TONY EVANS HOUSE
Tony Evans - God Is Up To Something Great - Part 2
Okay, you can do this. I know, I know, Karvana makes it so convenient to sell your car. It's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. But look, you already have a great offer from Karvana. That was fast. Well, I know my lessons played in Vin my heart, and those questions were easy. You're almost there. Now to just accept the offer and schedule a pick up or drop off. How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? Well, I already made up my mind, and Karvana is so easy. Yeah, true. And sold. Go to Karvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Well, we got a minute, and I'm going to buy that truck I've been wanting. Wait, don't you need, like, weeks to shop for a car? I don't. Karvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. Hold up. You're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? You can shop wherever you want. I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Karvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? Because I like it. Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Karvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Why are you waiting for your blessing? Be a blessing. Why are you waiting for your deliverance? Be a deliverer. God is up to something great, and Dr. Tony Evans says you can be a part of it, even when times are tough. Use it as an opportunity to get outside of yourself and become a ministry to others while you're waiting on God to become a ministry to you. This is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oaklift Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. God made you, and there's nothing that happens in your life that can escape his notice, even when it's hard to understand why you have to face certain challenges. Dr. Evans says you can know that God's guiding you through them, according to his perfect plan. How? Let's join Dr. Evans and Jeremiah 29 as he shows us. We all know to varying degrees the feeling of hopelessness, and for so many today, they are drowning in a sea of hopelessness surrounded by a land of emptiness, and they just don't see much of a tomorrow. God's people is real. We're feeling hopeless. Things weren't looking very well. Things were not very encouraging, and day after day, year after year, they had to face this reality of hopelessness. One reason they were hopeless is because they were under divine discipline. God was disciplining them for their sin. They're in a hopeless situation because they see no way out. They are stuck. Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans that I have for you to class the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and to give you a hope. God can turn your yes to days into better tomorrow's. I know the rear view mirror of your life as you look back on it may be full of regrets, pain, wrong decisions, bad choices, mistakes, sins, and scenarios you wish you could switch around, but you can't. It's all over now. And I know that looking back in the rear view mirror, you think that because of what you see in that rear view mirror, that's going to define away you're going. But God wants you to know there's another piece of glass that should control where you're going. And it's not your rear view mirror. It's your windshield. And if you check and compare the size of your rear view mirror to the size of your windshield, you will discover that your windshield is a lot bigger than your rear view mirror. But if you spend all your time looking at the rear view mirror, you're going to run into something and miss out on the windshield. Now don't get me wrong. Your rear view mirror isn't important. Your rear view mirror is critical. But only to glance at, not to stare in, because that's not how you do it. You got to look at where God is taking you. I have a plan for you, sayeth the Lord. And he says, it's a good plan. Even if you in a bad chapter, it's a good plan. Even if you're coming out of bad year, it's a good plan. Even if you're coming out of negative scenarios, I have a plan, he says, and it's for you. When they make cars and General Motors, they don't do it all in one place at one spot. There's one piece over here and one piece over there. And it's discombobulated until it exits the assembly line. When it exits the assembly line, the individual discombobulated parts have been harmonized so that now you have a vehicle that can go somewhere. If you try to ride it before it's been harmonized, are you not going nowhere? But if you let it go through the assembly line, now you go somewhere. God has the ability to take a little bit over here, a little bit over there, put it in his cosmic blender, harmonize it, so that now you can go somewhere. I have a plan for you. Say it for Lord, just put your own name there. God has a plan with your name on it. It's not my plan. He's got my plan for me. He's got your plan for you. But don't look at me and ask me for God's plan for you. He's not discussing that with me. He's only discussing with me my plan. So if you're not willing to hook up with him, don't be surprised if you don't discover your plan for you. He says it's- Well, we got a minute and I'm going to buy that truck I've been wanting. Wait, don't you need like weeks to shop for a car? I don't. Carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. Hold up. You're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? You can shop wherever you want. I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? Because I like it. Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Did I hear you're shopping for a car? Because I've been at it for ages. Such a time suck, right? Not really. I bought it on Carvana. Super convenient. Oh, then comes all the financing, research. Am I right? Well, you can, but I got pre-qualified for a Carvana auto loan in like two minutes. Yeah, but then all the number crunching in terms, right? Nope. I saw real numbers as I shopped, found my dream car, and got it in a couple of days. Wait, like you already have it? Yep. Go to Carvana.com to finance your car the convenient way. Well, we got a minute. I'm gonna buy that truck I've been wanting. Wait, don't you need like weeks to shop for a car? I don't. Carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. Hold up. You're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? You can shop wherever you want. I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? Because I like it. Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. Not for a calamity. But their situation made it look like it was for calamity, because that's what they were in. Calamity. He says, where I'm taking you is not for calamity. It's for well-being, or he calls welfare. Your well-being. In others, where I'm taking you, you're going to be better off. But I needed to take you through to get you to. So, the question now is, what do I do while I'm waiting for this plan? And then, how do I discover it? Those are the two questions. I hope you at least want it. I hope you at least want to know what it is, but how do you discover it? And what do you do while you're waiting for it? Well, let me discuss, first of all, what you do while you're waiting for it. We read a few verses. He says in verse 5, these words, "Build houses and live in them. Plan gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply their do not decrease and seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you in the exile, pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its well-being you will have well-being." In other words, don't sit back and gripe about your situation. Don't spend all your time talking about woe is me. Don't spend all your time fussing, cussing and complaining. Don't spend all your time blaming other folk for the bad situation you're in. Let me say a word about that before I go on because a lot of times we blame and folk for the situation that we are in when God says, I have sent you in the exile. In other words, God is using those folk causing your mess to put you in the position so he can show you his plan. So don't spend all your time blaming folk. He says, I have sent you in the exile and I may have used those situations to do it but I have you there and I have you there for my reason. So he says, seek the welfare of the city. Now notice there's a word in verse seven that's also in verse 11 and that's the word welfare or well-being. While you're waiting on the plan for your well-being, he says, seek the well-being of others. In other words, why are you waiting for your blessing? Be a blessing. While you're waiting for your deliverance, be a deliverer. While you're waiting for your change to come, be part of somebody else's change. Don't get so self-absorbed. While you're waiting, use it as an opportunity to get outside of yourself and become a ministry to others while you're waiting on God to become a ministry to you. Don't go passive on me. Don't sit in the room and pull down your shades. Turn off all the lights and think you're making progress in your private dark room because you are not. While you are waiting to see me unfold my plan for you, you allowed me to use you to be the unfolding of my plan for somebody else. In other words, it's more blessed to give than to receive. He says, you seek the welfare of the city. You're waiting for welfare. You seek welfare because I am up to something great. I have a plan for you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you. If you're here, you say, how do I know God has a plan for me? You're here. If your plan was over, you'd be over. You're still here. Yeah, but you don't know how much I messed up. No, you don't know how good God is. I have a plan for you. Okay, so why are you waiting on the plan? Don't get in this little cubby hole. Seek to be a blessing. And Dr. Evans will have more on that when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. If you're like most Christians, there are people in your life who know you, but may not know Jesus. You really want to do something about that, but don't feel equipped to share your faith effectively. In other words, maybe if you knew more, you could do more. Well, that's where the Tony Evans Training Center comes in. It's an online Bible school with classes that'll take you deep into the most important core concepts of the faith. You can start with our free introductory course on evangelism, then move on to subjects like spiritual warfare, marriage building, maturing into faith, and many more. The content is challenging, but you can move through it at your own pace anytime you're online. There's also lots of custom content from Tony and an online forum where you can get your specific questions answered. Go to TonyEvans.org and follow the link to... Did I hear you're shopping for a car? Because I've been at it for ages. Such a time sock, right? Not really. I bought it on Carvana. Super convenient. Oh, then comes all the financing, research. Am I right? Well, you can, but I got pre-qualified for a Carvana auto loan in like two minutes. Yeah, but then all the number crunching in terms, right? Nope. I saw real numbers as I shopped, found my dream car, and got it in a couple of days. Wait, like you already have it? Yep. Go to Carvana.com to finance your car the convenient way. I'm Victoria Cash, and I want to invite you to a place called Luckyland, where you can play over a hundred social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. So what are you waiting for? The best way to discover your luck is to spin. So go to luckylandslots.com, that's luckylandslots.com, and get lucky today. At Luckyland. No purchase necessary, VGW Group, boy prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply. The Tony Evans Training Center. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone. Your smile can lift someone's spirits. Your words can bring hope to someone's heart. You can change the trajectory of someone's day, or even their entire life. As followers of Christ, we're designed to be kind-hearted. And that's why Dr. Evans has written a brand new devotional book created for compassion. In it, he walks you through 30 days of selected scriptures, discussions, and questions aimed at cultivating in you the kind of godly compassion that can radically change the world around you for good. We want you to have a copy of created for compassion as our gift. All we ask is that you include a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on the station. Your contributions are the only way we can continue our outreach on radio and TV, and our work with pastors and local congregations as we carry God's word around the world. Contact us today. Let us know you can help, and we'll send you created for compassion, along with all seven full-length audio lessons in Tony's current series, Find the Faith You Need. Visit us today at TonyEvans.org for details, or call our resource center at 1-800-832-22. That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, right now, let's get back to the second part of today's lesson. Here's Dr. Evans. What's my part in seeing it unfold, other than being a blessing to somebody else. Notice what he says, verse 12. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all you are. And I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes, and you gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you in the exile." Indiana Jones in the last crusade. Anybody, Indiana Jones fan, Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones in the last crusade. He's looking for the holy grail. When he's looking for the holy grail, he's got a map, and the map is designed to show him how to get to the holy grail. The problem is the enemy stole the map. Now, Indy doesn't know how to get to the holy grail. Indy goes to his father, Dr. Jones, Sean Connery, and says, "Dad, our enemies have stolen the map to the holy grail, and I don't know how to find them." But Dr. Jones, Indy's father, said, " Indy, you don't understand. I drew the map. So they may have the map, but you have me. And if you have me, you have the map. So all you need to get to the holy grail is take me with you, and you're going to get there because even if you don't have the map, you have the map maker. I know you don't know the plan, but if you know the planner, you can still get to the plan. I know you don't have the details, but if you know the one who's doing the mapping, he can lead you to the plan. Call on me. Find me. Listen to me. And you will be found by me. Fellowshiping with God turns up the dimmer switch. You know, dimmer switch can keep things dark, but when you turn up the dimmer switch, slowly things get clarified. Or let me put it this way. You are then able to begin making connections. You can connect things that you didn't think had any relationship to one another, that you thought were total discord, and you will discover he was doing something all the time. You just didn't see the connection. Because you see, my ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. So unless I turn up the dimmer switch, you can't make sense of what I'm doing. You know, stock market is too detailed. You can't keep up with it. So what you do is you get a financial planner. That's his job to keep up with it. His job is to take all the details and give you the bottom line. You can read this Bible all day long and still not know the plan for you. Now, you need to know the Bible because that gives you the outline of the plan, but you want to know the details for your life. That has to personally come from him. That can't come through. Just general Bible reading. It comes with Bible reading, but with his spirit-themed feeling free enough to be able to disclose to you what's yours. He has a plan for you. Oh, it's a beautiful plan because he says it's a good plan. Now, it doesn't mean that there are problems in the plan. It means though that it is Ryan C. Chris here. People always say it's good to unwind, but that's easier said than done. The exception, Champa Casino. They actually make it easier done than said, or at least the same. Champa Casino is an online social casino with hundreds of casino-style games like slots and blackjack. Play for fun. Play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Sign up now. Collect your free welcome bonus at ChampaCasino.com. Sponsored by Champa Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void where prohibited by law. 18+ terms and conditions apply. "You're a 2-M watch out with the couch on a whim. My little fluffy crazy cat who don't play nice with the giz. You're a danger fluke. 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Oh, the great story in the Bible of this is Joseph. Oh, Joseph. You know, the story as a teenager, he was sold in the slavery. Brothers were jealous. He was raised in a dysfunctional family. All kind of sibling problems, all kind of parent problems and his father was a deceiver. He was raised in a dysfunctional family. His brother sold him in the slavery. Then as a slave boy, he got picked up and got a decent job, accused of rape that he didn't commit, and he gets thrown in the jail. When he was in jail, they forgot about him. They forgot about him. Year after year, they were supposed to remember he's in jail and they forgot about him. In jail. You know how it is when you feel like God has forgotten about you. But you feel like God has had left you alone and just forgot left you to rot. But you know what it said about Joseph? It