Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder, and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets, and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

what does it look like when you leave

your first love

it means that you have to

find time for him when you have time for

other things

most folk don’t have to find time for

for this show or that show

cause it’s understood that when that

time comes and that show is on

i’m there the reason why we have to find

time for god

is cause he’s not first love he’s when i

get around to your love

it has to do with priority he wants to

know he’s first

that he has been relationally

prioritized

not just programmatically

included first love is where there is a

fire for him

how do you become an overcomer and what

can you expect

as you function as an overcomer

not an undercover one who is operating

in victory and not

operating in defeat now in order to be

an overcomer that means there’s got to

be something

that you have to overcome there’s going

to be something that’s going to be a

challenge in your life there’s going to

be

opposition that you’re going to have to

supersede

well today in revelation chapter 2

the lord is going to talk about the

intolerance of an overcomer

if you are going to be an overcomer and

not an undercover

if you’re going to be a winner and not a

loser

if you’re going to be victorious and not

live in defeat

you must have your toleration limits

there are certain things you will not

tolerate

you won’t accept it’s outside of the

boundary

he writes to the church at thyrotira he

says

beginning in revelation chapter 2 verse

18

to the angel that is the messenger that

is the pastor

of the church at thyroid tyra wright

the son of god who has eyes like flame

of fire and his feet are like brandished

brawn

says this so he introduces

this designation to the church at

thyatira

so thyrotira was known for its gills

they called them then

or unions in the midst

of these unions and this city called

thyrotira a church was established

the beginning of that church is

summarized for us

in acts chapter 16 verse 14

when paul the apostle comes across a

woman named lydia

and lydia was a seller of purple it says

purple dye

thyroid tyra made purple dye and these

dyes

was part of couture clothing for the

uptown shoppers

and so uh the purple dye she was a

manufacturer of it she was a distributor

of it

she was a wholesaler of it and paul came

and led

lydia to christ in acts chapter 16 verse

14.

