Naked Power [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

Love is the stuff of real relationship, and love, Paul said to the Corinthians, must accompany works of power or else the works of power are either impotent or poisonous or both. And Jesus said, abide in me and I'll abide in you and you'll bear much fruit. That the fruitfulness and the power of your life to make a difference in this world is 100% dependent upon abiding in me.

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 Unlimited, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going 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.

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.

That's 877-544-4860. Now more on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. The fruitfulness and the power of your life to make a difference in this world is 100% dependent upon abiding in me. My attachment to you is everything, Jesus said. I just got back from a wonderful week where I had a couple of days to study with some other pastors and I presented a paper on healing in the context of community. And we were talking a lot about healing and we had a pastor there who is an expert in the growing body of research of neuroscience and how it relates to healing.

This is fascinating stuff that we're learning about the brain because, you know, once we were able to start taking images of the brain, we could see which parts of the brain are lighting up when we experience certain phenomena. And part of this growing body of research is the study of what sociologists and psychologists call attachment. And from the time that we're infants, our ability to attach, think of just be connected relationally. Our ability to connect with other people, to be attached, is foremost in the development of our emotional and mental maturity. And what we've learned for many years that if an infant is not able to successfully attach in the earliest days, weeks, months, and years, then there will be significant difficulty relationally and psychologically that must be addressed and healed. Here's what happens. We've learned this. When the mother looks at her little baby and smiles, that little infant's areas of the right hemisphere of her little brain light up.

We can see this. And it causes what we could just simply call delight or joy in the child. If your mother smiles at you while holding you and you see she's smiling at me, though it's not something logical that the left brain thinks through, it's just received into the right hemisphere of that little baby's brain. And in that joy and delight, instinctively the child is coming to a belief that because someone delights in me, I belong and this is my person. And out of that attachment forms an identity. And we live out of our identity. If I could just give one word to every new parent, it would be you love your child, delight in your child consistently over and over so your child develops a secure identity and then the child lives out of the identity. Because once an identity is formed, you don't have to manage behaviors.

For example, if a child thinks I'm an A student, you don't have to tell that student to try hard because that student believes I'm an A student and I need to study in order to make an A. An attachment is essentially to say relationship bonds form. That identity that forms out of that relationship of love is more powerful by an exponential degree than any manner of willpower. Our will is important. You choose stuff all day long, every day. We're choosing, we're making choices by our will. But our will is flimsy, right?

Even a bad night's sleep or missing a meal can affect my willpower. But missing a night's sleep or missing a meal doesn't affect my identity. Because you're not going to easily say all of a sudden, well, I'm not the child of my mother. Identity is deep and if it's a wrong identity, it takes a lot to change it because you live out of the power of identity.

So what happens at the sons of Sceva is that they have no identity in Christ. They think that they can have power that is devoid of attachment. But what God is showing us is that's not the way power actually flows. Power from God actually flows through attachment, through relationship, through love. And if there is therefore no love, there's no relationship. And if there's no relationship, there's no attachment. And if there's no attachment, then that power is of hell.

And that's what the story is about. You're not connected to Jesus and so you think that you're going to be strong just by invoking his name like magic and you find out that that's no strength at all to you, you're overpowered by the very thing you're trying to cast out. But on the other hand, the person who is yielded in relationship to Christ, whose life has been inseparably attached to Christ, abide in him, he abides in you, find your life hidden in Christ, chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world, being at one, his joy, your joy, his peace, your peace. The person who is with Christ in that way, you see, they're living a life that is not of detached personal power. They're living a life of messy, vulnerable, yieldedness to Christ.

Right? Relationships are messy. James Bond doesn't want to get in a relationship because it makes you vulnerable. Everybody's ever loved anybody knows it's risky and it's vulnerable. Oh, if you just want to have protection of your heart so you never hurt for anybody, then don't love anybody. And you could go through life and somebody else is hurting, it doesn't even bother you. But you love somebody. If you really love somebody, if it's not going well for them, your heart's hurting. And if you really love somebody and they mistreat you, it'll hurt a thousand times more than if a stranger hurts you.

Because relationship requires yieldedness, submission, honor, trust, vulnerability. And what God's teaching us is that in that sort of living in relationship with others and with Him, that's where power flows. This is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He was speaking of this thorn in his flesh. He was speaking of a problem of spiritual attack that came against him.

They wish he didn't even have to deal with it ever again. He said in verse eight, three times, I pleaded with the Lord about this, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect and weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ.

Then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, I am strong. Instead of power increasing the less vulnerable we are, power increases the more vulnerable we are.

Instead of power increasing when we're detached, power increases when we are remarkably attached. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. 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. God's always been there. In every moment you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith 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. 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. And taught this week at awakening and we've been having a lot of conversation about something we've been seeing in the scripture I hadn't seen before. It is the recurring phrase of being God's fellow workers and coworkers together with one another.

This is something I just kind of over the years, just kind of read right over. First Thessalonians chapter two, verse 17. I want you to just notice Paul, who's writing about his affection for Timothy and his affection for the Christians and Thessalonica. Watch for this in verse 17 of first Thessalonians chapter two, since we were torn away from you brothers.

So you're saying he's like, this is the way love talks. We just, it just felt like we were torn away from you. I want to be with you. Torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart. Our hearts are still totally with you. We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. This is a way people that have attached relationships talk.

