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.
well I thought we’d do something
different this time I’ve been missing my
pulpit of church so I thought I’d feel a
little bit more regular today still in a
somewhat casual environment but I’m
still behind a little pulpit here and I
can kind of feel more normal okay but I
am glad to be able to come with you
again and to to challenge you doing
these challenging days that we’re all
facing let me ask you a question
if your if your health is falling apart
you’re probably gonna go to the doctor
because you think the doctor can help
you get it back together again
if your house is falling apart you’re
gonna call a repair person to kind of
come and fix what’s broken if your car
is making all kind of noise that means
you need a mechanic somebody who knows
what they’re doing who can bring
resolution to your car dilemma what do
you do when your world is falling apart
when your nation is in trouble what do
you do when you’ve hit a crisis so big
that you have no way to go what do you
do when all the human options have
disappeared on you and no matter which
direction you look in
north-south-east-west
the answers are difficult and
everybody’s trying a lot of things but
nobody has a definitive answer and it’s
not only affecting you and your family
it’s affecting your neighborhood your
church your nation and the whole world
well that’s what Caronia business it’s a
pandemic which means it’s a national and
international negative crisis a crisis
is a situation that
wels you crisis can come in a whole lot
of forms they can be economic crisis we
know what that’s like
due to Corona there can be relational
crisis there can be social crises there
can be career crisis one thing is true
though it is overwhelming what do you do
when there’s nothing you know that you
can do well that’s why I love second
chronicles chapter 20 it is the story of
King Jehoshaphat King Jehoshaphat has a
problem on his hands it’s a problem that
has affected his whole nation he says in
verse 2 a great multitude is coming
against us he looks out and he says
every direction that I look and he names
him he says every direction that coming
against us and they’re closing us in
he’s in a predicament a dilemma he’s in
a crisis he says that this crisis is
hitting him in every direction and you
you pretty much know when you’ve hit
that kind of crisis because your
emotions begin to take charge because
verse 3 of 2nd chronicles 20 says
Jehoshaphat was afraid he was scared he
was terrorized because this was a
problem he didn’t know how to fix this
was an enemy he didn’t know what to do
with this was his own Korona a problem
too big for him to handle we’re told
that in the midst of this problem he
turned his eyes to seek the Lord that’s
what verse 3 says he looked up because
know we’re looking out could solve this
problem right now we’re seeing more
people talk about God talk about faith
talk about religion talking about Jesus
quoting scriptures or newscast and yeah
they are those detractors
out there but it is pretty clear we in a
dilemma that is a little bigger than us
and even if it wasn’t this corona so
many of us have our personal Coronas
don’t we the viruses that have messed up
our lives he sought the Lord he wanted
to bring God into the equation of his
dilemma you know you in a crisis that
you can’t fix when the harder you try to
deeper down you go like quicksand you
know the harder you try to get out of
quicksand the more suck you under that’s
what a dilemma does that is a pandemic
kind of crisis in your life and in your
world
well that’s Jehoshaphat’s problem what
he decides to do is turn to the Lord get
everybody else to do it too because
verse 4 says he gathered together to
seek help from the Lord and they even
came from all the cities of Judah to
seek the Lord in fact we told him verse
3 he proclaims a national fast you know
that’s what we need today we need to
call our whole nation to a fast and
prayer not just prayer but a fast let me
say a word about fasting fasting is a
Bunsen burner underneath prayer fasting
is giving up something physical to gain
something spiritual see most people
visit the spiritual while we live and
are controlled by the physical but what
fasting does is it shifts that it says
right now the spiritual is more
important than the physical heaven is
more important than Earth because I
can’t fix earth with earth because my
problem is too big
I need the unseen world to enter to the
seen world to affect my dilemma my
crisis so he calls a fast right now
everybody should fast you should pick up
a meal a week a day a week well you
leave the smart devices you cut off the
television you walk away from a meal and
you say God we are crying out to you now
for ourselves our families our churches
and
nation because we all in trouble and
we’re crying out to you where this is so
big and so bad that we’re willing to
give up something to gain something more
and that is to gain you in the middle of
our pain uncertainty sickness and death
from an unseen enemy if you want God to
do something about the problem in
chapter 20
you have to address something in chapter
19 you see in chapter 19 keep the King
Jehoshaphat got all the nation to get
right with God it says in chapter 19
verse 4 that King Jehoshaphat brought
the nation back to the Lord to the God
of their fathers you see being right
with God is a prerequisite to hearing
