God Is Calling Us to Return to Him Through Scripture | Tony Evans Sermon

Dr. Tony Evans discusses how Scripture, inspired by God, is a living, active document that is sufficient for all aspects of life, providing wisdom and guidance. When we begin to neglect the Word of God, it leads to a spiritual famine and chaos in culture.

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

Food always bears the character of the tree of which it is a part.
You won’t find apples on orange trees. You won’t find oranges on apple tree.
So the way you know you’re bearing fruit is you’re looking more like Jesus this year than you did last year.
Your actions and actions are more consistently in line, but how he would act and react because your character is a fruit of history.
We live in a day when canceled culture has canceled god’s truth.
Not understanding that when you cancel god’s word, god’s word cancels you.
And Amos chapter 8, the prophet tells him that there was a famine in the land.
He says there is this famine in the land in verses 1112.
He says, and it is a famine of god’s word.
And because there was a famine in the land, there was chaos in the culture.
So I wanna talk to us today about returning to him through scripture.
Through the truth of the Bible.
Paul puts it this way in 2nd Timothy 3.
He says, Beginning in verse 13, evil men and impostives are gonna proceed from bad to worse.
Deceiving and being deceived, but you continuing the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from a childhood, which is why you need to make sure your children know the word of god from childhood, you have known the sacred writings, the scriptures, which were able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ.
As a child, you were introduced to the Bible so that you could make better decisions in your life.
Why? Why make a big deal about the Bible, about scripture?
He tells us in verse 16, all scripture is inspired by god.
All scripture is inspired by god. We start off with revelation.
Revelation means divine disclosure. Revelation is what he discloses.
Inspiration is the record of that disclosure. And that is in scripture.
So god reveals revelation. Men record inspiration leading to canonization.
Cannonization is that process where god leads people to eye identify what was inspired that had been revealed.
So there is revelation where god discloses inspiration, how it is recorded, Then there is canonization, how it is recognized, uh, leading to Illumination, how it is understood and applied.
When revelation that has been recorded in inspiration based on what has been penalized and canonization becomes your illumination, then you and I can experience transformation.
All scripture is inspired by god.
The Greek word, Theo Nutsos means to be breathed out to exhale.
Scripture is the exhaling of god.
It is not merely information about god. It is the voice of god in print.
Proverbs 30 verse 5 and 6 says every word of god has been tested do not add to it unless you’ll be shown to be a liar.
Romans chapter 3 verse 4. Let god be true and every man, Alaia.
John chapter 10, verse 35, the scripture cannot be broken, meaning canceled.
You can cancel god. God can cancel you.
So to reject the word of god is to hurt you, not hurt god or his word, because every word is true.
If the Bible is not true, Jesus is a fake.
Because it was Jesus who said in matthew 518 that every jot and tittle, which are the 2 smallest elements of the Hebrew vocabulary.
Every jot and tittle of god’s word will be accomplished in infinitesimal detail.
And that is revealed in scripture. All scripture.
Not only that, but scripture is alive. He was 4, 12, 13.
The word of god is alive and active, and it is a scalpel, he says.
Shopper than any 2 edged sword piercing beneath the external into the soul and the spirit, the bone and the marrow, it will turn you inside out.
It’s so sharp. It is alive. It is a living, a live document.
Because it is the exhaling of god, the voice of god in print.
He says all scripture is inspired of god.
And is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness so that the man woman of god may be adequately equipped for every good work.
What he’s telling you is that the scripture is sufficient.
For life, for decision making, for choices, for guidance, for governance, The scripture is sufficient for you as an individual.
It’s sufficient for you and your family is sufficient for this church and every church.
It is sufficient for the culture.
You’ve often heard me say, if you came to me personally, your life was falling apart.
I take the Bible. I would give you what god says, give you practical ways to implement it, pray the Holy Spirit empowered your obedience for the transformation of your circumstance if you brought your family.
I take the same Bible, do the same thing if you brought the church, because the church was in disarray.
I take the Bible and do the same thing. If you brought Congress, I wouldn’t change books.
A lot about talk about race and politics, folk change books.
They go back to other documents and other things, whether or not it agrees or disagrees with the word of god.
We we change books. The Bible says, you do nullify the word of god with your traditions.
You cancel its benefit to you. You don’t cancel it out. You cancel its benefit.
So you can actually cancel the benefit of the Bible to you by not treating it like it is.
Jesus said in Matthew, 44, man shall not live by bread alone, by what he takes in physically, but by every word, all scripture, every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god.
Inspiration, revelation that is inspired. Every word because the devil is not allergic to your word.
He’s allergic to his word. So every time Satan hears you say, well, I think you say, I got you.
I got you. Because if what you said said, And what you just thought disagrees with god, you have invited the devil to deceive you because god can’t be wrong on any subject.
