The Key to the Change You Need | Tony Evans Sermon

so if you need heaven to turn something

around if you need heaven to reverse a

situation in your life in your home with

your job if I can just get you to

believe Christ confess Christ and Trust

Christ he can hit a bull’s eye with a

Crooked Stick he can take yesterday’s

failures and turn it into tomorrow’s

victories

today I want us to look at a situation

that happened in the life of

Jesus so that perhaps we can open up our

communication

more and hear from Heaven more

clearly and not try to communicate in a

frozen

environment I want us to see a situation

where God promises that we can watch

Heaven

open the scenario is given to us in the

book of St John chapter one and it

revolves around a man in this chapter

whose name is

Nathaniel according to

verse 44 through

vers

46 Phillip

who is from

Bethesda of the city of Andrew and Peter

finds verse 45

Nathaniel And he says to

Nate we have found him of whom Moses in

the law and the prophets wrote Jesus of

nazareth’s son of Joseph amen so he

says all that the prophets and the

prophets and the Prophecies of the old

Testament were

anticipating we’ve found him and he’s

Jesus of Nazareth

amen well Nathaniel has a question in

verse verse

46 can any good thing come out of

Nazareth so when Nathaniel

hears that Jesus is from Nazareth he’s

not

impressed verse 47 is where the story

begins to get a little bit

interesting Jesus saw Nathaniel coming

to him and said behold an Israelite

indeed in whom there is no deceit

so Nathaniel is not near Jesus cuz

philli is telling him to come to see

Jesus Nathaniel has never met Jesus

before don’t want to meet him because he

from Nazareth

but as Nathaniel makes his way to

Jesus Jesus says behold an

Israelite who is not deceptive in no

guile he’s a he’s an authentic

person Nate starts looking

around you talking about me you don’t

know me you don’t know my people you you

don’t he says how do you know me you

know where I’m from you know I’m an

Israelite you’ve dissected my character

how do you know

me CU Nathaniel hadn’t introduced

himself yet Philip hadn’t introduced

Nathaniel to Jesus he just sees him

coming and Jesus answered and said verse

48 before Phillip called

you when you were under the Fig

Tree I saw you

Jesus says I know more about you than

you

think before Phillip ever came to

you I know where you were who you are

and I know what you were doing you were

sitting under the Fig

Tree what Jesus exposes is his

omniscience cuz remember he’s the son of

God and the son of man and he’s fully

human he’s fully Divine and so this act

of deity is

exposed when he

unveils Nathaniel to Nathaniel so before

we go any further I just want you to

know God knows you

amen because Jesus Christ is omnicient

and he is full knowledge of every human

being he said not only did I know you

but watch this I saw you that’s called

omnipresence he says I saw you I I know

all about

you Nathaniel answered

him

rabi you are the Son of

God you are the king of

Israel Nathaniel makes a

confession

when he discovers the uniqueness of

Jesus

Christ there is only one God composed of

three co-equal persons God the Father

God the son God the Holy Spirit these

are equal in essence but distinct in

function the father is not the son the

son is not the

spirit but they make up the one godhead

and they have been given a functional no

distinctions so they don’t all do the

same thing in the same way at the same

time but they always operate in sync

with one another when Jesus is called

the Son of God that is his functional

role in relationship to the godhead to

carry out the plan and program of God as

you’ll see in a moment in history as the

Son of God he yields to the father so

that the function of the trinity can be

executed in time and space that is the

same way he’s created Humanity with all

people being equal but with functional

differences and within those functional

differences those differences are never

an issue of equality of persons it’s

only an issue of distinctiveness of

function so whenever you denigrate

somebody for their created reality

rather than their

function you have

misunderstood the nature of creation we

all bear the same Essence we do not

always share the same function so he is

Son of God by function that is taken

further when he says you

are you are the king of

Israel but Nathaniel we’ll call him Nate

for short Nate says you

are the Son of God who is also the king

of Israel cuz Philip brings him he looks

at Jesus and says you are the Christ the

son of the Living God so Jesus hears it

obviously God the Father hears it Son of

God and Phillip hears

it so he what has he done he has

confessed Christ

publicly let me say that again he not

just believing in his

heart he’s confessing with his

mouth he has publicly

confessed Jesus’s spiritual

identity and his human responsibility

Amen in one phrase he’s confessed

it he’s acknowledged it and he’s

identified it for heaven and for

Earth verse 50 Jes Jesus answered and

said to him to

Nathaniel because I said to

you that I saw you under the Fig

Tree do you

believe you will see greater things than

these translation you ain’t seen nothing

yet what do you

mean verse

51

he said to

him truly truly that means show enough

