Dr. Tony Evans delves into the deep waters of faith and spiritual growth in this look at 2 Peter 1:1-11. Join him for a look at the dynamics of faith, grace, and the abundant life God offers, challenging believers to move from the shallow end to the deep end of experiencing God’s power and presence. SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/drtonyev… If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1atT9MJvXQN…
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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually. #tonyevans #tonyevanssermon #GodsPower
when you got saved you placed your
weight on Jesus Christ but his goal is
to take you to the deep end of
experience with God he wants to show you
what God can do where you can’t stand up
he wants to be able to let you
experience Deep Water God and not just
shallow water Christian he’s trying to
take you to Deep Water where you can’t
touch and where the supernatural has to
come
[Applause]
in
we are doing an exposition of second
Peter 1:
1-1 calling it the triumphant trip to
glory and our goal is
to be in sync with Peter’s
goal Peter had a two-fold
goal he States it in verse 8 if these
qualities are yours and are increasing
they render you neither useless or
unfruitful in the true knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ his first goal is that
you will live a useful fruitful life his
second goal is in verse 11 for in this
way the entrance into the Eternal
Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ will be abundantly supplied to
you so his second goal is that you will
enter Heaven as a winner and not a
loser everybody doesn’t go to heaven the
same way every Christian doesn’t enter
into eternity the same way
some will enter as losers some will
enter defeated some will entered having
not progressed never having seen
Victory because they were neither useful
nor fruitful because there was no
increase ever increasing he says in
verse
eight now we’ve already studied that God
has deposited within every believer that
which is necessary to live a useful and
fruitful life and to have an eternal
abundant in in the glory he calls that
the divine nature in verse four that
every believer has been given this seed
this deposit within them that is deity
but you get it in seed
form that seed or the DNA of deity the
god that has been deposited in every
Christian
Soul like any seed has to grow like like
the conception in the womb of a woman of
a new life that seed has to grow in
order for there to be the full
manifestation of the life that’s in the
seed and so he says at the beginning of
verse five now for this reason because
you’ve got the Divine Life already
deposited within you apply all
diligence stop shucking and
Jing stop playing around stop stop stop
taking this lightly and apply all
diligence take it seriously if you’re
going to get the benefit that it offers
offers you cannot be a casual Christian
and expect a magnificent
transformation it doesn’t happen that
way you must cooperate with what God is
doing
inside by as we saw in Philippians 2
working it out you don’t work it in it’s
already been put in you work it out that
is you exercise it so that what is
invisible becomes visible so that raises
a question question how do you do
it obviously his key word here is
Faith notice that you are adding to your
faith so he’s assuming something and
that is you have a faith to add to he’s
assuming you’re already a
Christian when you became a Christian
you had to place faith alone in Christ
alone for the Forgiveness of your sins
and the gift of eternal life you had to
trust Christ for
salvation that means you had to exercise
Faith because you’re dealing with
somebody you don’t see believing in an
event that you weren’t at the
cross but placing your confidence that
Jesus Christ on the cross died as your
substitute personally and you’ve receiv
them into your
life so you’ve received Faith which
deposited the divine nature inside of
you he says now to see that fully
expressed outside of you to see it
working in your life
you must Supply or add to your
faith so we’ve got to start off by
making sure we’re on the same page by
what we mean by
faith Hebrews chapter
11 verse one and verse
6 now Faith is the substance of things
hoped for the conviction of Things Not
Seen verse 6 says for without faith it
is impossible to please him
for he who comes to God must believe
that he is and that he is a rewarder of
them who seek him because faith is only
faith in God’s definition when it has
substance and notice this it is a
substance tied to something you can’t
see faith is the substance of things
hoped for and it is the evidence
something made visible about something
that is not
visible
the moment you add sight you no longer
have faith because if you have sight you
don’t need Faith so Faith concerns
itself with something you cannot see
that’s still
real that will manifest itself as
evidence that is it’s going to show up
but you can’t see it at the start of
Faith now why does this
matter because verse six says says
without faith it is impossible to please