Because he is perfect.
As the second half of Psalm 19 says, the word of god is pure.
It says flawless. He says the word of god is sufficient for every good work, everything you ought to do.
Every decision you have to make. So the Bible is God’s word.
It is. We use this theological term in errant.
That is it is without error.
When it was given to men, our job is to read it, understand it, and apply it.
But not challenge it because its offer is perfect.
So god is insulted.
He pronounces a blessing on the 1, I believe it is Isaiah 662, uh, he pronounce the blessing on the one who trembles at his word.
That is he wants you to approach the Bible like this because it’s It’s soul.
It has the life of god.
It has god’s presence, he says, to the one who trembles at my You’re really shaken because you’re in his presence, and he’s getting ready to talk.
To return to god means to return the scripture.
So the next question then is, how does this work and maybe you’re sitting here and you’re saying, well, it hasn’t worked for me.
Hasn’t done what you just described? For me.
Luke Eight tells a story.
About a sower who went out to sow. A farmer is planting seeds.
And he talks about the seeds that the farmer planted fell on different soils.
So Jesus, the great storyteller that he that he is tells this story, and he tells him, I’m talking to you about the kingdom, he says.
And I’m gonna talk to you about the kingdom and how the word works with the kingdom.
And the kingdom is the rule of god.
So he tells them this story And when he tells a mystery, verse 10, he says to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of god, but to the rest of it, it is imperables so that seeing they may not see and hearing, they may not understand.
Now let me let me just pause there.
He says, I told you this story, talking to his disciples, I told you the his story, uh, so that you can learn the mystery of the kingdom.
So that you’ll understand something that the general public won’t know.
So he says, I want you to understand. Because you belong to my people.
I want you to get the benefit of this.
So he tells this story, and he says, now the parable is this.
The seed is the word of god. The word of god comes to you in seed form.
1st, Peter chapter 1.
Versus 23 to 25 talks about the word of god has the DNA in it of god, but it comes in seed form.
Some of the seed fell by the roadside, he says, just fell by the roadside, and the devil comes and takes it away the word before it gets to their heart.
So Satan is the original abortionist.
He wants to take away the seed of life.
Some fellow on rocky soil, Those they heard it, they received it with joy during the time of testing they fall away because it didn’t get rooted.
It calls that rocky soil.
He says, then they’re the c verse 14 that fell among thorns.
These are the ones who have heard They go on their way.
They are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity.
So these are the choke seeds. These are the secular Christians.
They get so involved with their education, so involved with their profession, so involved with making money.
They become worldly saints. Verse 15, but the seed and the good soil.
These are the ones who have heard the word And in an honest and good heart, hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance.
He says these are the mature seeds.
And you know their mature seeds because of their fruit bearing.
They bear fruit, not not little tiny fruit, full fruit.
Fruit has to do with the productivity of your life. K.
If you’re a fruit, for 33 things that happen with fruit.
Number 1, fruit always bears the character of the tree of which it is a part.
The second aspect of fruit is fruit is always visible.
You’ve never seen invisible fruit. You know what kind of tree it is?
Could you see what kind of fruit it is even if you’re not familiar with the with the bark of the tree?
You can see the fruit. No. That’s an orange tree apple tree. Because it’s visible.
So fruit is reflects the characters transipine. It’s visible. It’s beneficial.
The only fruit that eats itself is rotten fruit.
If fruit is eating itself is rotten, fruit is always designed for somebody else to eat it.
So who is taking a bite out of your life?
Who’s wanting to be like you, follow you?
Who’s wanting you to disciple them Who are you benefiting in the name of Christ?
If you are only benefiting you, you are an immature Christian.
If you wanna be served, but can never serve.
If you wanna be helped, but you can never be a helper. And you’re not beneficial.
You’re just a fruit hanging out, eating yourself. And if you are a selfish fruit, you will self destruct.
He says, but to the fruit, fruit that goes to maturity.
Well, well, how did I get there? I want to be there.
How do I get there? Well, there was nothing wrong with the seed.
The problem was always with the soil.
Oh, if god’s word isn’t working, he doesn’t have good soil to work with.
Yes. If god’s word is not working, if it’s not doing any you to you through you, for you, buy you from you, what it says it can do because it is the life and DNA of god that is either no soil, rocky soil, or chokes.
Soil, not good soil. It is the soil of the life that determines the benefit of the seed.
So that raises the question. How do you get better soil since there’s nothing wrong with the seed?
Right. Yes. I’m wrong with the seed. It comes in seed form.
That means it’s gotta grow, but it needs the right environment in which to grow.
So we got a perfect seed, but we have imperfect soil, but we wanna be better soil so that we can grow to maturity.
Question is, help me do that. James chapter 1.
