This message is from the 2022 Kingdom Leaders Summit. In this talk by Dr. Tony Evans, he encourages church leaders to look to the words of Jesus concerning the new covenant to become the kingdom leaders God is calling them to be.
[Applause]
while we’re in a political season and uh
everybody’s looking at the midterms and
anticipating the conclusion of
this cycle to get to 24.
to see who is going to occupy
the White House
and the house of Congress
this is fundamentally
a battle to shift Covenants
to shift
the balance of power who will rule
which party will be seated in the place
of dominance
and influence
Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant
a covenant is an administrative
mechanism
God has one Kingdom but he has varying
administrative mechanisms
and those administrative mechanisms are
called Covenants
in those mechanisms
by which he administers
his kingdom rule
through this covenantal connection
is authorized by someone
we’re told as Hebrews goes on in chapter
12 that Jesus is the mediator of the New
Covenant
he manages
oversees this Divine arrangement for how
God is moving in this dispensation of
his kingdom
so a covenant at ministers
God’s kingdom program in a particular
era
just like in politics when a new
Administration takes over
some things continue and other things
are changed
so it is in the New Covenant
some things transfer over other things
do not
and it is understanding that distinction
which Paul calls rightly dividing the
word of Truth
that helps us to appreciate understand
and navigate
how are we going to function in the
arrangement
that God is particularly operating under
and the arrangement that he is operating
under
is the lordship of Jesus Christ who is
the mediator of the New Covenant and as
the mediator he speaks
that’s what verse 24 says
that he is the mediator of the New
Covenant which speaks better than the
blood of Abel Abel died but Abel as a
man dead still spoke because he was
still alive
he was dead to Earth but alive to Glory
but he spoke in glory and it influenced
what God did on Earth
Jesus is the mediator and a mediator
brings together two parties
so Jesus is the mediator of the new
Arrangement that God is operating on
today
and get in fact in this new Arrangement
God’s philosophy of History
is that all things Ephesians 1 10 will
be summed up in Jesus Christ and our
goal is to get Jesus to talk
it says in the New Covenant
Jesus speaks
and the beautiful thing about Jesus
speaking is
because he’s both God and man he can
speak Heaven and Earth language
because he’s Divine and human he becomes
the link between Time and Eternity
so the question is if Jesus is speaking
how do I hear him talking
and how do I find out what he has to say
since the New Covenant allows him to
speak
bringing heaven and linking it to
history or going back to that concept of
how the spiritual realm links to the
Physical Realm
well after identifying
this principle of Jesus talking as the
New Covenant is administered which we
are part of as Christians and as the
Church of Jesus Christ the question is
hearing God talk hearing Jesus speaks
this leads the author of Hebrews
to this well-known Passage
still in Hebrews chapter 12.
see to it verse 25 says
that you do not refuse him who is
speaking
so he’s just talked about Jesus talking
he says when Jesus is talking don’t turn
him down
don’t refuse or reject
the speech that is coming out of heaven
and in history
he says for if those who did not Escape
when they refused him who warned them on
Earth much less shall we escape when we
turn around from him who warns from
heaven
so Heaven is talking
and it’s talking to us in this new
arrangement
how do I know when Heaven is saying
something to me to us or to our
Ministries
verse 25 and his voice shook the Earth
then but now he has promised saying yet
once more I will shake not only the
Earth but also the heaven
the expression yet once more denotes the
removing of those things which can be
shaken
as of created things so that those
things which cannot be shaken May remain
he says God is talking
the way you know that he is speaking is
he is disturbing the natural Order of
Things
we say that again
you know that God is talking
because the natural order of things are
being disrupted or disturbed
it is when God
shakes the natural order of things that
Jesus has something fresh to say
a fresh word a fresh statement he has
something that he wants to communicate
when this speech takes place
and there is a disturbance
that affects the Earth he says not only
the Earth so it includes the Earth but
it is more than the Earth
it typically involves because it’s
involving both Heaven and Earth
a conflict between the two
between the physical and the spiritual
between the natural and the supernatural
not only the Earth but also the heavens
as well
when Israel got to the Red Sea they were
in a contradiction
you got Pharaoh coming on one side and
you’ve got water on the other side and
they are stuck in between a
contradiction tied to a command they
were supposed to flee but how can I go
and do what I was told to do when I got
this coming here I got that over there
so when you put in a catch-22
is because God has something new he
wants to say
when God told Abraham to kill Isaac
that was full of contradictions
it was a Biblical contradiction because
God had already condemned murder yet God
is telling Abraham to kill his son
it is a theological contradiction
because he told Abraham through Isaac
the nation would be blessed but how is
that possible if I’m killing Isaac it is
an emotional contradiction because it
says that he was the son that Abraham
loved so he got to put his love aside in
order to fulfill the will of God it was
a social a social contradiction because
how could he explain this to the society
in which he lived and it was certainly a
familial contradiction because how is he
going to explain to Sarah I’m getting
ready to go kill our baby boy that we’ve
been waiting all these years me a
hundred and you 90 for us to have this
baby boy in the first place which
explains why he got up early that
morning to sacrifice him he had to get
up before she got up if he was going to
