If you have a need, plant a seed. That is the way agriculture works. The Bible calls it sowing and reaping. But Dr. Tony Evans says too often reaping becomes keeping.
A blessing is not what God does to you, it is also what God knows He's free to do through you. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Today, Dr. Evans talks about the importance of being a conduit of blessings as he explains how God meets needs when we plant seeds.
Let's listen. Look. 638. I'm going to read it twice. It says, give and it will be given to you.
They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over, for by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. Again, give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, for by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. In return. Let's make sure we understand a very Fundamental principle.
You can only give something if you have it. If you don't have it, you can't give it because it's not yours to give if you don't have it, whatever it happens to be. Which brings me to a foundational understanding that we've said many times, which is key to everything I'm getting ready to say, and that is, you only have one source. That one source is God. You have many resources or channels through which God can get you whatever he wants to get you, but he is your only source.
See, once you make something other than God your source, you got to look to that thing. Depend on that thing, bank on that thing, count on that thing. and maybe even bow to that thing. But if that thing was never your source, it can't own you. Because you were never looking to it as your ultimate solution in the first place.
The grocery store. Is not your source. It is merely a channel through which you can get something. They don't grow the food in the store. It's not your sauce.
It's just a vehicle to transfer it from where it came from so it can get to you. Your job is not your source. Your job is important, but it's merely a channel through which to work in order to receive income, in order to live and pay your bills, but it's not your source. See, it was never your source in the first place. See, the beautiful thing about having God as your only source is only God can own you.
See, that means nobody else can own you. Nobody else can be the ultimate absolute control over you because it was never your source in the first place.
So let's understand now: you only have one source. That's why God calls us to fully depend on him as our source. because he can switch resources on a dime. He says Give And it will be given to you.
So let me tell you about the theology of it. What he is literally saying is. Whatever? It is that you legitimately want or need from God. Gibbet.
Everybody wants something from God. But he takes another step back and he says Before you get it, give it if you want it. If you have a need. Make sure you sow a seed. People all over call on God to meet a need when they are not willing to plant a seed.
And then wonder why the need has not been met. Let's say we have Farmer Brown. Farmer Brown is standing over his 10 acres, and Farmer Brown wants to have a good crop this year of fruits and vegetables.
So, Farmer Brown is so committed to God that Farmer Brown stands over his 10 acres and he prays every single day. God, God, I want you to bless my farm. I need rain from heaven. I need sunshine. I need not inclement weather so I can have a great harvest.
God, I need you to bless my farm this year. In fact, God, I am so serious about what I need. I need you to bless my 10 acres. I am so committed. I'm going to fast.
I'm going to go to church. I'm going to serve in my church. I am really committed. I'm going to pray to you every day because I need you to bless my 10 acres. We would say Farmer Brown is very serious about God meeting his need.
But what would you say when you found out that Farmer Brown prayed, Farmer Brown fasted, Farmer Brown studied the Bible, but never planted? I would like to suggest to you Farmer Brown wasted his time. Even calling on God. Because he wanted to God to meet a need without a seed. Sh And the way God has structured it to work, Genesis 1, 12, is the reproduction, the future.
What God is going to do is not just tied to the need, it's tied to the location of the seed. God required that the seed be placed in the ground.
Now, why did God say the seed must be planted in the ground? Because God created the ground to receive the seed so that the farmer would always know his source. The source would come from the ground that God created and the dependency, but it was not a need that could be or would be met without a seed. I want to teach you this seed principle because it applies to houses and lands, and he says, children, he says, family, he says, farms. He atties it to a whole bunch of things.
That if you miss the seed principle, give and it. Plant and it. Then you miss out on how God wants to meet many of your needs, assuming you're willing to do something with your seed. No farmer. Eats everything he produces.
Because if he eats everything he produces, he'll never reproduce. Because his future is built in to the thing that he produced, because the seeds are built in.
Now, as I begin to think about this principle, when it's legitimately used, not illegitimately used, where the material takes place of the spiritual. But where it's legitimate coming out of a heart that's committed to the source, God, as the giver. Then I began to observe it in Scripture. For example, The widow of Zarephath. The widow of Zarephath.
1 Kings 17. was running out of food. She was down to her last meal. She only could make one bread cake left for her and her son, and then she would be out of food and they would starve to death and die. She cries out to God for help because she has a need.
She has a need for food. Guess what God tells her? Make a bread. Cake for Elijah.
