Dr. Tony Evans | Getting The Word To Work

We are delighted to be here and to have another opportunity to be in this great church with the great Pastor. You know, he made a little introduction. You really need to know what really happened. What really happened. I was here in 21. It was received so well, it was so nice, they fed me a good dinner, they gave me a great opportunity to be a minister, so I wanted to come back, so I called him and said, look, when can I come back? ? and he said, well, you have to understand us. I had you here as a test and then you did good, you did good, you did good, but Evans, you have to know that they're used to listening to me, so you know that even if you're fine, it's not exactly what we're looking for, so I was a little angry evangelically, uh, with him telling me that I said, please, Pastor L, let me come back, he said, send me a CD, let me hear how you're doing with your homiletic skills, so you know, I practice a little. kinda I sent him a CD he listened to it and he said definitely you're

getting

better you're

getting

better you're moving in the right direction but you have to understand this is this is a different type of church and you're just not ready yet I said pastor can I have one more chance?

He said: send me one more CD, so I send you one more CD. I said, you know, let me know, let me know if I'm good enough to come back. he said: I listen to L to You CD. You're definitely

work

ing hard, but I don't think you're ready. I said I'll come for free. He said that now you are ready, so I am delighted for this opportunity to be here no, I am just joking. I'm grateful to be here when my daughter Priscilla found out she was coming here, she was excited and we love it, we love your pastor and the great

work

you're doing here and the series you're starting and I encourage you to make the most of the related with listening to God a few years ago in my house I had a problem I had a problem there was a crack in my bedroom wall there was a crack in my bedroom wall I needed to repair it I called a painter to solve my problem he came and removed the old plaster he put new plaster painted over it I was satisfied I paid him everything looked good he went home a month later however the crack reappeared reappeared so I'm a little angry I had already paid him I called him again I said look my problem has come back again looked at it stared at it and then redid it removed the old plaster which was now new the plaster put on, the plaster even newer, the paint, everything seemed to be fine, but about 45 days later, the cracks reappeared this time with his nephews niece, uncles and cousins.

I had a whole family of cracks that had made themselves at home on my bedroom wall. I thought I needed. for a new pain to arise, so I called another one who recovered and said: can you rectify? can you solve my problem? He looked at the cracks in my wall and uh he kept looking at them and looking at them and looking at them and looking out. He said you can fix this he said no I can't I can't help you I said well wait a minute isn't this what you do he said yes this is what I do but I can't? help you I said why not he said because you don't have problems with cracks in your wall so I looked at the cracks in my wall that I had no problems with and then I looked at the crack in front of me that was telling me I had no problems with cracks on my wall I said now wait a minute I see a crack you see a crack All God's children see a crack oh he said there is a crack in your wall I'm just saying it's not like that your problem he says your problem is that you have a shifting foundation, the foundation under your house is shifting, so what you're seeing on your wall are symptoms of a much deeper problem, he says, if you don't solidify the foundation, you'll never be again.

Patchworking the cracks in your wall and everywhere you look today there are cracks in our lives, in our circumstances, in our worlds and a lot of effort is being put in to fix things and maybe for a temporary period things may seem better. but at the basic level if things are not stabilized there then you live a life of manual labor instead of seeing things rectified and that is why the voice of God is so important because we do not serve a Mosaic God, we serve a God who wants to relate to us at the source level so that when the cracks appear, and they do, we don't waste our time on a symptom while abandoning a cause.

Jesus told a story at the end of the greatest sermon ever preached, of course by the greatest preacher who ever pontificated, and he concludes his Sermon on the Mount at the end of Matthew chapter 7. It's a story of two men who were listening the voice of God, tells us in Matthew 7 verse 24, therefore, everyone who hears these

word

s. My acts upon them can be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the Rock, all the Whoever hears these

word

s of mine and does not put them into practice will be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand, the rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was its In this brief story we have a comparison, a contrast and a conclusion, and it is by understanding this comparison, contrast and conclusion, that you can determine what man you are in relation to hearing the voice of God, first of all, let's compare these two people who had. the same dream they both wanted to build a house both men wanted to build a house now in the Bible a house can refer to several things like In this passage a house can refer to your life we ​​all want to build a life a life that matters A life that is meaningful a life that has impact a life that you are proud of a life that you are satisfied with a life that is going somewhere we want to build a life or in the Bible build a house can refer to building a family families are called house in The Bible tells us about the House of David and the other family structures we talk about today when we talk about our own homes no one walks down the aisle pre-planning a divorce if Seriously, no one wants to live in constant conflict with them or their parents. decendents.

