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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 #SpiritualGrowth
if you are increasing in your Spiritual
Development you are going to become more
Christlike in your attitudes and actions
character and conduct you’re going to
act and react more like he would act or
react if he was in the same situation
you are in Christlike character gives
you the ability to forgive things you
wouldn’t forgive to enable you to do
things you were not able to do
[Applause]
[Music]
McDonald’s offers to supersize
it Sonic offers to Sonic size
it waterburger offers to water size
it and Wendy’s offers to biger siize
it in other words what they say is we
can give you so much
more they offer to supply you
with much more than your original
request or
expectation in our study
of second Peter chap 1 veres 1-
11 God wants to supersize your
experience with him and of
him he wants to give you and me
us a greater experience of his
life the Bible calls it eternal life not
merely everlasting life but eternal life
that is the experience of the life of
God in
time as we make our trip to
Eternity he wants to bigie
siize his
reality in you and in me and
collectively in
US second Peter chapter 1 verse 8 for if
these qualities the seven qualities
found in Verses five and
six and
seven if these qualities are
yours and are
increasing they render you neither
useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ if these
qualities he says
are
yours and are here it is
increasing the word means to grow or
expand he’s talking about your spiritual
growth and your Spiritual
Development to experience more of God
you must expand your capacity to receive
it you must expand your ability to take
it in you must he uses the word increase
the expansion of your faith through the
qualities that he has
listed he wants to make sure that we are
growing spiritual growth is more of
Christ expressing himself through less
of
me it is Christ feeling
free to expand who he is
inside of our soul let’s
review when a person accepts Jesus
Christ they receive the seed of the
divine nature God himself moves in to
your soul your soul is your real
self-life he moves in like somebody
moving into a house he moves in but he
moves in in seed
form that seed must develop in order for
the full life that has
been placed inside the soul to manifest
its fullest expression a growth process
must occur every believer in Jesus
Christ has had the seed placed in the
soul but it must
expand it is in the expansion of the
seed in the soul that Jesus Christ and
the life of God becomes manifested as
these supplements to
Faith begin to
grow now he makes it clear that these
must
increase it must expand it can’t lay
dormant your salvation was totally of
God he saved you by no works of your own
but your
development includes you amen there must
be dependence on God while there is
simultaneously the the responsibility of
man you must utilize the Divine
resources but not ignore diligence in
the human
process he is concerned that believers
who possess the seed don’t just let the
seed sit there with without developing
growing expanding or
increasing more of God through less of
you that’s the goal increase
growth the great tragedy today is that
you can be in church forever and not
grow you can be in church forever and
God not have meaningfully expressed him
himself in you to you and through
you we call it stunted
growth look at First Peter chapter 2
turn back a few
pages look at this he says like newborn
babes long for the pure milk of the word
so that by it you may grow in respect to
your
salvation so he takes something all of
us can identify with all of us can
relate to he takes the physical to teach
the spiritual which the Bible regularly
does he says if you want to
grow let’s let’s just get this by
looking at a newborn
baby like a newborn baby craves to grow
and feeds to meet the craving Believers
are to Crave to grow in relationship to
S their salvation and not be satisfied
until it
happens cuz that’s the nature of a
newborn
baby so why are not more of us growing
rightly because we ain’t
hungry like a newborn baby he says I
want you to Crave the sincere or the
pure milk of the word now Spiritual
Development like human development does
not occur in a moment it occurs URS
progressively over the consistent use of
time he says to desire like a newborn
baby the pure milk of the
word when a baby drinks its mother’s
milk it does not
need EX etal
add-ons God has so
miraculously put the woman’s body
together that he’s built into the milk
all the necessary ingredients for the
baby to grow once it takes it
in what does he mean to desire the pure
milk of the
word don’t add human additives to it
don’t add human opinion to divine
revelation when it it’s it’s not the
same or it’s inconsistent with it in
other words you don’t need to go outside
of God to get God to grow you in
God don’t put additives that are not
consistent one of the reasons why we’re
not growing even though we may be
listening sermons and reading the Bible
is we’re adding manmade thoughts
thinking approaches to it thus
contaminating it so that it’s not free
to do its work because God has built
into the milk of the mother everything
the baby needs he’s built into his
instruction for your spiritual growth
everything you needs and he doesn’t want
manmade
additives because it makes the milk
impure here’s what you have to
understand the seed in your soul the the
divine nature in your soul soul is
hungry see it’s hungry cuz it’s a seed
so it needs to
eat and so it’s waiting for food so that
it can expand in your
soul the food has to be consistent with
what the seed can digest and the divine
nature can only receive Divine truth as
the divine nature gets in Divine truth
even truth you don’t understand yet or
cannot articulate yet but because the
divine nature knows it’s true it’s going
to eat it and when the divine nature
eats Divine truth the divine nature
expands in the soul so the question is
is it being fed how much is it being fed
