Becoming a Kingdom Wife

From God's standpoint, sin is serious. From our standpoint, sin is inconvenient. Dr. Tony Evans talks about the danger of downplaying the importance and impact of disobeying God. Sin brings consequences, and that's why it matters. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, 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. Speeding can get you a ticket. A felony could land you in jail. Today, Dr. Evans will talk about the consequences of disobeying God's laws and explain why we need to take the concept of sin very seriously.

You'll want to turn to Genesis chapter 2 as we join him. When you go to the store to purchase a device, whether it's a tool or an electrical device, you do so because you want that device to improve some aspect of your life or your home or your vehicle. It is purchased to make something better or easier for you. But when you purchase an electronic device or a tool or an appliance, you will see something on the box or a sticker on the item.

It will simply say, warning, read before using. And so we get these warnings in order to maximize the device that we have purchased. There is a device called life.

You and I get to live it. But I want to talk to you about a warning that comes with the device called life. It is a warning often unread or, when read, unused, creating a breakdown in the device called life.

It is with that understanding that we begin at the beginning, when God first creates man. He gives man kind life. I'm using the word device, but I'm referring to life. You are alive. You possess life.

But I'm sure there are plenty in this room who could testify this device is toe up from the floor up. It's broke down because it was misused or a warning was not heeded. Let me show you two verses in chapter 2. The Lord, verse 16, commanded the man, saying, From every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat it, for on the day you eat from it you will surely die.

That was the warning on the package called life. While this is the beginning of mankind, it was not written in the beginning. Moses is the author of Genesis. Moses is living many generations after Genesis occurs because that's the first man, Adam with the first woman, Eve. Moses is many generations later. He's in the book of Exodus, but he's the one who wrote Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy called the Pentateuch. The first five books of the Bible was written by Moses. So Moses is recounting God's history and the history of mankind up until the point he's writing it in order to deliver it to the Israelites, who he's the leader of.

He's the leader of the Israelite nation. He wants that group to know the history of God with man so that they would have the information necessary to move forward as a nation and as a people to live a victorious life. So to teach them how to live a victorious life, he reaches all the way back to the beginning to show them how history, God's story, unfolds with mankind and how this principle I'm going to share with you today and beyond works itself out in order to get them to move into their future differently. So I am doing with you and with us what Moses was doing with them in his day going all the way back to the beginning so that moving forward, we can get life right and not continue to repeat the generational cycle that has gotten so many of us messed up.

The point that Moses is making to Israel that he picks up from what God told Adam was a very simple principle, and it is this. Sin brings consequences. Sin brings consequences and that's why it matters. Now you and I live in a day when the word sin has been dumbed down. We call it mistakes, bad habits.

In fact, when we want to be cool about it, we just simply say, my bad. But what the Bible means when it refers to sin, it is referring to disobedience and departure from the divine standard. Sin in God's definition is disobedience and departure from the divine standard. God sets a standard.

Men depart from it. The Bible calls that sin. From God's standpoint, sin is weighty. From our standpoint, sin is inconvenient. From God's standpoint, sin is serious. From our standpoint, sin may or may not be. So when God creates man who has not yet sinned, He wants to give him how the device called life works with a warning label on it. He says in Genesis 2 16, I have a commandment for you, not a suggestion. So what I'm about to go over with you is not a request from God.

You need to pay attention to this one, because this is your life. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. Let me start with that.

That's good news. Freedom was not created by man, and it wasn't created by America. The first use of the word freedom came from God. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. So God not only created Adam, He created Adam's homestead called the Garden of Eden.

That was his house. And he says, I am going to provide what you need to sustain your life. I'm going to, I got your back. I'm going to give you what you need to live, and I'm going to make it available to you anytime you want it. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat.

The translation is, eat as much of it that you want whenever you want it, because you're free to go. You want a midnight snack? Go. You want breakfast? Go. You want lunch? Go.

You want an afternoon snack? Go, because you can get what I give anytime you desire it. But you see, the word freedom is a meaningless word unless it is accompanied by choice. You see, freedom assumes you have a choice.

