The Gift Of Significance – Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Feeling like we're significant drives all of us to do what we do. We're learning that we can matter to God through worship, and we can matter to our local churches through service. Today, a further look at a third gift we can't live without.

Please stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, is it okay to wish for a wider significance than we currently feel we have? You know, Dave, that's an excellent question, and I think it takes a very thoughtful answer. Because on the one hand, we certainly don't want to ask for significance just for our own glory and for our own pride. But on the other hand, we can also pray that God will bless us. I'm reminded, for example, of the prayer of Jabez. He prayed that God would bless him, God would enlarge his coast, and God granted his request. So the question we always have to ask is, are we asking for ourselves, or are we asking for the glory of God?

That's really the question. And speaking about significance, we can even have significance in whatever we do, the Bible says. Do it all for the glory of God, even the most menial task.

So significance is not so much in terms of what we do, but who we do it for. I want to thank the many of you who support the Ministry of Running to Win. I have some very good news, because of people just like you, we are now in more than 50 countries in five different languages being heard on radio. And we are so deeply grateful because you are our partners. I'm holding in my hands a letter that comes to us from East Africa. Thank you so much for encouraging us, and thank you for your inspiring messages on Running to Win. God has ministered to me through your program every day.

We receive letters like this all the time. Let me ask you a question. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Even as we're thinking about the beginning of this new year, you've been considering where you are going to be giving your gifts.

Would you consider running to win? Here's what you can do. Go to endurancepartners.org, endurancepartners.org. And what you will find there is information as to how you can become an endurance partner, someone who gives regularly to this ministry, and you bless us, you enable us to even project our own budgets because of your faithfulness, or of course you may want to make a one-time gift.

But go to endurancepartners.org, and thank you in advance for helping us. And now we go to the pulpit of the Moody Church. Well, there's a second passage that we need to turn to, and that is the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. This is kind of a traipse through the scriptures today, but the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. Now you'll notice that there's so much that could be said in every text.

I have to be careful about that, by the way. A pastor began by saying, you know, there's just so much in this text, I don't know where to begin. And it was a small church, and someone in the back shouted, please begin somewhere near the end. But I'm plunging right into the middle of this text.

This is what it says. It's talking about maturity, Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 14 and following, that we're not blown away by every wind of doctrine. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together, I love this, by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. What Paul is saying is that every joint, now we have to interpret that word for some young people, no doubt. We're talking here about a body.

Some of us who belong to an older generation, you know, we sometimes get into problems here. What Paul is saying is that within the body, every single person, every single person matters. And what you're doing is you are building yourselves up together by community, by sharing a similar life. You are building yourselves up together and strengthening the body in love.

That's what's happening. There's room for everyone. Now, there's some people who say I believe in the invisible church. I don't join a church.

I have no special loyalty to a church. If it gets boring, I move down the street because I belong to the invisible church, they say. And so I've noticed that for people like that, when the offering baskets are passed, they put invisible money into it because they belong to the invisible church. But mind you, when something good is going on, they want some very visible ministries. You know, we've been emphasizing name tags because we're serious about community. And Pastor Hertzberg has been riding that horse for a little while and we have to commend him because it is more successful than we thought it would be. We said everyone who believes that this is your church home, you can sign up. We've had three times as many name tags, people desiring name tags as I personally believed we would have, at least three times as many.

So that's wonderful. But one of the things we've discovered is that as we try to track these people and find out who they are, we have no record of them. They've not volunteered. They've not given. They've not participated in any small group.

They're not a part of the ADF structure so far. And so we're just saying, who in the world are you folks? And how about joining us and joining hands with us and making a huge difference together in the city of Chicago?

How about doing that? We believe in the invisible church, the universal body, but in the New Testament, nobody just belonged to the invisible church. Everyone belonged to something that was very, very visible. Now, what this means is that every part of the body functions and it functions together because what we need is we need you. I can't imagine that God raised up ministries and then supplied no members of the body to be able to serve it. In our children's ministry here, we could use between 25 and 35 children's workers. That's how great the need is. Now, it is true that to work with children, you do need to be a member and to teach. You need to be a member of Moody Church. And that's part of our policy that has to do with all kinds of legal implications as well.

And we track that and we're very serious about that. But there are many ministries for which, of course, you don't have to be a member. To be a greeter, to be an usher, to work with a parking committee.

