Let IT Work

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 turns into 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 with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. 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 join him.

Luke 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 press 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 press down, shaking together, running over for by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. Let's 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 that you eat your food out of or get your food from 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 source. It's just a vehicle to transfer it from where it came from so it can get to you. So if one grocery store closes down, you can go to another grocery store, because that grocery store wasn't the source in the first place.

It was merely a transfer vehicle. 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, if your job is your source, when you lose your job, you lose your life. 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. 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—say it—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 need or want legitimately from God, give it.

Watch this now. Whatever it is that you legitimately want or need from God, give it. Everybody wants something from God, but He takes another step back and He says, before you get it, give it if you want it.

That's a different—remember, nobody has given up houses or lands or farms or brothers or sisters, so you've given something up first who has not received back the same. When God created—here it is, the theology of it—when God created way back in the book of Genesis, here's what God said in Genesis chapter 1 verse 12. He says this, the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them after their kind, and God saw that it was good.

So here's how this works. What God created had a seed built in it. The seed matched whatever it was the seed of. So apples have seeds, pears have seeds, watermelon has seeds.

They have built into them the reproduction of them. So what God did when He created all of these different fruits and vegetables is He planted in them their future. They could be replicated after their kind. You cannot plant an orange seed and get apples. You can't plant a pear seed and get watermelons, because it's not after its kind. So whatever it is that you plant, that it is what you receive, because it's after its kind, after their same kind. So the way God watched this created life to work was the thing you wanted to reproduce, you had to use the seed that was embedded in it. It says the seed was in it. So you would take the seed from what you had in order to replicate it.

What was a principle of creation, Luke 6 38 broadens to say it's a principle of life. Give an it. It refers to the thing you gave. Give an it. Whatever the it is, give it, because God responds to the faith that gave whatever the it is needed. Let's put it another way. If you have a need, make sure you sow a seed.

Okay? If you have a need, whatever it is, we'll talk about some of them in a moment, but if you have a need, don't just have the need, and don't just ask God to meet the need without making sure you plant the 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, Farmer Brown. Farmer Brown is standing over his ten 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 ten 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, and thank God I am so serious about what I need. I need you to bless my ten 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 ten 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.

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 the seed principle because it applies to houses and lands and he says children, he says families, he says farms.

He ties 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. Now, 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 begin 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 Elijah. She followed God by giving to Elijah. She gave it. She gave the thing 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 a seed principle.

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 the 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. But first, what you're hearing today is the final installment in Tony's current message 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. And today is the last day we're offering CDs and digital downloads of all the messages in this set, plus the in-depth study guide that goes with it as our thank-you gift for your donation to make this listener-supported ministry possible. So don't wait.

Get details on the Return on Investment series and study guide today, before time runs out, by visiting tonyevans.org. That's tonyevans.org. Or call our 24-hour Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help you. Either way, don't wait. This special offer ends today. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. We'll dive back into our study right after this. Check. Check. Oh, our sample ballots came?

Yeah, I'm marking mine now. Check. And check. Wow, you're tearing right through that. Well, they make it easy. They list the political party right there under the name. Voting the straight party ticket, following some family tradition, doing what your friends do—all common ways to vote, but not necessarily godly ways. The Lord has an agenda for His kingdom, and Dr. Tony Evans says we need to back it with our ballots. That's the point of the newest course in the popular Tony Evans Training Center, How Christians Should Vote. The body of Christ has been divided illegitimately by allowing the politics of men to determine our function under God. The How Christians Should Vote course teaches vital principles about God's agenda on earth, so you can cut through all the campaign hype and focus on the people and propositions that best reflect kingdom values. There's also lots of custom content from Tony and a forum where you can get your specific questions answered.

Go to tonyevans.org and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone or other device. There were 5,000 men, not counting women and children, 20 to 25,000 people are listening to Jesus preach. Jesus asked His disciples, how are we gonna 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? 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, because built in a seed is the need. So when Jesus blessed the sardines and crackers, two fish and five barley loaves, now Orca the killer whale is laying on the beach, and 20,000 people eat. And I like the way it says it. It says, and they ate to their full.

In other words, they got seconds. All we started with was a seed, just some sardines and crackers, some fish and barley loaves, but when it was blessed by God, 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. So if you need to be forgiven over here, forgive over there.

Forgive over there, that's a planting of a seed for the forgiveness you need over here. That's what Jesus said, plant the seed for the need. If you need love, give some. Plant the seed, it, of what you need. If you need a relationship, give one. Plant a seed over here for the need you have over here.

Give the it that you're looking to be returned to you. And then a they show up. Who are they? They are whoever God chooses to use to meet your need. You see, God's got this bank over here of need meters. So the question is not, God, this is my need.

That's half the question, because the other half of the question is God's. Where is your seed? What have you planted to demonstrate your faith in me to give me something to cultivate?

Here it is. 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 got to plant a seed if you want to see what interest, 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 campus, and buy some potato chips, for example. Now, the chips are in this glass, and they're available for purchase. Now, they don't just drop down. They don't just drop. You don't just push the button and they just drop.

You got to plant a financial seed. You got to 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 bag is half full. You put in your need, you paid the price, and it's half chips, half air. They sold you a bill of goods or half a bag of chips. You 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's 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 wasn't into this, I gotta have a seed.

I ain't interested in the seed. Let's just preach to me, preacher, about the need. But then I wouldn't be telling you the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God. The whole chapter on this in 2 Corinthians 9, whole chapter 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 sow in tears, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared, to sow in tears. You 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 that, but because this is the principle, I'm gonna sow 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 gonna 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 sow 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. Dr. Tony Evans, with an encouraging word about reaping a return on investment in God's economy. If you'd like to have a full-length copy of today's lesson, Let It Work, which includes material we didn't have time to share on the air, you can visit us online at tonyevans.org to get all the details. Better yet, get this message and the other five that go with it in Tony's current series, Return on Investment. Don't forget that today is the last day you can get the messages and the companion study guide as our thank-you gift when you help us with a contribution to keep this program coming your way each day. We have team members standing by around the clock to help assist with your request at 1-800-800-3222 so there's no need to wait. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or get even faster service including instant digital downloads of the messages by visiting us online at tonyevans.org.

The world keeps trying to convince Christians that religion ought to be so private that it doesn't show up in public or even have any influence there. Tomorrow Dr. Evans will take a look at the other side of that debate. I hope you'll be with us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.