Time to Grow Up – Divine Reset | Tony Evans Sermon

Dr. Tony Evans examines the goal of the Christian church. The goal of every church should be greater than its number of attendees. God measures the success of a ministry by the maturing process of those under the ministry. Maturity can be tested by this simple question: are we consistently living to please ourselves, or are we consistently living to please Christ?

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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.

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everybody wants a crown

without having a cross you must make

serving god

submitting to god and following god the

most important thing in your life

and as for me and my house we’re gonna

serve the lord

if you’re not operating in authority as

a way of living don’t come and jump

authority just when you get in trouble

encouragement is not related to what i

achieved encouragement is tied

to who i am and here’s a principle you

need to know for your life

even though god has promises the

promises won’t occur until you repent

for the sins

that got you in the mess in the first

place in other words mr if you want to

live

the best way to do that is to get to

know the life maker

there is nobody like you and when god

made you he did not mess up

the goal of the church according to paul

in colossians chapter 1

he says these words in verse 28 and 29

we proclaim him christ

admonishing every man and teaching every

man with all wisdom

so that we may present every man

complete

in christ for this purpose i

labor he says

my goal in ministry for the church

at colossae the church here the church

everywhere

is to present every person

complete the word complete means mature

god’s goal is your spiritual

maturity not your church attendance

if maturity is not being emphasized

if spiritual growth is being

marginalized

if we become satisfied with how many

folks are in the seat

regardless of their spiritual age

we have failed as a church as a ministry

both

locally and as the body of christ

god measures the success of a ministry

by the maturing process

of the folks who are in that ministry he

says

i labor for maturity

the biblical word discipleship that

process

of maturation that process

of bringing you to maturity god is after

a divine reset but he needs some mature

people

he needs mature christians not just

church attenders

paul complains to the church at corinth

he says brethren so these are christians

he’s not talking about

sinners he says brethren i can’t speak

to you

as spiritual but as men are flesh

as infants in christ you’re still babies

he says i want to take you somewhere but

you refuse to grow up

now let me explain a simple principle

paul

went to corinth in approximately 50 a.d

he wrote the book of corinthians

in approximately 55 a.d let me say it

again

he went there in about 50 a.d he wrote

them this book first corinthians

in 55 a.d so that’s five years

paul says in five years you ought to be

mature

if you’re a five-year-old christian five

years

is all you need to move from spiritual

infancy

to a basic spiritual maturity

so carnality let me define it for you

is that spiritual state

where a christian knowingly

and persistently lives to please self

rather than to please christ it is that

persistent state

where you knowingly willingly persist

to please self over pleasing christ in

other words

living for christ glorifying christ

representing christ is not your goal

now you want him to take care of you but

pleasing him is not your goal

that makes you fleshly

a carnal christian is like what he calls

a natural man in verse

14 of chapter two he says but a natural

man does not accept the things of the

spirit

of god for their foolishness unto him

and they cannot understand them because

they are spiritually appraised

a natural person can’t understand

spiritual things

because they’re non-christians but he

says a carnal christian

they’re a christian but they’re like a

natural man

they’re on their way to heaven but they

don’t understand spiritual things on

earth

they don’t have this spiritual

perspective

on life they have a human perspective

on life that’s carnality

because of a refusal to grow so let me

say it again if you’ve been saved

five years or more and you are not

spiritual where you look at life

through god’s lens

as a normal way you operate

then you are a spiritual infant

a fleshly believer

who is missing out on spiritual

experience

because you’re not operating that way

i’m not operating that way

not only can we have carnal christians

we can have carnal christians in carnal

churches

because the church is not operating that

way that goal isn’t maturity that goal

may be entertainment

their goal may be money their goal may

be notoriety but the goal

of maturity is not the goal and if

that’s not the goal

you’re not a serious christian and we’re

not a serious church

well let’s take this a little deeper

shall we hebrews

chapter 5.

