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. But I want to show you how else God took that same scenario to turn it and make it good. It says that the pit, Genesis 37, it says, verse 24, it says that the pit was empty without any water in it. Now I was thinking to myself, now why in the world, sometimes you have to read the Bible and then step back and think a little bit, why in the world would the author go into so much trouble to tell you the nature of the pit?

It's good enough that he got stripped and he in there. Why are you telling me that it's empty and it has no water in it? So I prayed about that for about three days. What is the correlation between Joseph having to experience not just a stripping, not just a pit, but also a pit that's also empty and doesn't have the provision of water in it?

Then the Spirit threw it up into my mind and said, this is how it works. God will always prepare you for how he's about to use you. If you see in chapter 41, he's giving Pharaoh answers to his dreams that there is a famine coming. Pharaoh puts him in charge over a famine.

A famine means you have people who are experiencing emptiness, no food, and who are experiencing no water. So what God will allow you to do is experience the purpose of what he's going to do when he puts you in the palace. Because he doesn't just want you to have the information. When you preserve somebody's life, you need to be able to sympathize with their weaknesses. So he has Joseph in a pit that's empty and waterless because I need you to be able to sympathize with some people who are about to be empty and waterless.

When I re-clothe you, I need you to know what to do. If somebody's experiencing a falling out of the family or a divorce that you may be even the pastor, but let me talk to somebody that's experienced what I'm going through. There's a way that God wants to use you, and you can always get the identifier by how he's going to use you by keeping your eyes open in the pit. God will always give you evidence in your struggle. See, most people are thinking about the struggle, but they don't have their eyes open to the evidence. If you have your eyes open to the evidence, then even though you're in the pit, you know what God is going to do later. That's why people are passionate about things they've previously experienced. Have you ever noticed that your passion to help somebody comes from the very thing you used to struggle with? God uses that and turns it upside down so that you can have a testimony to preserve somebody's life.

Realize this is not just about you. We like to correlate scriptures. You know, from the New Testament, I can correlate scriptures. You know, you've got Romans 8.28, God will work all things out for good for those who love God and are called according to his... See, we jump over pews, and we're swinging from the rafters on the first part. But he works it out for good because of his purposes. He's thinking about whose life he needs you to preserve. He's thinking about the outworking of his kingdom. A lot of people sit in the pit for an extended amount of time because they want God to change things for their own Christian narcissism.

They want God to bring a cloud down to sit on them for them, for their throne, for their omniscience, for their omnipresence, for what they want to do in their life. Joseph got to a point 4151. He named his son, Genesis 4151, he named him Manasseh because it means the Lord has made me forget about all my troubles.

Hold on. You forgot? So you don't remember what you went through? No, he remembers because in Genesis 50 he said, you meant it for evil. So it's not that he forgot.

It's not that his cognitive capacity has failed. It's just that where he is is so plush, where God has taken him from is so good, that where he's been no longer controls him where he is. So even the fruit that comes from me has to get named based on where I am. I didn't name him pain.

I named him Manasseh, which means I don't even remember that stuff. My mom could tell you, I told you about the sweat factory. But you know, when I asked her about the sweat factory, she would always call my sisters in there to help. And they'd be like, here we go, it's hot.

You get frustrated when it's hot. So they're in there trying to help my mom out in the sweat factory. And when I asked her about those days, I said, man, I know that was rough because I wasn't there. I got the best position in the house, baby of the family. All of that rough stuff is over. It's just party, sleep, have fun, bring me something to drink. I'm having fun. But they had it hard.

But when I asked her about it, she said, yeah, that was tough. But now we're on a thousand stations in over 130 countries. But now I'm not in the sweat factory anymore.

I'm in this air conditioned building that we purchased that pumps out the ministry of Tony Evans. But now I've been the executive director for a national and international ministry for 30 years. But now because when God shows up, he makes you forget a little bit. You got a little bit of amnesia when it comes to what's going on in your life.

Not because you forgot, but because he's just that good. Jonathan Evans will share with us a trying personal story from his family when he continues today's message in just a moment. First though, I wanted to let you know that Dr. Evans will be returning to the broadcast on June 22, following this special two-week presentation of messages from his son, author, speaker, and chaplain, Jonathan Evans. Forever Starts Now is a nine-message audio collection we're excited to make available on both CD and digital download.

