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Why God Allows Your Crisis

The Urban Alternative / Tony Evans, PhD
The Truth Network Radio
December 19, 2024 5:00 am

Why God Allows Your Crisis

The Urban Alternative / Tony Evans, PhD

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December 19, 2024 5:00 am

When circumstances turn sour, we can't wait for them to change. That's only natural. But in this message, Dr. Tony Evans shows us an unnatural way to think of a crisis... and the benefits it’ll bring to our relationship with the Lord.

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God allows crises so that He can demonstrate He alone is God. Dr. Tony Evans says even though we may not like hard times, we need them. In a crisis you need to see the living God, and you need an experience with that God. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When our circumstances turn sour, we can't wait for them to change. That's only natural. Well, today Dr. Evans talks about an unnatural way to think of a crisis and the benefits it'll bring to your relationship with the Lord.

Let's join him. When there was the return of God, it was often in the midst of a crisis, a situation that men could not fix, such as the situation that we find in 2nd Chronicles chapter 20 with King Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is in a crisis.

He is now being overwhelmed. The statement is that a great multitude is coming against you. You know you're in a crisis when life is overwhelming you, when everywhere you look there is a problem.

It's one thing after another. Jehoshaphat and God's people were being surrounded by the enemy. They were being surrounded by those who were against them. You know you're in a crisis when you feel like Jehoshaphat felt because verse 3 says Jehoshaphat was afraid. A crisis bursts fear. It bursts insecurity. It bursts trauma and even terror because it looms so large in your life. In the Bible and in life, crisis comes in all shapes and forms. There are financial crises. There can be relational crisis, crisis between people, and you're overwhelmed by the inability to fix whatever the nature of the relationship is. Vocational crisis like Daniel faced in Babylon and the three Hebrew boys who were going to be fired, no pun intended. It was a fearful situation. Here's when you really know you're in a crisis.

Verse 12 he says, Oh our God will you not judge them for we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us nor do we know what to do. You're in a crisis when you don't know what to do. When you sense or feel a sense of powerlessness to change things. You know as long as you feel like you've got the power to turn around then you the fear doesn't dominate. It's when you have this sense of powerlessness. I don't have the wherewithal to fix it or to change it or to reverse it and I don't even know anybody else who can help me. Jehoshaphat says I'm in a crisis.

It's a big thing, a great multitude. It's now running my emotions. I'm afraid. I feel powerless to do anything. I don't have the wherewithal to turn it around myself and even if I had the power I couldn't use it because I don't know what to do.

I don't know the best steps to take. I don't know the right action to move forward on so I'm stuck in a crisis, trapped in a crisis and I don't know what to do. Jehoshaphat was afraid. Verse 3, he turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah because it affected the whole southern kingdom.

There was the northern kingdom and then there was a southern kingdom, Judah. Jehoshaphat is king of the southern kingdom, Judah, and because it affected everybody who this affected because the nation was under attack he called them to join him in seeking the Lord. You need to understand something that's very important. You've heard it before but I need to remind you God allows, creates, and uses crises so that he can demonstrate he alone is God. See it's one thing to know God in theory. He's my rock, my sword, my shield.

He's the wheel in the middle of a wheel. That sounds good and it'll get you an amen, but in a crisis you don't need cutesy statements. In a crisis you don't need spiritual serendipities. In a crisis you don't just need high sounding theological vernacular. In a crisis you need to see the living God. In a crisis you need to know the God you've been talking about is real and you need an experience with that God. Well if you need an experience with that God you need an experience that calls for that God. If you need an experience with that God then you need an experience that calls for that God. So he sets his face to seek the Lord.

Now he calls for this gathering because it affected the whole nation because of this crisis situation and there's a reason he does this. If you will turn quickly back a few pages to chapter 6 when Solomon dedicates the temple and he prays this prayer verse 34 when your people go out to battle against their enemies by whatever way you shall send them and they prayed to you toward this city which you have chosen and the house the temple which I have built for your name then hear from heaven their prayer their supplication and maintain their cause. The reason that Jehoshaphat in chapter 20 seeks the Lord is he remembers what was promised and prayed when the temple was dedicated by Solomon and that prayer was when we are being invaded by the enemy. When the enemy is seeking to override us and we call to you from this place then we are needing you to intervene on our behalf and turn them away.

We are needing you to speak into this situation. So he seeks the Lord. Nothing will make you seek God like a crisis. When you're not in a crisis you throw up cute prayers. General prayers.

Lord bless my day bless my family bless my house bless my health you know bless everybody bless the world. That's a non crisis prayer. You know what a crisis prayer you know you're in a crisis because you specific. He says oh Lord the God of our fathers are you not God in the heavens and are you not ruler over the kingdoms of the nations power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you. He introduces his prayer with one of the great truths that you need to remember particularly if you are in a crisis or when you get in a crisis. He says God is it not true that here it is here it is here it is never forget this God is it not true pay close attention he says God is it not true that heaven rules.

