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.
faith must always precede sight
once you put sight in front of faith
you’ve negated faith
faith is based on what you do not see
if you’ve got to see it first you won’t
see it
the euphemism of walking in the bible
means to live according to because
you’re moving with the mind of christ
you’re not just doing that on sunday
morning when it’s church time because he
wants to know that you want him so if
you’re in distress don’t let that drive
you away draw you near
closer
so that you like jacob and say i’m not
gonna let you go
until you answer me so welcome to the
file
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when you get close and want to live for
him want to please him want to honor him
want to exalt him want to draw near to
him then heaven opens up and he lets you
find him
he lets you find it
welcome to the fire
kingdom prayer is
divinely
authorized access
for
heaven
to invade earth
for heavenly intervention
into historical circumstances
and one of the expressions that talks
about authority
is binding and losing
now if you’ve grown up in church you’ve
heard people talk about binding this and
binding that
and what they’re talking about is
exercising authority
and that is precisely what the phrase
means
but i want to take you deeper into the
meaning of the phrase
the utilization and understanding
of how to apply the phrase
so that you and i get the benefit of the
phrase
and start binding and losing like we
supposed to
the word binding and losing is not a
magic formula
for
you to get god to do what you want
yet it is a powerful formula because of
what’s stated
because verse 18 says
whatever you bind
and it goes on to say and whatever you
lose
first of all
whatever
this scope of this statement is
staggering in other words
he doesn’t give an exception he says
whatever you bind whatever you lose
it says heaven is going to back it up or
to put it in contemporary words god says
i got you
i got you
please notice something in the phrase
you are the one doing the binding not
god
you are the one doing the loosing not
god
whatever you bind
and whatever you lose
will have been done in heaven
so god will back up
legitimate binding
and legitimate
losing
to buying means to restrict
to by means to lock
to by means to restrain
to by means to tie down
to by means to hold something
so that it cannot do
what it wants to do you are limiting its
ability to function because you’ve tied
it up you’ve bound it you’ve wrapped it
up you put a knot on it you’ve held it
back
conversely
loosing
is to unlock
or to release
it is to permit
it is to free something up
the first thing that leads up to his
statement in chapter 16 about binding
and loosing is the statement is
specifically given to
and given about the church
i will build my church
he comes with binding and loosing after
that statement why
because binding and loosing
is a specific authority given to the
church
it’s very important binding and losing
the exercise of authority
is specifically given to the church i
will build my church now the reason why
that’s important is you need to remember
something about the church
that we often lose sight of and some
don’t even know
why you come to church for preaching and
for singing and for
fellowship and all of those are very
important things there is another
purpose of the church that’s absolutely
critical and that is
legislating from the spiritual realm
the job of the church is to legislate
from up there to down here to bring
heaven in the history that is the job of
the chur it is to spiritually legislate
not just sing not just preach but to
bring the authority from eternity in
history so it is
the church
represents another realm although it’s
located on earth
it represents heaven but it’s located in
history
and it has been given homeland authority
to operate in history
from eternity
now the reason i’m pointing this out
is many christians don’t understand this
if you are disconnected from the church
you are disconnected from its legal
authority in the spiritual realm
he says
and the gates of hell
shall not overpower it
he says so powerful is the church i’m
building
that hell can’t stop it
he didn’t say shall not overpower me he
said shall not overpower it because he’s
referring to the church that is
legislating from heaven
so when you see hell defeating the
church
it’s because we’re not building jesus
church we’re building our church using
jesus’s name
he says the church that i am building
that legislates from history greek word
ekklesia church
was a legal term for legislation
legislating in the spiritual to bring it
into history he says the gates of hell
gates is a legal term
in the old testament it says the elders
met at the gate that’s like saying
city council meeting city hall congress
parliament it was the place where
legislation was made at the gates
so it’s a legal term
because hell does not defeat you with
power
hell defeats you with legality
hell operates on a legislature okay
it operates legally and if you do not
understand that it’s not just power
operating it’s power operating
from an illegal position but yet from a
legal posture so he says the gates of
hell shall not overpower it now he’s
talking about the church
then he goes further now we come to come
to verse 19.
i will give you the keys to the kingdom
well kingdom is god’s rule
and i’m going to give you keys
he says i’m going to give you access
to me
to legislate
from there
back down to where you live
and i’m going to give you these keys now
the reason why there are multiple keys
is because they’re multiple gates well
now we come to the end of verse 19.
