The 7 Spiritual Supplements That Supercharge Your Faith | Tony Evans Sermon

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.

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.

You ought to live based on god based knowledge. You’re not to live on the facts.
You’re to live on the truth, because 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 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, one, that everything you need to become 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 4 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 complete or as Colashians 210 says you are completing 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 gonna experience in your soul is already resident 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 7 supplements that he wants you to take.
Each supplement builds on the preceding supplement.
He says inverse 5 to your faith, supply moral excellence.
So the first vitamin we’re gonna 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 like, wish god would show me my purpose. And that’s really a sub question.
Because what he’s talking about here belongs to every Christian.
First Corinthians 1031 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 verse 36 says, for from him through him and to him are all things.
To him, be the glory forever.
Matthew 516 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 stymied.
It cannot expand because it’s hungry for something it’s not being fed.
Because god exists for god.
And so you exist with a god who exists for himself.
When god looks at you, he wants to see him.
Because 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 envelope your life, 1st Corinthians 1031, 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, eating, 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 5 says, I want you to supply knowledge.
Uh, because wait a minute.
If I’m supposed to be virtuous and glorifying god is my goal, And I need to find out what he expects.
Yeah. 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 need the information of what that looks like and how that works.
So I need knowledge. I love colossians chapter 1.
Colashant’s chapter 1 put it this way.
When he’s talking to the believer in that church, he says, Paul says, in verse 9, 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 in all spiritual with them 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 heartsoul and your mind.
He wants to impart his truth to you when it’s attached to glory from you based on his truth to you, there is the expansion.
You are to live based on god based knowledge That’s why John 717 says god will teach anyone who is willing to do his will.
So the second vitamin is knowledge.
A third supplement, he says, and in your knowledge, verse 6, self control.
Self control in your knowledge. So I wanna glorify god. I’ve made that decision.
I’m coming to church. I’m reading my Bible. I’m having devotions. I’m wet I 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 in 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 Flash may still wanna say yes to wrong and know to write, why?
Because self control can be added to the information that’s been added to the virtue that’s been added to the faith.
Because everything is expanding in the soul now. So he says, add self control.
It’s basically strength under control. There are 3 areas. Well, we all need this.
We all need it at 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, they don’t 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 has shifted, He said self control, meeting legitimate needs in legitimate ways.
Rejecting the illegitimate. And then he comes to supplement number 4.
He says add to your self control. 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 verse 11 says god strengthens us for the purpose of patience.
James Five verses 10 and 11 says, don’t you remember, Joe?
And his patience. Don’t leave too soon. Yeah.
Because god gotta start all over again. Why? Why can I have patience?
How can I add patience? Cause you now just got self controlled. You 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 because 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 soul.
Add to your perseverance, 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.
K. Let 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 perseverance tempts you to be ungodly. Yeah.
See, when you’re waiting and you don’t wanna wait, then you can say, I don’t care.
I don’t go do my thing. You know? Perseverance temps us all to be ungodly. He says, no.
When god has you this 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. 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 us 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 is perfect.
So there’s nothing wrong that could come out of the new nature because it’s it’s god.
So that raises the question, doesn’t it?
If god shut down the old factory, why am I still struggling with sin?
Well, that’s That’s that’s that’s a question because you just said that the whole factory has been closed, but don’t look close to me.
When they close General Motors, the cause that will already produced my General Motors are still on 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 send 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, routing on the highway, there were cars that were produced that hadn’t left a lot yet.
That are just waiting for the opportunity to get 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 flash, the highway system.
And the highway 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 when it produces.
Godliness that, which is godlike. Righteous, pleasing god.
And as that grows, during the times of waiting on god.
Uh, the new nature is just going crazy. Is eating. It’s eating. It’s eating. It’s eating.
It’s growing. It’s growing. It’s growing. It’s growing. It comes to number 6.
And add to your godliness, brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness, he calls it.
Foleo. 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 and the vertical.
To be a kindness toward the other members of my family because you’re not an only child.
Our father who art in heaven, not my daddy who isn’t 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 eroding 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 what I mean?
Not speak the truth in love even when you speak the truth, he says, do it in love. Do it.
You you don’t have to be me, 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 agape. Brotherhood kindness is Pallejo.
So let me define agape.
A 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 a divorce because 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 that 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 has only begotten son.
Romans 58 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, maybe 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 straight.
So guess what? God is not trying to send you out here to a loved 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 tell you why I love this love thing is such a big deal.
This is a big deal. Big deal. Because god defines himself by it.
He says god is love. Oh, yes. Okay? Let’s say love is god. It says god is love.
He is that. In other words, it defines him.
This definition of love, the decision to compassionately, rightfully, and sacrificed seek the well-being of an up.
He says, that’s who I am. Well, how is that so?
God has never existed outside of a love relationship.
Number 1, he’s never been alone because the true god, the god of the Bible, is a triune being.
One god composed of 3 co equal persons who are distinct in personality, yet one in essence.
The father is not the son. 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, this is I work because 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 sun 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 7 and 7 is the number of perfection, When we get to this stage, I guess something happens, god invites us in to his trinitarian intimacy.
He says, son, spirit. We got 1.
We got one who is becoming so much like us in the new nature.
Why don’t we invite them in?
You’re gonna see maybe next week or the week after, everybody’s not invited in.
See, just because you say don’t mean he’s gonna say, many are called, but few are chosen.
Because everybody’s not invited into this one.
Everybody’s not invited 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.