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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. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans 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 Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually. #tonyevans #tonyevanssermon #Conformity

if you love the world your relationship

with your daddy in heaven has been

jeopardized he’s still your father cuz

you’re his child if you’re a Christian

but you have jeopardized intimacy so one

of the reasons why more of us aren’t

experiencing more of God is we got too

great a love affair with the world and

God is saying well if you want the world

you can’t have

me Romans 12 says be not conformed to

this

world that that’s a picturesque word uh

it’s it’s used of a of

a of of a person who handles clay this

Potter handles clay and he mows it he

conforms it into an image that he has in

his mind if he wants a plate he makes

the clay into a plate or a pot or a cup

or a saucer or a bowl he conforms it to

an

image he says be not Romans 12:2

conformed to this world

Amen now exactly how does a potter form

clay into what he wants the clay to look

like

pressure he got to squeeze it here push

it here twist it there to make it look

like what he wants it to look like you

and I live in a world that wants to

pressure

you into its image pressure you into

thinking like it thinks walking like it

walks talking like it talks acting like

it acts accepting what it’s decept and

it will make you look like a fool if you

don’t abide by the

pressure and if you don’t go with the

program will threaten to cancel

you cuz you ain’t going along with this

is how we roll now and the the pressure

is greater now because we’re in a

postmodern age postmodernity

postmodernism is where the judeo

Christian worldview has been rejected

there used to be a time even when it

wasn’t consistently ad heard to that

there was an atmosphere where a

judeo-christian world view

was at least

respected even by

non-christians but the more secular the

culture has become the more that world

view has been jettisoned and the

jettisoning of that world view has now

brought in conflicting and competing

worldviews that are pressuring you it is

costing people their jobs it is costing

people their their preferences it is

renaming people people it is redefining

institutions and you’re under the

pressure to accept

it he says don’t let the world force you

into its mold that is to accept its

values now now that does not mean that

you’re not without compassion you’re not

without love you’re not without

consideration not without concern you

just have values that are cannot be

adjusted

right don’t let the World Press

you you should be concerned about the

pressure some of your kids are getting

from their

peers to pressure them into a conforming

world view

amen because we see

today that the secular

society is pressing

us

many have left the church part of that

is the church’s fault for its

irrelevancy and its lack of uh biblical

authenticity but of the other side of

that coin is a society that’s make

that’s normalizing things and if you

want to be part of the in

crew you got to buy into the

pressure if you’re going to be serious

as a Christian

then you cannot fall into the Fatal

trap of conforming being

pressed into a world order that leaves

God

out he says love not the world neither

the things that are in the

world and then he tells you why that’s

not a good

idea because he says at the end of verse

one if anyone that means no exceptions

loves the world the love of the father

is not in

him he’s talking to

Christians if you I we us love the

world your relationship with your daddy

in heaven has been

jeopardized he’s still your father

he’s still your father CU you’re his

child if you’re a Christian but you have

jeopardized

intimacy if you love the

world he won’t hang with

you so one of the reasons why more of us

aren’t experiencing more of God is we

got too greater love affair with the

world and God is saying well if you want

the world you can’t have me amen am amen

James 4:4 says friendship with the world

is hostility with God so it’s not even

like we can’t even be

friends with the world friendship with

the world makes you God’s enemy so God

has a lot of enemies among his children

and they don’t even know that they’re

the father’s

enemy but then we called on

father to help

us be closer to his

enemy the

world we we we actually calling on God

to be

happy that we have this intimate

relationship with his

enemy he says no no no no no the love of

the

Father the intimacy with the father why

because gal

1:4 says that Jesus

came to redeem us from the

world Paul says in Galatians

6:14 I am crucified from the

world in other

words I’m in

it I participate with it but what I

don’t do is adopt the values of it amen

amen so I’m not like everybody else on

the job I’m not like everybody else in

the school I’m not like everybody else

in the neighborhood I’m not like them

because I don’t love that what I love is

the

father and what you need to know about

the world is when it finishes with you

it will spit you

[Applause]

out you may love it and it may look like

it’s loving you you right

now but you

you you and I are to be marching out of

Step because we’re listening to a

different drum

be we are unique in our spheres

imperfect as we are we are

unique because we want the father more

than we want the world

Amen

you we’ve all seen a fish out of

water if you’ve seen a fish out of water

is trying to

survive you

know it’s trying to make

it the problem is it’s trying to make it

an envir in an environment it was never

created

for see it’s struggling to exist and the

reason the only reason the fish is

struggling is because it’s not supposed

to be there

amen cuz once you throw the fish back in

the water it can be what it was created

to be cuz it’s where it was created to

exist far too many of God’s children

are gills flopping and mouths open

because we are operating in an

environment we were not redeemed for

for we were redeemed for another

kingdom and God wants us to operate out

of that world view not this world view

and if you’re trying to operate off of

this worldview when you were born again

for this world view you’re going to be

sucking satanic

air and you wonder why you’re

choking cuz we’re operating in the wrong

environment not because we’re there God

expects you to be his representative in

whatever sphere he has

you but he expect you to be his

representative in whatever sphere he has

you

amen and not to say

well God the world doesn’t want you here

so you just stay outside

now Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:10 demon

demon has forsaken me saken me having

loved this present World key word is

present you know what gets us about the

world it gives us the impression this is

all there

is Deus has forsaken me because he has

loved this present world he was he was

in with me in Ministry but then the

world got so good to him that he forsook

me he wanted the Applause of the secular

crowd he wanted the recognition of the

ungodly audience he wanted the he wanted

the Embrace of the culture and because

he wanted that so badly he walked away

from

God now Jesus did say it I have to

say the world hates me he

says so when you choose me in an arena

where the world rejects me you going to

have issues amen

amen so I don’t want to just talk Pie in

the Sky stuff no you going to have

issues when the values of God clash with

the values of this world there’s going

to be a

clash not because you’re trying to make

a clash not because you’re unloving or

non-comp passionate it’s just the values

don’t

agree but the question is do you want

the world or do you want the

father when Adam and Eve broke away from

God the price tag of losing Fellowship

was

awesome

so in order for us to to operate now

because the whole point here is to

return to God to to get back on in sync

with him individually as your family

and as a

church is we have to understand the

chronology of the

world verse

17 the world is passing

away and also it’s lust but the one who

does the will of God abides

forever he

says you need to understand something

the world is passing

away it’s going to leave you or you

going to leave it that’s

right don’t make permanent something

that’s

temporary don’t make permanent something

that’s temporary the world is passing

away so don’t act like it’s not going

nowhere or you not going

nowhere something something’s going to

move here the world is passing away