Tony Evans' Powerful Sermon, Judgment in God's House, Preached on September 5, 2021

[Music] today i want to call your attention in light of all that's happening around us to first peter chapter four i'm calling this judgment in god's house first peter chapter four and let me read the last three verses verses 17 to 19. for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of god and if it begins with us first what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of god and if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved what will become of the godless man and the sinner therefore those who also suffer according to the will of god shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right the embassy in afghanistan has been abandoned kabul we have retreated from that location the embassy in afghanistan was the presence of the united states on foreign soil it represented our interest in a foreign land it sought to serve our purposes in a place that was not in our best interest but as things changed and as the taliban advanced it was determined that we would no longer maintain a presence there there has been great celebration in afghanistan about the fact that we are no longer present our influence over these many years are no longer retarding the aggressive movement of the enemy and it is caught caused great consternation even here about the methodology philosophy strategy that is being implemented depended upon which side of the divide you happen to be on but my focus today is on the fact that the embassy is empty and that means that influence and leverage has been limited or lost god has an embassy in history called the church the church is god's embassy it is his authorized location in a foreign land the bible makes it clear that this is not our home but we have been temporarily situated here to represent heaven's interest in earth's chaos that heaven has decided that it would have representative locations that would serve the interest of eternity in the location of time that the church is not merely a place where people gather to worship as important as that is it is also a place that people can get some information about heaven and how they should function on earth the presence of an embassy bringing the thinking of the homeland into a foreign culture is designed to leverage influence to let that particular community of people know that if you cooperate with us there are benefits that accrue to you because of what we the united states have to offer in terms of freedom in terms of resources in terms of safety the purpose of heaven's embassy in history is to let the broader society to know that if you follow these precepts life will be better families will be stronger there will be a more ordered society but what happens when the embassy shuts down what happens when the embassy no longer feels that its presence is strategic and critical not merely for itself but for the environment in which it finds itself the author of first peter the apostle peter he makes this statement and he says in verse 17 for it is time for judgment to begin with the household of god the greek word time is not cronus but kairos kronas is clock time it's tick tick tick tick tick tick it's the chronology of time moving forward but his word kairos the word used here means opportune time it means time with a purpose it means a special season it means not time in general but time in specific that something is happening at this moment's notice to call your attention it's cairo's time it's time you need to pay special attention to it's covert time it's time that you can't ignore because things are out of sync and out of order when he says to the people he's writing in the first century it is now time you need to know why he said that in 64 a.d there was a fire in rome the evil emperor nero had set fire to a merchant's shop that fire began to spread very quickly and it wrought destruction in rome in 64 a.d it got out of hand things got so bad with the fire that nero said that he had to blame somebody for the destruction so what nero did was he blamed the christians for having started the fire and he turned the roman empire against christians now he set the fire but he didn't want the blame so he had to shift the blame to christians as being the ones who are bringing havoc into the society [Music] you can look it up in your wikipedia you can look it up and it will talk to you about this fire set by nero that got blamed on christians when it got blamed on christians there was an assault against christianity and christians found themselves suffering unjustly unfairly but suffering because the culture had turned against them based on a lie it is shortly after the fire that peter writes first peter because the christians found themselves in an untenable situation of persecution people wouldn't believe them and whatever comfortability they used to know had now been turned upside down by the culture and faced with this ignominious attack peter had the right to tell them don't throw in the towel just because the culture has gotten left on you don't throw in the towel just because things have gotten hot and heavy even though it's not based on truth but it's based on a falsehood it is that kairos time that moment of spiritual attack that moment of cultural deluge against the faith even though based on a lie that leads peter to write first peter and to cause him to say it's now time when you're going through rough times when you're going through tough times when your faith is being rejected when you are being persecuted that kairos time is not just cultural circumstances he says it's time for judgment to start in the house of god first now stick with me there is cultural attack he says while you're going through this kairos moment of cultural attack simultaneous to that time is the judgment of god taking place in the church first he says i know you're reading the newspaper i know you're listening to national and local news but i don't want you so fixated on what is happening around you that you miss what god is trying to do with you it's now time a kairos moment for judgment to start in the house of god first you and i today are living in a kairos moment you are living now in a moment as we shared in our series on truth in a post-christian culture you and i are now living at a time when the clearer you are about your faith the more abuse you're going to be receiving you are living in a time where if you decide to be a full-time christian and not a part-time scene if you decide that you're going to be a visible verbal follower of christ the crowd is not going to agree with you you are living in a time