The Key to Your Reversal - Tony Evans Sermon

when a person has a master key to a facility that means that they can unlock any door all doors are subject to this one key that person may have an individual key to a room or to their office but when someone has a master key it can address all the rules I am sure many of you hearing about this series have said I need God to do something about my unique special applied to me situation and there are probably as many variables of scenarios in this room as there are people you have a unique set of circumstances that you are having to deal with that may be totally different or may be varied from your neighbor but I want to launch our time together today by giving you the master key because the key I'm getting ready to give you will unlock every door you're not an exception to this key it's a master key for that whatever the circumstance or consequence is you are dealing with but today I want to give you through based on the Word of God the one key that will address the masses of scenarios that are present in the variety of people who are here what is the master key that can give you hope about a reversal in your circumstances simply stated the master key for the reversal of consequences brought on by sin is developing a lifestyle of repentance they said again the master key that opens up the door for the possibility of the reversal of your life circumstances that have been brought on by sin is developing a lifestyle of repentance you read all through the Bible and this word will keep popping up or one of its synonyms one that I will focus on today the word return is brought up over and over again in a whole variety of circumstances where people saw the need to have their circumstances in life reversed why is this word the key word that you must understand if you want God to intervene at his prerogative into your consequences now we've already established that most of us if not all of us are facing various degrees of consequences due to sinful decisions we've made leading to regrets that we have and situations we wish we could reverse and go back and do over again the problem occurs is that you can't the problem occurs is that some things many things and most things once they hit the consequence level wind up being out of our hands and yet God does offer this word predicated on his prerogative to open the door for the many different scenarios that need reversing due to sinful decisions so let's start off understanding why the word is needed before we get into what the word entails the word repentance repentance is necessary because of the existence of sin sin may be defined as any violation of the divine standard any violation of the divine standard the biblical word for it is sin the biblical word is not mistake the biblical word is not bad habit the biblical word is not my bad the biblical word for the violation of a divine standard is the word sin let me hear you say sin the reason why I wanted you to say it is because it's not like a popular word but it is the only word god recognizes when it comes to the need for the repentance that gives hope for the reversal of circumstances so whenever we violate transgress the standard of God God says that sin now the reason is this sin has to do with the nature of God the Bible describes God as perfect and righteous in all of his ways he is a perfect being in the same way that you don't like trash or garbage God doesn't like sin because of his nature in the same way that a doctor or nurse wants the surgical room sterile no bacteria or in viruses is because it contaminates the area so God cannot have any relationship with sin and maintain his holy integrity so that means sin has to be addressed before consequences can be addressed what many people want is God to change their consequence without them facing their sin leave my sin alone but get rid of the problems caused by it don't ask me to adjust my sin make me feel better look better be better help a brother out help a sister out there can be no dealing with the consequence unless we deal with the cause and the cause is sin which is an affront to a holy God and a violation of his divine standard so it isn't understanding this that gets us into the process now sin in the Bible violating God's revealed righteous standard is associated normatively with death you saw it over and over again in this exact same passage why will you die repent so that you don't die romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death James 1:15 when sin is completed it brings forth death over and over again Hosea 14 1 your downfall is because of your sin so death is associated with sin now let me change it let me put it another way whenever you sin you die ok you have to stick with me whenever you sin you die oh wait a minute we don't drop dead every time we send a woman would be empty you know we don't drop dead in the Bible death does not mean annihilation death does not mean ceasing of existence that's never what death means in the Bible in the Bible death means separation a separation occurs when we sin a death occurs because a separation occurs what's the separation fellowship with God is lost when sin is introduced God must separate from sin since we are sinning he has to separate from us in terms of our personal relationship which I'll explain in a moment a distance occurs when sin is introduced into a scenario with that gap occurs because sin has been introduced that space due to the gap caused by sin then becomes filled with consequences there is a spacing issue where consequences fill in the gap where the sin created the separation because God is no longer there to block it now we are all familiar with physical death you've got a coffin you've got a casket you got a cadaver well that person hasn't ceased to exist it's just that the soul in the spirit has left the body so there is a separation that has occurred causing the consequence that the body can no longer function because the life principle is no longer operating in it for it to function the separation has a deadly consequence when we talk about physical