The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Deliverance is not the same as freedom. All deliverance does is gain you the opportunity to pursue freedom.

Guest (Male): But Dr. Tony Evans says the freedom we're pursuing needs to be kept in balance.

Dr. Tony Evans: And the price tag of freedom is responsibility.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Most of us love doing things for our kids, but we also know it's important to teach them responsibility. Let's join Dr. Evans right now as he explains how God maintains that essential balance with us.

Dr. Tony Evans: Freedom is release from illegitimate bondage so that you can experience what you were created and redeemed to be. It is the clarion word of mankind. It was in the mind of the Creator that freedom would be your normative experience in life.

But freedom carries a very expensive price tag, and the price tag of freedom is responsibility. If freedom is your desire and freedom is your goal, if you wish to experience what you were created to be, it will require you paying the price of responsibility.

We live in a day when so many want the benefits of freedom without the concurrent responsibility that accompanies it. You hear it so much today in everybody blaming everyone but themselves for the predicament that they’re in.

Kids will blame parents for the way they are today. Folks with lung cancer will blame cigarettes for their disease. That is certainly not to suggest that there are not elements of truth, that there have been contributing circumstances to my circumstance today.

But if our discussion is freedom, if you spend all your time blaming the influences that have put you in the situation today, you’ll never get around to taking responsibility for getting out of it. As long as you can look over your shoulder at some thing or someone who put you in this predicament, whatever that might be, then you become responsible for canceling out your own freedom.

Please, if you will recall, deliverance is not the same as freedom. All deliverance does is gain you the opportunity to pursue freedom. You can pass civil right laws that say you are equal, you are free, Jim Crow is no longer the modus operandi of the day, segregation has been canceled. You can have all of the laws on your side and still not be free because deliverance does not equal freedom.

In order to be free, that is, in order to experience becoming what you were created and redeemed to be, that will require responsibility. It has dawned on me that for so many of us, that is the missing link to our arriving at our destiny.

God delivered Israel from Egypt, but He took them on a journey of development so that they could reach destiny, the Promised Land, their freedom. It was the goal of the deliverance to set them free to develop in order that they might be made ready for destiny.

Those who are parents understand this task. A baby is born and is delivered into this world. That inaugurates an 18-year process where, hopefully, around 18 or so, they are set free to adulthood.

Now the worst thing you can have is a child who was born, who after 18 years wants freedom that they’re not yet ready to handle because that’s a disaster in waiting. When that teenage child of yours doesn’t want any more rules, doesn't want any more regulation, doesn't want you looking over their shoulder, doesn't want you putting restrictions on them, what they’re saying is, "Mom, Dad, I want to be free. I don’t want to live under this restriction. I don’t want to live under these terms anymore. I want to be free."

What they often don’t understand is they're also saying, "Then I want to be responsible." Because you see, during those 18 years, I fed you. During those 18 years, I clothed you. During those 18 years, I paid for those sneakers. During those 18 years, I drove you. During those 18 years, I picked up the tab for the gas that got you from point A to point B. During those 18 years, I paid for heat and air conditioning and water and gas.

During those 18 years, I took up that. So now understand, if you want to be free, you now get to pick up the tab. You now get to pay for your own car note, your own gas, buy your own clothes, get your own food. Are you sure you want to be free?

Because freedom demands responsibility. If you really want to be free, if you really want to become what you were created to be, you cannot do that without learning the lessons of being responsible. That’s what the wilderness, that’s what the development period is designed to show you: responsibility under God so that when you reach the place God is taking you, you are able to handle it.

So many of us wonder why God hasn’t crossed us over the Jordan yet, why we have not reached destiny yet. Perhaps the lessons of the wilderness have not yet been learned. What is responsibility? Responsibility is the obligation to take ownership for fulfilling one’s assigned task through the use of one’s ability. It is responding through the use of your ability.

Conversely, irresponsibility is squandering our God-given opportunities and abilities in the consistent fulfillment of assigned tasks. To be irresponsible is to not fulfill the assignment through the use of our abilities.

When a kid doesn't clean up his room, it's usually not because he's not able. It's because he's unwilling. When they do a sloppy job, it's not usually because they’re unable, if proper instruction has been given. It's because they’re unwilling.

God is trying to raise His children to be adults, spiritually speaking. That is going to require responsibility. The reason so many couples shack up and don't get married is folks don't want to be obligated to the responsibility. The reason why there are so many babies running around without fathers is that so many of the men who sire the children don't want the obligation, the responsibility that comes with the new life.

