When things are going against you, praise Him. When things are falling apart, praise Him. Dr. Tony Evans says praise is a powerful antidote for fear that becomes a path to protection.
When your enemies show up, praise Him, because God is enthroned on the praises of His people. And I'm here to tell you that God will deliver you. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Praying for God's protection is one thing, but living with the confidence that you already have it is quite another. Today we'll hear the inspiring story of a woman who had the courage to risk her life for her people and discover how she found the strength to do it. Let's join Dr. Evans as he shows us how we can embrace this same courage in our lives today. In my study on the subject of fasting and prayer, I discovered that one of the primary reasons that men would go to God in a time of fasting was because of a need for protection. I simply want to look at two people, a man and a woman, who sought God's help in a time of crisis because they needed protection.
So if you are being controlled by fear, it's an indication it's time to fast. Esther, in one of the most beautiful stories in all of the Bible, is a Jewish girl named Esther. And she is selected to be King Ahasuerus' wife. Haman has decided to kill the Jews, has gone to talk to the king and told the king, we've got to get rid of these people because you have these people out there who are really a nemesis to you in chapter 3. He says, and you need to get rid of them, verses 8 and 9.
Let's destroy them. So the king, having been given false information by Haman because he's mad at Mordecai, the politics of the day, sends an edict out for the destruction of the Jews. Esther is the queen, but the king doesn't know she's a Jew because she's never told him. That leads to this climactic passage that was read where Mordecai tells Esther, it's time for you to go before your husband and let him know that you are one of the people that Haman wants to destroy. It's time for you to step up to the plate and represent us because you have the access to the king. You're his wife.
To summarize it, she simply says, look, cousin Mordecai, can't do it. Because see, look, if I go in there before the king and he hasn't summoned me, I risk him being ticked off at me. Do you see these clothes I'm wearing now as queen? Are you familiar with my Mercedes Chariot that I'm now riding in wherever I want to go? Do you understand where I'm living now? Do you want me to risk my upper-class life for y'all?
Now, I know I'm one of y'all, and I used to live with you, but I didn't move up and out now. And I know God doesn't mean to risk my comfort for y'all. If I go before the king and he hasn't summoned me, then I could be risking my own life. That's what Mordecai says to her in verse 13.
Girlfriend, don't let your imagination run away with you. Don't imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. Don't think just because you uptown now that when this thing comes down, you're going to get out of it. Because when the king finds out that you kept us a secret from him, you're going to go down too.
Not only you, but your daddy's house as well. If you remain silent, verse 14, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. The problem is she's scared. She's afraid. She's terrified.
And so what does she do? Verse 16, go tell Mordecai to assemble all the Jews found in Susa and fast for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast in the same way, and I will go into the king, and if I perish, I perish. I am more afraid of king Ahasuerus than I am of God. So I need my fear to turn to faith. And the only way I can get that is by fasting and prayer. In fact, I don't even feel strong enough to get it on my own when you get the other Jews to fast and pray for me.
Since it involves them as well. So they all go to fast and pray, and I like the end of verse 16, and she says, if I perish, I perish. What is she saying there? She's saying God is sovereign.
And while I'm going to fast, I'm going to let him make the final decision, but I'm going to choose God's way rather than my way. We have too many people who are controlled by fear. You're victimized by fear. You're victimized by people. You're victimized by circumstance, and everybody can tell you what to do but God. But when you know that you're going before God, you're no longer a victim. You no longer have to have every circumstance and everything telling you what to do.
You remove the victim mentality. And so she recognized God's sovereignty. And to make a long story short, a greater power stepped in.
Many of you know the story. She was there talking with King Ahasuerus. Haman came in, and when Haman came in, the tables turned in the meeting. The king got mad at Haman for what Haman was about to do. The king says, I got to think about taking your life.
The king walked out of the room. When the king walked out of the room, Haman ran over and grabbed Esther to plead for his life. But when the king came in, he saw this man grabbing his wife. When he saw the man grabbing his wife, how dare you?
I'm already ticked off at you for what you've done. And the Bible says, listen, watch this. This is very key.
Before Haman had a chance to say anything, that is to explain why he was grabbing his wife, they put a covering over his face so he didn't even get to defend himself. And catch this. And took him out and hung him on the gallow that was built for Mordecai. He will make your enemies your footstool. He will make your enemies your footstool. Because when you fast and pray, you go to a greater power. And God has the ability to rearrange the situation.
