The Urban Alternative - Tony Evans

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The fundamental problem that individuals, families, churches, and cultons have
as they don't know who they're dealing with.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Doctor Tony Evans says, the real crisis is in our circumstances.
It's not recognizing God's power.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
That is our problem. We don't understand who God is.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless Biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Does it ever feel.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Like your prayers are going unanswered? Like they're just bouncing
off the ceiling? Today Doctor Evans reveals how the breakthrough
you're hoping for may depend on a change that needs
to happen inside of you. Let's join him as he
walks us through the principles of productive prayer, as illustrated
in the story told in Nehemiah chapter nine.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
They have accomplished the great feat because they have rebuilt
the walls. But anybody knows building a structure doesn't necessarily
solve all your problems. People always have dedications of buildings
and dedications of businesses and all the like. But unless
you fix the folk who will occupy them, you haven't

(01:10):
resolved your problem. And so nel Maiah, along with Ezra
in the second half of the book is trying to
do the second part that has to be done, and
that is getting the people ready for revival. But you
cannot have a revival until people take God seriously. Well,

(01:30):
here we have a revival in Jerusalem. The people are
being prepared for it. This is what we want to
look at. In chapter nine, the sons of Israel are
symbol with fasting in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.
You don't see a lot of folks wearing white suits
at funerals, you know, it's just not normative dress for
the occasion. Well, this is an occasion of sorrow, and

(01:52):
it's an occasion of pain because they had forgotten God
for so long that they had destroyed their culture because
of it, the pain, and then they do the ultimate thing.
They put dirt on their head. Now, why they're putting
dirt on their head? Why number one is dirty as
low as you can go. At number two, they were
dirty people for the first time in light of God.

(02:13):
They were assessing themselves. And the same is true of us.
A lot of us think we're cleaner than we are.
But these people are dead serious. And one of the
ways you know you're serious is if you give up food.
Fasting is where you say this thing is so important,
I can't eat certain things. Jesus said, only come by

(02:34):
fasting and bread. Verse two. Now, the descendants of Israel
separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their
sins and the iniquities of their fathers. There's a lot
in that verse. Let me summarized it. First of all,
they separated themselves. And one of the things that worship

(02:54):
is designed to do is give you a couple of
hours each week to be with the family of God
and be separated from the broader society, to be reminded
who you are. Because non Christians rip off our identity.
For some unknown reason, they're able to get us to
forget about God. Now, the second thing that they did

(03:16):
is they stood, and they confess their sins and iniquities
of their fathers. In other words, this stuff is all
up in our background. This stuff is soaked in up
and our family tree so deep that we are hooked
into this thing. And some of us have been hooked
into sinful actions and sinful attitudes because we were raised
that way. Now, you can't use that as an excuse

(03:38):
not to be different. But it does say that what
you call what your parents did is sin. Just because
mama did it don't make it right, Jess. Because Daddy
said it doesn't make it right. And he says, our
fathers have sinned. The racial problem we have in our
country is we have a generation sinning and their fathers

(03:59):
have sinned. That people were trained to bleed certain things
and act certain ways and reject certain groups that accept
certain groups. The issue is not my father raised me.
Your father sinned. That there's a greater divine standard that
governs the people of God. And so they came clean
with God. And they didn't get up talking about mistakes,

(04:19):
bad habits. They've talked about sin because that's the only
thing God forgives. Verse three says while they stood in
their place, they read from the book of the Law
of the Lord their God for a fourth of the day.
These people, for three hours, the text says, stood and

(04:40):
heard the word of God because they had to learn
more about who they were dealing with him. And then
it says for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the
Lord that God. So they read for three hours and
they worshiped for three hours. So we back to chapter eight,
a six hour day with God. See the fundamental problem
that individuals, families, churches, and cultures have as they don't

(05:03):
know who they're dealing with. Fundamentally, that is our problem.
We don't understand who God is. So the leaders got
up and then the end of verse four, it says
with a loud voice, they cried to the Lord. This
is the longest prayer recorded in the Bible. You could

(05:25):
spend weeks just meditating on this prayer. I want to
highlight something for you. Verse six. Thou alone art the Lord.
Verse seven Thou art the Lord God. Verse eight and
thou didst find his heart faithful? Verse nine Thou didst
see the afflictions of our father in Egypt. Verse ten
thou didst performed signs. Second half of verse ten thou

(05:47):
didst know that they acted arrogantly. Verse eleven Thou didst
divide the sea? Verse thirteen Thou didst come down from outsinni.
Verse fourteen thou didst make known to them? Verse fifteen
thou didst pro bread from heaven. Second half of verse
fifteen thou didst bring for the water from a rock.
Third part Thou didst tell them to enter in order

(06:08):
to possess. In other words, thou didst God. You're bigger,
You're a greater, You're more glorious than we could ever imagine.
The Levites said, God, we forgot who you are. And
then verse sixteen says, but they they our fathers, acted arrogantly.

