Unapologetic - Divine Reset | Tony Evans Sermon

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

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 91,700

Rating: 4.913012 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, sermons, divine reset

Id: 6ZAh1i_OeE0

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021