Tony Evans — The Heavenly Broadcast Network
So that now when you make your decisions, there will be transformation so that the rest of your life is lived being able to extinguish, and being able to judge, and being able to appraise, and being able to make the best possible decisions because you've been tuned in to.
Welcome to "The Heavenly Broadcast Network." This is Tony Evans with "The Urban Alternative," and that's my sermon for today.
Did you know that there is a frequency that's uniquely available to you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ that can give you contact with heaven and heaven contact with you if you know how to use it?
Corinthians 2, talks all about this unique network that allows you to tune in to the voice of God. We're going to talk about that network today as we continue our series "The Eternal Perspective." So, let's jump right into it, let's set you down 'cause we want you to tune into heaven so that you can hear what it has to say to you while you're trying to make it and while you are going to make it here.
I want to introduce you to the Heavenly Network, a network uniquely designed to allow you, if you will operate with a heavenly perspective, to tune into glory for a better life in history. To tune into heaven to learn how to negotiate hell. To tune into eternity so that we can steer better in time.
A heavenly broadcast signal uniquely designed to steer your life and mine according to the will of God to accomplish his purposes in your life and for your life. Paul, in writing 1 Corinthians chapter 2, tells us about this network I'm calling, or this satellite feed that is available to you and me today.
The first thing he wants you to know is that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then you have been granted the capacity to receive the signal.
If you are a Christian, you own the receiver. See, if you have Direct TV, that means you have a disc on the house and a receiver in the house. And they combine to pull down the signal from the satellite so you can get the picture. The satellite exists whether or not you have a receiver. It's just up there 'cause it's up there.
But your capacity to tune in has to do with whether you When a person accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, in their soul.
1 John chapter 2, verse 20 and 27 calls this receiver the anointing. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit deposited in the soul of the believer, quickening their human spirit in order to pick up heaven's tuning. It is designed for you to be able to draw down from the satellite up there, from God, into the life down here so that the screen of your life can come up in color.
What does this receiver show you when you're tuned in? If it's on, what will it show you? Verse 9 says it'll show you things which the eye have not seen. It will show you things which the ear has not heard. It will show you things that have not already entered into your consciousness.
And it is prepared--the receiver has already been prepared for those who love him. Now, often this verse is quoted as a reference to heaven, but it's not. It's a reference to earth from heaven because he says, "For God has revealed them to us."
So, God has a download from the uplink to the downlink, to the receiver in your soul to give you a picture of your life that will show up in the screen of your mind to direct how you should live.
If you've accepted Jesus Christ, you have the receiver. Now, if you have Direct TV, you have hundreds of channels. You've got--you've got channels about a whole bunch of stuff because different programming. Let's see what your heavenly receiver will show you on the channels it has available to you.
He says, "For us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." The Holy Spirit's job is to give to you the data for life.
Now, he says something here. He says, "We have not," verse 11, "received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God." He says, "Let's clarify which system. If you have Direct TV, you don't have Dish. If you have Dish, you don't have Direct TV because those are two competing systems."
He says, "If you want the information from heaven, you can't be tuned into the system of earth. Because if you are tuned into the system of earth, all you're going to get is earth data. But if you want things that the eye have not seen, the ear have not heard, and that neither has entered into the heart of man, you must be tuned in to the Heavenly Broadcast Network. You must be tuned in to a divine point of contact."
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Even the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)
And then he says in verse 11, no one knows except the Spirit of God," and he says in verse 13, "combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."
So, in the Global Positioning System, there is two things--there are two things that happen. They will show you a map showing you how to get to where you want to go. And then this lady will come on and talk to you, "In feet, turn right. In feet, enter on to the expressway."
So, you got something to see and something to hear that, when they are combined, give you clarity of how to get there. Believers have the audacity to come in God's presence, who offers them a global search system, a GPS system for living, who then leave church and put rabbit ears on their lives to direct the direction in which they want to go when they got a Direct TV system that has been placed in them, along with a receiver to pick it up.
He says, "For the Spirit of God knows the mind of God in order to illuminate--" Or illumination is like a dimmer switch in your house. It turns up the light so you can see clearly.
What God wants to do is give you clarity on how you should live your life, the decisions you shall make, I'll clarify that in a moment, as you live your life in order for you to live the best possible life under the rule of God and in the will of God that he has prescribed for you. But that will not happen if you insist on using competing systems.
So, first of all, you have the system if you are a believer. The system has been embedded in you because you have the anointing. The Spirit of God resides in every believer. He is the receiver. He picks up from heaven, brings it to earth, and delivers it to you. That's his job.
Verse 14, "But a natural man, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised."
The natural man is the non-Christian. This is the person who doesn't have a receiver. And because they do not possess a receiver, because they've not yet accepted Christ, and so the Spirit of God does not dwell in them, they cannot pick up the heavenly frequency because they don't possess a receiver. And not only do they not pick it up, he says in verse they cannot pick it up.
If you have a TV in your house but no receiver, Direct TV can't help you. It'll be a blank screen. You can't pick it up because there's nothing to pull it down.
So, the natural man, the unbeliever can't have this, does not have this, and it will not work for them. They have to live their lives based on their human knowledge, based on their human contacts. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. But they have to live their Oh, but there's also the carnal Christian.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?
Oh, now he introduces us to Christians who don't get the signal. The natural man is a non-Christian that doesn't possess a receiver, but the carnal person is the Christian who has a receiver that's not on. See, just 'cause you have a receiver doesn't mean you're getting the picture.
Unless that picture--unless the receiver is turned on, you might as well be the natural person. Because you're not getting the picture like the person who doesn't have the receiver because the receiver that you do have has not yet been engaged. And therefore, the natural man's screen is blank, and the carnal Christian's screen is blank because they're still operating naturally. They're operating out of their own human understanding. They're operating out of what the Bible calls the flesh, that is man's point of view.