Testimony for the Ages, Part 1

Understand that when you are down to nothing, it's only because God is up to something. Jonathan Evans says God is ready to transform our tough situations into a good that endures. He comes into the problem and He changes your testimony from a problem to a praise.

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. Not one of us is immune to wondering why we face certain struggles in our lives. But today Jonathan Evans explains that God can turn any negative situation into something good for us and for those around us.

Let's join him as he helps us get a look at the big picture. Each person in this room can look back and tell a story of how they've gotten to where they currently are. Today I want to talk to you about one verse. One verse that really caught my attention as I was talking and thinking through what I would talk about this morning. And it's what I call a testimony for the ages because this verse spells out how that thing works. It spells out how a testimony works, how this church has gotten to where it is, how you've gotten to where you are, how I'm even able to stand on this stage right now and be where God has called me to be at this very moment. It's a testimony. It's found in Genesis 50, verse 20.

Now you're going to know it well. After I read this verse and say it out loud, you may make the church face because you know this is your verse. But Genesis 50, 20 simply says this. Joseph was looking at his brothers and he said, you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many lives.

That right there is a testimony. He's looking back on his life and he's recounting his story to get him to the place where he currently is now at about 100 years old. He died at 110 and he's looking back and letting the people in his presence know, his brothers, that there was something bad that happened. But God was able to turn around and make it good. It was to bring me to the place where I'm currently standing and the goal is always to preserve somebody's life. That's this church's testimony. Everything wasn't always good at the beginning. There were some hard things that we had to work through in order to get to the present place where we currently stand. But even though we had some hard things, God took those hard things and made them good things.

So that we can get to a pinnacle or a present result where he has us and the goal is always to preserve somebody's life. That's how the testimony works. That's how your testimony works. That's how Joseph's testimony worked and he's letting us know. He's giving us some of his 20-20 vision and some of his hindsight so that some of us that may be in the hard part or the pit part or the dark part, the empty part, the part that's hard, give you a little bit of some of his vision so that you don't give up. Because there's going to be somebody in the future that's going to be counting on your testimony. The reason why you're sitting in this room is because early on when things are tough, the church didn't give up. And now there are many people who are benefiting on the church's testimony.

The fact that we can stand here for 42 years, but Joseph lets you know that this testimony, it's an investment that God makes in your life. In other words, it starts in the red and moves its way to the black. Most people meet God and they want it to start in the black. No, when God makes an investment in your life because he has a place where he's trying to take you, he's going to make that investment and you'll find yourself starting in the red.

But it's for the goal of that investment to take root so that you can move to the black. That's why you can't make the mistake and look at where somebody is currently and think that you know their story. You can't come to this church and sit down and see how big it is and all the land and all of the buildings and think that you know how we got here. A lot of people make assumptions when they look at other people and what they have or where they live and what they drive and they start assuming things about them.

But really the reality is you don't know them. You don't know what God took them through to get them to the place where they currently are. Because there were things that each person in this room has gone through to make it where you are or are going through in order to get to the place where God wants you to be.

It's called the testimony and Joseph spells out how this thing works. He said, you meant it for evil. It started bad.

But God meant that thing for good in order to bring about this present result in order to preserve somebody's life. He starts out by telling his brothers, you meant it for evil. You know what he was talking about. You know the story.

I just want to survey it for a second. He's talking about Genesis 37. You see, Joseph was the man who had favor from his father. His father loved him and gave him a robe or a tunic, a very colored tunic that represented dominion and authority, that represented his calling, that represented the fact that he had been handed rights, first born rights even though he wasn't the first born. So he had that external evidence of the father's favor that he was wearing. But not only did he have that, Joseph had a dream.

He was a visionary. He had a dream of things that he was thinking about how high up he would go and that his brothers would actually be bowing down to him. And so somebody didn't give his brothers the memo that favor ain't fair. Somebody didn't let his brothers know that everybody doesn't get partioned out the same.