In fact, as I say to the men so many times in the Bible, when the Bible says the man is the head of the home, most men interpret that meaning "I'm the boss." That's not what the word means. The word headship means "the one responsible," the one who is to respond through the use of his ability for the well-being and management of the home. Boss that.

Now responsibility involves choice. We see that when we go all the way back to creation. God gave Adam responsibility, but then He gave him choice. He could choose to be irresponsible because freedom involves choice and you can choose not to be responsible. That is the glory of our humanity that we can choose not to be free by choosing not to be responsible.

So if you really want to experience freedom, then there must be the conscious choice to be responsible, to take ownership through the use of one’s God-given abilities for assigned tasks. That is, the things that God requests and requires of us in order to experience the freedom that we want. Everybody prays for a deliverance. Everybody wants God to deliver them. Everybody wants God to intervene for them. And God is often asking, "Where is the responsibility?"

In Joshua chapter 1, Joshua is now on the precipice of crossing the Jordan River. He is on the precipice of the Promised Land, freedom, destiny, where God was trying to take them, the land of Canaan. They’re getting ready to cross the Jordan. He now comes to Joshua and He gives him some instruction. He says in verse two, "Moses, my servant, is dead. Therefore, cross this Jordan."

Now, what was Moses’s job? Moses’s job was to get them out of Egypt and lead them through the Promised Land. What does God come and tell Joshua? That time is over. Moses was great, Moses was wonderful, but that was then, this is now.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will return with more about the difference between then and now when he continues today's message from his series, Free at Last. This collection shows how God's power at work within you can overcome both the pain of your past and the challenges you're facing right now.

From fear and anxiety to discouragement and debt, these 12 full-length lessons cover a wide range of real-life struggles and include important material we haven't had time to present on the air. When you make a contribution to support this ministry, we'll send you the complete Free at Last series as our thank-you gift. And for a limited time, we'll also include Tony's companion book, also titled Free at Last, which explores these principles more deeply and helps you apply them to your everyday life. Visit tonyevans.org for details, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222. Tony will return with more of today's lesson right after this.

On the Unbound podcast with Dr. Tony Evans, guests share honest conversations that many Christians can relate to. "There is nothing more relevant to humans and to their problems than the Bible." Through real stories, faith meets anxiety, loss, and the pressure to keep going. "Truth changes. The word itself is active and powerful. You don't have to be blooming to be growing." Unbound with Dr. Tony Evans. Listen now.

You can find the Unbound podcast on all of the major podcast platforms. Let's get back to Dr. Evans now as he continues today's lesson from the book of Joshua.

Dr. Tony Evans: One of the reasons that so many of us can't move on to tomorrow is because we’re still stuck in yesterday. Flip over just a page to chapter 5 and notice what God says in chapter 5, verse 4: "This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation, that is the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey."

These children whom He raised up in this place, Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them along the way. Verse 9: "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.'"

He said the reason that they did not make it over is they were still stuck in Egypt. They were still stuck in Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt is a vision of the world. They were still stuck with their worldly thinking, their worldly ways, their worldly orientation, and they were wondering why God hadn’t moved them to the Promised Land. They were still stuck in Egypt with their minds. Their minds were still back there. It’s hard to get to tomorrow if you're stuck in yesterday.

The Bible says Jesus feeds the birds in Matthew 6. When is the last time you’ve seen a bird on a limb with its mouth open toward heaven waiting for worms to drop in? Yet the Bible says Jesus feeds them. But He doesn’t feed them because they name and claim a worm today. They don’t sit on a branch with their mouths open and say, "God, you said it. I believe it. That settles it."

They must tread. They must go look for the worm that God has provided. What you will discover is what God has provided is the mechanism for you to get it once you become mature enough to know what to do.

You say, well, if I’ve got to go get it, why do I need God? Okay, a farmer. Let’s suggest that the mindset of the farmer is "I don’t need God 'cause I got to plant and I got to harvest." Since I'm going to be the one planting the seed and since I'm going to be the one harvesting the seed, I don’t need God. While that farmer has miscalculated two major things: sunshine and rain.

I don’t care how good a planter you are or how good a harvester you are, not enough sunshine or not enough or too much rain means you wasted planting and there will be nothing to harvest. In other words, God has still got to do His part for your part to make sense.

Now the beauty, the beauty of freedom through responsibility is that God’s freedom is tied to God’s inheritance, and God’s inheritance is tied to a promise. He says in verse 3, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you."

In other words, go get what has already been given. So you're not trying to make something happen, you're just taking advantage of what God promises. But you're going and getting it. You're claiming it not through words, you're claiming it by going after it, grabbing it.