pull this thing off so so it is a
contradiction it is a it is something
that does not make sense
that disrupts the natural order of
things that’s how you know that the New
Covenant that’s authored by Jesus that
mediates Between Heaven and Earth has
something new to say
so when you’re looking at covert when
you’re looking at the racial crisis when
you’re looking at the political crisis
when you’re looking at this disruption
that has disrupted the whole world and
even the ministry of the church is cause
God is talking
he has something to say out of the New
Covenant now whenever something is
disrupted it is uncomfortable
the bad news is it doesn’t feel good if
your order your life your circumstances
has been turned upside down
but most of you ladies here have had a
baby which means that you know what it
is to be in labor
know what it is to go through the pain
of childbirth
but we all know that childbirth
is
bad news in a good situation
the bad news is that it hurts
the good situation is that you’re
creating birthing something new
the joy of birth is not the pain of the
disruption
the joy of birth is the result that
comes from the pain of disruption
or since in spite of what they’re saying
in some parts of the culture today men
don’t get pregnant
the the
we know what it is most of us as men
know what it is to throw up to vomit to
regurgitate okay well that’s usually bad
news in a good situation
because it’s a nasty situation but you
usually feel better after you’ve done it
after you’re throwing up if it’s not
good but you feel better because you got
out something that needed to get out
when God allows A disruption in the
natural order of things it’s because he
has something new he wants to say or
wants to show or wants to communicate
we’re living in a day of shaking we’re
living in a day of disturbance
Martha and Mary ran into a contradiction
Jesus says yours your brother is not
going to die
he says this is not unto death
a few days later he’s dead
that’s a contradiction
the sisters know it’s a contradiction
because both Martha and Mary say said if
you would have been here
this would not have happened in other
words Jesus is your fault
because you weren’t here when you said
you were going to be here
whenever God disappoints you
or disturbs you it’s because he’s
speaking new information to you coming
out of the shaking because there is a
New Covenant at new administrative
manifestation he wants to bring to light
to your life to your environment to your
ministry or in this case what we’re
going through now is a disruption to the
whole world
that’s what’s going to happen when the
Rapture takes place there’s going to be
a disruption in the natural order of
things that’s what’s going to happen
when Jesus returns to set his feet not
in the clouds but on the earth there’s
going to be a disruption in the natural
order of things why because he’s
instituting something new what we’re
going through is God wanting to do
something different to say something new
to to communicate to you me and us that
business is changing there is a New
Covenant strategy at work that God wants
to implement he says the danger is that
you will refuse him who is speaking now
when there is a disruption
in the weather
it’s getting cloudy it’s getting stormy
or you take the hurricane that just hit
Florida and worked itself up to South
Carolina and up the East Coast
the one that got the most attention was
the weatherman or the weather woman
you might normally look at them but they
got undivided attention when there was
this hurricane disruption into the
natural order thing and you really
wanted to hear what they had to say
because this storm was going to turn
your life upside down because there was
going to be this meteorological
interruption
what God is saying is when the storm
hits in the circumstances of life I want
you to pay closer attention
because I’m doing something and I’m
saying something I really want you to
hear so in light of all we’re going
through in Ministry God is talking now
and maybe the tendency is to run out to
quit to throw in the towel when God is
saying no listen more closely because
I’ve got some new information that I
want to share with you so he says do not
turn him down when he is speaking so
that the things which cannot be shaken
May remain
so whenever
there is a Divine disruption
what God is seeking to do
is shrink the physical and expand the
spiritual let me say that again
Whenever there is the Divine disruption
he is seeking to shrink the physical
and he’s seeking to expand the spiritual
you remember some of you had
grandmothers like my grandmother
we would go over to our house on the
weekends in Baltimore Maryland
and we would often spend the weekends
with my grandmother
we would get some Baltimore crabs on
Friday night
my grandfather would buy the crabs and
steamed crabs and we would we would eat
crabs and uh and then we would get up
and watch cartoons on Saturday morning
on one occasion or more than one
occasion
it began to thunder and lightning on
Saturday morning
I remember one time it happened on my
favorite cartoon which was Mighty Mouse
here he comes to save the day
because Mighty Mouse was on the way and
I and I I love to see super Mouse do his
thing
on this particular day that I remember
it’s this thunderstorm coming in
my grandmother said Tony
turn the television off
say what you heard me turn the
television off but I’m watching Mighty
Mouse
turn why do I have to turn the
television off she would say because God
is talking
the thunderstorm met that I had to shut
stuff down because heaven wanted my
undivided attention
grandmother
wasn’t too far off
because what God is saying is when I
disturb the natural order of things I
want to bring to light the spiritual
because the natural has claimed too much
territory
what God has done in the culture
racially class politically
circumstantially is saying y’all have
gotten so secular yeah y’all have gotten
so World oriented that I have been
dumbed down too long for too much so I’m
going to turn this thing around
I’m going to disturb the natural order
of things this happened in um Ezekiel
chapter 43.