It doesn't work like that. Matthew 25 wasn't written then, so they didn't know about the talents and the five and the two and the one. They didn't understand all of that, so they didn't get the memo that favor ain't fair. So when they saw that tunic and when they heard those dreams, they were jealous and they did not want Joseph to experience the calling on his life. So it says in Genesis 37 23 and 24 that his brothers stripped him of his tunic, his very colored tunic, and then they threw him into the pit. And the pit was empty without any water in it. So here Joseph is going from having the father's favor to being stripped of the external evidence of the father's favor, then being thrown into a pit, and then being in a pit where he's not even getting the simplest of provisions, water, and feeling that it's empty. Here he is in the pit of his testimony.

He's thinking and recounting Genesis 37 while he's at Genesis 50, 30 to 100 years old. And he's letting you know that this thing started bad. You know what my brothers tried to do? They tried to strip me of the father's favor. That there are people, well you know it's bad when the people that you think you can tell your dream to are jealous of the very dream that you have. And people that you think will push you towards your dreams are the ones who want to strip you from your dreams.

It's a sad reality when the people closest to you don't want to see your well-being because they didn't get the memo. Their favor is just not fair. And so they stripped him of the external evidence of the father's favor on his life. But why did they do that? Because they couldn't strip him of his dream.

That's internal. So because they couldn't reach into his brain and strip him of his dream, that's what they wanted, they decided to strip him of the evidence of his dream so that his external body would never make it to his dream. See this is a tactic of the enemy, John 10-10. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He's trying to take your testimony from you. And the way that he does that is to strip you of the external evidence of the father's favor in your life so that you will feel like you have lost the father's favor in your life. And if I can make you feel like you have lost the father's favor, then I can make you operate as if you do not have the father's favor. So what the brothers were doing is they were stripping him externally, but it was so that they can get an internal result, get him into a pit where he can't move. If I can make you depressed, if I can make you think that your life is worthless, if I can make you think that God is not doing anything with you, that that's where you're going to stay, that's who you're going to be, that's the identity that you're going to have, then I can kill you even when keeping you alive because you won't have a testimony.

You won't have a Genesis 50 experience because me stripping you externally has stripped you internally. That's what the enemy did with Job. You've read the story.

He took his house, he took his family, he put boils on his skin. He did all of these external methods, but it was for an internal result. You need to deny God. My purpose is to try to get you to denounce God. It's not about all of these external things.

I'm just using that as a vehicle. He did it with Adam and Eve. You see this fruit?

You see that tree? He got him to think about the external, but the purpose was for internal sin, to mess up the world. He did it with Jesus in Matthew chapter 4. He showed him the rock, turned it into bread. He showed them the kingdoms of this earth.

I'll give them to you, but I need you to bow down and worship me. He's always trying to do something in our external world to strip us of what God is trying to do in the spiritual providential world. That's what Joseph is talking about when he recounts this story, and that happened to us as a church. Most people don't know that there was a time when we had nowhere to go. As a church, we were at Adel Turner, which is my elementary school, right around the corner here on Polk Street. We had nowhere to go because the school had decided, even though we were meeting there and God's favor was there, and we were clothed with a place to meet and a church house, they decided they could not host us anymore.

They decided that we have to move you along. My parents and the elders and deacons at that time were in a rock and a hard place because I thought we had the Father's favor, but now we're stripped of the external evidence that we used to have. And so this church has experienced what it is to feel and see the Father working in your life, but then to also see the enemy try to strip it from you. But just because the enemy strips it doesn't mean that God doesn't still have it. Just because you lose, because the enemy does this, just because you lose the external evidence of the Father's favor doesn't mean you don't still have the internal providence of what God is doing. We have to have clarity of vision, and Genesis 50 gives us clarity of vision based on this testimony. That God has a testimony for your life. He has a purpose for your life.

It is not random. You are not here just to sit, soak, and sour in a random, mundane way of living. He can't create the universe and create a self-sustaining world based on the water from Antarctica when it melts and goes down so that we can have vegetation so that we can still breathe and have all of these things that are working in unison like your body but then create you for a random purpose. It doesn't work like that. God has a purpose for your life.