he says in verse 11 concerning him

we’ll talk about that in a moment he’s

talking about melchizedek

we have much to say it is hard to

explain

since you have become dull of hearing

let me pause right there

the book of hebrews was written some 30

years

after jesus died and rose

some of these christians have been saved

for 30 years

in corinth that’s five years

in hebrews some of these christians have

been saved 30 years and he says y’all

still dull of hearing

the greek word deal of hearing means

mule-headed

mule-headed stubborn

let’s go a little deeper he says for

though by this time somebody say time

you get the point you’ve been saved long

enough for us not to have to go through

all this

by this time some of y’all 30 years

you ought to be teachers

say you’ve been saved long enough to

help somebody else

you can’t even help yourself he says

but you have need again for somebody to

teach you

the elementary principles of the oracles

of god

and you have come to need milk and not

solid food

now who gets milk all the time

a baby

a baby feeds on milk because it’s an

emphasis

he says not only can you not teach we

need to take you back to the abc’s

he calls them elementary principles c

spot run

and b is for boy we need to take you

back

to spiritual kindergarten

because you’ve refused to grow

spiritually

he goes on and he says everyone who

protects only of milk is not accustomed

to the word of righteousness he is an

infant

but solid food is for the mature

who because of practice have their

senses trained

to discern good and evil there’s a lot

to unpack here

he says the problem with infants the

immature

the folks that god can’t use so he can’t

reset

what he wants to do in history he says

everyone who partakes only of milk is

not accustomed to the word of

righteousness

he says here’s what keeps you a baby

you haven’t gotten use to use the word

of god

to address the issues of life

a baby won’t grow just by

watching mama

have milk they’ve got to use it

ingest it for growth to occur

says the thing that keeps you a baby

is you don’t use the word

of righteousness

and he says

solid food is for the mature

for the people who have his senses

trained

notice that their senses trained

the proof of maturity here it is here it

is here it is

is your ability to discern he says

your ability to discern that is

your ability to look at things through

spiritual eyes

not just through physical eyes

he makes the difference between milk and

meat

or milk and what he calls solid food

milk he says

you need the elementary principles of

the word of god

meat he says you have the ability to

discern

okay you’re not a meat christian because

you carry a bible

you’re not a meat christian because you

can quote verses

you’re not a meat christian because you

go to church

you’re a meat christian because your

spiritual antenna

can discern things spiritually

without the ability to discern it

doesn’t matter how many small groups

bible studies church attendance you take

it is the choices

that determine whether you’re spiritual

or not

let me help you to grab

the difference between milk and meat

here’s milk

milk is what jesus taught on

earth and what

jesus did on earth that’s recorded in

the bible

so here it is you’re a milk christian

simply by learning

what god says okay you can you can read

the bible study the bible

and that gives you milk that gives you

milk

a meat christian

doesn’t just know what it says

but uses what it says for to make

decisions

you study the bible so you you’re

drinking milk

but you’re operating from a heavenly

perspective

because you’re operating on meat you got

steak now

solid food

you study the bible to get the content

you operate spiritually to utilize the

content

when you’re operating spiritually based

on the milk

you gravitate to the meat or to the

solid

food because the bible tells you

what jesus did and said on earth the

meat

means you’re operating from what he’s

doing now in heaven and i’ll show you

that in a moment

so it is your use

so let me tell you how god helps you out

god likes to help us out

notice the milk christian verse 13 is

not accustomed to the use of the word

because they’re an infant they don’t

they don’t know

they can’t they can’t chew the meat

solid food is for the mature the

spiritual perspective then it’s for the

mature

who because of practice have

their senses trained ah here we go

a football team goes to the training

room and when the football team goes to

the training room

they go through the playbook they go to

the playbook

to learn the plays they’re in this room

classroom

there’s a defensive room there’s an

offensive room there’s sub breaks out of

that

to learn the particular plays

right now you’re in the training room

to learn the plays

