Freedom for the Next Generation Through Jubilee [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

You are a child, therefore, of the conquest. And what it means, according to Paul in Romans, is sin shall no longer be your master. You are no longer a slave to sin. 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 called Unleashed as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. You can find out more about it and even receive a copy of your very own for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer at pastoralan.org. Find out more about it and make your request. Or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Again, our website, pastoralan.org. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. There are just some things that you will never get in this world except by the favor of God. God's favor can open up doors that you could never open up. God's favor could fill your heart with blessedness and gratitude in a way that you could never cause of your own effort. And it was for this reason we just made a huge attempt with our kids to just everything we could possibly do to speak into their life that you are blessed and highly favored.

I think it's absolutely one of the most important things any parent could ever do is just get it into your child that you are blessed and favored. Look for favor. Look for blessing in your life. Listen, a lot of bad things happen in this world and we have trouble like everybody else.

But where's the focus of our hearts and where's the focus of our lives? I just wanted my kids to just know they're blessed. You know, when I was becoming a pastor, everybody's like, oh no, your kids, they're going to be pastor's kids. You know how they all turn out. You know how bad that is. You know, and they're saying it's because they're going to feel so deprived. They're going to have so much pressure on them and everything.

I said, well, how am I going to combat this? And one of the things we just decided was we're going to just keep pointing out to them what a blessing it is to be the pastor's kids. And so I remember it, Bennett would be two and a half years old. He and Andy would come over and visit me in my office and I'd talk to him a little bit and I'd say, bye, give him a hug. And I'd say, oh, wait a minute, Bennett, Bennett, Bennett. And I'd give him a pencil or something.

I'd give him a sticky notepad or something, you know. And I'd say, you know why you're getting that, don't you? I said, you're the pastor's son. He's like, ah, it's awesome. And every time that anything good would happen that was related to the fact that we were the pastor, we're like, that's because you're the pastor's kid.

They think it's the greatest thing in the world. We never talked about the fact on Saturday when everybody else was going to the football game and doing all the stuff they're doing that dad's at home studying for a sermon. But on Monday, when we would go out to eat and we'd be getting our pizza or whatever, and there's no crowd because everybody's back at work, we'd look around, we'd say, look at this. We're the only one here. Look at all this. We don't even have to wait for a table.

We just come in. You know why, don't you? Why, why? Because you're the pastor's kids.

We're off on Monday. You're like, this is awesome. So bless my heart so much. I've told the other pastors this, you know, and last year, we, it's become a new custom. We take all the, all the staff that have young kids and, and we go get two of the big wagons at the Tanglewood Park.

If you've not been there, big Forsyth County Park, and they have all this big light show there. And you can ride through and see it in these, in these, these big wagons. And so we, we all in there last year. And I was at one point sitting right up next to little Annie Johnson, Pastor Barrett and Ashley's little girl, who's cute as a button and talkative.

And I was just, I was having a ball, you know, I'm just surrounded by all these little kids and we're looking at the lights and we're doing this, hanging out and stuff. And then our wagons got to go down a different route that the cars weren't going on. And she said, why are we going down this way? And I said, because, Annie, I said, we're special. And she was like, oh, I said, yeah. I said, you know, why we get to go down this thing. And I was going to tell her, it's because this is Rinaldo Church and we've got a special thing going.

I said, you know, why we're getting to take this special route without any blinking eyes. She said, yeah, cause my dad's a pastor. Favor will get you what nothing else could get you. And your entire life with God is a life of unmerited favor. That's what Jesus announced. He said, this is the year of the Lord's favor. This is grace come to pass.

Jubilee. But to understand, you also need to understand Sabbath. Because what Leviticus 25 literally reads is you shall count off a Sabbath of Sabbath years. So what would happen is every week in Israel's rhythm, they had this Sabbath. And the Sabbath was a day of, of rest and refreshment and relationship. It was, it was the way Israel thought about its life together. I've talked to people who lived in Alaska and they said, they don't call it how many years have you been there. They say, how many winters has it been?

Yeah. Well, this is the way Israel was about Sabbath. Everything was about Sabbath. How many Sabbaths? When they're talking about Jubilee, they're talking about really how many Sabbaths until we get to Jubilee.

And so it's seven, seven. And the Sabbath, the Sabbath was, it's just so hard to describe what it was when it was at its best. I mean, obviously by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees religious leaders had made it into something so legalistic that Jesus had to, had to rebuke them and remind them that man wasn't made for the Sabbath. Sabbath was made for the man.

It was a gift from God. And the Sabbath's not anything for us to take legalistically. Paul even had to say to the Colossians, who's bewitched you, you feel like you have to keep a Sabbath day, meaning in a legalistic way.

