Idol - Luck

Luck is a God that must be rejected. When you have a sovereign providential understanding of God, you don't need luck. Dr. Tony Evans says the notion of fate is false.

There is nothing that takes place under a sovereign God by chance. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Dr. Evans says a lot of what we consider random events in life aren't random at all, but part of a design. Let's join him as he takes a biblical look at luck. All of us are concerned about our destiny, how things are going to wind up with our lives, whether things are going to get better ever. And there are many things that offer to help us for understanding what's happening now and to give us an anticipation of what may be coming down the line.

We want to know our destiny. One of the chief false gods, idols, in our culture, an American idol, if you will, a designer idol, is the idol of luck. Or its siblings, chance, happenstance, or fate.

That's a whole family. The family of luck is a belief system that says there is operating in the world an impersonal random force. And if I can get this impersonal random force that I'm looking to, to help me get through, get over, and guide me to a good place, then I can get the help I need.

I just need me more luck. The concept of luck, while I know many people just use it as a throwaway word, it is more than that. It is a competing god of destiny. Impersonal, it's kind of random, but we wish for it. We hope for it.

We ask people to fight for it with us. And luck is a god that the Bible says must be rejected. The prophet Isaiah says in chapter 65 verse 11, God says, You forsook me for the table of fortune and for the mix wine of destiny. The Hebrew word for fortune is the word God, G-A-D. The Hebrew word for the word destiny is M-E-N-I. G-A-D means luck. M-I, destiny means fate. You forsook me, the true God, for luck and fate.

You notice both words are capitalized in your Bible because they are both proper nouns. So he's not just talking about a concept, he's talking about a thing. The personification of an impersonal force that randomly determines how good or how bad your life is going to go. We have surrounded this word of luck with many phrases. There is lucky dog. There is wish me luck. There is plain luck. There is luck be a lady tonight. There is tough luck.

There is good luck. There is bad luck. There is blind luck. There is rotten luck. There is plain luck. And then there's pot luck.

As we eat our lucky charms. One man said if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. The word luck is used to express my hope that this impersonal random thing that floats out there will work for me. We roll the dice looking for luck.

Casinos are driven by the search for luck. Not only is luck tied to this impersonal sense of randomness that I hope makes things better for me, it's also tied to how we look at the world. Zephaniah 1 verses 4 and 5 says that people look at the heavenly host hoping to get clarification on their destiny. Anyone in here who looks at your horoscope to get clarification of your destiny, what you need to know is you just worshiped another God.

Because as Romans 1 verses 18 to 25 says, you looked at the creation rather than the creator to determine destiny. A form that somehow the arrangement of the stars or if you believe that your sign. What sign are you?

What sign were you born under? You have given power to the creation. As a determining factor of your destiny. Another way that this chance, fortune telling, destiny looking, look obsessive culture looks at is what Isaiah chapter 2 verse 6 calls sorcery or witchcraft. If you go to a palm reader to have them look at the lines on your hand to give you a destiny. If you throw tarot cards or have them turn them over so that somehow they will give you a clue about tomorrow, he calls that witchcraft. And what you've done is worship another God. But more than worship another God, 1 Corinthians 10 verses 21 and 22 says you sit at the table of demons. So when luck becomes this force that you look to or the stars or your sign or the palm readers, what you have to understand is you've invited demons into your destiny.

Because God says you cannot sit at my table and the table of demons and still expect me to do something. So luck in this sense should not be part of your dictionary, should not be part of your vocabulary. And I know people just use it casually and just kind of throw it out there, but for many people, even Christians, it's not just a word, it's a philosophy. I need luck. So if not luck, what? The most important thing you need to know as a person is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You need to know that Christ died on the cross for your sins in your place and that you need to trust Him alone apart from works as your personal sin bearer for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life so that you are saved, converted, justified, and that you have a home in heaven.

The most important thing to know is the gospel. But the second most important thing to know is the sovereign providential nature of God. When you have a sovereign providential understanding of God, you don't need luck. In fact, when you have a sovereign providential understanding of God, you will understand there is no such thing as luck.

It will reshape how you view everything that takes place in your life about everything. Sovereignty. The sovereignty of God means that He is the ruler of all creation and that absolutely nothing happens of which He is unaware.