If he didn't, you wouldn't be sitting in here. But what the enemy wants you to do is think otherwise when he puts you in that pit. Oh, I'm not going to make it. I'm not really sure that I'm not going to get there. I don't really know if God has my back. I feel forgotten. This isn't for me. I see what everybody else is doing, but my vision is fuzzy because I don't see what God is doing in my life.

That is a tactic of the enemy to ruin your Genesis 50 experience. Jonathan Evans will come back with more of our message after these thoughts from Dr. Tony Evans on 40 years of faithfulness. As we come into the celebration of our 40th year since the beginning of the Urban Alternative, words cannot express my gratitude to God for His faithfulness to the development of this ministry. Little did I know when we began with cassette tapes and we were bagging them up because people were requesting the sermons, that He would take humble beginnings and turn it into an international ministry. Now, on over 1,400 stations daily in 130 countries around the world, reaching hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with the truth of God, I am humbled by His faithfulness to me and to us and to the Urban Alternative. And I'm certainly grateful for all the friends He's given us who have been faithful, too. I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us. As part of our 40-year celebration of God's faithfulness, we're taking this opportunity to share a series of encouraging messages from Tony's son, Jonathan Evans, author, speaker, and chaplain who serves with his father in the local church and national ministry.

Tony will be returning to the broadcast on June 22nd. As Dr. Evans shared, none of what we do here would be possible without the faithful contributions of people like you. And that's why we put together a special package as a way of saying thank you when you make a donation to keep this ministry going. It starts with the current nine-message audio collection called Forever Starts Now. It also includes a copy of Jonathan's brand-new life-changing book, Your Time Is Now, Get What God Has Given You. Together, this powerful package expands what we've been learning today about discovering and fulfilling your God-given purpose. God has something special He intends for you to do, and these resources will help you find what it is and take action toward doing it, and doing it now. We'd like you to have a copy of Forever Starts Now and Your Time Is Now as our gift when you make a donation to help support the work of the alternative. But don't wait.

This offer will only be around for a short while. Details are waiting for you at tonyevans.org, where you can also sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly team members help you.

Again, 1-800-800-3222. We'll have more of today's message right after this. God has big plans for you, bigger than you've ever imagined. You're a man of influence, strength, and great purpose. Are you ready to live up to your highest potential? Tony Evans' brand new and long-awaited book, Kingdom Men Rising. A follow-up to his bestseller, Kingdom Man, which has sold over 400,000 copies, challenges men to sharpen their spiritual and relational skills to intentionally live with an influencer mindset in all areas of life. Filled with authentic stories of struggle and heartfelt personal loss, Tony takes us to God's word to show men how to clear all obstacles in the journey that leads to living a life of influence and impact. As you read each page, you'll find your soul stirred to reach for more of what God says is possible, no longer settling for a faith that just goes through the motions. Replace helplessness, boredom, and regret with power, significance, and influence. Get Kingdom Men Rising for yourself or for someone you love.

Grab yours at TonyEvans.org or at your nearest bookstore or online retailer. The time is now. Together, we rise. My mom worked in the sweat factory for years at the beginning. We call it that because it was our garage. And in the garage, there's not no air condition up in there.

It's hot. But she was trying to help Tony Evans get to where he was trying to go, so she would call my sisters into the sweat factory so that they could put tapes in the envelopes to mail all over just because this house looks like this now, that it didn't start with some pit experiences. This palace is just a result of the pit experiences. This palace is just a result of the testimony of going through Genesis 37 to get to Genesis 50. Let me show you how he did that for Joseph. Joseph was stripped in chapter 37. But in chapter 41, you see 41 verses 42, starting there, you see that Pharaoh takes off his signet ring and gives it to Joseph.

Puts it on his hand. Then Pharaoh clothes Joseph with a royal robe. Then Pharaoh puts a necklace around his neck.

