You're an Heir [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

The devil is no longer your father and has no authority over your life, and your life is under the complete power, control, and grace of your new father, the father of light, the father who has made everything that exists, and the father who has adopted you, who owns you, and you belong to him, and you can never be estranged from him, and he'll never leave you, and he'll never forsake you, and so 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 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. And Captain Klein was a rough seagoing man who would frequent the bars and find himself in various tussles, but he had a gentle heart, and he had great affection for Jack. And Jack became the best first mate that Captain Klein ever had, the most hardworking. Jack was so determined. He was driven by his performance.

He wanted to be the best fisherman in the southeastern United States. And Captain Klein loved him, and he began to teach him all of the secrets. He took him in just like a son. And because Captain Klein didn't have a son of his own to leave all this to, one day he said to Jack, he said, Jack, he said, if you stick with me, he said, one day you'll not only be captain of this vessel, but you'll have all three of the vessels in my fleet, and this one day is basically going to all be yours.

And so Jack worked hard, and they were succeeding together. And it came to the time that Captain Klein was supposed to be retiring and handing it all over. And Captain Klein came to Jack, and he said, Jack, he said, I'm sorry.

He said, I'm not going to be able to give it to you right now. He said, my wife's got cancer, and I've got to keep working for a while. Things haven't worked out the way I thought, but it's still all yours.

If you can just hang in there with me for a couple more years, probably. And Jack was, that was the day that his orphan heart was exposed, because what happened was he said he got closed up and bitter and angry, and he went over to the next dock, and he spoke to another captain, and the captain said, yeah, you could come, and you could be on my boat, and I'll pay you twice what you're making right now. And so Jack went back over to Captain Klein and broke his heart, and he said, you're not giving me what you promised me, and so if you're not going to, then I'm going to go take this other job. And Captain Klein pleaded with him, he said, this is all going to be yours.

I'm just not ready right now. Jack, you're like a son to me. And Jack walked away. It's an orphan.

It's an orphan. He exposed his heart that day, that he was really not as interested in Captain Klein as a father as he was a dispenser, a supplier, a satisfier of Jack's own ambition. What was amazing was Jack later was called into the ministry. He went to Bible school. He gave up fishing, and even though he had been the top hook for several years on the other vessel, because he had walked away from Captain Klein, he went to Bible school.

He lived in poverty for the next 12 years. He had no inheritance, and Jack discovered grace and taught many of us that the orphan heart is always concerned about itself, and therefore never really able to just enjoy love. And so Paul, in describing what has happened for us as Christians after these magnificent words in the first two chapters of Ephesians, where he's describing how we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, even coming to the place of saying that we together with the Jews have been made the dwelling place of God, he now talks about something that is even more astounding, and that is the answer to the orphaned heart, and that is adoption as heirs. The whole narrative of Scripture is really not just about people who get saved. It is about a people who become heirs, people that were orphans and slaves, and they become heirs of God Himself. You see, being a Christian is not just people who were headed for hell, prayer, prayer, and then they're headed for heaven.

It's much more than that. It is people who were orphaned and slaves, spiritually speaking, who discover themselves to be adopted by faith in Christ, and they belong to God as His heirs. The concept of adoption is one that Paul speaks of often, as he does in Romans chapter 8 when he says, You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. So there's a particular kind of adoption that he has in mind, and it's the Roman practice of adoption. Now if you ever have... if you're a parent and you've been so blessed to be able to adopt, then you know the blessings. Of course, the challenges that come with it, but any of us who've just been able to witness the adoption process in somebody else's life, it's a particular delight.

When I was in seminary, I went to Jamaica and lived there in Kingston and just did mission work and learned much there in the inner city for a month, and we were all away from our families for that month of January. And of course, we were all missing our wives, and some had children back home, but there was a classmate of mine on that trip. His name was Rick, and he and his wife had been trying to adopt for years, and they'd been going through this long process, and their name had just never come up. And one night, a couple of nights before we were to return back to the United States, Rick got a phone call in Jamaica, and it was his wife, and she said, our name has come up.

There was a child that was thrown away in a trash can in Atlanta, and they want to know if we want this baby. And Rick said, yes, we want this baby. And I was there that night after he got off the phone of seeing a man's face who had just become a father.