out of that grew a church so there was

a social aspect to the unions

so there was a working aspect tied to a

religious

aspect tied to a social aspect

so you got together with the people that

you work with and you partied with them

and you and

you enjoy good time with them because

you shared the same occupation

well the problem occurred when people

became

christians and belonged to the union

and they were expected to recognize the

union’s god

and to party with the other co-workers

that it involved things that went

against the christian faith

and that created a crisis

for the christians in these secular

occupations

verse 18 says the son of god the one

with eyes of fire

and feet of brandished bronze says this

jesus christ has already been introduced

as the son of man

but on this occasion in verse 18 to the

church at thyrotyra

he’s not introduced as the son of man

he’s introduced as the son of god

and of course jesus is both the virgin

birth

mary’s egg was fertilized by the holy

spirit

so you had undiminished deity

poured into sinless humanity so that

jesus christ is called

both the son of man and the son of god

jesus’s eyes of fire penetrates

the facade he knows when you’re really

christian

and he knows when you’re faking it to

make it

because his eyes of fire penetrate

to the reality of a thing it says he has

feet of brainish bronze in verse 19

where he says to them i know your deeds

your love your faith your service your

perseverance and that your deeds of late

are greater than your deeds at first so

you are doing better you are growing you

are a congregation that i see

wants to do the right thing and so i

want to commend you for that

but after commending them he now

criticizes them

he says in verse 20 but i have this

against you

that you tolerate the woman jezebel

who calls herself a prophetess and she

teaches and leads my bond servants

astray

so that they commit acts of immorality

and eat things sacrificed to idols

what’s jesus’s problem with this church

his problem is what they tolerate

he says you tolerate the woman jezebel

the problem was toleration watch this

now

jesus the son of god says i got a

problem with you

thyroti bible fellowship not only

not only are you doing good things

but you are tolerating

other folk doing bad things

this is god’s house and in his house

there’s certain things he accepts and

certain things he doesn’t accept

or and neither does he want the other

family members to accept it

he says you tolerate it you accept it

and he says it is unacceptable and it

involved two things

it involved worshiping a false god

it says idolatry the unions worship the

idols

he says well the unions may worship the

idols but i’m the only true god

you don’t get to worship the idols just

cause everybody else is doing it

then there was a lifestyle issue he says

your morals are askew

so just because everybody else in the

fraternity and sorority

are acting crazy or drugging it up

or sleeping around and doing this and

doing that

just cause they’re doing that as part of

the union and

that’s the way they roll well no

the son of god says that in my house

based on my standard that’s not how you

roll

not only is it not how you roll

you don’t even agree with it in other

words

they should know your stand you

shouldn’t be

such a hidden christian that they don’t

think

it matters to you because you are clear

on where you stand

what he’s saying is that this church

tolerated

jezebel so let me tell you about jesse

we find jezebel in first kings chapter

16 and verse 17.

jezebel was married to ahab the king of

israel

jezebel was the daughter of a king

and she was a worshiper of the god baal

baal was the fertility god

and the god of the pagans she talked her

husband

into worshiping baal

so we got a strong-willed woman

married to the king who comes to the

king and says well

if you go if you’re going to be married

to me you got to go with my god

so he compromised with her

and when he compromised with her he’s

the king he’s leading

all of israel into compromising with her

and she got israel to compromise

that’s why elijah asked them how long

will you halt between two opinions

how long you gonna go both ways how long

you gonna be one way in church in

another way at work

how long you gonna be one way with the

family of god in another way in your

sorority or fraternity

how long you gonna be one way with your

spiritual family and a whole nother way

with your biological family how long you

gonna go both ways

because he wants you to know as long as

you go both ways you’ll never be an

overcomer

because you you are not operating on his

standard he says you tolerate it

you accept it even if you’re not doing

it

you are allowing it and it’s going

unaddressed

it is shameful today

what churches are beginning to allow

it is shameful today because this woman

is in the church

she’s a power broker in the congregation

it is shameful today

how churches are dumbing down god’s

standard

because they don’t want to offend they

don’t want anybody to call him

intolerant

he says to them you have tolerated

jezebel

you’ve tolerated her and she’s doing

damage

to the church and god says well

and i’m not even being mean about it

look at verse

look at verse 21 i gave her time to

repent

oh and she does not want to repent

of her immorality now

we’re going to get into we’re going to

get back to this thing of repentance

because it’s it’s one of the most

powerful words

in the bible it’s a powerful word

because it opens up the door of god

changing his relationship with you

so repentance it means to turn okay he

says

even though this woman jezebel

has been promoting immorality been

promoting

uh idolatry i gave her an opportunity to

fix it

so god creates windows of repentance

opportunities within a timeline before

he moves

he says i gave jezebel even though she

was involved in this

this kind of wickedness i gave her a

window

of opportunity to turn

what was her problem she does not want

to repent

now

sin is bad but not

wanting to repent is worse

because now you’ve entered into the

category called rebellion

this woman was not struggling she was a

rebel

and she was influencing other people and

other folks were around there saying

well that’s her business ain’t got

nothing to do with that oh here’s here’s

the way we say it

i’m not supposed to judge

okay so so let’s get this straight

let’s get this straight cause we people

are confused on this thing

you are to always judge the distinction

between truth and error that

you must judge you must judge

legitimately

you must judge biblically you must judge

lovingly

you must judge responsibly and then you

get the sympathetic thing well

well god is a god of love

yeah well that’s half of god

that’s one side of god

romans 11 says knowing

the goodness and severity of god so you

must hold in your hand two things truth

and love

and the two must be kept together you

don’t give up truth for love and you

don’t give up love for truth you have to

hold both of them simultaneously

he goes on to say i will throw her

jezebel on a bed of sickness

and those who commit adultery with her

into great tribulation

unless they repent of her deeds so

that’s bad news and good news

the bad news is he says i’m going to

throw her

on her bed of sickness

one way god god disciplines us is with

sickness

he allows sickness all sickness is not

due to discipline

but some sickness is and one of the ways

he disciplines he says i will throw in a

better sickness so let me tell you what

happened to jezebel

jezebel kept going kept going would not

repent would not repent

and then she crossed the line okay

she crossed the line and god said that’s

it

so one day she’s sitting up there in her

window she falls out of the window

hits her head blood splatters everywhere

she laying on the ground and she dies

from the fall

okay this is this is in uh in a second

kings chapter 9 verses 30 to 35.

