Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. You in this great exchange are given forgiveness and blessedness as if you'd lived his righteous life.
That's what the Bible teaches, and that's what's so glorious about the Gospel. And what Paul wants to invite the Galatians into here, and he invites us into, live like it. 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. It's taking note of this, and I think with grief, that sin impacts the generations, and it just does. Some things just get passed along as if from osmosis. I knew of a mother one time who had a fear of thunderstorms, and she said, when I have a child, I'm going to make sure that my child never sees me afraid of a storm. So the storm would come, and she'd be like, oh, isn't that wonderful?
God's making bright lights and all of this. And yet the child was terribly terrified of storms. If you talk to my wife and she tells you that I'm afraid of dogs, do not believe the woman. I am not afraid of dogs. I had a dog growing up. I had dogs.
We had a wonderful beagle, Reese. I love dogs. I'm not afraid of dogs.
I admit there was a moment in childhood, there was a moment that was terrifying. Our dog Brownie, who I love with all my heart, was attacked by the biggest, meanest, strongest dog in the neighborhood. And this is in those days, the dogs just roamed free, and it was the survival of the fittest.
But we were over at the Ryan's driveway shooting basketball. Brownie was over there, and here comes this dog who wandered from a block and a half away, came over and got in a fight with Brownie, a lot bigger and stronger than Brownie. And men came out of the houses and started hitting the dogs with boards, and it didn't do anything. They got the hoses out and were spraying them. It didn't stop it. And the dog was going to kill our Brownie until my middle brother, Mark the Brave, dove into the dog fight, dove into the dog fight, threw his arms around Brownie, got severely bitten by the other dog, and I watched him take my brother off to the hospital.
That did happen, so maybe a little something got in there. And then there was a time where I lived in Kingston, Jamaica, for four or five weeks as part of a cross-cultural seminary experience. And we stayed in some rustic dormitories, and there was a little outdoor marketplace a couple or two or three blocks away that sometimes we would go to get some bread or something. But to get there, you had to go past a really hard area of little shanties.
And one day I was walking with my buddy, Steve, to go down there on this side of the street, this little shanty village over here, and this dog that looked like a mix of Rottweiler and pit bull and maybe a small part of Doberman, came out and started barking viciously. And then another one came, another, another, and then there were seven or eight of them that started moving towards me and my friend, and we were just walking, my friend saying, just keep walking slowly. Don't look at them. Just keep walking. I said, is that what you're supposed to do?
Don't look at them. He said, I don't know, but let's just do that. And that was terrifying.
I thought they could eat us alive and nobody would know for a pretty long time here in Jamaica. So there's been a few things that's happened, and she says maybe I'm a little bit afraid. And don't even ask her about the Larchmont dog in Los Angeles.
That's a whole different story. But anyway, she claims that I'm a little afraid of dogs, but I'm not afraid of dogs. But when Abby was three, I'm in the backyard playing with her on the hammock, and she said, hold me, daddy.
I'm like, why? She said, the dog. Well, what dog? And I listened in about five houses away in the distance, there was the sound of a dog barking. And I was like, what are you talking about that dog barking, that dog so far away? She said, hold me, daddy, hold me, daddy. And finally she said she wanted to go inside because there was a dog barking five houses away in somebody's fenced in backyard. And I went in and said, what are y'all doing inside?
It's a beautiful day. I said, well, she heard a dog barking and she wanted to come in. She was afraid. And my wife gave me this look like, that's your generational sin, you better fix that right now. Everybody's ever been a parent has seen some of their stuff get passed along by osmosis that they didn't realize. And there's complicated dynamics to all of this that may include our environment, things that are said, the experiences that we have, our genetic makeup. Children of alcoholics are four times more likely than others to become alcoholics. Children who have been abused are both more likely to attach themselves to abusers and are more likely to be abusers.
One study of all the adolescents that were at one time in the nation condemned murderers found that 90 percent of them had been victims of extreme abuse. If a child grows up in a racist home, the child's more likely to adopt racist views. If a child grows up in a divorcee home, child's more likely to be divorced one day. So probably to have the sins of the father visited to the third and fourth generations is to say that both the characteristics and consequences of that sin have a tendency to continue. But it doesn't mean that God randomly punishes the innocent of someone for a predecessor's sin, but something more complicated is going on. So how is it passed along?