he
says like a newborn
baby now in order for you to be like a
newborn
baby you must
have spiritual discontent with your
current
status the reason why you can’t shut a
hungry baby up is because it’s
discontent going to be discontent until
it’s fed what you and I must understand
that what’s happening in our
souls that’s
providing spiritual misery is a
discontent for lack of feeding
wow that the soul is discontented it’s
hungry and you giving it a choir
song it’s hungry and you just giving it
a sermon it’s hungry it’s
hungry and the new nature is saying come
on now come on now I need to eat more
than once a week like a newborn baby
there must be discontent but wait a
minute wait a minute we just introduced
the
problem why is there discontent
why am I not
hungry why can I go days and
weeks without interfacing with God in a
meaningful way what’s wrong with me
because wait a minute if a newborn baby
is not regularly crying something is
wrong something is
wrong look at what he says in 1 Peter
verse one before he gets to verse
two he says therefore putting aside all
malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and
envy and all slander like newborn babes
preceding the like newborn babes what is
he
saying sin will kill spiritual
appetite let me say it again sin will
kill spiritual
appetite if you want the appetite of a
baby you
cannot be
sitting unconfessed unrep repentant sin
because like eating a lot of donuts it
may taste sweet but it’ll kill desire
for something
nutritional so he says in verse one deal
with the sin and I’ll give you back the
appetite when I give you back the
appetite because you dealt with the sin
then I’ll feed the new nature when I
feed the new nature now you will grow so
the motivation for dealing with sin is
not simply that it’s wrong but in
addition to that because it kills the
newborn desire and when it kills the
newborn desire you will not eat the
right food spiritually and when you
don’t eat the right food spiritually you
will not
grow like a newborn
babe desire the sincere milk of the word
that you might
grow and so the issue is do you really
want to grow do I really want to grow
let me put it growth another way do I
really want to experience more of God in
time and not just have to wait till I
meet him in eternity because the whole
purpose of growth is the greater
experience of the divine nature that’s
expanding in your
soul so you must deal with the things
that are crouching the
appetite because when you stop feeding
on the word you you stop
growing God says there’s a lot more to
your salvation than what you got on the
day you were born again but unless you
know what the book
says unless you’re feeding
it it will not be your experience in the
new nature your experience of God to a
greater degree you will not grow you can
be in church for a lifetime and not
grow because you’re not feeding
why does God want us to grow he says it
in the second part of verse 8 of 2 Peter
1 he says when you are growing that is
increasing he says you you will be
rendered neither useless nor
unfruitful all right let’s go to that
one if God can get you to
expand and become useful James chapter
2: 14- 26 you have to turn there but he
talks about having a useful Faith rather
than a useless faith Faith
yeah that your faith is only useful when
activated Faith to get saved is what God
does but faith for God to expand in you
takes also what you do you must act by
faith operate by faith and so he says
that will make your life
useful and
fruitful let me put it the other way if
you are not growing you become useless
and fruitless
if you don’t grow there will be nothing
produced out of your life that has
Eternal value attached to it you might
be successful in the marketplace
successful with degrees on the wall but
when it comes to living life and
experiencing me in life you will be
useless and fruitless if there is no
increase in the new nature inside
you look at John chapter 15 turn with me
there this is the quintessential passage
on fruitful and
useful verse two of John 15 every branch
in me that does not bear fruit he takes
away every branch in me that bears fruit
he prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit verse five I am the vine you are
the branches he who abides in me and I
in him he Bears much fruit verse 16 you
did not choose me but I chose you
appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit and that your fruit would remain
see fruit it’s fruit all through there
he goes from no fruit to fruit to more
fruit to much fruit to remaining fruit
in those 16 verses it’s all about being
a fruity
Christian so let me give you the three
characteristics of fruit number one
fruit always Bears the character of the
tree of which it is a part if it’s an
apple tree you’re going to get apples if
it’s an orange tree you’re going to get
oranges if it’s a pear tree you’re going
to get pears you’re not going to get
pairs on an apple tree because the
nature of the tree is not designed to
produce that fruit so the fruit will
always reflect the character of which
you are aart if you are increasing in
your Spiritual Development you are going
to become more
Christlike in your attitudes and actions
character and conduct you’re going to
act and react more like he would act or
react if he was in the same situation
you are in Christlike character makes
gives you the ability to foret give
things in your own human nature you
wouldn’t forgive to enable you to do
things in your own human ability you
were not able to do you are able to
respond as he would because you’re
plugged into that tree yeah
secondly fruit not only Bears the
character of which it is a part but
fruit is always visible you’ve never
seen invisible
fruit you can always see fruit you can
always say that’s that’s an apple that’s
an orange that’s a paan cuz it’s
visible so if you’re a secret agent
Christian you’re not
fruity see a a fruit a fruit
Christian is visible in fact the more
fruity it is the bigger it gets and the
more visible it
becomes it should be obvious that you