show enough for real for

real I say to

you you will see the heavens

opened and the angels of God ascending

and descending on the son of man

translation you are going to see see the

supernatural Heaven open Heaven

open but you will

see the angels of

God and their job is to carry

out

spiritually what you’re needing to deal

with physically on

Earth he says you will see Heaven open

you will see up there

and angels will be

assigned to come down

here and you get to see it you will see

in other words you’re going to see the

supernatural you’re not going to just be

limited to the

Natural let’s let’s let’s look at it

again Nathaniel

said you are are the Son of God right

amen

amen Jesus says you will be seeing

Angels ascending and descending on the

son of man amen ah he changes the

word he confessed Jesus’s

deity and Jesus says now you’re going to

see my

Humanity you confessed my deity because

you saw my omnition you saw my the

presence so now I’m going to let you see

my

Humanity you acknowledge who I am in

heaven now I’m going show you a little

something something on

Earth son of man that’s his Humanity Son

of God that’s his

deity as Son of God he grabs Heaven as

son of man he grabs

Earth and as the latter he brings the

two together ain’t that what a lad does

a lad takes you up and brings you down

it connects two spaces of spheres he

says Jesus Christ is your connection to

heaven and he says because you

believed now he didn’t just walk around

uh Nathan Nate didn’t just say I

believe he did confess it but he

confessed who Jesus was and he confessed

it in front of Philip he confessed it

publicly he’s called called a man of no

deceit and a latter is introduced to the

equation he not only knew that Jesus

knew where he was and what he was like

he also knew that Jesus knew what he was

thinking

about he knew what he was doing under

the Fig

Tree now I know you want to know where

you get that from

turn your Bibles to Genesis

28 in Genesis

28 see if you’re going to hang with me

there you need a Bible you got to bring

a Bible to church okay cuz we we we

don’t want it to be my word we want it

to be God’s

word Genesis

28 okay

so in Genesis

28

verse

10 then Jacob departed from asba and he

went toward Heron and he came to a

certain

place and spent the night there because

the sun had set and he took one of the

stones of the place and put it under his

head and laay down in that place and he

had a dream and behold a ladder was set

on the earth with its top reaching

heaven

and behold the angels of God were

ascending stay with me and descending on

it and behold the Lord stood above it

and said I am the Lord the god of your

father Abraham the god of Isaac the land

on which you lie I will give it to you

and your descendants your descendants

will also be like the dust of the earth

and you will spread out to the west and

the East and the North and the South and

you are your descendants shall all the

families of the earth be blessed behold

I will be with you and will keep you

wherever you go and will bring you back

to the land for I will not leave you

until I have done what I have promised

you then Jacob awoke from his sleep and

said surely the Lord is in this place

and I did not know it he was afraid and

said how awesome is this place this is

none other than the house of God and

this is the Gate of Heaven who is

Jacob his name means the

deceiver Jacob’s name means the deceiver

those of you who know about the life and

story of Jacob know that he spent his

life deceiving his brother out of his

Birthright so when Nathan hears Jesus

say you are sitting down

Jacob is laying

down you’re under a

tree Jacob put his head on a

rock you’re having a

dream Jacob sees a ladder I got a

ladder

Jacob is a

deceiver Nate you are not known for your

deception

he makes the connection between the Old

Testament and the New Testament since

Jesus is the Fulfillment of the Old

Testament now just just to give you one

other tidbit

here let me just tell you real quick why

Jacob is under the

tree because that may help you

understand he’s in a certain

place uh and many of us are in a certain

place in a certain

situation what’s the situation he’s in

verse 41 of Genesis 27 says so Esau bore

a gge against Jacob because of the

blessing which his father had blessed

him and Esau said to himself the days of

mourning for my father are near then I

will kill my brother

Jacob you know the certain place he’s in

he’s running for his

life Jacob is running for his

life he’s in a desperate

situation and he needs a divine

intervention anybody in here in a

desperate situation and you need a

divine

intervention you need heaven to open up

cuz Earth is shut down on

you his dream meant to Jacob that God

would be accessible in the worst day of

his

life

and and and notice what he said he

says and God was here and I didn’t know

it Jesus was there and Nathaniel didn’t

even know

it God is right there with you and you

don’t even know

it because he does not always make

himself

known he is there but you don’t always

know he’s there that is until Heaven

opens up yeah John chapter 1 you will

see Heaven open the Greek word there you

is plural this passage is not just for

name it includes you and me cuz it

included all the