Well wait a minute, I'm down to my last bread cake. We're gonna starve. I know you got a need. Widow, plant a seed. I want you to make a bread cake.
I want you to feed Elisha. She followed God. By giving to Elijah She gave It. She gave the things she needed. She needed the food, so she gave food.
When she gave it. The Bible says, and God fed them for many days. In other words, when she gave it, the it she gave came back to her because she gave what she needed. She needed food, gave food. God worked it back around because the seed grew.
It's the same principle. Hannah. Hannah couldn't get pregnant. She was barren. There was shame associated with that, disappointment associated with that.
She was unable to get pregnant. For the whole time she was married, she could not get pregnant. In 1 Samuel, her prayer is recorded. Hannah. Got down on her knees.
And she says, Lord. I need a child. Give me, give. Me a son.
Okay?
So she expressed the need. But then she planted a seed. She said, if you will give me a son. I will dedicate him to the temple. To serve you for the rest of his life.
I will give him to you. I will give it the child I need and want to you.
Now, she had been married all these years and not had a baby, but when she was willing to give it, The thing she wanted. To the purposes of God, to the benefit of his kingdom, to the advancement of his cause, we read in the next chapter, and she's been married all this time. and not been able to get pregnant, but when she gave it. Whatever the it is, it can come in all shapes and sizes. Make sure, whatever the need is, you've planted the seed.
You must give God something to work with. That's called faith. Faith is acting like God is telling the truth. It's not a feeling. It's a function.
What seed did you plant?
So, when you come to God with a need, he's waiting to hear what's the seed. What are you planning that you want me to grow? that you want me to develop. Dr. Evans will have more on the importance of doing our part to start a flow of blessings.
when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, what you're hearing today is the final installment in Tony's powerful sermon series, Return on Investment. It digs deep into what can happen when we invest ourselves in God, in ourselves, in other believers. even in our enemies. There are six lessons in this collection, including bonus material we haven't had time to bring you on the air.
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Explore the kingdom. Anytime, anywhere. There were 5,000 men, not counting women and children, 20 to 25,000 people are listening to Jesus preach. The feeding of the 5,000 found in all the Gospels. Jesus asked his disciples, how are we going to feed all these people?
The answer of all of them is, I don't know. What did they need? Food. What did Jesus ask for? He said, Is there any food around?
They needed food. He didn't just pray for food. He says, is there any food around? There's a little boy with some sardines and crackers. The little boy gives the sardines and crackers The two fish, five barley loaves to Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says Jesus gave thanks and blessed them. Why say grace? Over sardines and crackers. when you've got 20,000 people who are hungry. That would sound like a waste of time.
Not if it's a seed. Cause built in a seed. is the need.
So, when Jesus blessed the sardines and crackers, two fish and five barley loaf, and 20,000 people eat. And I like the way it says it. It says, and they ate to their full. The seed multiplied and the need was met. The problem today is people want God to meet their need when they're unwilling to plant a seed.
Which means they don't exercise any faith. Or their motivation is wrong. It has no connection to the glory of God, the advancement of the gospel, the acknowledgement of the kingdom. And so We don't see all that God can do legitimately, not the prosperity theology where it's stuff for stuff's sake. I'm talking about that which responds to God as the source.
so that he meets the need because he sees the seed. He sees that there was faith that in that little seed would be a future growth. He says, give an it, the it that you gave. The Bible says, talking to believers, he says, if you want to be forgiven, forgive. Be a forgiver.
If you need love, give some. If you need a relationship, give one. Plant a seed over here for the needs you have over here. Give the it that you're looking to be returned to you. And then he brings the point home.
By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. Here it is. If you want the need, plant the seed. People want a spiritual relationship with God, but they won't plant a seed in the word. Plant a seed in prayer, plant a seed in ministry, but they want to see God move in their lives.
If you have a need, plant a seed. And then he says, by your measure. It will be measured back to you. Second Corinthians 9:9 says, If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you will reap bountifully.
It reminds me of the story of the little boy who was in the grocery store, and the grocer came with a jar of candy. He told the boy, reach in and grab a handful of candy. The boy said no. He said, no. He said, this is all candy.
And I'm telling you to reach in. And as much as you can grab, that's yours. Put your hand in and grab the candy. He said, You like candy? Yeah.
You need some candy? Yeah. She says, well, reach in and grab a handful of candy. He said, no. Grocer couldn't understand.
