Faster Pastor and Heirs of Grace [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. If you view yourself as one who is nothing more than like a slave, then that will dictate how you act.

But if you see yourself as an owner, if you see yourself as an heir, that 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 Galatians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina.

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 made to Allen Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, you can go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAllen.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 Allen Wright. You ready for some good news? What Paul is saying in Galatians is not just that you were redeemed from the curse of the law so that you could be saved. He's not just saying that you could know all this so that you could know that you are free from the old bondage and the old way. He's saying much more than that. He's saying that if you are a son of God, like a first-born son, a child of God, then this means that you are also the recipient of an unspeakable inheritance. You're an heir, not of necessarily literal things, but a spiritual heir of the spiritual riches of the spiritual riches of God. And that this shapes everything about your life. You are not only forgiven, but you are spiritually rich in Christ.

And when you see that, it'll change everything. I saw it on the internet so you know of course this has got to be reliable. Homeless man is evidently still living on the streets of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. He's fleeing the police. He fears that they are after him to arrest him for his alcohol and his drug habits. Poor homeless man has disappeared without a trace.

The Bolivian newspapers have even sought him and speak of him because ironically the police are not trying to find Tomas so that they can arrest him. They are trying to let him know that he has inherited six million dollars. Evidently it came through his ex-wife who inherited the money herself from family members and yet she has died and the money has passed to him and he doesn't know it and he has yet to be found.

