God will not work in disunity. But Dr. Tony Evans says when believers come together for God's purpose, he'll make himself present. So you literally can be holding back the glory of the Lord if you are trying to glorify him in division. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
When a team works as a team, they're stronger and more effective than any of the individual players. In today's message from the archives, Dr. Evans explains why that's even more true within the church. Let's listen in. Second Chronicles chapter 5 is a worship service. Everything is leading up to Solomon's celebration of the dedication of the temple. The temple is the Old Testament house of worship. When they were preparing to gather to worship and to celebrate, he says even though there were a lot of people gathered together, all the priests, verse 11, they gathered without regard to divisions. There were 24 divisions of priests and these 24 divisions had rotations of services that they were to perform. But it says on this day, when they came together to worship God, they did so without regard to which group they were a part of.
Perhaps we would say today which ministry you are a part of. It says they gathered without regard to their ministry connection. If you will notice closely, you will see in verse 13, in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard.
And notice again with one voice. As this worship service was getting going, verse 10 says, there was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there in Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt. Okay, so they're getting ready for their worship service. They all come to church, if you will, and they bring this piece of furniture, this wooden box, and it was called the Ark of the Covenant. It says inside, verse 10 says, the Ark of the Covenant were the two tablets that God gave to Moses. God gave Moses two tablets which were the Ten Commandments. On one tablet was their vertical responsibility toward God.
Thou shalt not have any other God before me. You know, and he gave the vertical responsibilities, your commitment upward to God. But on the second tablet gave the second portion of the Ten Commandments what had to do with your responsibility to others. The horizontal connection. So the first tablet was your vertical walk.
The second tablet was your horizontal relationships. Both tablets are in the ark. They are celebrating because they're bringing the ark in the temple. The ark is called, even in verse 10, the Ark of the Covenant. A covenant is a spiritually ordained agreement between God and his people, where God promises to do certain things if his people comply with what the governing rules of the relationship ought to be. That's called a covenant. It is a spiritually binding relationship between God and his people. God's people for a long time had lived outside of covenant. In other words, they were running things their own way, living their own lives, making their own decisions independently of God. And whenever they strayed from the covenantal agreement, chaos would set in.
Whenever they returned to the covenant agreement, God's blessing would flow. One of God's blessings was that his presence would be made manifest in their midst when they were as one. In other words, unity would affect God's presence. This unity would create God's absence.
Let me say that again, because this is the key point I want you to know, and I want to show you something that's staggering. If you are unified, I will show up. If you are dis-unified, I will disappear.
Don't miss that. If you are as one that is on the same page with me and each other, vertical and horizontal, then you will see me manifested. But if you allow illegitimate division between you, you will not see my manifestation. I'll be there. You just won't see it.
It won't be evident that I am there. It says they came together in worship. They had the instruments. They had the choir. They had the priest. And let's look at what they did in verse 13. In unison, when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice, to praise and glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord, saying, He indeed is good, for His loving kindness is everlasting, then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud.
Now let's look at what's going on here. They've all gathered for worship. Their own individual ministries did not matter. The only thing that mattered was giving glory to God.
That's the only thing that mattered. And they did it with one voice. As a unified congregation, they made a big deal about God. To glorify God means to make a big deal about Him.
To advertise Him, to put Him on display, to brag on Him, to glorify something means to show it off, to embellish Him. The psalmist put it this way, O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. To magnify something isn't actually making it bigger, it just makes it look bigger.
When you put a magnifying glass over something, you don't make the thing you're magnifying bigger, you just make it look bigger. You can't make God bigger. He says they came together with one voice to glorify and make a big deal about God. That's why they came together without regard to the vision or their ministries or their uniqueness. They came together as one voice and they made a big deal, an awful big deal about God. When they made a big deal about God, they said He indeed is good and His loving kindness is everlasting. So let's look at the big deal they made about God. They didn't make a big deal that things were good.
They made a big deal that He is good. Please make the difference. When you come to this house to worship God, things may be bad. Circumstances may not be in your favor. In fact, you may not be particularly happy right now. But they didn't come to make a big deal about their circumstances because everybody's circumstances aren't good all the time.
Everybody's circumstances aren't happy-go- lucky all the time. But the text says that when they came together without regard for divisions, their unique ministries, without regard for their differences because they came in unison with one voice, they came and they made a big deal about God. And the big deal, glorify, that they made about God was God is good. One of the most important things you can do, particularly if things are bad, is to be reminded that God is good.
That's very critical. Now it's easy when things are good because then you feel like God is good. But sometimes you need to be reminded God is good when things are bad because that takes your eyes further than you can see because of your circumstances.