(06:29):
In other words, the contrast in the prayer is between
the glory of God and the stupidity of man. The
contrast in the prayer is the greatness of God and
the ignorance of men. You know, they have appreciation banquets
for people, people have done great things. They have an
appreciation banquet. They bring together people and appreciate a man

(06:52):
for what he's contributed to the community. Well, if men
who give that little pittance to making a better world
deserves an appreciation banquet, God ought to get one every
time you wake up, every time you wake up in
the morning. It ought to be an appreciation ceremony, because
nobody can do what God does. But oh, we forget

(07:15):
who we're dealing with. Let's look at some of the
principles that come out of this passage. First of all,
verse six, Thou alone art God, you made heavens, heavens
with all their hosts, the earth and all that is
on it, the seas and all that is in there.
Thou dost give life to all of them, and the

(07:37):
heavenly hosts bowed down before thee. Now you want an
impressive resume. You know, I was at an introduction one
time and the gentleman Sibody said, ladies and gentlemen, I
presented you doctor Anthony T. Evans. I will not read
his resume. There are too many things on this resume,
and I would spend all of its teaching time giving

(08:01):
this resume. I really felt good, although I really would
have liked him to give it anyway, but I really
felt good. But that's chump stuff. This is a resume.
Who has created all the heavens and all the earth,
all the fish in the sea, and the animals, the birds,
the insects, Homo sapiens, who has created all the natural

(08:24):
resources that we enjoy. Now, who else has done that?
A lot of folk that got a longer resume than
I do. Nobody can't compete with God's resume. If you
named all the speec sees of all the animals and
all the fish that He's ever made, that's a resume
and that's our God. A young boy was going to

(08:48):
see his grandfather and he was traveling by train, and
he was sitting inside a guy who was a seminary professor.
And the young boy was reading a Sunday school lesson.
And the stranger was sitting next to you, young man,
you've been reading your Sunday school lesson. Let me ask
you a question. Trying to encourage the boy's spiritual interest,
he said, I'll give you a big shiny apple if

(09:10):
you can tell me something God can do. He said,
let me just find out how much this kid is
learning about God. If you simply tell me something God
can do, this apple, I will give you. The boy
thought for a moment and said, mister, if you can
tell me something God can't do, I'll give you a
whole barrel of apples. See that's the question. That's the question.

(09:35):
Don't name me one thing God can do. Name me
one thing God can't do. We can get finished quicker.
The Bible says, with God, there is nothing that is impossible,
and God does what he chooses. The Bible says, the
judge of the Earth does right, but he does whatsoever
he will see. Senters think they have in that day.

(09:58):
That's right, and they better enjoy it, because God's gonna
have his eternity. You can laugh for today, God's gonna
laugh for forever. For the Bible says, be not deceived. God
is not knocked. In other words, God always laughs last.
So sin for men laughing the faith of God, and

(10:20):
do all kinds of evil, forget God, and pay no
God attention. Five and listen, don't if you're a serious Christian,
don't get upset because sinners are getting fifty years and
sixty years and seventy years and ninety years and a
hundred years of messing over God and messing over God's people.
Don't get upset about that, because that's a down payment

(10:43):
compared to what they're gonna realize forever and ever and
ever and ever and ever, and when forever is over,
they will have just begun. See, God is not to
be trifeful with, and we keep messing with him.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
God's justice is real and his glory is unmatched. And
when doctor Evans returns with the second part of today's lesson,
he'll highlight God's greatness, starting with something as complex and
awe inspiring as the human body. Don't go away.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Ladies, don't miss your chance to join our virtual audience
for the Desperate for Jesus Conference July twenty fifth through
twenty six. Gather your friends, small group, or all the
women of your church for an empowering experience made just
for you. Through dynamic speakers and powerful worship, we will
equip you to leave a lasting legacy telling the next
generation of the Lord's praiseworthy deeds. Visit dfjconference dot com

(11:36):
to register for the live simulcast that's dfjconference dot com.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
The message you're hearing today, Principles of Productive Prayer, is
part of Tony's encouraging sermon compilation on the power of prayer.
In these seven insightful messages, he'll show you how to
pray prayers that don't just fill the air, but actually
bring about transformation, healing, and God's divine intervention in your life.

