What on Earth is Going on - Tony Evans

it's my privilege to introduce our speaker who really does not need an introduction Dr Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship right here in Dallas Texas founder and president of the urban alternative former chaplain of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Cowboys author of over 125 books booklets and bible studies he's the first African-American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and has been named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking World by Baylor University Dr Evans also holds the honor of writing and Publishing the First full Bible commentary and study Bible by an African-American his radio broadcast the alternative with Tony Evans can be heard on more than 1 400 U.S Outlets daily and in more than 130 countries Dr Evans launched the Tony Evans training center in 2017 an online learning platform providing quality Seminary style courses for a fraction of the cost to any person in any place around the world the tetc currently has over 40 courses to choose from and has a student population of over two thousand Dr Tony Evans was married to Lois his wife and Ministry partner of over 50 years until Lois transitioned to glory in late 2019 and they are the proud parents of four grandparents of 13 and great grandparents of three come on now that's right four four okay would you please join me in welcoming Dr Tony Evans today thank you good morning it's always a joy and privilege to be able to come back to my alma mater and yours and have the opportunity as I try to do each time to express my great gratitude for the great foundation bibliocentrically made during my matriculation through DTS and the concomitant benefits that have accrued to my life family and Ministry because of my years spent here and so I'm sure I join you in being very grateful to the Lord for this great school and what it has done in our lives and work and Ministry when I was growing up in urban Baltimore as a young child I would sometimes spend the weekend with my grandparents and when I went over to their home uh as was the normal case during that time Saturday morning was a time to watch cartoons my favorite cartoon growing up was Mighty Mouse and uh the super Mouse who would bring order to a chaotic environment and uh there would be times on a Saturday when there would be a storm when there was a storm if it happened to be on that Saturday morning my grandmother would make me turn off the television she would say you you've got to turn Tony you've got to turn off the television right now it usually came in one of the better parts of the cartoons say you got to turn it off now but grandmother why do I have to turn off the television now and her inevitable statement would be because God is talking the disturbance for her meant that distractions had to be removed so that I could pay attention to something happening up there that was disrupting things down here that I needed to pay attention to in the book of Hebrews this epistle that was written to Christian Jews whose lives were being disturbed they were facing multiple types of challenges even to the point of being tempted to return to the old Covenant because it would have been more safe secure they would not have had the conflicts the rejection the turmoil that they were experiencing if they would compromise and go back to the old way that they had abandoned for this New Covenant this new relationship and it got tough so throughout the Book of Hebrews the author has to challenge them and even warn them about how treacherous it is to to go back and to to revert back to the old ways and not progress to this new calling this new opportunity to experience the blessings benefit and yes through the trials and trouble of the New Covenant he comes to chapter 12. and he introduces this thing of divine disturbance he says in verse 25 of Hebrews 12 see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if those did not Escape when they refused him who warned them on Earth much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven and his voice shook the Earth then but now he has promised saying yet once more I will shake not only the Earth but also the heaven this expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken May remain over and over again he talks about this thing called shaking this disturbance that comes from Heaven into history authored by God to disturb the natural Order of Things when circumstances lives programs and processes are turned inside out and upside down when this shaking occurs he says because God is speaking we know God speaks through his word preeminently prominently but that's not the only way he speaks the author of Hebrews says when God wants to say something and get our undivided attention he speaks through shaking or disturbing unpacking or unraveling the natural Order of Things throughout Biblical history when God wanted to say something different bring about something new grab the attention of his people at another level he would either cause or allow a disturbance at the Red Sea Israel was caught between pharaoh and the Red Sea he even took them in One Direction only to bring them back through that direction confusing the the trajectory of the destiny they're being stuck between a rock and a hard place because God wanted to show them something new the opening of the Red Sea a less than they were to never forget but could only be experienced in this disturbance that he would allow to take place when God wanted to show Abraham something new he asked him to do something very contradictory he asked him to do something that he commanded should never be done he asked him to kill his son this is the same God who was against murder and yet he asked him to do something that seemed to contradict his very nature why because he wanted to do something new he wanted to reveal the execution of what he calls his oath to Abraham that he could say now I know that you fear me because you would not withhold your son when Martha and Mary heard one time your brother will not die the next moment he's dead that that's a contradiction that seems to go against what he said that's because God was about to do something new he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead this shaking this disturbance this Divine circumstantial Interruption into the natural Order of Things comes about when God has something new to do or to say to his