Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The penalty for sin was on us, but we couldn't pay it, and we couldn't live the righteous life to merit heaven. None of us, none of us could all have fallen short of the glory of God.
All have sinned, and that's why Jesus came. 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 this series, Increase, 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 available to you 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. More on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. Okay, my family, are you ready for some good news? The only thing that can keep you from reaping is giving up.
And that's really good news because you don't have to give up. You can't make it rain. You can't make the sun shine. You can't make things grow. God does all that.
But one thing you can decide is that you're not going to give up on God's way. Of all the Olympic stories that are so many of them so inspirational, I've always been I think most inspired and amused and gratified by the story of Ruben Gonzalez. Ruben was for most of his life an average soccer player, but he aspired to be an Olympic athlete. And he surveyed the summer sports, and he said, ah, I'm not fast enough, can't jump high enough, I can't do any of those. So he started looking at winter sports. And even though he'd never really been in a climate where it snowed, but he said, I'm a call.
And so he called Lake Placid, wherever the Olympic headquarter thing is. Can you imagine the phone call? It went something like this, hello? Hi, this is Ruben Gonzalez. I'd like to be in the Olympics.
Excuse me? He said, yes, I would like to be in the Olympics. Okay, sir, what is your sport? He said, well, that's the thing. I don't have a sport.
Can you imagine? And it is like, first of all, the phone's like, sir, do you understand most of the people I ever try out for an Olympic sport have been practicing for this their whole life? I understand that. I said, but sir, they had this conversation. And finally, he convinces the Olympics person to start telling them about the different sports. And finally, the conversation goes to the luge, which is that sled, you go down feet first, rocketing down the fastest sport. And they said, the luge?
Tell me more about that. He said, that sounds good. The person said, sir, you don't understand. He said, the luge is probably the most dangerous winter sport there is.
And Ruben Gonzalez goes, great. He said, sir, you don't understand. He said, the luge, a big percentage of people get hurt and I mean, get hurt badly just while doing the tryouts. He said, wonderful.
Like, what are you talking about, sir? She said, you don't understand. She said, the Olympic person said, nine out of 10 people quit before they even finish the tryouts. He said, perfect. He said, because I'm not really that good of an athlete, but I don't quit. And so Ruben Gonzalez ever since had been traveling the world telling people, listen, if nine out of 10 people quit, if you don't quit, you're already in the top 10%.
So you're here this morning, you're already in the top 10%. Yeah. And Ruben Gonzalez went on not only to compete in the luge and the next Olympics, but in four Olympics. And now the rumor has it that at age 63, he's going to try to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics and be the oldest person to ever make the Olympics. His coach thinks he can do it.
And that'd be some spectacle. If you don't quit, you're already up there. And sometimes you just need somebody, right?
I mean, part of what Paul is doing in this text is just saying, don't quit. Okay. You know, I mean, just comes alongside of you and just, I think the Holy Spirit does that sometimes. Just comes up next to you like, you thinking about quitting? Yeah.
Okay. Don't quit right now. You know, and we're inspired by that. Like Winston Churchill, the cigar chomping prime minister that stared down Hitler. And he returned to his boarding school alma mater in 1941 and he gave the famous speech in the middle of it where the words just came, never give in, never give in, never, never, never give in. Just don't quit.
You know, but the most inspiring don't quit speech didn't come from Ruben Gonzalez or from Winston Churchill. I tell you, it came from Claude Harris. Claude Harris was in his late eighties when we went to our first church many years ago in Durham. And I found out that Claude, who was the patriarch of one of the two main families in that little church, that Claude at age 87 or eight, whatever it was, was still plowing his garden with a mule. We love Claude, his wife, and they're just precious. I think it must've been his 90th birthday.
I'm not positive. It was one of those. And we went to his birthday party and I just had to say, Claude, what is the secret? You know, I mean, look at, you're still plowing your garden and you're 90, you know, how do you, how do you do it?
What's the secret to longevity and health and all that? We'll never forget it. Claude looked at it, Anne's there too. He goes, you know how at the end of a long day, he said, you're kind of tired and you feel like just maybe sitting there on the couch, maybe just lying there for a while, just kind of relaxing. I said, yeah, I know exactly what that feels like. He said, don't do it. Get up, do something, do something. Don't sit there ever like that. And so after 38 years of marriage, sometimes Anne and I still catch each other on the couch.
