God Wants More Than Just Leftovers

Dr. Tony Evans challenges us to consider what we offer to God – is it gold, silver, and precious stones, or mere wood and stubble? Join him as he draws an analogy between our lives and a test by fire, highlighting the importance of our choices. Are you providing God with the best of your efforts or just leftovers?

When you and I stand at the job and see the Christ, he not just looking at our highlights.
The time we did something good here and did something there, good there, good there, good That’s all there.
That’s all gonna be entertained, but he’s looking at the whole program to decide what he can use because it has eternal value attached to it.
And so now you know why Paul said based on last week’s sermon that he says, I live to please him.
Suppose you went to a restaurant.
Nice restaurant. Bougie restaurant.
Expensive restaurant. Like, my kids better take me through today.
Like my kids better take me to the day.
And suppose you went to this expensive restaurant, and they brought you out leftovers.
They brought you out leftovers.
I think you would have an issue and still say you had to pay full price.
They bought you. First of all, they bought you our leftovers.
And the second thing is they still expect the same price.
That would be an insult to you.
That would be an insult to you because how can you charge me for leftovers?
How can Jesus have paid this higher price and we give him leftovers?
How can he giving us the gift of eternal life and we give him left over?
Left over time, leftover money, leftover attention, leftover faithfulness, leftover, leftover, leftover, leftover, god, forgot it left.
I got it for you, but thank you for the high price you pay.
We wouldn’t appreciate it. And neither does god appreciate giving up his son for leftover saints.
So he says, gold, silver, precious stone, that which is indestructible and valuable would end stubble that which is very destructible and has little or no value.
He tells you how this is gonna work.
He says, back in Ephesians, um, 1st Corinthians, chapter 3, He says, verse 13.
It will be revealed with fire.
The fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. Okay.
This is quality assurance. I will test. He will test the quality of each man.
Nobody’s an exception of each man’s work. The fire is the discerning eye of god’s judgment.
And the disney eye of god’s judgment will reveal what was legitimate, what was illegitimate, what was fake, what was real, what was acceptable, what was not.
And out of that judgment, it will determine what god can use because it had eternal value attached to it or what was useless.
You can go to your backyard today and find wood hay and stubble.
The limb from a tree that’s broken off, weeds that have grown up, things that have gotta be raped.
Even though your backyard, because it’s just there. It’s just there on top of the ground.
That’s not how you find gold silver and precious stone. You’re digging for that. Because that’s valuable.
That that that’s that’s not laying around. See, many Christians are satisfied.
With wood hands, stuff stuff that’s on the ground. They don’t have to do anything, but they don’t know.
It doesn’t take any effort to do that. But if you’re looking for something valuable, you’re gonna dig for that.
Because that that’s got some value to it.
We want valuable people in our lives.
We don’t want that you don’t wanna marry a wood hand stubble band.
You know, it’s just there. Just there. At least I’m here. Just bear.
A vice versa. I ain’t cooking. You cook. I ain’t cleaning you clean.
I ain’t helping you. You do it. You know? And you but at least I’m here. No.
That’s that’s wood hay and stubble. God says I’m more valuable than that.
You you you you are my son my son’s sacrifice is more valuable than that.
And so his discerning fire, his fiery eyes will analyze. And here’s what happens.
If a man’s work which he built on remains verse 14, he will receive a reward.
So he’s gonna reward that which he can use because it had an eternal value attached to it.
To the smallest thing, a cup of water, to the big things.
He says, you will receive a reward. We’ll talk about that beginning next week.
We’ll talk about what that what that means.
But then he says, if any man’s work is burned up in the fire of his judgment, He will suffer loss.
So his eyes, the fire of his eyes zeroes in, and he will suffer loss.
Two things. He’ll lose something he should have had.
She’ll lose something she should have had because you can’t have a loss unless you lost something.
So something you should have gotten, you won’t get, but you will also suffer loss.
Now this is the whole another point about a misgiving of heaven.
You’re gonna define out in one of the latest sermons that will be weeping and gnashing of teeth of Christians.
In heaven. Okay. Cause you suffer law. You know, you’re gonna feel the loss.
