Many of our choices are bad simply because we didn't have enough information. Dr. Tony Evans says God's Word gives us guidance even when life leaves us guessing. Scripture shows us the direction we should be heading. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When the power goes out, even familiar spaces can feel disorienting.
We bump into furniture, misjudge distances, and hesitate to move. Well, Dr. Evans says that's what life feels like without the guidance of God's Word. Today, he explains how Scripture doesn't just offer general wisdom, it provides personal direction. Let's join him as he explains.
There's not a Christian anywhere to be found who has not faced the issue of, what do I do? It reminds me of the question of Jehoshaphat when he was surrounded. He said, everywhere I looked, there was mess. So I looked north, there was northern mess. South, southern mess. East, eastern mess. West, western mess. There's just mess. And he just threw his hands up and he says, and I don't know what to do.
Anybody ever been in an I don't know what to do situation? You just don't know which way to go. According to the psalmist, thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. To put it another way, he says, Scripture shows us the direction we should be heading. First of all, it's a lamp. Not like we use lights today, because lights today with modern technology, a great illumination over a great area.
But in biblical days, when it was dark, you had a lamp, a lantern, an oil burning mechanism of some sort. And you didn't get to see these great distances in the dark, you got to see your next step. And isn't that so true of decisions? Even if I don't know what I'm ultimately going to do, show me what to do next. The psalmist says that the Bible, the word, is like a light that enables us to see in the darkness so that we stay on the right course and avoid that which will take us in the wrong direction. There's probably not a person in this room who is not guilty of making bad choices.
Now, if you live the life with no bad choices, please meet me after so I can find your secret. Now, many of our bad choices, it's not because we said, what bad choices can I make today, because we plan to make bad choices. Although sometimes that may be the case, many of our choices are bad simply because we didn't have enough information. We thought, but the realm of thinking was limited even though we thought it was a lot broader than it actually was. He says scripture is a lamp, is a light that allows you to sift through things to determine what is good, better, and best, what is right and wrong.
It gives you the ability to distinguish. The word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Let me zero in on a word here that's often ignored when we read this. He says that scripture is a light to my feet, and he says scripture is a light to my path. Now, the word is light, and the word does give you the correct path, but what he says is, this is personal to me, not simply general to all. Why is it that one Christian can go to church and find guidance from God and another Christian coming to the same church, hearing the same sermon, reading the same Bible from the same passage, having the same problem gets no illumination? Does God have favorites?
Does he like some and not like others? The psalmist said, this is very personal, maybe this will help. When you're flying on an airplane at night and they turn out all the lights, all the lights because they're going to let you sleep, but you want to read, above you there is a light pointed at your seat. That light is to illumine where you are with a directed ray so as not to disturb the person who is not interested in reading, but who would rather sleep, they've got their own light above them. So even though light is available to all generally, the light that will help you must be utilized specifically. If you don't touch your button above your seat to get your ray for your book, you don't get to do your reading. In other words, on a plane, while there is enough light for everybody sitting on the plane, it doesn't mean everybody will benefit from the sufficient light that has been provided for everyone on the plane.
And let me explain something. The way the lights are directed, you can't use my light for your reading. My light is my light. Your light is your light.
And if you try to use my light for your reading, you're going to hurt your eyes. In other words, God wants a personal relationship with you through his word, not simply a general relationship. That's why when you come to hear the word, you want to ask, Lord, what do you have for me today?
What do you want to say to me? Because while the Holy Spirit indwells all believers, the Holy Spirit has a unique word for each believer, given your unique personality, your unique background, your unique situation. You cannot reap the benefit of someone else's time in the word in terms of what the Holy Spirit wants to say to you. He says that the scripture is a lamp, it's a light, it helps me to see so that I am being directed by God. That's what you want. You want to be doing what God wants you to do.
Let me show you the problem. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
He says in verse 5, we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. You're in a battle, and whenever there is a conflict regarding a decision, there is a battle. The battle is waged in the mind.
What do I think I should do? He says, though we live in the flesh in our humanness, we do not operate by the flesh. Now here's the problem. The problem is far too many of us as Christians live in the flesh while also operating by the flesh. We operate on the level of our humanness only. He says you are to react, resist, tear down, destroy everything that interrupts your ability to get God's viewpoint. I like the way that Colossians unites this concept of tearing down lofty things and getting every thought captive to Christ.
