Dr. Tony Evans discusses the importance of maximizing our experience with God in the present, rather than waiting until heaven. He explains that believers already possess the divine nature and power of God, and outlines seven “supplements” or virtues to add to our faith. 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 #DivinePower
you are to live based on god-based
knowledge you’re not to live on the
facts you’re to live on the truth cuz
you can have the facts but not know the
truth and God is truth and so he says I
want you to gain truth based on my word
so that you expand virtue which will
develop faith that the new nature will
eat
[Applause]
up
Peter’s concern is that Believers
maximize their experience with God in
time and have an overwhelming entrance
into
eternity he doesn’t want us to wait to
heaven to experience some of it
now and so he has told us in the first
four verses of second Peter 1 that
everything you need to be come all God
wants you to be you already
have he’s given you a Divine person
Jesus
Christ with that Divine person comes
divine power batteries are
included the power of the person is
connected to the person that you
possess not only has he given you a
Divine
person and a divine
power he says he’s given you a divine
presence the divine nature verse four
says the
actual essence of God is residing in
every True Believer if you’re here today
and you are a
Christian the nature of deity resides in
your
soul God himself resides there but he
resides there in seed form
and like any seed all that the seed has
to
offer can only be expressed as the seed
grows so a growth process is necessary
for the seed to unveil all that it has
to
offer many of us take vitamin or mineral
supplements supplements are designed to
do
one of a number of
things one thing that we take vitamins
for is to replenish something that’s
missing in our own nutritional makeup we
don’t have enough vitamin A or B or C or
D so we take supplements to replace
what’s
lacking the issue is however nothing is
lacking in the new nature because it’s
God and God is compl complete or as
Colossians 2:10 says you are complete in
him so the new nature doesn’t need to be
supplemented the divine nature is all of
God in
you so we don’t need a supplement to
help out something lacking in the god in
you if Christ is indeed in you which
means you possess the new nature and the
power that belongs to
it but there’s another reason why people
take supplements
and another reason that people take
supplements is to extend and expand
something already there so it’s not that
you’re trying to you’re not trying to
replace something that’s missing you’re
trying to take something that’s there
and expand it so all of
God you’re ever going to experience in
your soul is already resonant in your
soul in seed form but God has some
supplements he wants you to
take and he says if you take these
supplements The God Who is there will
expand your experience of him in your
soul he
gives seven supplements that he wants
you to
take each supplement Builds on the
preceding supplement he
says in verse
five to your faith Supply
moral
Excellence so the first vitamin we’re
going to take today is a vitamin called
moral Excellence so the question is what
is moral
Excellence some versions say
virtue the Greek term there is a term
that refers to
something that is
fulfilling its purpose for
existence so the question is well what’s
my purpose a lot of times people will go
around and say I don’t know my purpose
I’m wish God would show me my
purpose that’s really a sub
question because what he’s talking about
here belongs to every
Christian 1 Corinthians 31 says whether
you eat or drink or whatever you do do
all to the glory of
God
your divinely ordained purpose is to
glorify
God Romans
11:36 says for from him through him and
to him are all
things to him be the glory forever
ever Matthew 5:116 says let men see your
good works and glorify your father who
is in
heaven your overriding purpose in life
for which you have been saved and for
which God has deposited the divine
nature in your soul is to make him look
good glory means to advertise put on
display highlight
promote so guess why God saved you he
saved you to make him look
good you are being
virtuous living in moral Excellence when
you are intentionally seeking to
advertise the true and living God so
when there is no advertisement of God as
he has revealed himself in the word the
seed is
styed it cannot
expand because it’s hungry for something
it’s not being
fed because God exists for
God and so you exist for The God Who
exists for himself when God looks at you
he wants to see
him cuz we’re supposed to be mirrors of
the
Divine
so important is this goal this virtuous
goal this moral
Excellence that he says I want it to
comprehensively envelop your life 1
Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or
drink or whatever you do do all to the
glory of God so he not just talking
about big stuff he talking about the
little stuff you do without even
thinking eat and drinking whatever you
do I want to be on your
mind and the more I’m on your mind the
more I’m eating because now the new
nature is being fed in the soul of the
believer what it wants and needs to
extend what it already
is we live in a world that wants to
compete with the glory of
God
and the new nature does not
expand so add to your
faith
virtue your intended
purpose what’s
next and in your moral Excellence the
end of verse five says I want you to
supply
knowledge
oh cause wait a minute if I’m supposed
to be virtuous and glorifying God is my
goal then I need to find out what he
expects so I need some more information
I need knowledge so that I can be
accurate in my virtue so to grow my
