God has a kingdom. This kingdom is the joy of the Holy Ghost. Dr. Tony Evans says getting close to God doesn't involve changing our external location, but our internal condition. This kingdom goes beyond what you can get physically, and the joy of the Lord will be your strength.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. A car without an engine can look good, but it's not going to take you very far. Today, Dr. Evans explains that the same is true of a Christian without the power of the Holy Spirit in their life.
Let's join him as he begins. In your pursuit of God. In your Desire for Spiritual Passion. The Holy Spirit is indispensable. He is not a negotiable item.
No place points that out than when the Spirit was introduced. to the inauguration of the church in Acts one and two. Four things come out of our Thoughts today? First of all, the purpose of the Spirit's power. Jesus in chapter one, Luke is the one writing, but referring to Jesus Christ.
In verse two, until the day when he was taken up, after he had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom we had chosen.
So, Jesus now has given instruction to the apostles. as to how they were to function while he leaves and goes to heaven. In verse three, he says, To these he also presented himself alive, risen from the dead. After having suffered, by many convincing proofs appearing to them over a period of 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. He was introducing his people through his leadership to a whole new orientation of life.
That new orientation is called in the Bible the kingdom. The kingdom are the new guidelines for how life is to be lived in this new realm that a converted person becomes a part of when they become a Christian. And that new environment is called the kingdom. Jesus had promised them that he was going to leave. He was going to exit.
He was going to ascend to his father, but he would not leave them. Alone. He was going to leave another helper. This helper was called the Holy Spirit. And it was the Holy Spirit's job to be to them and us what he had been to them over three years.
He's called the helper. In other words, God fully understands. You can't pull off what he expects. The challenges that you face in your personal life. The challenges in our marriages.
The challenges of our attitudes, the challenges of our personalities, barring biological. Anomalies, the challenges that are involved in those things will not merely be overcome simply because you come to church and get new data. That's not enough. It is not enough simply to have the truth of God. It's critical, but it is insufficient to have the truth of God taught to you because there is no power in information alone.
There must be the actualization of the third member of the Trinity. the Holy Spirit.
However, Far too many of us have become like fans at a game. Who sit in the stands watching players on the field or on the court do their thing? never having had the experience ourselves. All we do is enjoy the show and applaud the effort. By the way, always critiquing what's happening on the floor.
It's easy to critique if you're in the stands. You just need to understand that. He should have made that shot.
Well You may have a point. But at least he on the floor to take it. Sitting in your seats right now, and I trust that they are comfortable. Are merely bleachers. It's the place where you come to extract what is provided in an atmosphere hopefully of worship.
But it is not sufficient simply to be in the stands. There must be The personal involvement of the believer In accessing the power of the provision and promise of the Spirit. that Jesus has made available to every Christian equally. No Christian has more Of the presence of the Holy Spirit than another Christian.
However, some Christians have more of the power of the Holy Spirit. than other Christians. All Christians have the presence. Only some enjoy the power. What were they to do?
Jesus tells them in chapter one. In verse 4, Gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which he says, you heard from me. Go and wait. Tell you in the spirit. have connected.
Now, these were serious days in which Jesus said this. This is a very serious time. There was persecution. There was uh fear. There were negative circumstances.
There was doubt. I mean, even when Jesus arose from the dead and they came and saw him and said, some doubted.
So these are not the best of times. Jesus knowing what they would face. Says you go out And you get together. And you into my presence until. The Spirit comes.
Because I know if you just jump out there based on what I taught you. You won't mean well, but when push comes the shove, there will be no power. Most of us on Sunday leave church and mean well. We make promises to ourselves, promises to other people. And before we've exited the parking lot.
That meaning well has gone out the door. Because there is no power in promises. There is no power in meaning well. It's like New Year's resolution, it's a good idea. There's just no power in it.
So Jesus tells them because he knew the issues they would face. that in spite of the theological education he had given them. He wanted them to know that knowing the fundamentals will make you a mechanical Christian, it won't make you a powerful one. When the day of Pentecost had come, Chapter 2, verse 1 says, they were all gathered together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind.
And it filled the whole house where they were sitting. It also says. There appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves as they rested on each one of them.
Now, a couple of observations here. The tongues were as of fire. In other words, when they spoke the word, those words were not going to just fall as just information from Webster's dictionary. Those things were going to shake something.
So the Holy Spirit has turned things in the wind. And now he's lit things up.
So that now ordinary speech becomes superordinary communication.
Now this leads to a very interesting scenario, verse 4. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And began speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. He says that they begin to speak things that they didn't know. Or to put it another way, They had a supernatural experience.
120 people in the room. Let's go back and describe this 120 folks. The leaders looked at him in chapter four and say, these are unlearned men. They don't even have a college education. That's what the assumption was.
You got Peter, he's the non-Lord. After being with him three years, you got Dalton Thomas. He said, I ain't gonna believe it. I'm from Missouri. Show me.
You got the people on the Amaz Road, they living a life of depression.
Okay, they depressed.
Now all of them Christians. You got a denying Christian. You got a doubting Christian. You got depressed Christians. It says, and they all were afraid of the Jews.
