Skip to content God is Shaking Things Up! Oct 14 · 38 min ...more
October 14, 2022 · 38 min · Culture Wars
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
665K followers
0:02 It was in January of 20 20 that my granddaughter, Kelsey,0:14 the oldest child of my youngest son, Jonathan Evans, was sitting at the table refusing to eat. She was refusing to0:25 eat meal after meal after meal. Of course, her parents were concerned that she was refusing to take in food.0:39 Sitting there with a somber look on her face and a discouragement around her posture. She was0:51 continually being pressed by her parents. Kelsey, what's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong. Finally, after being pressed1:03 a multiplicity of times, she simply raised the question that explained everything to her mother and her father. She said, what's1:15 happening to our family? What's happening to our family? We had come through quite a year. In 201:27 19, I'd lost my sister. Just previous to that, I'd lost my brother.1:39 6 months from then, my sister's husband died. A few months from then, November 201:51 fifth, my father died. December thirtieth, my wife died. In2:03 January of that year, my daughter Priscilla had to have half of her left lung removed for cancer. And it was 12:14 thing after another that had shaken our world. A world that up until that point had the normal2:27 struggles of life, but this time it was different. As 1 thing on top of another thing on top of another thing stacked itself.2:41 Right after that, COVID set in, and my ministry world was turned upside down as was yours.2:54 Then in March of that year, I contracted pneumonia. And great concern in the COVID season about3:05 its potential effects on my life. I then contracted COVID, and that was 13:17 thing after another. As you look at your world, the world in which you live and3:29 work and minister, Your testimony may not be the same as mine, but I am sure we would be in concomitant agreement that3:42 things have been shaken. When I was a boy growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, I would often3:54 spend the weekends at my grandmother's home. And I would be watching on Saturday morning my favorite cartoons, among4:06 which would be Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, and I would be enjoying the Saturday morning cartoons. But if it happened to thunderstorm4:19 and if there was lightning, my grandmother would inevitably say, Tony, turn the television off. I'd say,4:31 but grandmother, I'm watching the cartoons. Tony, turn the television off. But why, grandmother? Why should I turn the television off?4:43 And her inevitable retort would be because God is talking. Her interpretation was that there was a divine4:55 disruption into the ordinary affairs of life, then cartoons. Later as an adult, it would be my whole world collapsing.5:08 The normal process of life had been turned topsy-turvy. The scripture makes it5:19 clear that when that happens, when my world and your world is turned upside down and inside out, we are not to5:31 dismiss it as mere events of the day. When the natural order of things5:43 are disrupted in a significant way, scripture would have us to know what grandmother said. God is5:55 talking. Now this is not a philosophical or psychological analysis. This is a6:06 theological truth because the author of Hebrews, the author who wrote the book, whose theme is very simply never give6:18 up, to people who are facing all kinds of cataclysmic realities in their lives and in their circumstances, chapter after chapter after6:30 chapter, his retort is the same, never give up. He comes to chapter 12, and he says in verse 25,6:42 see to it that none of you refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who6:54 warned them on earth, much less we will escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth.7:07 Then but now he has promised saying, yet once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.7:19 This expression, yet once more, denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken. Of the created things7:32 so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. The author of Hebrews says, when God has a fresh7:44 message to give, a new challenge to throw out, a reorientation to inaugurate, he shakes things up.7:58 When God wants things done differently, when God does not want the norm to continue, when God has to uproot the ordinary8:10 and call us to the extraordinary, He shakes things up. When God has decided that we become too8:22 cavalier, when God has decided we become too at ease, When God has decided that we have become too comfortable. When God has8:33 decided that we're not on point with his purpose. He shakes things up. And you can always8:45 know when God is talking because he disrupts the ordinary things by crafting a crisis. Let me say that again.8:58 In your life, my life, your family, my family, your ministry, my ministry, if you wanna know9:10 where God wants to do something different, he does not want the same old same old anymore, he will create a9:21 contradictory crisis. When he wanted to move Moses from the ordinary to the9:33 extraordinary, he created a crisis that captured