Faster Pastor and Heirs of Grace [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. From the moment you receive Jesus, He is working, He is speaking, He is whispering, and sometimes shouting. You are a child of God, and if you're a child of God, you're an heir, a co-heir with Christ. Believe it, God has said. Please believe it, because the territory that you have to take is at stake. Believe it, because you have a destiny. Believe it, because you are made for a great purpose.

You are His 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 Galatians, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina.

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Here is Alan Wright. You now have this intimate access to this man who previously you would not have had. You may have even been a slave, but now you're like a son, and you have access to an inheritance. You were adopted because you are loved, because you're wanted, because you have a destiny, and you're adopted because you have a rich Father in heaven who wants to pour out a spiritual inheritance into your life and leave a legacy for others and touch the world through you.

That's the image that Paul is using here. And I'd like to pause and just make a brief kind of parenthetical comment about the language that you see here in the ESV as in many of the translations that says adoption as sons. Because we've learned in recent years that there is something that is important about being sensitive in our language about gender so that we do not reinforce any idea of male superiority because we have just read that in Christ there is no male or female. And so we have sought to change language to be inclusive, we say sons and daughters or children. But here the language remains sons, and I think there's an important purpose for this, and it's because in the context Paul was writing, the firstborn son was the delight, not only the family, but was the honor of society. The firstborn son would receive a double portion of inheritance and a special blessing from his father. And what Paul is saying here is inclusive to men and women that you, because you're adopted, you're adopted like sons, because the inheritance flowed in that day, inheritance flowed through the firstborn son, what he's saying, whether male or female, understand that this is about your position. It's like we are all the firstborn son. You're adopted for that purpose.

Wouldn't that change everything? If I could go deep inside of you, wouldn't that change everything about how you view life? You're like God's firstborn son, adopted so that He could put an inheritance into you.

The plan of God has always been to make us heirs, to give us an inheritance, a territory, a realm of spiritual influence. And this intimacy that we have with God is conveyed through the expression that our heart cries out, Abba. We don't really have a good way to translate this. Probably it would be dada.

It would be like daddy, but not in the sense of just how casual it might seem, but in how intimate it is and how bold it is. And this is the way in which you can know that you're sons, because your sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And so the Spirit, Paul says elsewhere, is bearing witness to our spirit that we are sons. So verse 7, so you are no longer a slave, but a son, like a firstborn son, and if a son, then an heir through God. The plan of God has always been, since sin entered the world, to find a way to convince us that we are heirs of God.

There has been a progressive revelation and many hints and shadows and prophetic visions and words that all pointed to the coming of Christ. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were given an assignment, and they were blessed, and they were told that they had dominion in the earth. They were told that they were to have a form of rulership under God in the earth, and they were to be fruitful and multiply.

In other words, that they were to have a place of governance and be of great blessing to the whole earth. And this was God's plan for humanity and has never changed. But when sin came into the world and Adam and Eve forfeited their paradise, God didn't thwart His plan, but He began to unveil a redemptive plan with the question at hand, will I ever be able to convince my people who belong to me that they are also my heirs?

Or will they, since sin has entered the world, forever doubt that, have no assurance of it, and therefore live more like orphans? So He comes to Abraham, and He makes Abraham an incredible promise, and He says that you will have a territory, you'll have a land, you'll have governance. And He says, and you're going to be fruitful, and you're going to be a blessing, that you're going to have a son. The same promise, in other words, that was spoken to Adam and Eve is reinforced now through a covenant that is made with Abraham. But the question that continues is, will I really be a blessing?

Am I really an heir? Even Abraham and Sarah, even Abraham, the man of faith, they question it, they bring in Hagar, they wind up with Ishmael. But Isaac is born, and so it is that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob continues to try to assure His people. This is the image of Jacob. Jacob was the second born, and he didn't think that he would be an heir, and so he stole and connived and deceived and lied his way into trying to grab an inheritance, not knowing he'd already been predestined to be treated as though he were a first born.

The pattern just continues. That the people of God, when they fall into slavery, God hears the cry of the poor, and He delivers them. And you very soon realize that the story is about more than a Red Sea parting and swallowing up the enemy. That the story is also about how will this people live with their freedom? Will they be able to embrace their freedom?

Or will they act like children, like orphans, and therefore no different than slaves? For when they send people into the Promised Land to inspect it and spy out the land, those spies come back with a bad report, and essentially they say, We can't take it. You know what they're saying is that we're not heirs after all. If they had believed it was theirs, they would have taken it. But they didn't believe it.

They couldn't see themselves as heirs. This is what Paul's saying. That as you continue to think like that, even if God has brought you through a Red Sea, but you keep thinking like a child, the child is really no different than a slave. And here they are longing to go back to Egypt when God has given them an inheritance.

This is what Paul's saying. Is that see in a spiritual way, not a physical land, not a physical piece of property in Palestine, but see your life as one who has been delivered by the great outstretched arm of God. By the blood of the Lamb, you have been set free. And believe that you are heirs, heirs in Christ. See your life in this way. Look upon life this way.