And so God says you're free. So if you're free to eat, you're free not to eat. The word freedom is a meaningless term without a boundary. In order for freedom to occur, a boundary must exist so that you are free to do whatever you're seeking to get done. For example, you can't play football without sidelines and a goal line because if the running back can run off the field and onto the stands and out to the concession area and to the parking lot in order to avoid being tackled, he may think he's free, but he's brought chaos to the game. In tennis, you need a baseline in order to be free to play tennis.

In baseball, you need a foul line in order to be free to play baseball. In other words, you're only free to do what you're supposed to do if you've got the right boundaries restricting you. The moment you remove boundaries, freedom becomes chaos. So freedom is a meaningless principle without choice and without boundaries, that is restrictions.

And so he says, I've got your back. I've got you covered and you are free and you are free to enjoy what I have provided, every tree in the garden you may freely eat, except enter boundary, enter a warning on the package called life. So God gives us this life and he says, and you're free to max it, you're free to enjoy it and to live it maximally, but here is the warning label. You see that tree in the middle of your house?

So you can't miss it because I didn't put it in the middle of your home. The tree in the middle of the garden is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree, you do not eat from it because that tree will kill you.

You shall surely die, sure enough die. That's the killing tree. You eat that tree and you're gonna die. Every other tree, freedom, is available to you, but there is a warning. If you introduce that tree to your life, that tree is gonna mess up your accessibility to every other tree because that tree is gonna kill you. So we've got this warning label given by God about our life. And this warning label says, don't mess with that tree, but I'm gonna put that tree there. Why? Why would you give me a tree, put it in the middle of my house so I can't miss it in any direction I go into, and tell me don't touch it?

That seems like cruel and unusual punishment, especially if the fruit is looking good on that tree. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with the answer to that question. First, I want to let you know that what you're hearing today is the first in a brand-new message collection called Consequences. It's a six-lesson set that explains why society's who-cares attitude about sin is not only wrong but dangerous.

Along the way, you'll learn about the deadly traps Satan sets for us and how to recognize and reject them by using the freedom of choice God provided. We want to help you put these important principles to work, so we're offering CDs and digital downloads of all six full-length lessons in this set with our thanks for your contribution toward Tony's ministry. And if you contact us right away, we'll also include his powerful booklet, 30 Days to Overcoming Emotional Strongolds, as a special bonus. We can only make this offer available for a limited time, so be sure to contact us today at tonyevans.org to make your contribution and your request. Or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where someone on a resource team is standing by around the clock to help you. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222.

I'll repeat that information for you after Part 2 of today's message and this. Men are wired for impact at home and in their communities. In the game of life, you either make the play yourself or you stand on the sidelines and watch the play being made.

The choice is yours, but too many have chosen to sit it out. In Tony Evans' long-awaited sequel, Kingdom Men Rising, he calls on men to rise up in the places they're needed most. Get on the field, listen intently to God, engage in his plans. It takes both focus and faith to embody your true potential. And this isn't something that's out of reach. It's right there.

You can almost touch it. It's available to you if you'll rise and become the influencer God has designed you to be. Kingdom Men, it's time to position yourself to leave a lasting legacy.

Find out more at TonyEvans.org. Also makes a great gift for brother, husband, son, uncle, pastor, and more. The reason why God gives you a visible warning is so that you and I no longer ever view ourselves as autonomous. In other words, you, Adam and Eve, and everybody who follows you, you are not to look at any part of your life as independent from me and to remind you that you not all that and a bag of chips, to remind you that you've got limitations, to remind you you're not just answerable to you. I am going to put this tree in the middle of your house so that when you wake up in the morning, when you go to the living room, the den, when you go to the attic, all the parts of this garden, you got to pass through this middle spot, call the garden, and you'll be reminded, oops, I have somebody else I need to answer to.

From every other tree, shop till you drop. From every other tree, the question on the floor is, what will be the source of your knowledge? What will be the source of your information?