his imagination and tension because there was a bush that would not burn. That's a contradiction.9:45 A bush that does not burn. Why? Because there was a new mission that Moses was to be on. When he wanted Israel to make their movement to the promised land, he created a crisis9:57 that included a contradiction. Pharaoh coming 1 way, the Red Sea right in front of them. Either way they go, it means death. It's a no win situation because10:09 he was up to something that would be different. When he wanted to make Peter a fisher of men, he asked him to contradict what he knew about fishing. In the10:21 place that he knew to fish, the time he knew to fish, he flipped the script, and Peter knew it was a contradiction because he asked Jesus, why are you asking me to10:33 do this that way when I am the professional and I know how it works? Because he wanted to take a fisherman and make him a fisher of men. When he wanted10:45 to show that he was the son of the living God, he took 2 sisters and created a contradiction. He told10:56 Martha and Mary, your brother's not gonna die. Then he dies. They say, but if you would have been here, he says, but didn't I tell you? How can he say he's not gonna11:08 die? Then he's dead. But then if he's dead, he's not dead, and it becomes a confusing situation until the stone is rolled away because he wanted to show something different.11:23 I would like to suggest that the shaking that you are watching on whatever your news channel preference happens to be is an on purpose11:34 calamity, A crisis that has originated in heaven to disturb things on earth because God is11:46 looking for something different. There are 2 choices. 1, in our belief in the imminent return of Christ, he is shaking things so11:58 that we are prepared for his quick return. And with that, there is no option because that is related to the prophetic conclusion of history,12:10 or he is dismantling things in a way that they cannot be fixed through ordinary means to12:21 reassert the role, responsibility, and functioning of his people because he has become sick and tired of our ordinary12:33 way of operating. And so he decided to allow a crisis of health to get it started.12:45 COVID 19 would not only disrupt the world, it would disrupt the church. The walls would no longer be the comfortable place for12:57 comfortable Christianity. He would then take the death of a man in Minnesota and allow a racial13:09 upheaval to continue to bubble up, pitting people against people, cultures against cultures, colors13:20 against colors, communities against communities. He would take a political divide between Democrats and13:31 Republicans, between black Christians and white Christians, and allow it to erupt into a divisive reality in the13:43 church. And not only would he allow all of these things, he would stack them. He would take health, stack it13:55 with race, stack it with politics, stack it with police and community conflict, and he would stack it. So there would be no question,14:07 things are shaking. They are being disturbed. I love the passage in second Chronicles chapter14:18 15 verses 3 to 6. It says it says that there was no peace in those days. It says they were at peace when14:30 they left home, and when they came back home, there was conflict. Personal conflict, family conflict. He goes on and says there was conflict city against city14:42 urban conflict. He goes on and says, there was conflict nation against nation, international conflict. And then we get the zinger in14:54 verse 6 because it says, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. I would have thought it would have said with all of this havoc that the devil troubled them15:06 with every kind of distress. But it says, God troubled them with every kind of distress because God was shaking things up to get things back in15:18 order again. I would like to suggest to you, they were told in their distress, verse 3 says of second Chronicles15:30 15, when stuff got bad enough, when stuff was so chaotic, it says in their distress,15:42 they came back to the Lord, and he let them find him and brought them rest. Perhaps some of you have heard me tell the story of when I15:53 met my wife at 18. I met her at 18, this beautiful young lady. But there was a problem. She was not responding at the rate to which I was accustomed.16:08 Lois was moving kinda slow, so I had to I had to help her sister out. I took her to an amusement park in Baltimore, Maryland called Gwen Oaks Amusement Park. And at Gwen16:20 Oaks Amusement Park, they had a roller coaster for 2 called the wild Mouse. The Wild Mouse would do all the stuff that roller coasters would do, but then it would go to the edge like it was gonna jump the track, and then16:31 it would turn real quick, real scary. I said, give me 2 tickets. We got on the wild mouse. The wilder the16:43 ride got, the closer she got. By the time the ride was over, you thought only 1 person got on it. Now why did I buy16:55 2 tickets to the wild mouse? Because I had a plan for her, and it was a good plan. It involved a future and a hope. But what I had to do was17:07 I had to create some distress first to get her undivided attention. The author