No farmer wonders why he's not getting corn if he never planted any. Dr. Tony Evans talks about why we sometimes miss out on the spiritual harvest we've been waiting for. God says you must be involved in sowing the right seed in the right soil. This is the Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.
Tony Evans. In some parts of the country, winter goes on so long, it seems like it'll never end.
Well, Dr. Evans says difficult seasons in our spiritual lives sometimes feel the same way. Let's join him as he explains what it'll take to see things change. I wonder if anyone here has ever missed an airplane flight or a train or a bus. and watch it pull off as you rush to get there, only to watch it leave you behind.
That's how many people feel about the season of life that they're in. That something has passed them by. There's winter, there's spring, there's summer, and there's fall. there's the changing of seasons. You hear a lot in Christian circles about it being your season.
My season. It has to do with the shifting of time and the circumstances engaged in it. Turn your Bibles, please, to Galatians chapter 6, verse 9. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Read that again.
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time, King James says, in due season. We will reap if we do not grow weary. I want to say a word about you and your season, you and your time. The context here is a time of reaping, of getting something valuable back. There are three primary concepts of time in the New Testament.
One is a Greek word, chronos, and it means the normal passage of time. seconds to minutes minutes to hours hours to days days to weeks weeks to months months to years years to decades that's chronos that is the passage of time it has to do with just the normal tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock of the clock you can't make it go faster you can't make it go slower It's just the chronological movement of time. There's a second word, kairos. That's the word used in verse nine, in due time. This has to do with strategic or opportune time.
The word opportunity is tied to kairos. Kairos is not tick-tock, tick-tock. That's Kronos. Kairos is a strategic shift in time where there's something that has intervened in the normal movement of time where God creates an opportunity or something strategic, bringing about something that is out of the ordinary. The third concept of time is pleru.
The Greek word is, and you will read that in the scripture as the fullness of time. The fullness of time refers to bringing the kairos moment into a completed scenario. The fullness of time has to do with the fulfillment of what is promised.
So you have the passing of time. Kronos. Tick, tock, tick, tock. You have the sudden shift in time, which is kairos. And then you have the fullness of time, the completion, play rule.
He says in verse nine, do not lose heart. Don't quit. Give up. throw in the towel because all you see is tick tock, tick tock, tick tock nothing appears to be going on nothing appears to be happening your season does not appear to be anywhere in sight you are waiting for this divine shift this appointed time this scenario of reaping he says don't lose heart maybe part of the problem is the passage of time you see you don't just let time pass while you're waiting on your kairos moment the divine intervention indicating a shift because you looking for your playroom moment a delivery into a whole new season But you are in now this Kronos moment of the clock tick-tocking its way along. He says that is not do-nothing time.
He says that you and I must learn to live our lives, watch this now, agriculturally and not industrially or technologically. We live in a technology age and it has made life very convenient for us to live in a technology age where there's gadgets that can do in seconds what it would take hours to do before. Many of you ladies praise God for a microwave. You can go in the freezer, pull out something, stick it in the microwave and say, here's your dinner. Where your grandmother would chop it up and make it up and fix it up.
And, you know, technology has created a microwave mentality. And while that may be good for eating dinners or fixing things or calculating things with the computers and all of the things that make things move at lightning speed. He says when it comes to living life, you must be an agriculturalist, not a technologist. Because he says in chapter 6, verse 7, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.
Whatever man sows, he reaps. for the one who sows to his flesh will reap from his flesh corruption. The one who sows to his spirit will reap from his spirit eternal life. He says you must look at this as a farming scenario. And in a farming scenario, he says there is sowing and then there is reaping.
