, fear. And insecurity is at the root of most of our problems.

When people are secure, everything is different. There is, 1 John 4 18, no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment.

You didn't win the race. And whoever fears has not the right to raise. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. The answer to insecurity and fear is perfect love. The more secure that someone is in the love of God, the less fear they will have.

And when we have security, that's when we can really live out the life that God's designed for us to live. I think I relate to Jacob on so many levels, starting with this, neither Jacob nor I was sure that our father really wanted us. This is one of the most important verses in the story, Genesis 25 28. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. His father loved his brother more than him.

And that's what started everything. Jacob started manipulating in order to try to get blessings, stealing, pretending until he ultimately pretended to be his brother to steal the blessing that was intended for his brother. He struggled his whole life.

He acted like at every point, I'm not blessed and I need to do something to fit in, to get myself in first place. And now we come to this Genesis 48 and Jacob's at his death bed. And God has done just amazing providential, miraculous things to reunite him with his son, Joseph, who had been presumed dead for all those years. And he's seen now that the hand of God has always been at work and always been on him. And then after all, he has been blessed. He understands grace. It took him his whole life to get it, but he got it.

And I think that's why he adopted Ephraim and Manasseh. 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 toolkit 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. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. Adoption is the key to understanding the nature of God, the nature of our lives, of who we are, and it is the key to all security. Ephesians 1-3, some of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. How is it that we are sharing with Jesus all of these blessings? Paul tells us, Paul tells us, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. The language of being chosen is not about some wooden idea of predestination or fatalism.

It's the image of adoption. He's chosen us in him, in Christ, that we should be holy and blameless before him. We're chosen so that if the devil comes and accuses and says that our sin should be held against us, what the gospel has done for us, it says no, we've been so forgiven and made adopted children of God that we're already in and nothing can ever pull us away. It's as if we're blameless because we've taken on the righteousness of Jesus. In love, verse five, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

And this is not gender exclusive language here. This is a reference to the fact that in the ancient Middle Eastern culture, it was the firstborn son who had the double portion of the inheritance and upon whom was given great adoration and responsibility. And so when you're adopted, it is whether male or female, young or old, it's as if you are like a firstborn son was in that society. Adoption in himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. It's to his praise.

It is, we are trophies of his grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved in Christ. Our good friends, Jay and Jane Helvey. Well, Jay said he has been spoken to very directly by the Lord three times. One was about moving to North Carolina from New York.

The other was about starting the New Canaan Men's Fellowship chapter here in our town, a chapter of our men's fellowship that's grown to well over a thousand men now meeting multiple times through the week. But he said the other thing the Lord spoke to him about was adopting internationally, and Jane felt spoken to as well. And they were, I think, 49 at the time. Their boys were growing up and some out of the house, some soon going out of the house. So they'd gotten a whiff of that stage of life where, okay, there's going to be freedom in front of us. And instead the Lord spoke to them about adopting internationally. And people tried to talk him out of it.

You're crazy. You know, Jay is a successful financier. Jane, a lovely community Bible teacher. And here they're going to make this giant commitment. International adoption is complicated and it's a long, it's a long process.

And a lot of red tape. And then what happens is it just, one day it just happens. And when I talked to Jay and Jane about this, it was just remarkable to hear them remember the day that they got a picture by email of the kids that were going to be theirs.

And these two Ethiopian twins. And I said, what did it feel like? And Jane just said, I just wanted to give them joy. And Jay just said simply, I just, my heart just went out to them.

I just wanted to help them. And they wept over their picture of children that they'd never met. But we're going to be their son and daughter. The love of God is an adopting love. This is love, 1 John 4. Not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. If you've been adopted by God, you didn't initiate it.

God did. And when we bless people, we're letting them know that God loves them long before they could ever love him. And when Jay and Jane adopted these children that were 7,000 miles away, it was Jay and Jane that traveled all the distance to get them.

And when you bless people, you are blessing them with the awareness that God has traveled across eternity and gone to unspeakable lengths to make you his own. That's what happens when you adopt. Jay and his son Cole went for a visit to the orphanage months before these siblings would be released.

It's a long process. And they were all in the orphanage. And they were all in the process. The boy's name is Shiphrah, Shiph for short, and the girl is Zinnaback Zinni, they call her for short. And when Jay said he got there to the orphanage to first meet him, Shiph only knew one word, puppy. And so puppy and he comes over. Jay couldn't speak any Amharic, the language, but he had brought a photo album and it had pictures of their house of Zinni and Shiph's future big brothers, the yard, the dogs, the neighborhood, the city. And after they visited for a while, Jay and Cole, they left the book and Jay left a promise, I'll be back to get you.

And I wonder how many hours Shiph and Zinni looked at those pictures. You know, sometimes it's hard to feel that there's a benevolent puppy that's working for you when you can't see him. And sometimes you find yourself just holding onto 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 Shiph 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 Shiph and Zinni on an 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. Together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life and empowering the people you love. The toolkit 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. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Back here in the studio with Pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day.

So blessed to be secure and I love the illustration here on adoption. It's no offense. It's no original thought to you, Pastor Alan. It's in the Bible, right?

Amen. God comes to us. This is love, not that we first loved God.

He loved us. And I think that's why adoption really becomes the dominant image of what it means to be in the family of God. Elsewhere, of course, we know there's being born anew or being born again, but the prevailing image is of adoption. And as we were just hearing, we know a lot about adoption in the Roman world in which Jesus was living and teaching and ministering. A father might want to adopt because he had no living heir. And sometimes he would adopt a slave and that slave would become his son and all debts were canceled that that slave might have had.

And that son gets all the privileges of sonship and that family and could never ever, according to Roman law, could never be disowned. So the very first thing that Jacob does in blessing Ephraim and NASA is he adopts them. And I think when we bless people, that's what we want to do. We are, in a sense, we're reenacting the adopting love of God. We're not literally adopting somebody.

We are figuratively though. We're saying this is the nature of God's love. I accept you when I bless you. I am showing you unconditional love and this is the nature of God. So God wants all of his children to know that they're adopted. That means to know for sure that you're fully and forever accepted by God and Jesus Christ. And even, Daniel, for those that are yet to know the Lord, I think the message is still so.

God loves you infinitely and he wants you to belong to him forever. Accept his love, you see. So it's the image of being secure in him to be adopted by him. Maybe this is a silly example, but in just about every romantic storyline, whether it's a sitcom or a drama story or a television program, you often will see the one who is insecure trying to win the love of another. And it usually doesn't work out. But as soon as there is confidence and as soon as there is security, then the person becomes totally attractive at the party. It is a recurring theme because that's a recurring theme of life. When we are insecure, we're really at our worst.

And I think every listener could identify that. When we've had our insecurities at the forefront of our heart, it makes us do odd things. But boy, when we're secure, we're at our best. When we're really secure, we don't have to be thinking about ourselves all the time. When we're really secure, we're not grabbing and grasping at life. In other words, secure people don't come across as needy.

They come across as, yeah, they're human just like everyone else, but they have a sense of deep value. And that enables you to be other centered, enables you to live with expectancy and on and on. So we don't want to create insecurity in people. We want to create security. And that's what blessing does. you