of Hebrews says that when God is ready to do17:18 something new, he creates a disturbance. And the reason he creates the disturbance, he says, is to shake17:30 created things, earthbound things, physical things in order to reveal that which cannot be shaken.17:42 In other words, God shakes our physical human reality to get us spiritually back on point. I17:54 would like to suggest today that evangelicalism is off point. I would suggest you today that evangelicalism has lost its way.18:08 That I could come and preach a cute sermon for cute Christians and hopefully get a cute response. But when your world is falling apart, it's not time to be18:20 cute. It's time to be clear. We are being written off. We are being dismissed. We're being marginalized, critiqued, and criticized.18:31 The very word has fallen into disrepute, not because we don't believe the Bible, but because the presence that we ought to be having18:43 because of the Bible has not been manifested in the culture as the creator designed it to be. We have become18:56 the outcast, but not because we're being persecuted only for our faith, but we're being persecuted for our foolishness. This19:10 problem of race should never have been allowed to seed itself in the church of Jesus Christ generation after generation after19:22 generation. When Paul dealt with the issue of race, in my favorite passage, Galatians19:34 2 20, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. It's Christ who lives in me. The life which I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Everybody loves that19:43 verse, but we don't often tell the story that led to him giving the verse in the first place, which was the racism of Peter. Peter had found out that it was okay19:55 to eat pork chops with the Gentiles. But when his Jewish brethren showed up, he removed himself from fellowship with the Gentiles.20:07 And when Paul saw that he removed himself, Paul confronted him. But he didn't confront him with sociology. He didn't feel the need for critical race20:19 theory. He didn't feel the need for a seminar entitled, can we all get along? What he said was,20:30 Peter, you have embarrassed the truth of the gospel. Wait a minute. Peter, you have embarrassed the truth of the gospel. Don't you20:42 know that I've been crucified with Christ? That's where that verse comes in. Paul is talking to Peter to correct him on his racial disparity. He20:54 would he didn't wait for a year or 2 years or 20 years. He corrected him on the spot because a miss in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. And Peter, we gotta get you straight21:06 today. This this position you have taken is intolerable. And what's interesting is he calls it in that passage, the gospel.21:18 Now I hear people say, well, we need to stick with the gospel. I believe in the gospel, the the the death and burial and21:29 resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and that faith alone and Christ alone gives eternal life to all who come to him for it. I believe in the gospel. The21:41 problem is Peter is already saved. Peter is not a sinner, yet he says, you have embarrassed the gospel. That is because far too many evangelicals have not understood21:53 that the gospel has a narrow content, but it has a broad scope. And race is a gospel issue. The unity of the church is a gospel issue, and it's22:05 a gospel issue saints need to know about. We cannot dismiss it by calling on the content of the gospel that gets us to heaven while we skip of the scope of the gospel,22:17 which ought to change how we relate to 1 another on earth. So to help the church out, God has shaken up the culture and says, since the church can't get it22:28 together, since the church is using illegitimate diagnostic methodologies for determining our relationship, our fellowship, and our unity,22:40 then I'm gonna so mess it up in the culture that you can no longer skip discussing the issue. And while we are debating about critical race theory and non critical22:52 race theory, those of us who are biblical centric ought to understand there should be a kingdom race theology. There ought to be a theology that trumps all of that23:06 because we are kingdom people first. And so what you have to understand is that God has shaken this up. He's shaken up your communities. I will go out on23:18 a limb here and suggest that you who are radio station owners should not only be doing good broadcasting, which is what you should do in song and in word.23:30 But it is my contention because you are a neutral party in every community in this nation. You should be the unifying element in every community to bring churches together23:42 who would not otherwise fellowship with 1 another to become the harbor for the kingdom of God and its representation in that community. That you must view23:54 your enterprise not only as a vehicle of communication, but as a vehicle of kingdom unity. This is why we at The Urban Alternative are24:06 promoting a 3 point plan to call together the the biblically minded, kingdom minded churches, an annual solemn assembly. Then they would speak with 1 voice24:18 to the community that they're in. Then they would do good works together, adopting