But the principle of this was that there would be a rhythm to life in which you would have ongoing reminder that you're not a human doing, you're a human being. Interestingly, the scripture gives two different reasons why God mandated the Sabbath, each in the listing of the 10 commandments. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 11, we read, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So because God rested, we rest.

We're made in the image of God. And God Himself celebrated the goodness of creation and rested. God Himself is saying it doesn't have to be productive all the time.

Sometimes it can just be. But the second reason is in Deuteronomy's account of the 10 commandments, and it lists an additional reason here. In Deuteronomy 5, verse 13, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

And then it picks up later, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So in Deuteronomy, the reason to keep the Sabbath day is that the Lord your God has brought you out of your captivity, and you're not a slave. And the reason that this is important is because slaves were not entitled to Sabbath.

Only the free people were. And so if you practice Sabbath, you're proving you're not a slave. If you can stop and just be, you are proving that you are not a slave to the pressures of productivity.

You're not a slave to the shame that tells you that you have to be something more than you are now in order to be valuable. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind, you're in for a wonderful surprise. God's Word and God's Spirit were never meant to be separated. Word and Spirit always belong together.

The key to abundant life in Christ isn't knowing your Bible. The secret isn't being filled with the Spirit. The answer is both Word and Spirit. Though some traditions emphasize studying scripture and some traditions emphasize the Spirit, the path to real Christian growth is the fullness of both Word and Spirit. As someone once said, all Word, no Spirit, you dry up. All Spirit, no Word, you blow up. Both Word and Spirit, you grow up. When you make a gift of support this month, we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on CD or digital download titled Word and Spirit.

It's about the beauty of balance. Embrace the fullness of God's Word and His Spirit and grow like never before. With Word and Spirit, you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well. And remember, when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries, you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day. 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 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. Sabbath was, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, to be called a delight. That's it. A delight. Jewish author Abraham Heschel called it a palace in time.

Carve out time and in it there is something royal about rest and relationship. It is countercultural in a world that is constantly running after things. Sabbath isn't about things. It's about the essence of your being and relationships. It's a delight. Do you know in Hebrew there's no word for thing? The only word that they ever use that gets translated thing is the word dabar, which is actually the word for word. Words are what matter, not things.

So just wonderful. I understand this. I absolutely, you know from my preaching, absolutely believe there's no legalistic requirement for a Sabbath. But beloved, we have lost something and I don't know what we're going to do. Because if you're in sales and you say I'm going to take that day off and you don't call somebody back, they're probably going to call somebody else who is going to take the call.

And now if you don't get back to somebody in 10 minutes, I mean I don't know what we're going to do but I'm just saying it's a crisis. We have lost the capacity to be mindful of a moment. And what we don't ever seem to have is that time when you not only can take time off and just relate to others and laugh and be free and rest, but to do so without a nagging conscience that is deceived and tells you you can't even enjoy it when you do try to relax. I'm talking about Sabbath in Israel was the you can sit back and just watch the football game and not ever have the thought I ought to be cleaning the gutters. And we don't even know what that feels like anymore. But in Israel what I'm saying is that when there was Sabbath, the beauty of it was that not only were you allowed not to work on that day, but it was expected that you wouldn't work.

So nobody's going to pressure you to and there's no shame on you if you do not work. And I think you know where in life do we even have this? You know there are a couple of memories that come back to me.

I'm just trying to give you an idea of Sabbath so you can understand Jubilee. I had a couple of memories that come back to me. One from my childhood. I didn't realize till I grew up how luxurious it was and what a blessing it was that when I was young my family took two weeks at Myrtle Beach each summer.

The Driftwood Motel. It was wonderful. I realized now what a lavish thing to get two weeks of vacation at the beach and just romp on the sand and play with my brothers and swim and surf in the ocean and frolic in the pool and eat food and see food and walk down to the arcade at Myrtle Beach and play skeeball. It was just and I think back at that time and I'm like we're here and we got two weeks of this and nobody's distracted with something else and I just to me that was Sabbath. I was like I'm supposed to be here on this right now. There was never this pull and tug like you really ought to be somewhere else studying for something right now or you ought to be no you're supposed to be what you're supposed to do today play on the beach.

That's the expectation. Let me tell you one other time in my life I thought this is what Sabbath really feels like where nobody expects you to do anything honeymoon. I just I've told my wife I said we just you know we just need another honeymoon. We just need another honeymoon because you know what you're going you're going your honeymoon and I mean it's not only just a delight of being newly married but it's nobody bothers you on your honeymoon. Nobody bothers you your honeymoon. We had one our honeymoon. It's a trip to New Orleans and we just walked around New Orleans and ate food and just did whatever we wanted to do and nobody nobody's bugging you. Nobody expects you to return a call.

