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.
human opinion your viewpoint the things
you come up with
are not good enough to make it in this
life
god says i have a brighter tomorrow
for you don’t throw away your confidence
don’t stop moving forward just because
there are headaches in your way
stay the course god wants to heal
and he will not heal if there’s
unforgiveness because he went to the
cross
for forgiveness this is not a time
for casual christianity
god has opened up a window it is time
now for the men of god to walk through
it
in the name of his son jesus christ
[Music]
you and i are living in a day
of no shame
evil is being publicly paraded
it should be clear today that
christians have lost the home field
advantage
we are the visiting team
the culture no longer assumes as we have
said
a judeo-christian ethic as normative
it has been rejected in all the systems
of the culture
at varying degrees
there’s no place to run and no place to
hide
there was a time when you could hide
around your religion
or in church but today you and i are
being called out
because the standards have been
rejected across the board
education media
politics entertainment
it has become crystal clear
that whatever remnants of a christian
nation that we had no longer exist
and now we’re at the stage where the one
entity
that was designed
to hold the line crumbles too
you will now discover that to follow
jesus christ is not to go to an ice
cream social
the christian faith
is seeking to be silenced
unless you’re so vague nobody knows
where you stand
and so i want to call on me you and us
to make the decision to be unapologetic
christians
because that is what’s needed today
we saw that jesus says
in verse 32 everyone who confesses me
before men
i will also confess him before my father
who is in heaven
but whoever denies me before men
i will also deny him before my father
who is in heaven he brings up the issue
of
confession if you confess me
i’ll confess you if you deny me i will
deny you
now this was not a statement said to
pagans
this was a statement said his disciples
he’s not talking to non-christians when
he talks about confession and denial
he’s talking to his so-called followers
to confess means to publicly
identify with
it is the verbal and visual
identification of yourself
to be in league with jesus christ
i love the way that
ii timothy
puts it when
when he paul tells his
son in the faith in 2nd timothy 1 8
therefore do not be ashamed
of the testimony of our lord
or of me his prisoner but join with me
in
suffering for the gospel according to
the power
of god he says
don’t be ashamed of your identification
he says if you confess me before men
i will confess you before my father and
don’t be ashamed
we live in a day of no shame
you see things on television you would
never have thought
you would see on television
you hear language that you never thought
you would hear or you see parades that
you would never thought you would have
seen
because there is no shame
and i don’t hear anybody apologizing
in other words what they’re saying to
everybody else is a just
because this is the way it is
jesus says i want you to confess me
before men
why won’t we do that so many of us
because we’re like the folks spoken
about in saint john chapter 12
verse 42 and 43 look at what it says
nevertheless many even of the rulers
believed in him they became christians
but because of the pharisees
they were not confessing him
for fear that they would be put out of
the synagogue
for they loved the approval of men
rather than the approval of god
he says don’t let your
fear of people outpace your feeling lord
it says they believed on him they got
saved
but they didn’t want to be rejected by
people
they didn’t want to lose their
popularity they didn’t want to lose
their
notoriety they didn’t didn’t want to
lose their
public acceptance and so they believed
on him
they’re on their way to heaven but they
didn’t want to lose acceptance on earth
and so it says they wouldn’t confess
there wouldn’t they would be secret
agent christians
today we live in a world of political
christians
christians who use politics and
wrap their christianity and the flag
rather than in the cross
we live in a day of cultural christians
who wrap their christianity
in the subject of race
rather than in the primacy of christ
we live in a day of convenient
christians
who want to use god for their blessing
but who don’t want to represent him
in the culture unless they’re in church
says unless you confess me before men
he’s talking about
public identification notice
you must confess him
not just his father in other words
saying god won’t cut it
that’s vague christianity he says you
must confess him
jesus christ why because jesus christ
has been assigned by the trinity
to represent the godhead on earth
in history in time and space
you become a christian by faith alone in
christ alone
apart from works but once you become a
christian
you have now entered into the realm of
discipleship
that is what baptism is it’s saying i’m
willing to
publicly be identified as a follower of
christ
so the question is on your job
where you work in your neighborhood if
you are accused of being a christian
would there be enough evidence to
convict you
or will you be found innocent of all
charges
or are you an apologetic christian
he says in matthew 10 verses
24 and 25
he says a disciple is not above his
teacher
nor a slave above his master it is
enough for the disciple that he becomes
like his teacher and the slave like his
master
if they have called the head of the
house be else above
how much more will they malign the
members of his household
he says the whole idea of following
christ is to be like him
in the same way he reflected the
standard of his father
we are to reflect the standard of our
savior so
are you a confessing christian
meaning publicly identifiable
not privately before men he says
now having said that
what’s the issue here of confession
he had spoken about that already in
matthew 10 when he went down and he said
that verse 38
does not take up his cross follow me
he’s not worthy of me
there is an unsettled issue
by many christians
it has not been settled and it affects
the issue of confession
it’s an unsettled issue
the unsettled issue is the issue of
lordship
the issue of lordship let me show you
what i mean
from romans chapter
10.
