Blessed to be Secure [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The answer is not to withhold the blessing so that then they'll try harder. All that does is it creates more insecurity, and they act more like an orphan.

What we want for them to act like an heir, and if you're going to act like an heir, you need to know yourself as an 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, The Power to Bless, taken from Pastor Alan's book of the same title and 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. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Sometimes you find yourself just holding on to the book and clinging to the promises. If you walk with God long enough, there are going to be times where you're just clinging to the promises, knowing that He is coming for you. When we feel like orphans and people around us feel like orphans, we don't need the Bible to become just another rule book about how we should act. It really is more a picture book of the beautiful pictures about who our family is, who our Father is, and where we're headed.

It's a cruel jest, Martin Luther King Jr. said, to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. So Schiff and Zinni, they waited for their boots and held onto their book and to the promises. It was interesting and fitting that Jay and Jane said they picked up Schiff and Zinni on Easter Monday, the day after resurrection 2008.

All that the kids had on them were the clothes on their back and the photo album. Jay laughed and said, and the orphanage said, and when you get them some new clothes, we'd like you to send those clothes back. I would like to note that when you come into the family of God, you do not come with any of your own goods and none of your own righteousness. Isaiah prophesied, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

My soul shall result in my God for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. You come in naked and you get clothed with the righteousness of Jesus. So they had to wait a few days before they could get all the paperwork and get out of the country. And so they had to go stay in a hotel. So they took these four year old orphans to the Sheraton in Addis Ababa. They had never seen green grass before, much less had they seen a hotel like this with its lovely fountain and a giant swimming pool in the back, which they'd never seen.

It was interesting, Jay and Elaine said with all of that stuff there, they were mostly fascinated with the elevator buttons and just kept pushing them. I guess blessing is like taking Ethiopian twins to see their first green lawn or refreshing pool. And when you bless your words are painting pictures of others lives that are more glorious than any marbled hotel.

You're painting a picture of the spiritual riches that are in Christ Jesus. During all those long months of waiting, the staff at the orphanage often would sit down with Schiff and Zinni and look at the picture book and they would say, this is your new home in America. And so when the twins came, they really only knew the words poppy and America. And so it was really cute. Jay said when they finally made the long trip back and pulled up in front of their lovely house, that Schiff just stood in the front lawn and went America. He would find out there's more to America than that lovely house or neighborhood and that freedom and honor and grace were going to be lavished into his life. Schiff and Zinni went to our preschool and then they grew up in our neighborhood.

And it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing when a love comes and gets you like that, isn't it? So Jacob adopted. He wanted to assure them that they were secure. A lot of people have thought over the years and centuries that for some reason it's better to withhold blessing, love and affirmation because they're afraid that it would go to a child's head. The opposite is true. We don't become self-absorbed because we are secure in love. The opposite happens.

Tim Keller's put it so well. You only think about your big toe if your big toe is hurting. Otherwise you don't even think about it. And you don't think about your ego unless your ego is hurting. People that have to think about themselves, self-absorption are actually insecure, not vice versa. The secure person doesn't even spend time thinking about him or herself. You're secure. You can think about others.

You can think about the Lord. There was a big study in the mid 20th century from Harry Harlow. It proved that, well, it proved that all the ideas that had been up to that point for parents that had been advised not to overly coddle their kids so they could toughen up their kids. Well, they just weren't true. There was a very interesting and controversial experience where they took rhesus, baby rhesus monkeys, and they didn't have their actual mother. They just had surrogate mothers that were basically made of wire. Some of them were just wire and some were wire that were covered with soft cloth so that at least when the baby monkey would come up, they would feel the softness.

And it was very interesting. They would take the wire only mother and put milk with it. And then they had the soft surrogate mother with no milk. And on the whole, the rhesus babies preferred the soft mother even though there was no milk. And they said that when they would take the babies away from these surrogate mothers and let them be away for three days, it didn't toughen up the little monkeys. Instead, they became insecure, afraid, and clingy. And this just began to rattle all the ideologies of the day. And psychologists began to say, wait a minute, you don't create security by less contact comfort of a baby.

And that's when it really began to change. Of course, the Bible has always said this, I learned to trust at my mother's breasts. I became a confident, secure soul when I was loved. So what we want to do is we want to bless people so that they become more secure. And this is to say that we are in a sense not literally adopting, but we are partnering with God to release the spirit of adoption, the mentality of adoption. And if you're blessing someone who's not yet a believer, you're not blessing them as one who has been adopted, but one who can be adopted. One who God wants, you see. So the blessing for someone who doesn't know Jesus yet is essentially to say, God loves you infinitely and nothing could ever stop him from loving you.