So somewhere there is a fugitive of the law living without a home who's actually a millionaire a number of times over. What Paul's going to say to us today in Galatians chapter 4 is essentially this that if you had an incredible inheritance but didn't know it and instead thought of yourself as a fugitive under the law then you might miss your inheritance and not only miss your inheritance but live your life as if you were a fugitive always under fear. Galatians chapter 4 is a big shift that begins to happen and we're going to see unfold in these next few chapters of Galatians where we're going to discover what Paul has been saying about our justification. He expands to help us understand about our place in life and he's going to help us to understand why it is that if we're saved by grace alone through faith that we don't become lazy and complacent but instead we live as a people full of passion energy and hope. He's going to begin to unfold a picture here that when I began to understand this some five years ago changed everything about the way that I understand myself or for others to be challenged in living a life of joyful obedience. There is a shift in other words in Galatians 4 that begins here that shows how the grace that saved us also begins to show us how rich we are in the mercies of Christ and how much of a difference that that makes. Galatians chapter 4 verse 1 Paul writes I mean that the heir as long as he is a child is no different from a slave although he is the owner of everything but he's under guardians and managers until the date set by his father in the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir through God. Let's look at this in in sort of some sections the first of which this verse 1 the heir as long as he's a child is no different than a slave. This is an image I think we can understand any parent certainly can understand when your children are little and you you have a vision for their life of all that you want to invest in them and your desire is for them to grow up and to know who they are and to make a difference in the world to prosper and be a blessing and so you invest all this time but when they're little there's a whole lot that's just of giving of rules and and some years ago I saw this wit had written about the laws when at table and at the particular season of life in which our children were little it just really struck my funny bone maybe for some of you young parents as well you could identify laws when at table if thou are seated in thy high chair or in a chair such as a greater person might use keepest thy legs and feet below thee as they were neither racist up thy knees nor place thy feet upon the table for that is an abomination unto me yay even when they have an interesting bandage to show thy feet upon the table are an abomination unto me and worthy of much rebuke drink thy milk as it has given you neither use it on any utensils nor fork nor knife nor spoon for that is not what they art for if they will dip thy blocks in the milk and lick it off thou will be sent off away from mine presence that's alan wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you i love you i'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said i'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up i don't think i'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if i don't measure up when might i be rejected when the judaizers infiltrated the galatian church the apostle paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law alan wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called galations and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of god when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor alan's messages in an attractive cd album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month 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 verily i say again unto you do not do so even if thy brother or thy sister has done the same to thee eat thy food only neither eat that which is not food nor seize the table between thy jaws nor use the raiment of the table to wipe thy lips again i say to you do not touch it but leave it as it is and though the stick of carrot does indeed resemble a marker draw not with it upon the table even and pretend for we do not do that that is why and though the pieces of broccoli are very like small trees do not stand them upright to make a forest upon thy mashed potatoes because we do not do that either and that is why also sit just as i have told thee and do not lean to one side nor the other nor slide down until thou art nearly slid away behold heed me for if they sit like that thy hair will go into the syrup and now behold even as i have said it it has come to pass any american does identify with this because when your children are little you you you envision them as your heir you envision them as is is is taking all that's good in you and your life and becoming even greater with it and blessing the world but but there they are in their high chair at the table and it's just it's just telling them what to do with the broccoli and how not to sit and where what not to do and do this and it apparently continues because your children you got to tell them i mean you know we've had we've had you know the wars at table where where it's you need to eat some green beans and the child asked the question how many green beans and and we said we eat some did you eat some grapes yeah i had some grapes and they'll negotiate with you to see if i could substitute some grapes for some green beans and if i eat more grapes could eat less green beans and and i dare not want to touch the broccoli or the you know and you just you just have parents you can just go and and the same questions seem to follow them as they're growing up about you know clean your room and then they clean it and you have to go and inspect it and say this is not clean well how well define for me what it means to be clean and you have to list the things you know thou bed has to been made and thou i mean you wouldn't in other words it's your child but in a sense your child until the child grows up and starts taking responsibility for his or her own life the child in in some ways is treated no different than a slave though in a year in other words the slave is just asking how much do i need to do so i don't get punished see a lot of christians they they realize that okay i get saved because i believe in jesus and what he's done for me but what paul's saying is the mature christian life is where you grow up out of a system of law where you think that somehow though you got saved by grace you're going to earn god's blessing or your life's going to be lived because you keep this these laws then god's not going to be punishing you anymore he's saying no if you're like that then you're you're really still under a system of law and he compares that to a child in a wealthy family that has a harsh administrator that will not release the inheritance because the child is not ready for it and so the child lives though he is the heir of a fortune he lives no different than a slave would in the house because he has no access to his inheritance so there's my point for for today is that there is a way in which we can live under a system of law and therefore the law is like a harsh administrator of the estate and withholds or keeps us from being able to access the inheritance and what paul's going to show here is that with christ and the coming of the new covenant of grace we're not under law we're in christ and so what this means is that we have access to our inheritance the growing up therefore is an increasing revelation of the new covenant grace of god wherein we are made heirs and if we're heirs we're co-heirs with christ which means we then look on our lives as taking responsibility and ownership see everything hinges in life on how you view yourself in a particular context and if you view yourself in that context as one who is nothing more than like a slave then that will dictate how you act but if you see yourself as an owner if you see yourself as an heir that changes everything i saw this truth some years ago and it begun to change how do we motivate people if we're not going to shame them we're not going to put them under law and say you ought to try harder because you know you're under the law and god's going to going to judge you if you don't try harder if that's not accurate which it's not then what is the