Well, sometimes it's just modeled and it just goes into them. I remember as a young man watching an award-winning civil rights documentary series that was called Eyes on the Prize. I was really impacted by that series. And I remember in this one episode they were interviewing a Ku Klux Klan member who was just spewing out these horrible racist things, just vile. And then they put the microphone in front of the Klan member's five-year-old son who was standing there, and he put the microphone in front of him, and he regurgitated the same sorts of racial epithets. And I remember feeling in that moment this like sort of sick feeling of like, why? So unfair that that child has to grow up with that kind of ungodliness. And I remember just kind of calling out to the Lord and saying, Lord, why did you set it up like that such that a parent would have that much authority, that much influence to just pass curse right into a child, and they just take it. They just breathe it in, and they just take it, and it becomes part of them.
Why would you do that? I was talking to God like that, and almost audibly I felt like I heard the Lord say, I didn't do it with the curse in mind but with the blessing. Because God's design is to put so much into the parent, so much into a spiritual authority, that the child receives it lock, stock and barrel. And therefore, blessing and love can be put into a child so they are fashioned by it and shaped by it and made secure by it and live in it and own 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 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 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. It means that if a parent that knows God tells a child, God loves you, the child believes it. It means if a parent that walks with Jesus says, God's got a wonderful plan for your life, the child takes it in. You see, the plan of God is that generational sins impact will end, but he set up a system where in like a tumbleweed, there's something powerful about the blessing that's getting passed down that will get into the generations for a thousand generations. So sometimes generational sin is just flat outspoken in the household and modeled, and sometimes it's more subtle than that. Ungodly beliefs just get passed along.
Sometimes people not even knowing how unbiblical or ungodly it is. You might want to pay attention to family mottos. Every family's got them. You know, the things that you say, you hear her say over and over again. You'll hear me talking in coming weeks as we go and talk more about generational blessing. I'm going to say some more about my granddaddy because my grandfather or my father's father had such a big impact on my life. It's just amazing how stuff like that happens. It just, there's stuff that I don't even know about him consciously that I know has gotten into me.
I just know that, but also that means that some of the generational sin I had to reject because here's one example of it. He dropped out of school when he's in the fourth grade and he started living real independent, even as a child. Eventually as a young man, he started selling men's clothing and then eventually had men's clothing stores. And so he was real independent guy.
And I worked in Wright's clothing store growing up and I would see my granddaddy, he loved and he and the salesman that worked at the Wright's clothing store in Greensboro stayed there their whole life. So he loved them. He cared for him.
I know he loved them, but he had salty language. And he had this thing that he would say, I must have heard him say that at least a thousand times. If something wasn't being done to his liking, he'd come down and he'd fix it. And he'd say, if you want to get anything done right, you got to do it yourself. He said this so many times, I don't tell you right now, you want to get anything done right, you got to do it yourself.
He'd be straightening up some pants or something. You know what I mean? Do it yourself, you know? And so that was a motto. And it was only later in my life where I started leading churches and stuff, I'm like, that's not right. That's not right. There's a lot of stuff that people can do better than I can.
I need to find the people that can do stuff better than me so that they can do those things. That was wrong. And I said, this is a formula for perfectionism and workaholism. This is a formula for not knowing how to delegate. I got to reject that family motto.
You know what I say? So even some of the best influences in your life weren't perfect, right? And so pay attention sometimes. What are those things that get passed along like that? Sometimes it's just direct curses, you know, and I'd love for us to pray with you about that today. If you had that coming along, it just is so unthinkable to me, but it's just happening all over all the time of parents telling kids statements of doom and of their worthlessness that passes it along. Sometimes there is spiritual oppression that follows families, just outright spiritual warfare and demonic oppression. And sometimes you need to pray about that and we'll pray about that with you. So what this second commandment is saying and what the Lord's saying, here's the children, the grandchildren, the great great grandchildren are more likely to worship the idols of their forebearers than someone else would be.
And God is just as jealous for them as he's jealous for the patriarch or matriarch that started the sin pattern. And here's the thing to be noted though, he says that it's to the third and the fourth generation. And this scholars tell us is a Hebrew figure of speech. It is an idiom. It doesn't mean that it skips the second generation. It doesn't mean that after the fourth generation, it just magically stops and it never happens in the fifth generation. It's a figure of speech that means it happens plenty, but it's going to expire.