And he's traveled all this distance and he wants you. That's a blessing. But for the child of God, we're joining in with what Paul says in Romans 8 and 15, 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. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. You see, the first ministry of the Holy Spirit after we are born again is to bear witness to our spirit that we're children of God, that you've been adopted. Roman adoption is something we know a whole lot about. I've spoken about it in past sermons because of Justinian's institutes.

We know very, very much about what it was like in the first century. So we know exactly what Paul's imagery is here in first century Rome, an affluent family that had no heir might want to adopt a grown son to be an heir. And often it was a slave that they had affection for. Adoption was the only way that a slave could come into what was called the patria potestas, the power of the father. So adoption was to bring a slave into the power of the father. And the primary motivation is to carry on the family name and the inheritance. Any property or debt that the one who's being adopted had previously is completely forgiven once they're adopted.

You owe the whole world everything. But when you get adopted by a new father, all that debt was canceled according to Roman law. And you lost all legal standing with any previous family because you are now totally legally a member of the new family.

And though Roman law allowed a father to disown a biological son, Roman law did not have any provision for a father to ever disown an adopted son. And all of that, the forgiveness of debts and the taking on of a full new legal entity and the assurance you could never be disowned is all the background of what it means to be an adopted child of God. That every one of your debts, all of your sin is completely forgiven.

It doesn't matter how great it is. When you're adopted, it's gone. And you have been severed from the kingdom of darkness and the world. And you've taken an identity with a new family and that's who you are. That's who you are, whether you're feeling it, whether you're living it, whatever, but that is you are in the family of God.

And as such, you will never be disowned. Hallelujah. 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 to click away at pastor Alan.org embark on a journey of transformation with our free yourself, be yourself resource bundle.

Imagine a shame free life, no more self condemnation, no more inward angst wondering if you measure up as you soak in the message of healing grace. This empowering bundle includes pastor Alan's landmark book free yourself, be yourself plus an accompanying resource guide and access to the exclusive companion video series. Act now support Alan Wright Ministries with your donation and step into the abundant life God has awaiting you as we send you this limited time resource bundle as our thanks this month. 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. 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. God's traveled far too great a distance to just turn his back on you because you're having a bad day. And so we bless people so they'll be more secure. We bless people so that they know themselves to be heirs rather than orphans. There's so much that could be said about this, but I've just jotted down a few notes about the contrast between the way the orphan heart and speaking figuratively compares to the heart of an heir.

And let me just give you a few of these. You can chew on this, but for the orphan, they tend to grasp at things as if there just won't be any more. Most of the adoptive parents ever talk to that, especially when they've adopted internationally like the Helvees did and maybe kids that are four years old or something like that, that they're so used to being in an orphanage where they didn't have their own stuff and everything shared that as soon as they get something, they feel like they need to hold onto it. So there's this classic behavior of hoarding. And I've talked to parents, you know, I've got one friend who adopted internationally and his little boy loved little toy cars.

And he said that for years he would find those cars hidden everywhere under mattresses, pillows, behind books and everything, you know, just so afraid you're going to lose your cars that you've got to grasp everything. But see, the heir doesn't think that way. The heirs give as if there's plenty more.

And I'm not just talking about financial aid, I'm just talking about your life. You find that out. I'm not going to run out because God doesn't run out and he's my father. Orphan thinks that authority is something to be feared or if not feared, then to just be used for your advantage. And I know this is this is controversial in this day and time. You know, sometimes authorities aren't to be trusted. Sometimes they don't behave as they should. But the heir doesn't look on authorities this way. Once you're an heir, you think of your father or your mother or an authority figure in your life as someone who could bless your life and could promote your life.

And you think of it that way, you see. So the idea of being able to yield to an authority is not difficult for an heir. It's difficult for an orphan.

You're afraid somebody's going to take something from you. The orphan has a trouble with a relationship until they start feeling like an heir. And so for the orphan, it's more about being right than it is than being in relationship. You see, at every juncture in our lives, we're in relationship and there's also right and wrong.

And we're making daily choices about which places are going to be our ultimate emphasis. Is it always about I have to prove myself right? Or is the relationship the thing that's so valuable?

Not that we excuse wrong, but if we're constantly, constantly, constantly having to defend, defend, defend our right, I'm right, I'm right, I'm right. And the heir doesn't think like that. Relationships are things important. The orphan is insecure and wanting to prove something, but the heir is secure and just wanting to bless somebody. When you're insecure, you're always trying to prove something, trying to prove that you should be accepted.

