You're in Christ [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. And the reason that you can be assured and have faith quickened in your heart when you go to bed tonight that you belong to God and all the blessings belong to you is because you're in Christ and Christ and the Son and the Father had made a covenant that can never be broken.

You're in Christ. 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 Ephesians 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. It can be yours 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. Contact us at PastorAlan.org.

That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. To be in Christ means to be in the family of Christ, or if I could put it figuratively, it would be to have the DNA of Christ. And I mean it figuratively, spiritually speaking. So the way the Bible describes the human situation is actually quite simple. Is that there was originally one man that was created. And this is why it's important that we do understand there was literally a moment in time in which God made the first human being. There was a first human being and his name was Adam. And Adam, in the mystery of God's design, therefore became the father of all humanity.

In other words, if you were to be able to do this and trace your heritage back, then you'd find out that every single one of us has the same great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, thousand times great, great grandfather, Adam. So you could say in a very real and literal sense, every human being that's been born has been born in Adam. We all came from Adam, every single one of us. Now here's the problem, Adam fell into sin. And so everyone that was born in Adam was born in sin.

Because of Adam's sin, his sweet and beautiful fellowship with God was interrupted and Adam experienced distance from God because of his own rebellion. So every single human being is born in Adam. They're born in sin.

They're born with a distance from God. And what the Bible says is that when Jesus came, that he came as a human being like a second Adam. And the difference was that this second Adam, Jesus, the fully human, never sinned.

He never once did anything that was wrong. So if someone could be in the second Adam, then instead of being in sin, they would be in his holiness. And what happens when you accept Jesus Christ is that you are transferred from being in Adam to being in the second Adam. You're transferred from being in sin to being in Christ. So the first way to understand being in Christ is it means you're in the family of Christ. You are in the lineage.

You are in the DNA of Christ. The second way that I envision it, it means that you are legally connected to the family of Christ. It means that you are legally connected to Christ.

It means that you are incorporated into Christ. Now any business person could understand this word incorporated because it's what a business does. To grant itself a whole new set of laws by which it operates as an incorporated entity. It means that their tax laws are different. And it means that no individual in the corporation is therefore individually liable.

It's the corporation. So it's like even as a church, though we're a non-profit, we are incorporated. And so what that means is if somebody should ever sue the church, imagine such a thing, that no individual is being sued, it's a corporation that's sued. Incorporate, in meaning into, and incorporation comes from the word for body, in corpus.

So it means you're into a body. Now to be in Christ means that you are incorporated into the body of Christ. You are legally, permanently legally connected to Christ. So in a spiritual sense, just understand we're not just incorporated in a legal sense as a church. We are incorporated spiritually. We are incorporated together. Oh, I love it.

I love it. Because you see what this means is that if you're part of the corporation, that every single one who is part of the corporation, every shareholder in it, if that corporation is doing well, every single one of them benefits. And what it means is that if there's persecution that arises, then those that you're incorporated with, they share the fight against the persecution. Do you see what this means, beloved?

Do you see what this means, beloved? What this means is that because you're incorporated in Christ, it means that there is no benefit that is granted to Christ that you do not share in. That if you are persecuted and you suffer, that Jesus is persecuted and suffers with you. When Saul of Tarsus, when Jesus came and visited him, you know Saul that later became the apostle Paul? And when Jesus came and revealed himself to him, not why do you persecute those Christians?

He said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Because every single Christian in the first century and every single Christian now and ever since has been incorporated into Christ himself. All of the benefits that are bestowed upon Christ become yours.

And any persecution that you endure, he stands with you, the God of the universe. Thirdly, it not only means that you're legally connected, it means you're intimately connected with Christ. Imagine as we have been with all of the fairy tale stories of a young woman who is very poor and she goes to work at a very rich estate. And while there, she and the son of the rich landowner, they fall in love and they're eventually married. And the father loves his only son so much that when he marries this young servant girl, that she becomes part of the family, not just legally, but because of an intimate love relationship. And so now her status changes totally because she's married to the father's son. And she's accepted in a whole new way because the son is so beloved of the father that now you would say of this, what used to be servant girl, that she is now accepted in the beloved.