So you got scared Christians. You got Christians who have blown it every way conceivable. You've got a hundred and twenty Defeated people gathered in the room, and that's good news. Because that means if you don't have it all together yet, but you're willing to come into his presence and stay there, he can turn defeat into victory because you're in the right room. Folk who was too scared to say anything because we're told in the scripture they hid.
For fear of the Jews. There are Jews everywhere. But because the Holy Spirit had shown up. The folks who a couple of days earlier were too scared to say anything, too scared to go out in public, it says.
Now, because they've been endowed with this supernatural ability, it says. There were Jews living, verse five in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the mighty rushing wind, the multitude came together and were perplexed. bewildered because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and marveled saying why are not all these who speak Galileans. In other words, where they learn this.
What happened? Holy Ghost showed up. Holy Spirit showed up. They became filled with the Spirit and therefore they could do supernatural things that they could never have even learned to do in time naturally because God had shown up in the place. Dr.
Evans will unpack what it truly means to live under God's supernatural control and why it changes everything. when he returns in just a moment. But first, if you long to experience more of God's power at work in your life, Tony's series, Soul Starved, Journey to the Source, can show you how. In these 12 full-length lessons, you'll discover how spiritual hunger connects you to God's supernatural provision, even when your resources seem small. Along with the audio collection, available as instant digital downloads, as well as on either CD or USB flash drive.
We'll also include Tony's remarkable book, God Himself. It's an invitation to know your Creator more deeply. and to see how His strength becomes your strength. when you live in alignment with who He is. This special package is our gift to you when you make a donation to support the Ministry of the Alternative.
Just visit Tony Evans.org to make your donation and request. or call 1-800-800-3222. where our friendly team members are available to help with your resource request 24-7. I'll repeat our contact information for you after part two of today's message and this. Let me start off by thanking all of our friends for how you've walked with us and stood by us all year long.
We felt your prayers and they've made a difference in the lives of people that we've had the privilege of ministering to. And as we anticipate the new year, we want to not only end this year strong, but go into the new year, able to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the building of strong biblically based families, for strengthening churches so that they're able to do the work of kingdom building God has called them to do. and for speaking into the culture. This culture needs to hear a word from God and a word that works and that's what we're committed to do. Stand with us with your generosity and your prayers because you know this word, a word that the world desperately needs today.
Visit tonyevans.org to give. That's tonyevans.org. The filling of the spirit is when you come under God's supernatural control, watch this, and act outside of your natural self. Let me say that again. The filling of the spirit is where you come under God's control to the point where you act outside of your normal self.
The Bible says, be not drunk with wine, Ephesians 5:18, but be filled with the Spirit.
Now, what happens when a person is drunk with wine? They act outside themselves. When you're not drunk with wine, you walk like this. When you are drunk with wine, you're all over the place. Why?
Because something else is now controlling your motor skills. When you are not drunk with wine, you talk in normal conversation. When you are drunk with wine, you stammer and stutter because something else is controlling your ability to communicate. When you're not drunk with wine, you may be more of a reserved person. You get drunk with wine.
Now you think you pavarate. Why? Because being drunk with wine causes you to act outside of your natural self. He says Don't be drunk with wine, Ephesians 5:18, but be filled with the Spirit. And the way you know that you are filled with the Spirit is you're acting outside your natural self.
Where you would normally cuss somebody out, you now find the ability to control your tongue. Where you normally would hate, you now find the ability to love. Where you normally would be one way, you are now supernaturally another way because you have now become filled with a force outside of yourself. That's what happened here. When they were completely controlled by the Holy Spirit because they were living in his presence, they were now experiencing something of a much higher level.
They had experienced what I like to call the updraft of the Spirit. The updraft of the spirit, meaning by that, where the wind of God blew them higher than ground earth. where they were no longer talking as mere men. where they were not speaking as people who were powerless, who had no. Ability who could not adjust, where now they were drafted up by the Spirit of God so that they took on heavenly characteristics.
In the Bible, the filling of the Spirit is not an invisible thing, or else you could never use it as a criteria. Yet, when he told them to choose the leaders in Acts chapter 6, he said, choose men who are filled with the spirit. That means the filling of the spirit is an observable commodity. What does the filling of the spirit look like? It looks like folk who act outside themselves.
Folks who do not live on the level of the earth. That you find them living on the level of heaven, even though they are functionally and physically located on earth. Earth does not control how they function because they are living based on a whole new standard because they've been updrafted by the breeze of the spirit. He has picked them off the ground so that they're now living at a totally nother level. You say, but you don't know my problem.
I know this about your problem. It's an earthly one. I don't care what it is, it's an earthly problem.
Okay. It's an earthly situation, no matter what it is, but you say, my problem is insurmountable. It is only insurmountable as long as you're on earth. As long as you're on ground level, it's insurmountable because it may be a hill and you may be in a valley. But if you can be updrafted, And pick up outside of your natural self and lift it higher, then your problem may not change, but your relationship to it may.
That's like the wife said, but my husband's never gonna change.