It's kind of like, you know, we use figure of speech all the time. Like we'll say, I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Well, we don't mean precisely 120 seconds and I will be there right at that moment. You might be there in a minute and a half, might be a few minutes. If I say I'm going to be there in a couple of minutes, I'd like you to give me at least five.
If my wife says I'll be there in a couple of minutes, she'll be there right there in two minutes. Anyway, to the third and fourth generation means it's going to be here for a little while, but it's not going to last. There's going to be an intervention of grace that's going to change it.
But he says, but I see it and I I've overseen it that it happens like that. But I chesed this word that I love in the old covenant, the steadfast love of God. It goes on to a thousand generations.
Thousand is a highly symbolic word in the Bible. Ten means complete. It's all there.
Baby's born. He's got all his fingers. Got all 10 of them. All 10 of them.
Right? So 10 means complete and 10 times 10 even more a picture of that. And 10 times 10 times 10, a thousand is just to say it's, it's all there. It just, it just goes on and on and on. That's what a thousand generations means.
It means it doesn't stop. And God thinks of his love and his blessing as seed that does not stop. He thinks of blessing this that way. This is the way he spoke to Abraham, Genesis 22 17, by blessing I'll bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. He's seeing the blessing.
He's seeing you when he's talking to Abraham. This is why Peter is preaching not long after Pentecost in Acts chapter three. He quotes all of this saying of Abraham, in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first God having raised up his servant Jesus sent him to bless you and turning every one of you away from your iniquities. He's saying, this is the promise that came.
It's come down through all the generations and here it is. So the curse is designed to end the blessing to keep going. And this is the way God thinks about it. It doesn't mean that the curse isn't real. In fact, Paul makes a big point of this in Galatians when he says in Galatians 3 10 for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it's written, curse to be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them.
So to be under law is a futile thing because no one can keep all the law. And therefore wherever there's sin, there's curse. This is pretty clear in the scripture. And by that curse means something not just that there is condemnation and judgment against the sin, but that there is a negative forecast and something at work spiritually against us, you see, and all that's incorporated in the idea of curse. And Paul is saying that this is associated with law based mentalities. If you have even 1% of law in your theology of grace, it'll make you think, well, I've got to do something to prove that I'm righteous enough to be loved by God. And it will open up the door to unlimited fear and put you right back under the curse that Jesus came to break. But he goes on to say something that absolutely marvelous in verse 13 of Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
For it is written, cursed is everyone who hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. Jesus Christ came not just to take the punishment that was due our sin, not just to take our sin into his own being, but what Paul is saying is clear, he came to take the curse that's associated with all of that. And when you trust in Christ, what that means, beloved, is that you're not only forgiven of your sin, but it's as if your sin is put upon Jesus on the cross. And the curse that would have come for you because of sin in your life or those who've gone before you is put upon the cross so that you in this great exchange are given forgiveness and blessedness as if you'd lived his righteous life. That's what the Bible teaches and that's what's so glorious about the gospel.
And what Paul wants to invite the Galatians into here and he invites us into live like it. Allen Wright, today's good news message, timeless blessing versus temporary curse. It's in our series Increase and Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio in just a moment sharing his parting good news thought for the day.
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 in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And for those who really are looking to the past and really saying, well, I come from bad stock or I come from a long line of people who have failed me in the past. And so I'm just doomed to repeat the past.
You say there can be a change, a radical shift. Well, absolutely. And the first thing I just want to be very clear to any Christian. If you're a Christian, then you're blood bought. You are redeemed.
You are 100% forgiven. And the Bible says cursed is the one who hangs on the tree. And Paul refers to this in Galatians and says that Jesus took our curse. So Christian, you're not under a curse. There may be generational sin patterns that I think if you can recognize them, identify them, admit to them, you know, which is like confessing them and then say, but the cross of Jesus has changed things. And I just placed that cross between me and those patterns of sin. You can take a powerful act of revoking. And so in the recognizing and revoking, there's something that's powerful there. Never feel like that you're doomed because of something that has gone on before you because the blood Jesus covers that. Recognizing sin patterns so that we can walk in truth rather than deception. That's important. And the most important thing to remember is that you're designed for God's blessing and the blessing of God that gets into into generations of families, both biological and spiritual.
This gets passed on and on and on and it never goes away. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.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 PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
