They're evaluated! Did we build our kingdom, or did we build His? Did we do our own thing, and use the things of God to help us get ahead; or do we genuinely and authentically, because we love Him, desire to do something?
He says that there are different types of materials that you can use - temporal and eternal; and it says: “the Lord will try every man's work” - what sort it is. The word ‘try’ means literally, “to put it to the test, to see its quality” - like on a manufacturing line, they'll take a sample out, and they'll test it. Now they're not testing it to destroy it. They're testing it to see whether it meets the manufacturer's requirements, so it can go on to then be sold. In this situation, He says: He will try our works, or look at the quality of what we have done.
We can fool people, but we can't fool what God sees. God sees!
Hebrews 4:13 - “There is no creature, or no person, hidden from His sight; but everything is naked and open to the eyes of Him, before whom we give account.”
Everything - God sees everything! He doesn't just see what you do, He even sees why you're doing it, and what you're thinking as you do it. All of it is open before Him, which is quite extraordinary, isn't it? Then that causes you to start to rethink then - actually, my life is under observation all the time. It is a motivation then to challenge our thoughts, challenge why we're doing things, and so on. It says: “the fire will test the quality of every man's sort”.
Here's another scripture in 1 Corinthians 4:5 - “Don't judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels (or motivations) of people's hearts.”
That's when people will receive praise from God - 1 Corinthians 4:5. So He says: when we look at what people do, and how they behave, we really don't know what's going on. You don't know why they do what they do. You don't know what's going on in their heart. Sometimes actions which hurt us are not intentional at all. They may come from a person who's just got something else going on in their life. But the Bible says that when the Lord comes, He will bring out to light everything that's hidden, even the motivations of the heart. People who have got away with a lot of stuff - you can't get away with it before Him. He sees it all!
He sees why we did it; sees if there was a hidden agenda, a hidden motive, or so on. Notice then, the quality of what we're doing is based on our heart - which is why it is important to have heart healing and heart development. Everything flows from the heart. Jesus' interest and focus was on the heart. The Bible says: “out of the heart, flow the boundaries (or borders) of our life”.
What God will be looking for is: is there a love for Jesus burning in our life? Are we on fire for the Lord, and do we love Him? Has the Holy Spirit inspired us; or have we been willing to surrender our works to the Lord, so we're doing the things He calls us to do? The works could be burned up; and the ones who are ‘burned up’ are self-centred. There's pride, there's ambition, there's self-promotion - and you see heaps of that around, with so many people.
They may look good now; but will they look so good when He comes, when He puts the light on it? You will see that most of what was done - it looked great before men; but from God's eyes, He sees it was done out of pride, and self-promotion. It's all about them! Our works can be burned up, if they're motivated by pride, and self-ambition, and promotion; but our works can also pass the test, and then we receive reward. Our works pass the test if He looks into our heart and sees: actually, there's a motivation of love, genuine love; not trying to get something back, is what motivates us - and whether we've been responsive, and obedient, to what the Holy Spirit said to do.
You can be busy doing a whole heap of things, but they may not be what God called you to do. They're all just your own stuff. He can tell the difference between the two! That's why He calls us, really - #1, to have a love for the Lord, and love for people; and #2, to be surrendered to what He wants us to do.