More Than Conquerors [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

When God looks at you, if you're in Christ, He's smiling, and it changes everything. 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, More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, 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. Just contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now as we get started with today's teaching, sitting here with Pastor Alan Wright, and we have to put a disclaimer, there is a video that during the message, Pastor Alan, you showed a psychologist and an experiment with mothers and babies. And we refer to this a lot throughout this teaching.

And so it's key to understand what we saw. When you envision this video, just envision a mother who is interacting with her infant child and the mother smiling, the mother has that look of approval in a way that only a mother can. And then they are instructed in the experiment to just become blank and nonresponsive with their child, not angry looking, you know, not scolding the child, just blank face.

In this very interesting study, what happens with the child is almost heartbreaking to watch, because the child becomes first confused, but then just by not having his mother's smile can become frustrated and weepy and in some places seemingly inconsolable. And so I'm reflecting on that Daniel throughout as we think about the remarkable acceptance that we have in Jesus Christ. Now with today's teaching, no more condemnation.

Here's Pastor Alan Wright. Hey, are you ready for some good news? There is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

There is therefore now no zero does not exist anymore. I want that to come through today. The condemnation of God does not exist for those that are in Christ Jesus. Not now and not in the future. Not tomorrow when you disappoint yourself and others. You can't disillusion him. He came and died for you knowing everything wrong with you already. And his love for you is perfect.

Wow. Romans eight one. A little girl was in a church play and she just had one big line. It was going to come this moment and they were going to light some candles or something and she was supposed to speak the words of Jesus and say, I am the light of the world. And so she was on stage. Her mother was off stage, you know, cheering her on and they got to her big moment and the little girl froze and she couldn't remember our line.

Just that one line. So her mother is in the wings there, mouthing it to her. I am the light of the world. And the little girl goes, ah, my mother is the light of the world. And from the growing body of brain research, we're discovering it's sort of literal that when a mother smiles at her child, the infant brain lights up and joy happens in the delight of a mother's radiant countenance.

A baby begins to have the sense of wellbeing and attachment. Love is being conveyed through the smile of the one who loves, which goes far to explain why God from the earliest time wanted the priest to speak this over their people all the time. Lord make his face shine upon you. It is the will of God that we experience his smile because the smile is transformational. And in fact, even just when you see somebody and they smile at you, it is doing something to your brain and your whole inner core being.

And in that sense of smile, there comes a, an acceptance, a sense of security, and that's where trust is born. And today we come to this glorious passage. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ. And you can recognize that what God is saying here is that he wants his people and everything Paul's been saying in Romans up to this point, he wants his people to really get this, that when God looks at you, if you're in Christ, he's smiling and it changes everything. So if you're new with us, we've been in Romans the whole year. So we've been waiting to get to Romans eight, one, and I've been, I've been waiting my whole life for Romans eight, one, the whole world has been waiting for Romans eight, one, the cosmos has been groaning and travail waiting for Romans eight, one.

There is therefore now no condemnation. And if you were to recap what we've learned in the first seven chapters, you could sum up this way that Paul under the unction of the Holy Spirit has shown us why everything was all wrong. The problems called sin and sin means that because all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God and none have obeyed perfectly that all are deserving of condemnation. And that sounds harsh to the modern ear, but if God is just, then what justice means is that good is rewarded and bad is punished. And the world we've seen in Romans one through seven is not full of good people and bad people.

It is theologically full of bad people and a good God. And so the problem has been sin. And the problem is that even the best of us can't keep the law. We can't keep any form of the law. And we've seen that we couldn't keep any standard, much less the high and holy standards that we see in the scripture about always loving others as yourself, loving God with all your heart. We can't, we can't keep the, some of the most basic commandments. But as we saw 20th century century writer and theologian, Francis Schaeffer said, even if you just were trying to keep your own standard, if somebody put a tape recorder around your neck and all it did was record the things you said that other people ought to, to do, including, you know, when you're driving down the street and how you talk to others on the thing and everything else, it, if all your standard was just your standard for other people who couldn't keep that even, we can't keep any standard.

And so all have fallen short. We got a sin problem, but the law we've seen is not the problem. The law is good because the law is a revelation of the nature of God. If God says, do not lie, it reveals that God's not a liar.

He doesn't like lying because he's not a liar. If he says, do not steal. It's because God's not a thief.

