God wants to make it inextricably clear your relationship to him vertically includes your relationship to others horizontally. Dr. Tony Evans says that's why church needs to be more than just a social gathering. Real people in real relationships are meeting real needs in a real way. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. Every one of us belongs to a family. But Dr. Evans points out that Christians are a part of a second family. And today he'll talk about how God expects us to invest in and strengthen the relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let's turn to Romans chapter 12 as he begins. When God created the church, he was creating an environment for spiritual family relationships to be fostered. He never created the church simply to be a classroom for you to get instruction. He certainly didn't create it for it to be a theater where you come to watch a performance. He created it to be a community where authentic Christianity is lived out.
He wants the church to be a community. Of authenticity.
Well Real people. in real relationships are meeting real needs. In a real way. Paul in writing the church at Rome. It's calling them to the big gift first to God.
God will then push that back to you, and He wants you to push it out to others. And that's why He begins in verse. 9. Let love be without Hypocrisy. A poor would of evo cling to what is good.
He says, let not your love be hypocritical. Don't be a hypocrite. The church was meant to be a place where authentic relationships could be lived out in community. That was God's intention. We want to be liked, we want to be loved, we want to be appreciated, we want to be valued, and so in order to do that.
Madison Avenue has worked it up that we can paint well. We can make Clever look like leather. We can make things gold-plated when they aren't gold at all. And we can wear the mask.
Now let me tell you the problem with the mask. The Bible says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. The Bible then goes on to say, 1 John 1, that when you operate in the dark, With the mask on, when you operate hidden before God. Then you are not In God's presence.
And he says, love is without hypocrisy, no mask. Abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good.
So he gives the two boundaries of love. Love doesn't skip evil and it doesn't ignore good. It calls what's wrong wrong, it calls what's right right, because love doesn't negate the truth. He says, now in community, in the body of Christ. There ought to be an environment.
where you can be loved without wearing a mask. Without being a hypocrite, without being an act. It is important. 1 John chapter 4, verses 12 and following. Much of what God decides to do.
or not do With, to, and for you. is predicated on what you do with two and for others. He says, I want love to be without hypocrisy. I want the real deal. He goes on to verse 10, be devoted to one another.
We have two one-anothers in one verse. In brotherly love, that word brotherly love deals with family love, like Philadelphia. It deals with the love in the context of a family. In brotherly love, give preference to one another, one another again, in honor. The word devoted is the word that means committed.
This is not a word of casual relationships. There was no thought in the Bible that the church would be a place of casuality. I casually drive up, I casually walk in, I casually sit down, I casually listen, I casually leave. He says, No, no, your gathering is to be a place of devoted, like folks are within a family. Brotherly love, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
That's where the word comes from. It deals with family kind of relationships, folk who are living together. In the same spiritual house, which is why the Bible calls the church the family of God. He wants it to be a place where people are committed to one another. devoted to one another.
and of benefit to one another.
Now, we are living in a very selfish world. We're living in a world, even in a Christian world, where it's about me, myself, and I. You hear it all the time. I say it all the time. People come to church to get their blessing.
How many people have you heard or met coming in the church who said, I came to church today to find out how I could be a blessing? It's usually they've come to get their blessing. The reason why God calls you into community is that you belong to something bigger than your solo act. Than me, myself, and I, than just you. You, it's interesting when teenagers want their own room and they want their own space, they will come out when they want something.
And usually the thing they come out for that they won't, they didn't pay for. They want to rob the refrigerator. They want to ask for gas money. They want to use keys to the car. They want something for them.
Other than that, leave me alone. And I will shut my door. and prefer you put a lock on it. In fact, they can become self-sufficient, put their own TV in, their own iPad, their own iTunes. They can eye themselves to death.
And in a house of a family, pretend nobody lives there but them. God wants to make it inextricably clear that your relationship to him vertically includes your relationship to others horizontally. I'm going somewhere with this. Stick with me. Your relationship with him vertically, it all starts with the big give to God, present your body, but it doesn't end there.