I just, I just, I just can hardly bear being apart from you. He's saying to the Christians there because we wanted to come to you. I, Paul again and again, but Satan hindered us. He's saying the spiritual battle is always trying to separate, but we want to be with you. When he said, what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord? Jesus said, it's coming.

Is it not you? You know what Paul's saying here? He's saying you, brothers and sisters in Christ, you're the crown. You're the trophy.

You're our joy. It's not, it's not, it's not something about power that we demonstrated ourselves. It's about the relationships that we formed. He said, for you are our glory and our joy. Then verse one of the next chapter says, therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother, they stayed at Athens. They sent Timothy, Paul loved Timothy. And notice what he says in verse one.

We sent Timothy, verse two, our brother, our brother, and look at this phrase and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you. Coworker is a Greek word, synergos, sun, sun, sun, or s-u-m, whenever you see it means with, it's a prefix in thousands and thousands of our words. And ergos is the word for work, work. It means working together, but this is like energy together. And so it's from this that we get our word synergy that we use all the time. Synergy is what we mean when one plus one equals something more than two, right? Synergy is when there is something that might seem mutually opposite, but then it comes together and does something wonderful.

Sodium or chloride by itself, poisonous, together salt, or different metals that are very weak come together in the right blend, they become stainless steel and it's unbendable and doesn't rust. Synergy is where there is a wedding, an attachment together that then something happens that wouldn't have happened by itself. Oh, wow. It's saying that we are working synergistically with God, that in the power of relationship, the very power of God is manifest. I cannot bend my mind far enough to understand this, but it is absolutely what the New Testament teaches.

Paul uses this word at least 15 times. You are God's colleague. You are God's fellow worker. You're not just working for God and doing what he says. You are sharing his own power.

It's incredible. I think most Christians don't think like that. I think most Christians think God's given us some things to do and we're supposed to go try to do it. He wants us to be good. We need to go out there and try to be good. He wants us to do some good deeds. We need to go out there and try to do good deeds. He wants us to pray so we go out and pray. It's much more than that, beloved. It is through the dynamic of eternal attachment to God through Jesus Christ, he has now and forever decided to share his life and power with us.

It's amazing. Well, the town saw this and they started burning their magic books. That was a great seed and a huge amount of money that went into books.

Books, you go down and give them $4.99, get a mass paperback or something. No, a book in ancient times was worth a fortune and people took all their magic books and started burning them and the silversmiths started going out of business because nobody wanted an idol made to Diana anymore because they saw the counterfeit power and they saw it next to real power. And when people see how real power flows, they don't just want the power. They want the God who is giving that power. It's interesting that the word that is used to describe all of this at verse 19 in our story is not actually miracles. Look at the verse again, verse 11, and God was doing a story of miracles by the hands of Paul. It's one of those statements that honestly the English standard version and other versions don't really get it right here. It should be more literal. It actually reads in the Greek and God was doing what not done powers.

That's what it is. It's literally saying, and God was doing works of power, dunamis, that are not normally seen. Saying it was especially powerful what God was doing through the hands of Paul.

Nobody had ever seen anything like this before. In other words, it is about this huge cosmic battle and God is making a point in this cultural center of Asia that he is the one who gives power and it does not come by simply magically invoking his name. It comes by knowing him. It's all about the extraordinary power of God. God shares his power with his children. In 1 Corinthians 4-20, Paul wrote, for the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. And the church that was founded in Ephesus later Paul wrote to those Christians and just in Ephesians, listen to this language from Paul, he prayed for them and for us that we would know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe. The immeasurable greatness of his power. According to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand. Ephesians 3-16, Paul prays that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit and your inner being. In Ephesians 3-20, he prays now to him who is able to do far abundantly more than we ask or think according to the power that is at work within us. The Christian life is a life of shared power with Jesus Christ.

That's incredible. That is the gospel. That's our good news message today.

It's Naked Power from the series Unlimited. And I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining us in the studio sharing a parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. 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 pastorallen.org. God's always been there. In every moment you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith 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. 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. Here to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day for you. The teaching naked power comes to an end. Power seems to come to us in opposite ways, increases when we're most vulnerable.

What's with that? When we're vulnerable and our weakness, his strength is perfected and it's like all relationship. There's something about loving and being loved that is both the greatest thing in life and also it is the most vulnerable thing in life. And so we don't use God. That's not what Christian power is. That's not the way the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit, God's power flows through relationship and power that gets disconnected from God and from others in Christ is either no power at all or it's destructive. And so the invitation from this story as it always is the very power of God is shared with his children in relationship with them and so allow yourself to be loved by God and let your soul in response love God and have relationship with God and from this power flows. The power of the Christian life, the joy of the Christian life is not a technique. It's not like these sons of Sceva that just think they can just call on some kind of force field or something you know or just use a name. It's an actual love relationship with God and he's a father and the reason it's important to talk about all that we're learning about attachment is that when we in the natural realm when we securely attach to a parent it builds security within us and we realize I'm loved, I belong, I matter and not everybody's experienced this and no one's experienced it perfectly.

Right. But the love of God is perfect. This is an invitation into the kind of relationship with God where you find yourself experiencing his love and knowing yourself inseparable from the love of God in Christ and this just starts shaping everything in your identity and it's out of that that real spiritual power and joy and effectiveness and ministry flows. It's the opposite of what these sons of Sceva were. They thought they could not even have an attachment to God at all and just use the name of Jesus. That's not the Christian life at all. It's much better. It's a relationship with God. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.