death you remember when God told Adam the day you eat the fruit that same day you will die but he didn't fall down dead that day you didn't physically die that day oh but he died because the Bible says that God removed him from the garden and from intimate fellowship with him so there was a spiritual death there was an emotional death it says fear took over and controlled him emotional death is when you can't live with you people can become so distraught that they want to die or commit suicide because they can no longer live with themselves there has been a separation of themselves to themselves relational death we hear we hear couples say when they are getting a divorce the death of a marriage there is a relational death that can occur there is economic death where your bills are controlling you and you're not controlling them and so there is the death economically that can occur so there are all these kinds of deaths and they're all death in the Bible because the biblical meaning of death is an illegitimate separation and of course then there is the worst death of all eternal death we call it hell eternal death is where a person is separated from fellowship with God forever it's all all those are called death in the Bible so you must now clear your mind of limiting the definition of death to a funeral and understand that death is any illegitimate separation so then what is life life is the coming together of things that should not be separated it is the spirit in the body it is the relationship on track it is the economics in harmony life or what the Bible calls eternal life is not a place that's heaven it's an experience that his life in the Bible is experiencing God's reality in harmony with you and in the various scenarios of your life so if you're a dead man walking or a dead woman walking in some category there has been an illegitimate separation that needs to be harmonized again and the word that God uses to bring the illegitimate to the legitimate is the word repent that is this word of turning death into life sin is the word for taking life and turning it into death that's why he could speak in this passage and says to the wicked man if you deal with your transgressions you will live he says to the righteous man if you go to your transgressions you will die so these are polar ends death in life and their various shades in between some folk here today are more dead than others because the separation is worse than others so there's a continuum between these two polar ends of life and death he says the answer to that is repent so that you can experience the coming together that sin has illegitimately divided so that's why repentance is the master key for whatever the scenarios are today opening the door based on God's prerogative - reversing limiting cancelling or giving you the capacity to handle consequences it's his prerogative but you don't even get position for that prerogative without the word repent that is the word so let me now give you the meaning of repentance what does it mean repentance is defined as an internal resolve and determination to turn from your sin repentance is an internal resolve and determination to turn from your sin sin creates a broken relationship where consequences brought on by Satan or situations or even what God allows to enter into your life because there has been a rupture repentance is God's Way of sewing back together the rupture with him when the rupture with him is sewn back together through repentance the possibility of reversal of consequences now exists repentance is the internal resolve and determination to turn from your sin without that internal resolve and determination thus no real repentance then you and your consequences must learn to live together the best way you can cuz you are stuck with them that is why many people who don't want to deal with their sin go to other ways to deal with their consequences they try to buy they went way out of them entertained we out of them find relationships to cause them not to think about it and they're constantly going to things to distract them from the consequence because they don't want to deal with the season but without dealing with the sin you don't get God's help for the consequence you get everybody else's help so you may get temporary distraction like drugs they can give you a temporary distraction and a good feeling but they've not dealt with the issue and it sure it's quiet in here right now but that's okay it's it's that kind of message God says if you will repair your relationship with me through the internal resolve to deal with your sin you have set the stage because I'm now back hooked up with you to intervene in your consequences based on of course His divine prerogative when John the Baptist came on the scene in Matthew chapter 3 verses 1 to 12 he comes on the scene and he says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand Kingdom means the rule of God if you want to see God rule your situation you got to repent first if you don't repent first don't bother to pray about it okay don't don't don't waste your time to ask God to deliver you from a consequence you are unwilling to repent because you're wasting your time the rule of god comes he says when you repent repentance is the master key to reuniting your relationship with God so that he is free to intervene and the consequences at his prerogative it's a change of mind with a view of reversing a direction so let me break it down break it down break it down this word repent let me tell you the ingredients that you need to stir together to get a real repentance number one to repent starts off with a recognition of sin there is a recognition of sin to see if you don't believe it's sin then you don't need to repent of it it is sin because there's a violation of a divine standard that's what makes something sin so you must recognize it to be so first John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness the Greek word confess means to say the same thing that's what the griot mulligan means to say the same thing you must say about that thing what God says about