but then they go to the practice field

on the practice field they practice the

plays they learned in class

that’s where they’re hitting and

tackling you can talk about hitting and

tackling when you’re not being hit or

tackled

but once you’ve been hit a tackle now we

know whether you know the play

but the only way we know that you know

to play

is on the field so what god does

for you to see whether you really

understand the play you were saying amen

to

is put you on the field of life where

you have to make decisions

and when he puts you on the field of

life through trials and troubles

and difficulties and challenges

do you run to god’s word do you run to

god’s perspective

do you act on what he says

or do you go to the human way of doing

it the secular way of doing it

the non-christian way of doing it

then god says you didn’t learn to play

because you’re not accustomed to

using the word of righteousness he said

you’re gonna have to use this

in your decision making on a daily basis

it means you you as a family you’re

gonna have to say how does god say we

should raise this through

these children how does god say i’m to

be the husband how does god say used to

be the be the wife how does god say i’m

operated work how does god say i’m to

operate in the secular

uh uh environment of what does god say

and it ought to be your first question

not the one you run to after you tried

everything else

he says it’s time to grow up and become

a tour you’ve been infants

too long and the church in america has

been an infant church

mega churches and all

what will happen if you decide to be

mature

which is the use not only the knowledge

of the word

first thing to happen is that you’ll now

be able to pick up on spiritual signals

you won’t need rabbit ears because

you’ll have direct tv

you’ll need rabbit ears when you have

directv because there’s something up in

the sky

that’s sending you a signal you’ll be

able to pick up the holy spirit we’ll be

able to bring god’s thoughts to your

mind

see that’s what god does with spiritual

people he brings see

see we have the national news and local

news

right now i’m preaching the national

news you know the national news you get

things that are happening all over the

place but for your daily

decision making you need local channels

you need local news you need stuff

that’s talking to you

about the thing you’re facing and what

you’re going through the national needs

don’t

news don’t deal with you it deals with

national

uh but the local news is where you live

where you work where you

okay so when you come to church you get

national news

but when you are mature you get local

news

god can now talk to you bring thoughts

to your mind ideas to your mind let you

see things

behind the scene

that you couldn’t see with your physical

eyes but he’ll let you he’ll let you in

on some secret stuff

because he can now speak to your mind

because he can you can now pick up

signals you couldn’t pick up before

because you’re growing spiritually the

the signals work

you’ll be able to distinguish between

legit and illegitimate

okay now here’s the big one this is the

final one

but this is the this is the zinger

he started off in verse 11

by saying concerning him

i have much to say now he’s gonna say a

lot

in chapter seven so this week you can

read chapter seven he’ll go into it in

more detail

but he says i can’t talk to you now

about him

because you you’re you’re too infantile

you’re too

you’re too babyish and i have he says

i have uh much to say

so whatever this is is a big deal that i

want to tell you but you’re not ready to

hear it

so i’m going to tell you now even though

some may not be ready to hear it

because it’s a big deal back up in verse

5 he says so also christ

did not glorify himself so as to become

a high priest

but he who said to him you are my son

today i have begotten you

just as he says also in another passage

you are a priest forever

according to the order of melchizedek

verse 10 being designated by god

a high priest according to the order

of melchizedek he says

i want to tell you about the

melchizedekian priesthood

i want to talk to you about that but

y’all ain’t ready for this

and i want to tell you that jesus christ

is after the order of melchizedek

melchizedek

now to understand what

jesus is to you today

he says if you understand melchizedek

it’ll help you to understand who jesus

is today

because jesus is a high priest like

melchizedek was

so who is melchizedek and why does it

matter

genesis chapter 14.

this is how the new testament takes the

old testament

and brings its relevancy

to us today through the person of jesus

christ

in genesis chapter 14

abraham has been involved in a battle in

a fight

he’s come back from a battle

verse 17 of genesis 14.

