God didn't just save you for heaven. He saved you for a duty on earth. But Dr. Tony Evans warns that God's calling has a catch. If you forget your homeland is heaven, you're going to become too attached to earth.
Earth now owns you. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. We know that God has a wonderful message for mankind, but we sometimes forget that we're the ones who are supposed to deliver it. Let's listen as Dr.
Evans talks about what it means to represent God's kingdom. The term fifth columnist. became used of An embedded group of people during the Spanish Civil War. They were there. In a foreign situation, in order to act on behalf.
of their country. They were in a foreign situation, but they were operating. For the benefit of this other land. And this embedded group Became known as Fifth Columnist. God has an embedded group.
A fifth columnist. Of Kingdom representatives. of men and women. Who have been saved not only for the purpose. of going to heaven when they die.
but of representing heaven while they live. This representative group. of kingdom followers. of kingdom disciples. Is a group of people who have been redeemed.
Taken out of darkness and into the marvelous light. For the purpose of representing heaven in history. Eternity in time. Their job is not to be co-opted by the culture. but to become God's representatives in the culture.
Based on the values of the kingdom of God. Their central understanding of their role. Is thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. These representatives. are specifically designated.
To serve heaven's interest. in a secular declining evil culture. The problem is, many of God's representatives have been. bought by the culture. owned by the culture.
and have adapted themselves. To the culture.
so that they're no longer representatives of the kingdom of God. They are now reps for the kingdom of man while carrying a kingdom of God designation. When Peter writes these Christians, he calls them beloved, that is, fellow saints. Yeah, it's He wants to talk to them about their responsibility and their role as kingdom representatives. Jesus said in Luke chapter 22, verse 29.
He said, my father has given me the kingdom and I give it to you.
So, kingdom responsibility was handed to Jesus, which is why when he was on earth, he said the kingdom of God is at hand. Then he took his disciples and he prepped them to become kingdom representatives. And so, they set the stage for the building of the church of God's people so that there would be this legacy, this transfer of kingdom representatives in the culture. And so he first of all wants you to. Know who you are.
I mean, notice the language he uses in verse nine. He says, you are a chosen race. In other words, you have been. Especially selected for this duty. God didn't just save you for heaven.
He saved you for a duty on earth. And you have been chosen, selected, elected. As kingdom disciples to function as kingdom servants. He says not only that. But you are a royal priesthood.
He brings together two concepts. Royalty has to do with kingship. Just in case you didn't know it, once you came to Christ, royal blood is now flowing through your veins. Because you're a child of the king. But he says, you're also a priest.
That's an intermediary between God and man. He says, You've been duly selected. You are a royal priesthood. You are owned by God. You are a people of God's possession.
You are owned by God. He has said in verse seven. That the stone that the builders rejected has become the very cornerstone. Palm Sunday, Jesus. was applauded.
One week later, Jesus is crucified. He was the stone that the builders rejected. But he says that stone. Resurrection Sunday. became the chief cornerstone.
Now, a chief cornerstone was an alignment stone and a stability stone for the building of a house or a building. You've seen perhaps houses on stilts where they're on the four corners of the house. The cornerstone was that concept. It held the building up, stabilized the building, and aligned the building so that it could function as it was crafted to function.
So, when the Bible says Jesus is the chief cornerstone, he is the stability for the building of your life and the building of this ministry. In other words, if you veer from him, you're on shaking ground. If you veer from him, things are going to become destabilized because he is the stable rock. He is the alignment. When we're out of alignment with him, Everything else is going to get out of alignment.
Because he is the stone that the builders rejected. He has become the chief cornerstone. In other words, all of history is tied up to how things are related to Jesus Christ. And he says, you have been chosen, selected, elected. to be royal people.
God's own possession. And intermediaries between God and man, in other words. You are somebody. The Queen of England one day, her daughter was slouching in a chair. She was saying, sit up, sit up, sit right.
She was slouched back in the chair. You got to sit up, sit up. She was slouched back in the chair. frustrated the Queen of England looked at her daughter and said, I told you, sit up. Don't you know who you are?
See, when you don't know who you are, you're going to slouch. When you don't know who you are, you're going to be confused. And that's exactly what has happened today. As the cornerstone is being abandoned, confusion is set in. Folk just don't know who they are.
The confusion is set in because when the stone gets shaky, your identity becomes confusing. on a whole lot of levels.
So Jesus is that stable place. He's that. He's that point of reference. When Peter Got confused about the race issue. He became too Jewish.
He became a racist Jew. And Paul showed up and said, In Galatians 2, verse. 11 to 19, he says, Peter, you have embarrassed the gospel. Because you forgot who you are. And then he quotes to Peter, 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 in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. In other words, Peter, you have to understand, you're supposed to be a Christian first.
