Godwin. Test our hunger for Him by asking us what we are willing to sacrifice. Dr. Tony Evans says our obedience to the Lord always leads to the blessing of deeper fellowship. I know the test is hard, but God will reward your passion in a way that's greater than your sacrifice.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Most of us think we're giving God our best when we sacrifice our time or treasure for Him. But are we holding back? Today, Dr.
Evans explains that we really won't know until we're tested, and that's when we discover the real price of spiritual passion. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 22 as Dr. Evans brings us today's message. The first principle I want to share with you is that God will test our hunger for him. By what we are willing to sacrifice.
It's one thing to say you're hungry for God. It's another thing. To be willing to sacrifice. Because you're that hungry. And there's only one way I know for you to know.
and validate that you are as hungry for God. as you say you are. The Bible calls it a test. The question about how hungry you are. will be tested.
Because you recall the passion. Of our lives must be for God and not merely his gifts. God does not mind giving out of his hand as long as what you want is his heart. He's not interested in being your genie in a bottle. He's not interested in being your Santa Claus.
He's not interested in being your cosmic bellhop. Which is what most people use him for. He's interested for people who are in pursuit. of him. It says in verse one: Now it came about after these things.
After what things?
Well, Abraham is coming out of a time of blessing. He is coming out of a time when At the tree at Beersheba in chapter 21, verses 33. He called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And he is having a wonderful time at the end of. Chapter 21.
After this period of blessing, God prepared a test. He said, Abraham, Abraham said. Here I am. Take now your son. Verse 2 says, And in case you missed it.
Your only son. Whom you love. Isaac. Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will tell you. Whoa.
You talk about a major exam. This is it. I want you to go to Mount Moriah and I want you to worship. And remember when you worship. You bring a sacrifice only this time.
I want the sacrifice to be your son. Your only son. And let me go a little bit further. Who knew? Love.
Many of us wouldn't mind God testing us. As long as the test didn't include... A one-of-a-kind request. The only thing we have. Whenever God gives you this kind of test.
The test That is going to take every bit of spiritual reserve you have to pass. It's because he is ready. to move you. to the next grade level.
Okay. It will always involve what you are willing to sacrifice. And it will be one of the most precious things in your life. God will test our hunger for Him. by asking us what we are willing to sacrifice.
And it will be something that you feel. The son whom you've loved. There's a second principle that comes out of this passage. In testing our hunger, he is trying our faith. In testing our hunger, he is trying our faith.
He says, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, go to the land of Moriah, offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.
Now, the problem with that request is that it doesn't make sense. It is not something that you can figure out. Why? Because God told Abraham, I am giving you a son, Isaac. And you will be the father of many nations through Isaac.
So we got a like what we might call a contradiction maybe How can Isaac be the father of many nations if you're now telling me to kill him? And he's not married yet. He has no children. In fact, he's just probably a mid to upper teenager by now. You're telling me to kill him when you said the promise is going to come through him.
It doesn't make sense. When you get your test. It may not make Sense. And the question in the test is always the same. Do you love me more than that thing?
So he takes the lads. His helpers, and he says, Stay with the donkey. I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship and return to you.
Now you gotta pay close attention to that verse. He tells his servants, now you stay at the base of the mountain. Me and the lad are going to walk up to the mountain and do what God says do. But then he says We will worship. And then we will return.
Somebody didn't hear that. We will worship. and worship for him and killing his son, and then we will return.
Now that's a statement of faith. God told me he's going to make of my son a great nation. God told me to kill my son.
Now, that's a contradiction. You can't make a great nation out of a dead man. I don't know what's going to happen up there. All I know is I'm going to church like he told me. And I'm going to let him worry about it.
So coming back did not start with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, sir. Abraham said, will be bark. In fact. Isaac has a question.
He says in verse 7, behold, daddy, there's the fire, the stuff to make the fire with. There's the wood. He had been the sacrifice with it before. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham says, God will provide for himself the lamb.
for the burnt offering, my son. Verse 10. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. He's walking up here, the mountain, and I'm sure he's saying, Okay, God, now I didn't obey you. I got up.
She got up early.
Now I done walked up here and now you supposed to come through before now. Because I know you don't really mean kill him. You just wanted to see if I was willing to kill him. And heaven is silent. Because the command was not wake up.
Nor was the command walk up the hill. The command was slay him. You say, I'm waiting for God to come through. He hadn't come through yet. You haven't finished the test.
The test was to slay him. Go all the way. It was in the context of worship. And it was in the context of worship when it hurt. Because remember, he loved his son.
