Men Who Beat the Odds (Full Sermon) - Tony Evans

[Music] [Music] during the days of Shem God nobody was traveling along the highways they went in roundabout ways the main highways had been deserted and if men wanted to go somewhere if people wanted to travel they had to go roundabout ways they had to go on the dirt roads they had to go on the side roads they they couldn't go on the main thoroughfares to understand why we're told that you have to understand the book of Judges you see the book of Judges talks about God's people in a failed of scenario judges 21 verse 25 says that there was no king in those days and every man did that which was right in his own eyes so during the days of the judges this was a time of what we would call the day post-modernism no absolutes existed everybody had their own truth so people individually became their own God became their own King and did their own thing because they were their own standard there was no superintending governing guidance to which all the people subscribed enter the Philistines the Philistines were the enemies of Israel when they saw the chaos in the society they took that as an invitation to take advantage of a disintegrating culture since the folk can't get along since everybody else is making up their own rules since there's chaos everywhere we look we the Philistines are going to invade Israel so you have an invasion occurring that's why I talks about him slaying the Philistines because you have chaos now you don't need to read the Bible to see what that looks like or you can do is read the newspaper or look at the news and you will see today we are in a chaotic situation in the midst of the crisis we have 22 words judges chapter 3 verse 31 22 words about a man named Shem God but these are 22 powerful powerful words that gives each of us but especially the men here principles by which if you grab them understand them and inculcate them how you can make a difference in spite of how bad things are and trust me if we don't make a difference they're only gonna get worse before they get better so let's find out at least 22 words a few things about Shem God that will benefit us all but hopefully is specifically challenged the man after him that is after the previous judge he hewed came we're told Shem gar now the first thing I want you to note first thing I want you to note about Shem GOG is what he did before he became a judge cuz it says he slew six hundred Philistines would an ox gourd so that tells us what his job was before he became a judge over Israel he's a farmer cousin ox golden and ox goad is a eight foot pole with a sharp metal tip on one end and a flat chisel area on the other in the shop in of the aughts gold was used to goad the axe and keep them pulling the plow so whenever they slow down you would prick it and prick it and prick it so it would pick back up for completing the farming responsibilities the chisel on the back in the flat surface of metal on the backend was for the farmer to dig up roots and to dig up things that were obstructing the process of tilling the soil so that he could plant his seed so this was a very important tool in the hand of a farmer farmers head ox goats so we find out about Shem God that he doesn't start off as a judge he starts off as a father now why do you need to know that you need to know that because the first thing you and I need to do is start where you are you don't start where you want to be you start where you are a lot of folks are waiting till it get more money more education higher position more notoriety before they do anything there are many things in God's kingdom that do not get done because he's waiting on God's people to move with where they are right now stop waiting on God because God is tired of waiting on you and me and us where are you now in your life what is your situation that God wants you to be faithful to him in where you are right now yeah I know you praying for this this and this and keep praying for that that and that but what are you doing here here and then if there is no movement where you are then what you're saying I don't trust God here I'm only going to trust him when I go there shove God we find him on a farm one of the great tragedies far too often in the life of men is procrastination serve the Creator in the days of your youth don't wait till you get older one of the things that far too many of us as men lack is vision vision means looking further than you can see if all you see is what you see you do not see all there is to be seen God specifically created men to express vision when he created Adam he says Adam here's the garden now I want you to take this raw material and I want you to cultivate it and I want you to develop it and I want you to turn it into something beyond what you started with a lot of times men are asking their wives to follow up on bus or Park car because there has been no vision given for where God wants us to go it is the responsibility of the man to set forth vision the Bible says in Joel chapter 2 verse 28 repeated again in Acts chapter 2 verse 17 it says your sons shall have your younger sons shall have vision and the old men will dream dreams doesn't bring the women into that he says the women shall prophesy but he says it will be the men who will have visions and it will be the older men who will dream dreams so every man in here is supposed to be a vision caster and a dream maker so even though you may not have much right now you should be sitting in front of your family discussing with them the vision God gives you for way he's taking you your family your kids where we are taking us the community the church you supposed to be a vision castaway because without a vision people perish the reason why many men are having trouble with their wives is they've never given their wives a vision for where the family is going so since she doesn't have your vision to follow she creates her own then you get mad that she going in her own way when you've not given her a dream to go your way so it is the man's role to cast a vision this is where we are I don't like things as they are so I'm going to seek God to give me a vision for what he wants to do to take it from where it is to where he wants it to be Shem God was dissatisfied he's a farmer but he sees that he can't travel down the main highway now the main highways are blocked and so he takes an ox cord an ox court way men and I score that's