Authority of the Kingdom Agenda

We add what we think, what the folks we know think. Dr. Tony Evans says we pollute God's Word with our ideas and traditions. Calling on God, prayer, must be legitimately connected to His Word in order for you to see an answer come. 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. Too many Christians build their lives around what people say about the Bible instead of what the Bible says about people. Today, Dr. Evans explains why that's such a dangerous temptation as he talks about the real authority for Kingdom Christians.

Let's join him. Today I want to talk to you about the authority of the Kingdom. There are two teams in any football game, but in the middle of the field, there's a third team, the team of officials. The team of officials do not belong to either of the other two teams.

They belong to the league office, the kingdom on Park Avenue. Park Avenue sets the rules about how things run on the field. The job of the officials is to reflect the rule of the kingdom from Park Avenue on the field of play where the battle is occurring.

Their job is not to join either team because they sit independent of both teams. When an official operates by his own rules, he loses his authority because his authority is only actualized when he is operating according to league standards. To ensure that an official on a football field is operating in accordance with the league standard, he's given a book. He is to study that book, learn that book, memorize that book, and utilize that book for every single decision he makes on that field. Every decision he makes on the field has to be able to be validated by the book. When he makes a decision that cannot be validated by the book, he loses the support of the league office. Because an official in a football game only gets to rule if the book agrees with it.

If it's not in the book or if it disagrees with his decision, his decision is overruled by the commissioner because the book is designed to reflect the mind of the commissioner who is not on the field. His representatives are on the field—his officials. We have a king. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has been deputized, if you will, by God the Father to implement what happens in history. The Bible says there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. Jesus is the commissioner, and his job is to supervise the officials on the field.

The officials on the field are believers, those who've come to Jesus Christ for salvation. To enable them to function on the field of life properly, our commissioner, the head of our kingdom, has given us a book. It's called the Bible. The concept is that the book would control all the decisions, that his officials, in whatever the decision is on the field of life, would make all of their decisions by means of its agreement with the book. The moment one of the officials leaves the book, they lose the commissioner. So one of the reasons we're not seeing more authority in the kingdom dispensed from the king is that we've written our own book, and officials don't get to write their own book.

They only get to implement the book that is handed to them by the commissioner. You and I belong to a kingdom. We have a king, and he is to be the final court of appeal on all matters that he agrees to hear, and he agrees to hear all matters, because the kingdom gender is the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over all of life.

Why do you need to know this? You need to know this because your experience of kingdom authority is tied to its connection to the book. And once it deviates from a connection to the book, you lose the authority of the kingdom and the benefits of the king.

In other words, you're on your own. Many of God's children are on their own because they have sidelined the book, not knowing that at the same time they've sidelined the king. In the script you read in your hearing from Exodus 19, he takes a couple of our key words.

He says to them in verse 5, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, remember our word covenant? You operate under my governance. Then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You're going to be special, unique. Holy means special, set apart, unique. You're not going to be average, ordinary.

You're going to be in a class by yourself. If you operate under my covering, you're going to be my kingdom. Why is there no authority? Why are our individual lives being controlled by everything but God?

Why is our family disintegration being caused so that families are falling apart? Why is our church or churches ineffective? God's covenants are for the individual, the family, the church, and the society at large, the government. And God wants to rule all of them because He said all the earth is mine, but He rules them by means of His Word. He does not rule them apart from His Word.

Let's get this straight. The Bible is not simply words about God. It is the Word of God.

Many people learn about God from the Bible, which is legit, but you don't quit there. It's the voice of God in print. It's the Word of God, not merely words about God. It is though God were physically talking. He's just written it down. The Bible claims authority.

Jesus put it this way. He says in John 10, 34, and the Word of God cannot be broken. That means cannot be annulled, canceled, or made void. How you view the Bible and how you respond to the Bible will determine your authority or lack thereof. That is your ability to rule.

Authority is your ability to rule. Let me read to you Deuteronomy 4. This is very convicting as I walk through it, because I just saw fresh how God feels about His Word.

He says in verse 1, Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Stop right there. He said, Pay attention. Why?

Why? Why should I pay attention, God? Because I'm going to tell you how to get what I have given to you. I'm going to tell you, verse 1, how to get what I've given to you.

Remember? You have already been blessed with all spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1, 3, in heavenly places. Or put it another way, everything God is ever going to give you, you already have. There is nothing new that you can get from God. It has already been banked in your account. Everything God is going to do for you, with you, every blessing you're designed to receive in your physical life, here on earth, God has already deposited.