And what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say a lot of folk want to reap what they have not yet sown. A lot of people want to see come up what has not yet been planted. In other words, here it is, they have wasted Kronos while looking for Kairos. They have not sown during the time when there is no shift, and they're wondering why they're not getting a shift.
no farmer wonders why he's not getting corn if he never planted any he doesn't sit up there saying i'm waiting for my change to come because the farmer understands if there has been no sowing there will be no reaping while you are waiting for god to bring about a change God says you must be involved in sowing the right seed in the right soil. He says there are two kinds of soil, flesh and spirit. And whether you are sowing seed and where you are sowing seed will determine whether you reap and when you reap.
so if you're waiting on God for Kairos and you're not sown anything in Kronos then you ought not be surprised that you don't experience Plaru the full experience of life as God has designed it to be for you. He says you have a participating responsibility in this scenario that will affect the wind and maybe even the weather you experience the divine shift that has been ordained for every believer in this room. Dr. Evans will come back to explain the difference between the two fields we can sow when he continues our message in just a moment. Don't go away.
How do you share the gospel with confidence? What's God's plan for our communities? Why does the Old Testament matter to your faith today? Those are just a few of the questions you'll get answered when you enroll in the Tony Evans Training Center, an interactive online study experience with Dr. Tony Evans, where you can grow in your knowledge of God's Word and learn to advance His kingdom agenda in your life.
Visit TonyEvansTraining.org to get started today. That's TonyEvansTraining.org. The message Tony has been bringing today is the first installment in his popular and practical teaching series called The Spiritual Toolkit. This 10-message collection explores vital principles that make up the equipment we need to build a healthy spiritual life. It includes additional material we won't be able to present on the air.
And right now, for a limited time, we're making it available as our gift when you support the Ministry of the Alternative with a financial contribution. And as a special bonus, along with the audio package, we'll also include Dr. Evans' powerful book, Free at Last, Experiencing True Freedom Through Your Identity in Christ. If you've ever felt stuck in spiritual quicksand, struggling for victory, longing for intimacy with Christ, or feeling defeated by old patterns, this book is for you. Dr.
Evans explains how knowing your true identity in Christ can break the grip of sin, silence the lies of the enemy, and set you free to experience the joy, peace, and power God intended for you. This special double offer is only available for a short time, so visit us today at TonyEvans to make your request or call our resource team day or night at 1 Again that TonyEvans or by phone 1 Well, right now, let's join Dr. Evans for the second part of today's message. Every believer has been assigned Kairos moments, leading to full fulfillment of life. but it is predicated on sowing.
First of all, he says there are two fields, flesh and spirit, that two realms in which you can live your life as a Christian. This is only referring to Christians because non-Christians don't have a spirit, living spirit to operate from. One is flesh. Flesh has to do with living life to please self. It is living life to meet our needs independently of God.
It is living life from the human point of view. It is following the world's standards, orientations, mindsets in order to live my life. That's flesh. Most people, even most Christians, sow their seeds in flesh.
Now flesh can refer to evil things you do, or flesh doesn't necessarily have to refer to evil things you do. It simply means that you've done it independently of God, even if it's good. See, when a non-Christian is good, that's nice, but that does not make them acceptable to God. They're good, but they're still not acceptable to God, because that's not how God is measuring it. Flesh has to do with living life from a world-based perspective, be it good or bad.
It is the human point of view. He says there is another way to live life. He says, he calls this sowing to the spirit. What is the spirit? It is sharing God's viewpoint on a matter.
If you want to know how you know you're spiritual, a spiritual person shares God's viewpoint on a matter. To be spiritual means I am living by the impulses of God rather than the impulses of my body or the impulses of my soul. I'm living by the impulses of God as God has given me his point of view. You always know a person who is spiritual and has nothing to do with whether they raise their hand, sing well, or go to church. You can do all of those things and be in the flesh.
A spiritual person consistently has as their lead off point of view God's view on a matter. You also know who the fleshly people are because the spiritual people irritate them. Spiritual people irritate flesh people. because flesh people do not want to hear God's view on a matter. They want to hear a song.
They may want to hear a sermon, but what they don't want to hear is God's view on a matter, and they certainly don't want to hear it up front. That may be a last resort when nothing else works.