talk about politics he told them you
have brought your kings too close to my
throne
he says you have brought your kings and
put their throne in my temple next to my
Throne like we equal
so I’m going to disturb the natural
order of things in Ezekiel chapter 43 to
let you know don’t bring politics that
close to me like we saw me’s twins
and when you look at how the white
church has become
idolatrous Republican and the black
churches become idolatrous Democrats
he’s saying I’ma stir up the whole
political order so you ain’t gonna know
what you are
because I’m going to confuse the whole
thing until you understand there’s only
one king up in this house
and I met
so when God disturbs the natural order
of things he is accentuating the
spiritual he is dumbing down the
physical in the sense of it’s
illegitimacy in promoting that which is
not reflecting my priorities my will and
I’ve got to reshape some things so two
things one of two things is happening
today
number one
either
Jesus is on the precipice of his of his
return and he’s allowing this disruption
with the growth of technology to
facilitate that intervention in the
history known as The Rapture of first
Thessalonians 4
or
it’s not that he’s returning he’s just
resetting things so the church can
become the church again and not just
becoming a facilitator for the culture
with a little Jesus sprinkled on top
because when you look at the church
today it is increasingly abandoning
God’s
Gods so God has shaken things up for us
to have a radical return to his truth
and his standard so that his will his
way and his word becomes the dominant
influence and not just merely one of
another word that the culture gets to
hear he says it is God talking and he
wants undivided attention
so the question then is
what is supposed to be happening since
God is talking
and how am I going to pick up on the
signal for myself for my Ministry or how
he wants to use us in the world in which
we live he keeps going in verse 28 of
Hebrews chapter 12. he says therefore
whenever you see therefore you want to
ask what it’s there for
therefore always links to what he’s just
said therefore
since we receive a kingdom which cannot
be shaken
ah
the word shaken is used again
when we saw a shaken a moment ago it was
God disturbing something
turning things inside out
he uses the word
unshaken it cannot be shaken
so we’re back to my word again
Kingdom okay all right
since we have a kingdom
the Greek word for kingdom is basilia it
means rule or authority it is the rule
of God
‘s rule is comprehended comprehensive
it’s administered covenantally it’s
administered according to a regime over
which Jesus is over now and Jesus is now
the one talking on behalf of God he’s
talking about the kingdom the kingdom
that we have received that cannot be
shaken in other words it is a kingdom
that is not subject to the culture let
me say that again
the culture is Disturbed
because God is talking
but God is talking in a disturbed
culture to talk about a kingdom that
cannot be disturbed
so he’s talking about the rule and reign
of God in the midst of the chaos of
culture so in the midst of all this
craziness that’s going on that should be
one place
that is not budging
when everything else is shifting
there should be one place that’s stable
when everything else is changing
so if you are
losing your stability I am losing my
stability that means we’re too
culturally attached
and because he does not want us
culturally attached he will let us get
as Disturbed as the culture is until we
return to a kingdom that cannot be
shaken
so if we All Shook Up
like everybody else is All Shook Up
we’re too attached
since we’re too attached he’s going to
let us get shook up like that shook up
until we get reattached because he wants
to reveal a kingdom a rule that cannot
be shaken or disturbed by what is
happening around us if you’re in an
airplane
and there’s you notice how orderly
things look in the plane
I mean the the the the Farmland is all
squared and the the highways are all in
order and everything’s looks so peaceful
when you’re flying in a plane once you
hit the ground
you hit the chaos up in the plane you
see the order and the reason is because
you’re looking at it from a different
perspective you’re looking at it from up
there and not down here too much God’s
church is looking at things down here to
determine what they’re going to do and
who they’re going to be rather than
things from up there
to determine how things are going to
stay I love the story of Joshua fitting
the Battle of Jericho
Joshua fit in the Battle of Jerry Cole
and then the two the two spies going to
the red light district and they run into
Rahab
Rahab says I hadn’t heard about your God
and I believe in your God she receives
the spies
we’re told that not only did she receive
the spines but she sent them out another
way
and she lied about it because she told
the people at the door I don’t know who
they are I haven’t seen them
she sends them out another way