and so she’s out there blood is splatted

so the men

come to get her body to bury her

but when they come to get her body

there’s nothing

left but her skull and her feet because

the dogs have devoured her

now only did god take her life

it was the shame of being eaten by the

because you would not repent

and he says and for jezebel and her

followers

these are those who are practicing what

she was doing

there would be the discipline of god

now you say well i don’t believe god is

like that that was that was in the old

testament well this verse is in the new

testament

and so is hebrews chapter 10 verse 30

and 31

because hebrews chapter 10 verse 30 and

31 makes it clear

he says vengeance is mine saith the lord

and i will judge my people

i will judge my people not to be mean

but to bring corrective measures

into their lives there must be a

standard

that the kingdom of god holds to that we

get back

in line with if we’re out of alignment

so that the church of jesus christ is

distinct in the culture

because no longer will it be popular to

be one of the culture

used to be popular you could be one of

the culture but now

you take a biblical stand for life you

take a biblical stand for marriage you

take a biblical stand for water you take

a biblical stand

and you gonna be on the out now why

would this be a problem

if you were working in thyroid tyra well

now if you blow into this union

and this union says to keep your job to

get a raise on your job

to get promoted on your job you got to

go along to get along

okay if you don’t party with us the way

we party

nothing wrong with a good party but

unless you’ve made that decision in

advance

unless you’ve decided in advance that

there’s

certain boundaries i will not cross

then what you have to understand is that

you are making a choice

between the true god the son of god

and the false gods who will not be there

when your world crashes

so let me tell you that now because

those false gods are not real

they’re just convenient because let me

tell you something about an idol

folks only pick idols they can control

see see folk pick idols because they can

tell

idol what to do the problem without god

is

you don’t get to control him see that’s

why folk don’t want that god

because that god can’t be dumbed down to

the culture

so he says to them

he says i’m gonna judge the children but

he still gives them an out

he says unless you repent repentance

would remove

the fact of the of the judgment of god

but he makes it clear i say to the rest

verse 24

who are in thyroid tyra who do not hold

this teaching

watch this now who have not known the

deep things of satan

as they call them i have

no other burden on you okay let me let

me talk to you a little bit

to the rest of you who are not

compromising who are repenting

to the rest of you he says

who do not accept the teaching

of the deep things of satan so that

raises the question isn’t it what are

the deep things of satan

so they’re not so deep things and

they’re deep things

a satanic thing

is an invitation to disobey god that’s a

satanic thing we all face that

we all have fallen short in that where

we’ve disobeyed god

that’s that’s satanic but let me tell

you what a deep thing of satan is

a deep thing of satan is not only when

you disobey god when i disobey god when

we disobey god

a deep thing of satan when you’ve really

gone down the hell to hang out with him

is when you call evil good

now you didn’t just you didn’t just

going to the bottom of the pit

and you’re hanging out with the devil

see as long as you call evil evil you’re

saying

something true about it but the moment

you go to call evil good this is

legitimate

this is okay that’s why romans 1 says

things got worse and worse and worse

not only did people do the things but

they they applauded those who did them

in other words they gave approval and

you see today what we clap for

what we affirm what we celebrate and we

call we call

wretched good and we we celebrate the

most evil of people

the most evil of lyrics the most evil of

terminology the most

evil of actions but we we applaud it and

we say

ain’t that nice and ain’t she great and

wasn’t that funny and

isn’t that nice and and we go and all of

a sudden

what we used to shut up and say oh boy

that’s

nasty we now say

that’s the deep things of satan

you’ve now gone and you’ve now partying

with the devil

but he says for those who do not accept

the teaching of the deep things of satan

who don’t call evil good

he says i have no greater burden for you

this is a great statement

i have no greater burden for you see

what i’ve been talking about today based

on what he’s talking about it’s kind of

weighty

you can feel this you know you know i

might not get a raise i might not get a

promotion if i don’t

do what they say do i don’t you know i

might i could lose my job i mean

what’s going to happen and it can be it

can be weighty

to say i’m gonna be i’m gonna be the

serious christian this full-time saint

not part-time christian i’m a be