every public school, adopting the local police precinct, every church adopting a homeless family, and bringing them to maturity24:30 so the community can see that the kingdom of God has arrived, that the people of God have arrived. God has shaken things up.24:43 Whenever God created a shaking in scripture, it would always to be to attack idolatry. Idolatry is any noun, person, place, thing, thought that you look24:55 to as your source, your governing body, your governance, the thing that you are looking to. Idolatry is the number 1 sin in the Bible from which all sins25:06 emanate because it is a rejection of the true God in favor of something or someone else. And so idolatry would be attacked. The Bible says25:18 when that happens, Romans 1, God abandons, and that allows chaos to enter into the environment. What we have developed in America and even in American25:29 Christianity are American idols. Idols of popularity, idols of materialism, idols of racism. The white church25:42 has become too Republican. I knew it would get quiet, but let me try it again. The white church has become too Republican.25:54 You have wrapped too many, have wrapped our faith in the American flag. And when you go for a nationalistic faith, you have26:06 contaminated the gospel. Not because you're Republican, but because you've now made the nation subject to the wrong kingdom instead26:17 of the nation having to adjust to our king and his kingdom. Many of these problems that we're facing today would26:29 never have been the way they are if the white church had not taken the stand to be quiet when Jim Crow was happening, when when criminal leasing26:40 was happening. But the black church has become idolatrous too. So you black people don't get too comfortable. Because what we have done is we have26:52 wrapped blackness in cultural identity. So we have often been more black than biblical. We have decided that our27:04 color can trump Christ. And so we will endorse a political party who will endorse evil, say nothing about the evil of abortion, the27:16 evil of homosexuality, the evil of misuse of government because of a race issue. God doesn't27:28 ride the backs of donkeys or elephants. He sits as king of kings. He sits as lord of lords.27:40 So we live in a day when God is shaking things up. He's calling to have a new program and a new platform. If you wanna27:52 reach this generation, if Christ be not come, he's saying you can't go to the old way. You can't do things like you used to do it. You can't be a good old boys club.28:05 You're gonna have to say that to reach this generation, we must take our stand. So I suggest that we need to go beyond evangelical. That's why I love verse28:17 28. He says in Hebrews 12 verse 28, therefore, since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, a kingdom that is not28:28 limited to the stuff happening in time and space and on earth. Since we've received the kingdom that trumps politics, trumps class, trumps28:40 culture, let us show gratitude. Let's act like we're thankful people so that we may offer an acceptable28:52 service and a reverence to God. I suggest that we need to go beyond evangelical without excluding evangelical.29:04 What we need are some kingdomologists. We need some men and women who understand there's only 1 theme in the Bible. The when you look at my study bible and the bible commentary at the bottom of29:16 it, it'll say it'll say these words, advancing God's kingdom. The there's only 1 theme in the bible. The glory of God through the advancement of his kingdom. That's the only thing29:28 the bible talks about. You leave that subject and the Bible becomes doctrines and theologies and theories and stories and narratives and parables without a linking thing.29:40 It is all about the kingdom. And the kingdom is the rule of God. It is the rule of God for which we ought to be subordinate. He says, since we29:52 serve a kingdom, since we sit under divine rule, let's act like it. Said, let's act like God can trump30:03 you. God can trump me. There are 2 answers to every question. God's answer and everybody else's, and everybody else is wrong.30:15 God has spoken and he has not stuttered. I know that you believe the Bible is the word of God, but he's far too often treated like the queen of30:27 England. The queen of England gets a lot of respect, but she just doesn't have any authority. They'll lower the flag or drop the flag based on whether she's there or30:39 not. They'll pull over when her caravan comes through. She gets a lot of cred, but she can't make nothing happen. We got too much Bible, too30:51 many Bible believing churches, Bible believing Christians, Bible believing books, Bible believing programs that give God a lot of respect, we're just not31:03 getting nothing done. We're not demonstrating a king who's ruling a kingdom. Because if we were, they couldn't skip us. They couldn't ignore us.31:15 Somebody help me. How can 1 how can 1 percent of the population control a whole and the believers in Jesus Christ can control31:27 hardly anybody. Because we're too evangelical and not kingdom enough. He builds an unshakable kingdom.31:39 If you came to me and your life was messed up, I