If you forget everything I say today I want you to remember this heaven rules. In other words earth never has the last word. Your crisis is not the final word. It looks like the final word because you're being overwhelmed.

It feels like the final word because you're afraid. Never let your feelings sit in judgment over your faith. So what he says is what he knows to be true about God. He says God is it not true that you rule from heaven. That heaven has the final say. That you have the last word. That heaven will make the closing comment and make the final decision and give the final answer. It's not over till heaven has said it's over. He says as I recall Abraham had some nation problems and you came through for him.

They lived in it and you built a sanctuary and then he comes in verse 8 when we built this sanctuary in your name we stamp your name on it in your house saying should evil come upon us the sword judgment pestilence famine distress you will hear and deliver us. The Lord is about to deliver some great news to Jehoshaphat and his people. Dr. Evans will share that with us when he returns in just a moment.

Stay with us. We pray you're encouraged every time you connect with the Urban Alternative whether it's online or on the air and right now we're asking for your very best year-end gift to help keep that encouragement coming your way. Your financial support will help cover the rising cost of broadcasting production to ensure nothing needs to be cut back and that more people like you can continue to be encouraged by God's Word in the year ahead.

Please visit tonyevans.org to give today. When you support the alternative broadcast ministry with a year-end gift we'll say thanks by sending you the top 24 of 2024 an exclusive collection of our listeners most requested messages focusing on living faithfully in a faithless culture biblical ways to beat depression and discouragement how to approach life from God's perspective and much more and as an added bonus we'll also include a captivating new Christmas album from Anthony Evans called The Greatest Gift featuring fresh takes on beloved holiday classics and original songs that will help bring the Christmas spirit into your home so get in touch with us today make your generous year-end contribution and let us send you the top 24 of 2024 along with the greatest gift make the arrangements at tonyevans.org or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 for a limited time you also have an exclusive opportunity to add the Tony Evans Study Bible to this special year-end offer look for the details online or ask one of our friendly team members how to add it to the package again that's 1-800-800-3222 well right now let's get back to more of today's message all Judah is standing before them infants wives children everybody because it affects them all then in the midst of the assembly the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehoziel the son of Zechariah verse 15 and he said listen all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat thus saith the Lord to you do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude is overwhelming crisis for the battle is not yours but God's oh there's so much in here listen he prays cuz he's in a crisis he says I'm not gonna let my crisis be my focus I am now going to put my eyes on heaven cuz watch this heaven rules I don't know how you gonna do it I don't know when you're gonna do it I don't know where you're gonna do it all I know is you're the only one that can do it because I'm powerless in this situation the text says the Spirit of the Lord came on the Prophet who then gave them watch this a direct word from God for their immediate situation when he focused on God appealing to God's nature appealing the God's history and then appealing to what God's Word said it says the Spirit of the Lord came upon the Prophet and the Prophet gave them a word about how God wanted them to resolve this problem now we have the Word of God joining with the Spirit of God to bring an answer to the crisis being experienced by the people of God when you are in a crisis and don't know what to do God has a Rhema word for you the Bible is the Word of God it is the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation it's the Word of God when you feel it it's the Word of God when you don't feel it it's the Word of God when you like it it's the Word of God when you don't like it it's the Word of God cuz it's the the word of God. But when you're in a crisis, you just don't need the word of God in its general written sense.

You need a Rhema word. That is, you need the specific word of God that applies to you in your specific crisis. Because you can't go to the Bible and the Bible tell you whether to move to Fort Worth or move to California. You can't go to the Bible and it tells you whether to do this specific thing or that.

It gives you general principles, but it doesn't give you all the specific guidance about your specific crisis. But God has not forgotten what you might call gaps. He fills in those gaps by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit's job to speak to the human spirit of the problem, what we should do in addressing our specific crisis at this specific time. And he does it prophetically. Now remember what a prophet was. A prophet was one who would speak on God's behalf to the people. The Bible is called the prophetic word. When the script is called the prophetic word, like in 2 Peter 1, it's referring to the Bible not in its general sense, but in its specific sense to walk you through a specific problem. How do you know when you're getting an utterance, a specific utterance to your situation?

Well, it can come in numbers of ways. You know you're getting a specific utterance when there are 2,000 people in the sanctuary, but the sermon was only for you. It's like you're the only one sitting there and everybody else could have stayed home because this was with you in mind. That means you weren't hearing the word of God. You were hearing a word from God for your specific situation. It can come when you're reading and you're reading and then God, the Holy Spirit, highlights a verse.

In other words, it's no longer just general reading. All of a sudden, the verse emerges up off the page. When we were buying this little church here and I was walking up and down the street and I was just looking at all the land and then I was reading the Bible and I read Joshua chapter one and I was just having devotions over Joshua chapter one. In Joshua chapter one, it says, and I will give you this land. Every place on which your foot trods, this land will belong to you.