romans chapter 10.
he says in verse 9 if you confess
with your mouth jesus as lord
and believe in your heart that god has
raised him from the dead you will be
saved
for with the heart a person believes
resulting in righteousness
but with the mouth he confesses
resulting in salvation
so guess what he talked about you
opening your mouth
notice when you believe you are made
righteous
that is you get saved in the way we use
it you’re on your way to heaven
but he says with your mouth that is
public identification
is where you get deliverance
god through christ will only
join you in history if you’re not
ashamed of him
if you’re not apologetic about him if
you hide behind the word god
so you don’t have to deal with the
inconvenience of jesus
there can be no divine reset
without recognizing
the law of the kingdom i call it you
wouldn’t be in the kingdom
there would be no i turn it to eternal
destiny there would be no eternal future
if somebody hadn’t paid the price
and you can’t confess him
lovingly responsibly appropriately but
clearly
there shouldn’t be an uncertain sound
when it comes to jesus christ
because as acts 10 36 says he is lord of
all
as ephesians 1 22 and 23 declares
that all things have been placed unto
christ
he is to be confessed
i love the way romans 14 puts it
verses that you should remember 8-10
romans 14 8 to 8-10 or 8-9 says
for if we live we live for the lord
and if we die we die for the lord
therefore whether we live or die we are
the lords
for to this in christ died and lived
again
that he might be lord both of the dead
and of the living
he goes on to verse 10 and talks about
us before
the judgment seat of christ so when you
and i stand before the judgment seat of
christ
there’s going to be one major question
was our lord
the only reason you up here is because
i’m savior
but i want to know while i left you on
earth was i
lord that is did i own you
philippians 2 10 and 11 makes it clear
every needs gonna bow and every tongue
is going to confess
confess that jesus is lord
you can do it voluntarily now and
mandatorily later
but everybody is going to do that and
his lordship recognizes his deity titus
chapter 2 verse 13
says he is savior and god john 20
verse 28 the apostle says my lord
my god
it is the recognition that jesus is not
just some nice
human figure that ought to be respected
he is the son of the living god who
ought to be
worshipped so how do you know
whether you have made the lordship
decision how do you
how do you know that how do you measure
that
because anybody can say oh jesus is lord
in my life
that sounds evangelically accurate
anybody can say that so let me tell you
how jesus says you can know whether the
lordship
issue has been addressed in your life
in luke 6 46 he says this
how do you call me lord lord and do not
do what i say
how do you use the term and you call me
lord
and then you telling me you’re doing
something opposite to what i say
i say this about a man you’re saying
something else i say this about a woman
you say something else
i say this about marriage you say
something else i say this about finances
you say something else yeah i keep
saying what i say
and you keep coming up with all this
stuff you say and then gonna call me
lord
he says how do you call me lord lord and
don’t do what i say
if i’m lord that means you adjusting
we live in a world where
christians are asking god to adjust so
we can make folk happy in the culture
we are to be sensitive sure we ought to
be kind
compassionate loving to not do that is
also not to do what he says
but you do not do that by jettisoning
truth
to placate a society that has already
rejected your savior
now what you must understand is a simple
principle
but i must understand what we the church
must understand that it’s having trouble
getting this it’s pointed out in saint
john chapter 2
verses 24 to 25 it says jesus
knew what was in man and he would not
commit himself to them
and he’s talking about those who
believed on him it says they believed in
him so they became christians
but he wouldn’t commit himself to them
because he knew what was in them
let me put it another way jesus doesn’t
have the same commitment
equally to every christian
we’re all equal children but he’s not
equally committed to every child
because if you are ashamed of him it
says he would not commit himself to them
even though they believed
romans chapter 5 verses 8 to 10 god
demonstrated love toward us that while
we were sinners christ died for us
but then he says having been justified
by faith you’re saved
he says we shall be saved or delivered
by his life
so you’re already saved but his
involvement with you
in history is tied to your confession of
him
and then he says in romans 10 13
it says anyone who calls on the name of