He has the ability to strategically place people or control events or time tables or any number of things to make things turn out differently. We used to meet in a school, Adele Turner Elementary School. That was our church sanctuary. The school board told us that we could not meet there anymore and we didn't have a place to meet. So we made an appeal. Could we come down and talk to the school board? They said, well, you can come down, however, you must know that there are two people on this board who are defiant about this issue.
And without those two, there is no way, you're really wasting your time, because these two people have made it known, separation of church and state, that you cannot have your meeting in our school. We needed to buy time to at least find another place. That's all we wanted. We just wanted to be able to find another place. They said, no, you have to be out next week.
They will not allow us to extend the time. And without them, we cannot do it. We drove up for the meeting. We bowed our heads and we said, Lord, this is your church, your people. You know we don't have a place to go. Lord, we need you to show your power today. In changing these people's minds or whatever you have to do, we throw ourselves at your mercy.
We have no power here, none whatsoever. We walked up into the room. All the people had not shown up yet. We waited. They asked us to wait longer and we waited. Finally, after 30 or 45 minutes, they called us in and they said, the two people who were against you have not arrived yet. We don't know how long it will be before they arrive. So we have decided to vote with those who are here. It was unanimous approval to extend our time. I got a call the next week that the two people who were supposed to be there had gotten caught in an accident so that they could not get through the traffic.
They got there after we left when the decision had already been made. That is because God is a God of protection. He is a sovereign God. He is an awesome God. And if you've never seen him do that, if you don't have a testimony you can look at, then how can you handle tomorrow if you've never seen what he can do yesterday? Dr. Evans says there is an answer to that question, and he'll have it for us when he returns in just a moment. Before he does, though, today's lesson, Fasting for Protection, comes from Tony's informative series called Fasting the Key to Spiritual Victory.
Biblical fasting involves a spiritual focus, and Dr. Evans examines how that focus draws us closer to God as we seek His forgiveness, guidance, and protection. You can receive this series for yourself on CD or digital download. The entire collection includes 14 full-length messages with extra material we won't have time to present on the broadcast. We'll send them all to you as our thank-you gift when you make a financial contribution to support this ministry. And as an added way of saying thanks, we'll also include the Cultivating a Year of Kindness Perpetual Flip Calendar with daily prompts, prayers, scriptures, and words from Dr. Evans. To take advantage of this limited-time offer, visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 for help from our resource team.
I'll share our contact information again after Part 2 of today's lesson and this. The Bible makes it clear that you know when God has cursed a land, when its fathers are nowhere to be found. Dr. Tony Evans says that what becomes of the next generation of men depends on what happens with this one. Our kids need to see men in their midst who love God and who love them. But what does it take to be that kind of man?
You can find out with the help of the Tony Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace, lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you.
Visit TonyEvans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. Please read 2 Chronicles 20. Here's the problem. Verse 1, it came about after this. The sons of Moab and Ammon, together with the Midianites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. There was a great multitude coming against you.
Verse 2, was the word reported back. And here's the problem, verse 3, and Jehoshaphat was afraid, because he's human. And when you're human, you get afraid. Don't feel bad that you get afraid. Feel bad that you don't do the right thing with the fear that makes you afraid. We're human people. We have emotions. You can't always control when you're going to fear and when you're not going to fear.
But you can control where you take your fear. He's afraid. So what does he do? And he turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast.
Here we go fasting again. Notice, but I like the phrase before it. He turned his attention. He turned his attention. He turned his attention to seek the Lord. Instead of looking inside at his fear or outside to his enemy, he looked upside to his God. He turned his attention to the Lord. Now, in order to turn your attention, you have to turn your mind. And you see, when he heard the news about his enemies, what he was focused on caused his fear. But when he looked in another direction, he had another focus. And the other focus changed how he felt.
So if you want to change your feelings, change your focus. He focused on the Lord. He proclaimed the fast, because it was a serious thing, and Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord. That's why you fast. You don't fast to diet.
That's a diet. You fast to seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. It affected the whole people, so all the folks were in a fast. The same concept here. Everybody has the same concern, so they're getting together in a group for the same issue. They're fasting together because everybody is affected by the same issue. He starts off in his fear by reminding himself who God is, the God of our fathers, the God of heaven, ruler over all the kingdoms and the nations. Now, why is that an important little statement? Because he's got three armies coming against him. He does not have a big enough army to beat one of them, more or less three of them, but he reminds himself that God is God of the nations.
You created the nations. So listen, he prays related to his problem, but he says, you told us if we cry to thee in our distress, you said it. You told us, and I'm going to throw your word right back up in your face. You told us if we cry to you, you would hear and you would deliver us, and now behold the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir. Oh, I like that. You know what he said? I'm going to name them. I'm not going to just say take care of my enemies. I'm going to call that name out to you.