So how do you do it? How do you move to your future responsibly? Notice what He says to him over and over again. Verse 6: "Be strong and courageous." Verse 7: "Be strong and courageous." Verse 9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous."

Therefore, don't let the obstacle stop you from moving forward. Don't let the obstacles stop you from moving forward. Stop giving excuses why you can’t be a better man, you can’t be a better woman, you can’t be a better wife, you can’t be a better husband, you can’t be a better Christian. I want you to be strong and I want you to be courageous.

And the reason I want you to be strong and I want you to be courageous is found in verse 5: "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life." In other words, I'm going to overrule them. I know they look big and they look scary and they look difficult, but I'm going to overrule them. I know how it looks right now. I know it looks like you're outnumbered. I know the economy looks like you can’t win. I know it looks like things have passed you by. I know how things look.

But I do not want how it looks to define what you do. I want what I said to define what you do. Therefore verse 8: "The law of this book shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night so that you're careful to do all that is written in it."

Stay in your lane. The lane is the law of this book. Don’t go to the right, don’t go to the left. Don’t add, don’t take away. Find out what I said on the subject. Implement what I said on the subject. You say, but I don’t know how that’s going to work. And you won’t find out until you cross over, put shoes on your feet, start treading and acting based on my word, and then you will discover I really do know what I'm talking about and I'm not going to let any human being—this is good news. You ought to be free to know that there is no human being so powerful, so strong, so great, so rich, so influential that they can stop God’s purposes in your life.

And so He closed. Let me close. He says, "This book of the law will not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night," continuously, "so that you may be careful to do." You don’t meditate just to memorize, you meditate to execute. "So that you'll be careful to do according to all that is written in the book, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success."

Success in God’s economy is completing what you were put here to do. That’s success. Success is not first how much money you have, or the size of the house you live in, or the type of car you drive. That only could mean that you are an expensive failure. You know miserable people who make a lot of money. That’s not success in and of itself. It could be the overflow of success, but success is getting into your destiny, fulfilling the purpose for your life. And only you can stop your success 'cause no man will be able to stand before you. But you can stand before you because if you don’t tread, take responsibility based on my truth, if you don’t do that, then you have stopped your success.

People come up to me and say "The man won't let me get anywhere." What man are you talking about? See, the mere fact you use the word "man," that's all I need to hear. You said "man" like that person has the last say in your life. No, you got this backwards. "The man won't let me," and this and that and all of that. Look.

Now suppose the Cowboys said, "Boy, I would really do a lot better if those Eagles would stop getting in my way." I mean, if they would stop trying to tackle me, then I'd have time to make some passes. If they would stop covering me like a blanket, I'd be able to get free to score touchdowns. If they stop rushing in and blitzing, then we could make more yardage on the ground.

Everyone if they heard Cowboy players talking like that would condemn them. We would condemn them because that is what the enemy is supposed to do. The enemy is supposed to block, stop, cover, bat down, tackle, blitz. That's what the enemy is supposed to do.

So stop criticizing that the enemy is doing his job because if greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world, then the enemy should not be determining your success. You should be able to overcome him, block him, run around him, throw over him, because greater is your team than their team. So don't tell me the devil is so big, the devil is so bad, the people are so strong.

No, no, no, 'cause I heard you on Sunday morning say that He's my rock, my sword, my shield. He's my wheel in the middle of the wheel. I heard you say on Sunday morning He's my balm in Gilead, my bright and morning star. I heard you say on Sunday morning that He's more than able. I heard somebody quote, "Now to Him who can do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think." I heard folks waving their hands, standing up and shouting. I heard all that, and then you're going to leave church and talk about they won't let me.

It demands responsibility, ownership under God. Remember, the only place, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talking about how we can break free from irresponsibility and experience the victory God wants for us. There's more to today's message than we were able to bring you on the air, but full-length copies are available. Just ask about the message called Freedom from Irresponsibility or better yet, request Tony's complete Free at Last series, a 12-message collection designed to help you break out of the areas where the enemy tries to keep you trapped.

As I mentioned earlier, when you make a contribution to support the ministry, we'll send you the full series along with Tony's companion book, Free at Last, which reinforces these truths and helps you live them out. Visit tonyevans.org today to get all the details. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members assist you. That number again, 1-800-800-3222.

Everything we possess, even life itself, is a gift from God. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans talks about how the Lord wants us to invest His blessings to get the biggest return for God's kingdom. Be sure to join us for that.