would take the Bible, and I would show you what God says about that part of your life that's messed up.31:52 I would call you to repent. I would then give you practical steps for implementing the truth that we learn in the word, and then I would pray that the Holy Spirit would empower your obedience for32:04 transformation. If you brought your family to me and said, my family is messed up. We want a divorce. I would take the same Bible that I dealt with you personally. I would show you what32:16 God says about what it means to be a kingdom husband, a kingdom wife, kingdom parents, kingdom children. I would then call you to repentance for where you have disobeyed that. Then I would give you practical steps for32:27 implementing what the Bible said on that subject. And then I would invite the Holy Spirit to empower your obedience to the scriptures for the transformation of your home. If32:39 you brought your church to me and says, our church is falling apart. I take the same Bible that I used with the individual and the family. I'd talk about what a kingdom church32:50 looks like. I would give you practical steps after you repented to apply that biblical or those biblical principles. I would ask the Holy Spirit to empower your obedience to change the trajectory of the church.33:02 But what would you do if the president and the congress came to you? Too many of us have changed books. We didn't go on other books. Even though God33:14 says, I created government. You don't get to change books. You don't get to change books in the White House. You don't get to change books in the House of Congress. Not if God is the God of government. He raises33:25 presidents, takes down presidents, he brings up countries, takes down nations. You better bring this book to the White House and the House of Congress too.33:38 This is not a day for spiritual chumps. This is not a day for regular Christianity. We need some super unleaded up in here. This is a day33:50 for men and women who understand that God is shaking things up because God wants us to do things differently, and he'll keep it toe up from the flow up until we do things differently34:02 because he's doing it to reveal his unshakable kingdom. And then he closes. He closes with these words in verse 29.34:15 For our God is a consuming fire. He says the reason why you better not play with this thing, Christ be not come, is because our God34:26 is a consuming fire. Now that's bad news, and that's good news. As the author of Hebrews regularly does through the book,34:39 he reaches back into the Old Testament to teach New Testament truth. A consuming fire was the altar on which sacrifices were placed. Now that34:51 was bad news for the lamb or the goat or the bull because when they were placed on the altar, they died. They were consumed35:02 by the fire. But it was good news for the folk because when the animal was consumed and the sacrifice was made,35:15 grace, mercy, forgiveness, and restoration could then be offered. So it was bad news for the animal, but good news for the nation.35:27 Our God is a consuming fire. He's burning things up so he can be nice again. He's burning things up so35:39 he can restore again. If you really care about America and the trajectory we're on, you can't do business as usual. Can't do the ordinary.35:51 You can't do the regular because he's trying to burn something up up in here. He's trying to consume something so he can bring something new to the equation.36:03 When I was going to church and my shirt was wrinkled, sister Evans would look at it, and she would put an iron on it. She put an iron on it to set it on fire.36:15 She wasn't trying to be mean. She was trying to get out a wrinkle. But the reason she wanted to get out a wrinkle was because I was gonna wear the shirt. And sister Evans wanted me to look good36:27 in the shirt. So she would put fire on the shirt so I could look good in the shirt. God is putting fire on the church so he can look36:38 good in the church. He doesn't just want us having church, He wants to be well suited in church. As we close in television36:50 and in movies, they have previews of coming attractions. These are the hot clips of the upcoming show. Fight scene, love scene, chase scene. Always those 337:02 scenes to get you to tune in to the whole movie. Now it may be a terrible movie, but you'd never know it by the clips because the clips are always hot. Well, my brothers and sisters, 137:14 day there's a big show coming to town. God is the producer. The Holy Spirit is the director. Jesus is the superstar, and it will be a worldwide production.37:26 It's called the kingdom of God. But until then, he's left you, you, you, you, you, you, you, me here as previews of coming attractions. We're37:38 supposed to be the hot clips of the upcoming show. So that when people see the unity of the church, the power of the church, the dignity of the church, the commitment of the church, when37:50 they see the hot clips of the upcoming show, then they'll ask the question, where can I buy a ticket? Because after we can tell them, you don't have to buy a ticket,38:01 the price has already been paid.
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