You Only Have ONE Source | God is the Source! | Connecting Faith and Life with Tony Evans

The year 2020 has been...different. It has reminded me that I need to look in the right place for my hope. I recently listened to a sermon by Tony Evans that was about this topic: https://tonyevans.org/podcast/encountering-gods-provision-part-1/

I’ve listened to a lot of Tony Evans’s sermons over the years. He has been instrumental in my spiritual development as a Christian. You can say that I went to Tony Evans University. You should check him out at TonyEvans.org.

Tony Evans is great at telling stories and giving illustrations to help you understand scripture and God. There is one statement he always tells his congregation: “You only have one source. Everything else is a resource.”

God is the source of all things and everything else is a resource. Tony Evans gave the analogy of a grocery store. The grocery store is not the source of the food you find there. The grocery store is only a resource. God is the source of our food. We also need to keep that in mind when we look for our hope. God is the source of all things.

Romans 11:36 says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

1 Kings 17:8-16 and Psalm 104:10-21 also show God as the source.

Tony Evans also talked about how when we make other things our source, they become idols. We may feel that our job, our spouse, kids, money, or status are our source of hope or they fulfill us somehow. But any needs that come before our need for God, all become idols. When we make the resources in our lives our source for hope and value, we make them into idols. We will never be satisfied with those things.

Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.”

We were made by God and for God. He is our source. I’m encouraged to look to God as the source. God can use resources just like the sermon by Tony Evans or this video from Proclaim Ministries. But we must look to God as the source and the resources as the resources.

2020 has been tough. It is tempting to look at the world around us for happiness and satisfaction, even understanding or clarity because we don’t understand why we are going through this. But God is great at making us uncomfortable so that we will look to Him. God can use uncomfortable circumstances to help us realize we are putting our hope in the wrong places; our hope into the resources instead of the source.

What do you think about this video? Did you listen to Tony Evans’s sermon too? Let me know what you think.

“Helping you connect faith and life.”