This will give you a sense of What you need to do to get the word to work.
Verse 19 of James 1, this, you know, my beloved brethren fellow Christians.
Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
Quick to hear what god thinks, slow to say what you think, and don’t get mad when what god thinks and what you think are the same.
Because god’s way will kick you off, and your soul will throw a temper tantrum.
So I’m a tell you that now.
When you start with god, your soul is going to have issues because it’s not how you erase.
It’s not what you think. It’s not how you feel. It’s not what you want. You know?
And so your soul is going, no. No.
For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god.
For getting mad of god, it hadn’t gone change nothing. Not gonna change the thing.
Because he’s not gonna change his word to make you happy or to make me happy or to make us happy or to make the word happy.
Therefore, In light of this, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility, receive the word implanted which is able to save If you want the soil to be made right to receive the seed, we must be willing to address sin.
God won’t do his work if you’re unwilling to get a colonoscopy.
He said filthiness.
If you are unwilling for him to address sin, we have to we have it there because he says it’s there.
But you must be willing to address it because he won’t do his work If you are refusing, that’s different than struggling, refusing to address sin.
He says, All that remains of wickedness, any humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your soul.
But guess what? He’s not talking about going to heaven because he says my beloved brethren.
These people are already going to heaven.
When you accepted Jesus Christ, your soul didn’t get saved. Your spirit got saved.
Your soul still needed to be saved. Okay? Let’s let’s let’s break down. 1st, thessalonians 523.
You you are made of 3 parts. Body, soul, and spirit.
Your body enables you to communicate with the physical world. Through your 5 senses.
Your soul is your self life, your personhood, your personality. That’s your soul.
Your soul enables you to communicate with yourself.
The reason you know you’re alive, the reason you know you’re sitting here, It’s not that you have a body, because a dead person has a body, but nothing can happen because they no longer have a soul.
Your soul is your self life. That’s the real you as your soul.
The body is the frame for this physical world.
So you have a soul Then you have a spirit.
We’re born with our spirits separated from god.
The Bible says, the spirit is designed to communicate with god.
The body, your environment, the soul, yourself, the spirit with god.
The spirit is perfect. It’s the seed. It’s perfection. The seed is god.
There is no flaw in the spirit, but the soul is distorted.
The self life. Everybody’s soul in here is distorted.
So we destroyed it. Okay. We got we destroyed it. All of us, to varying degrees.
He said, the word implanted, which is able to save rescue, deliver your distorted soul.
So the way life is supposed to work is your spirit is supposed to inform your soul your soul is supposed to inform your body.
So your body does what the soul says, but if you gotta distorted soul, you’re gonna do wrong things with your body.
So to fix your body, you need to improve your soul.
But the tool to improve your soul is the spirit, and the spirit operates on the seed That’s why the spirit of god is called the spirit of truth because the spirit will only use god’s truth to address your soul.
So once you leave god’s truth, the tool for your soul has been disregarded.
He says, receive the word implanted.
Notice an e d on the word implanted. Not in plant implanted.
When you accepted Christ, the spirit is waiting for the word.
The seed of the spirit is waiting for the word like a seed and farming is waiting for water.
When it sees that you are taking in the word, the seed absorbs it.
When the seed absorbs the word, it expands in the soul like the Popcorn span, you would have never thought the popcorn was holding all that soft stuff hostage.
You know, this big big ball comes out out of this little sea because it was being held hostage.
What we’re doing is holding god hostage. Because we’re keeping him in seed form.
He says, you must receive.
I love the way, 1st thessalonians 2 verse 13 says, He says, you believed the word, and you received it so that it could perform its work.
So he can do what it was meant to do.
And trust me, the seed will not perform his work if you’re eating cultural doughnuts.
It may taste good, but it has no nutritional value.
If you’re just buying what social media says, what the culture says, all that, it will be of no benefit.
He says Prove yourselves to be doers of the word and not merely heroes who delude themselves.
Okay? How do you know if you’re receiving the word?
Not just believing what it says, but embracing it and welcoming it.
He says, you know, you have received it when it affects your action, doer of the word.
When you act on it, even if you don’t feel it, even if you don’t emote with it, but you act on it, you are now a Doer of the word.
Verse 23. For if anyone of the hear of the word, not a doer, he’d like the man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was, but the one who looks intently at the perfect law because it’s perfect.
The law of liberty that set you free and hangs out in and abides in it, not having become a forgetful hero here in the sermon and leaving But an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
He says to the 1 who hangs out in the word. They don’t just come in here sermon.
They get the study guy. They look at the scriptures. They they wanna spend time with god.
They wanna hear what god has to say.
They talk to people who’re gonna give them god’s perspective to my challenge today is Let’s return to his word as a way of life and a lifestyle, not a Sunday event alone.
Let’s return to god through his