No, we want to build homes that are stable, strong and vibrant because we want to build a house. Both men wanted to build a house or build a house. refer to building a life it can refer to building a family or it can refer to building a church after all the church is called the house of faith the temple was called the house of God no pastor wants to see his uh The decline of the church wants see people who did not change, did not get lost, were not saved, were saved, people were not discipled, they want to see growth, development and expansion just as you have experienced here, why, because it is a milestone that you are trying to build a house or building a house can refer to building a life. build a family build a church or build a society they tell us about the house of Israel that is the entire nation we know about the White House the house of Congress we want to build a house in a scared and defrayed society that we do not want to see political conflicts , social, economic and racial, we want to see a unified nation, we want to build a house, so both men wanted to build a house.

The other comparison is that they were both listening to the same sermon. Jesus said that both men heard these words of mine, so they were hearing the voice of the Living Word proclaiming the written word, there is nothing better than this, that means it was perfect orthodoxy, the word of God was coming out in perfection already that Jesus could not make mistakes, they were listening to the voice. they were listening to what was being said they were in the same church at the same time listening to the same speaker about the same truth because they were both listening to the word they were listening to what they were being taught imperfection so both men wanted to build a house for them they had the same dream both men were hearing the same truth but both men were facing the same storm because it says a storm came and the storm affected them both they were in reasonable proximity to each other because they were now facing the same storm in the bible a storm is an adverse set of circumstances a storm refers in scripture to negative things happening in your world and in your life it has been correctly said that you are coming out of a storm into a storm or heading into a storm because life comes with storms Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation life gets stormy sometimes in my mailbox in your mailbox you will see a sign that says occupant translation we don't care who lives here all you have to be is an occupant on the planet and it's going to rain you just have to be here to Sometimes those storms are financial Sometimes those storms are relational Sometimes those storms are circumstantial Sometimes those storms are medical When I reached 21, I had just completed one year of my storm of losing my father one month and my wife the next month she was coming out of a storm and the thing about storms is that sometimes you don't know they are coming towards you because in life it rains I would love to come here to tell you follow Jesus and you don't get wet sometimes you don't know what wet is until you keep going to Jesus then he says that both men had the same dream they heard the same word they were hearing the voice of God and they were facing the same storms and many of those who are sitting here today have come to church in a storm.

You have that thing that maybe no one knows except you and you are suffering because of it. You're hurt by it. You don't know which way to go. go through that and you're getting wet all right there the comparison ends and the contrast begins because one man is called wise and the other is called a fool a man a wise man a man a fool well that tells us There are many things there that It means that a wise man can have a dream and a fool can have a dream. That means a wise man may be hearing the word of Jesus and a fool may be hearing the word of Jesus.

That means a wise man can be in a storm and a fool can be in a storm so what made these two men who heard the voice of God different? Both men heard the voice of God, but one is called wise and the other is called a fool, says the wise man. The man built his house on a rock The fool built his house on sand When you're building a house, where you start determines where everything else ends Because you build a house starting with the foundation, you start by pouring cement into the structure you want to go on top of.

Why did he make a wise man and a foolish man? it's because they started in different places they didn't have the same thing they had the same goal they were listening to the same sermon they were having the same struggles but they didn't start in the same place in the bible wisdom is the ability to apply divine truth to life situations In the Bible a fool is the inability or refusal to apply spiritual truth to life scenarios, so hearing the word of God had to do with what they did with it, not with what they heard, simply with Listening to him, in other words, hearing God's voice had to do with where they were starting, not simply what they wanted, for too many people today, dealing with God is like placing an order with Amazon.

What we want is what God can do with them but they are not starting in the right place they started in two different places when you go downtown and you see them building a skyscraper you cautate it out of the area and then they dig a hole . You can always tell how high they plan to go by how low they drill. You can't build the skyscraper on the found foundations of a chicken coop because a chicken coop can't handle something that tall. Many times we want the skyscraper to stay alive. Chicken Coop Basics and we wonder why things aren't that way.