Let me tell you what was really neat and a really delight was when we got back to the United States just a day and a half later, and we all came in, and I wanted to see my wife, hadn't seen her in a month, and I wanted to see her face and give her an embrace, but I'm telling you that I had one eye the whole time on Rick because Rick not only got to say hello to his wife, he got to meet their baby in the airport that day. I mean, that's cool. I mean, I'm just saying that if you could just, if you just had a moment to see a father's delight who has wanted to adopt and then adopts a baby like that and see his face and see what was going on in his heart, can you imagine the heart of God? This is who God is. He's a father, and he wants children to adopt. He wanted you. He delighted to adopt you. The Roman process of adoption is one that there's been, we have good records about and we understand how it worked from various historians. Some regular kind of adoptions like you might think, but customarily the process of adoption in the Roman Empire was that when there was a man and a woman who had no heir that oftentimes what they would do is they would have affection for a particular slave and would adopt the slave. That's the actual image of adoption in the New Testament is a particular kind of an orphan, an orphan who's also a slave, one who had been driven into slavery, divided from other family, and then has the affection of a father set upon him, though he's a slave, he is going to be adopted and adopted for the express purpose of becoming an heir.

And so he'll be treated like a firstborn son. And the passing on therefore of the inheritance was at the root of it. Justinian and his institutes outlined the process and called it adrogation, adrogation from the Latin word for ask because at the heart of the adoptive process was a moment in which there would be a question asked of the adopting father and the formal question would be posed do you desire that the person you're going to be adopt should become your lawful son and the adrogator, the one adopting, would say yes. And at that moment a legal process began to unfold and what would happen, at least five important things to know about this, is that the one being adopted, the adrogatus, was immediately brought into the full power of the adrogator. In other words, as a true son, we might call it power of attorney, but in other words, all the legal power over that son now rested in the adoptive father. Secondly, the property of the one being adopted, if there was any property which slaves had very little, would become the property of the father. So you would be adopted, but whatever you had, it became the property of your father. But thirdly, and this becomes very important, that any debts that the adrogatus, the one being adopted, any debts that he had, no matter how great, that as soon as he was adopted, all those debts were canceled.

So being adopted was a means by which all debt would be extinguished and there could be no legal hold on that person for any indebtedness to servitude either. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. How you see yourself determines how you live. In an 11 message series, Pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians. It'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesians series, but we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life.

Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? 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.

Do you see this? As soon as you were adopted in the Roman process, you had no more debt and nobody could make you a slave ever again. Fourthly, it meant that the one who was adopted now truly had a new family. So whatever family the one adopted had before was no longer legally his family.

Instead, he was legally part of the new family. So even if he had a father somewhere else or whatever, that man was no longer his father and the one who had adopted him was his father. In other words, adoption in Rome meant literally you get a new father. And fifthly, in the Roman adoption process, it was very clear that though a father could estrange, that is to disown, a biological son, Roman law forbade the estrangement of an adopted son. That once you're adopted in Roman law, you could not be estranged by your father ever. This is the image that Paul has when he speaks of you becoming an heir. He's saying you were like an orphan who was a slave and this process has taken place in the spirit.

This has taken place in the cosmos. That though we were born in Adam and we are all therefore like orphans and we're slaves, slaves to our own sin, slaves to elemental forces of the universe, slaves under the law, that though this is who we were, that what has happened is that God in His infinite mercy has looked upon you and it is though you could envision a scene in some heavenly courtroom where the father is asked, do you want to adopt this one as your son? And God said, yes, I want Allen. Yes, I want Kim.

Yes, I want you. And when the father said that, there was a legal process in the heavenlies that took place and all of the debt of the one being adopted must be erased. But there was a problem because there was a debt so great that there was no amount of money that could pay for it because the debt was an infinite debt. It had been sin committed against God and the wages of sin is death. And the only way in which this debt could be forgiven would be that there would also be a death and not just any death, but in order to get a new son, God would have to estrange a son.