way of god and i began to see that this is the this is the way of god he wants to instill within us and every one of his children a sense of of of being an heir and therefore an owner of the things of the kingdom that are entrusted to us in other words we see our lives our lives as stewards everything that we do we look at the perspective of one who is in ownership and some of you that you you work in businesses and you work around and maybe you've managed people maybe you have a business and you have employees that have have uh that you've supervised and you recognize there's really two different kinds of people there are people that are looking to essentially say what is what's the minimum that i need to do so that i don't uh get disciplined here and then there are others that don't look at it that way at all and they feel like an ownership and they want to make the place better whatever it is that they're doing it's just a big difference i mean there's one person you're at the cash register and they're back there texting somebody they don't hardly care why they're not an owner they have no they have no vested interest they feel like no heir they're just come to want to collect the paycheck and go home but there's a different person who uh is even if they're it seems like there's nothing to do they're going to start polishing a table they want the place to look better they want to they want to they want to they're invested because that's the way that's the way heirs think see the the the slave never says you know it's it it's going to get dark here in a little while but i mean i want to keep working because it looks like we're going to have a great crop this year there's some rain coming tomorrow and it'd be better to keep working late tonight that that's not the way it's like that the slave is the mentality of when do i get to stop when does the bell ring and i i don't want to get i don't want to get beaten so i but when when do i get to to stop but see the heir doesn't think like that that's that's the way you you don't think about something if you have ownership and you think about it differently than that you think about investing yourself in it this goes far to explain why it is that people that are assured of their inheritance in jesus christ don't get lazy they actually become more passionate and energetic for the gospel because as soon as we start proclaiming the gospel of grace people always going to say well if you just announce grace like that and tell people that the holy spirit is going to assure them of their inheritance and the saints and they just say well if i've got all this inheritance if i know that i'm just saved forever then i can just sit around sin and just do whatever i want that's not the way it works in our minds it does it doesn't work that way and this is what paul is describing it's a magnificent image and what he's saying is essentially that the law functions like a harsh administrator that if you live under the system of the law then that administrator is going to constantly tell you that you don't have access to your inheritance so part of the of the proclamation of the gospel is to announce that you do have access to the spiritual riches that are yours in jesus christ to to announce that you have access to the to the blessing that should have been reserved only for jesus but instead has been shared with you because of what jesus has done in other words the proclamation of our justification to say that it's just as if i never sin is also to say it's just as if i lived a meritorious life but it's reckoned unto me through the righteousness of jesus christ to proclaim the gospel is to proclaim that anyone who receives christ has this assurance that you are an heir and since you are an heir you're no longer like a slave therefore embrace your inheritance then and then from here he moves on with something that's even more shocking and actually more dramatic and and its impact because he says at verse three in the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world again the image is when we were children meaning when we had not embraced our inheritance of grace when we were just under the law and he says we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world and there's a lot of commentary about what paul means by elementary principles some translations render it the elementary spirits and there are several main views about this one of which is that perhaps he's talking about the elements like earth wind fire that pagan people's associated powers or principalities with these fundamental earthly elements or that some have proposed that he's talking about elementary principles like the elementary school of the faith the abcs and that you need to move beyond that alan wright and today's teaching faster pastor and heirs of grace it's part of our series on galatians and that's the gospel and alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word for today 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 pastor alan.org imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you i love you i'll never forsake you when you feel cherished but what would happen if on the 100th day that same person said i'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up i don't think i'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if i don't measure up when might i be rejected when the judaizers infiltrated the galatian church the apostle paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law alan wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of god when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor alan's messages in an attractive cd album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership now these are the final days this offer is being made available to you this month call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor alan.org alan we are heirs of grace and as mama used to say the sooner you realize that the better and that's probably your prayer as a pastor it is it is you know and and by the way faster pastor in the message title here refers to a promotion going on at the charlotte motor speedway many years ago where you and some other pastors in that area got behind the wheel of a bus you each had your own bus and the buses were just these old buses and you're trying to race the buses and so tell me what happened you're out of your element you're not behind the pulpit you're behind the wheel of an old school bus on the charlotte motor speedway racetrack the whole story of racing the bus and the faster passer is uh it's it's one i'll never forget but you know i remember that once i'm strapped in the helmets on and the buses start bus starts roaring um no matter how scared i am and i don't know what i'm doing uh at some point it kicked in there and i said well i am i am going to race this bus and you know and you start living uh out of that so there's a fine line between fear and and faith and between thinking like an orphan and thinking like an heir and no matter how much you've been through in your life you can come to a place where you start thinking like an heir and say you know what i'm gonna take some territory alan you feel a lot of especially those who've grown up in the church we know how to we can sing the songs we can pray the prayers and sometimes if we're really honest we have to pinch ourselves do i really really believe this that i'm really an heir of grace that god is that good well you know it's often said that once the slaves came out of egypt the big question was could egypt come out of the slaves could they believe themselves heirs of a promised land and i think that's the the right shadow the right picture for us as christians as well yeah is i i think sometimes it's easier to believe well we're forgiven we're safe we'll go to heaven one day but to really start understanding that we who once were far from god are not only forgiven but we are adopted and made heirs but it's essential that we know that yeah yeah until we do i don't think we can live out the destiny that god has for us and that's why uh paul really wants to make this really important point we are heirs of the grace of life together thanks for listening today visit us online at pastorallen.org or call eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty 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 Pastor Alan dot o-r-g today's good news message is a listener-supported production of allen right