Tony Evans Sermon: "Encouragement That Calms Fear"

The sermon we watched today was so timely: Encouragement That Calms Fear from Tony Evans.  I've watched it before, but I think it's one a lot of us could use right about now.  

But as I watched it and heard Dr. Evans speak about how God really wants to hear from us, how He wants us to pour out our pain to Him so that He can help, it made me think of how sad and damaging Calvinist sermons are when it comes to the trials of life.  

I remember one sermon at our old church where the Calvi-pastor said how everything in your life - all the tragedies, including something as horrible as any childhood abuse you went through - was God's "Plan A" for your life.  It's what He wanted for you ... for your good, for His glory, and to keep you humble.

What the @#$%!

How on earth can anyone find encouragement in something like that!?!  Why would anyone want a relationship with a god like that!?!  It broke my heart for those in the audience who were abused as children.  That's the sermon I decided when I was done with that man, with that church.  (For more on that sermon, see here.)  

It's been over a year since we left that church and have been staying home watching Tony Evans online every Sunday ... and I'm loving it!  I'm loving not feeling my soul suffocating every Sunday and my faith dying a little more each week!  I'm loving hearing real Gospel Truth.  I'm loving rediscovering who God really is and how much He really loves us and how to apply Scripture practically to our lives.

Thank you, Dr. Evans, for being a faithful minister of the Word.  You have no idea how much you've meant to me.

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