He's a giver. You say it's revealing something about God. And so it's God's word and the law is good. And the law comes alongside of our sin. Paul said, and it lets us see in graphic relief, how bad our sin is. And in fact, he said the law, when it comes alongside though, the law is good. When we try to keep the law, things just seem to get worse or we don't try to keep the law at all and things get worse.

So they've been apart from Christ. There are two responses to the coming of the law. And the first response is maybe you call it religion and that's, I'm going to try hard to be good.

I'll try and try to be better than other people. So I'll satisfy the law and then I'll feel, I'll feel happy. I'll feel at peace and never works cause we can't. And then there is called it irreligion or rebellion that says I'll redefine the law.

I'll make my own law. I'll ignore any revelation from God or other thing because the way that I'm going to feel okay is by saying there is no real right or wrong and it doesn't work. It doesn't just lead to, it's not just because of the debauchery it leads to because nobody is happy. Nobody is happy while living a life that is not the design of God.

It'll just never be. So that's what we've learned in Romans one through seven. And if you were to stay apart from Christ, then the sad news is that there is a lingering sense of condemnation.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus. Answering the two biggest questions of life.

What went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV scripture journal. Immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights prayers and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek portable journals amplify your study enrich group sessions and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual Odyssey and Forge a stronger connection with the scriptures help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. 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 Pastor Alan.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright. I've told before about the little boy that he and his sister were spending the week with their grandmother and they're having a good time. A little boy had a BB gun one day he saw his grandmother she had a beloved pet duck and he just you know, he was shooting at some tin cans and things but it's hard on a little boy with a BB gun in his hand and there's a live duck walking around and he just want to see if he could shoot that live duck and he did and the duck keeled over and he felt so horrible about it and he didn't know that his sister Sally so little Johnny will call him Johnny little Sally was looking through the window and she saw the whole thing. Well that night at dinner they were sitting there and grandmother finished dinner she said Sally it's your turn to do dishes and Sally said I think Johnny will do the dishes tonight. Johnny said what it's not it's not my turn and Sally leaned over and whispered in his ear she said I saw what happened with the duck so Johnny sprang up and did the dishes. The next morning grandmother said did you both make your bed this morning Sally said Johnny's gonna make the bed for me and he looked at her and she just said remember the duck and so he went and made the bed and this went on for several days until finally Johnny just couldn't stand it anymore on one more thing that was hanging over his head and she and all this combination he just said I can't stand it anymore grandmother said I was out I had the BB gun I wasn't really thinking I shot the duck and she said I did it and she and grandmother smiled and she said I know I saw it too she said I've just been wondering how long you gonna let your sister hold that over you. Well it gives you a good picture of really the fact that is if we are not forgiven if we're not fully forgiven by God and we have sinned against God there's a real sense in which the powers of hell have a sort of legal right to accuse us and condemn us and some people are gonna be trying to do all the dishes and make up the bed to make up for it so they can try to live a little bit ahead of it and some people just say you know I don't care and they go into rebellion but the lingering spirit of condemnation is the is the problem of our souls and that's why the whole world's been waiting for Romans 8 one it is the declaration a great crescendo following Paul's explanation of why being in Christ is a whole new way of being it is a new system it is to say that Jesus was perfect deserved only reward from God but deliberately because of his infinite love for you went to the cross and a great exchange took place where he who knew no sin became your sin and you became his righteousness and in turn you are now under that grace and God is smiling upon you because the condemnation doesn't exist because you are not under law Christians and if you're not under law then the law of sin and death is gone for you and condemnation is gone for you and what's left is the smile of God I want to show you a little video from some years ago some groundbreaking research from a child psychologist Edward Tronic who does an experiment about just how powerful a mother's countenance is upon her child I'm actually not only exegeting our text I'm sort of exegeting this video but for illustrative purposes so you can see something about what this means to be really have no condemnation from from God so a lot of other studies have confirmed this same kind of thing so it shows us something about what's going on inside of this child and I want to just draw a couple of points for illustration here to help us understand who God is to us in Christ and the first thing I just say is don't you feel really don't you hurt for the baby during those moments when she when her mom's not smiling my wife said are you going to show that thing how bad is that I don't want to see that thing I said is it doesn't last long and the mother starts smiling again so I don't even want to watch it for 20 seconds to watch a baby not have her mother smile for even just a little bit which tells you a lot doesn't it that you feel great pain for that little baby just for those few seconds you feel that don't you