Let me read verse 11. And the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, he said, here am I. Do not stretch out your hand against the lad. Do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son and Case you mifted your only son.
From Me. God sends us through tests. Even though he already knows. The outcome. For two reasons.
One Because those tests reveal to us where we stand. Those tests let us know whether we love him as much as we amend that we loved him in church. But the test is designed to see whether you really know it. Yeah. You know, and I hate it, I'm sure a lot of you like me, I hated pop quizzes.
Finals, you knew when they were coming. They were coming doing finals week. Pop quizzes could come anytime. But that still leaves a question unanswered. Why does God say now I know?
As though he didn't know it before.
Now watch this now, because I know I'm going to mess with some of your theology here. God is omniscient, so therefore he knows all things actually. You can give him no new information. He knows all things factually. But God does not know all things experientially.
Let me say that again, Ned, because I see some of you getting a little nervous. God knows all things factually. In other words, He knows what you're going to do, how you're going to do it. He knows all the data like a computer because he is omniscient. He knows all things factually, but what God does not know is all things experientially, which is why he had to become a man.
Right, right, right. Because you can't kill a spirit, a spirit doesn't get hungry, a spirit doesn't thirst, you can't do that to a spirit. But when God became a man, He could experience What men experience Because now he has flesh and blood, so he can now experience it. God knows all things actually and factually, but not all things experientially.
Now watch this now. But he He loves the experience. I'm going somewhere. God knows everything. Yeah, God knows.
But what he wants to do is not only know, but feel. He wants to enter into the experience, and that is historical. That happened in time because he wants to enter into the experience with us. And the only way he enters into that experience is when we. Allow him The opportunity to experience it with us, which can only happen in history because that's the only place we're located.
When Dr. Evans returns in just a moment, We'll hear about the power of praise under pressure. First, though, if you've ever found yourself wondering why faith sometimes costs so much, Well, Tony's current series, Soul Starved, Journey to the Source, will give you a whole new perspective. You'll discover how God uses spiritual hunger to draw you closer to Him, deepening your dependence and igniting your faith. You can get all 12 full-length messages, including several we won't have time to air, on CD or USB flash drive.
as well as by digital download. And as an added bonus, we'll also include Tony's powerful book, God Himself. A deep dive into the character and attributes of our Creator. It'll open your eyes to who God truly is and to who He's calling you to become. This package is yours with our thanks for your contribution toward the Alternative Ministry.
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We'll get back to the second part of today's lesson after this special word from Tony. Let me start off by thanking all of our friends for how you've walked with us and stood by us all year long. We felt your prayers, and they've made a difference in the lives of people that we've had the privilege of ministering to. And as we anticipate the new year, we want to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the building of strong, biblically based families, for strengthening churches so that they're able to do the work of kingdom building God has called them to do. and for speaking into the culture.
This culture needs to hear a word from God and a word that works and that's what we're committed to do. Stand with us with your generosity and your prayers because you know this word, a word that the world desperately needs today. Visit tonyevans.org to give. That's tonyevans.org. God loves the praises of his people.
Now Does God need the praises of his people? No. No, no, no, he was doing fine long before we got here. No, and let me tell you why he doesn't need our praises because. If you don't praise him.
He will praise himself. And you can't praise God like God can praise God. Because his praise of himself would be Perfect praise. The reason why he wants us to praise him is he enjoys it. He enjoy he inhabits it.
He enjoys it so much. God loves the experience. of being first. Not only the vocabulary of being told he's first. He loves it so much.
that he creates scenarios. for you to make him first.
So he can get that feeling.
So he can have that feeling of being first at the same time letting you know whether he indeed is first.
Now I know he enjoys the experience. That's why, that's why, no, no. And God said, let there be light. Fool.
Now, he already knows what light is like. He's God.
So why create it if you already know it? Because he wanted the experience of it.
So let them be like, boom, and then he looks at us and say, boy, you're good. That is so good. He said, well, come on, let me, I like this stuff. Let me throw a light out there that will rule the day. Bang.
Son. Let me throw some lights out there that will rule the night. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Stars. And he looked out and he said, And that was good.
And God looks back and says, You're good. Good Lord, you're good. It was good. And then he created man and then he said, now boy, you real good. He looked out and said that all that he had done.
Well it's good. You see. If it's just knowing it, he would not have to do it because... He already knows it. It is the doing of it.
that he enters into the experience of it. And he loves that experience. God wants to experience you. He doesn't want facts. Only He wants the experience of those facts.