for farming that's what you do you prod the animal along so he can keep pulling the plow you dig up the roots the brushes that are in the way but because he's a man of vision it dawns on him I can use this ox go gold pronounce ox gold I can use this ox gold for more than farming it says that he slew 600 Philistine with the ox gold he has won each gold and this one out go gets rid of 600 problems how many problems are in your life in your world in your job on your career how many problems in your home and your family you say there dozens and dozens of them he had six hundred he had one tool but because he knew how to use the one to the right way under divine influence it was able to get the job done when God is ready to move he'll need a bunch of stuff but he needs to own the stuff sometimes God will ask you to demonstrate your faith by asking you to do something opposite to your logic because what's getting a lot of us in trouble is our human understanding our human logic this is the way we raised this is what they taught me in school this is what I'm used to this is what I think this is how I feel and God said totally something else and we never get around to the something else so we never see what our ox goad is if God could ever get a hold of the axe goat in your life what he has handed you that he wants to use for something bigger than just your little small world because you're dissatisfied with the confusion you're dissatisfied with the crime you're dissatisfied with the chaos you're dissatisfied with the terrorism but now you want to take what God has given you handed back to him all David had was a stone that's all he had who is this uncircumcised Philistine that were taught the armies of the Living God he just had a stone and a slingshot but he also had one thing he says you come to me with all that equipment Goliath I come to you in the name of the Lord so let's see what he does with this stone when I let it go Holy Ghost took the stone drew it into the lion's head he chopped off the lion's head and said hey y'all in other words all he needed was what he had it just had to get sanctified by God so that it could now do something bigger than it could ever do on its own so the question on the floor now is how do you how do you defeat 600 when is only you and all you have is a knock code I mean how do you how do you do that well you don't do it all at one time it's 600 come at you at one time okay they had cut off all the roads all the highways which means they weren't all in one place at one time say they're spread out among the different highways so he had a bunch of gangs he had to deal with so I may have 25 here and 50 here he looked at his ox code and said hmm yeah this could be a Tomahawk missile sharp on one side flat on the other side and I know how to use it cuz I've been farming with this thing for years God has given you something every man has an axe Gold you may not even know what it is now but if you are a man and you are a Christian fact if you are Christmas at all woman or man but especially as a man you have an axe goat God has given you something that he wants to grab and use for his glory and the good of others I want you to have a bigger vision you must start where you are you must use what you have what was Shem God's secret what was the key that shifted his life so that he became a judge and one man saved the whole nation says he saved Israel one man with an ox goad what was his secret well you have to understand how you got to be a judge let me show you the first judge chapter 3 verse 10 the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel it is you know you became a judge God took over your life that's how you became a judge the Spirit of the Lord came and the Spirit of the Lord grabbed the man and now empowered him to do stuff out of the he wants us to cultivate such a deep dynamic relationship with him all the time so that he owns your thoughts own your decisions all your feelings owns your perspective so that he can overrule you because he owns you we told my one man gets rid of six hundred Philistines and he saves a whole nation getting ready to fall apart hear me now if Jesus Christ comes back tomorrow we don't have to worry about what's happening in our nation but if he doesn't come back for another 200 years you better worry about what's happening in our nation and God needs some men with some spiritual ox Goods who will step up to the spiritual plate who will make a relationship with him the number one driving force in their lives who will operate underneath his rule so that he can sanctify heliox gold and do things that will blow your mind as he starts laying things that are trying to get rid of you means he's got to give you a vision that means you've got to be close enough to hear his voice see if you have a long-distance relationship with God a SMO Sunday morning only if you if that's your relationship with God you're not gonna hear him see it's the job of the Holy Spirit to tell you what he wants to do with you what your ox goad is what he wants you to move the new thoughts he wants you to have the vision he wants you to cast the movement he wants you to make my sermon can't tell you that that's once a week you need a relationship with the Holy Spirit so that he can speak to you directly you say but how does he speak well let me explain how the Holy Spirit speaks when you're in close proximity to him because he whispers she doesn't scream he whispers and because he whispers you got to be in close proximity when you're in close proximity what he does is the Bible says in first Corinthians 2 he brings the thoughts of God and he puts them in your mind so he brings God's thoughts and he registers them in your head now you begin to think God's thoughts after him so when you begin to pray and you talk to God you begin to speak things that your mind is thinking but your mind is now thinking thoughts that the Holy Spirit has now put in your brain so that when you talk to God about what the Holy Spirit is put in your brain the reason God has to answer it is he told you to thinking in the first place which made you say it when you prayed so he wants to hook you up in an intimate relationship so that you see what eyes have not seen here what ears have not heard and experience the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 2 what you never thought about historically God was to give you new ideas as a man you