Do you have people in your life who you're responsible for, who bring information to you from other people that they think know something and you know they don't? What do you think the God of the universe thinks when you choose human opinion over divine revelation, asserting to him that your friends, your mama, your daddy, your cousins, your posse, your homeboys, your homegirls know more than he does. So the issue on the floor would be to maximize life. He calls it being free in order, in order to live. And then he summarizes the warning.

Now this is the kicker. From every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of that tree in the middle of your house, do not eat it for you shall surely die. When you think about the word die, you're thinking about a casket with a body in it of a deceased person. That's what we think about when we think about death. In the Bible, the word die does not mean cessation of existence.

We look at it that way. Nor does it mean annihilation of existence. That's not the biblical understanding of the word death. The synonym for the word death in the Bible is separation.

Okay? So for where I am now, I want you to think the word, not cessation or annihilation, I want you to think separation when you think of death. Death occurs when something that should be connected is illegitimately separated. When you see a body lying in a coffin, the only reason the body is lying in the coffin is that the soul has separated from it. The soul has left the body and since the soul is the core and essence of life, life has left the body, leaving the body on the ground in the coffin, and the soul marches on to eternity. There has been a separation that has occurred.

So by death, you shall surely die, stay with me, you are going to experience an illegitimate separation. They didn't die that day. They didn't keel over that day. There were no heart attacks that day. In fact, Adam lived for hundreds of years after that. So was God uninformed about what he meant by that day? Does one day equal some long period of time?

Or did he mean what he said? Separation is death. On that day, a whole series of separations took place. That is, a whole series of deaths took place. Death number one was spiritual death. They used to walk with God, the Bible says, in the cool of the day.

We find them running from God, not walking with God. There was an illegitimate separation, sort of a spiritual death. The first family fight between a man and a woman took place where the Bible says, and you will be at odds with one another. So there was a relational death that did occur.

The reason why people talk about my marriage is dead is because there's a separation that has occurred. Their siblings became separated and Cain kills Abel. So there is a separation that occurs. People commit suicide when they can't live with them anymore, when they are so out of sorts with their own humanity. And the Bible says that shame took over, and fear took over, and their emotional well-being collapsed, and they were dissatisfied with themselves.

So they're dissatisfied with themselves. They're separated. They're dissatisfied with each other. The relationship is separated.

And then we find in chapter three, there is an environmental separation. The environment goes crazy so that no longer is there order in the environment in which they live. So there was death. A lot of people today under the sound of my voice are dead. They're not physically dead like Adam and Eve, but your circumstances are dead. Your well-being is dead. Your relationships are dead. And like people often say, I'm just dying because there is an illegitimate separation that has occurred as a consequence of biting the wrong tree. The day you eat from it, you will surely die.

The day you go for information independently of me, you don't know it, and it may taste good, but you just bit death. When you and I live our lives independently of divine revelation, a separation occurs, even though it looks good on the outside and may be good in terms of its look and its taste and all of that. A separation occurs first from God, and then it spins over to everything else. So how do we heal that separation and restore our relationship with God? The Bible is clear there's only one way to do that through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But what does that mean?

How does it happen? Dr. Tony Evans will be happy to answer those questions and explain what being a real Christian really looks like. Just visit tonyevans.org and click on the link that says Jesus. While you're there, find out how you can get a copy of today's lesson to review on your own or pass along to someone you care about. The title to request is Why Sin Matters, and you'll get the full-length version that includes content we didn't have time to bring you on the air. Better yet, get it as a part of Tony's current six-part audio series called Consequences. As I mentioned earlier, it's available right now as our gift to you in appreciation for your donation toward Tony's ministry, along with a special bonus, his popular booklet, 30 Days to Overcoming Emotional Strongholds. Visit tonyevans.org today to get all the details before time runs out. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our phone center is open 24-7.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Every parent tries to teach their children that choices have consequences. Our Heavenly Father is no different. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will take us back to the book of Genesis to talk about some consequences of disobeying God that many people never see coming. I hope you'll be with us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.