Your relationship to him vertically includes. your relationship to him horizontally.
So God will look at What he does with you, to you, and through you, and for you. And juxtaposition that to what you do with for two and through the benefit of others. And if there is nothing that goes through you, you may be limiting what comes to you. Let me say that again. If God can't get anything to flow through you, you may just have limited the prayer you've asked him to do for you because you are always, always, always blessed to be a blessing.
And that's why there's so many one-anothers in scripture over and over and over and over again. He says it is a family issue, and you ought to be the big giver, not only to yourself, not only to God, but to benefit others, the one-anothers. giving preference and honor. to someone else. It's amazing how many people want the church in their emergencies.
It's amazing how many people want the church. For them. but never want God to use them to benefit others in the church. Unfortunately, many of God's children are leeches. You know what a leech is: it's something that will suck your blood and leave you nothing valuable in return.
Pray for me, bless me, sing to me, preach to me, serve me, help me, comfort me, strengthen me. Do all this for me. Expect little from me. That's what leeches do. He says I want you to give preference to one another.
I want you to be an environment. Not only of meeting convenient needs, but I want you to give even meeting preferential needs. I want you to watch this now: look for opportunities to impact somebody outside of yourself. If I would recast the verse, I want you to look, I want you to be searching. For opportunities to impact somebody outside of you.
Now, why would you go through all that trouble to search for opportunity when you got all this stuff happening in your own life? When you got all this difficulty in your own, why would you go looking for opportunities to impact somebody outside of you? Because God pays attention to the horizontal when He's ready to move on the vertical. When you're wanting something to come to you, reach out beyond you because when you reach out beyond you you get god's attention on you So, the best way to get God to move for you is to see you moving for the benefit of someone else. You remember I said give and it will be given to you.
Yeah. He says, whatever the it is you need. In addition to your general obedience to God, look for that need to be met in somebody else. See, we get stuck with, I have this need, meet this need, help me, do this for me. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with calling on God for you.
But the best way to get God's attention is what the need you have, reach it to somebody else who has it. Because now you have become a vehicle of a blessing. You become a conduit. doctor Evans will have more about moving those blessings along to your church family when he returns in just a moment. First, though, I want to tell you about a great conduit of blessing that flows in both directions.
It starts when we send you all six messages in Tony's current teaching series, Return on Investment. which covers vital biblical principles like surrender, service, and the benefits of investing our lives in the Lord. Along with it will also include the companion study guide that's perfect for use with your personal devotions as well as with your Bible study or small group.
Now all we ask is that you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching coming your way. You can make the arrangements today to get your Return on Investment Resource Packet. before this limited time offer runs out. You can do that online at tonyevans.org. or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 or a team member is ready to help.
Again, one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two.
Well, Dr. Evans will return with more of today's message right after this.
Sometimes the clearest moments come when you step away from the noise. and give your soul room to breathe. This February, you're invited to experience that kind of renewal on a Caribbean cruise with Dr. Tony Evans. Join Dr.
Evans and Friends of the Ministry February 28th through March 7th for a seven-day journey from Fort Lauderdale. You'll visit Nassau, the unspoiled beaches of Grand Turk, and Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, along with peaceful days at sea and a relaxing stop at Half Moon Cay. Together, these moments create the perfect setting for rest, reflection, and spiritual growth. And on board, you'll experience inspiring teaching, uplifting worship, and meaningful connection. This isn't just a vacation.
It's an opportunity to return home refreshed, refocused, and renewed. Don't miss your chance to be part of it. Visit tonyevans.org and make your reservation today. That's TonyEvans.org. Let's rejoin Dr.
Evans now in Romans chapter 12. He says. In verse 11, not lagging behind in diligence. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Not lagging behind.
but fervent. Anybody have children in your house that lag behind? You tell them to do something? And they doing like this? They're going real slow.