That's what's happened for you spiritually. It's not just that there's been a legal incorporation into Christ, but there's an intimate love relationship when you're in Christ that he loves you. And the father's love for the son is such that even if the father didn't set his love upon you from the foundation of the world, he would love you and accept you because he loves his own son so much and you're married to him. Fourthly, it means to be in Christ that you're in the citizenship of Christ's kingdom. It's like saying I'm an American and therefore I have many rights just because I was born into this magnificent country. I have many rights. If you're an American, you have the right to vote in this country.

If you're not a citizen of this country, you don't have a right to vote, correct? I have a right to a fair trial if I'm accused of something. And I don't even walk around every day necessarily having to think about these rights, but I'll tell you one thing. As soon as one of those rights is violated, then I'm going to stand up and say, no, I'm an American citizen and I have these rights, you see? Because I'm in America. I am a citizen of America. In fact, if I were in a foreign country and I were even being mistreated there, you know the first thing I would say to them? I am an American citizen.

And you know what I would mean by that? I mean like, if you mistreat me, the entire country of the United States of America is behind me. And I didn't do anything to earn that. I just was born as a citizen of these United States. And what happens when you're a Christian is that you are born again and you're born again into a new citizenship of the kingdom of Christ. You're in Christ in the way that you're, if you're an American, that you're in America. You're in Christ the way in which you're in citizenship of a country. And therefore, all the rights and privileges belong to you.

Fifthly, to say that you're in Christ means that you are represented by Christ, who is your champion. He is your advocate. He is your representative.

And what that means is that what he does, he does really for you as if it were you, even though it is not you. That's what a true representative does. And where we've learned about this wonderfully in recent years is from the story of David and Goliath. David, who is sent by his father from Bethlehem to take bread to his fearful brothers who receive him not. And yet, David goes out to fight against Goliath on behalf of the whole army. It was a battle of champions. The Philistine army said, we're going to send out our best warrior, you send out your best warrior, and we'll let the two representatives fight it out. And whichever one of those two representatives, those two champions wins, they win it for the whole army. And the army is there representing the whole nation.

And so the two representatives win it or lose it for the whole nation. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. The Apostle Paul said we need to learn to bless even our enemies. What is this mysterious biblical principle called blessing?

Why is it so powerful? How can we learn to bless others? In his newest book, The Power to Bless, Alan Wright answers those questions and more as he leads readers into a deep revelation of how anyone can learn to speak life and empower the people they love.

Contact us today to get your copy of the Amazon bestselling book. And when you do, for a very limited time, we will send you four additional resources to help you discover the power to bless. Along with the beautiful hardcover book, you'll receive Pastor Alan's video masterclass called Speak Life and its corresponding study guide. Also, we'll send you Pastor Alan's brand new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Everyone needs to be blessed and anyone can learn to bless others. So contact us today to get the Power to Bless bundle. Pastor Alan's book, two video courses and two study guides. Learn more at pastoralan.org.

That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. So you must understand that when David goes out to fight Goliath, he carries with him the entire nation of Israel. He carries in him, represented by him, the whole people of God. And so when he defeats Goliath, he defeats Goliath on behalf of, as the champion and representative of the army of Israel. And therefore the whole people of God are victorious. And it's not that they just seem victorious. They actually are victorious because David has actually won the battle. That's why they let out the war cry and they chase the Philistines down for 10 miles and they plunder them because they are the victorious army.

It wasn't something they actually did, but because their representative did it, they actually won. You see? So if you have a lawyer who goes to court and pleads a case for you, then that lawyer is your representative or your advocate is actually as if it were you before the judge. And this is who Jesus is. And so to be in Christ means you have an advocate. You have an advocate in the heavenlies forever.

You have a champion. You have a representative. Whatever Jesus represents to the father is as if it were you. Whatever Jesus represents in defending you against the accuser's threats, it is as if it were you. But he is the one, the sinless one, who died for you, who rose from the grave to prove eternal power over death. That one reigns in power as your advocate. You're in Christ. He's your representative.

Wow! It means also, number six, that to be in Christ is to be in an unbreakable covenant that's been established by Christ. An unbreakable covenant that's been established by Christ. The beautiful picture of this that we've seen over the years is another David story. It's a story about David being in a covenant relationship with his best friend, Jonathan. Jonathan was the son of the evil king Saul. And David and Jonathan made a covenant. And Jonathan said, I'm going to warn you and protect you from my father's jealousy.