him for them that he that cometh to God
must first believe that he is and that
he is a rewarder of those who seek him
so you must first believe that he
is that he exists for you to even come
to him in the first place but then he
says You’ got to believe something else
and that is that that he responds that
he is a rewarder of those who seek him
so you got to believe two things you got
to believe that he’s there and then you
got to believe that he acts he responds
he rewards that he comes through You’ve
Got to Believe In not only his
person his existence but his ability and
his capacity so he says if you’re going
to come to him you got to come by faith
therefore if you are a faithless saint
you cannot do business with God
faith says one
thing one driving factor and that is
that God has
Integrity that he cannot and does not
lie that God possesses
Integrity fact God says of himself am am
I a man that I
lie so since God possesses integrity and
therefore cannot lie he demands to be
trusted Faith becomes your positive
response to What God
Says and faith is measured by your
movement it is measured by your walk not
your talk your life not your
lips that’s why the Bible calls it
walking by
faith why does he want you to stir up
this Faith to expand your experience of
God so God can make himself more evident
to
you for faith is the substance of things
hope for the evidence of Things Not Seen
so God wants to make himself more
evident to you more real to you he does
not just want to be a concept an idea a
thought a perspective he wants you to
see him at
work but you will not see him at work
without
faith in fact it’s impossible to see him
so he wants you
to supply to your faith so you expand
your faith so you experience more of
him so that his
reality so you won’t have to picky back
off everybody else’s
testimony because you’ve seen in
evidence the invisible God bring visible
reality to your
life
when you get saved you begin Faith you
begin your faith
life but guess what Romans chap 1 verse
17 says it says the just those who
gotten saved shall live by
faith he doesn’t want Faith just to get
you started he wants Faith to become
your
lifestyle 2 Corinthians chapter 5:7 says
we walk by faith not by
sight so you when you got saved you
began Faith you began a faith Journey
but that Faith journey is supposed to
become a lifestyle way of operating not
just a past event that happened however
many years ago you got
converted see what a lot of people do is
they get started by faith and then
forget the faith that got them started
so they never get to see more than their
trip to Heaven they never get evidence
of God on
Earth he says add to your
faith attach to
it build it expand it grow
it so he will let you have challenges
designed to grow it why does he want you
to grow it he wants you to grow it so
that you learn to operate from the
spiritual and not just from the natural
see we operate from the natural where we
can put our foot foot down where we can
see where we can touch bottom God God I
trust you but I need to be able to touch
bottom I need the natural he’s trying to
take you to Deep Water where you can’t
touch and where it is all God and where
the supernatural has to come in but he
can’t do that if he leaves you in the
shallow so the question is does he have
Integrity can he be trusted or is he a
liar to be not believed we don’t even
like folk questioning our
integrity so you can imagine how a
perfect God feels when his Integrity is
being questioned by a human
being so he wants to attach you to the
spiritual but he will not attach you
apart from
faith and so God wants to EXP expand
your faith experience my faith
experience so that we expand our
experience of the invisible God entering
our visible World evidence
manifestation well how does this
work adding to your faith look at James
2 James 2 because his goal is that you
live a use ful fruitful life and have an
abundant entrance into
heaven verse 14 of James 2 says what use
is it my brethren because he’s writing
to Christians if someone says he has
Faith but he has no Works can that Faith
save
him well he’s not talking about going to
heaven because he calls them Brethren
they’re already saved and going to
heaven so it is possible to be a
Christian because he calls them Brethren
and have a useless Faith a faith you
can’t use a faith that doesn’t work for
you a faith where you don’t see God
coming through for you calls it a
useless faith it gives an
illustration he says if a brother or
sister is without clothing and in need
of daily food and one of you says to
them go and peace be warm be filled and
yet do not give him what is necessary
for the body what use is
that
verse 20 but are you willing to
recognize you foolish fellow faith
without works is useless
it’s a waste of time was not Abraham Our
Father justified by works when he
offered up Isaac his son on the altar
you see that Faith was working with his
works and as a result of the works Faith
was perfected and the scripture was
fulfilled which says and Abraham
believed God and it was reckoned to him