Everything else has to be subjected to that. And the moment something else trumps that. Your background, your history, your mama, your daddy, your race, your color, your politics, whatever it is that gets in the way of Jesus Christ being first. means you are shaky ground. because you're out of alignment.
And stability will not be, and so what you're having today is not only a culture out of alignment, but a lot of Christians out of alignment because they don't know who they are. And so we start with the references of the culture rather than the references of Christ and adapt that to the culture. He says your identity must become clear because if you don't know who you are, the enemy will tell you who you are and you'll become confused.
So He wants us to know that we have an identity that makes me remember Philippians chapter. Two in Philippians chapter two. Paul says to them in chapter 3, verse 20. He says, for our citizenship is in heaven. From which we also eagerly wait for a Saviour.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know you're a citizen of heaven? He says your citizenship. Yeah. Your homeland.
It's not earth. You are visiting here. He calls it in, Peter, you are an alien and a stranger. You passing through this neighborhood. He says, your homeland is heaven.
But if you forget your homeland is heaven. you're going to become too attached to earth. And once you become too attached to Earth, Earth now owns you. Yeah. From the human standpoint, I know we're citizens of this country.
But your ultimate allegiance. is as a citizen of heaven. that you belong to another order. Dr. Evans will talk more about the importance of maintaining loyalty to our true homeland.
When he continues in just a moment, stay with us. If you're like most Christians, there are people in your life who know you, but may not know Jesus. You really want to do something about that, but don't feel equipped to share your faith effectively. In other words, maybe if you knew more, you could do more.
Well, that's where the Tony Evans Training Center comes in. It's an online Bible school with classes that'll take you deep into the most important core concepts of the faith. You can start with our free introductory course on evangelism, then move on to subjects like spiritual warfare, marriage building, maturing in the faith, and many more. The content is challenging, but you can move through it at your own pace anytime you're online. There's also lots of custom content from Tony and an online forum where you can get your specific questions answered.
Go to tonyevans.org and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone. If you're ready to take what you've been hearing on today's broadcast further, Tony has created a powerful new set of resources to help you do just that. is called the Unleashing the Kingdom bundle. featuring all twelve full-length messages from this series, plus Tony's brand new book, Unleashed.
as well as the Companion Unleashed Bible Study Guide. complete with bonus streaming video lessons from Dr. Evans. Together, they'll help you discover how God's kingdom can be unleashed in your personal life and your relationships. creating a powerful and vital impact on the world around you.
This special package is our gift to you. When you make a contribution to help us continue sharing Dr. Evans' teaching here each day. You can request it online at tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information for you after the second part of today's lesson. Here's Dr. Evans once again. Philippi was almost a thousand miles from Rome.
But it was a Roman colony.
So even though it was a thousand miles from Rome. They operated by Roman laws. They operated by Roman ordinances. They operated by Roman governance. In other words, Rome influenced how they operate because even though they were a long way away, they were a colony of Rome.
You and I are supposed to be a colony of heaven.
So that the values of heaven influence us, guide us, govern us, not the guidelines of the culture when they disagree with heaven. Whenever this world disagrees with God, this world is wrong. No matter how much you like it, love it, live in it, want it, once it disagrees with God, it becomes an illegitimate foreign territory. He says, You are citizens of heaven. And that's why he says in the previous verse of Philippians 3, verse 19, he says, These folk who don't understand that set their minds on earthly things.
Now make no mistake about it. Your feet are to be firmly planted on the ground. but your mind is to get its information from heaven.
So you are to draw down information from heaven and execute it in the location of earth. But if all you're drawing is the information of Earth and executing that on Earth, you're going to miss the stability of heaven when you need it. When you need victory, when you need governance, guidance, deliverance, when you need the stability of Christ. he says you need to know who you are you are under new management now In other words, when you change companies and you go from one company to another company, that previous company has no longer any ultimate authority over you because you don't work for them anymore. Once you came to Christ and left the kingdom of darkness and entered into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of darkness does not dictate to you anymore.
It does not have legitimate authority over you anymore.
Now, I must admit, Satan is a good identity thief. He knows how to steal folks' identity. He can make you think thoughts that are not your thoughts. He can make you go ways that are not your ways because he is slick in his ability to trip you up. That's why Peter wants them to know their true kingdom identity so that they're thinking heavenly while living on earth.
So, you and I are not to be so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good. The idea is to take heaven's information and execute it in Earth's environment. He says that you are a special people. You are an elected people. You are a royal people.
You are a priestly people. You're under new management now.
Now what the culture wants to do. is keep you in church. As long as You don't promote it out there. Hitler. Call the pastors together.
Yeah. He called the pastors together in Germany. Because he had a problem. The problem is As long as people could appeal to God. He could not have ultimate control of their lives.
As long as there was this higher authority. that they could appeal to. As long as there was this transcendent reality. Then the government of Germany, led by the Führer himself, could not have ultimate control.