brainstorms new initiatives new ways to use old talents like the ax goat he's got all this stuff he wants to do so that's why you want to make time for God you want to make time for God because he because that's making time for you that's giving him the right to give you new thoughts and visions about what he wants to do you young men want visions you old men will dream dreams so even when you get oh you're not supposed to be called and then your wife comes along and says how can I support how can I help how can i infuse coz I see you going somewhere I see God taking you somewhere I see you moving somewhere and so I want to get in or what God is doing with you wherever you are now you start where you are and you pursue God's presence and his ownership so that he can now show you what he wants you to deliver as you've heard before one of my favorite shows is Rocky five not Rocky one not Rocky - not Rocky III not Rocky for Rocky five whenever I see it on television I'm either gonna watch it over again or if I don't watch the whole thing I'm gonna watch the last 15 minutes because it's the last 15 minutes that tells the whole story in Rocky five Rocky Balboa is now too old to fight and too injured to faith he can't fight now and so he's trying to make sense of his life when along comes a up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn Tommy Gunn has always admired the imagine stallion and Tommy Gunn has it runs in the rocky once his autograph I've always know I'm a fighter and I've always admired you and they strike up a friendship Tommy Gunn's been ask Rocky Balboa to train him rocky decides hey this is a great way for me to stay in the fight game even though I can't fight anymore let me train this young guy so he trains Tommy Gunn and Tommy Gunn becomes the champion of the world the heavyweight champion of the world the problem is when Tommy Gunn becomes the heavyweight champ in the world he starts smelling himself he's now all that in a bag of chips he's now he's now on the man he's got the money he's got the girls he's got the popularities got the notoriety and he enters into a conflict with rocky who he has fired as his manager because he doesn't need him anymore get them to the curve in the last 15 minutes after rocky has refused to get into a bout with Tommy Gunn Tommy Gunn goes to a tavern where Rocky Balboa is sitting with his brother-in-law when Tommy Gunn comes in he confronts rocky you scared of me you you don't wanna fight me come on I'm through with that I'm too you you a chump basically Rocky's brother-in-law gets in between rocky and Tommy Tommy hits Rocky's brother-in-law and he knocks him to the ground Rocky Balboa tears his shirt and says hit me like that and that'd get it on there rumble starts in the tavern and it's now gone out into the street it's become a street brawl the problem is Tommy Gunn is too young too strong and too fast for Rocky Balboa who's in age to fight a now rocky does the best he can but it's not good enough against this younger stronger faster fighter finally Tommy Gunn reaches back and he hits Rocky Balboa and he knocks him to the curb he is beaten he is broken and he is defeated while he's in the gutter he remembers he remembers rocky one two three and four now we know what he's remembering because they show clips of it above his head so he's in the gutter but he's remembered so he remembers Apollo Creed rocky one in Rocky - and how everybody wrote him off but how he fought back and he won the championship from Apollo Creed and when he remembers he tries to get up but he can he's too beaten then he remembers clubber Lang mr. T and I'll clubber Lang beat him for the championship but how he fought back and won the championship back from clubber lang and when it remembers that he tries to get up but he couldn't then he remembers Ivan Drago the Russian fighting machine and how we went over to Moscow and how they were cheering Drago and tell he fought back at the end of the fight and the people started saying USA USA rocky rocky he remembered that comeback he tried to get up but he couldn't but then he remembered one more thing he remembered his old coach Mickey his old coach Mickey who had already died but his old coach he remember what he said one time he was not dead and Mickey leaned over and said get up get up get up you bum cuz Mickey loves ya now that's when the music came on dong dong dong dong dong dong to the dong dong dong dong dong dong dong get the dog rocky Balboa's shakes his head Rocky Balboa gets up Tommy Gunn has walked off in the distance rocky says yo Tommy come on back we going one more round he found power that he didn't present ability that he didn't have in spite of his defeat because he remembered somebody who had died who had now come back alive who had given him hope and another opportunity I don't know how long you've been down and I don't know how much Satan is taunting you but I do know somebody who died 2000 years ago who has now come alive and he's saying to all the men of Oak Cliff get up get up get up you bums cut Jesus love [Applause] God is calling every man to beat the odds I don't know and God is not limited to how you were raised what limitations people or family have placed on you the unfairness that may have come against you all that is real and we cannot deny it but neither should we succumb to it you can beat the odds just like Shem God I don't care how long they've been there and how big the odds are you can beat them if God is covering you guiding you directing you leading you and if you are submitted to his authority you can change the odds not only for yourself but for the society in which you live and the family that you oversee so don't let the odds discourage you from moving forward with your life don't get trapped by numbers don't ignore them but don't be limited to them you exercise God's Authority in the sphere he'd given you you lay out the odds that are against you before him based on the realities of your life and then you lay claim to his victory and watch him turn the numbers in your favor [Music] [Music] you you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 141,524

Keywords: sermon, powerful sermon, sermon for men, Christian men, how to be godly man, how to be a Christian man, tony evans sermons, motivational, motivational video, tony evans, tony evans radio, dr tony evans

Id: VSWQnQf-v_8

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2019