And what I want you to do, David, is that once I'm gone, I want you to show steadfast love to my descendants. And they loved each other as their own souls. And they made a covenant with agreements of benefits to one another.

And it was of a deep, deep friendship love that they shared. And so what happened was Saul and Jonathan were killed. And David was exalted to the throne.

And one day he's walking around the palace. And David, just the chief thing on his mind was the covenant. And so he said, Is there anybody left of the house of Saul that I could bless for Jonathan's sake? And what they did was they went and they found a man that David had never met, a man named Mephibosheth, who had been hiding, who was disabled, who was feeling ashamed and was extremely frightened.

And they brought him to the palace. And David said, Because I made a covenant with your father, Jonathan, you're going to be eating at my table as if you were one of my sons for the rest of your life. You see, he didn't even know who Mephibosheth was. And it didn't really matter if Mephibosheth could do anything for David or not, because the benefits that came to Mephibosheth came because of an unbreakable covenant between Jonathan and between David. And Mephibosheth became the recipient of those covenantal blessings. And what's happened for us, beloved, is that the father made us a covenant with the son. And the son kept up his end of the covenant. He never sinned. He never disobeyed.

He went to the cross and he rose from the dead. And what it means is that therefore anybody that accepts Christ is in Christ. And Christ, having been an eternal, insufferable covenant with the father, therefore anyone who's in him is also in that covenant. And it's an unbreakable covenant.

Because this covenant didn't have anything to do with your performance. So whether you're having a good day or a bad day, it can't break this covenant. The reason that you can be assured when you wake up in the morning that you belong to God and all of his blessings are for you. And the reason that you can be assured and have faith quickened in your heart when you go to bed tonight that you belong to God and all the blessings belong to you is because you're in Christ and Christ and the son and the father had made a covenant that can never be broken. You're in Christ.

And finally it means this, and I know it means much more, but these seven things I just illustrate to you. It means that you're qualified by Christ. To be in Christ means to be qualified by Christ. Colossians 1 says you have been qualified for your inheritance in the saints in this kingdom of his own beloved son. That you have been legally qualified. This position has been earned for you and it has been given to you.

And therefore it's yours. If Michael Phelps is the best swimmer in the world and he's on a relay team and they win the Olympic gold medal, they don't just put the gold medal around Michael Phelps neck. They give it to everyone on the team. And the other teammates might say, well, we won because we got the best swimmer in the world on our team. But the fact of the matter is that they were qualified for the gold medal even though it was because they were in partnership with Michael Phelps.

They're just as much deserving of the gold medal. Well, this is what has happened for us in Christ. You have actually been qualified. You've been qualified for every spiritual blessing in Christ. You have been qualified for every spiritual blessing in Christ. And it's happened because of what Christ has done for you.

It's extraordinary news because this completely takes you out of the picture in terms of whether or not you're having an up day or a down day. And instead it puts everything squarely, simply, purely upon just our capacity to believe such an extraordinary thing. Just to have faith that this has actually come to pass. We have been qualified. But it doesn't just mean that you've been qualified legally. It means that you have also been actually qualified by being empowered by the investment of the Holy Spirit into your life. The very power of God, the dunamis of God, the power of God himself qualifies you. You not only have the badge of authority, but you also have the dunamis, the power of that authority that accompanies it. That's who we are in Christ. Oh my. Oh, if we could only know this.

We have both the exousia, the authority of what has been done to qualify us, but we also have the power of the Holy Spirit, the God of the universe. You're in Christ, Christ in you. I saw this little boy at the beach this past week. He was two years old probably. And he was standing at the surf's edge and the little waves just touching his toes. And he was just looking out into the ocean and the little cute little thing.

It caught my attention. I looked up from my book and I looked over and all of a sudden he was just crying at the top of his lungs. Little thing was just, he was heartbroken. And he was just wailing and he was just pointing out in the ocean. And so I look out in the ocean and what I see is there's his dad just waving at him. His dad, I could tell this is the only child in the family. And first time dad, I know exactly what the feeling. He's like, I'm going to go out here and get five minutes to just swim in this ocean, you know, without having this baby on my arms.