the two spies say to her
when we come back and shut this mama
down
when we come down and bring up Jericho
to its collapse
bring all of your Kim folk into your
house
and when this Jericho collapses
because of what you’ve done you and your
family will be spared
so will you ever preach the story of
Joshua fitting the Battle of Jericho
don’t make all the Wall come down
because the Bible says rahab’s house was
embedded in the wall
so her house was attached to the wall so
when the walls of Jericho fell down
there was a piece of the wall Still
Standing because her house was attached
to it
her house was attached to a piece of the
wall that was not going to be subject to
the rest of the wall because it was
operating under a different realm under
a different Authority so it was not
subject
your church and my church should not be
subject to all this craziness happening
in the culture
it shouldn’t be subject to the
redefinition of marriage it shouldn’t be
subject to the redefinition of gender it
shouldn’t be subject to the divisiveness
of race it shouldn’t be subject to the
divisiveness of politics or class or
culture why because we attached to a
whole nother wall that does not Shake it
does not move it does not budge it’s
operating on a whole different shall I
dare say this word Kingdom Agenda it’s
operating on a whole different program
of God and therefore it’s not subject
but because we’ve gotten so attached to
the wrong wall when the wrong walls fall
we fall with it because we’re not
attached to the promise wall where Jesus
is saying this is unshakable location it
does not move with the culture because
we’re not listening to the right word
what God is saying to the church today
is I want you to act on the kingdom you
have received since we have received a
kingdom that cannot be shaken
guess what he goes on to say he says
this is the time for Ministry to go to a
whole new level
let us show gratitude by which we may
offer God an acceptable service he says
this is not a time when I’m talking and
shutting everything up and flipping
everything over for you to run this is a
time for you to take Ministry to the
next level
in fact he not only says take Ministry
to the next level he says I want you to
take it to the next level with a smile
he says take it with gratitude he wants
you to be grateful you’re not grateful
in labor for the pain you’re grateful
for the baby so he’s not saying be
grateful for the inconvenience he’s
saying be grateful for the opportunity
because in the middle of this madness
I’m going to show you what an unshakable
situation looks like but you can’t be
listening to the wrong voice
Fort Worth is 30 miles and 30 minutes
from here on one occasion
I was asked to go to Fort Worth to speak
in the evening
got in my car
and it was before all this computer
stuff and fancy stuff and GPS stuff they
fax the direction to me to Sylvia and
Sylvia printed it and gave it to me
so I had
the word from the pastor
giving me the directions for where I was
to go to get to his church 30 minutes
from here in Fort Worth
so I read the directions and I went down
20 then I was to get on 8 20. then I saw
the exit I got off the exit
I turned left
to begin to make my way to the church
I’m driving and I’m driving and I’m
driving and I’m driving
but I’m not seeing the church
now I’m in the country
I’m in the country
if there’s a church out here Dr
Doolittle is the pastor
because I’m not seeing anything but
horses and cows and sheep and goats I am
in the country
so now I’m a little confused I’m
supposed to speak at seven
it’s ten of seven
and I can’t find the church so I turn
around
and make my way back the other day
other way
and I pull over to a 7-Eleven and ask
them do you know where this church is
he tells me well yes you go down two
blocks and turn left again
thank you I went two blocks turned left
but now I’m in a residential district
there’s nothing but houses in here
I had a cul-de-sac so there’s no place
further for me to go
I back up and turn around come back out
go to the next light another person
pulls up to me I turn down my window
waved them to turn down that window do
you know where this church is
they gave me another Direction
I went there and there was no church
now it’s seven o’clock
so now I’m late
I decide to pick up the paper from the
pastor
I started off with the word
but then when I hit the exit
I turned left leaning to my own
understanding
then I started talking to folk who I
thought should know something
and they let me further astray
I decided to pick up the paper from the
pastor because the pastor should know
where his church is located
I picked it up and I saw what happened
I read two-thirds of the word
but the last third of the word I didn’t
pay attention to it said when you get to
the bottom of the exit turn right
I turn left
when I went back and retraced and turned
right
the church was one block from the exit
I went all around the Marbury bush
because I was not letting the author