It's your no no no. In fact if you started working on your honeymoon you'd be like what are you doing it's your honeymoon no. What I'm saying is that in ancient Israel this was the rhythm every week for Sabbath and if you were poor on the day of preparation the day before Sabbath you'd find some way to get a scrawny chicken and have you a nice Sabbath meal.

And all of humanity is just looking for some opportunity to know that you matter not because of what you produce but because of who you are and to really be able to rest. And Jubilee Leviticus 25 verse 8 says is a Sabbath of Sabbaths of Sabbaths. So what happened is every seventh day everybody rested. Every seventh year they let the land lie fallow and rest. There was partial partial cancellation of debt and partial some slaves were set free every seventh year but every seventh of the seventh years every Sabbath of seven years every Sabbath of Sabbaths Jubilee.

So like if something can be holy but there's a difference between holy and holy of holies. Someone could be a king but then there's such a thing as king of kings and what I'm saying is that Jubilee is both the unmerited favor of God and the Sabbath of Sabbath of Sabbaths Jubilee. Imagine you're a slave but you know Jubilee is coming. It changed your outlook or maybe your grandfather had owned land that had been apportioned after Joshua had led the people in the conquest of Canaan but maybe your father died young and your mother had to sell off the land and you had no inheritance and were a menial laborer but when Jubilee arrived you're gonna get your granddaddy's land back and be an heir.

If you were in big debt and it stayed on your mind every day Jubilee arrives though and you're set free. So what Jesus did for us is He set us free because the God of this age has blinded the eyes of those that don't know Jesus but when Jesus comes into your life He sets you free from the dominion of the darkness and escorts you into a new kingdom. You are a child therefore of the conquest and what it means according to Paul in Romans is sin shall no longer be your master. You are no longer a slave to sin because the cross of Jesus Christ has disarmed all of the dark principalities because the accusations against you can only be connected to you if indeed there is cause. But when you are forgiven and reckoned as righteous because you have simple faith in Jesus Christ then what voice of the accuser can land with you? And so you get set and so you get set free and to have your debt paid means that the debt of sin by which you in your sin owe God and a penalty is due to you Jesus takes that full penalty so the debt is cleared from your name and you have no more debt and to say that the land is returned is to say that Jesus has come and the people of God are now made in the head not the tail and this spiritual kingdom of an invisible territory we are given the promised land and we have an inheritance so rich that Paul says to the Ephesians you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. What this means is that you are not stuck you are not in debt and you are not an orphan it means instead when you accept Jesus Christ you are a debt-free heir who has been given some new land to rule over it means that everything has been reset behold the new has come and the old is gone and anyone in Christ is a new creation. Might be a strange image but I see it like this an old bunch of people in jail and there's only one guy left and his name is Jesus and I might be a strange way to put it but I see him run around the corner and the devil's running to the can but Jesus gets there first and kicks it and everybody goes free and that's the gospel. Alan Wright and today's teaching freedom for the next generation through Jubilee it's a conclusion to our series on Unleashed and Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thoughts for the day in just a moment. If you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind you're in for a wonderful surprise God's word and God's spirit were never meant to be separated word and spirit always belong together the key to abundant life in Christ isn't knowing your Bible the secret isn't being filled with the spirit the answer is both word and spirit though some traditions emphasize studying scripture and some traditions emphasize the spirit the path to real Christian growth is the fullness of both word and spirit as someone once said all word no spirit you dry up all spirit no word you blow up both word and spirit you grow up when you make a gift of support this month we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on cd or digital download titled word and spirit it's about the beauty of balance embrace the fullness of God's word and his spirit and grow like never before with word and spirit you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well and remember when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day 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 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org back here in the studio with Alan Wright and our parting good news sought from the day as we depart this whole series and really might have to make mention again of the way we we titled it with the the image of the dog running free a well-trained dog has that freedom and a good way to end on Jubilee on Jubilee with the image of a cosmic game of kick the can yeah right and uh anybody that remembers that from their childhood that that notion of suddenly going free because of one person's power to deliver and I can't think of a better way to leave our listeners for this whole series than to say Jesus did a cosmic work of tremendous sacrifice and enormous power by giving his own life for you and it means in the end that you can be free freedom is not as society proposes having everything you want keeping every option open and having unlimited choices freedom is sweet and powerful because it comes through submission to Jesus Christ what looks like a very narrow option becomes the gateway to life abundant in Christ today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries you