The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: I know many come to church to hear what the pastor will present in the sermon, what the choir will present in the songs. God comes to church to see what the saints are going to present to him.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says the thing God wants us most to present is ourselves.

Dr. Tony Evans: The password to your spiritual victory is the word surrender.

Guest (Male): This is The Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. When God calls his people to be givers, he's talking about much more than money.

Today, Dr. Evans begins a practical foundational series called Return on Investment, explaining what it really means to invest in the things that matter most to God. Let's listen.

Dr. Tony Evans: Many of you have on your phones or on your computers password restrictions. In other words, the only way you can get in all this stuff that's available to you is if you know the password. The password to your spiritual victory is the word surrender.

Romans 12:1 and 2 read as follows: Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Many folks here, I hope all the folks here have made the decision to trust Christ as your personal savior. You've decided to become a Christian. That's a decision. The problem today is many who have made decisions have not yet become disciples.

They've made a decision at some point in time to trust Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, but who've not gone on to become a follower of Christ as a disciple of Jesus Christ. And the difference between a decision-maker and a disciple is surrender. Surrender.

Paul says that what God is asking from you is to present your body. Now, anything God's going to do with you, to you, or for you, will involve you. It's your body, it's your hands, your feet, your nose, your eyes, your brain, your mind.

So when he says present your body, he is saying present your life. He says, I want God wants you to place you on the altar. The picture is of an Old Testament sacrifice, a lamb. They didn't put the head on the altar, they didn't just put the legs on the altar, they didn't just put the frame on the altar, they put the body on the altar, which meant the life was being placed on the altar.

All of the lamb was placed on the altar. In fact, when you look throughout scripture, you will find whenever God wanted to do something and he wanted to do something big, he required a sacrifice first. There had to be something present that demonstrated that you were one sincere and that two you were doing it based on God's standard. That's why he says holy.

God says he wants you to present you to him. He calls the presentation of you to him your worship service. If he doesn't get you, you haven't worshipped even if you're at church. He says your worship or your service of worship is in your presentation.

I know many come to church to hear what the pastor will present in the sermon, what the choir will present in the song. God comes to church to see what the saints are going to present to him. And without the presentation, he says there is no worship.

And therefore, what God is asking for is for you to surrender. That is to present yourself. Why? Why? Why is he asking for that? He says, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God.

I want you to surrender because of God's mercy. Those of you who have kids in college, college is expensive. And because of the high cost of college, you want them to take studying seriously. You don't want them playing around in college. That's too much money for play.

You want them to enjoy college, but you want them to surrender to study. You don't want the peripheral things to become the main things because the price is too high. God has paid a high price to get your surrender.

The surrender is referring to the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans. I'll give you a quick overview. Chapters 1 through 3, he talks about there's none righteous, no, not one. The whole world stands guilty before a holy God. At the end of chapter 3, he talks about but God has come up with a genius way to take sinful men and make them righteous before him by providing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

He says in chapter 4, you get that sacrifice by faith in the finished work of Christ. He says in chapter 5, not only do you get salvation, but you get all the benefits that come with salvation. He says in chapter 6 and 7, but there's still going to be a struggle because you're still living the flesh, and the flesh is going to want its own way. But then he says in chapter 8, God has given the Holy Spirit to override the flesh, so that the flesh doesn't have the last say-so in your life.

And he says this thing is so off the wall, off the charts. He says this thing is so big. Chapters 9 through 11, he's given you what he hasn't even given his people yet, Israel. Therefore, because there's a high price paid, I urge you, brethren. He says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, that is, set apart. Don't treat me as regular.

Now to do that, he goes to verse 2. He says, the first thing I want you to understand is you are not to be conformed to this world. What he's saying is, don't let the world squeeze you, pressure you, press you into what it wants you to look like. So when the Bible speaks about a world, don't let the world press you, he's not talking about a location per se, he's talking about a system that has a theme.

So what's the theme of this system? Worldliness means I'm operating independently of God. In other words, I leave God out of the equation. Satan's goal is to get his system to keep God out of the equation. He loves Sunday as long as God stays when you leave.

Because he's after a system that keeps God out of the equation. That's why it ticks him off when you are making God as a lifestyle the center of your equation and the sun of your solar system where the planets of your decision revolve around him. Do not be conformed, don't be pressured.

Now, why? First John chapter 2 says this, love not the world nor the things that are in the world. For if any man loves the world, watch this, watch this, watch this, the love of the Father is not in him. He says, if you want the world, you can have the world, but you can't have me and the world. You can't have both of us. You can love one, you can't love us.

He does not mean you lose your salvation if you're truly saved. He's saying, you lose your relationship with me, your fellowship with me. You lose intimacy with me. You won't sense my love, you won't sense my reality. One of the main reasons why we are so defeated so much is the world has too much of our attention.

He says there are only three things in the world by the way. He says the lust of the flesh, that's passion. He says lust of the eyes, that's possessions. And then he says the pride of life, that's position. The world wants to draw you in with its passions.

