Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. So why does Paul say, but you're more than a conqueror?
Because he's talking about a spiritual place that you have in Christ, which is so, so amazing to Paul that he even says in Ephesians, you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You're in a whole new position in the creation. 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. Do not be deceived.
God's not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. This is particularly helpful when you're wanting to know how to treat people. All you really have to do is think about what kind of fruit you'd like to see emerge in their life. That's really all you have to think about. And then you plant that sort of seed.
That's really all you have to do. So parent, your child is acting impatient all the time, and you want patience. So what's the kind of seed you need to? You've got to sow patience into the impatient, because this much is true. Beloved, you'll never get an apple by planting an orange seed, and you'll never get love by planting hate. You'll never get kindness by planting disdain.
You always plant because everything, everything reproduces according to its own kind, and it sort of simplifies things. Take your flesh out of it. Take your flesh out of it that wants to repay evil with evil. What kind of harvest do you want? This is why God says, do not repay evil with evil and do not be overcome by evil, but overcome it with good. Plant the opposite seed. That's the wise farmer, right?
Don't want to plant weeds. And so God over and over through Genesis is saying everything reproduces according to its own kind, and that's good. But when it comes to humanity, verse 26, God said, let us make man in our image. Now he's speaking as the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This is new language. This is to say all the vegetation, all the animals they reproduce after their own kind, but there's something even more magnificent here. It is my image in the world. It was a common custom in the ancient world for kings to put icons and statues and etchings of themselves everywhere throughout their kingdom, right? This is what we find in archeology, because the king was saying, I want my image everywhere so everyone will understand it's my reign and my kingdom. And it's that image that God's using here. He's saying, I want my image all over the earth and this, the pinnacle of my creation is my image. It would change everything in our lives if we could simply get this and wake up in the morning and think, I'm the image of God on the earth.
Wow. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Fill. So God creates and He blesses. He forms that He fills. He makes something good and increases it. So how can something increase that much? Adam and Eve weren't going to fill the earth with their own children, but if the children have children and those children have children, those children have children, those children have children, then it can fill the earth. He's talking about the kind of growth that we call mathematically exponential growth.
That's how something gets full, right? And so as we're thinking about all of this and you're thinking about your impact, not just now, but for generations to come, the people that you invest in, the way that you parent or spiritually parent, the acts of mercy, kindness, love, prayer that you pray, all of this like seed that is designed by God. This is planned for it to grow exponentially, become vast and fill the earth.
It's just hard to wrap your mind around this kind of exponential growth. The legend, so it goes, of a king of India who was excited that one of his ministers, his math minister, had invented the game of chess. And so he asked the mathematician to name what his reward would be. And the mathematician said, oh, just anything humble, he said. The king said, no, no, I'll give you up to a quarter of my kingdom.
No, the mathematician minister said, he said, I have no interest in such things. He said, I'll tell you what I would like. Just one simple request of the king is that you would place one grain of wheat on the first square of the chess board and then on the second square place two grains and on the third square place four grains and so forth until you, by doubling it on each successive square until all of the 64 squares are covered. Your Majesty, I'd ask for nothing more than this.
And the king said, why, certainly such a humble request. And they had a person began to to fill up the chessboard, one on the first and two and then four and eight, sixteen, thirty two, sixty four and one twenty eight, so forth. Well, by the eighth square at the end of the first row, the supply master had counted out a total of two hundred fifty five wheat grains.
Not a small amount, but I mean, what kind of payment is that? Probably a joke, the king thinks. A little bit more goes on to the chessboard and soon it starts to pile up. But so far, the counting had only taken about four minutes. But by the time the second row was complete, the supply master had worked for about 18 hours just to count out sixty five thousand five hundred thirty five grains of wheat.
We're on the second row. By the end of the third of the eight rows, it took one hundred ninety four days to count the sixteen point eight million grains for the twenty fourth square. And there's still forty empty squares to go. So if you do the math, the final square would have received, well, I think that number's 18 quintillion. I don't think I'm making up a name for a number, but a zillion. It's too big to even wrap your mind around it.
Let me just say this. It is the same amount as all the wheat harvested in the world for several centuries. And it would, if someone were to count it by grain by grain, require five hundred and eighty four billion years of counting.
Feel the earth. It means in the first place that a person who's full of faith and has wisdom thinks about that initial seed is going to reproduce after its own kind, but is designed to grow vast. This means, according to what one sociologist has written, that people tend to concentrate on the things that are big or fast growing. But the real dangers and opportunities are in the things that are exponential, which are small and slow growing.
It takes careful attention and measurement to find them, to distinguish them from the things that will always be small and slow. In their exponential phase, a small action can result in a large change in a final outcome. And once things are fast growing, they tend to have too much momentum to affect much. But when things are big, they tend to be near their limit anyway. You see what this is saying is that it's probably the things that seem like no big deal at the moment that are the things that are going to shape the world. True of everything.
One bad virus gets out of a lab or whatever. You know, it's just a little, it can grow exponentially. So much is the germ of your kindness, the small and insignificant. 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. And I was thinking about conversation that some pastors this week that I had a chance to meet with some great friends from around the country for a couple of days, and we were sharing with each other heartache and hallelujah and hope from this going on in our life. This one pastor, he said, you know, he said, my heart ache from the past year and my hallelujah are kind of related. He said, I got sick around Christmastime, which is a bummer of a time as a pastor to be sick. And he said, I had to be cooped up a lot. And he said, And one day I was cooped up in my bedroom and I've just really, you know, I'm on the mend, but I'm still just having to lie around. And he said, my six year old came in and said, could we play some video games? And my dad said, OK. And he said, y'all, he said, I sat there and played Mario Kart for three and a half hours straight. They got done and the six year old was walking out of the room and stopped at the doorway and turned around and said, Dad, just so you know.
