- Eight family members alldying within two years.

That's what Tony Evans' family faced.

It started in 2019 with the sudden death

of their 38-year-old nieceand cousin, Wynter Pitts.

From then on, the unrelenting heartache

and grief continued for thefamily of this famous pastor.

- [Tony] Don't run fromGod when things break.

Run to Him.

- [Narrator] Dr. Tony Evans is known

for boldly preachingthe gospel on TV, radio,

and in the pulpit formore than 50 years now.

The famous pastor has a brand new book,

co-authored by his four adult children.

- It's just about how theLord continued to infuse hope

and joy and strength and peace to us.

- [Narrator] In "Divine Disruption,"

the family shares how they,and we, can hold on to faith

when life breaks our hearts.

- From our family to your family,

we know this will be a blessing to you

as much as it has been to us.

- Please welcome back to "The 700 Club"

Tony Evans and his son, Jonathan.

It's so nice to have both of you with us.

- Glad to be with you.

Thank you.- Good to be here.

- Tony, your family lost eightfamily members in two years,

including your wife, Lois.

So sorry for your loss.

We're wondering, howare you all doing now?

- Well, you know, what Godhas graciously given us

is a very close familyand a very strong faith.

And when you have a strongfaith and a strong family,

you can weather the storms of life.

They still hurt.

They still make you sad.

They make you cry.

But at the same time,you find the strength

to keep on going and to fight forward

instead of being pushed back

because God is still in control

and there are people on earth

who love you and who you can love back

and who walk with you and you with them

through the storms that come your way.

- Jonathan, this season of grief

began with the shockingdeath of your cousin, Wynter.

38 years old, she justsimply stopped breathing.

How do you even begin toprocess something like that?

- You know, that's the thing.

It's just so hard whenyou have sudden tragedies

or any type of tragediesthat happen in your family

and in your life.

And it's hard to process them.

I think the hardest thing for me

about losing anyone is the process,

is trying to answer the questions, why,

and how did this happen, and God,

even faith questions,why would you allow this?

Wynter was doing so well,writing so many books,

helping so many people.

She had four girls. She had her husband.

So you're just thinking about

all of those tangible, practical things

and the people who loved her,

and it's hard to juggle that in your mind.

But like my dad said,

if it wasn't for our faith and our family

binding together and coming together,

it would've been even moredifficult than it already was,

and so we're blessed to have that

even though we've gone through so much.

- Well, Pastor Tony, Iwanna ask you a question

that I think touches thelives of so many Christians

who come face to face witha terminal cancer diagnosis,

which is what's your wife Lois had.

You know, as believers,

we feel weird to pray forhealing in the middle of that,

but I want to read somethingyou say in the book

because it's my question to you.

"How do you have real honest conversations

about the possibility of deathand still remain in faith?"

How do you do that?

- Well, this is, really,the hope of the Gospel.

The hope of the Gospel isthat believers don't die.

They transition to awhole 'nother reality.

And so because of our confidence

in the light that is to come,

we can deal with the light that is

and the tragedies associated with it

because we understandwe're not in the land

of the living on our wayto the land of the dying.

We're in the land of the dying

on our way to the land of the living.

And when that seeps intoyour mind, heart, and soul,

then you're better able to handle the pain

hopefully rather than hopelessly.

- Well, Jonathan, like your dad,

you're a pastor and alsochaplain for the Dallas Cowboys.

What helped you to copewith the loss of your mom,

and how were you able topreach at her funeral?

- Yeah, that was a tough thing.

I remember being asked to do that

and I still had a lot ofquestions and a lot of doubt

and a lot of anger and a lot of feelings

that I was going through myself.

But really, what helped me with that

is understanding that...

'Cause my questions was:

God, why didn't you answer my prayer?

We had everybody praying.

We were praying.

We were praying what we believe.

We were praying based on scripture.

We had the world praying.

We had all of ourministry friends praying.

So we felt like we were ina spiritual position to win.

And you know, I just really had

some quiet time withthe Lord, and He said:

You don't understand.

If you understand myvictory that I've given you

in my Son Jesus Christ,that you do understand

that I've already answered your prayer.

I've already answered your prayer,

and I've answered itbetter than you asked it.

You asked for her to be healed,

and now she's healed eternally.

You asked for her to bewith family, and now she is.

You asked for her tobe well taken care of.

She can't be more well takencare of than she is now.

You've asked for these things,

and because you have this humanmind that wants it your way,

just like my children wantcertain things their way,

you don't understand thatyour Father has a better way.

And so I wanted to make surethat we tell people that,

that we help people the way we were helped

by the Gospel, by ourfamily, by our faith.

Because people are notonly grieving people,

but they're grieving careers.

They're grieving a lot of different things

that they're losing in their life.

And we want to makecomebacks from setbacks.

- You write about leavinga Kingdom legacy, Tony.

What do you mean by that?

- Well, we operate, andour ministry operates

from a worldview calledthe Kingdom Agenda,

which is the visible manifestation

of the comprehensive rule ofGod over every area of life.

And what you want to do is to make sure

that what you leave behindhas eternity attached to it.

You know, we are sotemporal in our orientation

and everything is about time.

And when you lose sight of eternity,

you cannot maximize time.

When you keep eternity in yourheart and in your eyesight,

then you can make the most of time,

and that's Kingdom living.

That's putting the Kingdom of God first,

and when the Kingdom of God is first,

God is free to make Hiswork in your life first

because you've gotten yourspiritual priorities in order.

- What do you want the takeawaymessage of your book to be?

- Well, I want it to be a bit,

you know, through all of these problems,

COVID and the racial strife and the chaos,

that your faith is the mostimportant thing in your life.

We can't fix all theproblems in the world,

but we can have God strengthas we walk through them.

As he says in Isaiah 40,

the people went "Why God, why God?"

They were asking him,

and He comes to the end of the chapter,

He says, "Don't you know me?

Don't you know who I am?

While I may not changeall your circumstances,

I will give you the strengthto walk through them."

So we wanted this book toencourage all the people

who've lost dreams, lostloved ones, lost hope,

lost their sense of stability

to know God is still in control

and you can ask Him a question.

You don't need to question Himbecause He's still in charge.

- Well, I've never read a book before

written by five people,but it works. (laughs)

It works for your family.

It's called "Divine Disruption."

It's written by Tony Evans

and all four of his adult children.

It is available wherever books are sold.

Thank you both so muchfor being with us today.

- Thank you for having us.- Yes, thank you

for having us.- God bless.

- You too.

We'll be right back with moreof "The 700 Club" after this.

(uplifting music)