It wants to draw you in with its possessions and draw you in with its position. And ain't that what everybody's looking for? Pornography is off the chart because people want to satisfy their passion. People in debt that they can't deal with because the world has pressured them to own more possessions than they can afford. So they wind up spending money they don't have on things they don't need to impress people they don't know.

And they wind up with bills they can't pay. Because the commercials of the world have squeezed and pressured and told them, if you don't buy this, if you don't drive this, if you don't live here, if you don't wear that, you're not going to be in with the in crowd. You're not going to be recognized. Pride of life. You're not going to be liked, you're not going to be hip, you're not going to be on it.

And so we become pressed and squeezed and and then it destroys our relationships, it destroys our sanity. We hang out with people we shouldn't hang out with. We wind up dealing with stuff we shouldn't deal with because the world has told us we're nobody without it. And all the time pursuing the world, losing the love of God.

Losing the experience of his reality in our lives because we don't want to deal with the password.

Guest (Male): God wants us to unlock our spiritual victory and Dr. Evans will tell us more about that in a moment. First though, I'd like to tell you about two great resources we've paired together to help you dig deeper into what we'll be learning in the days ahead.

The first is an audio collection you can get on CD, USB flash drive, or digital download that contains all six full-length lessons from our current series, Return on Investment. But we're also including the study guide that goes with it. It's the perfect way to deepen your personal devotions or to share what you're learning with your Bible study or small group.

Best of all, for a limited time, you can get this Return on Investment study package as our thank you gift when you make a donation to support Tony's continuing work here on this station and others like it. This offer won't be available for long, so visit us right away at tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-832-2222 for details before time runs out.

I'll have our contact information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this.

Guest (Male): Picture yourself surrounded by crystal clear waters, warm Caribbean breezes, and a kind of quiet that allows you to hear from God in a fresh way. This February 28th through March 7th, you're invited to join Dr. Tony Evans and friends for a seven-day Caribbean cruise.

A journey of rest and renewal. You'll visit beautiful ports of call like Nassau in the Bahamas, to pristine shores of Grand Turk, and Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. Even stopping in a private island designed for pure relaxation. And in between, you'll enjoy peaceful days at sea. Perfect for reflection, fellowship, and rest.

Along the way, you'll experience powerful Bible teaching from Dr. Evans and other speakers, uplifting worship, and meaningful connection with a community that feels like family. If your soul needs refreshing and your spirit needs renewing, this is your invitation. Find out more and make your reservation today at tonyevans.org. That's tonyevans.org.

Dr. Tony Evans: Let's say you have a trainer and you go to him once a week. This is a trainer and he knows nutrition, he knows weightlifting. So you come to him and you get your workout on and you're sweating and and he says, okay, this is what I want you to eat, this is why we'll meet again next week.

So you had a good two-hour session with the trainer. Now, when you leave the training, okay, you drive through churches. You get your fried chicken and you get it. You know you, you get your slice of cake, you go through the grocery store, you get your bluebell ice cream. But you don't feel bad because you did your workout.

See, I, for two hours, I gave my workout. Now, I'm doing my thing. Not only did you do your workout, go do your thing, but you're going back to the trainer next week, same time, same place. When you leave the trainer, you cancel the training. Because what he said did not become the way you roll, be the way you operated, the way you moved. And because it did not become the way you moved, it became a wasted two hours.

So what we often do is come to church and waste two hours on a weekly basis. Because then we leave and let the world tell us what to do, how to do it, what to spend, how to spin it, who to hang out with, who not to hang out with. It begins to define us. And therefore, God keeps his distance.

While the world makes us feel like we've lost something if we don't follow its dictates. We've lost something, all right. We've lost something big. And that is the living love of God being experienced in our lives. Now that's the negative, but now he comes with the positive. He says, but be transformed, verse two, by the renewing of your mind.

He says, don't be conformed, but then he switches words. He moves from conformed to transformed. That's a different Greek word. The word transform is the word we get our English word metamorphosize. There's a big difference between the two words. Conform is outside pressure changing something. Transform is inside change changing something.

One is outside, the other comes from the inside out. Potter, outside in, butterfly, inside out. God is not asking for management, he's asking for transformation. And transformation occurs, he says, not from outside pressure, that's what the world does to conform us. He says it takes place with a change in your thinking.

He says, be transformed, watch this, in the renewing of your mind. If the mind does not change, the change does not occur. There must be a mental transformation that takes place if God is going to change you from the inside out. And how do you know it's a change, transform and not a management conform?

How do you know the difference if you could be doing it either way? How do you know the difference? Here's the difference, you want to. He changes your have to to a want to. He says, that means you must renew your mind. You must, you must operate on a different frame of reference.

And that means you must do a very simple thing that is a very hard thing. It's simple but it's hard. You must begin to develop one simple question and answer it. What's God's view on the matter? And you must ask it first. See, most people ask that after none of the other views have worked.

No, you be transformed by the renewing of your mind when you ask and answer the question, or find somebody to help you answer the question, what's God's viewpoint on the matter? Now you are renewing the mind when because when you ask it first, that means you're going to be asking it a lot. When you ask it last, you're only going to do it when you need it. But if you ask it first, you're going to be asking it all the time. So that means you're going to have to find out God's thinking on the matter, which you can't do apart from his word.

