The Faith Walk

Guest (Male): Today with Jonathan Evans.

Jonathan Evans: God is not going to let his people walk around in spiritual clothes that don't match the ambiance of the faith and the destiny that he has for you. Many of us are walking around in resentment instead of forgiveness. We're walking around in division instead of unity. We're walking around in selfishness and not selflessness. We're walking around in garments that totally compete with the salvation that we have received and the holy lifestyle we're supposed to be living. And he's saying, is that what you're wearing?

Guest (Male): You're listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. In a moment, Jonathan will continue today's message. But first, to thank you for your support of this ministry. Jonathan has two gifts for you. The first is the audio series that you're currently hearing called All Eyes on Jesus, helping you refocus on the one who changes everything. The second part of this gift is a book by Dr. Tony Evans called The Power of Jesus Names. Discover how the names of Jesus reveal his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith?

I'll tell you more about these later in today's program, or you can call right now at 1-800-800-3222 or visit tonyevans.org to learn more. Now, let's get started with Jonathan's message. What do you have on?

Jonathan Evans: God cares about what you're wearing. He took the time to make garments for Adam and his wife. People don't realize that God is the consummate designer and stylist. He cares about your spiritual drip. Don't think that you can walk around in God's kingdom looking any old kind of way. Evidently, God was saying, now we going to have to make something that's suitable for where we're going. He made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and it helps me realize that there is a particular type of garment that God deems acceptable. In Matthew 22, it proves this.

At the wedding feast in verse 11, 12, and 13 where they were invited to the wedding feast, but there was one in there that the king realized was improperly dressed for the occasion. And when the king realized that this dude came in improperly dressed for the occasion, it says that he kicked him out to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, it tells me that God pays close attention to what you have on. Now, what's interesting here is he did not clothe Adam and Eve because they were naked. In verse seven, they had already put on fig leaves.

That means he clothed them because what they were wearing in and of themselves was unacceptable to him. My wife years ago told told me she was like, get dressed, I'm taking you somewhere. I said, okay. So, I just went into the closet and did what I do. I just put on some joggers, a t-shirt, some Air Force ones, and a ball cap. I came out of the closet and now you got to understand Kanika has two types of smiles. She has one type of smile that just shows her top set of teeth like this. Then she has another smile that shows both sets of teeth.

It's not really a smile. I just call it that because she's showing her teeth, but it looks like this. When I came out the closet, she said, mm mm. And then she made the statement. This is the Well, it was a question. Now, Kanika is sweet. You know, she's a she's a good godly woman. You know, gentle and quiet spirit. You know what I mean? However, when I came out of the closet that day, she said uh is that what you're wearing? Now, all men know that wasn't a question. Bible says, live with your wife in understanding and I understood how to read between all them lines.

Now, in my man brain, I was going to say, this what I got on. Kind of question is that? I I'm wearing it, aren't I? But I knew not to say that. Went to the men's conference and learned I knew to read between the lines to know that this wasn't going to work. I said, what's wrong with what I'm wearing? And she said, what you're wearing is not suitable for where we're going. I didn't know that she was trying to take me to a you know a Ruth's Chris, a a Capital Grill, a Eddie V's, an Al Bernaise, a Nick and Sam's, um a Monarch.

I didn't know she was trying to take me to a D Lincoln Prime. You know, a a winsome Prime. I didn't know she was trying to take me to one of the Del Frisco's Double Eagle. I don't know if you listening, but I just put y'all on game. And I'm not going to say it again. Look at y'all going to be on YouTube like write this down, baby. Write this down. He feeding us physically and spiritually. She was trying to take me up and I was dressed down. God is not going to let his people walk around in spiritual clothes that don't match the ambiance of the faith and the destiny that he has for you.

Many of us are walking around in resentment instead of forgiveness. We're walking around in division instead of unity. We're walking around in selfishness and not selflessness. We're We're We're walking around in take and not give. We're walking around in garments that totally compete with the salvation that we have received and the holy lifestyle we're supposed to be living. And he's saying, is that what you're wearing? Adam and Eve went ahead after they sinned and found fig leaves in the garden. When they sinned, they realized that they had lost their covering and they went in and of themselves to the closet of the culture to get dressed.

They didn't go to the God they offended. They went to the environment they offended God in in order to cover themselves from the one they offended. In other words, in the garden and in the church, we have learned how to cover up while still being improperly dressed for the kingdom. And they use fig leaves. The reason why they use fig leaves is because fig leaves are big, strong, and valuable. Fig leaves are big. They have nice size. They felt like this is something that can cover me. This is a hand in a fig leaf. They have good size, so you can imagine them stringing those together.