Don't see life as if you are a slave and you're just barely getting by. Look upon it as you are the one in whom have been deposited the spiritual riches of the kingdom of God. The very power of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the power, Paul says in Ephesians, is at work in you, towards you, through you. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work within you. And that Holy Spirit comes into your heart and He begins to tell you from the moment you receive Jesus, He is working, He is speaking, He is whispering and sometimes shouting. You are a child of God.

And if you're a child of God, you're an heir, a co-heir with Christ. Believe it, God is saying. Please believe it because the territory that you have to take is at stake. Believe it because you have a destiny. Believe it because you are made for a great purpose.

You are His heir. Something has to shift where instead of thinking you're just here to kind of get by. Because you start seeing yourself for who you really are. And beloved, that's when we overcome our hesitancies and our laziness.

We don't overcome our hesitancies and laziness by somebody just putting us back up under the law. It's when you come under Christ, in Christ. That's when you start saying, I think I can do something.

That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you, I love you, I'll never forsake you. Wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the 100th day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me. If you don't measure up, I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't 1% of conditional love poison the other 99%? Well, just 1% of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear. What if I don't measure up?

When might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. 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. Today is the final day we're 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. Well, I don't know if y'all been reading about it in the news.

I don't know if it was in the national news or maybe just local or maybe you just got to go online to find it. But some of y'all may not know. We got any racing fans here? We got any NASCAR fans?

Man, we ain't got that many NASCAR fans. I raced on the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday night in the rain. I was part of the Faster Pastor race, an annual...

It was. It's an annual event evidently down at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. I was invited by Daniel Britt of Joy FM where I serve as the on-air answer question guy, the staff pastor for Joy FM. He told me, he said, there's this Faster Pastor race that they're going to be racing school buses at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Did I have any interest in being in the race representing Joy FM and their bus? And everything was one of those things, you have these moments where everything within you goes, no, no, absolutely not. I've never driven a school bus. I've never been in a race and I don't know anything about racing.

So, no. And yet while I'm just texting back, I'm like, no. But what came out was, hmm, that sounds interesting. And I thought that it was going to be a kind of a ceremonial, you know, pastors kind of go out and politely ride a school bus around the track one time kind of thing. And I thought, I don't know how to drive a school bus.

But how hard... I mean, you know, this just felt like the kind of thing you shouldn't say no to. It just felt like one of those life moments that I should just say, yeah, okay. And so I said, sure. So on Tuesday, loaded up the family and we drove down to Charlotte not having any idea what I was getting ready to do.

Had no idea whatsoever. So I went online and looked up the faster pastors. It started making me nervous because they said the first thousand fans would receive a free lanyard or something. And I just looked at my wife and said, do you mean there are going to be over a thousand people there? And I realized it was kind of a big event that we were kind of the clown show in the middle of the legends racing that was going on. And so we went down and we pulled up. I didn't know where to go, where to park or where to be exactly. I was just told I was supposed to meet somewhere in the infield. And I just pulled up and I told the parking attendant, I said, I'm a faster pastor.

And most of life is just acting like you belong there. And so I just said, I'm a faster pastor, where do I go? And he said, oh, drive around to the back of the speedway to gate 26. So I just drove around the gate 26. There were two security guards there and they looked at me like, what are you doing?

And I said, I'm a faster pastor. And they said, okay, we'll sign in everybody's names here and signatures here in the car. And I signed them and he said, okay, go through that tunnel right there.

And so I just drove through the tunnel of the Charlotte Motor Speedway right into the infield and parked. And they gave us a briefing in the media center there. The briefing lasted about 15 seconds. I needed like an hour and a half of briefing on this.

I thought there was going to be a lot of briefing, a whole lot of instruction. And I was pretty worried because they drew out of a hat, eight of us racing. And I drew number seven, which is second to last. And the guy that drew number one, this was kind of scary. It was the head of a ministry called Sons of Thunder. And they had a racing garb on and they had a pit crew with them with all this stuff, and I'm like, and he drew number one. And I'm about to raise my hand and say, well, why don't we just go ahead and give the award to Son of Thunder there and call this thing off. And Daniel Britt, the manager that runs Joyfim, he says, I'm glad you're doing this because it might have been me otherwise. I'm like, it's not too late.

It's not too late. I had to raise my hand. It's one of the most embarrassing things.

I had to raise my hand and I said, yeah, just one quick. What are we doing? Where are we racing?

What are we doing? And I told one of my most embarrassing, I got one of the staff down there at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and this was embarrassing. I said, I don't know how to drive a bus.

I said, can you just tell me a little bit about how to use the mirrors and stuff? And he started snickering. He said, there's no mirrors on the bus. He said, you just look straight ahead.

He said, everybody, I promise you, they're going to be worrying about themselves. And I went and took a look at the bus and they decorated all the buses with names on it all. And I realized these buses are banged up pretty bad.