So let's get clear who is fleshly and who is spiritual. Spiritual people seek out, want, pursue, and seek to implement God's view on a matter. I can't tell you how many people have said to me, even if they say it nicely, you know, I don't want to hear that. Give me something practical. What they want is something man-made.
and he says you can sow seeds you can sow seeds in that soil that's the soil of the body the soil of the soul but he says it won't produce the crop you're looking for it won't produce the kairos since that's the word that is mentioned here he gives what we might call an axiomatic statement An axiomatic statement. An axiom or an axiomatic statement is a non-negotiable truism. It's the way things are. It's the way things are. He says in verse 7, do not be deceived.
God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you reap. He says that's the way it is. You plant corn, you get corn. You plant squash, you get squash.
You plant green beans, you get green beans. You don't plant green beans and get watermelon. You don't plant squash and get potatoes. He says it is an axiomatic statement. It is the way things are.
It is the way farming works. It is the way life works. That's the way it is. God has built it into the cycle of the universe. The sun rises, the sun sets as the earth turns on its axis around the sun.
That's the way it is. It's never been any different. It will never be any different. The earth turns so you get daylight on half the earth nighttime the other half the earth That the way it is You can pray for it to change want it to change wish it will change fast that it might change It never change Because it is an axiomatic reality. It's the way things are.
He says, as a Christian, you and I can sow to one of these two soils. We can sow to the human point of view or we can sow to the divine point of view. and he says this point of view will produce two different crops. He says in verse 8 that the one who sows to the flesh shall reap from the flesh. You will get something back, but what you get back will corrupt you.
He says the one who sows to the spirit will also get something back. He says where you sow and everybody sows somewhere. where you sow will determine what you reap. He says, if your pattern, your regular habit of sowing is to the flesh, to the human point of view, to approach life from a man-centered perspective, then I'm going to tell you, God says, what your crop is going to look like. He tells you in advance, you will reap from the flesh corruption.
The word corruption means decay. All of us have had milk in the refrigerator too long and the milk turns on you and becomes spoiled or meat that has become decayed or bread that has become moldy. That's the concept of corrupt. It will decay on you. And it doesn't matter that you pray over it.
It doesn't matter that you fast over it. It doesn't matter that you sing songs about it. He says the result will be decay, disintegration, and deterioration.
some of us are on our knees asking God to enable us to reap a better financial situation when we've sown irresponsible spending irresponsible debt some of us want a better personal life when we've sown to satisfy our lives God's way or marriage we use a secular rendition and wonder why we don't have a happy home. Because what we've done is we've sown man's approach. And we have reaped what that approach will always inevitably present, and that is deterioration, disintegration, and decay. It will produce something, he says. It'll just be corrupt.
On the other hand, he says, he that sows to the spirit, that's planting, will reap from the spirit eternal life.
Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying, wait a minute, I'm a Christian. I thought I already have eternal life.
Well, you do. It's a big difference having it and experiencing it. It's a big difference. If you are saved today, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your sin bearer, you have eternal life. But the question when it comes to day-to-day living is, does eternal life have me?
Am I experiencing the eternal life that I possess? Eternal life is not just everlasting life. Everlasting life means how long you're going to live forever. eternal life is a quality of life it is god's life eternal life jesus says that this is eternal life that they know me in john 17 eternal life is a quality of life it is god it is fullness pulsating through your soul dr tony evans on the importance of taking the time and effort to ensure a fulfilling life in Christ.
Now, before we go, don't forget to check into getting the extended copy of today's message in the complete series it comes from, called The Spiritual Toolkit. As I mentioned earlier, the entire 10-message set is available as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Remember, for a limited time, we're also offering a bonus resource along with the audio compilation, Dr. Evans' empowering book, Free at Last. experiencing true freedom through your identity in Christ.
You can find out more when you visit us online at TonyEvans.org or by phone on our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's TonyEvans.org or with the help of one of our friendly team members at 1-800-800-3222. Just as the earth undergoes different seasons, Our lives experience changing periods of time, times when we feel God is up to something big, and times we feel God is silent.
Well, tomorrow, Dr. Evans will continue his exploration of what we need to do in all seasons to prepare for the future God has in store for us. I hope you'll join us. Thank you.