Any of you ladies married to men who lag behind? You give him a honey-do list, and it's been three months. He ain't done none of them yet. Lagging behind means moving slow when you ought to be moving fast. You're in the slow lane.
You're not in the fast lane. You're lagging behind. He adds another word to it, fervent. The word fervent means to boil over. It's like heating water up for tea and you get it on a boil.
Fervent means to boil it. Not only does God want you to impact the life of another, he wants you to put it on boil. He wants that thing hot. He wants you to go for it. He'll just want you to throw some slop out there.
He wants you to zero in on that thing. And say, God, this is what you want me to do. And let me put it another way. When God impacts you to do something for somebody else, don't delay. That's another way to say it.
When God touches you and says, Look, you know what? You can do something about that. You can help that situation. You can do something over there. Don't say next week.
Because Guess what? You're going to lose the boil. Have you ever noticed that? When you delay, the fire begins to die out. And no longer is it something I feel I must do.
We, what the Bible calls it, quenching the spirit, putting the fire out. When God lights something in you and he says to you, I'm talking to you. That's something you can help with. That's somebody you can pray for. That's a situation you can make better.
He said, don't lag behind. Turn the fire up and let it boil. Because in doing that, you're not only helping that, you're helping you. He says, Be fervent in spirit. Let the fire burn.
And he says, Don't just do it for people. He says, serving the Lord at the end of verse 11. Yeah, you're doing it to benefit people, but you're actually getting God's attention because you're actually serving the Lord. You're actually focusing in on God. He goes on and he says, Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
Let me say about practicing hospitality. Let's say you're looking at the bulletin. And you come across John Doe. And John Doe in the bulletin is struggling with cancer.
Okay, the note under John Doe's name is Cancer.
Now, you don't know John Doe, he's a stranger to you. You know, he's a brother of Christ because he's in the bullet, but you don't know John Doe who he is. You couldn't point him out in the congregation, you just see the name John Doe. But what you are familiar with is his situation. because you've had cancer.
And maybe you've been healed with cancer.
So you don't know John Doe. But God impresses on you, you know what? I needed an encouraging word when I was struggling with cancer. John Doe probably needs an encouraging word. And the Holy Spirit, whose job it is to prick your heart about what you should do, strikes John Doe's name and he seats it there in your heart.
So, you, although John Doe is a stranger to you, you've never met John Doe, you take your bulletin home and you pick up the telephone and you say, John Doe, I just happened to be reading the bulletin today. I see you're struggling with cancer. I just want you to know I've been there. God met me, God gave me some encouragement, God healed me, and I just called to pray for you, to let you know, even though I've never met you, don't know you, you're a stranger to me. I just want you to know that God loves you and I believe that the same God that came through for me can come through for you.
And maybe sometime we need to meet in church and I can pray with you physically, but right now you're my stranger, and I'm going to pray for you. And if there's something practically I can do, contribute the needs, cook a meal, provide a gift, whatever it is, I'm going to do that because God has laid John Doe on my heart. Let me tell you why that's important. Because the book of Hebrews chapter 13 says, by taking care of strangers, you entertain angels unaware. The Greek word for angels, angelos, means messenger.
And a messenger is a divinely assigned being. to bring God's answer to you. Angels are angels have full-time jobs, and their job is to deliver God's message to his people.
Sometimes they're spiritual angels God uses, sometimes they're human angels God uses, but he uses scenarios to bring to you the solution you were looking at for you.
So, when you go to practice hospitality in a responsible way to a stranger, you may be going to the situation that God wants to use to give you the answer you've been waiting to hear from. See, God has got this thing so that the vertical and the horizontal, when they connect, not only benefits what you go out to, but what you're looking for. I am just fascinated. And the more I look at it, this principle of the vertical and horizontal meeting, when the more I look at the two connecting, that I am now seeing how God has got this thing working, which is why he says in 1 John chapter 4, that if a man says he loves me, but he has no love for the brethren, he's not going to experience me.