Just won’t be a loss that you have. It’ll be a loss that matters. Okay?
Boy, you got quiet in here. Just just quiet.
Lot, lot, um, lot was very successful businessman inside it. Very successful.
His name was known. He was living large.
Bible talked about all the cattle he had, all the land he had.
He had the stuff of this earth.
But when god came down and judge sodom and Gomara, Everything he had was burnt up, including losing his wife and 2 sons.
He got out, but everything he worked for Other than his 2 daughters, everything he worked for was lost.
And one of the reasons is he got too attached to Earth.
Now we live on Earth.
We we not we can’t be So spiritually minded, we’re no earthly good. We live on earth.
God is not against earth.
He’s not against you maximizing your potential but he wants it done in connection and in reference to the foundation.
He doesn’t want you building a building on no foundation or the wrong foundation.
He wants to be the foundation or the basis of life.
And so everything burnt up. He shall suffer loss.
The question is, what are you giving god that he can use on a daily basis in what you say, what you do, how you relate.
So the idea is that your tape is rolled, the fire of his discerning eye sets it a flame, and what is left is rewarded.
You ever seen a hamburger that started out this big?
And then you put it on the fire.
And it starts to burn the fat and the grease. And the hamburger starts to shrink.
You started here. You thought you were getting a half pounder.
And then they put it on the grill or the fire, and the stuff that’s not meat begins to be burned out of it, you thought the burger was gonna be the size of the bun.
Only to discover the bun is two times bigger than the burger once the fire was put to it.
Because that, which was useless, burned away.
We may stand before god with 20 years of being a Christian, but once he puts his fire to it, to determine what he can use that had eternal value it shrinks and shrinks and shrinks, and some suffer total loss.
Since Jonathan is in church, do they all use him as an illustration?
When he finished his 4th year of football at Baylor, we made a highlight tape.
With highlight tape. The highlight tape is a tape of all of his great plays when he was playing a full bag of ballots.
So it has his catches, his great blocks. It has it has, uh, uh, the great runs.
It has special team stuff. It has things He excelled in on this highlight tape.
This highlight tape went to a half to 2 thirds of the NFL teams.
They were very impressive.
The scouts came to Baylor, came to the table and asked to see the whole game.
We sent them the whole game.
We sent them highlights.
But they were not satisfied with highlights we wanted them to see.
They said we wanna see the whole game.
On one occasion, Baylor was playing Texas Tech.
We drove 8 hours to Lubbock, Texas, to watch Baylor play Texas tape.
In one of the plays, Jonathan was handed the ball.
On a straight dire play, as he broke through the line, he got hit twice.
And fumbled the ball. That was not on the highlight tape.
We send that nowhere.
But when the scouts came to look at the whole Texas tech game, they saw the whole picture.
When you and I stand at the jump and see the Christ, he not just looking at our highlights.
The time we did something good here and did something there, good there, good there, good.
That’s all there. That’s all gonna be entertained, but he’s looking at the whole program.
To decide what he can use because it has eternal value attached to it.
And so now you know why Paul said based on last week’s sermon that he says, I live to please him.
It’s my goal to please him. Now we’re not perfect people.
We flaw we we we fall short every day.
That’s why It is very important that we have a mindset that says when I get up in the morning, lord, today, my goal is to live in a way that pleases you.
But that is my goal. When I fall short, when I fail, I will acknowledge I’m not gonna skip it.
I’m gonna acknowledge it so I can get back to the goal of pleasing you now that I know it’s on tape.
Now I know the question for many of us is, but what about all in past tapes?
Does God erase him? No. The tapes are the tapes.
But the beautiful thing is you’ll see later on is that the grace of god, since he still left us here, will allow us to make new tapes.
And so we can make new tapes.
Can’t cancel old tapes, but we can make new tapes And if we can get enough time and enough effort to make new tapes, we can still have enough on that day to get a reward.
He says, but he shall be saved just as so by fire.
Justice, so by 5 means by the skin of his teeth means I’m not gonna take his salvation away.
Yeah. I am gonna take away his reward.