But not only are they big, they're also valuable. They're still used in marketplaces today is where they would wrap up your produce in a fig leaf, tie it up, and give it to you in certain marketplaces still around the world. They use fig leaves that way. They will wrap up your fruit or they'll wrap up your cheese or they'll wrap up whatever you buy in a fig leaf, not only to wrap it up, but also the fig leaf will season your food by the time you get home. So, they have value in the marketplace. So, they figured, let me go to the culture because I'm a sinner now and let me find something I feel like is big enough for the cover up.

Let me find something that is strong enough for the cover up and let me find something that is valuable enough for the cover up. Okay, you ain't This is why we naturally run to the biggest and what we feel like is the strongest and the most valuable stuff to make us look like something we're not. We're striving after the worldly success and the money and the followers and the fame and the and the designer stuff and nothing is wrong with it in and of itself, but what they wanted to do is use those things to try to portray and project a righteousness that they no longer had.

So, they're covering up and using that to do so. I need you to understand they went to sin's environment and thought that that meant they met God's requirements. Some of us would rather look Christian than be Christian. Just because you dress well does not mean you're well dressed. We have gotten so used to filters we think that it's the reality just because we can make other people believe it is. It's the cover up of the church where we look so good to one another. We still think we look good to God and God is looking us with two sets of teeth talking about is that what you're wearing?

You think that's what's going to work? We've gotten so good at making ourselves up. We messing ourselves up. In the garden, they they got dressed up because the devil said the devil said, hey, if you eat this, you going to be like God. Okay, now let me jump over here and with a parenthetical statement real quick. I'll come back to the sermon in a second. The devil will try to get you to sin to go claim stuff you already got. When you eat this, you going to be like God. Genesis 1:26 says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

They were already like God.

Guest (Male): More of The Faith Walk with Pastor Jonathan Evans in a moment. When life leaves you feeling spiritually dry, pressured by culture, or unsure of your purpose, all eyes on Jesus will help you refocus on the one who changes everything. Today, with a gift to support the ministry of the Urban Alternative, Jonathan wants to give you a copy of his eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus. What could happen if you fixed your eyes on Jesus in every area of your life? Also included with your gift is a book by Dr. Tony Evans The Power of Jesus Names.

Discover how the names of Jesus reveal his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. Both the book The Power of Jesus Names and the eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus are a gift for you to thank you, to show our appreciation for your continued support. It is listeners like you who make this program possible. Our 24-hour resource request line is open at 1-800-800-3222. Let one of our team members help you. 1-800-800-3222 or get all the details at tonyevans.org. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith? Now, let's get back to Jonathan with the rest of today's message.

Jonathan Evans: The devil will try to get you to sin to go claim stuff you already got. When you eat this, you going to be like God. Genesis 1:26 says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. They were already like God. He did the same thing that Jesus bowed down and worshiped me Matthew four and I will give you the kingdoms of this world. Jesus like, that's my whole inheritance. What are you talking about? I'm already the king. You trying to give me You trying to make me sin to go get something I already got.

That's why the enemy will confuse you to look at another woman like you ain't got one at home. And vice versa. Look at the ladies. Talk about it. I'm talking about you too. He got us running around trying to claim stuff that's already in our spiritual pocket. And he told that to Adam and Eve and they decided to eat the fruit and what they realized is that they were actually much different from each other than they previously knew. So, what they did was watch this. They hid what was private that they had shame about. What they did was is take the culture and take what I'm shamed about and make it private and cover it up.

So, at least they would no longer see what we shamed about that we want to hide. Okay. What they were trying to do is avoid transactional human judgment. So, now you won't judge me and I won't judge you because I was able to hide what's private in my life that I'm ashamed of. The church has become a master at this to take the culture and we're able to smile with the best of meanwhile some of the people that dress up the best have the dirtiest closet. And they're so good we're so good at fooling other people because the goal for us has been to dress up to avoid human judgment.

But you're dressing up for the wrong judgment. So, we have become professional hiders. That's why we not getting healed. This doesn't mean that you're supposed to go about and tell everybody your business. Let me make that clear. But there are some of us that don't tell nobody our business. Meaning we avoid a biblical principle of accountability because we don't want to be accountable. We just want to avoid judgment. So, we are professionals at looking good while being messed up. Somebody told me the other day she said they said uh man I got to tell you something mean.