it not what your neighbors say about it not what the television says about it not what your peach say about it not what you think about it you must say the same thing that God says about it if God says it's a sin don't call it a bad habit God said there's a sin don't call it a mistake God says it's a sin don't don't just say you know I'm only human you must call it what God calls it in order for God to address it and to repair the relationship so that must be the recognition of sin you must confess and say the same thing secondly there must be remorse over what you now recognize there must be what the Bible calls in 2nd Corinthians 7 verses 10 and 11 godly sorrow godly sorrow is I've hurt God now you may have hurt your neighbors you may have hurt yourself but the one thing has offended the most is God so he says godly sorrow leads to repentance that this thing whatever the thing is has hurt the heart of God God has been the one offended God has been the one who has been rebelled against it is God david said against me and the only have I sinned there must be a sense that there are tears in the eyes of God over my sin he says it must be godly sorrow not the world's sorrow worldly sorrow is you got caught godly sorrow is I've hurt the heart of God godly sorrow guilt and shame over sin must be the reaction to the recognition of sin then what's recognizing it and being remorseful over it that must be the decision to reverse it the decision to reverse it John called in Matthew John the Baptist called in Matthew chapter 3 verse 8 bring forth fruits of repentance now nobody has ever seen invisible fruit we've never seen invisible fruit fruit is something you can always see it comes in different shapes and different sizes but it's always visible in other words you know it's an apple tree because you see some apples you know it's the pear tree cause you see some pears those large tree because you see some oranges how do you know if you are really remorseful how do you know that this thing is real that you really want to deal with it fruit in other words you are doing something that demonstrates you want a reversal you are taking action steps that says I'm going to do something differently because I recognize it I'm remorseful about it and so I'm going to reverse what I am doing in relationship to it it is the decision to reverse then why do I use the word decision because we all know reversal can be very difficult depending on how long the sin has been there how deep the sin is gone if you have you been on drugs all your life or a large part of your experience and you decide I'm going to get off drugs that's more than a notion for most people to get the monkey off their back but you can always take a repentance step even when you've not yet reached the repentant Gold if there is no fruit that is an action step taken to reverse then you have a right to question whether there was the internal resolve and determination mean if you tell me I really want to get a job I really need a job and I'm living with the consequence of being broke and so I'm getting on my knees every day asking God to give me a job and I'm sorry about the fact that I'm not working in bringing in an income I'm sad about that and you are offered an employment opportunity but you refuse to make the phone call refuse to going for the interview refuse to file the application I am going to conclude you're not serious about getting the job because there is no fruit one of the worse things in counseling it's to counsel people tell them about the sin tell them about what God wants to do and they come back next week having done nothing you know what they want to do in most cases talk about it and don't feel so bad about it but in removing or addressing the consequence that God's prerogative he wants to see you demonstrate you are serious at some level it may not disappear tomorrow but you can take steps to demonstrate you are seriously repentant so it's quiet in here he uses the word over and over in Scripture return return Zechariah chapter 1 verses 3 & 4 return to me so I can return to you Malachi chapter 3 verse 7 return to me so I can return to you I want to come back to you but you keep dying on me by refusal to address the sin having the sin is one thing not addressing it is another you remember how it was before seatbelts were required you always knew when couples were happy because the girl was sitting right up under the guy he saw you thought sometime only one person was in the car they were sitting so close together so you knew that was an issue when he was sitting behind the wheel and she was sitting all the way over on her side next to the door of the passenger side one lady said to him do you remember when we used to sit next to each other the husband look that aren't there yeah and I have moved well God is saying I haven't gone anywhere but you have separated from me and there is now distance and the consequence has filled in the space we need to close the gap I do want you to look at this passage James chapter 4 and James chapter 4 the people were concerned that their prayers were not being answered they were praying and nothing was happening he says you have not because you ask not in verse 2 verse 3/3 you ask but you still don't receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your own pleasures your adulteresses don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God God has enemies in his own camp because he's writing to Christians or do you not think that the scripture says to no purpose he jealously desires the spirit which he is made to dwell in you why this a big deal of God to thee the jealous person he saved you for himself but he gives greater grace o he's giving you divine favor therefore it says God is opposed to the proud you can do it without him but gives grace to the humble so what should you do submit yourself therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you don't miss read that he didn't tell you resist the devil he said submit to God a lot of people say oh I can't get rid of this devil and you won't because he's got space to work