He blesses God, praises God, and then he says, oh, I like verse 12, oh, our God. Wilt thou not judge them, for we are powerless. You know what that means?
There's nothing we can do. I look to the hills from which come my help, and my help comes from the Lord. My eyes are on you. After they heard the preacher's sermon, he says in verse 17, you need not fight in this battle. Station yourselves. Stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out and face them, for the Lord is with you. Now watch this.
I like this. See, when you hear a sermon like this, and you know you got to face some enemies, or you will face some enemies, Jehoshaphat knew what to do. Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground. All of Judah and the inhabitants, he fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. See, he got his praise on. He went and worshiped the Lord. Now, the battle hadn't come yet.
He hadn't stood before the enemies yet. So in order to worship took faith. He had to believe what the preacher said. He had to believe what the prophet said, and worship was an act of faith. Now watch this now. Verse 19, the Levites, that's the staff, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice. Jehoshaphat goes down low. Everybody else stands up, but they are doing the same thing, they're praising God.
Why? Because when you don't know what's gonna happen, and you're not sure how God's gonna do it, you need faith. When the army showed up, and when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised him in holy attire, and they went out before the army and said, give thanks to the Lord, for his loving kindness is everlasting. So they go to the battle giving thanks.
Now look at verse 23, middle of the verse. And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. The enemy killed themselves. And when Judah looked out, all the enemy was gone. And verse 25 says, and they had more stuff to take back from the war, and they didn't lift up anything to fight. And what happened then? Verse 26 says, and they blessed the Lord in the place.
They didn't wait till they get back home. They said, this is where the victory was. Let's get right down now and get our praise on. And you're in trouble, praise him. When things are going against you, praise him. When things are falling apart, praise him. When your enemies show up, praise him. Because God is enthroned on the praises of his people.
And I'm here to tell you that God will deliver you. One day there was a man on the side of the road, and he was just praising God. A man looked up and said, why are you praising God? He said, because I just read in the Bible how Israel was led through the Red Sea when God opened it up and then swallowed Pharaoh's army. Well, this was a skeptic.
He said, oh, you don't believe that, do you? They were at the Reed Sea. And at the Reed Sea, it's only a few inches.
With a few inches, that could not have happened. And he went, and he got louder with his praise. He said, how can you praise God when he only went through a few inches of water? I want to praise him more, because anybody that can drown Pharaoh's army in a few inches of water must be God.
Get your praise on. If you don't believe that he can deliver you, ask Elijah when Jezebel was after him what God can do. If you don't believe he can deliver you, ask Daniel in the lion's den what God can do. If you don't believe he can deliver you, ask Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego what God can do. If you don't believe he can deliver you, ask the three wise men when Herod was after him what God can do. If you don't believe he can deliver you, ask Peter who was caught in jail when the church was praying what God can do. If you don't believe he can deliver you, ask Paul in Silas what God can do. And if you still don't believe he can deliver you, ask me what God can do. And I'll tell you that he's able to deliver you. He's able to make a way out of no way.
He's able to build a road in the wilderness. God can do it. God can do it.
I don't care what you're facing, he's able. Bless his name today. Exalt his name. Lift him up. Glorify him.
He's able to make a way. And Martin Luther was facing the church. He wrote the words of this hymn. A mighty fortress is our God. A bulwark never failing. Our helper he amidst the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.
His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. Did he, did we in our own strength confide?
Our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing, dost ask who that might be? Christ Jesus.
It is he. Lord sabbioth his name from age to age the same and he will win the battle. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure.
One little word shall fill him. The word above all earthly power, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. That's our God.
That's our God. Dr. Tony Evans with encouraging words today on how to access God's protection in your life. As I mentioned earlier, today's lesson is taken from a powerful sermon series from Dr. Evans called Fasting the Key to Spiritual Victory. And for a limited time, we're offering the full-length version of all 14 lessons in this series on CD or digital download, along with our Cultivating a Year of Kindness perpetual flip calendar.
That'll help challenge and inspire you to practice a life of contagious kindness. They're both yours as our thank you gift when you make a donation to help us continue this outreach. Call us today to make the arrangements at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members is ready to help any time of the day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or visit tonyevans.org to take advantage of this special package. You'll find the details right on the home page. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Do the answers to your deepest needs sometimes feel just out of reach? Tomorrow Dr. Evans will offer practical insights that can help bring those answers closer. Be sure to join us. 🎵