Now, I've read Joshua chapter one 100,000 times and nothing happened those 100,000 times I read it, but when I was in, we were in a crisis and we didn't know where we were gonna get the money to buy the church and we didn't have any place to meet and on that crisis day, I was reading Joshua chapter one. All of a sudden, I will give you this land. Every place on which your footsteps, that is what I am giving to you.

All of a sudden, it's up in my grill. God is all up in my faith. I knew on that day that I was reading Joshua chapter one, God was not just giving me general verses for general devotions, he was giving me a Rhema word, a prophetic utterance for my specific crisis situation.

Do you hear God speaking to your heart? He says, the battle is not yours, but the Lord's. Now, in 1 Samuel, we have this phrase, because Israel was in a crisis, his name was Goliath. Goliath is a problem too big for you to handle.

By the way, whenever you have a problem that's too big for you to handle, call it Goliath, because then you know how things gonna wind up. Now, David says, the battle is not yours, the battle is the Lord's. Okay, in football, the quarterback receives the ball, and the quarterback receives the ball, and so the other team is coming in to tackle him. They're coming in to destroy him, because he has the ball. Now, when he takes the ball, he's also invited a problem, because there are 11 other men who wanna do something about the fact he has that ball.

They don't want him to have that ball, and they want him on the ground, and they are doing everything they can to get him on the ground. The quarterback takes the ball, and then he hands it off to the halfback. The halfback then takes the ball, and he runs with it.

That amazing thing happens. Everybody that was after the quarterback changes. Everybody was after the quarterback, but now that they done handed this baby off, they now shift from the quarterback, and now they all after the halfback, because the quarterback has handed the problem off. So now the problem is in somebody else's hands, and all the enemy gotta deal with the somebody else, because he has the ball.

The reason why all of us are running all the time is we keep the ball. I got this problem. I got this problem. I can't do anything about this problem.

This is my problem. God has said, hand the ball off, hand the ball off, hand the ball off. We say, no, I got the ball. I was born with this ball. I was raised with this ball.

I'm gonna have this ball for the rest of my life. God has said, hand the ball off, and if we would hand the ball off and let God take it, the battle is not ours, it's the Lord's. He calls on God, because he said, I got to hand this off. I don't know how I'm gonna handle this personal problem. I'm gonna hand it off, and I'm gonna make the battle not be mine.

It's the Lord's. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with some great insight on what to do with the crisis you're carrying. But if you already know that you're ready to let God take charge of your battles, we encourage you to visit tonyevans.org and select the link that says Jesus.

Tony shares a video there explaining what it means to become a real Christian, and we have some free resources that'll help guide you in your spiritual journey. Take a moment and stop by today. Now, before we hear Dr. Evans' closing comments for today, don't forget you can get a copy of the new Christmas album from Anthony Evans, The Greatest Gift, as well as this year's special audio compilation, The Top 24 of 2024.

This exclusive bundle is available for a limited time as our gift, when you make a year-end contribution to help us keep the alternative broadcast coming to this station. Get more details and make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org. And look for details on how to add the Tony Evans Study Bible to your package when you give. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by to help with your request day and night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. When our plans and dreams are blown away, Dr. Evans says the Lord is still in control of those who trust in him. Tomorrow, we'll see how the storms of life can actually benefit us as they guide us toward greater things. Right now, though, he's back with his closing thought for today. He says you don't need to fight the battle, verse 17.

The husband bowed his head with his face to the ground. All of Judah's inhabitants fell down before the Lord and worshiped the Lord. They praised the Lord with a loud voice. Says listen, trust in the Lord, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophet and you will succeed.

He appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised him in holy attire as they went out before the army. Give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness is everything. He says have a praise service.

Yes! But wait a minute. What am I praising God for?

Because nothing has changed. The enemy's still coming. He says praise him. Yeah, but I'm being overwhelmed. Praise him.

Yeah, but they haven't turned around. Praise him. Yeah, but things don't look any better. Praise him. Yeah, but you don't know what I'm going through. Praise him.

Yeah, but you don't know how I feel. It's that they praised him. He called everybody and says praise the Lord and give thanks.

What am I giving thanks for if nothing has changed? You've given thanks for the handoff. He says the battle is not yours, it's the Lord. So I'm thanking him because that football over there. I'm gonna give him praise because he's gonna handle this situation. The story ends by saying, God made the enemies turn on themselves and they killed each other without Israel having to lift his hand.

But that's not how the story ends. Because it goes on to say that then they went in and gathered all the spoils that the enemy had that now belong to the people of God. Somebody ought to praise him here today in spite of your pain. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. I refuse to pay your respects, but I still pray.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-19 00:08:59 / 2024-12-19 00:18:25 / 9

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