whatsoever you bound on earth will have
been bound in heaven whatever you loose
on earth will have been already loosed
in heaven i got you
so what exactly are we binding and
losing
well let me tell you based on this
passage
you’re binding and loosing what’s coming
out of hell
gates of hell
you’re binding and losing so what’s the
difference between binding and losing
buying when you when you’ve been binding
something you’re tying it up you’re
keeping it from mobility you’re keeping
it from moving
to bind means
something is coming after you that you
want held back from you
you want it to be tied up you don’t want
it to get through you don’t want it to
to be able to penetrate you it’s holding
evil satan hell off of you losing is
because he already got you
he’s already all up in your grill
he’s already controlling something
you’re already addicted
you’re already
living in defeat
you’re already relationally in discord
you’re already miserable and you can’t
get out of it and you need to be loosed
from the hostage-taking he’s already
taken you binding is keeping him off you
or anything that is
influenced by him because the hell
influences everything it influences debt
it influences bad relationships it
influences addictions it influences
health health can influence any area of
your life to bind it means to keep it
from having a illegitimate dominant
influence too loose means it’s already
having an element illegitimate dominant
influence i’m already in debt over my
head and can’t get out i’m already in a
bad situation relationship i’m already
addicted to something or the other and
i’m already held hostage and nothing is
working but i need to be loosed i need
to be set free from it
he says to be
to bind to keep it off you because it’s
coming at you or to lose because it’s
already got you and you want to get rid
of it he says you must do it
whatever you bind i got you
whatever you lose
i got you
heaven will back you up
well if the problem is the gates of hell
he says
you must use the keys of heaven
and you must do it in concert
with the church because that’s the
entity that owns the keys
so you don’t have a private key ring
you don’t have your own keys
the church has the keys
you have to use those keys for your
situation
so now that we have that framework
let’s go back to chapter 18.
he starts off again in verse 18
and
he begins this process
by talking about binding and losing but
now he goes further
and he’s going to explain how to get
this thing working for you
so i’m assuming somebody in here needs
to bind something or lose something
again i say to you verse 19
if two of you agree on earth
about anything
that they ask it shall be done for them
by my father
who is in heaven oh
now we get down to two or three
interesting
two or three witnesses
is not a novel concept it’s all through
the bible
so two or three witnesses
was used of
confirming something
legally
because it’s used up trying civil cases
jesus takes the principle
of legality two and three witnesses
and applies it now to binding and losing
why
because we are seeking to do in the
spiritual realm
what the political realm was seeking to
do in civil judgments
to do that he says you need two or three
witnesses
now this is not just two or three people
out of nowhere
because in verse 17 he says
tell it to the church if he refuses to
listen to the church let him be to you
as a gentile and a tax collector
so he hasn’t left the church
he’s still talking about the church
because that is the authorized
legal entity from heaven to history so
let me explain something
when you connect with people even if
they’re christians who are not connected
to the embassy
they can’t help you with binding and
losing
because binding and losing has only been
delegated to the church not just to you
out here just binding stuff and i bind
the devil and you about you know no no
no if you are disconnected from the
embassy that’s why people on this need
to go to church for preaching people
don’t need to go to church just for
singing he says two or three gathered
okay the word gathered is used of the
church in hebrews chapter 10 verse 25
don’t forsake the gathering it’s talking
about the church
he says when they are connected
and two or three now we got
legal validity
because that’s how the word two or three
is used in scripture we’ve got legal
authorization
so let’s see how you can begin the bind
and lose keep keep the devil off of you
in whatever category he’s on you or get
him off of you if he’s already locked
you down
and loose him and get get him off of
your back no longer is he controlling
whatever area of your life that he
happens to be controlling right now
he says if you come together
two or three that’s a legal gathering
because it’s connected to the church
anything somebody say anything
that’s like whatever
okay verse 18 says whatever verse 19
says anything anything that they may ask
oh we just introduced prayer ask
so now
you are asking
you’re asking heaven
to intervene on your behalf in history
for
the binding and losing as defined in
chapter 16 which is the gates of hell he
says ask anything
that they may ask
please notice something
the two
must agree
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forget
spiritual authority
where there is disunity so he says it
must be by agreement that is you’ve got
to be
in the same for your different people
but you’ve got to be on the same
spiritual page okay so he says that and
then he makes a staggering promise
it shall be done for them by my father
who is in heaven so you must bind you
must bring god’s perspective the keys
you must talk to god the prayer you must
be in agreement with god and then you
must be linked to the legal entity the
local church and he says and you’ve done
it
in my name
in my name he said the father is going
to do it
but you got to do it in my name
now
matthew 28 18 says
jesus says all authority is given to me
in heaven and on earth
so in order to get it from heaven down
here to earth jesus is saying you’ve got
to come through me
there’s one mediator between god and man
and the bible says that is the man
christ jesus he will only give his
authority when you’re operating on his
authority based on his keys connected
with his institution done by agreement
and he says that you must do it in my
name but he says something else
and there am i in the midst
oh
see a lot of us pray in jesus name while
he is on the periphery
he cannot be on the periphery he must be
in the he must be the centerpiece of the
decision
he must be the centerpiece of the
consideration he just can’t be a throw
in a tag along
he must be at the centerpiece of it
everything must revolve around the
centrality of jesus christ ephesians 1
10 says god has circulated all of
history around the centrality of jesus
christ
so