There has been something that is happening by hearing the voice of God, even when he heard it because both men heard the word, the voice of God, both men hear his word now The foundations of sand are quick, cheap and easy The foundations of rock They are difficult, they take time, they are going to cost more because you are laying the foundation, which made the difference between sand and rock, so what you hear matters, let me tell you, it is another way that turns listening to the word of God into listening to God. God from his word, do not miss that it is one thing to hear the word of God, both men heard the word of God, they heard the voice of God, but one was a fool to listen to the voice of God because the word he heard was never became God to him, how can you make what you hear week after week, sermon after sermon, not just God's word, but God's word to you, so that what you hear matters and what you hear is become God? transforming tells you while both men were listening to the word of God he said he says he who built his house on the sand did not act on it said he who built his house on the rock acted on it let me say it another way in So that the voice of God can be heard. become His voice for you, the word of God that you hear must be activated, the word of God must be activated before it is activated inyour experience, if you hear the voice of God in any format, certainly based on the The truth of God that is deactivated will not be active even if you have heard it now.

Most of you won't understand this illustration because you have to be African American to understand it, but I will try to explain it the best way I can. Several years ago, a hairstyle in the African American community was called the Jerry curl. It's a Jerry curl. The Jerry curl was quite an episode to get your hair curly, wavy and soft. Look, most of you, it's natural. Our. to work on it a little bit, so you went to the barber or the ptici and they put these chemicals in your hair, they put curlers in your hair and so it became wavy and curly and soft and it was called Jerry curl and it was the last thing you could do, the problem was that the sworn curl often dried your hair out, so every time you had a special curl you had to go to the store and buy a curl activator, so that when your hair got a little dry, You sprayed the curl activator and your hair went bam, it just came to life.

The word of God. It is true whether the book is closed or open the word of God is true whether you hear it or not because it is the Living Word of God but you need a Bible activator for this word to become your word, the Bible It will remain latent in your experience although it is not inactive in your reality until it is active, only when you do something with what you heard, the word of God leaves the paper of the Bible and is written in the experience of the heart, that is why James 1:21 says uh receive the implanted word that can save your soul and then goes on to say don't be hearers of the word but doers God must see your feet before activating what you heard in your life so that it transfers to his experience in football There is the NFL rule book, the NFL rule book applies equally to all 32 teams, the 32 NFL teams have the same rule book and have to play football by the same rules, something that Dallas used to do it, but they have to do it.

They play by the same rules because they have a rule book, but each NFL team has their own playbook. The playbook is unique for each team. Teams don't share the same playbook because they have different players. Different schemes. They have different things, but. We all have to operate by the same rule book in God's word, you have the Divine rule book that applies to all of us, but in our individual lives we need our own playbook. The playbook will always be consistent with the rule book you will have. never conflict with the rule book, but it will apply differently in the playbook of your life, that's why you need God to speak to you from his word, you need to hear his voice, but know that his voice is still consistent with the rule. book that he has given them, many come to church to hear the rule book, but they never get their own playbook and the reason they don't get their own playbook is that they have not acted on what is in it. the rule book and if they don't. act according to what comes from the rule book, you don't get your personal playbook, so the voice of God becomes generic and never applies to the situations in your life and when things happen in your life, when you need a play custom, you simply need to know the rulebook, but you must be close enough to the rulebook through your action that the Holy Spirit can give you your own private playbook, even if it has to call an audible at the last minute because you are so in touch with him according to the rule book he can tell you the playbook now what the people want is the benefit of the rock while he plays with the sand the sand is human opinion it is the man's thoughts Jesus says In Matthew 15:3 you cancel out the word of God by your traditions, in other words, you can cancel out what God has to say outside of the rule book in your experience because you incorporate human opinion that does not agree with the word of God when you incorporate human opinion that does not agree with the word of God. it nullifies its effect on your life, so that when you hear the word, whether preached, read or however it is communicated, and you introduce it into an arena that is human opinion, you nullify its personal benefit to you, you must act accordingly and not complicate it. to obtain the privatized benefit.