But you have to get it. Revelation 22 makes it even stronger. The Bible ends with this. Here's how the Bible ends. Revelation 22, verse 18, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.

In other words, don't play with my word. Guess what? Officials don't get to add to the book. Nor do they get to take away from the book. They just get to implement the book.

That's all they get to do. But with the implementation of the book comes authority. Now, watch what he says in verse 5 of Deuteronomy 4. See, I have taught you the statutes and judgments, that's the word of God, just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. I'm going to tell you how to roll.

I'm going to tell you how to do this stuff. So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all the statutes, the word, and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God when we call on him?

Oh, I hope you don't miss that. He says, don't turn to the right, don't turn to the left, stick with the book, stick with my word. And then other folk are going to see what I do for you when you call on me.

Here's the formula. Calling on God, prayer, must be legitimately connected to his word in order for you to see an answer come. If what you're asking from God is disconnected from his word, there will be no response. It is because Christians have left the word, not by denying it—very few Christians go around saying this is not the Bible, this is not the word of God—but by adding to it and taking from it. And the main way we add to it and take it from it is human opinion.

We add what we think, what the folks we know think. And as Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 15, you make invalid the word of God with your traditions. He says the nations are supposed to know and see God's authority operating in the lives of individuals and families and churches and even in the society. It says the nations should see that you are a unique people.

Why? Because they will see your authority. They will see you ruling rather than being ruled. But when you leave the book, you lose the authority.

Kingdom authority you do not experience. But Dr. Evans says kingdom believers sometimes wind up being unique people in ways that don't seem to make sense. More on that when he continues our message in a moment. But first, I want to let you know that the message you're hearing today is part of our year-end audio compilation called The Best of Tony Evans 2021. It contains 20 of Tony's most requested lessons from this year covering the importance of prophecy, our need for spiritual armor, how to find freedom from anxiety, and much more. And right now we're bundling these powerful audio messages along with a special selection of bonus books and devotionals you can choose from. You can get the complete Best of audio collection along with your custom selected bonus resource as our gift to you when you help support Tony's ministry with a year-end contribution. Get all the details and make the arrangements today when you visit tonyevans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by day and night to help you. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Right now Dr. Evans is back with more of today's message.

Let's join him. Now let me explain something here. I want to be crystal clear on this. I mean, no disrespect to God when I say this, but God sometimes can be weird. In the words of Isaiah 55, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.

In fact, they aren't even close. As high as the heaven is above the earth, that's how different I am than you. So you can't look at you or another one who looks like you and decide for me, because the way I roll isn't the way you roll.

The way I act isn't the way you act. That's why you have to limit yourself and your decision-making to the book, because many of the things God says you won't like. I'm going to tell you that now. Some of the stuff God comes up with is not going to win the vote of the year. Some of the methods God comes up with, some of the demands, some of the expectations are going to mess you up.

It won't seem like it makes sense. I mean, just think of Joshua. Joshua, well, the way we're going to do these walls of Jericho is you're going to walk around the walls once a day for six days.

On the seventh day, you're going to walk around it seven times. Then everybody scream. I'm surprised he didn't say, wave your hand in the air, wave it like you don't care.

Everybody scream. Now that's weird. You won't get that at a military academy. You're not going to get that at a strategic meeting of generals.

We're going to defeat Jericho by walking around the wall. That's weird. And God, you know, I'm just saying. It's not normal. But last time I checked them walls came tumbling down, because my way is not your way. There are a lot of things that God is going to say to you that will not feel natural.

It will not feel natural. But the question is, does he know enough and has he been around enough and has he been doing this long enough to know what he's talking about? And there are enough of us here who have made enough mistakes to know we don't know enough.

Okay? We've blown it enough to know when we thought it was okay and found out and disagreed with God, but went ahead and did it anyway. God was right and we were wrong.

He must have final authority in every area of life. You say, but there's so much in the Bible I don't understand. I got that. I got that.

Let me help you here. Act on the two verses you do understand. Okay? You only understand two verses. A lot of people want to understand 20 verses and they ain't done nothing but two.

Well, God's not gonna help you to understand the other eight if he can't even get you to do the first two. Let's put it that way. You're sick. You go to the doctor. You say, Doc, I'm sick.

I have an upset stomach. Doctor examines you and he says, okay, he writes out a prescription. Now, have you ever tried to read a doctor's prescription? You don't understand it.