from God you can fast and pray all day
but if you refuse to get right with the
one you’re talking to then you have no
guarantee he’s gonna respond because he
doesn’t want to respond so you can leave
him out more so that you can ignore him
more so you can say a prayer to get out
of it and then skip him so they got
right first and then they saw the Lord
we’re in trouble and even before this
dilemma we see all kind of trouble in
our nation political class race you know
all that’s kind of kind of become
secondary to this bigger problem but
we’ve had a lot of problems that we need
solutions for but that starts with God
going god word and so he calls everybody
in fact verse 13 says that they even
brought their children along with their
wives which means the men went front and
center
they brought their wives they brought
their children in other words everybody
in on this cuz this thing affects all of
us and we this invasion hits us
everybody’s gonna be destroyed
Jehoshaphat said and we’re seeing with
this coronavirus it can hit any of us
and it can be deadly with a blow and so
everybody got on board that’s why we
want our church our church in Dallas
to at least find some time every week it
may be a portion of every day to call
you to a fast to tell the children no
not now we’re not we’re gonna take 15
minutes 30 minutes an hour whatever
works we’re going to give up meat today
or we’re going to give up a television
for this period of time and we’re gonna
talk to each other we’re gonna talk to
God because we want our family protected
from this virus and we want our nation
to be healed of it and we want our
medical experts to find a solution to it
so let’s cry out to God it’s called a
solemn assembly in Scripture a sacred
gathering where people were called to
invoke on heaven because history was in
trouble and so he calls on them he makes
a statement in verse 12 he says the
reason that we’re calling on you as we
don’t know what to do
and I as on you oh you don’t know what
to do huh this is outside of your
control see we’d like to be in control
we’d like to be able to handle stuff
well God will let you know how bad you
need him by allowing things in your life
in my life and our lives collectively
that we can’t fix on our own he says we
don’t know what to do and I’m not too
proud too big I’m I’m gonna be humbled
with this thing he prays a prayer
beginning in verse 5 let me tell you the
ingredients of this prayer you start
your praise with a prayer he starts his
prayer by rehearsing God’s person and
then graduating to God’s power let me
say it again he starts his prayer by
rehearsing God’s person then graduating
to God’s power
he tells God how great he is how awesome
he is
he tells God that he rules from heaven
he tells God that he rules over all the
kingdoms this is good to know that that
there’s no problem one are so big that
God can’t overrule it he tells God that
the enemy coming at him is no
competition for the God of the universe
so he brags on God’s person and then he
talks about God’s power that’s what you
want don’t just ask for his power and
skip his person because his power is
tied to his character
you want to know what he is like in
order to get what he can do so he brags
on God makes a big deal about God
because he got a big virus a big
invasion that he needs to be able to
address and everybody was with him
because that’s how big the problem was
from outhouse to the White House
everybody should be dropping on their
knees ideally at the same time so he can
hear all the voices calling down heaven
in history and calling on God to invade
this dilemma that we face after his
prayer he got a prophetic word it says
God heard what he had to say and he
called a prophet and he called the
Prophet in verse 14 he said if you
listen to the prophet verse 20 you will
succeed you know right now we need a
word from God let me tell you about the
Prophet the Prophet was not a
particularly popular person because they
usually showed up during times of
calamity and difficulty often with
negative things to say but always with a
positive goal and saying to get right
with God so that things could be
reversed so the deliverance could take
place so that the agenda could be
changed and so you want a prophetic word
we call that a Rhema word let me give
you a few Greek words here that will
help you understand the Rhema word there
is the graph a the graph a is the book
it is as it sits on your shelf on your
coffee table it is the written recorded
Word of God that’s the graph a then
there is the logos the logos is the
content and meaning of the graph a so
you could never even open the Bible but
it would still be the Bible because it
is the written word of God but the logos
is what it says and what it means by
what it says that’s why Jesus Christ by
the way is called the logos of God in
John 1:1 because he came to explain
the father to us so it is the content
and its meaning that’s the logos but
then there is the Rhema word the Rhema
word is the specific utterance into your
specific situation you need a Rhema word
because you got a real dilemma a real
problem a Rhema word is not a general
word it’s just it’s not even a sermon
because the sermon can can be one word
for everybody
a Rhema word is God’s Word to you
they’re in a dilemma and they need a
Rhema word which is a prophetic word he
says if you listen to the Prophet now
now just cuz somebody preaching on Lena
the Prophet they’ve got to be consistent
