Tony Evans’ Powerful Message at the National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention in June, 2021
Dr. Tony Evans preached this powerful sermon at the National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention in June, 2021.
dear father i come to you and asked very
simply that the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart may be
acceptable to you
and that you will give us what we need
for tonight
that you will cover this conference
and allow your voice to be heard through
these human lips and we will give you
the glory in jesus name
amen
it was in january of
2020 that my
granddaughter kelsey
the oldest child of my youngest son
jonathan evans
was sitting at the table refusing to eat
she was refusing to eat meal after meal
after meal of course
her parents were concerned that she was
refusing to take in food
sitting there with a somber look on her
face
and a discouragement
around her posture
she was continually being pressed by her
parents
kelsey what’s wrong what’s wrong
what’s wrong finally after being pressed
a multiplicity of times
she simply raised the question that
explained everything to her mother
and her father she said what’s happening
to our family
what’s happening to our family
we had come through quite a year
in 2019 i’d lost my sister
just previous to that i’d lost my
brother
six months from then my
sister’s husband died
a few months from then november 25th
my father died
december 30th my wife died
in january of that year my daughter
priscilla had to have half of her left
lung removed
for cancer
and it was one thing after another
that had shaken our world
a world that up until that point had the
normal
struggles of life but this time it was
different
as one thing on top of another thing on
top of another thing
stacked itself
right after that kovitz set in
and my ministry world was turned upside
down as was yours
but then in march of that year i
contracted
pneumonia
and great concern in the covet season
about its potential effects on my life
i then contracted covet
and there was one thing
[Music]
after another
as you look at your world the world in
which you
live and work and minister
your testimony may not be the same as
mine
but i am sure we would be in concomitant
agreement that
things have been shaken
when i was a boy growing up
in baltimore maryland i would often
spend the weekends
at my grandmother’s home
and i would be watching on saturday
morning my favorite cartoons
among which would be mickey mouse and
mighty mouse and i would be
enjoying the saturday morning
cartoons but if it happened
to thunderstorm and if there was
lightning my grandmother would
inevitably say tony turn the television
off
i say but grandmother i’m watching the
cartoons tony
turn the television off
but why grandmother why should i turn
the television off and her and out of
inevitable retort would be
because god is talking
her interpretation was that there was a
divine
disruption into the ordinary affairs of
life
then cartoons later as an adult it would
be
my whole world collapsing
the normal process
of life had been
turned topsy-turvy
the scripture makes it clear that when
that happens
when my world and your world has turned
upside down and inside out
we are not to dismiss it as mere
events of the day
when the natural order of things
are disrupted in a significant way
scripture would have us to know what
grandmother said
god is talking now this is not a
philosophical or
psychological analysis
this is a theological truth
because the author of hebrews
the author who wrote the book whose
theme is very simply
never give up to people who are facing
all kinds of
cataclysmic realities in their lives and
in their circumstances
chapter after chapter after chapter his
retort is the same
never give up comes to chapter 12.
and he says in verse 25
see to it that none of you refuse him
who is speaking
for if those did not escape when they
refused him
who warned them on earth
much less we will escape who turn away
from him who warns from heaven
and his voice shook the earth
then but now he has promised saying yet
once more
i will shake not only the earth but also
the heaven
this expression yet once more
denotes the removing of those things
which can be
shaken of the created things
so that the things which cannot be
shaken
may remain the author of hebrews says
when god has a fresh fresh message to
give
a new challenge to throw out
a reorientation to inaugurate
he shakes things up
when god wants things done differently
when god does not want the norm to
continue
when god has to uproot the ordinary
and call us to the extraordinary
he shakes things up
when god has decided that we’ve become
too cavalier when god has decided we’ve
become too at ease
when god has decided that we have become
too comfortable
and god has decided that we’re not on
point
with his purpose he shakes
things up and you can always know when
god is talking
because he disrupts the ordinary
things by crafting a crisis
let me say that again in your life
my life your family my family
your ministry my ministry
if you want to know
where god wants to do something
different
he does not want the same old samoa
anymore
he will create a contradictory
crisis when
he wanted to move moses from
the ordinary to the extraordinary
he created a crisis that captured his
imagination and tension
because there was a bush that would not
burn that’s a contradiction
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 crisis that included a
contradiction
pharaoh coming one way the red sea right
in front of them
either way they go it means death it’s a
no-win situation
because 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 the 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 to 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 wanted to show
that he was the son of the living god
he took two sisters and created a
contradiction
he told martha and mary your brother’s
not going to die
then he dies they say but if you would
have been here
he says but did not tell you how can he
say he’s not going to 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
i would like to suggest to nrb tonight
that the shaking that you are watching
on whatever your news channel preference
happens to be
the broadcast that you are making
in whatever outlet you oversee or
participate on
is an on-purpose calamity
a crisis that has originated in heaven
to disturb things on earth
because god is looking for something
different
there are two choices
one in our belief in the imminent return
of christ
he is shaking things so 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 or
he is dismantling things
in a way that they cannot be fixed
through ordinary means
to re-assert
the role responsibility and functioning
of his people
because he has become sick and tired of
our ordinary way of operating
and so he decided to
allow a crisis of health
to get it started covet 19
would not only disrupt the world that
would disrupt the church
the walls would no longer be the
comfortable place
for comfortable christianity he would
then
take the death of a man in
minnesota and allow
a racial upheaval
to continue to bubble up
pitting people against people
cultures against cultures colors against
colors
communities against communities
he would take a political divide
between democrats and republicans
between black christians and white
christians
and allow it to erupt into a divisive
reality
in the church
and not only would he allow all of these
things
he would stack them he would take
health stack it with race
stack it with politics stack it with
police and community conflict
and he would stack it so there would be
no question
things are shaking
they are being disturbed
i love the passage in second chronicles
chapter 15
verses 3 to 6 it says
it says that there was no peace in those
days