There's just a dozen different things that you can do without being a member, but some things you have to be a member for. But folks, is God playing a game with us? He's giving us a brand new building, the second floor, devoted to children. And we expect to see a great increase in young couples and children in our ministry. And he has not raised up those who are going to support this ministry.

I don't think so. So can we join hands together and say that we're going to make a difference in the lives of these children and children's children, even at great personal sacrifice? Can I hear you say yes to that today?

Now, third passage. You matter to God. You matter to us. You matter to the body. You matter. If you leave here today and somebody asks you, what did Pastor Lutzer preach on? And you don't remember that he told you that you mattered.

I come up later and we'll try to work with you. All right. We should not use the sanctuary for an adult nursery.

That would be a bad thing to do. Third passage. You matter to others. And this passage alone is worthy of an entire message.

And it's going to come one of these days. But quickly, Second Corinthians, Second Corinthians chapter four, verse four. We often emphasize First Corinthians because it's the book where Paul is dealing with problems within the church. But if you ever want to be blessed, you say, I don't know what passage to read to be blessed. Read through Second Corinthians.

It's Paul sharing his heart. It's the it's the riches of the Christian faith. Chapter four, Second Corinthians, verse four, verse three. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

And then Paul goes on and lists all of his afflictions for which God grants him grace, the treasure in the earthen vessel. Two contrasts. First of all, a contrast between Satan who blinds in darkness and God who enlightens. Have you ever wondered why God doesn't just take care of the devil? Ever wonder why God doesn't just say, you know, get out of here, confine you to another planet, I'll throw you into hell right now? That would be just. Why does the God of this world blind the minds?

Very quickly. God is glorified when people say no to the lies of Satan and say yes to the light that God brings. So God allows people to be blinded. And then through the preaching of the gospel, he proves that the gospel is more powerful than the devil and the God overcomes the darkness and the God who says, let light shine out of darkness shines in our hearts and grants us the light of the glory of God.

We see the beauty of Jesus and we see how Jesus meets all of our needs and he fits our need exactly and we believe on him and we are saved. And God is even more glorified because once again, he triumphs over the devil. That's the first contrast. But there's a second contrast and that is that this treasure, this gospel is in jars of clay. We won't do it now but I'm tempted to have you turn to the person next to you and say, you know, you're just a jar of clay.

Maybe you've been waiting to tell somebody that. That's all we are is jars of clay. But talk about significance. Jars of clay entrusted with the treasure of the message. This goes back to the imagery in olden times when people would literally put treasures in jars of clay, either to hide them or to store them. Perfume, beautiful perfume that was very expensive was put into a common jar of clay. But think of what it meant to the clay.

Hey, I'm just clay but you know what I've got in me? I've got in me this overwhelming treasure. And what Paul is saying to us is this, that through the preaching of the gospel as people are converted, you have within you a treasure in the midst of this earthen vessel. Weakness is not a hindrance to the beauty of the treasure.

In fact might actually enhance it and make it look more beautiful. But God has entrusted to you the light of the gospel and that's the treasure in the earthen vessels. What an indescribable honor God has given to his people. You matter to him. You matter to us.

You also matter to those who see the treasure and you matter to Jesus and how you represent him. I know a pastor, I don't know him well, but we met on one or two occasions and I heard him tell this story. He said that there was a professor from the local university who came to his church over a period of six months and eventually, despite his skepticism, believed on Jesus and was saved. So he was asking this professor, tell me your story. What is it that brought you to church? How come you kept coming? What the pastor expected the man to say is, oh, it was your sermons. That's really what did it. You know, those powerful sermons that just really clarified everything as a pastor. I can identify that that's probably the answer that we would expect.

That's not what the guy said. University professor, he said, what made me keep coming back to your church is outside the door of your church in the lobby. There was an old bent over woman who smiled at me all the time and her countenance was so radiant.

I couldn't get her out of my mind and I kept saying, I need to find out what she has. The treasure in the earthen vessel. Sometimes we think of evangelism and we think, well, you know, we need evangelism. It's a little piece of the pie over here. There's evangelism over here. There's edification over here. There's fellowship over here and evangelism has its slice.

No. Like one of our staff members was saying, we have to change the paradigm that evangelism is all of our responsibility. You take that treasure with you to your condominium. You take it with you to work tomorrow. You take your treasure on the CTA when you ride it and pray as you do. You take the treasure everywhere. We're all witnesses for Jesus.