with the written word and with the
Living Word before I think it can even
be considered to be a prophetic word so
if the Rhema word is not consistent with
the Living Word and the written word it
in fact is not a Rhema word and that’s a
false prophet but he does give his
applicational words to specific
scenarios to the prophetic voice today
that’s why the Bible says in 1st
Thessalonians 5 despised not prophecy I
know we’re listening to the medical
experts we’re listening to our political
leaders but we ought to be listening for
word from God and the more of those
people that you can get to listen for
God the sooner we can get solutions to
the dilemmas that we face even in your
personal life you want to listen for a
prophetic word it may come through your
pastor it may come through another
believer who has the gift but you want
to listen to a word that speaks into
your specific reality after they prayed
God brought a prophet and then it was
time for praise look at how much praise
goes on in this chapter without the
problem yet being solved it says in
verse 18 they fell down before the Lord
and worshiped him they say in verse 19
they stood up to praise the Lord they
say in verse 21 they sang to the Lord
those who praised him in holy attire it
says in verse 22 when they began singing
and praising the Lord set an ambush
in other words praise made the
difference they had a problem a virus
they couldn’t fix an invasion they
couldn’t overcome that led to a prayer
the prayer opened the door for a prophet
and then it was time to get your praise
on let me talk about praise praise is
that accentuating and expressing value
to God
you can worship privately without saying
a word you can worship you can worship
in your heart you can worship with your
mind you can worship in silence but you
can’t do that with praise praise is
worship gone public praise is declaring
your stand that’s what the psalmist
meant in Psalm 34 when he said o magnify
the Lord with me and let us extort exalt
and extol his name together in other
words he says get your praise on when
you magnify God you can’t make God
bigger but a magnifying glass doesn’t
make something bigger it just shows you
in a bigger way what’s really there the
Bible says that God inhabits the praise
of his people he hangs out in praise
when praise is coming from the right
heart get your praise on even though
your problems that so praise God that
he’s bigger than Corona praise God that
he’s bigger than your private Coronas
however they may show up in your life
praise him that he’s greater than
whatever the greatest challenge is in
your life
it says when God heard their praise he
said an ambush for the enemy in football
but my son Jonathan was a fullback a
fullbacks job is to run through the line
and open up a hole in one of the gaps
for the halfback as one of his main jobs
the quarterback receives the ball the
linemen at first are coming after the
quarterback because the quarterback has
the ball
the quarterback hands off the ball
the halfback everybody shifts to go
after the halfback now
Jonathan’s job was to block them on the
shift you see because you’ve shifted the
problem to somebody else well you may
have the problem right now but when you
get your praise on you shifted it over
to God that’s why when David was facing
Goliath he says in 1st Samuel 17 verses
26 and 26 who is this uncircumcised
philistine that challenges the armies of
the Living God he shifted it over to God
he said no you’re messing with God now
in other words he made it a spiritual
battle not just a physical battle with
big boy no he said big boy is big but he
ain’t that because I know somebody
bigger when you learn to shift your pain
your problem your dilemma your Coronas
over to God now you have somebody bigger
than the problem you face and the
problem that the medical environment
faces that’s that’s worldwide it’s time
to shift that thing over it’s time to
give that thing over the Bible says in
your praise so I’m fifty four fifty
verse twenty-three is your deliverance
that God will deliver you in your praise
you say but my problem has not been
solved yet I know your problem hasn’t
been solved yet get your praise on what
am i praising for when my problem hasn’t
been solved I’m praising for the God who
can solve it I’m praising that it’s not
so big that it’s bigger than him I’m
praising him for what I’ve seen him do
in the Bible see that’s why you have to
know the Word of God because you need to
know what he did yesterday to remind you
when he can do today that’s why all
through the Bible that rehearses God
delivering from from Egypt it rehearses
God delivering through the Red Sea why
to show them when they ran into their
next Pharaoh when they ran into their
next army when they ran into their next
dilemma that same God can handle it
because he’s already handled it before
the problem is if you don’t have a
history with God and you don’t haven’t
seen what he can do then you won’t be as
energized appraisin right now
because you don’t have a history with it
ah but throughout the Bible when folk
got their praise or when God did
something if you don’t believe me ask
Joshua when they were walking around the
wall of Jericho once a day for seven
days for six days on the seventh day
seven times and they were letting out a
shout you know what that shot what
everyone just noise
that’s a shout of praise what were they
walking around a thick problem a wall