That's why he gives us the Holy Spirit. The job of the Holy Spirit is to take the facts of the Bible. And turn them into the experience of your life. That's what the Holy Ghost does. It's not supposed to be facts alone.
Finally, the final principle. is that God will reward your passion for him. in a way that is greater than your sacrifice. I hope you're here. I know the test is hard, but God will reward your passion in a way.
That's greater than your sacrifice.
Now, watch this. He takes up his knife to slay his son. And as the knife is about to plunge in Isaac's chest. The angel of the Lord comes and says, just a minute. I got my experience.
Because now I know. Oh, and it feels so good.
Now I know. I know that you love me now. because you were willing to sacrifice your own. I've got that experience.
Now watch this now. I'm gonna throw a curveball at you. According to Hebrews 11, He fought. Sh God was going to raise him from the dead.
Somebody didn't hear that. According to Hebrews 11, Abraham thought. God was going to raise him from the dead. But he was wrong. Yeah.
He was expecting a resurrection. But got an intervention.
Some somebody somebody somebody hit it. He was looking over here. And God came over there. I don't know how your breakthrough gonna come. You may think God is going to come down the center aisle and he may not be on the property.
I don't know how God's going to come. All I know is if you have sacrificial worship. And you come into his presence and give him the experience of your passion and the experience of your love that what he does will be greater than what you think you gave up. Because the text goes on to say. That not only that, but it says caught in the thicket.
When he raised his eyes, verse 13, and he looked, there was a ram caught in the thicket. How long had that ram been in that thicket? I don't know, but it was sure quiet. He didn't see that ram. And when rams get caught in the thicket, they move, they twist, they tear.
I don't know how that was, but God had a ram right there. To cover it up. To put it another way, when God gets ready to move, your answer is right in front of you and may have been there all the time, just real quiet, till you pass the test. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered up the ram for a burnt offering in place of his son. And the text says, the angel of the Lord called Abraham.
And said in verse 17, I will greatly bless you. I will multiply your seed by the stars of the heaven, like the sands of the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. He passed the test with flying honors. He's in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, and he renamed the place Jehovah Jireh.
The Lord will provide.
Now, I know your question. How is he going to provide? I don't have the slightest idea. When is he going to provide? I don't have the slightest idea.
What way is he going to use it? I wish I could help you, but he has not consulted me. He has not consulted me. And if you come talk to me, I'm going to have absolutely no answers for your trial. But one thing I can tell you: have you been to the altar?
With sacrifice. He remembered the place. When it gives you your breakthrough, rename it. He remembered the place and God remembered him.
Sooner or later, God's going to ask everybody in this building to take a knife to something. Could be financial because you've been robbing God financially. And he's going to ask you to trust him. It could be relationally. I don't know what it will be for you, but he's going to ask you, are you willing to kill it?
Do you love me enough? To kill it. Ass jokes. Job had a test. He lost everything that he had, but the Bible says he built an altar.
And with pain and sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, with his whole life upside down, toxy-turvy, it said he worshiped and God showed up in the whirlwind. And the Bible says that at the end of his life, after sacrificial worship, Job had more at the end than he had at the beginning. Ask Paul and Silas at the midnight hour. When they were in the jailhouse and all hell broke loose, the Bible said instead of fussing, instead of cussing, they went and sang unto the Lord. They went and worshiped unto the Lord.
And the Bible says, and the earth shook. And God threw open the cells. And instead of it being a death sentence, it became an evangelistic service. And God changed the Philippian jailer. What I'm trying to tell you today is don't run from your test because he'll retest.
Pass your test.
so that you can experience God in every level because his blessing is greater than your test. Yeah. Dr. Tony Evans with advice on how to ace the spiritual tests we face in life. If you've realized you've been running on spiritual empty and aren't up to the test, There's hope.
You can return to the source. Doctor Evans' book God Himself. will guide you toward a deeper encounter with the one your soul was made to know. It's more than theology. It's an invitation to personal transformation through a closer walk with Him.
You can receive your copy when you make a donation to support the alternative. And when you do, we'll say thanks by not only sending you this powerful book, but But also by including all 12 full-length messages from Tony's current series called Soul Starve, Journey to the Source. including four complete messages we won't have time to present on the air. To take advantage of this special offer, just visit TonyEvans.org. where you'll find all the details right on the home page.
Or call 1-800-800-3222. Either way, with your donation and request, We'll send you this powerful package right away. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. When life feels like a daily struggle, it's easy to wonder when God will step in. On Monday, Dr.
Evans explains why his timing isn't always ours. and how we can trust him in the meantime. Make sure to join us.