he comes back from his battle in verse

18 says and melchizedek

king of salem

brought out bread and wine uh-uh

uh-oh uh bread and wine that sounds like

communion doesn’t it he brought out

bread and wine

now he was a priest of god most high

let me say that god most high is el

elyon el elyon means the god who

overrules

okay keep that in mind melchizedek is a

high priest

and of the most high god but he’s also a

king

of salem salem means peace jerusalem

jerusalem

that is peace he is a king

and he blessed him

and said blessed be abram of god

most high okay what did melchizedek do

he blessed abraham

so melchizedek is the priest who brings

blessing

to abraham now guess what the bible says

you and i are the seed of abraham

stick with me here because we we we in a

little tall cotton here

he says blessed through a of the abraham

a god of

most high possessor of heaven and earth

jesus christ all authority has been

given to me in heaven and on earth okay

and blessed be the god most high

who has delivered your enemies into your

hand

he that is abraham gave him a tenth of

all

a tithe of all so let me summarize

because there’s so much here

abraham has been in a fight he’s been in

a battle you can read it in the

preceding verses

and the god most high has given him

victory

but he’s been in a fight

when he comes back he meets melchizedek

a high priest

coming out of a fight melchizedek

blesses him gives him bread and wine

because he’s been in a fight

you will see in the following verse he’s

getting ready going to another fight

with the king of sodom

so he left one fight he’s going to

another fight

between the two fights he runs into

melchizedek the high priest

melchizedek blesses him

gives him bread and wine to strengthen

him

because he can’t go to another fight

if you’re a serious christian that means

last week you were in a fight

so if you’re not a serious christian you

ain’t in no fight cause nobody rejecting

you nobody’s

against you you just going along with

the crowd but if you’re gonna stand up

for jesus christ

you’re gonna you’re gonna run into some

fight sometime in your family sometimes

in your neighbor you’re gonna run into

some stuff

sometimes that can make you weary

that was last week but now this week

you got a fight coming up you don’t even

know about yet

it’s not cause you’re looking for a

fight trying to find the fight trying to

be in a fight

it’s just because the world is against

you

so between last week’s fight and this

week’s fight you need some bread and

wine

you need to be refreshed empowered

strengthened with the blessing of god to

help you

deal with what it looks like when you’re

a mature christian

he says i want to tell you about my care

today why because jesus is after the

order

of melchizedek how because he brings to

us

the strength for spiritual living in the

fight of a secular

society by the bread and wine of his

communion

with us so that we can go and fight and

watch him overrule

watch el elyon make the final decision

the reason why you want to be mature say

is because that means your circumstances

don’t have the final decision

your boss doesn’t have the final

decision the situation in the culture

doesn’t have the final decision because

you belong

to the mature saints of god under the

priesthood of christ

who’s after the order of melchizedek who

can meet you

in the battles of life somebody ought to

be wanting

to be a mature christian so that all

that god can give

and wants to give you’re able to receive

so you’re going to battle if you’re

going to be able to a christian because

you’re going to be living by divine

insight

in that secular perspective it is easy

to forget

what this is supposed to be all about so

if you want to change what you do

you got to change who you are

but the way to change who you are is to

grow who you become

with the seed being expanded within you

i said why would god call me all the way

down here

and then allow me to get sick i remember

him saying

blessed be the god of all comfort who

allows us to go through things that we

might be able to

comfort others you need some people that

will be in your

life that tell you that you tripping and

that you’ve lost your ever-loving mind

and that you need to get back on the

narrow path

if you become a regular abider in the

scriptures

you’re going to show yourself to be a

real disciple

this is one of the occupational hazards

of being a pastor

that people don’t think you have to wage

war against sin like they do

and what’s even worse is that sometimes

we think we can’t lead them

if we act like we’re just as vulnerable

as they are

god gets at us in different ways doesn’t

he there are some things that god’s

people

are going to get to know about us

regardless of how we started

god will empower your actions he will

not replace your actions

we can’t fake it and make it

in front of the word

you