that wouldn’t fall in an enemy they
wouldn’t fall but when they got their
praise on crack started cumberly
rumbling started taking place when they
got their praise on things began to
collapse the problem came to an end if
you don’t believe that praise works as
Paul and Silas in jail the in chair in
change they’re in jail but they got the
praise on and when they got their praise
on things started to shake things
started to rumble and they were
delivered they even did evangelism by
leaving the Philippian jailer to
salvation you see when you get your
praise on it causes heaven to move so
that earth shakes so that the rumbling
down here occurs because God is moving
praise is not praise and tell us
expressed when’s the last time you’ve
gotten your praise or so in your fast
get your praise on in your prayer get
your praise on in your dilemma celebrate
God because he deserves your pray
magnify make a big deal about it again
Psalm 34 says my fears looked up to him
and they got caught if you’re nervous
about Corona if you’re nervous about
your economic situation if you’re scared
about your job
tell your fears you want them to take a
look at somebody else because as long as
they’re looking at you they’re gonna
control you but tell your fears that
somebody someplace else I want you to
look because there’s somebody else that
I want you to respond to so the more
fearful you get the more enclosed you
feel get your praise on I love in
football when a football player makes a
big play he makes a really big play and
then he walks and he does this
particularly the defense
now do that you know what they’re saying
to the crowd give it up
I mean he’s giving up Matt means make
some noise now did you see what I just
did make some noise and celebrate with
me you can’t hear what I say but I want
to hear what you have to say
make some noise because of what you know
I have done and can do you know what
they did they gave it up they gave up
their praise you will never know God is
all you need until you discover God is
all you have right now God is all you
have so let’s let him know we know he’s
all we need
because heaven can overrule earth
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one of the great offers of our Savior
Jesus Christ is life plus abundant life
that means a fulfilled life so many
people are existing because they don’t
possess the life of God if you don’t
know that you possess the life of God
let’s get that fixed right now Jesus
Christ is offering you his life the
Bible says he that hath the son had life
so if you want light not existence the
forgiveness of sins the the guarantee of
heaven and having Jesus Christ involved
with your life on earth all of that is
in this package called life and he’s
offering it to you for free
well not a lot is for free today but
this is life for free how do you get it
you simply go to Jesus Christ and trust
him alone for it you don’t work for it
you don’t earn it you don’t you don’t go
to church for they can’t none of that
can give you life only the person of
Christ can give you life
so I’m gonna pray a prayer you pray it
after me you just have to mean it for
yourself well Jesus I know I’m a sinner
I know I can’t save myself but you’ve
offered me the free gift of eternal life
in exchange from my sin so I place my
sin next to your cross
believing you died as my substitute and
I received now the eternal life that you
say you would give me for free if I came
to you for it so I received that now and
thank you for my new salvation in Jesus
name Amen god bless have you ever
wondered what ties the whole Bible
together and makes it makes sense as one
unified document have you ever wondered
how the Old Testament relates to the New
Testament have you ever been confused
about how to use the Bible to answer
questions about the confusing things not
only in your life but in our world today
do you really believe that the Bible has
answers to the things we’re facing in
the confusion that we’re living in
whether it relates to governments or
whether it relates to racial strife or
whether it relates to divorce and
remarriage
do you struggle with understanding what
it means
and whether it really means what it says
well I think we’ve got something just
for you it’s called the Tony Evans
training center because this training
center is designed to answer those and a
myriad of other questions related to
living life as the Creator meant it to
be lived you see what we’re going to be
teaching is a kingdom based approach to
the Bible God’s kingdom is his rule over
all his kingdom agenda is the visible
manifestation of that rule over every
area of life and when you understand the
kingdom thread throughout all of
Scripture and see it work out in your
personal life and your family life and
your church life and your community life
and in the broader society the whole
world you will see that there are no
questions for which God does not have
real relevant and contemporary answers
you don’t have a problem and issue a
challenge that this book when understood
from a kingdom perspective is not
equipped to answer so get ready for the
ride of your lifetime the Tony Evans
training center is here just for you and
I am so excited that we can give you
contemporary solutions from this
historical document because guess what
it’s still alive
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you
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you