The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: People want the sermon without the cross and wonder why they're not free.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says knowing about Christ is no substitute for actually knowing Christ.

Dr. Tony Evans: Your relationship spiritually will determine your freedom in all the dimensions of your life.

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

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in the Confederate States of America were freed. But it wasn't until six months later on June 19 that people in Texas received that news.

Today, Dr. Evans points out that Christians are free from spiritual bondage because Christ has declared his followers free, and it's time we receive and act upon that good news. Let's join him in Luke chapter 4 as he begins.

Dr. Tony Evans: Jesus Christ has now gone public. He is now asserting who he is, the most unique person who has ever entered history. There is nobody like Jesus Christ. He is fully God, but he's also fully man. As a man, his job was to represent God in history. He comes to the synagogue in the neighborhood where he grew up, Nazareth, and they hand him the book of Isaiah and he turns the pages and comes to Isaiah chapter 61 and then he quotes it or reads it.

He says in verse 18 of Luke 4 as he's reading Isaiah 61, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me and he has anointed me to preach good news, the Gospel." The word gospel means good news and it was good news about freedom. He says, "I have good news for poor people." He says, "I've got good news to captives. I've got good news to the blind and I've got good news to the oppressed." He says, "I have come to declare good news and the Spirit of God is upon me and has anointed me."

He has been identified and recognized by God through the Holy Spirit to proclaim good news. In the Old Testament, to be anointed meant to be dubbed. David was anointed as king. That means he was the one recognized as having been identified with God by God as the new leader for Israel or as the next priest. He has been selected, if you will.

Jesus Christ has been uniquely selected to proclaim to people good news about freedom and the Spirit is backing him up. The Spirit of God is upon me. In other words, this is a supernatural offer. This isn't people talking to other people about freedom. This is a supernatural offer. Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, has come here today based on his word to make a supernatural offer because he's been authorized to do so.

I made a phone call for a repair I needed at my home and I called and I was trying to get it worked out where the person would work out the repair and I needed some other things done. Her statement was, "Sir, I'm going to have to get my supervisor because I'm not authorized to do that. I haven't been anointed." In other words, there has been no recognition that I can give you what you're asking for.

Now, I sincerely asked her. She sincerely wanted to help, but she didn't have the anointing. She was not duly dubbed and recognized as having the capacity to give me what I needed to fix what was broke in my house. She called her supervisor to the phone. Her supervisor, a gentleman, came to the phone and I explained to him the situation that I was having to get rectified.

He said, "I am not authorized to do what you're asking me to do." I was somewhat evangelically ticked off, I said, because you know those phone calls can last a long time. I said, "Well, can you get me somebody who has the authority, the authorization, the power to respond to my need? I got something broke. I need something fixed, but everybody I'm talking to, they want to help me, but they can't help me because they haven't been authorized."

I need somebody with some power, some clout, who has been anointed to be able to speak. I don't need somebody that has to go to somebody else who has to go to somebody else who has to go to somebody else who has to go to somebody. I want to get to the right person who has been duly authorized to fix my broken-down situation.

Finally, I got somebody on the line who had been anointed, who had the power to take care of what a lot of other folks wanted to help me with but were incapable of solving. See, a lot of us have been seeking freedom in all the wrong places. We've been going to scenarios that maybe want to help, would like to help, but they've not been anointed. They are not duly authorized to be able to set you free.

But Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me and I have been duly authorized. I have been anointed in order to set the captives free or to proclaim good news that freedom is staring you right in the face." Now, I don't know what you need to be free from, but whatever it is, I know somebody who is duly authorized to offer it.

Jesus opens the Bible and says, "I've been duly authorized." Some of us have been trying to be free from something for years. You name it, and there's somebody in here that has it. It may be pornography, it may be gambling, it may be drugs, it may be alcohol, it may be cigarettes, it may be a cursing tongue, it may be an illegitimate relationship, it may be whatever it is. You've been trying for years.

You've been like a hamster. You ever seen a hamster on a wheel? It's trying to go somewhere. That hamster is trying to go somewhere. Sometimes it goes slow and sometimes it goes fast. It's trying, but all it is is going in circles. It's going in circles because it's been boxed in a cage. You know what that hamster needs? It needs somebody to reach in there and pick it up out of its situation.