it says citizen were they were at peace
when 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 city urban conflict
he goes on and says there was conflict
nation against nation international
conflict
and then we get the zinger in verse six
because it says for god troubled them
with every kind of distress i would have
thought it would have said with all this
havoc
that the devil troubled them 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 in order again
i would like to suggest to you
they were told in their distress
verse three says of psychological 15
when stuff
got bad enough
when stuff was so chaotic it says
in their distress
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 i 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
lois was moving kind of slow so i had to
i had to help her sister out
i took her to an amusement park in
baltimore maryland called gwyn oaks
amusement park
and at grid oaks amusement park they had
a roller coaster for two called the wild
mouse
the mouse would do all the stuff the
roller coasters would do but then it
would go to the edge
like it was going to jump the track and
then it would turn real quick
real scary i said give me two tickets
we got on the wild mouse
the wilder the ride got the closer she
got
[Music]
by the time the ride was over you
thought only one person got own it
now why did i buy two tickets to the
wild mouse cause 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 was i had to create
some distress first
to get her undivided attention
the author of hebrews says that when god
is ready
to do something new
he creates a disturbance
and the reason he creates the
disturbance he says
is to shake created things
earthbound things physical things
in order to reveal that which cannot be
shaken
in other words god shakes our physical
human reality
to get us spiritually back on point
i would like to suggest today that
evangelicalism is off point
i would suggest you today that
evangelicalism has lost
its way now 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 be cute
it’s time to be clear
we are being written off we are being
dismissed
we’re being marginalized critique and
criticized
the very word has fallen into disrepute
not because
we don’t believe the bible
but because the presence that we ought
to be having
because of the bible has not been
manifested
in the culture as the creator designed
it to be
we have become the outcast but not
because
we’re being persecuted only for our
faith
but we’re being persecuted for our
foolishness
this problem of race
should never have been allowed to seed
itself
in the church of jesus christ generation
after generation after generation
when paul dealt with the issue of race
in my favorite passage galatians 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 the son
of god
who loved me and gave himself for me
everybody loves that 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 okay to
eat pork chops
with the gentiles but when his jewish
brethren showed up
he removed himself from fellowship with
the gentiles
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
race theory
he didn’t feel the need for a a
seminar entitled can we all get along
what he said was peter
you have embarrassed the truth of the
gospel
wait a minute peter you have embarrassed
the truth of the gospel
don’t you know that i’ve been crucified
with christ that’s where that verse
comes in
pete paul is talking to peter to correct
him
on his racial disparity even if he
didn’t wait for a year
or two years or 20 years he corrected
him on the spot because
i’m missing the pull pit is a fog in the
pew
and peter we got to get you straight
today
this this position you have taken is
intolerable
and what’s interesting is he calls it in
that passage
the gospel now i hear people say
well we need to stick with the gospel
i believe in the gospel the the the
death
and burial and resurrection and
ascension of jesus christ and that
faith alone in christ alone gives
eternal life to all who come to him
for it i believe in the gospel the
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
understood
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’s a gospel issue saints need to
know about
and 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
which ought to change how we relate to
one another on earth
so to help the church out god has shaken
up the culture
and says since the church can’t get it
together
since the church is using illegitimate
diagnostic methodologies for determining
our relationship our fellowship and our
unity
then i’m going so mess it up in the
culture that you can no longer
skip discussing the issue and while we
are debating about
chris critical race theory and
non-critical 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 that
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 on 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 inward 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 together who would not
otherwise
fellowship with one another to become
the hubble
for the kingdom of god and its
representation in that community
that you must view your enterprise
not only as a vehicle of communication
but as a vehicle of kingdom unity
this is why we at the urban alternative
are promoting a three-point plan
for stations to call together the the
biblically minded
kingdom-minded churches and annual
solemn assembly
then they would speak with one voice 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 maturity so the
community can see
that the kingdom of god has arrived that
the people of god
have arrived
god has shaken things up
whenever god created a shaking in
scripture
it would always to be to attack idolatry
idolatry is any noun person place thing
or thought
that you look to as your source your
governing
body your governance the thing that you
are
looking to idolatry is the number one
sin
in the bible from which all sins 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 says 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 american christianity
are american idols idols of popularity
idols of materialism idols of racism
the white church has become
too republican i knew it would get quiet
but let me try it again
the white church has become too
republican
you have wrapped too many
have wrapped our faith in the american
flag
and when you go for a nationalistic
faith
you have contaminated the gospel
not because you’re republican but
because you’ve now
made the nation subject to the wrong
kingdom
instead of the nation having to adjust
to our king
and his kingdom
many of these problems that we’re facing
today
would 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 when when criminal leasing was
happening when
when all of these deleterious realities
that has led to conflict that is still
plaguing
the southern baptist convention today
and that ought not to be
there would be no national baptist
convention
if the southern baptist convention was
not a segregationist institution
it left the kingdom but the black church
has become idolatrous jew
so you black people don’t get too
comfortable
because what we have done is we have
wrapped
blackness in cultural identity
so we have often been more black than
biblical
we have decided that our color can trump
christ
and so we will endorse a political party
who will endorse evil say nothing about
the evil of abortion
the evil of homosexuality the evil of
misuse of government because of
a race issue
god doesn’t ride the backs of donkeys or
elephants
he sits as king of kings he says his
lord of lords
so we live in a day
when god is shaking things up
he’s calling on nrb to have a new
program and a new platform
if you want to reach this generation if
christ may 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 you’re
going to 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 verse 28.