says, but the Lord was with Joseph. It says the Lord was with Joseph. When he was accused of rape, the Lord was with Joseph. When his brother sold him in the slavery, the Lord was with Joseph. When he was put in jail and forgotten, the Lord was with Joseph. It says Joseph was never by himself, even though he was in a hopeless situation. For 14 years, this went on. Then one day they remembered him because of a dream. And when they remembered him because of a dream, they told the king that he went up to the king and terminated the dream. And they made Joseph number two in the kingdom. He went from the outhouse to the white house overnight. His brothers who sold him in the slavery, watch this man gets good. His brothers who sold him in the slavery had to come to him to get food because now he ran all the food industry for Egypt. And they had to come to him for food. They said, Joseph, we hungry, but they didn't know it was his brother many years that passed. Joseph said, come near to me. He said, they were afraid. He revealed himself. I'm your brother who you sold in the Bible says, and they were afraid and they went. But then Joseph says, to make a long story short, he says in chapter 50 of Genesis, he says, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. You mean God meant for me to be sold in slavery? God meant for me to be accused of rape. God meant for me to be thrown in jail. God meant it because God allowed it because God was going to use it to bring you to this place. And the great people of faith, some of them people, you wonder how they got in that chapter. You got a prostitute in the chapter, Rahab. You got a murderer in the chapter Moses. You got you got Samson, a womanizer in the chapter. You know, how didn't world Samson got in there? You know, you got you got all these people with problems, issues, they got issues, but they're in the chapter because we may discover that God had a plan for them. And when we're willing to yield to his plan rather than fight for their own, God took their yesterday's and turned them into better tomorrow. It's not how you start a race. It's how you finish it. So it's time now to go to the finish line. We don't have time to waste anymore. God says, I have a plan for you. I don't know how many points are against you. I don't know all the points Satan has up against you. I don't know all the people who want to keep you hopeless. I don't know how long you've been in scenario, but I do know that somebody with a flag who will make the final decision about how things are going to turn. Hello, it is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumba Casino dot com. I looked over the person sitting next to me. You know what they were doing. They're also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. 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Dr. Tony Evans with some great encouragement for you about the future. Now, if you'd like to take advantage of the special offer I mentioned earlier, you can do so by visiting TonyEvans.org. The entire seven lesson "Find the Faith You Need" audio compilation is available for you to own on CD or MP3. And for a limited time, we're bundling it along with a copy of Tony's latest devotional book created for compassion. It's our way of saying thanks when you make a donation to the Alternatives Ministry. Make the arrangements today by visiting TonyEvans.org or reach out to one of our helpful team members by phone. They're available 24/7 to help with your resource requests. Just call 1-800-832-22. That's 1-800-800-3222. Now, before I tell you what's in store for us tomorrow, Dr. Evans wanted to take a moment to share these thoughts with you. Jesus showed compassion, empathy, and unconditional love to everyone, no matter who they were or where they came from. He taught his followers to love one another, treat people with respect, and be kind to those in need. If you've got a desire to spread love and compassion, to bring understanding and unity to our culture, then your heart is aligned with Jesus' teaching. And the best way you can impact the world for good is to make sure you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. To accept his sacrifice for you and let him guide you every day. If you don't have that relationship yet, you can start it today. Just pray this simple prayer, but mean it for yourself. Dear God, I confess my faith in Jesus Christ, your Son, who died on the cross from my sins and rose to save me. Enter my life. Be my Savior and Lord. Cleanse me. Direct my path. Thank you for your love and salvation found in Jesus. And help me to live a life each day that shines your truth and love to those around me. In Jesus' name, amen. Tony has more to share about the importance of aligning your life with Christ. And you can hear that when you visit TonyEvans.org and follow the link at the top of the home page that simply says, "Jesus." A lot of people say they believe in God, but the Bible tells us that demons do too. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will tell us about the essential ingredient that turns simple belief into something that really makes a difference. Be sure to join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative. And it's made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you. Hey, it is Ryan Seacrest. There's something so thrilling about playing Chumbah Casino. Maybe it's the simple reminder that with a little luck, anything is possible. ChumbahCassino.com has hundreds of social casino style games to choose from with new game releases each week. Play for free anytime, anywhere, for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Join me in the fun. Sign up now at ChumbahCassino.com sponsored by Chumbah Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. 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