This has been the best day of my life. The thing that seems so insignificant to you is a seed that can fill a life, could fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over this earth. It means to subjugate. It means like the image of grapes underfoot in a wine press. It is a strong word. It means mastery.
It means rule. It means that in the first place that Adam and Eve were given a garden and they were given stewardship of it and they were given the earth and they were to be stewards of it, they weren't to dominate in the sense of cruelty, but in the sense of good stewardship over it all. And this becomes a picture for the role of humanity in the world. And what happened with Adam and Eve was that through the deception of the serpent, they forfeited at that time their rulership and they let themselves be ruled by the lies of this invasive serpent who came into the garden. But what has happened in Christ, the Bible says, is that we have a second Adam. We have a perfectly righteous human who is also God himself, who reestablished the proper reign of humanity on the earth. And in his death and then his resurrection, he proved himself Lord over all, even over death itself. And Jesus said to his disciples, if you see me casting out demons by the finger of God, you will know the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
You will know that proper rule has been restored to humanity because human beings were never here to be ruled over by evil. You're no longer Christians under the mastery and rulership of sin. But instead, Paul said in Romans that you now have a righteousness that's in Christ that enables you to reign with Christ. And the Bible promises that it is your ultimate destiny that in a new heaven and a new earth, you'll reign and you'll rule with him forever. Have mastery and rule in this earth is to say not only tend to this garden well, but it is to say that you Christians are now in a renewed place of spiritual authority and you are the head. You're not the tail when it comes to the kingdom of God. You have authority. You have authority over evil. Take your authority and walk in it, subdue and have dominion, rule and master in this earth with Christ. So we have suffering like everybody else.
We have problems like everybody else. So why does Paul say, but you're more than a conqueror? Because he's talking about a spiritual place that you have in Christ, which is so, so amazing to Paul that he even says in Ephesians, you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You're in a whole new position in the creation.
Subdue and have dominion. It's the very first blessing spoken to humanity and therefore you can think of its importance as foundational. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion. And when you take this blessing in, it has paradigm shifting light that causes darkness to flee and revolutionizes the way that you see your daily life. It means, beloved, in the first place, you matter more than you know. Little seed of a giant sequoia, you matter more than you know. So never underestimate how God can use you. You matter so much to God that he wants to increase that good that he's put in you generations and generations and generations. Wow. You matter.
You're precious. You have the grace of God that's flowing through you and it's more than you could ever imagine. And it means also this when you think of this blessing and you think of seed time and harvest time. It means that whatever kind of fruit is going on in your life now, whether it's a time where you go, boy, it just feels dry. I feel like I got no fruit at all. Or whether it's just sometimes Anne and I said, well, we're in one of those seeds and we're walking around, the fruit's falling off the trees and splatting us in the face. And we've had other times like, man, the ground seems dry and all I'm doing is tilling at it. Whatever season you're in, whether it's the dry or the most fertile and fruit bearing season ever, this is still true. Your biggest impact has only just begun.
Your big impact is way beyond what you can see, way beyond your years. And it also means this. It means you've got a garden. So tend it well. God chose to be partners with you.
You've got a sphere of influence. Think of it like your garden. I like my wife. She's always saying to her late.
She said, how's your garden growing? And sometimes you got to pull the weeds, right? There's this thing that's at work in the universe that things tend towards disorder, don't they? And so what we do is we, in partnership with God, are keeping it in order. He forms and he fills.
And we're partnering in that. Right. You don't have to do anything for your teenager's bedroom to become a wreck.
Just live life for a few days. And it just is right. It takes work to keep it in order. And you don't have to do anything to let the weeds take over the garden.
They just do. And so you have to weed it and you have to tend to it. So you've got a garden. And you might think your garden is small. I don't care if your garden's one little plant. Beloved, remember the principle of the seed. Remember the principle of fruit inside of its more seed. If you only had one seed and one sprig, garden it well because you matter so very, very much.
God's amazing because he saw in Adam and Eve a world full of his image and he never grows tired of it. Huzzah! You don't even want to see it one more time, do you? Not even one more. Not even one, but just one more.
It's amazing. You get tired of it real quick. But God never, ever grows tired of seeing the good that he's been putting in you get multiplied as it bears sweet fruit that inside of it has more seed and it keeps going and going more and more and more. Beloved in Christ, you are made for increase. And that's the gospel.
Alan Wright. Today's good news message. Fill the earth in our series Increase. Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio as he shares his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. 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. Pastor Alan is with us here in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day as we come to the conclusion of this teaching, but continue on in our series Increase.
I want to just go back to three concluding points that I made and let's repeat them. All of this, what does it mean for us that God has spoken this blessing to Adam and Eve and to us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion in it? This means to every one of our listeners, you matter more than you know. So never underestimate how much God can use you. That's what this means. And it also means that your greatest impact lives beyond you.
So never give up because you're never out of time. Even into our last breath, we can be sowing seed into this world of the seed of the Spirit, the seed of the Word of God. And thirdly and importantly, you have a garden that's been given to you by God, a sphere of influence, and your garden needs you. So don't let the weeds take over. Keep sowing good seed, keep tilling the ground and keep having faith for a great harvest.
That's all involved in this incredible blessing to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. 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.