I know you going to be shocked at this. And then they told me and I said, I ain't shocked. I may be disappointed. I may be yes I pray for you or if I tell somebody and all that kind of stuff, I'm not shocked because you may have been able to hide it and look good for a while. But I know Okay, let me just help you all understand something. Including me, everybody in here whack. Let me Let me tell you how offensive the gospel is. God from up there had to come way down. He had to descend a long way to come down here and allow himself to be beat beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross and killed in order for you to be saved.

Do you know how sinful that means you are? And we be walking around here like let let me help you know already. I know that me and you got garbage in our lives. See, we done got that out the way. Because many of us have become professionals at coming in the church smelling good and smelling like weed in the culture. Many of us have become professionals coming in here with crystals in your ear, looking pretty, but you also have satanic crystals at your house. Many of us have been professionals at looking good with one another.

Meanwhile, you mean as all get out when you come into this parking lot and the way you treat your husband and your wife and the way you raise your kids. And God knows the closet. Just because you got fig leaves out in front, you may look good to me and get my top set of teeth, but to him he doing You mean to tell me that's what you're wearing? This is a sermon on be real as a Christian. Many of us are dressing up for the wrong judgment. We playing games like they thought if they were okay to one another that simultaneously meant that they were okay in the eyes of God.

And by the time you get to verse 21, he had to change their clothes. That was not going to work for my kingdom. And time is running out. There is a a judgment that's coming. He's going to be looking at your outfit. And he wants to know if you're properly dressed. And every day I live my life not in fear, but by grace. I fear the Lord, but the word fear has to do with a mixture of yes trembling, but also taking God seriously. It's fear tremble, but it's also living in awe. So, when you take the tremble and the awe of God and you put it in a pot and you stir it up, you come with this is a person who takes God seriously in their life.

They are not playing dress up. And here they are playing dress up in the garden, thinking they're okay because they're now have hidden what's private and shameful to them from one another. Now, they found out they were naked after they sinned. But before they sinned, they were already naked. So, they were in the same skin, but they were not comfortable in the skin they were in. The outfit didn't change, but the perspective of the outfit did. Which tells me there is a covering that exists in obedience that evaporates in disobedience. There is a covering church that exists in obedience, the protection of God, the covering of God.

Isn't it nice to live your life not having to look over your shoulder or try to figure out who's going to catch you in your lie? Because once you start moving into disobedience, the covering of God that is natural evaporates and now you are left realizing you're naked. They went from naked and unashamed to naked and ashamed because through disobedience that covering is gone. You can look the same, but not feel the same about how you look. And Adam and Eve experienced what it was to no longer be covered through the context of obedience. There is a covering church in obedience that doesn't exist when you go your own way.

Okay. Okay. Watch what they did. Let me go figure out how to be covered and righteous again. Okay. I have to go figure out how to return to what I had. Before sin, they did not know what righteousness was. Cuz you can't know what it was because you were created for it and you were living in it. So, you didn't know not to to know what it was. If you feel purposelessness, that is evidence that purpose exists. That the purposeless the hopelessness that you feel is the evidence that hope exists. If you were created for darkness and you were living in darkness, you wouldn't know what darkness was.

Darkness only has meaning because you understand light. In other words, it takes the opposite for you to understand what you're dealing with. Fish don't know they're wet. They don't know what wet is. But we do because we were created to be So, when we get wet, we come and we start trying to return, dry off with a towel to the state that we're supposed to be in. Their attempt was through the knowledge of their sin. Now, they knew what righteousness is. So, now they made the effort to return to a righteousness that they previously didn't know what it was.

So, when you're doing this and you're chasing after things to portray yourself as okay and righteous and all of these things, that is evidence to you that that's the real life you're supposed to be living and the life you were created for. Otherwise, you wouldn't even do it. If raggity was what you were created for, you would just step out the closet raggity. You are not called to just live a cover up. You are called to actually be covered up in the clothing that God has designed for you.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Jonathan Evans. Before you go today, I want to remind you that we have a couple of gifts for you. An eight-part audio series All Eyes on Jesus and a book The Power of Jesus Names. How can knowing him more deeply transform your faith through Dr. Evans' book The Power of Jesus Names? You'll discover how the name of Jesus reveals his character, his purpose, and his power in your life today. We are also including Jonathan Evans' All Eyes on Jesus audio series, helping you refocus on the one who changes everything. Discover how to deepen your faith, stand firm in difficult times, and live with confidence in God's calling.

What could happen if you fixed your eyes on Jesus in every area of your life? Both resources are a gift to you to thank you for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. It's our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible. Call 1-800-800-3222 anytime or get all the details online at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Thank you for listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans.

The Faith Walk is produced as a part of the Urban Alternative, a ministry of Dr. Tony Evans.