Now, the necklace, the royal robe, and the ring mean that you share the authority of Pharaoh. It says that when you come through, everybody's going to bow their knee because Joseph had dreams that got him stripped, but he also had dreams that got him equipped. Don't you know that God will allow you to endure a stripping, but it's only because he's trying to position you for a future equipping. Understand that when you are down to nothing, it's only because God is up to something. We've got to understand that what you're going through is for a testimony.

Somebody's life is going to be preserved by your story, so you can't give up because we're being preserved by this testimony. If my parents were to stop because they were stripped of Adel Turner, we wouldn't be in here right now preserving people's lives. I remember him telling me that he went in to talk to a former linebacker of the Dallas Cowboys named Bob Brunick. Bob Brunick was in there, and I don't know what my dad was doing, but I could probably guess. Maybe it was to get a check because he'll talk about some giving.

Now, make sure we've got lights. And so he was in there talking to Bob Brunick, their great friend, so probably just explaining to him that I had God's favor, and now we're stripped of a place to go. And so the church was homeless for a little while, and so he was explaining that to Bob Brunick in his office. But then some random guy walked past the room, and he walked past the room, and then he backed up and stood in the doorway. My dad is talking to Bob, but he's looking back over his shoulder like, who is this cat? Okay, so he's trying to figure out who this dude is being nosy about our conversation. So he's starting to feel, you know when somebody's in your stuff? You start to kind of feel some kind of way about why are you standing there?

Keep on moving. And then the guy who's standing there gets comfortable on the doorway and crosses his leg. So now he's giving him a hint that I ain't going nowhere.

I'm going to stay here and watch and listen to what's going on. Then that dude comes and sits down next to my dad. So now Tony Evans got smoke coming out of his ears and fire coming out of his nose because he's trying to explain to Bob Brunick what's going on with the church. Then the dude starts asking questions. And so now my dad is giving him short answers, yes, no, why are you here?

And it's mine. He's just, yes, you know, okay, we're trying to do this. So the guy is probing him for answers and giving him questions and he tells him, well, you know, there's this little chapel that we have right down the street. We're looking at it.

We've been talking to the people about it, but we just don't have the money for it. So we're trying to figure out what we're going to do. And that's when the guy asked a question. He said, well, how much does it cost? And my dad said, in his brain, what's it to you?

Why are you here? My dad told him. He said, well, you know, it's $200,000. Then that man pulls out his checkbook and he opens it up. Now the countenance on my father's face just changes. All of a sudden, now he's popping his suit and he's answering questions.

Well, you know, my overall vision is to have all of the land. And he started doing his sermon kicks, you know, he started stepping around because he's trying to figure out what's about to happen up in here. But that man, he wrote a check for $200,000 and handed it to my father, then got up out of that seat that used to be a nuisance and went back to that hallway and just walked right off. This church has a testimony. God will allow you to be stripped, but it's only so that he can show up and do some equipping up in here so that you can talk about the goodness of God so that you can see how you got from point A to your point B. Don't forget, you didn't get here because of your two feet. You got here because of his mercy and his grace. You got here because of where he's taking you, that he has a testimony. He's telling his brothers, you meant it for evil. But don't worry, it's okay because God meant this thing for good.

And the last time I checked, when he cast that check, it went through because when God comes through, his stuff don't bounce. Encouragement to remain steadfast in what God is calling you to do. As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Evans is taking time off from the broadcast until June 22nd to allow us the opportunity to present this series of encouraging messages from his son and co-laborer in ministry, Jonathan Evans. Forever Starts Now is a nine-lesson collection that will help you find and fulfill God's unique plan for your life. We'll be happy to send you this complete audio series on CD and digital download, along with Jonathan's powerful new book that goes hand in hand with the material we've been hearing today.

The book is called Your Time is Now, Get What God Has Given You. We're offering both of these resources for a limited time as our thank you when you request them and make a contribution to help support the ministry of Dr. Evans and the alternative. So be sure to visit tonyevans.org right away. That's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help with your request.

That's 1-800-800-3222. During times of trouble, we may find ourselves wondering where God could be. But tomorrow, Jonathan Evans will point out God isn't hiding. We just may need to look a little harder to understand what He's up to. Be sure to join us for that. 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.