people you and I are living in a time when we have seen a multiplicity of divine interruptions we saw it at 9 11 when our world was turned upside down by terrorism and churches became full as people wanted answers to the question that had disrupted their lives we've seen it doing covet when the world was disrupted by this virus and the natural order of church and worship and fellowship was disrupted it is this and a multitude of other things that God is saying I want you to pay close attention I want you to listen carefully because I have something that you need to pay attention to and the normal processes won't do regular Church won't give it to you having devotions is not enough I need to disrupt something I need to disturb something because I have something that is critical for you to hear he says when I disturb I am creating a separation he says in verse 27 when I speak and disturb the natural order of things in your life in your ministry and in your world he says in verse 27 I am removing the things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken May remain you've gotten too attached to the physical you've gotten too attached to time and space the Eternal has fallen into the background and I need to reassert it and make it front and center as of created things the Physical Realm the spiritual realm enters into the Physical Realm to create a disturbance in order to bring about a separation because I want to push the spiritual to the Forefront by bringing disturbance to the physical in other words I want to upset your five senses that are attached to the Physical Realm so that you will pay closer attention to what I am doing in the spiritual Realm you've become too attached to this world to attached to your environment to attach to secular thought secular thinking in this case to attach to the old Covenant and I need to disturb something and when I disturb it do that is to create a distinction between Heaven and Earth the temporal and the eternal the physical and the spiritual when you have a bad stomachache and you regurgitate you throw up that's a pretty nasty situation but you generally feel better after you've gone through it it doesn't feel comfortable to have to go through that but the purpose of the messy situation is to change the feeling of the stomach when a woman is in labor that's a painful situation but the painful situation is to burst something new is to see something fresh and a newness and life be made manifest when God wants to do something new in his life or through his church when he wants to address the racial division in the church he'll allow a crisis in the culture when he wants to address the church becoming too Republican or two Democrat he'll create a political disturbance in the culture and it's all designed for heaven to wake up his people that you become too Tethered to Blackness or whiteness to Democrats or Republicans and we're going to shake this thing up so that I can call you back to a spiritual bibliocentric Divine worldview and Ezekiel chapter 43 God says you've allowed your King's Thrones to get too close to my temple so I'm going to have to create a disturbance so that you put it in its proper place so that you don't have me in the wrong place so when you see this disruption it is because God has something fresh new that he wants to do and say now we know ultimately prophetically dispensationally that the ultimate disturbance is going to lead to the kingdom of God headed by Jesus Christ in the age that is to come and maybe these disturbances are setting things up for that the rise of China and the coagulation with Russia perhaps that is the next offering in God's kingdom program but maybe it's not maybe it's simply a reset to get the church more prepared to be the church not a cultural church but a kingdom Church so he says when your life is disrupted your ministry it's not going like you hoped and it doesn't make sense says because he has something he wants us to pay close attention to what is it that he really wants us to hear when inevitably it will happen to you as it happened to me and to us and our family when we lost eight family members in two years when I had to bury my father and my wife one month apart and having your whole world collapse around you what is he want said or seen when this will inevitably happen in life and Ministry in culture and Society verse 28 reads this way therefore since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire when God creates or allows a Divine disruption in Your Life Ministry or your world when things around you are collapsing God is talking he's calling for a deeper dive when it rains or thunderstorms on the ocean it can only penetrate maximumly 25 feet down when there's a hard rain the disturbance on the ocean or sea only goes down approximately 25 feet so if you are fish and there is disruption you go down 26 feet in other words the disturbance on top drives you deeper it takes you further than you would naturally go it's easy in our culture today to be surface Christians it's easy to float at the top and not go deeper until the disturbance is deep enough to take you deeper than you would normally go it is my contention that the Bible only has one message it talks about it a myriad of different ways it speaks about it in Doctrine and in narratives in biographies of personalities in stories in epochs in the progress of Revelation but I contend there's only one message to scripture and that is the glory of God through the advancement of his kingdom God's greatest goal is his own glory in his greatest program is his kingdom and through all the dispensational epochs of time and the various administrations on economies it's all about his methodology doing those eras to advancing his name and his program to bring the template of Eternity and make it an outlay on top of History that that is his goal and in each series of times in the various ways and the personalities through which he's going to do it is to reveal his kingdom and so we should not be surprised that verse 28 says therefore since we've received a kingdom that cannot be shaken here's our word shaken again God shakes what can be shaken to reveal something that cannot be shaken God disturbs the physical which you can't Bank on or depend on because it can be shaken when you're in an airplane and if there's an earthquake you're not Disturbed up there because you're not attached when God sees us getting too attached to the