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