in so he first says submit to God submit means to place yourself underneath the authority of someone place yourself under the authority of God and then resists the devil why because once you get God on your side you got help with the devil so if the devil is bringing these consequences and you want to get the devil off of your back you've got to first come underneath God so God can work with you in getting the devil off of you because the devil can handle you he can't handle God working with you and how do you do that verse 8 says draw near to God and He will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and he's writing to Christians purify your hearts you double-minded stop trying to go both ways on God be miserable and mourn and weep for your laughter to be turned in the morning and your joy to gloom when it comes to reversing consequences this is not party time this is not Showtime at the Apollo this is not fun time this is this this is the time if you really want to invite God's greater grace in the situation this is the time for sorrow over sin the worst thing in the world is that somebody laughing and joking and something that you talk trying to talk to them seriously about he says when it comes to this issue there are plenty of things we rejoice in the Lord over there's plenty of things that's joy in the Lord about but when it comes to this issue of sending consequences he says it's no joke this is the time for mourning and weeping solemn assembly it was a time of gnashing of sackcloth and ashes it was getting right with God so God could intervene with us bring forth the fruit of repentance submitting to God is like a sergeant saying to his soldier about-face reverse ship your direction and I don't care how much you talk if you're still facing the same way your words don't mean anything you aren't serious yet and the less serious you are the more the consequences lasts and the deeper they go when I show up at the airport when you go to the airport you can tell them your name all you want they want to see your ID what a picture they want to see your driver's life and then taking your word that you were who you say you are they want some visible validation and verification so you can tell God I'm sorry all you want he wants to see some fruit of repentance and Jesus didn't die for I'm sorry he died for sin repentance is to be a lifestyle it's a way you will operate it's not an event it's a lifestyle but we we teach our kids to say I'm sorry right these people would say you say I'm sorry on Sunday they don't cover you the rest of the week no you tell them to say I'm sorry or we say I'm sorry as needed you know when we're sorry for something we tell another person who we've done something oh I'm so sorry in other words saying you're sorry about something to people is the lifestyle it's the way you operate repentance is a lifestyle of acknowledging to God our sin with the remorse that I've heard God with the request that he intervenes in not only my forgiveness but in my circumstances and repentance opens the door for him to limit postpone avoid reverse cancel or empower in the midst of dealing with the circumstance it's his prerogative but you've opened the door for one many or all of the above that's why whenever you see or almost every time you see repent connected with the word return he tells you what he's gonna do for you if you do it you gonna see that as we go along in the series he will he will literally tell you in advance if you repent and you return this is what's gonna happen and it usually involved a reversal of circumstances so if you want to see God intervene in your financial circumstances in your emotional circumstances in your relational circumstances and your spiritual circumstan whatever the circumstances are same key what can I expect you say okay I see what you're saying and I want to live and not die out I don't want this illegitimate separation they're carrying in my world what am i what can I expect if I take this thing seriously it's all through the Bible this word repent it shows up off it about he says you will establish now the grounds for God to deal with your consequences Isaiah 30 verse 15 says your deliverance is in your repentance oh I love what Acts chapter 3 says verses 19 to 21 therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped out in order that times of refreshing may come because it's never what you want when you got consequence I want to be refreshed from them refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed to you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke about by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time he says repent and return so that you can be refreshed so he offers this over and over and over again according to his prerogative let me explain something about repentance the master key to your consequences stick with me here theologically for a moment repentance has to do with the forgiveness of sins acts 3 says that your sins may be wiped out erased but the purpose of repentance is relational let me explain if you steal a car and they take you before the judge the judge the judges purpose is not forgiveness that's not that's not the judges purpose the judges purpose the centerpiece of the judges purpose is guilt or innocence that's his concern are you guilty of the crime the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as judge he has pronounced the whole world guilty because all have sinned so when we relate to God judicially as a judge we're guilty so what the judge did god what sent Jesus Christ to the cross to bear our guilt God can only accept you into heaven if you are as perfect as he is anybody have anybody in their life who's just too clean they just to clean they just clean it all the time they just they just find it's tough to clean this that's too clean God is too clean not one iota of sin can be practiced in heaven so you've got to be as good as God to get there well nobody can meet that standard so what God did was become a man down the cross and credit the righteousness of Christ to all who come to Christ for it so