So, you're going to become renewed in your thinking. Now, let me tell you, let me warn you. Whenever you are in a changing process, adaptation becomes difficult. Becomes difficult because you're starting out. So, whenever you start out something you're not used to, working out.

The first time you go jogging, don't plan on running five miles. That's not going to happen. One block would be better suited. The first time you fast, don't fast for no whole week, eating nothing but water. Okay? You're not going to make it.

Because you have to adapt to this new reality because it's it's awkward at first. You're not used to going to God first, getting God's perspective for you. You're not used to it. And so, so the the carnal part of you is going to resist that. It's going to say it's too hard, it's too difficult. I don't know where to start. You're going to come up with all this. But when you develop the habit and you get used to it.

Your spiritual taste buds change. And you want the spiritual first. He says, renew the mind, say no to the world, yes to God's perspective, God's point of view, don't go back and forth, don't be double-minded. But that leads us to the final question. What's my motivation?

Because reality is, to change, you need motivation. You got to be motivated to do something different. Yeah, I'm supposed to. I may even want to, but what's my incentive? What what's what's really going to get me going on this thing? Well, God hasn't left you without an answer to what should motivate you to use the password of surrender.

Motivate me to use the password of surrender and us collectively to use, to become a surrendered church. He says at the end of verse two, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good, acceptable, and perfect. What's your motivation for doing this? Experiencing God's involvement in your life at a level you've never experienced it before.

What will it motivate you to say, you know what, I'm going to use this password because you get to experience the will of God, God's direction for your life, involvement in your life, plan for your life, governance of your life. You get to see God at work in you that you will never see or limitedly see if the world is your dictator and you are saying yes to it, you see God's will at work in your life.

So the question you have to ask is, do I want to see that? Because if you don't want to see it, you don't have to see it. The problem is we have too much static on the line. We're listening to so many views that even when the Holy Ghost is talking, we can't hear him because he's whispering and the world is screaming.

The world is screaming, the Holy Spirit is speaking still, soft voice. And we say, why won't God talk to me? He is talking. It's just the station you're listening to is screaming. He says, and you will see the will of God, the program of God, the plan of God, the the answers of God. Yes, there will still be challenges and problems, but you will see the movement of God, the frequency of God at work in your life.

You know, one of the thing that fascinates me. The birth of a child, both the conception, the birth, and the development of a child. I mean, I don't know how you cannot believe in God and see life. All of these idiosyncrasies that come together to bring out the reality of life and a person and a new being is just I don't I don't know how you can see life and not believe in God.

But another subtle thing that fascinates me is how the mother's milk knows when to flow. In other words, she has a she has all the component parts for milk are there. But it knows when it's time to flow. And it's time to flow when life has been birthed. That's how the will of God is. All the parts are there, but it can't flow until he sees the password.

When he sees the password, surrender, and you didn't punch in the password, like the mother's milk, it it knows it's time to flow. It's time to flow. God's work, God's will, God's involvement. And I love this because it says it's good. That milk tastes good. It's acceptable.

When he finishes doing whatever he's going to do, you're going to like what he did. And it's perfect. It cannot be improved upon. That's God's plan for your life. Why settle for second best if God is offering you first best?

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will return in a moment with a final illustration to wrap up today's message, which was called Giving to God. If you'd like to get the complete full-length version of this lesson, it's included as a part of Tony's Return on Investment series.

And as I mentioned earlier, we're offering all six messages with the companion study guide as our thank you gift when you support The Alternative with a financial contribution. Contact us at tonyevans.org for the details. Or call our resource request line at 1-800-832-2222. We have team members reachable around the clock, ready to help you. That's 1-800-832-2222.

And a quick reminder, in addition to these daily lessons from Dr. Evans on The Alternative broadcast, he also leads meaningful and timely discussions with special guests on his Unbound podcast. You can listen to those conversations whenever and wherever you hear your favorite podcasts. Stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, there are plenty of ways to invest. But not all investments are financial.

Tomorrow, Dr. Evans talks about the investment God wants us to make in ourselves and the kind of return he expects from it. Right now, he's back with his final story for today.

Dr. Tony Evans: A little girl went to her father one day and said, as we close, she said, Daddy, give me a nickel. Daddy reached in his pocket, he didn't have any change. So he said, I'll give her a dollar. She's been a good girl. So he opened up his wallet to give her a dollar, but he didn't have any ones. He only had a twenty.

He he thought to himself. He said, you know what? I'm going to give her a twenty. He said, Here, baby, it's a twenty. She said, no, Daddy, I want a nickel. Well, he knew she didn't understand. He said, girl, this is a bunch of nickels. She said, but, Daddy, why won't you give me a nickel? He went deeper. He said, let me tell you how many nickels are in a one, how many nickels are in a five, how many nickels are in a ten, how many nickels are in a twenty.

She started crying and screaming and, "You won't even give me a nickel!" That's what God's people do. We settle for a nickel when God offers us a twenty-dollar bill. God is saying, here's the twenty dollars of my love, here's the twenty dollars of my will. And we're crying about why won't he give me a nickel.