culture to attach to the order of things as they are in the physical he allows or creates a disturbance to reveal something that cannot be shaken I think of Rahab when Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho and the spies come and she lets them in and sends them out another way they say to her look because you've done this you gather your family into your home and when we shut Jericho down you and your family will be safe all the walls around you are going to crumble but there was one piece of the wall that will remain standing because we're told rahab's house was embedded in the wall so when all of the wall of Jericho fell one house stood one house did not Shake with the culture around her shook the culture around us today is shaking and the answers being offered don't answer so there should be one place that is not shaking with the society that's not shaking with the environment because it is attached to another kingdom and another king it's part of an un shakable Kingdom I remember when my late wife and I were in New York and we were passing by Macy's and there was this crowd in front of Macy's and curious inquiry minds want to know why were all these people in front of this window in front of Macy's department store so we went to see what was happening at the window and at the window was a mannequin but it was a living mannequin you knew that because while the body never moved the eyes blinked and the blinking of the eyes let you know that this was not just a statue this was a living person functioning as a mannequin and so she stood there with no movement other than the blinking of the eye what was intriguing was all that the people were doing outside the glass to get her to move you had kids sticking out their tongue yet people waving they were doing everything they could to get it to move but apart from blinking she would not move she would not budge it wasn't because the distraction wasn't there the reason she didn't move was the people outside the glass weren't paying her Macy's were paying her and Macy was paying her to be a living statue for whatever they were trying to advertise that she was wearing in the window she didn't respond to those outside of the glass because her Allegiance was to those inside the glass so she didn't allow all the disturbances around her to affect her because she was in an unshakable situation because of another level of Allegiance what God is saying to his people is there's a lot of noise around us that are trying to knock us off kilter but God wants you to know he wants to in the midst of this chaos and confusion to reveal his unshakable kingdom a kingdom that is not disturbed by the circumstances around us but he knows in order for that to happen he has to take us deeper and he will only take us deeper in the context of the disturbances the trials the traumas that we don't prefer we don't like we don't want and sometimes we don't understand but to take us deeper into this rule of God 's Kingdom has enveloped our ministry both locally and nationally everything we do is tied to this word Kingdom we call it the Kingdom Agenda the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life the word kingdom basilia is that word that means jurisdiction it is a realm of authority it is the realm of Heaven's rule what God is seeking as we say in the Lord's Prayer a kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven this this rule this descending of Heaven into history and what the author of Hebrew says is there you will find your stability if you're tethered too tightly to the culture when you shake when it shakes you're going to be shook when it's moving you're going to be tore up from the flow up because you're too attached you become too secular to culturalized to racially identified to politically committed and so in all of this disturbance happens you're going to be disturbed but if you belong to another order when it gets out of order you're gonna be okay because you were never that attached to begin with what God is doing today is he's calling his church and those who are a part of it to a deeper level of commitment to the King and his kingdom to reveal himself at a whole nother level in a world in chaos God has allowed what is taking place that is bothering all of us as we see it on the news every day he wants us to understand that he's up to something at a whole nother level and he wants us like the fish to go deeper and how do we function when we see the disturbance and know that he is doing something in the shaking to reveal something that does not Shake he says I want you first of all to give thanks I want you to give thanks but how do you give thanks when your world has been shaken you're certainly not thinking for the pain but you're thinking for the purpose you're not giving thanks for the hurt you're giving thanks for how God is going to show up and show off in the midst of the things shaking around you because you know he's he's kingdomizing the moment he's getting ready to reveal something that you will only see the Red Sea open in the crisis of pharaoh coming at you that you'll only see in the Isaac sacrifice or the loss of Lazarus that you'll only see in this midst so you're giving thanks not for the pain the problem the chaos in the culture you're giving thanks that God is up to something to let you see the stability of Heaven in the instability of Earth when Jesus fed the five thousand men not counting women and children between perhaps 15 and 20 000 people with sardines and crackers when it turned it into a Moby Dick Sandwich the Bible says he looked at his insufficiency and gave thanks how are you going to give thanks for some fish and some barley loaves and you got all these people because there was a problem but he was looking at something else in the midst of it and he gave thanks for what heaven was going to do in the midst of insufficiency on Earth so when your World falls apart your Calamity that is out of your control overwhelms you it's time to give thanks not because you're feeling it but because you're looking at another king in another kingdom you're operating at another Realm you're looking at it through a different set of eyes a different world view if you will he says and then I want you to offer service with reverence and awe I want to give thanks and then I want you to get busy our Mantra at our church and what we send around the country is that we ought to build Kingdom disciples who