He says in Colossians chapter 3, these words, Let the word of Christ, the Scriptures, richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thanksgiving in your hearts toward God. The word dwell means to make yourself at home. Far too many times, God is not at home. And you know, when a person's not at home, they're not going to communicate. When a person's not at home, they're not going to be relaxed.
They're not going to share what's on their heart because they don't feel like welcome there. What God says is that if you're going to hear from me and hear from me through my word, my word must dwell richly. My word must know that it's at home where you live. If I'm going to illuminate you, if I'm going to lead you, if I'm going to direct you, then let me be at home in you. Again, this concept of being at home is the concept of being filled with the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to have the word of Christ, which is the Spirit of Christ, absolutely, totally permeating you. And the more he permeates you, the more transformed you become.
This is revolutionary because many of us are trying to change from the outside in. He says, if you simply let me be at home by letting my word dwell richly, Lord, what do you want to say to me? I'm all ears. Talk to me. I'm listening. Tell me what you want me to do.
I'm yours. The Lord will say, oh, I'm home here. It's home.
Because they've made me comfortable. The word of Christ dwells richly. When God feels at home in your life, his word begins to take root, and that changes everything. Dr. Evans explains what happens next when he returns in just a moment.
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No, not at all. Observational science confirms the Bible over and over and over again. Equip yourself to face today's toughest cultural challenges with clarity and confidence. If we're going to deal with issues in our culture, we need to start from our foundation, first of all, to understand what we should believe. Discover faith-strengthening truths from Genesis, and explore more courses to deepen your understanding of God's word at tonyevanstraining.org. Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. Before we return to the second part of today's message, I want to let you know that this lesson is part of Dr. Evans' powerful series called The Benefits of Scripture.
Across six eye-opening messages, you'll discover how the Bible brings clarity, direction, freedom, and spiritual strength into our everyday lives. And for a limited time, we're offering the full audio collection as our thank-you gift, along with an added bonus when you support the ministry of the alternative. And that added bonus is your personal copy of the Tony Evans Bible Commentary, a valuable tool that covers the entire Bible with clear, practical insights you can understand and apply as you grow in your daily relationship with God.
This special offer will only be around for a short time, so don't wait. Visit tonyevans.org to make your request, or call our resource team anytime at 1-800-800-3222. I'll share that contact information again after part two of today's message.
Here's Dr. Evans once more. See, what we have to understand is that the direction of God through His word comes as it permeates the mind. Romans 12, 2 says that you may be renewed in your mind.
To renew the mind is to change the thinking. Whatever you choose to do in a decision in life is related to what you think. There's no choice without thought.
The question is, how do I know which choice I should make? Well, it will be determined by the mind. Romans 8 says the mindset on a human viewpoint is death. A mind focused on man's way won't get you where you're trying to go, no matter how sincere you are, because it's focused on the wrong thing.
On the other hand, the mind focused on Him through His word is the mind of life. That is the difference between a defeated Christian and a victorious Christian. It is the difference between a miserable single and a fulfilled single. It's the difference between a marriage that will make it and a marriage that won't make it. It's the difference between an addiction that won't go away and an addiction that a person gains victory over. It all has to do with the mind.
A biblical mind is when a biblical worldview permeates the person, giving the Holy Spirit freedom to take the truth of the word of God and direct the believer in the decisions of life. Put it another way, the closer you are, the better you hear. You say, but how do I know? There's a simple answer to that.
Here it is. When you are following God's word, when you are following God's word, the Spirit will move your thoughts and your desires in the direction of God's will. When you are moving according to the word, you're taking your cues from the Scripture, but you need a specific. It is the Spirit's job to work in your thinking and with your desires. See, that's what it means when it says the Lord will give you the desires of your heart. What it means is when your heart and His will are the same, you've just heard His voice. When your thinking and your heart and your desires are in agreement with His word, you just have the choice. So now you're doing it because you want to, because what you want is in agreement with what He wants, so you both have the same wants.
It fundamentally is giving God permission to use the Scripture as an X-ray machine. You go to the doctor and you say, Doc, this is what hurts. I have chest pains, or I got this trouble breathing, or whatever it is. Now, the doctor listens to you. You're talking to him, you're saying, what's wrong? And he listens. But if he's a doctor worth his salt, he doesn't determine his diagnosis simply by what you say.