Okay, let's take the worst case scenario that your husband is never gonna change. All right, that's the worst case. Anyone in that situation, don't raise your hand. My husband is never, ever gonna change, or vice versa. My wife is never ever gonna change.
All right. The problem is They may never change. But because you are living on the same level. You find it impossible to deal with that changeless situation. But if you are updrafted.
By the power of the Spirit. Then even though he does not change. Because you have changed the position from which you are looking at him or her or the problem at work or whatever it is, it changes how you are, even though there's no change in your situation. If you want to give up, and it could be anything, whatever it is you want to give up on, if you want to give up before you've been updrafted. Before you've waited in God's presence, before you have pursued the Holy One and his.
Filling. Then you want to give up too soon. You've not gone all the way.
Now we can talk about Holy Ghost power. Don't tell me Holy Ghost power. Oh, the Holy Ghost was here this morning because I shouted. Oh, the Holy Ghost was at church today.
Well, how you know? You acting the same way in the parking lot. How in the world would you know where the Holy Ghost was today? The Holy Ghost is more than that. It's more than roaring like lions, barking like dogs, laughing like hyenas.
He's more than that. His job is to cause you to live outside of your natural self. His job is to make you do stuff you don't want to do. Caused you to act in ways you wouldn't naturally act, caused you to respond in ways you wouldn't normally respond.
Now we can talk about you found the power. Because I have something to do with something. It has something to do with not just momentary moments. It has to do with God gave me the ability to act outside of myself. He transformed these people.
And they declared his mighty works. It says At the end of verse 11, they declared, speaking the mighty deeds of God. These were the same scared people a couple of days ago.
Now they rattling off at the mouth. What changed them? Nothing but a new wind. Let me tell you something about Holy Ghost, the feeling. Yesterday's filling can't help you today.
You got to have fresh wind and fresh fire. Yesterday's wind was good yesterday.
Okay, you can't bring stale Holy Ghost. But let me tell you a secret. Romans 14 says The kingdom of God. is not eating and drinking. That's stuff you do to maintain your physical well-being, eat and drink, right?
He says, that's not this kingdom. This kingdom Is the joy of the Holy Ghost. This kingdom goes beyond what you can get physically. Eating and drinking. It has to do with what God supernaturally does, and the key to it, he says.
is that what the Holy Spirit brings when the Holy Spirit shows up. is joy.
Now, you know what? You can do a lot when you have joy. Yeah. See, joy will keep you from quitting something. You may hate your work.
That is the stuff you do. But if you have joy in the environment, you can deal with the work if you have joy. Have you ever been happy on the inside and been able to deal with mess on the outside? Because there was joy. He says that's the kingdom because when the Holy Spirit comes and updrafts you, he leaves you joy behind and joy is internal stability regardless of external scenarios.
Dr. Tony Evans, talking about what it's like to live life in the Spirit. and he'll return in a moment to wrap up today's programme with a final story.
Well, as we've been learning, believers don't have to live with a restless heart or a weary spirit. In his book God Himself, Dr. Evans unpacks what it means to encounter the living God. the only one who can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul. It's an invitation to stop settling for substitutes and start living from the source.
Request your copy of God Himself. And we'll also include all 12 messages in the current Soul Starved series from Dr. Evans when you make a contribution to help keep the alternative on the air. You can do that easily at tonyevans.org. or by calling 1-800-800-3222.
or a friendly member of our resource team is ready to help with your request. Again, that's tonyevans.org. or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. Like electricity flows through a power line, God's grace is intended to flow through us to others. Tomorrow, Dr.
Evans explains what needs to happen if something's blocking that flow. Right now, though, he's back with this story to wrap up today. A couple of years, we took our kids to Disneyland. Disney World. One year we went to California.
The other year we went to Florida. It's called the magic kingdom. It really is like a magic kingdom, you know. You know, we drove one time to Florida and then we drove one time to LA. And, you know, everybody, you know, those long drives are hot and tired and miserable.
But when they saw, The top of the cast. And they saw a picture of Mickey Mouse. They knew a change was going to come. We come up to the magic kingdom. You take a little boat across the dock, and you enter into a whole new world.
It's a whole new phenomenon because everything in the kingdom. is designed to rally around the same thing. It comes in different ways, but you can go nowhere in the magic kingdom and miss the fact. That you're in Mickey's house.
Now, Mickey got a lot of buddy. He got Goofy. He got Donald Duck. You know, he's got all these characters. And no matter where you go, you're running into something that reminds you: this world in here ain't that world out there.
This world in here operates different. It functions different. You know, when the kids got tired, Cinderella would show up. And that spurt back up when there was always something. to come alongside to remind you you were in a totally different Environment.
You also knew when you left. The magic was gone. Because all the magic of Disneyland is in. The kingdom. Yeah.
God has a kingdom. And he wants wherever you go, you run into that kingdom. Wherever you go, you run into that king. He wants to be the source and substance of the kingdom, and he guarantees you in the updraft. While the situation may not disappear, the supernatural will be present, and the joy of the Lord will be your strength.