It creates all these behaviors. The orphan settles often for just the feeling of love. And if it's not a feeling that's happening right at that moment, if it's not a euphoric feeling of love, then they can feel abandoned all over again. The heir doesn't feel like that. The heir is all into committed lasting love, relationships, covenantal relationships. Listen, you don't got to be married and be feeling like you got some euphoric feeling of being in love to still be married.

I've been married for all these years and I still have times of euphoric feelings of love, but Anne is my wife because she's my wife and we are in a covenantal relationship. And so if somebody is not feeling all tingly in love, nobody's going, oh no, we must not have love anymore. See, that's the way an orphan thinks.

Oh no, I'm feeling abandoned. Orphans gravitate towards feelings all the time. And it can lead you towards a substance or it can lead from relationship to relationship. The bottom line to all this, beloved, is that the orphan is motivated by fear and the heir is motivated by faith. And when you bless somebody, what I'm trying to show you is a huge foundation of this, is when you bless someone, you are doing what the world doesn't do. You are moving towards them as God has moved towards us in an unconditional love and a process of affirming with genuine discernment about their place in this world of security and the love of God. And in affirming that, you are building up security. And when you're building up security in that person, you are rooting them and grounding them in love so that they can be who God designed them to be.

If there's somebody in your life that you'd like to see change and grow and flourish, if there's somebody that's not acting the way they should, the answer is not to withhold the blessing so that then they'll try harder. All that does is it creates more insecurity and they act more like an orphan. But we want for them to act like an heir. And if you're going to act like an heir, you need to know yourself as an heir.

Well, the Helvees are wonderful friends, been wonderful to just watch Schiff and Zinnia. And what happens is then they grow up and you're just part of a big family. And it started with a dream and a word from the Lord. And this is the nature of our life together as Christians.

We are the adopted children of God, and that makes us one really big family. I started in last place, but I worked my way up to fourth at least. Um, I think a Methodist won it. Guess I wasn't predestined to win, but, uh, but it was fun because, you know, once I finally realized I'm strapped in here and even if this thing turns over, I'm not going to die.

So I might as well put the pedal to the metal. And I want to bless you to live your life like that, secure in the love of God, knowing that you have been blessed and you have been given in Christ, the power to bless others. And that's the gospel. Alan Wright, today's good news message blessed to be secure from the teaching, the power to bless. And pastor Alan is back with us in the studio, sharing his 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 to click away at pastor alan.org embark on a journey of transformation with our free yourself, be yourself resource bundle.

Imagine a shame free life, no more self condemnation, no more inward angst. Wondering if you measure up as you soak in the message of healing grace. This empowering bundle includes pastor Alan's landmark book, free yourself, be yourself, plus an accompanying resource guide and access to the exclusive companion video series. Act now support Alan Wright Ministries with your donation and step into the abundant life God has awaiting you as we send you this limited time resource bundle as our thanks this month. 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 in the studio with pastor Alan and our parting good news thought for the day. If someone just tuned in these final moments of and they didn't catch the full teaching or we just need to put the cookies on the bottom shelf to be blessed to be secure. Where do I find that blessing?

How do I how to where do I start on that? Obviously, it's with our relationship and our standing with Christ when God created Adam and Eve. He blessed them. He affirmed them. He loved them. He never said to them. Well, if you will prove yourselves to be a good son and daughter to me and if you'll take good care of the garden that I'm going to really love you and I'm really going to accept you.

That's not what he said. Instead, he just affirmed them and blessed them because they were his. What did Satan do?

What did that serpent do? But to lure them into the feeling ultimately of deep insecurity. As soon as they sinned, their eyes were open.

They saw themselves ashamed in the sight of one another and began hiding from each other and hiding from God. And God has been committed right from the dawn of time to make it such that we could be secure again. He never wanted us to be afraid of him or afraid of others or afraid for our lives. What God always has wanted is for us to experience his love.

And the Bible says perfect love casts out fear. There's no greater expression of this than the picture of adoption. So when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, the first thing he did was he adopted them. He made them heirs.

They were guaranteed a share of the promised land. And God, when he comes to you and you find yourself believing in Jesus, the first thing the Holy Spirit does is assure you you're adopted as a child of God. You belong to God and nothing could ever separate you from his love. Build your life on that blessing. Build your life on the assurances of God and avoid the voices that are making it conditional where maybe God doesn't love you so much because you haven't been good enough. Avoid that voice and drink in the voices of the true gospel and blessing wherever you can. And read the Bible this way, over and over assuring you of your permanent place in the heart of God. When you do, it won't make you lazy. It'll energize you. When you do know your security in the Lord, it won't make you selfish. It'll make you other centered. That's the way it works. You've been adopted by God and Jesus Christ.

That makes you secure and secure people can soar. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.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 pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.