Don't do it. What would Claude say? We need, we need, we do need a voice that says, don't sit down and give up now, but we don't just need a voice that is telling us that, as encouraging it might be. We need gospel power. And I want to show you in this little text that's so powerful and often misread, I want to show you what Paul's getting at and what the power of the gospel is here for us that energizes us to help us not quit, to not quit doing things God's way.
So let's dig into it. The first part of this is important. Do not be deceived, verse 7. Don't be deceived. Don't get duped. Don't get tricked. Don't fall for it.
Don't be deceived on this. As I've grown older in my walk with God, I've come to appreciate a good warning from the Lord. I think earlier in my life, I thought the warnings, the warnings in scriptures were like, oh, you know, but now I realize a warning from someone that loves you is a wonderful gift, right? It's like, don't go that direction. Like these two guys that are standing by the side of the road holding up signs that said, turn yourself around before it's too late.
You know, and somebody comes flying by in their car and says, ah, you're religious nuts. And then they hear the tires screeching and one guy holding the sign towards the other, he said, maybe we need to change the wording, just say the bridge is out up ahead. Somebody gives you a warning about something that you could fall into danger, fall into trouble, or in this case, get deceived and you get a warning about it and it's really helpful. It's like saying, hey, don't get tricked by this trick because once you see the trick, you're not going to get tricked by it. It's like somebody saying, don't get deceived by this lie because once you see the lie exposed, you're not going to get duped by that.
And that's what, that's what God's doing here. Don't be deceived. And it's this one particular deception that's being spoken of. Don't be deceived ever into thinking that you can sow one kind of seed and reap a different kind of fruit. Don't ever fall into that trick.
And you go, well, it's preposterous. Who would ever believe that you could sow an apple seed and get an orange? Why would you need to warn somebody about that? Because we fall into it all the time, don't we? Why would we think that we could sow shame into a child withholding acceptance and approval and then have a child who feels secure in the world and successful? Why would we ever think that? Why would we ever think that for our spouse who is acting in an unkind way, that we could sow unkindness and get some kindness coming back from that? Why would we ever think that? Why would we ever think that we could sow impatience and reap patience from the coworker that we're struggling with? Why would we ever think like that?
Well, but we do. We get tempted in that very direction, don't we? To think, well, in order for this thing to work, I'm going to have to start doing it my way.
And in other words, I'm going to sow this kind of seed and I'm going to get this different kind of fruit. Don't be deceived by that. Don't fall for that. It's the oldest trick in the book. It's the oldest lie of the devil. Don't fall for that.
Watch out for it. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your one hundred year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series, Increase, that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. 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. So that temptation will come. Don't fall for it. Instead, be glad that God has established this world in such a way that you can count on reaping what you sow. In many ways, the whole book of Galatians, this epistle is about don't be deceived. There was a group of religious people called Judaizers who were legalists who had infiltrated the Galatian Christian community, a community that had blossomed with the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit and miracles were taking place and life and people being born again. And then these religious legalists came in and said, well, if you really want to be spiritual and you really want to be close to God, you also need to practice the Old Testament ritual of circumcision and inject a little bit of law into the gospel.
And Paul's just furious about it and he's just like, don't be deceived by these guys. So now we come to this, don't be deceived into thinking that you can sow one way and reap another. It will never, ever work that way.
Wouldn't the world be chaos if you could? Could you imagine the farmer and his wife are sitting around and he says, well, honey, we sowed all that corn, acres and acres of corn seed. Said, I sure hope this year we get corn from it. You know what happened last year when we got pineapples that came up.
They don't do very good in eastern North Carolina. I sure hope this year corn pops up. It's ridiculous. You can't, you imagine a couple, their first child and they're going in to get the ultrasound and the wife says to her husband, said, well, honey, let's just pray and hope that when this ultrasound, when they show it, that we've got a human being in here.
You know, Sally and Joe, they're in their 14th week with an iguana and you know, it's just ridiculous, right? Celebrate this fact that everything reproduces after its own kind, which one of the things that does for us, by the way, is it makes life really simple because if you want to know what you want to produce, then you know what you need to sow. It's just that simple. If you want to get, I want to get some apples. Okay, put some apple seeds out there. I want to get some kindness out of my child. Okay, put some kindness in them. I'd like to get some more patients out of this work environment.