when you reject the moral standards of the culture when you reject efforts to pull people apart when you reject evolution when you reject a non-christian worldview when you reject what the culture has deemed to be legitimate and accepted when you reject abortion when you reject what the bible clearly said when you reject when that is a kairos moment because the town is burning and what peter wants you to know if you're going to take your stand with jesus christ while the circumstances of the culture are working against you god is bringing judgment in the church what is the purpose of the judgment of god if the problem is i'm being unjustly treated because of what's happening around me with the neuronic appetite of secularism encroaching on the kingdom of god because the judgment of god in the midst of a kairos moment is designed to show who's for real and who's fake news because you can be in church and be fake you can carry your bible and be faith you can sing the hymns and be faith so when god allows the culture to come against you it is designed to reveal who the real saints are and not who the churchified folk are he says it's now time for the judgment of god to be revealed so while satan nero is bringing pressure against the church god will use that as an opportunity to reveal his true church so my question is are we going to be the real deal or are we going to be a fake congregation are you going to take your stand for jesus christ or are you just going to carry the title [Applause] there are a lot of folk who wear wedding bands who aren't even married and there are a lot of christians who call themselves christians who aren't even saved so it is now time it's a kairos moment we live in a day of cancer culture we live in a day when the christian voice is attempting to be muted we live in a day in this kairos moment where the secularism of society is trying to deny the embassy for staying intact but i'm here to declare to you that it is now not time to abandon the premises it is now not time to abandon the faith it is now not time to abandon the word it is now not time to abandon our savior in love with kindness there must be crystal clear clarity that's why paul says in first timothy chapter 3 verse 15 he says i'm writing to you and to the household of faith because you ought to be the ground and pillar of the truth when everything else is shaking there ought to be one solid foundation when folk don't know which way to go there ought to be one place they can look to say those folk don't move they don't move because they're moving over here and they're moving over there no we are brown and pillar we are ground zero cause when stuff get bad enough out there they're gonna be looking for an embassy to run into and that means that we have still got to be on the premises so when god allows the kairos moment in the culture it becomes a judgment moment in the church to call us to account to call us to a new level of commitment and to reveal where we are falling short so that we can shore it up this is not a time to run this is not a time for spiritual punks this is not a time for spiritual chumps this is a time for bibliocentric clarity in the midst of cultural confusion he tells them that when god was getting ready to judge in the book of ezekiel chapter nine verse five and six he says i want you to judge the city but i first want you to start with the sanctuary he says because if i can't get them right where will the unrighteous stand [Applause] when there is a kairos moment it typically precedes a divine intervention when god allows stuff to go crazy it is because something is on the horizon regarding him doing something bigger than the church so he's got to make sure he has a church who's going to hold down the fort in the midst of cultural confusion and crisis now he speaks throughout this book about the struggles that they were going through for example he says in chapter one verse six of first peter and seven in this you greatly rejoice even though for now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials that the proof of your faith are you just talking are you just saying amen hallelujah because you're supposed to that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ in other words when jesus shows up will you still be on your post when jesus shows up will your faith have been genuine then he goes on and he says in chapter 2 verse 11 beloved i urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul keep your behavior excellent among the gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers set in the fire that they they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify god in the day of visitation he says while everybody out there is being bad you need to be good he says while everybody out there is cheating you ought to be honest while everybody out there is going crazy you ought to be orderly he says by what you show in the midst of a bad world that's gone left folk ought to know you're not part of the crowd you and i should be walking out of step with the culture cause we're listening to a different drumbeat we're listening to a different sound and so we're walking at a different pace and so he is calling on christians he says in spite of their slander in spite of them coming against you he says you hold your fort and you declare i love what he says in philippians chapter 1 when he talks to them and he says in verse 28 he says in no way be alarmed by your opponents which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you and that too from god for to you it has been granted for christ's sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now here to be in me now i know we want to hear messages about blessing i know we want to hear messages about favor i know we want to hear messages about god is good all the time and all the time god is good i want no we want to hear messages about how he healed me how he blessed me how he provided for me how he delivered me and there are plenty of those messages throughout the scripture but the message we don't want to hear the message we don't prefer but that is replete throughout the scripture is that the more public you become as a christian in a secular environment the more adversity you're going to face now some of us are not going to face adversity because nobody's going to know we're a christian some of us are not going to be rejected because folk won't know we belong to the savior some of us are not going to be criticized because there'll be nothing to criticize because we're so much like the culture but in a kairos time when the world is canceling you when they are rejecting you not because you are