The seed is the Word of God. To penetrate the soil of the life in order to bring about the birth of spiritual development.
Dr. Tony Evans says if the seeds not sprouting, take a look at the soil. So whenever God's Word is not working, Jesus says don't blame the seed. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Everyone loves a good mystery, especially that moment in the story when everything finally makes sense. Well today, Dr. Evans reveals how we can approach that aha moment in God's plan, and how that revelation can have a powerful impact on our lives and those around us.
Let's listen in as he gets started. If you're on a plane, there are a number of ways that you can fly. There's coach. That's where the masses are that are on a particular flight. And then there's first class. Everybody on the plane is going to the same location, whatever the designation of that flight happens to be, because they're all on the same plane. But they don't all get there the same way. If you're in first class, you've got a little bit more room to maneuver. If you're stuck in coach in a middle seat, it's a lot more uncomfortable. If you're in first class, you're going to get some more personal attention from the attendant, because they will flow up and down the aisle. Do you need anything?
Do you want anything? You get a little bit more attentiveness. If you're in that class. If you're in coach, you push a button and you wait. It's the same destination. You just don't get there the same way. Everybody who's come to Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life is headed toward the same destiny. You're headed toward heaven. But not everybody arrives there the same way. If you've come to Christ, heaven is your home.
But the trip there may have differentials. Jesus spoke a parable. A parable is a earthly story designed to teach a heavenly lesson. Jesus would pick things that people knew about, could relate to because it was part of their lives, their world, their work, their circumstances, their families, their context, and he would reach into the contemporary reality of the people and draw from it something that would be analogous to the spiritual truth he wanted to teach.
He would go from the known to the unknown. Many of his stories, parables, related to this concept of the kingdom, this divine jurisdiction of God's rule. So he came and he told the story to everybody. But he says, some will not be able to understand and I don't want them to. But he then turns and he says, but to you has been given the mysteries of the kingdom.
So I'm gonna let you, or if Jesus were here in Texas, y'all, I'm gonna let y'all understand, but I'm not gonna let them understand. Why wouldn't Jesus want everybody to clearly understand since everybody was listening to what the story was? Well, in verse 4, it says there was a large crowd coming. So he had a big congregation, a lot of folk who were coming to hear what Jesus had to teach. But we read in verse 9, his disciples began questioning him as to what this parable meant.
The big group wanted to hear the story. The disciples wanted to get the understanding. And if all you are is gonna be satisfied with a sermon, a sermon is all you gonna get. He says in verse 11, now the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. And based on the soil that the seed falls on determines what happens with the seed. In other words, it would be the condition of the soil, not the power of the seed, that would determine what happens. The seed is the Word of God. So if the Word of God is not working, it's not a Word of God problem. It's a soil problem. So whenever God's Word is not working, Jesus says don't blame the seed. Because the Bible says that the Word of God, Hebrews 4, is alive.
It is pulsating with life. But if it falls on errant soil, that is, if it falls on a faulty heart, it won't do what the seed is designed to do, not because the seed can't do it, but because the environment in which the seed finds itself is unable to grab it. When he talks about the soil, he also uses the word in the story, the heart. You have to understand your makeup, my makeup, our makeup. First Thessalonians 5 23 says that we are made up of spirit, soul, and body. Your body gives you the ability to function in your physical world through your five senses. Your soul is your self-knowledge, your personhood, your person identity.
That's who you are. You are not your body. Your body is a house for your soul. The spirit is your ability to communicate with God.
Body, communicate with the world, the environment, so you can communicate with yourself. The reason why you know you're sitting there, I'm standing here, is because you have a soul. Your spirit is designed to communicate with God.
Problem. When you're born, you're born with a dead spirit. Ephesians 2 1, we're dead and our trespasses and our sins. We are spiritually dead, that is, unable to communicate with God at birth. When you were born, you were born with a defective soul. The soul has a defect. This is why you don't have to teach your children how to lie. You don't have to teach them how to be selfish.
You don't have to do that. The soul is defective because the spirit is dead. So if the soul is messed up, the body is going to function in a messed up way. The way it's supposed to work is that a living spirit is to inform the soul. So the communication with God is to inform the communication with self. When the communication with God informs the communication with self, the communication with self informs the body. So the body does what the soul says. The soul does what the spirit says. So the spirit says, soul, this is what we're going to do. as body.