I'm going to get five minutes to myself. But he couldn't get five minutes to himself because he had that little toddler standing there just kind of wanted to get out there, just coming. You know, why can't I be with my father where he is?

The waves were too big for him. And it was part of me. I just thought, you know, I couldn't do it because I'm a stranger.

And, you know, then they'd come and arrest me or something. But, you know, I wanted to go over and get that little boy and just carry him out to his father, you know. But what I was wishing was if he had a big brother, you know, maybe a much older big brother, strong strapping kid, to come over and pick him up and just carry him out there to his father, somebody that could qualify him to go and be where his father is in the deep. And I just want you to know the Holy Spirit has been poured out into your life. And you've not only been qualified legally, but you have the very spirit of the living God in you to carry you into the deep places. And where the father is, there you may be also. Oh, what this means. I wish I could read to you 216 references.

I give you a few of them. Your faith is in Christ. Your redemption is in Christ. Romans 3, Romans 6, you're alive in Christ. Romans 6, 23, you have eternal life in Christ. Romans 8, no condemnation for you in Christ. You're free in Christ.

You cannot be separated from God's love. Romans 12, you are all one body in Christ. Romans 16, you are approved by God in Christ.

You're approved by God in Christ. You're sanctified in Christ. You've been chosen in Christ, resurrected in Christ, triumphant in Christ, 2 Corinthians 2, 14.

Veil has been lifted for you in Christ. You're a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, in Christ, reconciled to God in Christ. You have liberty, Galatians 2, 4, in Christ. Justified by faith in Christ, Galatians 2, 16. Sons and daughters of God in Christ.

You're all one in Christ. Raised to heavenly places, Ephesians 2, in Christ. Created for good works, Ephesians 2, in Christ. Been brought near to God. You can partake in God's promises, Ephesians 3. You've been forgiven in Christ. You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Your heart and your mind is guarded by peace in Christ, Philippians 4, 7. All your needs will be supplied according to God's riches in Christ. You're complete in Christ. Your faith is stable, Colossians 2, 5 says, in Christ. You can give thanks in everything, 1 Thessalonians 5, 18 says, in Christ. You can endure all things for the sake of others in Christ. Those who revile you because of your faith will be put to shame in Christ, 1 Peter 3.

On and on it goes. This is who you are. You are in Christ. So if you're going to take a selfie, make sure you do it with the lens of the Word of God that tells you who you are. You're in Christ, and that's the gospel.

Alan Wright. Wow, today's teaching as we kick off a brand new series in Ephesians. You are in Christ.

Please stay with us. Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word. And too often we feel stumped when others need our blessing.

Why is it so powerful? How can we learn to bless others? In his newest book, The Power to Bless, Alan Wright answers those questions and more as he leads readers into a deep revelation of how anyone can learn to speak life and empower the people they love.

Contact us today to get your copy of the Amazon best-selling book. And when you do, for a very limited time, we will send you four additional resources to help you discover The Power to Bless. Along with the beautiful hardcover book, you'll receive Pastor Alan's video masterclass called Speak Life and its corresponding study guide. Also, we'll send you Pastor Alan's brand new video course, The Power to Bless, perfect for small groups or individual devotions.

It also comes with a study guide. Everyone needs to be blessed and anyone can learn to bless others. So contact us today to get The Power to Bless bundle, Pastor Alan's book, two video courses and two study guides. Learn more at pastoralan.org.

That's pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860. Alan, this teaching from Ephesians is really going to boost our self-esteem, but it's not in what we've done where we find this movement, this satisfaction. It's in Christ and knowing how he's called us and named us. Yeah, the modern secular self-esteem movement had a piece of the biblical truth, but only a piece of it.

And why it would come up short is that when we simply try to tell ourselves we're good and yet we know that we still sin, we wonder how can that be true? And what we're seeing is something much deeper than that. And this is our invitation. Everyone listening is to deeply, deeply meditate upon who you are in Christ. You really do have a new identity. You're a new creature and it has changed everything that Jesus has died for you. So what this means is it's not the sinner simply trying to boost his esteem. It is the one who's been called a saint, discovering who he really is. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.