being that way just because they don't like you and they don't want you now is the time to be identified as a christian and to say i'm not only praising god for my blessing but i'm also going to give him glory in my suffering if it's coming because of my commitment to him this is a kairos moment that we are facing in our culture all this political divide and racial divide and health issues you people think people think the delta virus is just a new strain of virus coming from the covert 19 reality well that's that's just a medical explanation but from a theological spiritual biblical explanation god is keeping the flip the script he's keeping to change things cause he's gonna see are you still gonna worship me are you still gonna glorify me are you still gonna praise me when stuff keeps flipping in a kairos moment you've got to understand [Applause] what we're going through spiritually and theologically not just medically culturally racially politically and societally and so he says it is time it is time that you take your stand proverbs 11 31 it is with difficulty the righteousness is saved if that's true what will become of the sinner if god is going to send us through a rough time and we believe in him what you think will happen to folk who reject him our god is a consuming fire and you need to know about that side so when you run into hard times you don't throw in the towel and i'm not talking about he says in first peter chapter four these words he says verse 15 make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or a troublesome meddler now he's speaking governmentally because if you murder somebody you know the government put you in jail or sentence you if you be caught as the thief or an evil doer he makes an interesting word here a troublesome medal i think this is the only time this this greek word is used in the whole new testament that means a political agitator a troublesome meddler is a because he's speaking governmentally it's a it's a folk who stares stuff up to make stuff worse okay they bring conflict in the culture they don't bring reconciliation and healing they bring chaos and conflict and they get on the microphone to keep stuff stirred up not to make it better but to make it worse he says don't be named among those who not trying to help but just trying to keep things messed up and toe up from the flow up he says no no no that's not how one i want you to be named he says and i love verse 16 but if anyone suffers as a christian he is not to be ashamed but is to glorify god in this name okay in what name in the name of being a christian okay let me tell you something you may not know the name christian is not a name christians gave to themselves christians didn't call themselves christians that's not how we got the name christian christian was first used in acts chapter 11 verse 26 it says and when the disciples gathered they were called christians at antioch they didn't call themselves christians the folk in antioch called them christians and they called them christians he says because they were disciples so it was their discipleship that made folk identify them as christians a disciple is not merely a person who's accepted christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the free gift of eternal life a disciple is somebody who's gone public with their faith and their identification not with belief in god but association with jesus christ if they're so because they were so visibly associated with jesus christ they were called christians so you only got to be called christians because you look like a disciple see some folk want to be called christians because they go to church some folks are called christians because they call themselves christians but the question in the book of acts is are you so much a follower of christ that other folk call you christians then you ain't said a word because how you are functioning how you are rolling how you are acting how you are walking how you are talking is so much like jesus they gots to call you christian the word christian is also used in acts chapter 26 verse 28 because agrippa said to paul you you got this jesus thing so strong if you keep this up you're gonna make me become a christian and he uses the word chris that wasn't paul saying i'm a christian that was a pagan king a pagan ruler saying you got this jesus thing so thick on you you so wrapped up tied up and bundled up in jesus if you keep this up you're going to turn me out you're going to make me become a follower of christ so he says it's time in this kairos moment this moment of confusion this moment of chaos what do you want me to what if they if they start talking about me on my job not because i'm creating havoc but because i'm such a good worker because i don't steal time or substance from the boss because i am faithful in what i do because i i keep my my responsibility if they if they reject me if they whatever it is he said he says here's what i want you to do he says it in verse 13 he says uh but to the degree that you share the sufferings of christ keep on rejoicing [Applause] he says if you take your stand for jesus lovingly responsibly kindly but clearly if you take your stand for jesus i want you to rejoice i want you to get your praise on wait amen people talking about me they're insulting me they're rejecting me they're firing me folk don't want to marry me whatever it is but you know i i keep i keep i keep my stand for jesus he says i want you to get your joy on i want you to rejoice priscilla was telling me the other day that she heard i don't know what the mechanism was but she heard from a a pastoral leader in afghanistan and the leader said we probably only have two weeks to live me and my congregation we only have a couple of weeks to live when the taliban finds us it is most likely they're going to kill us but we are going to stand firm with christ we are not afraid and we're looking forward to seeing jesus in two weeks and you complaining about somebody talking about you you complaining about somebody may not like you you complaining that nobody you you're not getting favor from somebody and these folk are praising knowing that there's the great possibility they're going to be slain in two weeks now you know why god gets ticked off when he is folk complaining who ought to be giving thanks he says i want you to rejoice because you were viewed so much like jesus that folk were against you that's good news when folk are against you because you are for christ he says rejoice hold your ground keep your stand in fact matthew chapter 5 verses 11 and 12 he says there's a double blessing he says when you're persecuted for your