as righteousness and he was called the
friend of God now this is
deep he recites something that happened
in Genesis
22 AB Abraham had been long converted
Abraham was already a
Believer but God wanted to do something
new in his life different in his life
Supernatural in his life so he said
sacrifice your son Isaac Abraham took
Isaac and obeyed God even though it
didn’t make sense it wasn’t logical it
felt illogical it was very
fearful but he obeyed God and when he
was about to complete his obedience the
angel of the Lord came and said now I
know that you fear me oh what a line
that is now I know wait a minute you God
you knew that before I got up this
morning what you mean now you
know well as we’ve said before God knows
everything informationally
academically but God does not know
everything experientially until it
happens that’s why God became a man to
experience Humanity so God hasn’t
experienced everything he knows like God
has never experienced sinning he he
doesn’t know what it is to do sin he
knows what sin is but but it’s not in
his experience to sin to Bear our sins
but not to sin
himself so guess what God wants to do
what God wants to do is he wants to get
the experience of how good it feels to
watch you trust him like Rahab verse 25
in the same way was not Rahab the Harlot
also so justified by works when she
received the messengers and sent them
out another way for just as the body
without the spirit is dead so faith
without works is dead her whole home her
whole home got saved and delivered
because she believed God and she was the
only one who did cuz sometimes believing
God involves believing him when nobody
around you is sharing the belief she was
the only one her and her
family and so she saw Supernatural
Deliverance and so there are many
Christians walking around today with a
dead
Faith they rarely see God do anything
they rarely see the supernatural they
rarely see Heaven visit
history they don’t see it because
they’re working with dead
faith meaning it’s useless there was
enough there to save them but not enough
there for God to intervene into
history so if you want to spend all of
your life never seeing God show up you
want to spend all of your life never
seeing God invade in in some way that he
chooses
to then you’ll just live in the shallow
end of the
pool you you’ll you’ll live and you
you’ll learn to swim in the shallow end
you you’ll stroke a little bit you’ll
walk a little bit you’ll stroke a little
bit you’ll walk a little bit but that
deep end
experience you won’t have it because
without faith it’s impossible to please
him and yes sometimes that involves
trusting him when there is no reason to
that is when you don’t have the
empirical
evidence
yet faith is like a muscle it must be
exercised in order to be
built you don’t you don’t you don’t get
muscles by hoping they grow one day
hoping you you bulk up one day wishing
for it feeling like it Desiring it none
of that is going to build a muscle it
must be exercised Faith must be
exercised in order for it to
grow if it’s not
exercised don’t complain that your faith
is flabby he says in Peter add to your
faith supplement your faith by putting
it to
work add to your faith so what that
tells you is Faith can be added too okay
wouldn’t tell you to add the something
if if if you know if the addition wasn’t
there now watch this notice what he says
second Peter verse two Grace and peace
be multiplied to
you okay this goes back to our first
sermon he wants Grace and peace on the
multiplication table not the addition
table so multiplication means you got a
lot more okay but he tells you to add to
to your faith Supply means to add the
word Supply was used of a band leader
who bought all the equipment for the
band he supplied the instruments so it
meant to supply fully or abundantly give
it all get throw it all in there so that
the all the parts are
covered he says add to your faith but he
said I want Grace to be multiplied
so guess what if you’ll add he’ll
multiply so he’ll take your addition and
integrate it into a multiplication
table so that God’s grace his favor his
unmerited favor is being multiplied to
you because you did some addition to
your faith now watch
this turn your Bibles to Romans chapter
5
Romans chapter
5 verses 1 and two therefore having been
justified by faith we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ so you
got saved through whom also we have
obtained our introduction by faith into
this grace in which we stand
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa
whoa he says in verse one you got
saved then he says in verse two when you
got
saved you experience an introduction by
faith into another realm called Grace
faith when you got saved how many years
ago that was gave you an
introduction to Grace when you got saved
when you accepted Christ verse
one that just introduced you to a whole
another realm called
Grace Grace is God’s unmar favor God
grace is God doing for you which you
can’t do for
yourself Grace is all that God has
agreed to supply to you when God gave
you the free gift of Salvation it was