And it contains material we won't have time to present on the air. Through these messages, you'll discover that God is holding something special for you. And it's much more valuable than anything else you've spent time and effort trying to achieve. Unlock the satisfaction of discovering your purpose for now and eternity. We'd like to send you Forever Starts Now as our thank you gift when you make a donation toward the ministry of the alternative. And if you do it right away, as an added bonus, we'll include a copy of Jonathan Evans' brand new book, Your Time Is Now. Building on the insights we've been learning today, this encouraging book will help you understand your own calling and significance in the kingdom of God. Sending you this powerful package of resources is one way we can show our appreciation for your faithfulness. So contact us today for more information on Forever Starts Now and Your Time Is Now. All the details are waiting for you online at tonyevans.org. Or call us at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.

I'll have those contact details for you again after part two of today's message and this. Our first child, for all of you pregnant ladies in the room right now, this won't be your story. We got induced with Kelsey probably a week before she was scheduled to be born because they said she was going to be a big baby. And sure enough, she came out at 8-8, so if we would have waited a week, she might have hit that 9.

Our two sons were 9-5 and 9-1, so we ain't playing no games. We went in and they gave her medication. We know now that she doesn't need medication to have babies because her labors are quick. Our last child, from the start of her labor to the delivery, was an hour and a half. But this one, we didn't know it was our first time and so we had some medication, we got induced.

That medication had a negative effect on my wife. She had contractions with no breaks. So her contractions are going up because I'm looking at it on the monitor and then it's falling down and I see her breathing.

And that thing goes right back up and she would say, oh Lord, here it comes again. And I'm thinking, you know, I'm saying out loud, I wish I could take it from you, I wish I could. In my mind, I'm like, man, forget about that. I can say that now. I kept it in then, that's not right.

There ain't no heroes around here. Then we went through 16 hours of labor. Okay, this is not going to be your experience though. And then finally the baby came and it was just, yay, you know, we were tired. So I had already shut down in my mind that because of this experience we just had, we done. We won and out of there. I'm pretty sure that my wife is not going to want to do this again.

After going through that type of experience, we can't. So after about 10 months passed, she came to me and she said, I'm ready for number two. I said, hmm? I said, but don't you remember what happened with number one?

Don't you remember? She said, I remember, but look at this baby. What she was looking at overrode what she remembered about the pain of the birth. So I said, are you sure you want to do this?

And she said, I'm sure I want to do this. It was the baby. See, when God delivers what he's going to deliver in your life, you'll look at that baby and say, oh, it was worth it.

Let's do this thing again. There is a testimony and he said, it was so good that I can't even remember my troubles in my father's household. That God is trying to do something in your life.

He's trying to birth something and produce something and bring fruit about. But you can't quit. You can't throw in the towel in the middle of your testimony or the stripping from the enemy would have won. That he's taken you down and you never lost the father's favor just because you lost a little bit of physical evidence. Physical evidence doesn't override God's spiritual providence. So never get it twisted as you're walking through this life that I got to keep going. Because somebody's life is going to be preserved based on my testimony.

Let me tell you a story about my testimony just for a second. Most people know I was a sports guy. I was.

That thing is over now. But I was a sports guy. Football player, played at Duncanville High School, won the state championship, then went to Baylor, got educated. We didn't win no games. My parents thought I was a winner because I got a full scholarship. That means you won.

I care less how many games you win. So I've got a full scholarship, full ride to go to Baylor University and I had a dream. Everybody knows my dream was to play in the NFL. I wanted to play in the NFL and I told God, just allow me to run out the tunnel. I just want to run out the tunnel.

I just want to feel the fire and see the planes and hear the crowd. I just wanted that opportunity to play a few games in the NFL. And I got a chance. I was picked up in the 2005 draft class by the Dallas Cowboys. Some of you Cowboy fans know that's the draft class of Marion Barber and Demarcus Ware and Jay Ratliff and all of those guys. You don't know me because they were better, but I was there.

They still write checks to everybody. I was in there. So I was there.

But three weeks into being equipped, I was stripped. I walked up to the door and the guy that we call the Grim Reaper, he stepped out and put his hands on my chest. Then he reached out and he took the playbook. He didn't say a word.

He just pointed that way because you know what that means. He just going back. Now, I only had 20 minutes to mope because I'm playing for the Cowboys.

I'll be home in 20 minutes. So it's not like I got a flight to cry about it. No, I've got to go home and try to reassemble. And then I got a call from the San Diego Chargers. I said, OK, God, let's make this thing happen.

Let's make this dream come to life. And then they said, but we're going to allocate you to NFL Europe so that you can develop. I was like, develop?