So he called all the pastors together. And he said, look, I'm for you guys. I'm for your churches. I tell you, let's make a deal. You take care of their souls.
And I'll take care of everything else. I give you permission to have great worship services and you take care of that journey to heaven. but everything else related to Earth. I got that. Yeah.
Most of the pastors bought into it.
Some rebelled, like a man named Diedrich Bonhoeffer. DJ Bonhoeffer said, no, Jesus is king over all things. Jesus is ruler over all things. including the government. And he rebelled.
Hitler took Diedrich Bonhoeffer and some of the pastors who didn't go along with restricting faith. to a building and he locked them up. He killed Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a way to silence the church from doing anything outside of its walls.
So, when Germany went to kill six million Jews. The church was silent. Because the church had nothing to say, because it had been turned over to the government to handle. In fact, one gentleman was asked. When you heard the trains passing by.
And the people crying out for help, knowing they were on their way to Auschwitz or to one of the gas ovens, or when you could hear them screaming because some of the churches were located near the train track, when you were worshiping and singing and you heard these people crying for help, what did the church do? And the man said, We sang louder. That's what happens when when you don't understand that we are kingdom representatives. We're satisfied with singing louder. not publicly declaring Jesus is Lord everywhere.
that Jesus Christ and his kingdom Transcends what happens in the building. For an hour and a half or two hours on Sunday morning. Because our job is to represent a king and his kingdom in a culture. That is collapsing. And so he says, you need to know who you are.
That you're not just Somebody on their way to heaven, if you've accepted Christ, you're somebody God wants to use on earth. You're supposed to be a kingdom disciple who is a kingdom servant who is going to make a kingdom impact. You are to be an influencer to serve notice on the culture. that Jesus Christ is here. that his kingdom is alive and well, and I am his official rep.
I have been duly authorized to represent the king in the culture. In fact. You have a specific title. Let me tell you your title. From 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Paul writing to this Church that was in this secular. Idolatrous culture. He says to them in verse 20. Therefore, We are ambassadors for Christ as though God was making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Did you know you an ambassador? An American ambassador. Is a citizen of the United States. that's been duly deputized to go to another country. and represent the United States in the foreign land.
He just called you an ambassador. And you are somebody. Because your job is to take the values of the kingdom of heaven and promote them in the culture that you live in, on the job you work in, in the neighborhood where you reside, to your family members to whom you are connected. You are an ambassador of the kingdom of God. You're not an ambassador of the culture.
Unless it agrees with God. The moment the culture disagrees with God, you must disagree with the culture. You didn't hear that. The moment the culture disagrees with God, you must disagree with the culture because you're not an ambassador of the land you're in. You're an ambassador of the place you're from, and you are a citizen of heaven.
So, heaven's values is to inform your words. It's to inform your politics. It is to inform your view of race. It is to inform your view of sexuality. It is to inform your view of marriage.
It is to inform your view of right. It is to inform your view of wrong. It is to inform every aspect of life because you are a citizen from up there. You're not a citizen from down here. And we've got.
churches and pastors and people at acquiescing to the culture. Do you know what they do with an ambassador? Who no longer is representing them the land they're from, but starts getting too friendly with the land they're in. They recall them. They recall them because they are useless.
because they're not doing the job that they were sent to do. God has got a lot of folk keeping the title who he wants to recall because they're useless for the job. They're not representing the kingdom of God in the culture of men. Their values have acquiesced to the culture. Their worldview has acquiesced to the culture.
And rather than repenting and returning, they have gotten comfortable in the culture rather than representing the kingdom and being an influencer for the kingdom of God. You are an ambassador.
So the question is, are you a good one or are you a bad one? Because you are one. He says, I saved you not just to go to heaven when you die, but to represent me while you live. You are an ambassador of Christ. bringing healing and reconciliation.
And of course, that starts with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we're his ad agency because we are proclaiming him. who has called us out of darkness into the marvelous light. Dr. Tony Evans with a compelling message on the important task God has given those who believe.
Now, before we wrap up today, I want to remind you about that special resource package I mentioned earlier. It includes the complete Unleashing the Kingdom audio series, along with Tony's brand new Unleashed Book and Bible Study Guide, featuring streaming video lessons from Doctor Evans. It's one of the most comprehensive teaching bundles we've ever offered. And for the next couple of days, you can get the entire package as our gift. when you make a donation to help support the Alternative Broadcast Ministry.
Just visit Tony Evans dot org today to make your request and donation. or call our resource center at 1-800-800-32-22. where team members are available around the clock to assist you. That's 1-800-800-3222. or online at tonyevans.org.
Well, coming up tomorrow, we're in the world for a reason. And Dr. Evans points out that when believers start paying more attention to their role as ambassadors for Christ, they'll begin to see the Lord move more definitively in their lives. It's the powerful conclusion to the lesson he began today. Be sure to join us for that.