faith I need to live for his glory but
to live for his glory I need the
information of what that looks like and
how that works so I need
knowledge I love Colossians chapter 1
Colossians chapter 1 put it this way
when he’s talking to the Believers in
that church he says Paul says in verse
nine for this reason also since the day
we heard of it we have not ceased to
pray for you and to ask that you will be
filled with the knowledge of his will
and all spiritual wisdom and
understanding so that you may walk in a
worthy manner of the Lord to please him
in all
aspects bearing fruit in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of
God says I want you to know his will and
I want you to please him in every area
of your
life and to have the knowledge of
God God tells us to love him with our
minds love the Lord your God with your
heart soul and your mind he wants to
impart his truth to you when it’s
attached to Glory from you you based on
his truth to you there is the expansion
you are to live based on God based
knowledge that’s why John 7:17 says God
will teach anyone who is willing to do
his will so the second vitam is
knowledge our third
supplement he
says and in your knowledge verse six
self-control self-control in your
knowledge
so I want to glorify God I’ve made that
decision I’m coming to church or I’m
reading my Bible I’m having devotions or
I’m what have all the means I am now
getting
knowledge once I get the information
that’s now attached to the virtue which
is now attached to the faith I am now to
add
self-control self-control is the absence
of self-indulgence
self-control means to no longer be
enslaved to an
appetite now that appetite can come in
any a lot of different ways to be
enslaved to food to be enslaved to sex
to be enslaved to gambling lack of
self-control means the desire controls
you you don’t control
it you can say no to wrong and yes to
right even though the flesh may still
want to say yes to wrong and no to right
why because self-control can be added to
the information that’s been added to the
virtue that’s been added to the faith
cuz everything is expanding in the soul
now so he says add
self-control it’s basically strength
under control there are three
areas where we all need this we all need
it different levels but we all need it
with our
mouth with our mind and with our
morals he
says he says if the new nature gets to
eat the faith gets to eat The Virtue and
The Virtue gets to eat the
knowledge then it’ll start gobbling up
control self-control see and that’s when
you know that’s when God becomes real
when stuff you couldn’t control you now
control
all of a sudden God has just become
real whether or not the desire is
shifted he said
self-control meeting legitimate needs IL
legitimate
ways rejecting the
illegitimate and then he comes to
supplement number
four he says add to your self-control I
want I want you to add to
that
perseverance okay here it is watch this
now
perseverance perseverance
means you cannot
quit until God legitimately releases you
perseverance usually comes up in
scripture when there are difficulties
that you’re
facing but Colossians 1 vers1 says God
strengthens us for the purpose of
patience James 5: 10 and 11 says don’t
you remember job and his
patience don’t leave too
soon cuz God got to start all over
again why why can I have patience how
can I add patience because you now just
got
self-control see so if I can control
things now I can wait on stuff I
couldn’t wait to before because my
patience I’m adding to something I can
now control and I can control it cuz now
I got my information straight and I got
my information straight because I now
got my virtue and purpose right which
means my faith has grown which means the
new nature is going crazy inside my
[Applause]
soul add to your persever
experence
godliness that’s what he’s
after godliness is a lifestyle
consistently reflecting the character of
God it is where pleasing God is a
lifestyle not an
event okay let me say this when are you
adding godliness in the context of
perseverance why does he want you to add
godliness attached to
perseverance because pers perseverance
tempts you to be
ungodly see when you waiting and you
don’t want to wait and you can say I
don’t care I don’t go do my thing you
know perseverance tempts us all to be
ungodly he says no when God has you this
way in this weight and he hasn’t
released you I want you to add more
godliness to it when you were
born inside your soul was a sin
nature let’s call it a sin producing
Factory you everybody’s born with a
factory in their soul it’s called a sin
nature in
scripture the job of this sin nature is
to roll out sin that’s all it
does when Jesus Christ came into your
life he closed the factory stay with me
here the factory was
closed for Romans 6 says that we our
nature was crucified with him to crucify
is to kill so God shut down the
factory and put in a new Factory the
divine
nature there’s only one thing the new
Factory produces
righteousness because it’s God it’s
perfect so there’s nothing wrong that
can come out the new nature because it’s
it’s God so that raised a question
doesn’t
it if God shut down the old
factory why am I still struggling with
sin that’s that’s that’s a question
because you just said that the whole
Factory has been closed but don’t look
Clos to
me when they close General
Motors the cars that were already
produced by General Motors of still on
the highway when the sin nature was
open the sin that It
produced was let off the lot and is now
riding on the
flesh the flesh is the highway system
that your Humanity has on which the
vehicles of sin ride that were produced
when the factory was
open in fact not only are the cars of