Because no matter how hard it tries and how fast it goes, it will never be any further when it finishes than when it started. Why? Because it's boxed into an enslaved situation. But if somebody that's not locked in can reach in and lift it out, it can deliver it from its wheel-kind of life. Somebody in here has been churning on a wheel and you're tired of running in the same spot. But I know somebody who's been duly authorized and anointed with supernatural power to set captives free.

There are some here, people that you know, who feel like it's hopeless. This is my lot in life and I'm just going to muddle through, try to make it, get by the best that I can, and you've given up on ever thinking about being free. In other words, you've gotten used to slavery. You've gotten used to whatever mental, emotional, physical incarceration you're going through. This has become your lot in life. This is just the way it is.

You know, how many have gone to Disneyland or Disney World? You've been to either one of those two. Okay, most of you. After about two or three hours in Disneyland and Disney World, you begin to think that all that stuff has been sized correctly. In other words, these are miniature buildings. When you walk in there, these are miniature buildings. But if you're there long enough, it looks normal.

Because that's all you're surrounded with. So it looks like this is the way it's supposed to be until you come back out and you're faced with the real deal about the real size of things. You can be duped into thinking this is how things are supposed to be because you've been hanging there for two, three, four, five, or all day. You've been hanging out there, so this is the way it's supposed to be, when that's not the real world. You've been duped to think that's the real world because you've been hanging there too long.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will show us how to break free from that stuck mindset when he continues this final lesson in his powerful series on freedom called Free at Last. This 12-part 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 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 a heads up that this is the final day we'll also be including Tony's companion Free at Last book, bundled along with the audio messages. 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.

Chronic illness, long hospital stays, questions with no clear answers. On the Unbound podcast, Dr. Tony Evans talks with New Testament scholar Dan Wallace about faith when suffering doesn't have a timeline.

Guest (Male): I ended up going to hospital after hospital and for the next five years I kept coming back to the hospital.

Dr. Tony Evans: Real pain, real perspective. Trials produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope.

Guest (Male): Unbound with Dr. Tony Evans. Listen now. You can find the Unbound podcast on any of the major podcast platforms. Let's get back to Dr. Evans now as he continues today's lesson on the good news of freedom.

Dr. Tony Evans: Jesus Christ says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to proclaim good news." The Gospel is good news. It is good news about eternity because when you trust Jesus Christ, that means you're on your way to heaven. When you go to the cross for the forgiveness of sins, you're on your way to heaven. That's good news.

It's good news to know the thing you fear most will never happen: death. Most people, if they gave their greatest fear, would be to die. The good news of the Gospel is you will never die. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. As soon as you die, you won't be dead long enough to know you died because you are immediately ushered into the presence of the Lord. So the thing you fear most is the thing that will never, ever happen.

But the good news is more than heaven. The good news includes earth. He says, "I've come to proclaim good news to the poor." Now, if you're poor, what's good news? That something is going to address your poverty, that something is going to change your status in life. If you're poor, that means something better is coming along. If you're in captivity, good news is that you are going to be released, that somebody has posted bail. If you're in jail and somebody posts bail, that's good news.

Jesus said, "I have come to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." Now, what that refers to is Leviticus chapter 25, beginning with verse 8: "You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely 49 years, seven times seven. You then shall sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month on the Day of Atonement. You shall sound a horn all through the land."

"You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release"—remember, release to the captives—"a release through the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. And each of you shall return to his own property, each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee. You shall not sow nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy for you."

"You shall eat its crops of the field. On this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property. If you make a sale moreover, your friend or buy from your friend's hand, you shall not wrong one another, corresponding to the number of years of jubilee." Verse 17: "So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear God, for I am the Lord your God." Jesus said, "I have come to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." What am I trying to say here? I'm trying to say God wants to offer you Jubilee.

And that's good news. The acceptable year of the Lord, the year that the Lord wants to come and make stuff right for you again. Some of us are in debts that we shouldn't be in and God says, "I've got good news. I've got good news for you who are in impressive situations. I've got good news. I've got good news for you who are in addictions. I've got good news. My good news is the acceptable year of the Lord."

But I hear what you're saying. You're saying, "But pastor, I can't wait 49 years." Read verse 21. He said to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." In other words, he told his audience, "You don't have to wait any longer. You don't have to wait and hope next year's better. You don't have to wait until January 1 to make New Year's resolutions. God says today, right here, right now, is your Jubilee."