The worship of God is to let you be reminded about how big God is and about how good God is, and notice something else, and that his loving kindness goes on forever. That's his hesed. His hesed means his loyalty to you.
That he is loyal to you, he is good regardless of how bad things may be at the current moment. Sometimes you've been the church when everything was bad but God lets you see his goodness. And even though your circumstances didn't change, your perception of them changed because you got to see God bigger than what you are looking at when you arrived. So they made a big deal about God and they did it with our regard to the vision.
They did it with one voice because this was a worship service and a celebration. We'll return to Dr. Evans and a thought-provoking observation in just a moment. But first, we're living in a time where the cultural and political landscape around us seems to be growing more and more polarized with each passing day.
The rhetoric is growing harsher, the division is growing deeper. At a time like this, it's crucial to find ways to build bridges of unity and understanding. That's why Dr. Evans has invested his time and knowledge of the Scriptures into a new book called Kingdom Kindness, a movement to bring calm to the culture. This work is in part an outgrowth of the lesson we've been hearing today and can help us find ways to bridge the divides between us and show the love of God to those around us.
Because we feel this awareness is so important for our culture at this time, we're making available as our gift the Kingdom Kindness book, all nine full-length audio messages from our current audio series on CD or digital download, as well as an additional bonus, Tony's popular devotional book on unity among believers called Stronger Together Weaker Apart. All we ask is that you make a contribution to help us continue this ministry outreach when you request the Returning to God in Unity bundle. You can do that online at tonyevans.org, where you'll see a link for this special offer right on the homepage. Once again, that's tonyevans.org to request the Returning to God in Unity bundle. Or call us at 1-800-800-3222, where a friendly member of our team is ready to help with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222.
I'll repeat the contact information for you after the second part of today's message, coming up right after this. The threat of global catastrophe looms over us. Earthquakes.
Fires. It seems like the world is falling into turmoil. Are you ready to face Armageddon? Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, emerges as a light amidst the sin-ridden depths of our world, guiding you through the murky waters of uncertainty. Within these insightful pages, wisdom intertwines with revelation. You'll dive deep into the mysteries of enigmatic prophecy, where solace awaits the weary soul. Dr. Tony Evans' unparalleled mastery and deciphering the complexities of Scripture will ensure clarity in the face of confusion and illuminate the path towards hope. Arm yourself against the impending storm, and let not the hour of reckoning catch you unaware. Be prepared for what's to come by picking up your copy of Thy Kingdom Come at tonyevans.org. Comes with a bonus sermon series staying right with God.
Do not be caught off guard. Well, let's rejoin Dr. Evans in 2 Chronicles chapter 5 for part 2 of today's message on the power of oneness. It says at the second half of verse 13, And when they praise the Lord... Let me pause there. Let me pause there. When they praise the Lord, you can worship silently. Silently. You can worship in your heart. You can worship without saying a word. You can worship with just shaking your head. You can worship with nodding. You can worship with just raising your hand.
You can, you can do all of that as part of your personal, private, silent, just you and God worship. But you can't praise God silently. Praising God is the verbalization of worship. Praise must be expressed. That's why, that's why the author says, and bless the Lord, oh my soul.
He's calling for you to tell it, speak it, say it, declare it, let it be known. See, if your worship never becomes your praise, that means you're holding up back on God. See, we give you a time for private worship. It's called communion.
You see, the lights are turned down low and you get to bow your head and it's not a lot of talking and you get to meditate. That's worship, but that's not the same as praise. Praise is when you open your mouth and you declare the goodness of God in the land of the living. If 20,000 people can take three hours to praise a sports program, you can't tell me you can't open up your mouth and give God some glory. Because I'm talking about praise. And praise has to be expressed in order to be legitimate. You don't come to church just to worship, yes, but you come to church to express the worship, that's called praise.
It's one thing for the choir to sing and you just to agree with the song, it's another thing for you to lift up your voice and praise the Lord because you want to express praise. But watch this, because I ain't got to the point yet. Here's the point. Here's the point. He says, And when they praise the Lord, saying, He indeed is good, and His loving kind is everlasting, then... Somebody say then.
And let me put it this way, not until then. See, didn't happen till then. In unison, with one voice, then it says, then the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud. The atmosphere changed. There's a change in the atmosphere.
Something that was not there is currently there. There was no cloud until the praise rang out in unison. When the praise rang out in unison, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. In other words, God took over the worship service. And the glory of the Lord filled the house.
Now wait a minute. Verse 14 says the glory of the Lord filled the house, but not until verse 13 happened when it says, with one voice, they came to praise and glorify the Lord. In other words, when they glorified God in unison, God responded to their glory with His glory. His glory did not come till their glory was expressed. So you literally can be holding back the glory of the Lord if He's not being glorified or you are trying to glorify Him in division. If there's not one voice and the one voice isn't glorifying God, you could be keeping the cloud outside the house.