tell me which way to go I didn’t pay
attention to the writer of the
directions
when a chaos starts happening you want
to look for two things
what has God said in his written word
and what is he saying in his
circumstantial operation with these
shaking things disturbing things the
written word is like a
it’s like a uh a rule book and a
football game
it’s a rule book in a football game and
that’s the standard for everybody who
plays football
but then there every team has their own
Playbook
their playbook is different
and the Playbook is unique to each team
and within the Playbook there are
audibles called by the quarterback the
quarterback may go up to the line of
scrimmage and change this play on the
spot because he sees the defense lining
up in a way he did not pre-anticipate
none of things in the rule book changes
but things regularly change in the
Playbook or on the field depending on
what’s happening at the moment
the Bible is the rule book so that gives
the standard for everybody
because it’s the rule book
but God is regularly Shifting The
Playbook and sometimes he audibolizes
the call on despair at the moment so if
you’re not paying attention you may know
the rule book but not know the Playbook
the Reason God gives us the holy spirit
is so that he can within the rule book
of the word give us the Playbook of our
action
and sometimes he audibolizes it on the
spot so that you have to make a quick
turn and a quick change because of what
Satan or the world or the culture is
doing it’s amazing how many pastors
don’t change their sermons when the
world is disrupted by a situation that
happens in Minnesota when a man is
killed by a policeman and they just
preaching that series like nothing
happened because the Holy Spirit doesn’t
have the freedom to call an audible in
the series because they’re not in tune
to the shaking that has occurred in the
culture so that God’s Playbook can be
communicated to God’s people rule book
can be complete communicated to God’s
people because the pastor has gotten the
Playbook or the audible that’s needed
for the disturbance that has occurred he
says I want you to give an unshakable
answer to what’s happening in the
culture when things are falling apart so
my challenge to you today is to not to
look at the inconveniences we are all
experiencing as a distress but as a
communication device God is saying he
wants us in a different way at a
different level based on the object of
truth of the word to the subject reality
of its application in the experience of
the ministry we perform to demonstrate
that while everything else is shaken
we’re not shaken you know uh
when they uh are when you iron your
clothes
you’re disturbing the natural Order of
Things
things are wrinkled and you’re putting
fire on it if the shirt or blouse could
talk they would say it’s hot up in here
they would say you’re burning me up
the closing closing line of that verse
says for our God is a consuming fire
now when a sacrifice
was consumed on the altar that was bad
news and good news
it was bad news for the animal but good
news for the people
when the animal was put on the altar the
bad news is had to die and give up his
life but it meant the Forgiveness of
sins for the people so the bad news was
good news happening at the very same
time for the animal bad for the people
good our God is a consuming fire when
you put that iron on the shirt or the
blouse guess what it’s doing it’s
consuming wrinkles it’s consuming things
that need to be changed it’s consuming
things that are wrong that need to be
made right and why do you put that hot
iron on that blouse or shirt because you
want to straighten something out
something that’s not straight needs to
be made straight but you got to create
some heated inconvenience for it to get
straight or else it’ll just look bad and
be wrinkled right now God has a hot iron
on the church
that’s because it’s too wrinkled that’s
because it’s been hanging out in the
culture too long and it’s not
representing the unshakable level of the
Kingdom so I agree with you it is hot up
in here if we’re trying to do ministry
but you know why you iron that blouse or
you iron that shirt because you’re gonna
wear it you’re gonna put it on and
you’re gonna look good in it you know
why God is allowing the chaos and the
culture the show is on unshakable
Kingdom because he wants to wear us and
he wants to look good in us but he got
to get the wrinkles out of us first so
that when he puts on Jesus Christ and he
puts on the kingdom Garb that his
kingdom people looking good and not
walking around or ministering with
wrinkled circumstances and wrinkled
Ministry because they’re shaking like
the culture God is talking and he’s got
some good news he wants you to reattach
to the unshakable kingdom so that when
the world is falling apart they’re
falling apart in the midst of a man his
family and a ministry that’s not falling
apart because it’s tied to an unshakable
Kingdom and all God’s people said
amen and amen