I remember you know I don't like apples. I do not like apples. I'm more of a banana orange guy, so I'm not into apples. I know. Manzana. a day follows a routine, I know that and all that, but I'm not on the blocks except at the Texas state fair at the Texas state fair. I'm into apples because they're sweet apples at the Texas State Fair. So I like those apples. Now they are apples dipped in liquid sugar, so they dip the apple in the liquid sugar and I love those apples, but the problem is that once you dip the apple in the liquid sugar, you are neutralizing the benefit.

The apple was naturally designed to give you because you dipped it in liquid sugar. What many Christians do is they come to church and they hear the word of God, then they immerse it in human opinion and once you immerse it in secular thought and human opinion, you neutralize it. the natural benefit that it was designed for was at a camp that many of you I'm sure have gone to in East Texas Pine Cove and we raised our children in Pine Cove and Pine Cove was where I learned. horseback riding I learned to ride a horse in Pine Cove by now I had seen enough western movies to know what to do.

He had seen Rawy, the man with the rifle, smoking Bonanza. I had seen enough western movies to know what to do. You know, you take away. the horse, you go, pick it up, kick it, you go to hello, pick it up, kick it just so you know, so I got on my horse, I got on my horse, I didn't need any help because I saw the western, so I went to get on hello. I kicked the horse but I was in Crazy Horse, this horse had lost its natural mind because it was going two steps, then three steps back, then two steps forward, then three steps back, this horse just goes back and forth, on one side to another, I called a Wrangler approached, I said: come, come here, this horse is crazy.

I need another horse. He looked at me and said, "It's not the horse that's crazy. I told him, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm going to kick you up." him and the horse just going back and forth, he said, look at me and he said, you can't go, pick him up, kick him while pulling back in the rain, you can't do it, you confuse this animal, he doesn't know which direction. You go and many of us say Amen in church we become secular on Monday and God does not know where we are going and we wonder why we are not making progress because the voice of God is not the basis for all the decisions that must be made and all the actions that must be taken so that the voice of God that you hear is personalized for your benefit, our benefit, whatever the situation, an action must be taken that is not complicated by the culture of your race for your gender for your background for your mom for your dad there are two answers to every question God's answer and everyone else's and everyone else is wrong so when you don't agree with God you are wrong they are wrong because he can't be wrong and the proof of What you know he's right is that you act accordingly, that's why it's called walking by faith, not talking by faith, moving by faith, not talking by faith, jumping by faith, not just communicating, you have to have movement and once you You've done that, you've personalized the truth, you've turned national news into local news because now God can apply it to you, he says, you know, I in Italy, you know, there's a city called Pisa, there's only one thing in Pisa: Leaning Tower from Pisa well, two things in Pisa, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the people on the side of the road selling replicas of the Leaning Tower pza, that's it, you know, people come to the other side of the world and see how a building does This is now a leaning building.

Many people don't know why the Leaning Tower leans, the Leaning Tower P leans because it is located on the pza because pza means Mary sees that it was not built on a solid foundation and it has been leaning since I was there. They had ropes around the base because it tilted 12 inches every year, so they had to try to re-solidify the foundation so it wouldn't just be a tourist attraction. What God is saying is: I love you if you will listen. my voice I want you to establish my word as the foundation of Your Action not only of your biblical information do not settle for hearing the truth about God you must listen to the truth about God but it says that the wise man not only heard the truth The wise man acted according to the truth and when the wise man acted according to the truth it made a difference in the dream he had, in the word he heard and in the storm he found himself in because we were told that a storm came, let's talk about this storm because it is described for us, It says that a storm came and when this storm the wind blew, then the floods came and hit the house, so let's talk about the storm, when there is wind and floods that can knock down a house, we are talking about hurricane season this hurricane this is not it's like a mild storm this is when they can knock down a house flood the water coming up the rain is coming down this this hurricane thing let me make sure I'm real has anyone here ever been to hurricane season, okay? when when it tears down your life when it unravels your existence when it seems like it's destroying your mind when it seems like you can't take another step that's hurricane season that's when all hell breaks loose and there are no quick answers and you can I didn't find God because it seemed so far away, it says that when the storm came it was not clear who was the wise man and who was the fool until the storm came.