god’s person responsibly in this

situation that can be a little weighty

particularly if you

in a union if you’re an employment if

you’re in a sorority or fraternity

that’s that’s going to expect something

that you can’t go a long way you get

weighty he says but if you do not accept

the teaching

teaching of of jezebel that foreign

teaching that deep thing of satan

teaching

i have no greater burden for you

one of the things that god says about

his commandments

is that they are not burdensome that’s a

striking statement because i’m feeling

the weight i’m feeling the weight

they are not burdensome

he says but i have no greater burden for

you

remember what god told adam and eve he

told him from every tree of the god you

may freely eat but the tree in the midst

of the god you may not eat it unless you

die

you know what satan did he made that one

tree the only tree

he acted like there was no other trees i

got all these trees in the garden

i can get to them all but he only want

to talk about that one

and he created a weight on her like god

was ripping her off

because she couldn’t get that one tree

god says if you reject the teaching of

satan

then you will lift the burden from you

how will rejecting that teaching when it

could cost me my job

lift the burden from me because

now the son of god is working for you

and not working against you

now the son of god the one with the eyes

of fire and the feet of bronze

listen i don’t want to be misunderstood

if you take a stand

for intolerance where god is intolerance

there may be some negative things for

those who live godly

in christ jesus the bible says will

suffer

how fast till i come verse 21 the one

who overcomes

and he who keeps my deeds until the end

to him i will give authority over the

nations you may get some of it now

you’ll get most of it later

but he says i’m going to give you the

ability to rule with me

and he shall rule them with a rod of

iron as the vessels of the potter are

broken

to pieces so i shall receive authority

from my father i will give to him

the morning star that is intimacy with

christ

based on revelation 22 he that hath an

ear

let him heal with the spirit of god says

to the churches

what he’s saying to you and me is to

take your stand

with love with kindness but with clarity

there is a boundary here and that

boundary

we do not cross and when we do cross it

we repent and get back in line

so that we can continue on and have the

eyes of the son of god because just like

the son of god saw you leave it

the eyes of god saw you come back to it

and when he sees you come back to it

he can now respond to you based on your

present condition

at whatever level he feels appropriate

and so

we want a church that will take its

stand

for god regardless of whether we get

more members

regardless of whether we have more money

regardless of whether we get more

notoriety

it is the divine standard that we must

hold to

at all costs

now if you really are serious about

being a person of conviction then that

means

you must be a person of standards right

you’ve got to have the right standard to

be convicted about

i mean if you follow the wrong crowd and

they give you the wrong standard you may

be con

you may have conviction but you’re

convicted in the wrong

direction many of the problems we would

not have

in our lives if we didn’t change our

standards

you see we’ve got a lot coming at us

that want us to

enter in to their world view their

standard their belief of what’s right

and wrong so let’s get something

straight

if you want the right standard you’ve

got to have the right standard

bearer by two

immutable things god can’t lie here’s

truth jesus said i am the way the truth

and the life

in other words he wants to be the

standard

god has spoken and he has not stuttered

did you know there are two answers to

every question

god’s answer and everybody else’s

and everybody else when they disagree

with him are wrong

if you and i would make god’s way

setting the standard

for our decision-making and then we have

conviction of that

then we’re having the right standard for

the convictions we

espouse look

we’re concerned when our kids come come

home and their peers have given them a

standard

a a a a goal to reach for

different than what we’ve taught them we

tell them no

that’s that’s a low standard what

they’re telling you to do

asking you to do telling you to go

that’s not what you want to relate to

the mere fact that they want to be like

everybody else ought to wake us up to

say

ah they’re going after not a high enough

standard

we want them to follow our guidelines

but we have a

father who wants his children to follow

his guidelines

make god’s standard your standard

become convinced that that is the right

standard

go for that standard and let’s see what

winning looks like

because you’re going after the right

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goal

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so

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you