function as Kingdom servants in order to make a kingdom impact now that our world is collapsing around us you're count your calling your purpose your gifting matters more now than ever because in the shaking of the culture they need to see the unshaking of the non-shaking of the Kingdom they need to see God's servants go public they need to see God's servants manifestability in an unstable world they need to see heaven in the midst of hell the culture has been set up to see something different we have been set up to see something and to reveal something different through our gratitude and through our service then he gives a reason he says for our God is a consuming fire because our God is a consuming fire he's shaking things to the Jews that is are being written to in the book of Hebrews he wants them to know that your God is a consuming fire for the Jewish mind who was thinking to go back to the old Covenant of Judaism that that was a clear statement because a consuming fire was what happened on the altar this is when an animal was put on the altar as a sacrifice and was consumed now that was bad news and good news at the same time bad news for the animal the animal is being killed the animals being sacrificed the animal is being consumed in other words there was Judgment of caring at the altar that's why the book of Hebrews speaks so often about God's judgment judgment was occurring at the altar but that was also good news because forgiveness was occurring at the altar restoration was occurring at the altar the consuming of the animal was the opportunity to experience the grace mercy forgiveness of God so the bad news of the altar of consuming was the good news for that year for the day of atonement for the Jewish believer than the Old Testament he takes that principle and he applies it to New Testament Saints you and me as well as the New Testament Jewish audience to whom he was writing he says our God is a consuming fire if you're going to remodel a house you're going to tear stuff up before you can put up something new stuff's going to get messy for a while in order to make room for whatever the new elements of the remodeling is going to be put God is in a remodeling mode so he's shaking tearing things up right now to bring his people and the church to a remodeled reality to the culture to a new use of media through covid through a new approach to worship without biblical compromise because our God is a consuming fire when Maya when Lois was here on Sunday she would check my shirt to see if it was wrinkled if the shirt I was going to wear was wrinkled she would pull out the ironing board plug in the iron and I earned the shirt when the iron hit the shirt you could see the smoke Rising because the iron is hot if the shirt could talk the shirt would say you hurt me because you got all this heat coming against me look at the consuming that's taking place because of the rising of the smoke but of course she was not trying to hurt the church shirt she was consuming some wrinkles she was getting wrinkles out of the shirt and there was a reason for that the reason she was ironing the shirt and getting the wrinkles out was because she knew I was going to wear it and she wanted me to look good in the shirt but for me to look good in the shirt she had to Place some heat on it in order to get rid of the wrinkles so that the wrinkles would not take away and become a distraction to the audience as I was preaching when God wants to get some wrinkles out when he wants to straighten some stuff up in our lives and in our church he brings the Heat he brings the consuming fire not because he's trying to be mean he just wants to look good when he wears us he wants to look good he wants his kingdom and his church to look good and so the challenge today for you and me as we watch the world implode around us unless it's Christ coming back totally out of our control is to use this moment to give thanks to serve in a whole nother level and to advance a king in his kingdom like never before because the opportunity and the confusion has opened a huge door his name was Thomas Anderson AKA Neo he's a computer programmer part-time computer hacker he gets whisked away to a computer-generated reality called The Matrix there he meets a man named Orpheus Morpheus looks at him and says Neo we've been waiting for you we've been waiting for you you see that world you were in that ain't the real world that's not real that's where you were but that's not where reality is it says reality is back here and he says we've been waiting for you because unless we address back here you'll never get it right out there and we've been waiting for you he says back him Neo in this world there are powers you never dreamed of back here in this world there is a love relationship named Trinity that you couldn't imagine back in this world there's a community of people in Zion who will support you back in this world is reality that world you came out of that ain't where it's at it's back here now you need to know Neo back in this world that's Mr Smith and Mr Smith is going to do everything he can to stop you because he knows if he stops you in this world things will never get straight in that world so Neo I'm gonna give you two choices I got a blue pill and I got a red pill you take this blue pill and you can go back to your plain ordinary life go back to computer programming computer hacking you'll wake up tomorrow and this will all look like a dream to you we'll forget it ever happened but Neo we got this red pill this red pill says that you wanna be part of this reality here because you understand this reality here will shape the reality there and you are in for the ride of your life so Neo you choose you want the blue pill and go back to your regular living or you want the red pill and go for the ride of a lifetime your choice Neo looks at it and he picks up the red pill and puts it in his mouth Morpheus says Neo Welcome to the Real World let's see how far this Rabbit Hole goes brothers and sisters two pills you take the blue pill just live an ordinary life do the best you can get along you can take the red pill that's a whole nother world your choice let's see how far this Rabbit Hole goes

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 246,085

Keywords: Dallas Theological Seminary, DTS, Jesus, Bible, Grace, Community

Id: NK0l-UTl2AE

Length: 40min 57sec (2457 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023