He's never caught by surprise, He never goes, oops, and you can't throw Him a surprise party. He is fully aware of all that is, was, will be, and what could have been. So, as Romans 11, 36 says, from Him, to Him, and through Him are all things. God is sovereign, which means He rules over all.

All. There is nothing that takes place under a sovereign God by chance, because then He wouldn't be in control, because He was lucky. But married to the word sovereignty is another word. Providence.

This is the word you need to understand. Sovereignty, He rules over everything. Providence is the methodology He uses to do His ruling.

Sovereignty is the fact that He rules over all. Providence is that aspect of sovereignty that brings together diverse events and circumstances in order for God to accomplish His sovereign will. So the sovereign God accomplishes His sovereign will through His providence.

Here's what you need to understand. God's providence looks like luck. His sovereignty is what He wants to happen, but His way of accomplishing it has a lucky look to it. So what you would call luck, or lack of luck, is providence at work, because providence is God working in a hidden way. He hides in providence in order to accomplish His sovereignty. God's sovereignty and His providential working allows for and incorporates human freedom.

So He gives you the opportunity to choose. And Dr. Evans will give us an example of how that happens when he continues our lesson in just a moment. Stay with us. The only constant in life is change, and currently we live in a nation where change is shifting for the worse, morally, culturally, economically, and politically. So how do you find balance and peace through all the chaos? Dr. Tony Evans' brand new message series called American Idols and his book America, Turning a Nation to God, will give you solid answers to what is really happening to our nation. God is calling you to return to Him.

How will you respond? Get both resources at tonyevans.org. America, Turning a Nation to God, is a blueprint for coast-to-coast revival that happens one life at a time, starting with yours.

It couldn't be timelier as we think about the direction our country will take after the coming election. And to help you sharpen your focus on God's priorities, we're bundling this important work together with all eight messages from Tony's current teaching series, American Idols. We'll send this powerful resource package to you as our way of saying thanks when you make a donation in support of Tony's important work here on this station and around the world. But this special double offer ends tomorrow, so visit us right away at tonyevans.org, where you can get all the details and make your request. Or call 1-800-800-3222. Members of our resource team are there 24-7 to help you in person. That's 1-800-800-3222.

I'll have that contact information for you once again after part two of today's message. Football. In football, there are sovereign lines, sidelines, goal lines, hash lines. They've got lines that don't move, but the teams can call their own plays. Their plays don't move the line. The line does not move. But their play calling affects where they are within the lines. So if they call a good play, they're making forward progress. If they call a bad play or the opposition stops them, they're regressing in progress. Their forward movement or backward movement doesn't affect the lines. But it does affect how well off they are within the lines. God's sovereignty has lines, and the lines are non-negotiable. You can't move them.

They are determined. For example, the devil has to ask God, can I be devilish? Do you remember Job? It says the devil went to God and said, can I touch Job?

So Job only got touched by the devil because God okayed him. Jesus told Peter, Satan has requested to sift you as wheat. Do you hear me? Satan has requested to sift you as wheat. And I'm not going to stop him.

I'm going to pray for you. I'm not going to get the devil off your back because I got some pride in you I need to deal with. So I'm going to let the devil mess with you. But most of us would say, boy, the devil messed with me.

I'm sure unlucky. That couldn't have happened unless God allowed it. So the issue is not to look for luck. The issue is to cooperate with providence.

This takes us to the main point. Romans 8, 28, 29. Paul the Apostle writes, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose. We know God causes. We know no such thing as luck if we know that God causes. But what about the things God doesn't cause?

Oh, you didn't read the verse. We know God causes all things. So there's nothing outside of God's causation. Everything that happens happens because He made it happen or He let it happen.

He was never caught by surprise that it happened. We know that all things work together for good. Work together for good. Don't read that too fast because many people misread it. What many people think the verse says is that all things work together and are good.

No. He doesn't say all things are good. He says all things work together for good. That's different.

So that when He finishes whatever He's doing, it will come out beneficial. Maybe I need to call Joseph to come testify. Because if Joseph was in the house today, Joseph would say it wasn't fair. My brother sold me into slavery for no reason at all. Put me in a pit to die.