This is what we're going to do. And all three of those are acting in harmony as development takes place. But because the spirit is dead and the soul is defective, the body does what it wants to do. And that's why you have to have management or discipline or laws or things to restrict the body from doing what the soul may want it to do. When you get converted, when you come to Jesus Christ and believe on Him for the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins, accepting Him as your personal sin-bearer, the seed of God, which is the Word of God, penetrates the spirit and the spirit becomes alive. It's quickened but it's quickened in seed form, meaning a conception occurs, not a full-grown human life manifested. It's a life, but it's a life having been conceived. It must grow for full manifestation, which the Bible calls maturity.
So it's got to develop. If the seed of the Word of God, which penetrates the spirit of the person, does not get developed, then the soul doesn't get the right information. When you, however, have the right environment, then the seed that's entered the spirit begins to expand in the soul. And you've heard me explain it before, it's like putting popcorn in a microwave. You would have never thought that that little tiny kernel of corn was holding all that soft stuff hostage. In fact, when it pops, you can't even find the outside anymore because the inside was holding so much at bay that when it was finally released in the right environment, it exploded out. What he's saying is when the seed is in the right environment and the seed is free to expand, it's like a baby growing in the womb of a mother.
It starts out, but then the cells begin to reproduce and the mother's belly gets bigger and bigger because the life is in an environment that allows it to expand and become fully manifested. And so he says the seed is the Word of God, but it's the condition of the soil, the condition of the soul that will determine the expansion into the life. We'll return with more from Dr. Evans on releasing the power of God's Word in just a moment. But first, I want to let you know that you can dig deeper into today's subject with the help of Tony's transformative paperback, One Kingdom Under God. It'll help you put what we're learning about God's truth to work as you begin to think differently about your life, your relationships, and your walk with God. Discover how to unleash real change, not just for yourself, but for the people you care about. Contact us today and let us send you a copy of One Kingdom Under God.
It's yours when you make a contribution to help us keep the alternative coming your way each day. Along with the book, you'll also get all twelve full-length messages in our current series, Unleashing the Kingdom. You can get the details of this limited time offer right now at tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans, we'll come back with more of today's message right after this. Impactful, amazing, intense, thought-provoking. That's how just a few students describe their experience since enrolling in the Tony Evans Training Center. The best part is the training center is wherever you and your online connection are. Going beyond a Sunday sermon, these compelling Bible study courses take a much deeper look at Scripture, the Bible's writers, social issues of today, and so much more. Log on today to learn more at tonyevanstraining.org.
tonyevanstraining.org. Explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere. He says the soul went out to sow and the first sum of the seed fell by the roadside, he says. It says birds came and picked it up and then when he described it, he says Satan comes and steals it.
In other words, he keeps it from reaching the destination in the first place. The second one said some of the seed fell on rocky soil. It says they received the word, verse 13, with joy and these having no firm root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation they fall away.
So we've gone from the roadside to now there's a lot of rocks in there. It says they fall away. These are Christians who have fallen away. They've given up on the faith. They've given up on God. They stopped coming to church because life is too hard and things are too rough and that's because there's no root.
Wasn't allowed to go deep enough, long enough to get rooted in the faith. They just wanted the fun of the faith. So they just wanted the joy. They just wanted to feel good.
They wanted the inspiration without the depth of a foundation. The next one, the seed which fell among the thorns, verse 14, these are the ones who have heard. So they they heard with the story and they go on their way. Benediction is given. Church is over.
They go on their way. They have stunted spiritual growth, not full spiritual development because they get choked by this world, by wealth and worldliness, where the physical becomes more important than the spiritual. Once the physical becomes more important than the spiritual, you are choking the spiritual and you can't breathe. The spiritual is not allowed to have its way because it's being strangled by wealth and world. If you let this world define you, its values dictate to you, then you will not have the expansion of the spirit operating in the soul that you're designed to have, not because there's a problem with the seed, but there's a deficiency with the soil. So a lot of us who are trying to change things are trying to change it merely by external, but without seed expansion, because when the seed expands, it'll begin to take over the soul and begin to shift things.
It comes to the fourth one. But the seed in good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word, in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance. Our souls get scrambled and based on the information you get, the school you went to, the parents you were raised with, the friends you have, the social media you on, the television you watch, all these things are out of sorts, and the more out of sorts it is, the more empty the soul is and unable to be what it was created to be. So that has to be sorted out, which the seed is designed to do, by the way. He said those who receive the word with a good and honest heart, which means you have to be honest with God.
You have to be willing to acknowledge where you and the seed disagree. Then he says and hold fast to it. In other words, don't hear it and drop it. Don't leave it sitting on the pew when you go to the car.