He could never estrange an adopted son. And so the father looked at his son and sent Jesus, the only begotten son of the father into the world for this express purpose, that he would come to the cross and he would hang there and say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that God would look upon his firstborn, his only begotten, would look upon Jesus as if Jesus were an orphan.

An orphan like Jesus would hang there on the cross, feeling estranged from the father so that your debt would be canceled and that you could become a son of God. And what it means, beloved, is that all previous debts of sin are completely canceled, never can be brought up again. And it means that if you've been adopted by the son of God, you're going to be brought up again. And it means that if you've been adopted by God through grace, by faith, that you have a whole new family and that all the legal ties with your previous has been broken. What this means is that the devil is no longer your father and has no authority over your life and your life is under the complete power, control and grace of your new father, the father of light, the father who has made everything that exists and the father who has adopted you, who owns you and you belong to him and you can never be estranged from him and he'll never leave you and he'll never forsake you and so you are no longer a slave to sin.

And it means that you've not just moved from poverty to having some possessions, but this is where it gets extraordinary. You are a joint heir with Christ and what you're an heir of is you're an heir of God. And so it means you didn't just get a few possessions, it means that you have inherited the estate of God. And what this means is that whatever it is that Jesus has access to, you along with Jesus as a joint heir have access to. What I'm saying is that as the father loves Jesus, so the father loves you. That you though this just absolutely beggars our belief, this means that you and I are as much God's children as the son is to the father. What this means is that therefore you have within you the seal of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing an eternal inheritance, guaranteeing an eternal home.

What it means, beloved, is that you are no longer an orphan, but you have a home. So what is your inheritance? Well, I'd like to give you a list. Paul doesn't give a list and the reason that there is no list is because no eye has seen nor ear has heard.

The list is too grand, the list is too big. He just says in chapter one you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing. He just says you have a glorious inheritance in the saints.

He says that the riches of Christ are unsearchable. The reason for this, and if you think of this it will delight your soul and blow your mind. The reason for this is to understand yourself as a holy royal priesthood. Because when the people of God finally had the courage to go and take their inheritance and they went into the promised and they went into the promised land, what happened was they divided Canaan up and everybody got a portion of land. Every family, every tribe got a portion and they drew up the boundaries. This was their inheritance.

You get this land. But there was one tribe that didn't get any land. It was the tribe of the priests. Priests didn't get any land. They didn't get a portion of the land. They'd live off the tithes and the offerings of the people. And so you think well they didn't get very much because they didn't get the land.

They didn't have anything to show for themselves. But Psalm 73 tells the answer. My flesh and my heart may fail. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It's a priest talking.

You know what he's saying? He's saying God is my portion. Everybody else inherited some land, but I've inherited God Himself.

You know why I can't give you a list of what your inheritance is? Because what you have inherited is God. You see, God is not just the one who is dispensing your provisions. He is your provision. He's not just the one who feeds you some bread. He is your bread of life. He's not just the one who pours out for you some water to drink.

He is your living water, welling up like a spring on the inside of you. He is not just the one pointing the right way. He is the way. He's not just telling you the truth. He is the truth. He is not just the one inviting you to enjoy life. He is life. God is your inheritance, and you, you are His heirs, He is life. God is your inheritance, and you, you are His heirs, and that is the gospel.

Now, really, think about it. How do you see yourself? If you see yourself as worthless, then you might as well do nothing worthwhile. But if you see yourself as treasured, then you'll invest yourself with joy. If you see yourself as a sinner cursed by your failures, then you'll be anxious and exhausted. But if you see yourself as a saint blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, then you'll be confident and free.

How you see yourself determines how you live. In an 11-message series, Pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians. It'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire Transformational Ephesians series, but we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life.

Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? 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. Alan, when we made a decision, when we became a new believer in Christ, so many things happened that maybe we weren't even aware of in those moments. As we study the scriptures, as we hear a teaching like this from Ephesians, we start unpacking this and uncovering exactly what our standing is with Christ, what it all means. And when we discover we're an heir, that's big news. It means that God Himself is your inheritance.

I just invite our listeners to think on that. He really is your provision. He is your supply. He is your living water. He is your healing. He is the way, the truth, and the life. This makes you spiritually rich in every way. You're an heir. Wow. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.