Left me without water. It wasn't right. And then I finally get a good job and the boss's wife accuses me of rape when I didn't rape her. It ain't fair. And then I got thrown in the jail for something I didn't do. It ain't fair. And then they forgot me in jail after I tried to help some of the prisoners out.

Kept me there for an additional two years. It's not fair. It's not fair.

And I went 13 years up and down this rollercoaster of life and I just want to tell you it's not fair. But then he comes to Genesis chapter 50 and he comes to the conclusion of the chapter. And then he says to his brothers, y'all meant it for evil. Y'all were working against me.

It wasn't fair. But let me tell you, you meant it for evil, but God meant it. God, watch this, meant it.

You didn't hear me. God meant it. God meant it. God meant it for good.

And God meant it for good to bring me to this place. He meant it for good to take me from where we were into Egypt because he get ready to birth a whole nation. So he used your junk. He used your abuse. He used you messing over me to accomplish his sovereign will.

So if you're being messed over, toe up from the floor, you will understand it was beneficial. Dr. Evans will come back with a closing story to wrap up our message when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. Dr. King said we must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. Sadly, America today is closer to being fools together than living as brothers.

So how do we change that? How can we get beyond our racist realities and move toward a greater unity together? In his book Oneness Embraced, Dr. Tony Evans explains why we don't have God's kingdom focused unity, what we need to get it and what it will look like when we do. Visit Tony Evans Dot org to find out more. And Tony Evans dot org is where you can also check out that new package of resources I told you about earlier. It starts with Tony's important book, America Turning a Nation to God, and includes CDs and instant downloads of all eight full length messages in his current teaching series American Idols. They're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to keep this listener supported program on the air. But as I mentioned, this special double offer ends tomorrow.

So don't wait. Visit Tony Evans Dot org today or phone our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are always on hand to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Are you a real Christian or just a religious groupie? Tomorrow, Dr. Evans explains how to tell the difference and why that's so important.

Right now, though, he's back with this closing story. When the kids were growing up, one of the favorite desserts Sister Evans would cook would be 7 Upcake. 7 Upcake. She would line ingredients out on the counter, flour, sugar, butter, nutmeg, and whatever else. She'd line it out on the counter. I never, I don't ever remember taking a spoon, put it in flour and eating flour. I don't recall ever doing that. I never remember putting a spoon in sugar and eating a spoon full of sugar. I don't remember that. I don't remember cutting butter and putting butter, a slab of butter in my mouth and swallowing that. I don't remember doing that.

But this is what I remember. I remember Sister Evans getting a bowl, putting flour in the bowl and sugar in the bowl and eggs in the bowl, nutmeg in the bowl, pouring some 7 Upcake in there. And then she began to stir it. She began to blend it. When she blended it, I couldn't see the flour anymore. I couldn't see the sugar anymore.

I couldn't see the egg anymore because it had been blended together. And she had it working together. She had it working together. Now I got dough. I'm looking at dough now. It was all these separate things, but now it's all confluence. It's all tied together in dough. But then something else happened.

Something else happened. Took it and put heat under it. Put it in the oven. Let it burn for a minute.

Let it suffer for a little while. She put the dough that had been mixed together in the suffering of heat. And all of a sudden with the heat suffering and the dough mixed, I saw something rising. And I began to smell something. And all of a sudden it got pulled out the oven and all I could say was, mmm, mmm, good. You see, when all the elements were separate, I wasn't impressed. When all the elements were separate, it didn't look like much was going on. But when the master took and began to put it together, began to mix it, and then put a little heat under it, oh, it was worth the wait to see what happens when things are worked together for good.

For good. Now I know you got stuff happening in your life over here, stuff over there, stuff over there, bad things you've done, bad things the others have done to you, good opportunities that have come your way, and you've got all this random stuff. But if you let the blender come and loving Him and His purpose, stir it in the pot of His purpose, and then even put you in a little fire of trials, fire of circumstance, and yeah, it's going to be hot up in here for a little while. But when God is finished with you, David said, I shall come forth pure as gold. So look, give God His sovereignty, His providence, let luck alone, because when He's finished cooking you, baking you, and shaking you, you're going to come out the oven and you're going to be good. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.