Hold fast to it. A mature Christian is a Christian who consistently allows the spiritual to inform the physical. You can really tell if a person is mature or maturing because they will regularly start with the spiritual and work it back to the physical, rather than start with the physical and work it to the spiritual, and that is mature. Now, we grow in that.
We don't all become adult Christians over time, but it should be progressive. And then he says, and the way you know you are maturing is you are changing. You will bear fruit to maturity.
You're not cussing like you used to cuss. Look, fruit has three characteristics. Three characteristics. One, fruit always bears the character of the tree of which it is a part. You won't find oranges on apple trees. You won't find apples on pear trees.
The character of the tree will determine the nature of the fruit. So when we are growing and maturing, we're becoming more Christ-like. Our character is changing. The fruit of the Spirit, things we couldn't control, we're now controlling better.
The addiction is declining. The identity is getting clarified because we are changing. Okay, you may not be at fault. You may not be at fault for the distortion. You may be a fault, but maybe you're not at fault. Maybe it was something done to you.
People get abused and misused and, you know, and so you get a distortion. So it may or may not be your fault, but the Word of God, once it expands, gets the distortion back in order so that it takes shape like it's supposed to take shape. And so as the expansion takes place, the character of Christ begins to expand in you because fruit always bears the character of the tree which is a part. Secondly, fruit is always visible. You've never seen invisible fruit. You know if it's an apple tree because you see the apples, okay? In other words, it becomes visible.
It's always visible. And thirdly, finally, fruit that is mature always exists for the benefit of another. The only fruit that consistently eats itself is rotten. Only rotten fruit eats itself. That means it's eating itself and you say, oh that's rotten. And only rotten Christians eat themselves. So when you hear Christians all talk about, you know, I've been blessed. I want God to bless me.
I want that. And all you're doing is eating and nobody wants to take a bite out of you. Nobody wants to follow you, imitate you, learn from you, grow through you, be enhanced by you.
That's because you're eating yourself. And when you self-devour, you're of no good to the kingdom. And one of the proofs of maturity, the author of Hebrews says, by this time you ought to be helping somebody else. You ought to be encouraging, ministering, serving, challenging, helping somebody else. And if you only come to church for you, you're not mature because fruit exists for the benefit of another. So the question on the floor as we close is, what kind of soil? Because the seed works.
Seed works. Now if you're in the terminal and you don't have a ticket, you're not going nowhere. And if you're here in church and you don't know Jesus, you're not going nowhere. You're just in the terminal. If you've accepted Christ, you have a ticket, which means you have a guaranteed seat on the flight to glory.
But that's also where the masses of the crowd are. Now if you don't want a middle seat and have folks sleeping all on you and crunching you in, I just want you to know Jesus is offering upgrades. He got some room in first class for all those who will allow the seed to expand in the soil for the transformation.
You determine the soil. God says the seed is fine. We'll return with a closing thought from Dr. Tony Evans in just a moment. Before we do though, I want to remind you that what you've been hearing is part of a sermon collection we've been premiering for the past couple of weeks called Unleashing the Kingdom. In case you missed any of these powerful lessons, the full-length versions of all 12 messages in the series are available for you to personally access or to share with a friend or family member. You can receive them for a limited time on CD or digital download as our gift when you make a contribution toward the alternative broadcast ministry. Along with the audio messages, as a way of saying thanks for making this ministry possible, we'll also include Tony's powerful paperback, One Kingdom Under God.
But this is a limited time deal that will be ending in just a couple of days, so don't wait. You can find all the details at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or get some in-person help from one of our resource team members when you call 1-800-800-3222. Feel free to call any time of the day or night.
That number again, 1-800-800-3222. We know that God has a wonderful message for mankind, but we sometimes forget that we're the ones who are supposed to deliver it. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will share what it means to represent God's kingdom. Right now, though, he's back with this final thought to close our program for today. In the Bible, Jesus showed love and kindness to everyone.
It didn't matter who they were. And when you have a personal relationship with Him, it changes you from the inside out. You start living out His teachings, being compassionate and spreading love. So if you've got a desire for kindness in yourself but have yet to make a personal connection with Jesus, there's no better time than right now to do it. You can begin your relationship with Him when you say this simple prayer with me.
Just make sure you mean these words for yourself. Heavenly Father, I believe in Jesus Christ, Your Son, who died and rose again for my sins. I invite Him into my life as my Savior and Lord. Wash away my sins and guide me according to Your loving will. I desire to be a light for You in a dark world, and I thank You for Your love and the gift of salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. you