binding and loosing
getting the devil from tying you up
or releasing you if you’ve been tied up
is tied to
authority
authority is tied to christ christ is
tied to his church binding and losing is
tied to that connectivity by agreement
and then there is the
provision of divine authority where the
father responds when we do it in his
name
see a lot of us use jesus name
and we’ll even quote jesus’s word
but without authorization because we’re
not subjected to jesus’s will or
subjected to jesus authority or
subjected to jesus is okay
and so it becomes an unauthorized use
and when it is an unauthorized use you
can’t bind and lose which means you
can’t have authority
okay but you must do the binding lucy
god’s not gonna do it for you
he gonna say i got you
when you’re operating as he said
so the question now is
why the two or three in this context
let me use a biblical illustration that
to try to make sense of this
in exodus chapter 17 begin around verse
8. israel
is in a battle they’re in a war they’re
fighting
it’s a life and death struggle they’re
battling
moses goes up to the top of the hill
and moses takes the rod
the staff that god
gave him they turned it into the rod of
god
and moses held it up
the rod was moses’s symbol of authority
he opened the red sea with the rod it
was a symbol of heaven coming down to
change something on earth when he held
up the rod
as long as moses held up the rod it says
israel prevailed
but the moment moses dropped the rod it
says the enemy prevailed
oh amen now israel down in the valley
doing the best they can fighting as hard
as they can trying as hard as they can
but whether they were winning or losing
wasn’t determined by how hard they were
trying
it was determined by what moses was
doing
of holding up
the symbol of authority
a lot of us are trying hard to fix our
mess get out of debt get out of
addiction solve this problem heal this
man if not we trying
we’re trying down here in this battle
but the problem is something’s got to be
solved up there to give you victory down
here
the problem occurred however that it
says moses’s arms got heavy
in other words
he got tired
let me put another he got sick and tired
he got tired his arms got heavy and his
arms started to droop
and when his arm started to droop it
says the enemy began to prevail
because the symbol of authority had been
lost
so moses got two other men
to come and to hold up his arms
because he was tired
and he was going to droop and quit and
give up
but the two men held up his uh they
became two witnesses and when they held
up his arms it says and israel prevailed
over their enemies let me put it another
way
what was happening on the ground would
not ultimately be determined by what
they were doing on the ground now they
still had to fight on the ground but the
power and the authority for the victory
of the fight was not on the ground where
they were fighting the authority and
victory and power would come from what
was happening in the invisible realm
that would determine whether they won or
lost in the visible realm if you’re
fighting for your marriage if you’re
fighting for successful singlehood if
you’re fighting for the debt if you’re
fighting for the addiction or whatever
the situation happens to be yes you have
a responsibility to do what you ought to
do but that’s not where the authority
lies whatever you buy whatever you lose
it says i will have already done it in
heaven
so the answer is up there so to put it
another way if you ignore the spiritual
if you ignore the keys if you ignore the
connection with the church if you ignore
the agreement if you ignore those things
you will not get help from heaven while
you’re battling the warfare on earth you
will only get victory on earth because
you have engaged the authority of heaven
god’s way
and when you and i do that
now we’ll see some binding and loosen
god has a unconditional will and a
conditional will
god’s unconditional will are things that
he is going to do
regardless of what anybody else says or
does simply because he has sovereignly
determined to do it but his conditional
will
are those things that he has agreed to
do based on our
actions
reactions or lack of action
and one of the things his conditional
will will respond to
is the authority given us to bind and
loose
binding and losing means forbidding or
permitting
within god’s conditional will he has
authorized us
to stop certain things and start certain
things
based on our submission to his authority
and that he will act and back us up
in our decisions when those decisions
are made in concert with what he has
determined conditionally to allow to
happen in history
that is why the bible says if you
if you don’t ask you don’t get because
one of the conditions is that you ask
and if it’s based on the condition of
asking and you don’t ask it’s not
because he didn’t decide to give it it’s
because you didn’t meet the condition of
his conditional will
and when it comes to binding and losing
do you know how much authority is in
that that you can actually stop things
from happening or uh create or authorize
things to happen
that you need heaven to intervene on
simply by
your prayers exercising spiritual
authority because you are in contact
with god
so don’t take prayer casually don’t take
it as just a throw in
conversation with the almighty
take it as a authoritative posture that
god has given you and me
to bring into earth
what has been predetermined in heaven
once we
exercise authority that has been
designated to us by god
binding and loosing means that we have a
lot to say about what happens on earth
in our lives and in our environments
let’s not
take for granted the authorization given
us let’s utilize it to get all
from god
that he has determined he will allow to
take place when we meet his conditions
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when you’re in the spirit
but the bible calls the spirit a wind
a wind it blows
my opinion nobody’s opinion when it
conflicts with god
is to be considered as truth the bible
says let god be true and every man a
liar
mother nature doesn’t work without daddy
god
that’s because truth
doesn’t just
because if it comes from god it’s truth
because god has absolute standard by
which reality is measured
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i’m standing here in alaska one of the
most glorious places in god’s great
creation and i want to invite you to
join me in our urban alternative family
for the alaskan cruise we’re going to
have a magnificent time
in god’s word and in god’s creation
we’re going to enjoy great fellowship
great fun great food and i’m looking
forward to meeting and greeting you on
our tua alaskan cruise
register to be there can’t wait to be
with you
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you