So a lot of us are blocking God. By being selfish, only focused on ourselves. We're actually hindering God's movement in our lives for our lives. There must be an upward focus and an outward focus. That's why he includes prayer in order to see what God wants to do to, through, and for you.
Far too many of God's children are spiritual orphans, they have no family. Or maybe they're in foster care. They just bounce around from house to house. They don't have a place where they land. to join a church.
It's not merely to have a place to sit on Sunday. It is to build community with some group within that. That's why the Bible says they gathered together and then they went from house to house.
So they broke up into smaller arrangements so that they could connect with one another and relate to one another.
So they could deal with people who were like them or struggling with them.
So that there was community in the house. That's why we're emphasizing our horizontal connectedness without compromising our vertical connectedness. We're emphasizing horizontal connectedness so that people are connecting with people to give you the opportunity not only to reach out this way, but to give God something to work with this way. Because that's what God is after. And when church becomes this.
Then it becomes authentic. Then it becomes real. It's no longer fake. It's no longer Sunday morning only. It's no longer religious activity.
It's no longer just sit, soak, and sour. It's creating a healthy environment in which God is free to move. Because no matter how much money we spend. Or how many programs we come up with if the environment. is not conducive.
horizontally and vertically. God is not free to express all that he wants to do. But when that environment changes, So that not only is the vertical right, but the horizontal is connected to it. God explodes. Through his people.
The church. In the context of authentic for realness community, not fake religion, not coming to church with the mask on. And that's why, when the Bible speaks of the unity of the church, preserve, he calls it the unity of the spirit, because that's where the spirit goes off. Goes wild. That's where he fully can express himself.
That's also why the devil wants to keep fighting going on. The devil wants to keep fighting going on because he knows that'll keep the spirit away. He knows if he can keep a fight in your family or in God's family, if he can keep a fight. He knows prayer becomes a waste of time. Bible.
Bible says a husband and wife But God will not hear. the prayer of a husband who's not getting along with his wife. Says, if you and your wife are not getting along, don't bother to pray. God's not listening. 1 Peter 3:7.
We want to, I'm praying every day. Why? Because Satan has created a division, and we're using that division to keep God's spirit away, because he only operates in unity. See? And that's what we think a fight is just a fight.
No, a fight is Satan's attempt to keep God off the premises. Dr. Evans will return in a moment with a final illustration to wrap up today's lesson on giving to other believers. If you'd like to get the complete full-length version of this message, it's included as a part of Tony's Return on Investment series. As I mentioned earlier, we are offering all six messages, along with the Companion Study Guide, as our thank you gift when you support the alternative with a financial contribution.
Contact us at tonyevans.org for the details. or call our resource request line at 1-800-800-32-22. We have team members reachable around the clock, ready to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. A quick reminder before we get back to Tony: in addition to these daily lessons on the alternative broadcast, Dr.
Evans also leads meaningful and timely discussions with special guests on his Unbound podcast. You can listen to those conversations wherever you hear your favorite podcast. Of all the people we'd want to invest in, you'd think our adversaries would be at the bottom of our list. But tomorrow, Dr. Evans explains, there's a gift we can give our enemies that turns out to be a gift that comes back to us.
Right now, he's back to wrap up today's lesson on giving to other believers with his final illustration. The father and his son were walking along the beach one day. And a lot of starfish had been uh swept up on the shore. Hundreds of them.
So the father would take a step and he'd pick up a starfish. Throw it back in the water, take another step, pick up another starfish, throw it in the water, go a few more feet, pick up another starfish, throw it in the water.
Well, the son said, Daddy, I don't know why you're doing that. There are hundreds of starfish up here. You can never throw them all back in the water. You just go up a few feet and pick up one and throw it to the water. What difference does it make?
To which the father says, well, it makes a lot of difference to the ones I pick up. We can't pick them all up, but guess what? If I can get enough folk on the beach. that we can pick up all these starfish And get them all thrown back to the life that they're supposed to live because there's enough. Folk on the beach to pick up the ones who've been washed ashore so that we can all get back to the life we were created to live.