judicially as a judge you stand I stand we spend all who come to Christ stand before God as though we've never sinned because God has credited to our account the righteousness of Christ he who knew no sin became sin for us so when it comes to your eternal destiny guilt has been covered which is why you can't lose your salvation guilt has been covered by the death of Jesus Christ because when it comes to your eternal salvation the judge has acquitted you once you come to Christ but now suppose you are before the judge and you stole his car now you've entered into a twofold relationship with the judge he must judge you judicially but he must be willing to forgive you personally because you got this new relationship with the judge now when it comes to repentance you are re-establishing the personal relationship because the judicial relationship was satisfied on the cross first John 2:2 makes it clear that at the death of Christ he died in propitiation for our sins but not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world it says the judge has spoken on the cross as a judge but he has not spoken in relationship without repentance so you can be on your way to heaven but not in fellowship with him on earth everyone who has a biological child understands this if your child was born biologically from you that can never change but that don't mean the two of you are in good terms they can forever be your child and you'll never speak to each other because you bear a two fold relationship a judicial one by biology but a personal one by relationship and repentance is designed to restore the personal so he says your deliverance is in your repentance if you've ever gotten an invitation for a recall on your car because something wrong with your car and they recalling all these cars I've never had an invitation for a recall where they came to pick up my car they never said we're gonna recall five thousand cars will be better pick it up uh-oh I gotta take it in in repentance God is making a recall but you got to bring you in you're not gonna force a recall he'll come pick you up for a recall he wants to know you want to recall so let's conclude with the u-turn you're driving south on the highway as you're driving south on the highway it dawns on you you should have been going north for whatever reason you are paying attention and you're going the wrong way but now you recognize it I recognize I've been traveling in the wrong direction you not only recognize you're going south when you ought to be going north you all messed up over it you've sad about it cuz this isn't taking you out way out of your way and you're miles away from where you were going and you you may be lost or whatever so you recognize it and now you really feeling bad now that you've recognized it in fact you'll keep talking to yourself boy are you going the wrong way well you all know what you're doing boy you know you shouldn't be going this way but you keep passing exits you keep driving and any of you wives any married their husbands who do that and please don't say nothing because they don't want to hear that so so so they're going the wrong way talk about know where I'm going you know that's what the Bible calls pride that comes before the fall so you recognize you're going the wrong way you're sad that you're going the wrong way but you keep passing exit then you have not yet repented you've recognized it you feel bad about it but there has been no reversal or attempt to reverse you didn't pull up your GPS to say what should I do now the girl talking to you over the GPS you ignore them shut up Siri I but this when you feel bad enough long enough then you keep on driving you find out it's nice stuff I see along the way but I'm not getting anywhere the way I'm trying to go and you feel bad enough long enough it dawns on you I better do something different so you see an exit coming up 1/2 a mile you move over to your right leg and you exit off of confession off-ramp I agree that I've been going the wrong way I confess south is not the right way so I'm getting no now you haven't solved the problem yet but you've acted you've acted you got me it may not be big fruit but it's some fruit and you've acted and you've pulled off on confession our friend but there's a bigger problem getting all doesn't solve your problem coz loss is over there but there is a connection between the rebbe you got off and the rep you need to get on we'll call it grace overpass because the Bible says grace is greater than our sin so when you get off the confession off-ramp there has been a buttress bill for you to make it right so you now cross over grace overpass on the other side of the overpass is an on-ramp we'll call that restoration on-ramp so you get off on confession exit a friend you cross over grace overpass you get back on restoration on ramp and guess what you're headed in the right now depending on how long you've been going wrong it may take you a minute to get back fully on the right road but I got some good news for you if you've ever been on a long trip and gone on a long journey and that was time to come home have you ever noticed it seems to take less time to get home then it did going there now wait a minute it's the same amount of miles if you take in the same route it may be the same amount of distance because you're taking the same route but it feels different and you know I feel different cuz you go at home God says if I can just get you to come home it may take a minute it may take some time but because you're coming home and I want your home it's gonna feel

Channel: Tony Evans

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Keywords: Tony Evans sermon, Christian sermons, sermons, powerful sermons, sermons on consequences, sermons on forgiveness, turn back to God, how to turn back to God, sermons on pleasing God, sermons on obeying God, how to seek God, sermons on seeking God, motivational, motivational video, tony evans, tony evans radio, dr tony evans, tony evans sermons

Id: 0tqUrOjecdc

Length: 49min 46sec (2986 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2019