access not only to Walk Around Heaven
All Day one day it was access to all he
wants to do in Grace for you on your way
there now watch this this blows your
mind verse eight but God of Romans 5 but
God demonstrated his own love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us well that’s salvation but
look at the next two words much more
than oh wait a minute more than getting
saved yeah much more than having now
been justified by his blood saved we
shall be delivered from the wrath of God
through him watch this for if while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of his son much
more having been reconciled we shall be
saved by his life okay did you get that
he saved you but there’s a whole lot
more
than just going to heaven how could
there be something better than going to
heaven Experiencing God on your trip
there he says there is much more because
we will experience him and his
delivering power in our life that’s a
promise that’s a promise his resurrected
life him sitting on the right hand of
the father right now is designed to do
much more than just take you to heaven
when you die
and yet a lot of Christians are living
to just go to heaven when they die never
having experienced much of God on the
trip
there but he says there’s much
more he wants to do so much more now now
now watch this now because I want to
clarify
something he says that this salvation
gives you an introduction into his
grace into whatever his unmerited favor
offers now this is where people get
messed up on one of two
extremes
one they exercise faith in something God
is not
offering see and that’s where you can
get tripped up with prosperity theology
you can get tripped up with with some of
these ideologies promising you something
God never promised see one extreme is
trying to get what he doesn’t offer The
Other Extreme is is not getting what he
does offer so some people over there are
are waiting for God to do something he’s
never gonna do because he never said he
was going to do it he never confirmed he
was going to do it and by the way let
let me answer this question since I’m in
the question answering
mode because the question is well how do
I know if God is offering it that’s a
question two
ways one is it supported by scripture
that’s the first way if it is it
consistent with his revealed word
because if it’s not supported by
scripture you you then you don’t have a
basis for it but then the scripture
doesn’t talk about everything so how do
I know that this thing that’s consistent
with scripture is for me that it applies
to me Bible has a regular answer for
that two or three
Witnesses the Bible says by two or three
Witnesses shall a matter be confirmed so
the Holy
Spirit confirms an application of a
Biblical principle by by giving two or
more confirmations of
it and those confirmations mean that
that principle applied in this way
belongs to you so you look for the
confirmation as long as it’s consistent
with the principle and then you walk in
faith even though there’s nothing you
can
see no
sight and then you’re introduced to this
grace and this Grace begins to
supply an ex expand your experience so
you’re moving from the shallow end to
the deep end so let’s get this
straight Faith does not make God do what
he does not intend to do Faith does
faith does not force God I believe in
you I’m trusting you I’m believing you
I’m beli in you you you don’t make God
do anything here’s what it does faith
accesses what God has already planned to
do okay everybody in here has
electricity everybody in here your home
is has
electricity in other words everybody’s
home has power you have power because
you have electricity that means you’re
connected to the power
company in fact there is so much power
out there it’s got everybody’s house
covered there nobody who lives in a
house here who who uh has to worry about
power because you’re attached to
electricity and to the power plant this
guy hasn’t has enough power
for your whole house for all of our
houses is this power
Galore but let me make a
suggestion I I would
suggest that you don’t call up the power
company and ask them to come turn on
your
lights say t Electric to you electric I
want you to come over here and turn on
my
lights they ain’t going to
come they ain’t going to
come they’re not going to turn on your
lights what they’re going to do is give
you access to their
power you must plug in your own
lamp and flip your own
switch but that doesn’t create power all
that does is access existing
power you have to cooperate with the
power connection in order to have
evidence of the Po’s
presence
some Christians are satisfied just to
turn on a closet light and so all they
get is a closet experience with God
other Christians will turn on a bedroom
light they’ll get a bedroom experience
with God some are not satisfied they
want to light up the whole premises and
guess what there’s enough power for just
your closet and there’s enough power for
all of your premises so the question is
how much God do you
want
[Music]
[Music]
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