See, as long as there was no storm, everyone seemed wise because everyone was listening. to the same voice as you go through these six weeks of study and seem to talk about listening to God, everyone will hear the same thing, but not everyone who hears the same thing will benefit to the same degree because it will be determined by what action is taken on the voice of God that everyone hears that will determine how much of the God who gave the voice is speaking to you not only do we need to hear the word of God, we need to hear a word from God that is a relevant application of biblically authorized divine truth in our situation of personal life God wants to privatize and personalize his truth while applying it to everyone history has a message its foundation determines your future where it begins it begins by listening to God's voice and acting on it without complicating it so that you can personally benefit from it because without going too deep In this, the holy spirit's job is to privatize or personalize God's truth for your situation, that is his job, his job is to make it real for you.

It is true for you because it is true, but its job is to make it true for you so that you experience its truth and you are not just learning to quote it, you are learning to experience it. He is the experiential one to make the voice of God heard. in your heart so that it is God speaking to you, not just speaking to everyone Jesus was on a boat one day and uh in Mark 4 and he said to his disciples, let's go to the other side, that's what he said, let's go to the other side. side they see a Galilee halfway across the sea of ​​L they come across a laac the Greek word laac is a wind storm the Sea of ​​Galilee is located in a basin surrounded by large hills and mountains and sometimes the wind stirs and causes a disturbance These are professional fishermen and yet they are terrified, so this lilac, this wind storm hits the Sea of ​​Galilee and now these professional fishermen who have been fishing in this sea all their lives are terrified, so His emotions, his theology, his well-being have been disrupted.

They are physically afraid, they are emotionally insecure and they have many spiritual questions because they asked Jesus: do you not care that we perish? Because when you face a storm that can capsize the ship of your life, if I'm honest, you don't know if God matters to you, you may feel like you can know it academically and informationally, but when that storm comes and it's about to capsize your whole world, you beg the question whether you expressed it or not, where are you and you don't care but Jesus? It's a dream in the stern on my pillow the Bible says he will sleep in the stern on a cushion now if you sleep in the stern on a cushion you have a pillar under you that means you wanted to go to sleep you are not just nodding nodding, now you put that suction cup under your head and you're going to sleep on purpose he was so asleep they had to shake him awake he says they excited him they had to do it they had to work at it to get him up he was fast asleep in a storm they woke him up and Jesus told them why are you so timid?

Now I can hear Peter, oh maybe Jesus, because we're getting ready to die, why are we so timid, how can you? sleep at a time like this our world is shaking he says oh you of little faith what do you mean I have reality here I have reality this ship is going to sink we are going to die and we cannot find you because you areasleep so I don't understand why you are challenging my faith, he said because before we left the Dry Dock I said: let's go to the other side, don't let us go halfway and don't do it, don't let us go halfway and drown. saying amen on the other side on the other side on the other side praise God on the other side God is good all the time all the time God is good you are Amen in the sermon not paying attention to the truth because God will test if you are paying attention to his word He will allow situations and storms to see if you will retreat to what He said for your personal storm or ignore what He said in your personal storm and then He says something in the storm, He says peace, be still, why wouldn't He say storm? be still and we in a storm, but he didn't say storm, be still, he said peace, be still in other words, if you are in my word according to my will, even if you are in your storm, you may as well get a pillow because If you really believe in my word, when you saw me get my pillar, you would have gotten your pillar because I told you that we would all go to the other side, so if you want to hear the word of God, you want to act on the word of God. you don't want to complicate God's word so that God's word becomes His word to you when the Holy Spirit takes it out of the pages of the Bible and incorporates it into your life experience when I was a child growing up in Baltimore. .

In urban Baltimore one Christmas, my dad bought me a punching bag with balloons, you hit it, boom, it hit the ground, bam, and then it bounced. Bing, you hit it, boom. He falls down, Bam and then bounces, bing, once, I kicked him, Wham, he hit. It hit the wall and came back Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bing noNo matter what I did to it, it kept coming back because it had a weight at the bottom that was heavier than the air at the top, so it didn't No matter what I did to it, down here, it determines where things ended up, at some point life gets explosive. but if you're resting on the right foundation you go back to Bing, sometimes circumstances go boom boom and you can say Bam Bam, but if you're resting on the right foundation you go back to Bing and sometimes life gets so heavy and Satan becomes so active that you go Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam Bam and you just toss and turn boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom but if you're resting on the right foundation you'll come back, close us down