Why are these buses so dented and bruised? They put earbuds in my ears so the radio tower could talk to me. And I put on this big helmet. And I made the mistake because I'm so used to wearing wires for speaking that you run it out your back and put it up here. And so I'd run the wire to the earbuds along my back. But then when I was sitting in the chair, it was stretching it and it was pulling the earbuds out of my ears. But in order to put them back in, I'd have to pull the mask up, take my glasses off, pull the big helmet off, and then put them back in, do this whole process again. And so I realized that the race was starting to start and the left earbud had come completely out. And I could barely hear through the right one. And I just had this vision of I'm going to be driving out there and I've got no idea.

He's going to say, everybody pull over and I'm just going to be driving. I mean, it's like I could barely hear. And they said we could get a little practice and get a feel of the air brakes, you know, just take a little turn around and say, where do we do that? Well, there was a little gravel strip there just in the infield. And that was my practice was I got to feel the air brakes and how the thing steered and on this one little turn. I pulled out and I'm like, that was it. And I realized they're going to start this race. That's all the briefing and all the practice I get right there. And I'm just sitting there like this.

I'm strapped in with a five-point harness in this roll cage in this beat up school bus competing against the sons of thunder. I later learned that my wife was sitting up there with Daniel and some of the folks from Joy FM and my kids. And she made a comment that was insightful. She said, now this is totally out of my husband's comfort zone and totally out of his skill set.

She said, but what will be interesting here is I know what a competitor he actually is. And right about she was saying that. And they called us first. The bus started moving. And I just had this feeling. You ever had a moment like this? Adrenaline started pumping. Adrenaline started pumping.

And I just said to myself, you know what? I got a really big helmet on. I'm in a really big bus with roll bars around me. I got straps everywhere.

And probably not going to die tonight. And once I decided I was not going to die, I said, I am not going to stay in seventh place in this thing. Because my initial plan had been just, you know, I was relieved when I got number seven.

Because like who could blame me for coming in last? Just kind of putter along behind everybody else. But I got out there and I put the thing down to the floor, the pedal to the metal. And I started going. It was raining.

It was slippery. I did spin out twice. One time somebody hit me. My back bumper was almost ripped off.

They had to tow two of the school buses off of the thing during the course of the race. But I was making progress, man. I passed about three of those people. I was going and making those turns. I didn't care who I ran into. Just get out of my way.

I will take some territory. We finally pulled off. And the staff person just looked at all these passengers. What are the buses? The guy had to run over four barrels. He had four crushed barrels on the front of his school bus. The right front tire was just sliding around.

It was like he was a sled going around. A third bus had to get towed at the very end. So the five of us that actually made it off were pretty proud. My back bumper was just totally sticking completely out. And the staff person said, y'all tore these things up.

And the passengers were just out like high-fiving each other. Some Methodists want it. But from now on, I would like for you to refer to me as the faster pastor. Here's what happens with the gospel.

This is what happens, really. Something much more powerful than adrenaline. The presence of God, His Holy Spirit, comes into the heart of the believer. And you start all of a sudden looking at your life. And the more you're assured, I'm going to live forever. I'm promised eternity with Him forever.

I'm His treasured possession. I'm in error. Once this begins to dawn on you, something shifts in your thinking.

You're just saying, I'm going to safely ride around to the back of the pack. Something in you goes, if I'm in error, that means I must have some territory to take. And you start living your life as one spiritually rich, empowered to bless the world. You run the race of life as an heir with confidence, not an orphan who has fear. For you have been delivered by God's great work through Jesus Christ. You have been adopted by His initiative. And His Holy Spirit is within you crying, Father, I'm your heir, and that is the gospel. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at PastorAlan.org. Imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you, I love you, I'll never forsake you. Wouldn't you feel cherished? But what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said, I'm not sure you're good enough for me. If you don't measure up, I don't think I'll love you anymore.

Wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days? Wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent? Well, just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace. The tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear. What if I don't measure up?

When might I be rejected? When the Judaizers infiltrated the Galatian church, the Apostle Paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law. Alan Wright's 12-message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace. It's called Galatians and that's the gospel.

Discover the purity and power of the grace of God. 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. Today is the final day we're offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Alan, this is really about vision and keeping your eyes on your calling, your true identity and what Jesus has done for you.

You're standing with God. Yes, yes. And hear the urgency. Get rid of the slave woman. Get rid of slavery in your life. Get rid, cast it out. This is the fervor that spiritually what we're saying here is the pieces of shame, the little bits of law, everything that leads you into a mentality of slavery and fear, spiritually speaking. Get rid of that. And instead embrace only the purity of the gospel. It is that important. And what a vivid, vivid picture because it is, Daniel, in the end, the difference between freedom and slavery. And so it's my prayer for every single listener today, that by the power of the gospel, that by the power of the grace of the Lord Jesus, that you will be set free. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.