(12:03):
We'd love to send you the entire series so you
can review these truths for yourself or share them with
your family or a Bible study group. And as a bonus,
you'll also receive Tony's brand new devotional Anchored by Prayer.
In it, he offers practical health for praying with confidence
even when words are hard to find, and shows how

(12:23):
the Holy Spirit empowers and guides your prayers for greater impact.
To take advantage of this special, limited time offer, visit
us today at Tonyevans dot org or call us at
one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two. That's
online at Tonyevans dot org or by phone at one

(12:44):
eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. Well, right now,
let's get back to doctor Evans with more of today's message.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
You just take your body, for example, your human body.
How about the greatness of God you have? You know,
you have chromosomes in your body, and one human chromosome
is made up of twenty billion bites of information. To
make a long story short, twenty billion bytes of information

(13:14):
in one chromosome would be equal to what is stored
in the Downtown Library of Dallas. And you have that
one chromosome. God is awesome to steer the traits of
your mother and father so that they are revisualized in you,

(13:36):
and skin color, eye color, and various personality orientation and
hair color and all of that that he can steal
all those bites of information. Nobody can do that, and
so he establishes God's greatness in creation. But then he
moves on to verse seven and he rehearses Jewish history

(14:00):
with Abraham. He says that you chose Abraham, you brought
him out of the area to Caldis, gave him the
name Abraham, and then thou's just find his heart faithful
and make a covenant with him. Now here's the point
I want to bring out here. God found his heart
faithful and then made a covenant. Let me correct some
errant thinking. Obedience comes before blessing. Blessing does not come

(14:22):
before obedience. Then Verse ten israelis in Egypt. The Levites
are praying, Thou didst performed great signs and wonders against
all his servants and all the people of his land,
that is Pharaoh. And thou didst know that they acted

(14:43):
arrogantly toward them, And didst make a name for thyself
in that day? And thou didst divide the sea before them,
talk about the Red Sea. Arrogant was arrogant, all right,
he was arrogant. And that's why you know of the
ten deadly sins, the ten sins God hates worse. Pride
is at the top of the list. He hates a

(15:04):
prideful look. Men and women who hold their fist in
the face of God. Some even in the Church, who
are arrogant, who live their lives independently of God, who
basically say, with their mause or with their lives, God,
I don't need you. That is untell. A catastrophe hits.
That's usually how long that last. You see, when you

(15:28):
have God on your side, circumstances never have the last word.
People never have the last word. When you make God
your God, your supervisors never have the last word. Only
God has the last word. If you're real sick today,

(15:48):
the doctor doesn't get the last word. God has the
last word. And that's why the New Testament says, don't
fear men. Don't fear men, because the Bible says you're
feeling the wrong person. But there was also guidance verse twelve.
And you gave us a pillar of cloud that would

(16:08):
lead them by day, and a pillar of fire to
life for them the way in which they are to go.
God had a guide for Israel. When they went through
the wilderness. They didn't know where they were going or
how they were gonna get there. And you know, we
have a lot of confused people today, and the only
way you're gonna make it through this maids called life
is by being guided. There's only one problem. You don't

(16:28):
know tomorrow. All you can do is guess about tomorrow.
That's why the Bible says, if you have plans tomorrow,
don't go talking about I'm gonna do this and I'm
gonna do that. James Ford says, no, what you ought
to say is if it's the Lord's will, I'm gonna
do this and I'm gonna do that. You don't know
a bit more about tomorrow. You know nothing about tomorrow.

(16:49):
All you know about tomorrow is what you hope to do,
and guess what you will only do tomorrow what you
hope to do tomorrow. If God gives you tomorrow, God
demands the credit, He demands the glory for He says,
there's none liking under me. So there was guidance. Israel

(17:11):
had forgotten that God had provided for them. That's why
the Lord condemns worrying, because worrying means you had forgotten God.
He say, it's natural to worry, Yeah, if you're not
thinking about God. What it ought to be natural is
to remember God. And that's what that doing that? Remembering God?

(17:31):
Some of you are here saying, oh Lord, I don't
have no money. But this ain't the first time you
ain't had no money. Think back some years ago. You
didn't have any money when you were living in that
apartment and you read out of money. You here today,
aren't you? That means he continued doing something. He fed

(17:54):
you enough to make it till the day. But what
happened is we forget that we used to be broke.
See I don't have no j You've been jobless before,
but somehow God brought you through. Just say, but oh
I got a pinion. You've been sick before. God healed
you before, but you forgot that. I forget that. What

(18:19):
he's condeming is that we don't take God seriously, and
we forget what He's done yesterday and start worrying about today.
What do the people do? Did they appreciate it? Verse sixteen?
But they our fathers acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and
would not listen to thy commandments. They refused to listen

(18:43):
and did not remember thy wondrous deeds which thou hast
done among them. So they became stubborn. Appointed a leader
to return them to their slavery in Egypt. They were
going backwards. I wonder how many people in this room
going backwards. You're supposed to be on your canan, and
you backtracking the Egypt, going backwards. When you, you and