sin that was produced when the factory
was open riding on the highway there
were cars that were produced that hadn’t
left the lot
yet that are just waiting for the
opportunity to get on the
highway so the problem with sin in the
Bible when it talks to Christians is
never a problem of the factory the new
nature it’s a problem of the flesh the
highway
system and the highway system system can
get real
crowded watch this
now especially when the new Factory is
not allowed to
operate so when the new nature is kept
from eating what it needs to grow then
the
old things produced by the old factory
still dominate even in the life of a
Christian because the new Factory has
been not been allowed to produce what it
produces
godliness that which is
Godlike
righteous pleasing
God and as that
grows during the times of waiting on
God oh the new nature is just going
crazy it’s eating it’s eating it’s
eating it’s eating it’s eating it’s
growing it’s growing it’s growing it’s
growing he comes to number
six and add it to your
godliness brotherly
kindness brotherly kindness he calls it
f so it has the idea of being kind to
somebody who’s a family
member out of our
godliness should come
kindness he says I want out of your
Godly relationship with me that’s the
horizontal in the vertical to be a
kindness toward the other members of my
family cuz you’re not an only
child Our Father who are in heaven not
my daddy who is in
heaven watch this that’s why God wants
every Christian to be a vibrant part of
a local
church he wants to give you Family
Practice many a child was fine as long
as they were an only child soon as that
second kid came along I had problems
because there was a brother there was a
sister that was en roding on their
space because in a family with multiple
kids it’s not just about
you that’s why it’s wrong to want the
benefit of the family but make no
investment in the family that’s that’s
one of the reasons God puts irregular
people in your
life people you don’t like that you also
can’t get rid
of
to teach you brotherly
kindness now we don’t mean not speak the
truth in love he even when you speak the
truth he says do it in love do it you
you don’t have to be
mean to be
honest and then he culminates it from
brotherly kindness with his epic
statement
and add to brotherly kindness
love that’s a different Greek word
that’s a
gape brotherly kindness is for
Leo so let me Define agape
yeah Agape is the
decision to
compassionately righteously and
sacrificially meet the needs of
another let me say that again agape love
is the decision why am I saying that
again because it’s not merely the
emotion I want to divorce cuz we’re not
in love anymore we’re not in love
anymore what they’re saying is I don’t
feel the way I used to feel that’s what
they’re saying that the emotion is gone
but when the new nature is
operating and it’s pumping because all
these things are being added
on love becomes a decision even when the
emotions aren’t
cooperating for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten
son Romans 5’8 for God demonstrated his
love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners we weren’t on his side Christ
died for
us his
compassion without compromising his
standard
righteous made him willing to sacrifice
which is why the Bible even tells us to
love our
enemies to bless those who curse you and
curse them back not that takes a lot of
strength
to not curse out somebody who cursing
out
you that takes a lot of strength that
takes new nature
strength so guess what God is not trying
to send you out here to a love program
he’s trying to get the new nature to get
So Pregnant inside of you that you’re
reacting like Christ would react if he
was in the same
situation let me let me tell you why
love this love thing is such a big deal
this is this is a big
deal big
deal because God defines himself by
it it says God is love okay doesn’t say
love is God it says God is love he is
that other words it defines him this
definition of love the decision to
compassionately righteously and
sacrificially seek the wellbeing of
another he says that’s who I
am well how is that so
God has never existed outside of a love
relationship number one he’s never been
alone because the true God the god of
the Bible is a Triune being one God
composes of three co-equal persons who
are distinct in personality yet one in
essence the father’s not the Sun the son
is not the spirit but they make up this
one
family
and they love each other to
death they love each other
perfectly this is perfect love because
it’s a perfect
being so when Jesus was on Earth he says
I work cuz my father Works my father
gives life so I give life whatever I see
my father doing that’s what I do Jesus
God the Father looks down at the son and
says this is my beloved Son in whom I’m
well
pleased
so when we develop this
epic definition of
Love watch this
now when we get to this stage stage
seven and seven is the number of
perfection when we get to this stage
guess something
happens God invites Us in to his
trinitarian
intimacy
he says son
Spirit we got
one we got one who is becoming so much
like us in the new nature why don’t we
invite them
in you’re going to see maybe next week
or the week after everybody’s not
invited
in see just because you saved don’t mean
he’s going to say many are called but
few are
chosen cuz everybody’s not invited into
this
everybody’s not invited in when the
Trinity says to that one who where the
new Nature has been expanding and
expanding and expanding and expanding
and the father
says because they have now connected
with who we
are we are now going to give
them the deepest experience of our
reality in time and ultimately in
eternity
[Music]
yeah
[Music]
oh