The bad news is that situation didn't change because he said, "I have come to proclaim good news." Underline proclaim. "I'm going to give you the good news. But you must accept the good news for the good news that I tell you about to become good news for you." In other words, you can hear good news and amen good news, praise the Lord good news, hallelujah good news, and isn't God great good news and not experience the good news for you.

You see, back in Leviticus chapter 25, verse 9, when God says, "This shall be a jubilee with you," it was inaugurated with the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was when you got right with God. He says, "When you get right with me, Day of Atonement, debts will be cancelled. Slaves will be released. Families will be put back together again," he says in the passage.

If you skip the Day of Atonement in order to get the social benefits of Jubilee, you don't get the spiritual and you lose out on the social. See, a lot of people who want God to do stuff in history don't want the Day of Atonement. They want to skip the spiritual and get right to, "God, pay my bills." Get right to, "God, get me out of this addiction." Get right to, "God, fix my family." Get right to, "God, make this better," when they have skipped the thing that inaugurates the day.

If the spiritual is not foundational, if the spiritual is not the first thing, if the spiritual is not priority, if the spiritual gets thrown by the wayside, if all that matters to you when you come to church is to hear the sermon, you're not going to get Jubilee. In fact, the most important thing that happens in our church is not the sermon; it's Communion because it is there at the cross that I reestablish my relationship with Christ, where I'm forgiven for my sins for sanctification, where I recommit myself to follow under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

That happens at the cross; that doesn't happen in the sermon. But people want the sermon without the cross and wonder why they're not free. The Day of Atonement had to precede the experience of freedom. The reason why the Jews didn't get free was they rejected him but they wanted freedom. You cannot sideline Jesus and get victory. You can't sideline Jesus and get freedom. You can't sideline Jesus and be released.

You can't be a secret agent Christian and be released. That comes with the full recognition of the lordship of Jesus Christ. And if Jesus Christ doesn't have say-so in your life, lordship, rule, control—if the relationship spiritually is not the priority—then don't expect to get the release that he's talking about. And the release that he's talking about, he's offering it today.

I'm looking for my keys. You know how frustrating it is when you can't find your keys? You're in a hurry, you have to go somewhere, you have an appointment and you go from room to room, from spot to spot. It's so frustrating. In the midst of my frustration, I threw up my hands and hit my side and I pulled the keys out of my pocket because I'm searching for something I already have.

You already have the check; cash it. Jesus Christ is already set up to set you free. He's already proclaimed freedom to the captives. But the Day of Atonement, that is, your relationship spiritually will determine your freedom in all the dimensions of your life. If the spiritual is out of whack, don't expect the social to get ordered.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans talking today about the good news of freedom and he'll return with a closing thought in just a moment. Don't go away. Today's message was the final installment in Dr. Evans' series Free at Last, but there's plenty of material we didn't have time to present on the air. You can get it all in the two-volume, 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, which reinforces these truths and helps you live them out. Visit tonyevans.org today to get all the details on the Free at Last package deal. 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 is 1-800-800-3222.

The Declaration of Independence states that we have the right to pursue happiness, but what it doesn't say is that we'll never find happiness unless we pursue something completely different. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans explains what that something else is. Right now though, he's back with this final story to wrap up today's lesson.

Dr. Tony Evans: Harry Houdini, you know him, the famous escape artist. He bragged that he could escape from anywhere, anywhere. And they said, "Well, we have a cell you can't escape out of, Houdini." He said, "Bring it on." They took him to this cell and he had this metal object he would always use to pick locks and to break out.

He took out the object and he began to work it, and work it, and work it, but it wasn't working this time. It wasn't working this time. He took off his shirt and began to work it, and work it, and work it. It wasn't working. He took off his t-shirt because he's sweating. He's now four hours into this thing and the great Houdini is stuck.

It's not that he's not trying. It's not that he's not sweating and making a resolution, "I'm going to break out of here." It just wasn't working. He threw down his metal thing and just fell against the door and it flew open. He was trying to unlock something that was already unlocked.

He who the Son sets free is free indeed. On the cross, Jesus unlocked the cell and you're fighting to get what you already have, and that is freedom.