You don't understand it. Probably can't even read it, but that doesn't stop you from going to the pharmacist. That doesn't stop you from handing it to the pharmacist. That doesn't stop you from taking it even though you don't understand it. In fact, very few of us asked the pharmacist to break down all the ingredients that made up the thing that's in the pill bottle. We don't say, give me the exegesis of the pill. Break it down, break it down, break it down, break it down, break it down, so that I know every idiosyncratic element that makes up this particular pill that I'm going to put in my stomach, we don't have to have full understanding to swallow it.

You know what we did? We believed what we couldn't understand because of the character of the person who gave it. Because you trust the doctor, you take a pill you didn't understand.

Believe me, he knew more than you know about your stomach because if you knew more than he knew, your over-the-counter stuff would have worked. It's obviously over-the-counter living not working. That's why we're so sick with our lives. That's why we're so sick with our lives, because we have dumbed down the word.

We have made it a religious word, a word about God, rather than the authoritative word of God. Here's what it means. It means you can no longer operate on what you believe to be true. Okay? Not if you want authority. Authority means the ability to rule. You cannot operate on what you believe to be true.

What do we go around saying? I know my truth. I know my truth. I know my truth.

Okay. You're telling me you know what you believe to be true. But the promise of God in John 8 is you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It's the truth that sets you free, not what you believe to be true. Because if what you believe to be true isn't true, then you have false belief, even though you really believe it. All Scripture is inspired of God, profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished to all good works. The Scripture gives you the truth, the whole truth, but unless you let it penetrate like Alka-Seltzer, it's got to go in there, plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is. But it's not a relief in the package.

It's a relief in the water. Unless the word is allowed to soak in your soul and become the basis of your decision making, you will not see it unleash its power so that you can experience kingdom authority, so that you can rule your world. Anybody tired of being ruled? Being ruled by circumstances, ruled by people, ruled by problems, ruled by this, ruled by that. The kingdom means rule. It is the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life.

That's what the kingdom offers. God wants you to have a fixed totem, a fixed standard by which reality is measured. And so we close with this verse, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. It says, For this reason we are constantly thanking God, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. He says, We told it to you, but you didn't think it was just a man talking. You received it for what it really is, God talking, the word of God. And that's why you check everything I say by the book. If I have a guest speaker, you check everything they say by the book.

When I go to heaven and y'all call another pastor, you better make sure he's sticking with the book, because the Bible is to be the standard for all decision-making, every area of life. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment to wrap up today's program with a final comment. First, though, the lesson you've been hearing today is part of Tony's new audio compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2021. As I mentioned earlier, this giant collection is available for a limited time as our gift when you help support Tony's ministry with a generous year-end contribution. In addition to the 20 audio messages, if you contact us right away, we'll also include a special bonus.

Choose from the powerful Kingdom Men Rising devotional, the Made by God book for children, or Tony's newest release, Kingdom Race Theology. Just visit tonyevans.org today to get the details and make the arrangements. Or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are ready to help you day and night.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Tony will return to close today's message in just a moment. As we prepare to step into a new year of ministry, the mission of the Urban Alternative has not changed. And no matter what 2022 brings, Dr. Evans and the Urban Alternative want to be here for you and others to continue to spread God's life-transforming Word. Today, with a year-end gift, you can help meet our year-end challenge amount and be part of helping continue this very important mission throughout the new year. Visit tonyevans.org to give today.

That's tonyevans.org. You know, restoring furniture involves stripping away any old paint or varnish to reveal all the scratches, gouges, and imperfections in the piece. And only when the original veneer has been removed can the restorer completely give new life to that old furniture. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will explain why the same is true for the human spirit as he explores the upside of falling down. Right now, though, he's back with a final comment for today. His name was Bill Clem. Bill Clem was in the old Negro Baseball League. He was an umpire, big strapping guy.

He was calling a game one day. It was the bottom of the ninth. The tying run was on third base. The batter came up, hit an infield ball. The shortstop caught it. The man on third was trying to run home to tie the game. He threw the ball home. He put the tag on.

But when the man slid, there was so much dust around these old plates that you could hardly see anything. So one team came out, the team that was at bat, safe. He's safe. He's safe.

The other team ran out. He's out. He's out.

He's out. It was this big commotion around the plate because it was such a critical play. After all this commotion, Bill Clem took off his face mask, threw it down, and said, everybody shut up. Because it ain't nothing till I speak. And I will tell you what it is. You got Democrats saying one thing, Republicans saying another thing, blacks saying this, whites saying that, Hispanics saying that. You got your friends over here, your mama over here, your daddy over here. Then you got you in the middle. God has said shut up. It ain't nothing till I say what it is because I am the final authority. 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.