I don't need to develop. So I go to this NFL Europe league and things keep going downhill. We're in training camp and you have a two-hour practice. Then they let you take off your helmet and eat a banana and an apple, put it back on and go do another two-hour practice. I said, this ain't for me.

I don't want to do this. We're out there in Tampa. It's hot. We finally fly to Germany.

It's white walls, white sheets, no English-speaking channels for several months. I wanted to quit. I called my dad and I told him, I said, I'm going to quit football. I'm out. I'm done.

This is not for me. So I said, book a flight because I don't have no money. Me and my brother are always talking about we ain't got no money and we need him to cosign. I don't need him to cosign.

I need him to sign by himself. I need you to book this ticket so I can get home because this is not for me. I can't handle this stripping that I'm going through.

My favor, it seems like it's been lost or gone. I need to go home. So he said, are you sure, son?

I said, I'm really sure. Book the ticket. He booked the ticket. I go sit in the coach's office and tell him I'm going home. He said, well, we really don't want you to go home because you're a good player. I said, literally, I don't care what you want. It's Jonathan Evans talk.

I care less what you want because I was frustrated and I'm 22 years old, 23 years old. I'm going home right now. And he said, well, you can't go home right now because you haven't done your exit physicals. You can do your exit physical tomorrow night because that's a liability.

You let a player go home before he does his exit physicals, they can come back and say I was hurt on the job and try to get paid that way. So I called my dad and said I can't go home until tomorrow night. My dad said, don't you think it's interesting? I said, oh, Lord, here goes this philosopher. That you couldn't leave when you wanted to leave?

He said, so I want you to do something for me. I want you to go out to one more practice and I want you to ask God if he wants you there, in spite of whether you think you want to be there. I also went back out to that practice and I kid you not, in the practice I was crying. You know when you're really crying because you can't control your neck? I'm crying. My neck is cocking back. I can't do nothing about it because I don't want to be there. This is a pit for me. It's a pit experience, but I ask God if you want me to be here, then you're going to have to give me a peace that surpasses all understanding.

I kid you not, the next time I put my hand in the dirt, that's exactly what I felt. Made the next play and turned around and looked at my coach and I said, I'm staying. And he said, okay, great.

I don't know where this came from. But then I realized by the end of the season, my teammates had given me a new nickname. They called me Rev. Seven players accepted Jesus Christ.

So now I know the business transaction that has to take place to get on the field in the NFL. All I got to do is pray for people and lead people to Jesus. Now you're going to let me run out the tunnel, right?

So I'm trying to manipulate God for him to put me in the palace where I see myself. So I go to the Titans. I do it what God has called me to do, but I still get cut. I go to the Washington Redskins.

I do it, but I still get cut. But finally in 2011, I'm standing in the tunnel. I circle back around to the Dallas Cowboys. And I call my dad and I said, Dad, we did it. We're here. I'm about to run out the tunnel for the first time. And my dad said, Amen, son.

Amen. Now what you should be wondering is why in the world you got your cell phone in the tunnel? Because the first time I ran out of the tunnel for my first NFL game, I wasn't the player.

I was the chaplain. Because God has a plan for your testimony. Now it may not be your plan, but it's a good plan. And it's to give you a future and to give you a hope.

Don't think it's about you unless you end up like a fruit that's eating itself, rotten. You've been placed here to preserve somebody's life by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. Jonathan Evans, reminding us God has our best interests at heart when we allow Him to do His work in our lives.

And if you're not sure how to do that, Dr. Tony Evans would love to explain it to you. Just visit tonyevans.org and follow the link that says Jesus. You'll discover what it takes to start a brand new life right now, right where you are.

Again, that's tonyevans.org. And while you're there, don't forget to check into getting a copy of Jonathan Evans' brand new book, Your Time is Now, a look at finding your reason for being and experiencing greater fulfillment as you realize your life's purpose. And as a special bonus, when you make a financial contribution toward keeping this ministry coming your way each day, we'll say thanks by sending you Your Time is Now and all nine full-length messages from Jonathan's corresponding series, Forever Starts Now. You'll find us online at tonyevans.org, where you can make all the arrangements. Or give us a call day or night at 1-800-800-3222, where our resource team members are standing by to help.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans will be returning to our broadcast on June 22, after Jonathan Evans completes this special series called Forever Starts Now. Next time, he'll point out that we jeopardize our future when we impulsively grab the things we want today. 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. Music