because you don't have to have any other science or anything else to tell you that it proves more or less that if a child did not have a caregiver's smile and that sort of ongoing affirmation that it would be scarring and you could imagine how difficult for that child to ever learn to really be secure in the world right and of course that's all been proven out and what grieves me and I think God so much is not really in the world so much the evidences of our sin nature the things that manifest you know drug addiction crime and hate racism greed he hates all of that but I think what hurts God is at the root of it all it's like if a baby if that baby had thrown a temper tantrum the baby started making banging around willfully being defiant or whatever you wouldn't be as bothered by those outward manifestations as you were by the core problem would you you would know what the core problem was it would break your heart and so does this not go far to help you get a spiritual picture of what really is in the heart of God about how he wants to solve the problems of people I think so often what religion does it wants to come and try to address hey the baby's you know thrown a temper tantrum we're going to address that but what really needs to be addressed is the attachment love and the joy because of the smile so grandbaby Mia she's seven months now I think a week or maybe even maybe even two sermons have gone by without me mentioning it's long overdue and I apologize for that I apologize for that she turned seven months and it's getting cute I'm telling you it's already been cute but I was just thinking honestly like as a as a new as a new grandfather if you were to ask me you know what do you want most for your grandbaby well of course I want to know Jesus I mean by far and away right that's the most important thing but apart from that what do you want most and if I were to go through all the list of things that you would want health and joy and good relationships and prosperity and fruitfulness and safety and covering and you know on all the things that we pray right favor upon our life but I think if I were really to get it down other than just knowing Jesus I would if I had a magic wand that could wave it and say what would you your dream be for you slow lady girl that she never experienced condemnation I don't even know what would happen to a person if they never experienced condemnation can you imagine the magnitude of freedom and security and faith that would exist it's why everybody needs Romans 8 1 Romans 8 1 is the answer to the world the second thing I noticed from that video I'd love to leave me up there the whole sermon but you can take her down they're not looking at me anymore they're just looking at me and it's it's the second thing I noticed from that illustration is that the parent doesn't have to scold or openly shame the little child in order for her to feel hurt all she had to do is just be disconnected it's not a mean look it's a blank look she doesn't scold her she doesn't openly shame her she's certainly not physically hurting her but just the thought of not being connected not being fully accepted and not being celebrated leaves the infant ultimately inconsolably sad until she is celebrated wow that this is this is this is not change in life really for us but we mature and we start understanding that most people don't necessarily celebrate us but the feeling of being disconnected and not celebrated it goes away and what it does the baby starts using all her tricks to try to be accepted how do we get back to that smile how do I get the celebration back how do I get that feeling of connectedness with you again how do I feel attached to you mom that's pastor alan wright our good news message no more condemnation from the series more than conquerors a study of romans 8 and by the way the video that is referenced if you'd like to see that simply come to pastor alan.org and search for that full video teaching no more condemnation that's at pastor alan.org and pastor alan's back here in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment stay with us it has been called the most influential letter ever written every word written by the apostle paul and his epistle to the romans is dripping with the astounding news of what god has done for you in jesus answering the two biggest questions of life what went wrong and how has god made it right discover the richness of those answers and enhance your bible journey today make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our romans reading guide paired with the esv scripture journal immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights prayers and reflections directly alongside the powerful text these sleek portable journals amplify your study in rich group sessions and deepen personal reflections elevate your spiritual odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of romance 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 pastor alan.org back here now with pastor alan as we kick off this series more than conquerors and place a bookmark here on the teaching no more condemnation my boy pastor alan that is that is good news i've been waiting my whole life to hear those words we've all been waiting to hear those lot words no more condemnation because in the world we don't receive perfect love even from those who love us best it's not perfect and we've all felt it we've all felt the pangs of shame and condemnation as if we're being loved less because we don't perform perfectly and so this news from the crescendo of romans at romans 8 1 there is therefore based on everything we've learned in romans 1 through 7 you can be assured there's no condemnation not zero for those in our christ jesus when you taste of that kind of perfect love it changes everything thanks for listening today visit us online at pastor alan.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 if you only caught part of today's teaching not only can you listen again online but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free find out more about these and other resources at pastor alan.org that's pastor alan.org today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.