Now why do you not want to keep the cloud outside the house? Because the glory, the word glory means manifestation. See, when the glory came inside the house, God's presence was being made visible.
Remember 2nd Chronicles chapter 5? When they were one, giving glory to God, God showed up and manifested His glory in their midst. We're missing God showing up. See, we hear a sermon, but God hadn't shown up. We have a great service that wasn't service good today, but did God show up? Because whatever glory shows up, God takes over. He controls stuff that folks can't do what they normally could do, because it says the ministers couldn't get up to minister.
Their normal program ceased. The Bible says if a husband and wife are disunified, 1st Peter 3-7, tell the husband don't pray because God's not listening. God will not work in disunity.
But that explains a lot. That explains why the devil's main purpose is to cause conflict. The devil wants to cause conflict because conflict creates disunity. If it creates disunity, God's glory won't show up. If God's glory doesn't show up, nothing changes. So what we need is God's glory back, and God's glory comes back when there is a unified praise and glorification of Him. Whatever you are facing in your life and your circumstances, get the glory of God. And the glory of God comes with the recognition of His goodness, the praise of His loving kindness, in spite of your circumstances, the spiritual agreement to be unified so that you build a runway for His glory to land on. See, God's glory is circling because He can't find a place to land. He can't find a place to rest. And the reason He can't find a place to rest is He can't find a group of people who are gonna be on His agenda and not their agenda. Who's gonna be on His kingdom, not their kingdom.
Who's gonna be building His cause, not their cause. See, we got this wrong. We want God to bless us prior to us blessing Him.
Everybody wants it. Bless me. Bless me. Bless me. God bless America. Okay, America, how about us blessing God?
Then maybe we'll see the glory of God fall. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 1, there are divisions among you. You know, some of Apollo, some of Paul, some of Cephas, some of—you got divisions among you. Paul writes to the Philippians, he says, those ladies who are in conflict, he says, address that because that is a division that hinders unity. So I'm seeing everywhere in Scripture, he says in 1st Corinthians chapter 12, there's one body and one spirit. And he keeps saying, one, one, one, and one hope of your calling. He says in Ephesians chapter 4, preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond, the belt of peace. He says, because we want the glory to fall. The problem you're facing is not just the problem you're facing.
It is the enemy causing division to keep the glory up there and keep it from landing down here. May God bring us together in a way we have never been together before. That doesn't mean we're the same. We're different backgrounds, different races, different genders, different personalities.
All those are legitimate. But may the cause, may the purpose be one. And may we not be ashamed to give God glory. May we not be ashamed to give God glory through the praise of His name and the recognition of His faithfulness, because He has been faithful. You say, but pastor, you don't understand all the stuff I've been going through, okay?
But let's put it like this. Put your good days next to your bad days. I know you got bad days, and I know that list be long, but the reason the bad days seem so bad is because they've disrupted all the good days that you had that you forget about.
Put your good days next to your bad. Look, God is good. Things are bad, but God is good.
And I want to remind somebody today who wants to quit, give up, throw in the towel. Yes, that's bad. God is good. Every perfect gift coming from above, the Bible says in James 1, is good, because it comes from God. God is good.
I want to rehearse all week long. God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. Now your stuff may be bad, but I know who is good, and that the church should remind you to give Him glory. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up an inspiring teaching on the power of oneness. Well, today's message in its entirety is part of that special resource package I mentioned earlier, and we'd love to send you everything in it as our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to help keep this broadcast coming to you here each day. The Returning to God and Unity bundle includes all nine full-length audio lessons, Dr. Evans' devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, and his newest release, Kingdom Kindness, a Movement to Bring Calm to the Culture. To get your copy of this special package, just visit tonyevans.org. You'll see a link to all the information you'll need for making your request and donation. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.
That number again, 1-800-800-3222. Are you hungry for more of God, more of His truth, more of His power, and more of His wisdom applied in your life? Then you need to connect with the community of passionate believers who are growing in God's Word through the Tony Evans Training Center. With exclusive video and audio teaching from Dr. Tony Evans, this interactive online study experience allows you to explore theology, biblical history, and real-life application of the kingdom agenda anytime, anywhere. Visit tonyevanstraining.org to get started today. That's tonyevanstraining.org. It seems like no matter how much the world talks about the value of diversity, our economic, cultural, political, and racial differences can still separate us. But in tomorrow's message from Dr. Evans, he'll explore how and why the church needs to rise above those differences. I hope you'll join us for that.