disciples you will see Heaven

open you will watch eternity enter into

time you will see the supernatural enter

into the natural

if you confess

me if you acknowledge

me if you recognize me as a Son of God

then you’ll see him do his stuff on

Earth after Jesus tells

Nathaniel you’re going to see Heaven

open and you are going to see the Angels

doing their thing on the son of

man not on God the father but on

me the next thing we see is a

wedding because verse one of chapter 2

says on the third day there was a

wedding in canaa of Galilee and the

mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus

and his disciples were invited to the

wedding

remember what he said in verse 51 y’all

will

see so not just Nathaniel I’m going show

all y’all who I am they are at a

wedding they run out of

wine the mother says they have no

wine woman he says verse

four what has that got to do with us my

hour has not yet come in other words

it’s not time for me to go

public his mother says whatever he tells

you to do do it verse five mama got

sense okay okay he ain’t ready to go

public so we got to do it his

way there are six water

pots Jesus says fill the water pots with

water so they filled them to the

brim now we getting ready to see a

miracle but the miracle does not happen

without human participation he tells

them to go fill the water pots nor does

the miracle happen without natural

ingredients water water is already there

the people are already there so he tells

them human beings to fill the water pot

he uses a natural substance which is

water and here’s what

happens draw some out Take It To The

Head waiter so they took them when the

head waiter verse n tasted the water

which had become wine and did not know

where it came from but the servants who

had drawn the water knew the head waiter

called the

bridegroom and said to him every man

serves the good wine first and when the

people have drunk freely cuz now they

not all

same then he serves the poor of wine cuz

now they don’t know the difference but

you have kept the good wine till

now this beginning of his signs Jesus

did in canaa of Galilee so let’s package

it up and call it a

day Jesus said in verse

51 because you confessed me you believed

what I said

you didn’t fight me you didn’t argue

with me you accepted what I said and

then you confessed me

publicly y’all cuz you is plural are

going to see Heaven open when they are

invited to the

wedding they run out of wine now wine in

the Bible is used negatively and

positively negatively it condemns

drunkenness positively it’s used for joy

you know what you get to see when Heaven

open God reversing a

situation lack of Joy became Joy lack of

wine became wine and here’s the best

news ever I can’t leave you with any

better news than

this the head waiter

said in every wedding I’ve been

to every place I’ve

gone they serve the good wine

first and they leave the bad stuff to

last but he goes to the bridegroom and

say but you haven’t done

that I thought the good wine was good

wine but this stuff you just came out

with the bridegroom didn’t know where it

came from but this stuff you came out

with it is the

bomb you didn’t save the best stuff for

last the good news of this miracle

is that God is so good at reversing

stuff that what comes last is better

than what came

first that where you’re going is better

than where you’ve been and where you

came from that God can take the mess and

turn it into a miracle he can take

yesterday’s failures and turn it into

tomorrow’s victories he can take

lemons and give you some lemonade he can

hit a bull’s eye with a Crooked Stick so

if you need heaven to turn something

around if you need heaven to reverse a

situation in your life in your home with

your job in your situation if I can just

get you to believe Christ confess Christ

and Trust Christ he can take that messed

up situation and make the last part

better than the first part the next part

better than the part you had before he

can turn your

situation

around that’s what he did he can turn

your water in the

wild and you will be able to say the

best part of my

life was the rest of my life when I

confessed Jesus

the

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Christ too many of us spend too much of

our Lives living under a closed heaven

we don’t see God

breakthrough to show how powerful he is

and how relevant he is to what we’re

dealing with on Earth but as I stand

here in this Canyon in the Rockies and

see the Open sky above me I’m reminded

that God wants to break in into our

Earthly reality and let the invisible

God become very visible in our daily

lives he doesn’t want us living under a

closed heaven when he is a God so far

that he’s Untouchable no he wants us to

be under an open heaven where he comes

down and gets in the middle of our mess

he comes down and shows his purpose in

our problems he comes down and shows his

strength in our struggles no we want an

open heaven where God intervenes in the

Affairs of our lives and just like the

openness of Heaven in this Canyon he

wants to show his openness in your

crisis and mine so that the visible

presence of God is not an idea it

becomes a living EXP

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experience

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a