are a follower of Christ if you’re
growing if you were accused of being a
Christian there ought to be enough
evidence to convict you you shouldn’t be
found innocent of all
charges cuz it is obvious it’s
appropriate but it’s
obvious because it’s it’s just fruit
fruit you can see
thirdly fruit Bears the character of the
tree is part fruit is always visible
watch this fruit always exists for the
benefit of
another fruit is grown so somebody else
can eat it that’s good
any fruit eating itself is
rotten so one of the reasons why we got
so many rotten
Christians is that the whole Christian
Life is only about
them when fruit is on a tree the design
of the fruit is for somebody else to
pick it and bite in it so the question
of being a fruitful Christian is is
there anybody else trying to take a bite
out of your
life are you having an impact on the
lives of others that’s the problem with
this bless me thing going around today
bless me bless me I want my blessing I
want my bless nothing wrong with was
your blessing as long as you attach it
to being a blessing too not just being
blessed but being a blessing that’s why
he want you connected to the family of
God he wants you connected to the family
of God to give you practice
in bearing a fruit that somebody else
can take a bite out
of he says I want you to bear
fruit how do you become a
fruity Christian I’m talking about
juicy I’m talking about juicy you know
I’m not a rotten Christian eating
itself but a fruity Christian bearing
the character of Christ being visibly
displayed and with other folks saying
how can I become like you
you notice what he says verse 4 John 15
still abide in
me second half of verse four it abides
in the
vine verse six if anyone does not abide
in me verse S if you abide in
me and my word abide in you it means
what you’re hanging out with
guess what Jesus said if you want to be
useful and
fruitful you got to hang out with
me you you gotta you got you got to hang
out with me see hang out that abide
means to hang out with to stay to
saturate yourself in the environment of
something God or the Lord Jesus Christ
wants to be your
bestie that’s why he calls those who are
abiding in him his friends
folk he hangs out with that’s why Paul
can say pray without ceasing you’re not
talking about getting on your knees for
24 hours a day he was saying stay
hanging out with your bestie oh and oh
by the way let me tell you what what
happens when y’all start hanging out
together verse seven if you abide in me
and my word abide in you ask what you
wish and my father will do it for
[Applause]
you because we’ve been hanging out
together my father going to pay
particular attention to your request cuz
you’re hanging out with his favorite son
his only begotten
son you know what folk are hanging out
with now social media they hanging
out in
technology and it has absorbed their
[Music]
world but that technology can’t answer
no prayers Jesus said you better hang
out with me
better hang out with me let’s be
besties you abide in me in my word abide
in
you it’s a two thing it’s the word and
then it’s the
person the Bible was never just to be a
book Jesus told the disciples on the
emus Road he said when you read the Old
Testament Moses and the prophets they’re
really talking about about
me even though my name is not in the Old
Testament directly every page of the Old
Testament is anticipating Jesus Christ
so he told them even when you reading
Moses and Joshua and and Amos and
Obadiah I want you thinking about
me the Old Testament was predictive of
me the New Testament is the Revelation
in history of me the Epistles are
teaching from me all of this thing is
about me so when you read the book and
think about me I’mma show up through the
book so view it as a letter to you
rather than simply information about
me the true knowledge means the
experiential knowledge not just
informational knowledge not just quoting
verses but you will experience eternal
life my life operating in you so look at
this final verse the last
verse of second Peter chapter
3 but grow in
grace and the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ to him be glory both
now and to the day of eternity amen
notice our word Grow Again same as
increase spiritual growth flows from
God’s inexhaustible Supply of
Grace 1 Peter 510 says God is the God of
all Grace Grace is the goodness of God
dispensed to
you it there is enough for
everybody God does not run out of Grace
in fact Ephesians 2 says God’s Grace
will be manifested throughout the ages
to come so in order to use up all of
God’s Grace it’ll take you
forever ages to come God’s grace is his
indispensable supply of
goodness for his Divine purposes and for
our development but it must be accessed
and the more the new nature expands in
you the more it can be accessed What God
Says I want you to access grow in
grabbing what God is supplying
through the expansion of your faith and
the
knowledge of Jesus
Christ the knowledge of a person when
you go to a restaurant you don’t just
want a menu that you can read you want a
meal you can taste if you only read the
menu and leave you’re still hungry the
idea is to read it cuz then you know
what’s in it but then is to taste and
see that the Lord is good God you to
taste him but you do not taste him
simply by reading you taste him by
knowing and pursuing a personal intimate
besti relationship with the one you’re
reading about and when that becomes the
goal I’m going to read my Bible but
I’mma look for the
Lord and and me and the Lord GNA hang
out all day long and and and some days
I’ll have a formal reading time someday
I’mma I’mma put a verse in here I’m
going put a verse in there I’m going put
a verse in there sometime I’m going
quote a little something and Jesus you
and I going to talk about some
stuff softly and secretly the nutrients
of God’s grace will begin to flow in the
divine nature expanding in the
soul and folks are going to say you’re
changing what’s
happening and the fruit will begin to
grow there’s enough for you
[Music]
[Music]