We may have classes that help us understand it a little better, but everybody. And what we're saying to this city is that when you believe in Jesus, you know, you do matter to God right up front, but when you believe in Jesus, you matter to the body of Christ and you matter to everyone else around. And God says, I entrust to you the treasure of the gospel. What an thing. I say, Lord, how could you do this to us sinners?

Across jars of clay. And someday the Bible says we're going to be exalted and we are going to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ and with him enter into our inheritance. You talk about significance. Few comments. First of all, people matter. People matter. May it ever be said of Moody Church that people matter, the rich matter, the poor matter, the educated, the uneducated, the university professor and the child matters. Everyone matters.

We believe that people matter and we believe that the more people we can reach and the more opportunities for growth, the better it is because people matter. People are eternal. Buildings aren't. People are eternal. Buildings aren't.

Did you see that in the news yesterday? Four Tibetan monks made a sand painting. That sand painting took days.

I don't want to over exaggerate, but I think maybe even weeks. It was an intricately made painting that took millions of grains of colored sand and poured them into geometric designs and ancient symbols. Apparently, it was gorgeous.

One hour after it was finished, it was all taken and dumped into Lake Michigan. And I looked on the internet and discovered that that's always what happens to these sand paintings. Why? Because what the monks said is to illustrate the impermanence of life, the transitory nature of life, you're here a moment and then you're gone and you get washed into the eternal one. Tragic.

Tragic. Ultimately, if you believe that logically, ultimately nothing ever really matters. We believe that people are eternal.

A drop of cold water given in my name and you'll not lose your reward. Jesus said, it says in the Old Testament, God establishes the work of our hands. Some of you taught Sunday school years ago. You're older and you forget the names of the kids that you taught. You forget the lessons that you taught. Every one of them is cataloged in heaven as God establishes the work of your hands.

Why? Because you matter to God and what you have done matters to God and the children whose lives that you have touched matter to God and we say to a generation that is broken and hurting, you are an eternal being and because you matter, by God's grace, you come to Moody Church and you're going to hear a message that confers upon you through God's grace, the gift of significance. How do we take a selfish, self-absorbed culture that says the way in which I have significance is that I make much of myself and hope that others will make much of me.

How do we turn that around? John Piper says that there's a clue to that because nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to enhance his personal significance. My wife and I love mountains.

She loves them much more than I. She's been praying for years that God would call me to Colorado and it hasn't happened yet but when we're there looking at a mountain, we're not there. Well, why do you want to see this mountain?

I just need to increase my self-esteem. You learn something standing there that happiness comes not by the exaltation of the self but by exaltation of something that is filled with splendor and we say the way you find significance is to understand that it is through worship. It is through participation. It is through representing something more precious than you and I are. God says you matter and the greatest example of that is what we're going to participate in in just a moment.

Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread and said this is my body which was broken for you. This is the cup of the new covenant, this drink in remembrance of me. Jesus in doing that says I'm giving my life for you because you matter and that's the message that Chicago and the world needs to hear. Could you join me as we pray? Father for the person today who feels dejected, who feels empty, who feels hopeless, would you let them know that Jesus reminds us that we matter. We ask today that we may be a church where people matter, where there might be a great outpouring of support because we believe Lord God that through your word people can be led to a sense of fulfillment and self joy not because of us but because of you. Grant that O God we pray and now I'm no longer praying but I'm talking to the congregation if you've never received Christ as Savior why don't you receive him right now.

Receive that treasure that Jesus died for us. Admit your need, you know who you are that you need to believe in Jesus. Father help us as individuals and as a church. In Jesus name we pray, amen. And my friend if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior I trust that you will do that right now through repentance and faith. You know at the beginning of this broadcast Dave asked me a very interesting question he said is it okay if we pray for greater significance.

If I might give you a personal word when I became the pastor of Moody Church or I should say before I became the pastor of the Moody Church God laid on my heart the words that he gave to Jeremiah when he said seekest thou great things for thyself seek them not. But here at Running to Win even as we think about our expanding ministry it really has nothing to do with us it is because of our desire to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as we possibly can. In this week we are hoping for 50 new endurance partners would you consider becoming one of them? You say well how do I get info here's what you do go to endurancepartners.org that's endurancepartners.org and ask God whether or not he would have you help us get the gospel around the world.

You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. In our current series we've been learning about four gifts we can't live without. So far we've explored the gift of hope the gift of belonging and the gift of significance. Next time on Running to Win we'll come to the fourth gift a gift that underlies all of the others and that is the gift of love. Plan to join us. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.