Because all you can tell him is how you feel. What you can't tell him is what's wrong, that's why you're there. If you knew that you knew what was wrong, in fact, the reason why you're there is you tried to do it yourself, and it didn't work. You went up to Walgreens, you went over-the-counter.
That's all you can do. And there are a lot of over-the-counter Christians. And the problem is, you know, the tragedy of over-the-counter is after so many weeks, you ought to know this ain't it. This is not the solution to my problem. Something else is going on here, okay? But in our persistence, we stay over-the-counter since.
So we keep doing what we can do. But a doctor is not going to accept that. A doctor is going to give you some tests so that he can get inside and beneath the obvious. See, with the x-ray machine or the heart monitoring machine, he's going deeper than how you feel about it.
He wants to see what the root issue is. Now look at Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and is able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. In verse 12, he says, that's what the word can do. Verse 13, he says, that's what God does, because they work together.
And guess where it works? On the deep inner recesses of your heart. God is not concerned that you can repeat the sermon you heard. He wants to know whether he's been allowed to do an x-ray of your soul. If he can't do an x-ray, if you don't give him the right when you sit before the word or when you sit under the word to get an x-ray of the soul, then all you did was take over the counter medicine.
And when you got something going on on the inside, all over the counter medicine can do is fake you out. And in the decisions of life, you don't want to be faked. You want to be healed. So what you do when you go before the word personally or when you're under the word or in the word, and you should be both. You should be both under the word being taught.
You should be both in the word yourself is give the great physician to do the right to x-ray the heart. Lord, show me. Show me me so that I can see at what you see because only when you get the real diagnosis can you get the real treatment.
Only when you get the real diagnosis can you be fixed so that the decisions that you make are the ones that God once made. Those of you who go to the Mavericks games, they have this thing that they do and doing one of the segments or one of the time outs. They bring somebody on the floor and they blindfold them and they put them on their hands and knees. Then they got a gift or some money or something that they placed somewhere on the floor. Now the idea is blinded, this person is supposed to find the money. Now the way they're supposed to find the money is that the crowd is supposed to cheer when they're going in the right direction and boo when they're going in the wrong direction so that that will steer them the right way.
Rarely does anybody get that money. And the reason why is because they can't see. Because they can't see, they're discoordinated and on top of that I had a guy in back of me saying when he goes the right way let's boo. There were deceivers in the crowd.
Anybody know where I'm going? You can listen to the voices but you need somebody to take you by the hand and lead you the way you're trying to go. He says the word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
But we don't want the word a lot of times. Too much trouble. Too much trouble, too much trouble to be reading. No, I don't understand the Bible half the way. I don't understand the translation.
It's too much trouble. If you have a heart open to God, you're going to hear from God. You're going to hear from Him. If you have the mindset of the psalmist in Psalm 119, if you ever read it, read through it, you are going to hear His voice talk to you. If you can talk to the omniscient God and get from His book direction for your life, you may save a whole bunch of money, a whole bunch of time, and stop getting on everybody else's nerves about what you should do.
The problem is not that you talk to people. The problem is that you talk to them first before you've ever contacted God. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. He knows your ways.
He knows how to lead you in your way if you will do it based on His word. Dr. Tony Evans, reminding us that when we follow God's word, we never walk in the dark because His truth lights the way. Now don't forget to request your copy of this six-part series called The Benefits of Scripture.
The audio collection comes as instantly downloadable digital files, as well as in either a CD album or USB flash drive, and it includes full-length versions of all the messages in the series, including plenty of material we won't have time to present on the broadcast. And as a special bonus, we'll also include the Tony Evans Bible Commentary, a powerful companion resource that helps you explore every passage of the Bible with clear, practical insights you can apply to your everyday life. Both are yours with our thanks when you make a donation to support the work of the alternative. Just visit tonyevans.org, where you'll find all the details right on the home page, or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. If being blessed just meant having more stuff, then every wealthy person would be walking in joy and peace. But we know that's not always the case. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans looks at what the Bible really means by blessing and explains how delighting in God's Word can unlock a deeper, lasting joy that doesn't depend on your circumstances. Be sure to join us!