All right, put some patients into it. Whatever you want to get, that's what you sow and oftentimes it means you got to sow the opposite seed of what you're seeing in someone else or in a situation, but it makes it really simple. It's not that complicated. Whatever you want to get back, that's what you sow and it will never ever work in the opposite direction. Don't be deceived. Celebrate. In this crazy mixed up broken world, one thing is for sure, corn seeds produce corn. Watermelon seeds produce watermelons.
Human beings produce human beings. And so you can count on it. That's what it means to say God's not mocked. The text literally means you can't turn your nose up against God. You can't go, well, God made things that way, but I'm going to operate by a different set of physical and spiritual principles.
You can't any more than you can say gravity might be a thing, but I'm not going to be susceptible to gravity. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. God's not mocked.
And it's not like people are running around trying to openly mock Him. It just means you're acting like that this principle is not going to apply to you. Yes, it is.
It's just the way it is. And then at verse eight, for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
What's he talking about? This is a highly misunderstood and misused verse. In fact, some have said that he's talking about eternal salvation and that if you do a lot of disobedient things and you have a lot of sin in your life, then that means that you have sown towards it and you get eternal damnation. But if you do a lot of righteous things and a lot of good things and you keep doing good, you've sown towards eternal salvation and you have salvation. And others have said that this is pointing to how you could be a Christian. And yet if you start doing a whole lot of bad things that you're going to end up reaping destruction from that rather than the eternal salvation that once was yours.
Now let's just be very clear about that. Neither of those errant ways of looking at this could possibly be true, especially in the middle of the Galatian Epistle where Paul has just gone to great lengths to make this point that there's absolutely nothing you can do to add to or take away from the finished work of Jesus Christ. And everything that makes the gospel good, that makes the good news so good has to do with this. You're saved not by your merits in the least, but solely by the merits of Jesus.
If you're here today and you're just exploring what the gospel of Jesus is about, let me just tell you the good news is good because Jesus paid a penalty that we couldn't pay but were due. The penalty for sin was on us, but we couldn't pay it and we couldn't live the righteous life to merit heaven. None of us, none of us could all have fallen short of the glory of God.
All have sinned. And that's why Jesus came. He came to be a God man.
He came to be the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity and to live as a human being a perfectly righteous life so that when He went to the cross to take upon Himself the debt payment, the penalty, the punishment for sin, He did so as one who was unblemished and therefore a perfect sacrifice. And anyone who trusts in Jesus, anyone who trusts in Jesus and says, I acknowledge myself a sinner in need of a savior and I believe Jesus as the Son of God and I accept what He's done for me, in that simple receiving act an exchange takes place and Jesus has become your sin and you've become His righteousness and you're in Him and He's in you and everything changes. And that's the heart of the gospel and nowhere does Paul, nowhere does Paul celebrate this in a greater extent than in this Galatian epistle. So there's absolutely no way that what Paul's talking about here is that if you will sow into it then you will reap and get because you deserve it eternal life with God in heaven.
He's got to be talking about something different and deeper. When you're a Christian you get heaven forever. But Jesus said, I came to give life and life more abundantly. He doesn't just mean that you get to not die by going to heaven.
He meant life like God is life. He's the way, He's the truth, He's the life. Allen Wright, today's good news message. Don't give up now in our series Increase. Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his part in good news thought for the day in just a moment.
Stay with us. You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100 year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen 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 Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Back here now in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. So this message we've just kicked off, don't give up now. That's pretty straightforward and okay. Yeah.
Marching orders. Well, you know, the part of me is I want to call it that don't give up now. It's like, okay, if you want to think about it tomorrow, okay. But not today. It's right.
You know, I don't know. I'm sure some of our listeners feel the same way. It's like, one of the reason I think I don't give up day by day is I like, I don't want to give up one day too early. It's right. Like if the flowers going to bloom, don't give up on the day before it's going to bloom.
And you never really totally sure what day that's going to be. Let's not be deceived. God's not mocked. Paul said, whatever one sows, he'll reap. So this is a text that's about sowing and reaping. But he's talking about spiritual things here. And he's talking about a particular kind of weariness that comes when you'll be like, you've been sowing, you know, and to the spirit, you've been doing things God's way and you don't have the fruit yet.
That's where a lot of temptation comes. And so what we want to say by way of encouragement from God's word is that we will reap. And so don't give up now.
Not now. Don't give up now. 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.