he says in hebrews 12 28
therefore since we have received a
kingdom
which cannot be shaken a kingdom that
is not limited to the stuff happening in
time and space
and on earth since we’ve received a
kingdom
that trumps politics trump’s class
trump’s culture
let us show gratitude let’s act like
we’re thankful people
so that we may offer an acceptable
service
and a reverence to god
i suggest that we need to go beyond
evangelical
without excluding evangelical
what we need are some kingdomologists
we need some men and women who
understand there’s only one theme in the
bible the
when you look at my study bible in the
bible commentary at the bottom of it
it’ll say
it’ll say these words advancing god’s
kingdom there’s only one theme in the
bible
the glory of god through the advancement
of his kingdom that’s the only thing 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 it is
all about the kingdom and the kingdom
is the rule of god it is the rule of god
for which we are to be subordinate
he says since we serve a kingdom
since we sit under divine rule
let’s act like it says let’s act like
god can trump you god can trump me
there are two answers to every question
god’s answer and everybody else’s and
everybody else is wrong
god has spoken and he has not stuttered
i know that you believe the bible is the
word of god
if you’re part of nrb
but he’s far too often treated like the
queen of england
the queen of england gets a lot of
respect
but she just doesn’t have any authority
they’ll they’ll lower the flag or drop
the flag based on whether she’s there or
not
they’ll pull over when their caravan
comes through
she gets a lot of cred but she can’t
make nothing happen
we got too much bible too many
bible-believing churches bible-believing
christians bible-believing books
bible-believing
uh programs that give god a lot of
respect
we’re just not 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 somebody help me
how can one how can one percent
of the population control the whole
nation
and the believers in jesus christ can
control hardly anybody
because we’re too evangelical
and not kingdom enough he builds an
unshakable kingdom
if you came to me and your life was
messed up
i would take the bible and i will show
you what god says about that part of
your life that’s messed up
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
for 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 will show you what 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 for
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
if you brought your church to me and
says
our church is falling apart i take the
same bible that i use
with the individual and the family i
talk about what a kingdom church looks
like
i would give you practical steps after
you repented to apply
that biblical of those biblical
principles i would ask the holy spirit
to empower your obedience
to change the trajectory of the church
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 into other books
even though god says i created
government you don’t get to change books
you don’t get the 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 governments he
raises 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
this is not a day
this is not a day for spiritual punks
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 day 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 differently because
he’s doing
it to reveal his unshakeable kingdom
and then he closes he closes with these
words
in verse 29 for our god
is a consuming fire he says the reason
why
you bet not play with this thing christ
be not come
is because our god is a consuming
fire now that’s bad news
and that’s good news as the author of
hebrews regularly does through the book
he reaches back into the old testament
to teach
new testament truth a consuming fire
was the altar on which sacrifices were
placed
now that was bad news for the lamb
or the goat or the bull
because when they were placed on the
altar
they died they were consumed
by the fire but it was good news for the
folk
because when the animal was consumed
and the sacrifice was made
grace mercy forgiveness
and restoration could then be offered
so it was bad news for the animal
but good news for the nation our god is
a consuming fire
he’s burning things up
so he can be nice again he’s burning
things up
so 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 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
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’d put an iron on it to set it on
fire she wasn’t trying to be mean
she was trying to get out a wrinkle but
the reason she wanted to get out of
wrinkle
was because i was gonna wear the shirt
and sister evans wanted me to look good
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 look good in the church he
doesn’t just want
in church he wants to be well suited
in church as we close in television
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 three scenes to get you to tune
into 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 have been rb
one 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
it’s called the kingdom of god but until
then
he’s left you you you you you you and me
here as previews of coming attractions
we’re 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
when they see the hot clips of the
upcoming show
then they’ll ask the question where can
i buy a ticket
of course after we can tell them you
don’t have to buy a ticket
the price has already been paid
you
amen