the lord will be saved
the problem is or what people don’t know
is the only
time that phrase is used in the new
testament of calling on the name of the
lord
is by christians not not non-christians
in other words you can’t call if you
can’t confess
if you can’t confess don’t bother to
pray
first corinthians 1 verse talks about
the saints in corinth
who call upon the name of the lord
acts chapter 7 verse 59 it says when
stephen was ready to die
he called on the name of the lord
and saw jesus standing on the right-hand
side of the heavens
if you won’t confess don’t bother to
call
because he has no obligation to folks
who deny him
now i have to tell you the whole story
because
matthew 10 makes it inextricably clear
about the price tag
about the price tag of confessions and
he explains what he means in verse 37
he who loves father or mother more than
me
is not worthy of me and he who loves
son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me
okay so let’s talk about the sword of
confession
once you are willing to appropriately
lovingly compassionately
all that but clearly identify jesus
christ it will create a divide
john you just need to know that and it
will create a divide now
more than ever because there is the
public denial of him
and it will even happen he says in your
own family
father mother daughter mother
father son mother-in-law daughter-in-law
he says
because when you are clear
those who reject me will reject you
it’ll happen at work
it’ll happen in the neighborhood it’ll
happen in the pulpit
because to take your stand on god’s word
to take your stand on jesus’s
perspective
on the issues of our day and there’s so
many of them to take your stand there
will create a conflict
he who found his life verse 39 will lose
it and who has lost his life for my sake
will find it
he says when you lose because of your
confession you win
when you lose there is there’s a
division there’s a rejection
because you have been publicly
identified
with me you lose in terms of
what the deniers are saying with them
but you just won with me
and the life you lost you find i love
the way luke 14 puts it
now large crowd was going along with
jesus with him
and he turned and said to them anyone
who comes after me and does not hate
his father mother and wife and children
and brothers and sisters yes
and even his own life he cannot be my
disciple now you’re not talking about
going to heaven
he talked about being his disciple on
earth and he says
anybody who trumps me you lose me
and i don’t care how much you love them
and he says and if you don’t do that you
can’t have me
you cannot be my disciple
we have a lot of christians who are
bailing out on jesus
you know why we’re bailing out because
we haven’t told the whole story
we want to talk about the blessing not
the sword
so we got so when folks hit suffering or
difficulty
or problems they bail
that’s because we don’t have enough
pulpits telling the whole story
in luke 14.
therefore verse 34 salt is good
but if even salt has become
tasteless with what will it be salted
or seasoned it is useless
either for the soil or for the manure
pile
it’s thrown out he who has ears to hear
let him hear
he talks about salt that’s no longer
salty
it’s lost its taste guess what
that’s useless salt salt is not salty
you don’t have time for
okay because you can’t do anything with
it you don’t taste it
it’s lost its seasoning power
you know he’s talking about my people
he’s saying i got a lot of useless
christians
got a lot of useless christians they go
to church
but when push comes to shove they deny
me
they get so compromised by the world and
want to make the world happy they do it
at my expense
and i can’t use them because they want
to satisfy the populace
not represent me so the question is
for me for you
is are you ready to confess and are we
not talking about your belief in god
we’re talking about the lord jesus
christ
are you willing to confess that
so um it’s time to cast your vote
where do you take your stand so that god
can do a divine reset in our culture if
christ be not come
because with our divine without a divine
reset
this nation is going to hell
and that divine reset must start with
his church
we’re not perfect i’m not perfect you’re
not perfect
we have flaws that’s why he created
repentance
so that we could get realigned
and cast our vote
so
if you confess me before man i will
confess you i will endorse you
before my father but if you deny me in
public
yes i will deny you before my father
who is in heaven 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’ll be in your life that
tell you that you’re 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
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
it
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