Why can't I get you to reach in and put your hand in? and get some candy, the kids said, because my hand's too small. You put your hand in there and reach in there and grab a handful of candy. In other words, he wanted a bigger standard. Does he want any more candy?
By the standard you use. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 24:19, he told the farmers, he says, Leave the edges of your field alone. Don't take The sheaves from the edges of your field. Leave those for the poor, for the orphan, for the alien, and for the widow. He tells the farmers, don't, I know it's your field.
I know all 10 acres are yours, but don't mess with the corners of the field. Leave those alone and let the poor and the widow and the orphan, let them have that. It's yours, you planted it, but let them have it. And then in verse 19, he tells them why. He says, because when you have left it for them.
The Lord will bless you. When you left some of the seed. That benefited somebody outside of you. And that, brothers and sisters, is the definition of a blessing. A blessing is not what God does to you.
It is also what God knows he's free to do through you. God told Abraham, I am going to bless you. And then he says, and through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
So here's the secret. This is why the Bible says it's more blessed to give than to receive. The reason why it says it's more blessed to give than to receive is because when God knows he can flow through, he doesn't mind flowing to. But the moment he knows it's only about you, and it's going to stop with you, and it's just going to flow to you, and nothing will go through you, he gets. uninterested in continuing to flow to when he know he can't flow through.
And that's why when you go for God for him to do something in your life. Tell him if he does it, how you will use it to be a blessing. Because now you have piqued his interest. Because he knows you're going to be a blessing and not just want to hang out to be blessed. If you have a need, Plant a seed.
So that God can do something. For your life. No bank pays interest. Unless it's something deposited. You can't say, what's my interest?
And there's nothing in the bank. You gotta plant a seed. If you want to see what interests, what blessing, what benefit, which is not much today. You know, we have on our campus, we have some vending machines. We have some vending machines.
So you can go to certain places, a few places on our campus, and buy some potato chips. For example.
Now, the chips are in this glass. and they are available for purchase. But it won't just drop down. No, just just drop. You don't just push the button and they just drop.
You got to plant a financial seed. You gotta put some money in the vending machine. because you need some potato chips.
So, you press the button, whatever the number is, to get your chips. The chips fall down. You planted a seed because you had a need for potato chips, but there's an issue. The bag is half full. You have that when you buy chips?
The baggage half for you put in your need. You paid the price. And it's half chips, half air. Yeah, it is. They gave they sold you a bill of goods.
or half a bag of chips. He talk about that ain't all that, but nothing but a bag of chips. It ain't even that. It's a half bag of chips, half bag of air. They duped you.
Causing you to pay a price. For something that not pressed down, shaken together. or running over. God says, and yes, he does say in Mark 10, it does come with persecution. It's not all just one big blessing and there's no trouble.
That's a false premise of prosperity as well. But there is a legitimate side, and that is the unique way God can use the they, the they that you never heard of, people you never met, situations you never thought about to bring them around, but he's looking for the seed. He's not just listening for the need.
Now, I know that this message has disturbed some of you. Because what you heard was, come so God can meet your need. You weren't into this. I gotta have a seed. Interested in the seed.
Let's just preach to me, preacher, about the meat. But then I wouldn't be telling you the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God. A whole chapter on this in 2 Corinthians 9. whole chapel on sowing and reaping and all of this. All of this is in the New Testament.
But the Bible has a verse for you who are struggling with this sermon. Because we can tell the truth, shame the devil. And the verse is Psalm 126, verse 6, because it says, Those who sow in tears, because I know some of you are crying right now. Those who are so in tears, I'm scared. Mine scared and squared.
To so intent, you're crying, oh God, I don't want to love this person, I don't want to forgive this person, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, I don't do it, but but because this is the principle. I'm gonna sew while I'm crying. He says, Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. You may be sad on the front end, but you're going to be glad on the back end. You may be sad right now, but if you take the principle and use it, he says you will be glad with the result.
So even if you have to soul crying. Plant the seed.
So God can meet the need. And so you and I can stop piggybacking off of somebody else's testimony. and have our own. about the need God met and the unique way he chose to meet it because I in faith planted the seed in good soil so it produced more than I ever expected. Yeah.
Dr. Tony Evans with an encouraging word about reaping a return on investment in God's economy.
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These candid yet in-depth conversations between Tony and his guests can be heard any time. wherever you get your podcasts. No matter your age or stage of life, The command to honor your father and mother has never lost its relevance. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans explains why this principle is about more than family relationships.
It's a foundation for personal stability and a healthy society. I hope he'll join us for that.