faith not because you look for persecution not because you're searching for persecution but because you're looking so much like jesus and you are not ashamed in fact he says here in 1st peter chapter chapter 4 he lets you know that there is blessing that comes with serving christ in fact chapter 3 he says not returning verse nine evil for evil or insult for insult okay i know they did what they did to you is wrong and you know you the man and all that you want you gonna give them a pco christian mind all that he says not returning evil for evil or returning insult for insult that doesn't mean that you don't tell the truth that you don't give a legitimate defense but he's talking about retribution but giving but giving a blessing instead that's convicting isn't it well he cussed me out i ain't let nobody cuss me out like that i i know a few words myself he says i know uh-uh uh-uh cause the goal is to be like jesus so giving a blessing instead for you were called for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing oh wait a minute wait a minute he says when you're in this kairos moment of conflict and god's trying to show who's real and who's not real he says when they come against you i don't want you to do retribution no i want you to give a blessing why would i bless somebody who's insulting me why would i bless somebody who's against me i'm not even going to ignore the truth i'm not going to just say i'm wrong if i'm not wrong but how do i bless a racist who's being a racist toward me how do i bless when they come again why am i going to do that he says because when you do that you will inherit a blessing in other words he says when you get favor when you give favor you get favor see god can't help a lot of us because we just like the sinners that are against us so why is he gonna bless us so we can be more like them than more like him he says i want you to be a blessing verse 14 of chapter 3 but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled but sanctify christ as lord in your hearts always being ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you with gentleness and reverence he says when they come against you i want you to tell them why you're acting the way you are why you're talking the way you talk why you're loving the way you love why you're caring the way you care why you're not doing to them what they did to you he said sanctify christ in your heart and do it with the right spirit so that you can experience god's favor coming on your life and so have you ever seen anybody driving in two lanes yeah they're driving down the middle of the street they're right yeah you don't know whether they want to go right or left because they they sway him back and forth we got too many two lane christians see they they want to drive in the middle of the road see they they want they want they want when it's convenient they want jesus when it's inconvenient they want the world but now they want jesus and sometimes they want jesus in the world they just they just be driving there god is looking for some folk who's gonna stay on the right side and take that stand with jesus now we're not perfect we have our flaws we have our failures but when you find out you're on the wrong side of the road you don't stay there you get back on where you belong you get back on the straight and narrow so as we are enduring our kairos moment i want you and me and us to be known in the marketplace of our lives home community work civic engagement racial connectivity i want us to be known as disciples so other folk can call us christians so other folks can say y'all are different over there so other folk can say y'all not ordinary y'all function in a whole different so that they begin he says in chapter three to ask some questions when they ask questions why you talk like that why you act like that why why why why are you not doing what we do why you're not going where we go why are you not cussing like because how come you are like us and then he says then then you sanctify the lord christ in your heart you get ready when they ask the question you say okay lord give me the words because because it's you and me right now it's you and me right now and you make your declaration clear that i take my stand with jesus christ the world's going to throw dirt on you because we are in a cairo's moment we're in a post-christian era this is not your mama's country when it comes to faith i don't know about you but when i was growing up my teachers had faith in the public school so they communicated even if they weren't necessarily formal christians they shared a judeo-christian framework for life and family and decency well that's gone that's that's gone it's gone governmentally it's gone in media it's gone in education it's gone now by god's grace we pray for it to come back but right now it's that cairo's moment and the city is burning so the question is you your family a church where you going to stand are you going to be not a churchgoer but a visible verbal follower of christ especially when they throw in dirt when they throw in dirt a dog one day fell in a well the dog one day fell in the well it was a deep well and the owner the farmer was so sad he lost his dog in the well but it was so deep he couldn't go get him so he he said i'll just bury him in the well so they started taking dirt and throwing it everywhere he started taking dirt and throwing it in the well started taking dirt because he wanted to bury him throw him in the dirt but the dog wasn't dead but the farmer didn't know it because it was so deep yeah so every time farmer threw dirt the dog stepped on the dirt the farmer kept throwing dirt the dog stepped on the dirt the farmer kept throwing dirt dog kept stepping on the dirt tell when the farmer filled the well up with dirt the dog walked out the culture at this cairo's moment wants to bury you but if you name the name of jesus christ when they throw dirt you step up and you declare who you are you and i are more than conquerors in jesus christ you stay faithful to him you walk with him you declare him you follow him you fight for him with love and kindness but with clarity so that at this church and in your life we are known as disciples of jesus christ not because we say it but because they see it that's what we've been called to do in this cairo's movement you

Channel: Tony Evans

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Keywords: sermon, sermons, Tony Evans sermons, powerful sermons, judgment, Christianity, the church, God's house, 2021 sermons, sermons 2021

Id: B3K5H-ahDKY

Length: 41min 49sec (2509 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021