(19:07):
your wife used to live in an apartment, you'all were
in love. Now you're in a house trying to find
out how you're gonna divide it. Back in that apartment,
you had one car, sharing that one car, picking each
other up. Now you're in a two and three car garage,

(19:27):
each one in each of your own names, so you
don't have to share. Talking about my car, you can't
take my car. In other words, you're going backwards. You're
going back to Egypt. Instead of going on to make progress,
you're on your way backwards. And what he's condemning here

(19:54):
is the kind of thing that's when you get stubborn
and when you say I'm gonna have my own way.
God says, you're on your way back to Egypt. And
we've seen this in individual lives, people going back with
God delivering you from habits, you're going back to those
habits family lives. God is trying to make you a
family you're going back to being single again. You on
your knees praying, Oh Lord, I gotta get married. Please

(20:16):
Jesus give me a mate. Lord, I gotta have a man.
I gotta have a woman. Jese Us, Jesus. Oh you
know what I'm talking about. Yeah, Lord, Yeah, Lord, I
gotta get married. Finally you got married. Come from marrit
Or counseling. Tell about I'm in love. You know, Temba,
You're just real excited and all pumped up and all excited,

(20:37):
and now you want to go back to being single
again because you're ben gone back to Egypt. You stop.
You either one or both of you have started being
stubborn and independent of God, and you're paying the price
tag for it. The church can be stubborn, refuse to
listen to God and have confusion that abounds because they

(20:58):
want to run the church like the local executive is
running a corporation, rather than listening to Gods. God is
not requested that pastors read the one minute manager. I
mean God is already guidelined how the church is to
be run. And then society going backwards. Were going backwards,
I mean we going back to stuff that was happening

(21:19):
in the sixties and stuff that was happening before the end,
and we gone backwards because when you dismiss God, you
had confusion to your whole environment. But I got good news,
even the myths the bad news. Verse nineteen says you
are great with compassion, for you did not forsake them

(21:40):
in the wilderness. And the pillar of cloud did not
leave them by day to guide them on their way north,
did the pillar of fire by night to life of
them the way in which they should go. And you
did give them food and a spirit to instruct them.
And manavow this not withhold from their mouth. And you
just give them water for their thirst. Indeed, verse twenty
one forty years you provided for them in the wilderness,

(22:02):
and they were not in want. Their clothes did not
wear out, nor did their feets. Well, now you know
the good news here. I got some good news for you, folks.
They're in the wilderness because they disobeyed. Some of you
here are in a wilderness. You should be married, but
you're single because you got a divorce because one of
both of you weren't right. Some of you are in

(22:25):
a moral wilderness. Some of you in an attitude in
a wilderness. You're just wondering. That's what a wilderness is.
It's a wondering place. You're just going around in circles
because you sinned. Well, I got good news for you.
God's grace is greater than your sin. If you get
right with God, he'll even take care of you in
a wilderness, even though you shouldn't be in the wilderness.

(22:48):
You ought to been in Canaan a long time ago.
If you get right with God, he'll take care of
you even while you're in the wilderness. The beautiful thing
is why you're wondering, he'll take care of you, why
you're trying to find your way. He'll guide you until
such time it's time to come out of the wilderness.
So if you're in the wildness, don't say. Well, if
I hadn't said, I wouldn't be in the wilderness. So
I guess now I'm in the Wildernessess I'm not gonna

(23:09):
do a boy being in the wilderness. No, what you
gotta say now is I mailed the wilderness of God.
Give me grace, forgive me of my sins. God's grace
is like a calculator. He can cancel real quick. When
you come to God and you come to God in
his terms, He'll push the clear button. You're back to zero.
He can cancel out the mistaken addition, subtraction and multiplication
of your life, and he can turn it back to

(23:30):
a clear button and start doing a renumbering all over again.
He can do that for you in the wilderness and
the wilderness of whatever your despair happens to be.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Doctor Tony Evans reminding us that God is in the
business of offering fresh starts and a message entitled The
Principles of Productive Prayer. Now before we go, don't forget
that Tony's current series The Power of Prayer and his
brand new devotional book Anchored by Prayer. It can be
yours as our thank you gift. Learn how to pray

(24:03):
boldly and effectively and deepen your walk with God. Visit
Tonyevans dot org or call our resource team at one
eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two to make
your donation and request your copies. Again, that's Tonyevans dot
org or call one eight hundred eight hundred three two

(24:23):
two two. Relationship experts tell us that we ought to
do more listening than talking, and coming up tomorrow, Doctor
Evans will explain why that idea is even more.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
True of our prayer life.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
I hope you'll join us