Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith. When the disciples of Jesus heard he was about to be taken from them, they felt a deep sense of abandonment. How gracious Jesus was to promise them a companion who would be closer to them than even he was while on earth. And their companion is also our companion.
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, it's hard to imagine being closer to God than the disciples were to Jesus. But Dave, this is so exciting. Jesus said, it is good for you if I go away.
For if I don't go away I wouldn't be able to send the comforter. And Jesus is saying that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, takes His place. When he was here on earth he could only be in one place at one time in his body but now he is around the world through the Spirit. dwelling within us and wanting to control us. What an exciting study.
And you know, I'm very excited because thanks to the generosity of some of our donors, we have those who have said that they will double any gift given during the month of August up to $90,000. Let me ask you a question. Would you consider helping us? Would you pray about it? Would you seek the Lord and it may well be.
That he will lay this ministry on your heart because you've been blessed by it and you want to continue to bless others. Here's what you can do to find out more info. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888. 218.
ninety three thirty seven. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again, but let us remember that the Holy Spirit of God is available for us to help us, to lead us. and to give us strength. I will not leave you as orphans. I'll come to you.
Let a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you'll see me, and because I live, you'll also live. In that day, you'll know that, and notice the beauty of this: I am in my Father, you in me, and I in you. Can you get any closer than that? The answer, of course, is no. He says, I won't leave you orphans.
This past week, despite my self-imposed busyness. I just thought to myself, what would it be like to be an orphan?
Now some of you can identify with that and thank God for all the orphan ministries. And we think, for example, of as our own in India that we help support. But I would think, first of all, I'd feel very abandoned. feel very abandoned as if You know, I'm just left. Jesus said, I'm not going to leave you that way.
I'm not going to walk out on you and say, well, now do the best you can because your parent, and I'm putting parent in quotes, Jesus is gone. No, no, no, no. I will come to you, Jesus said, by the Holy Spirit of God. And you have to realize that I'm not going to abandon you. I'm going to be with you.
So, I think one of the feelings I would have is abandonment. I think another feeling I would have is. What shall we say, a sense of worthlessness? I would feel as if I really don't matter. Why would I matter to anybody?
If my parents abandoned me, they must consider me worthless. I say to you today, my dear Christian friend, those of you Who've received Christ and have the Holy Spirit? You matter. Yeah. You matter to God so much that look at what Jesus said.
He's just piling one blessing upon another. He says in verse 23, I think it is: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we. All because of the Trinity. Can't understand this without the Trinity.
And we will come to Him. I am the Father and the Spirit. And we will make our home with him. God says, those people out there who abandon you, who think that you are worthless and of no account, Just know that that's not the way I consider you. To me, you are so valuable that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, thanks to the Trinity, is going to not only dwell beside you, but He is going to dwell within you.
And be encouraged. Because the Holy Spirit of God is the comforter. He's the comforter. and he will not leave you an orphan.
Now, of course, part of this is, of course we need the body of Jesus Christ. Of course we need other people beside us and And who care about us. And that becomes a whole emphasis later on in the New Testament. But when you go back to that lonely apartment and think that nobody cares, the Holy Spirit of God goes with you and is beside you and in you for fellowship and for companionship. Will you remember that?
God says I am with you. I'm not going to leave you. as orphans.
Something else that the Holy Spirit does is He is our teacher. That's what the paraclete does. Four times, by the way, Jesus uses the word paraclete twice in this chapter. We read the first time, now we come to the second time, verse 25. These things I have spoken unto you while I am still with you, but the helper, there is the word, the Holy Spirit.
Whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things. and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2 that holy men of God, chapter 1 I believe it is, holy men of God, Spoke as they were moved and carried along by the Holy Spirit.
So that we hold in our Bible the Word of God. And the words are important. That's why we believe in verbal inspiration. You can't just have ideas that are inspired, because if you use the wrong words, you get a different idea.
So the Holy Spirit of God was there in the inspiration of the scriptures, but the Holy Spirit is also necessary. in what we call the illumination. That is, within our minds to be able to grasp spiritual truth. The Holy Spirit of God is the teacher. I don't believe he teaches us anything new but that which is already.
in the Bible, but he illuminates it. He makes it clear to us.
Now, there are folks on television that will tell you they're getting all of these revelations. I don't want to chase a rabbit trail on this, but I need to caution you that many of these revelations are either obvious. You wouldn't have needed a revelation from God. I've seen instances when the revelations are snatches of scripture.
So read the Bible. And you get that revelation.
Some revelations are anti-biblical, and some. I say this humbly. but perhaps more forcefully than I should, but some of them are just plain silly. And yet they're being called revelations from God. I really urge you to stick with the scriptures because what Jesus was saying is.
The Holy Spirit will bring to mind the things that have happened here. Those will be written down. After all, John was there. And Peter was there. And the other apostles, and they would have a clear memory as to what happened.
and the New Testament would be composed later. He will be, however, your teacher. And he's the one that illuminates the mind also for us to grasp. Spiritual truth. Because the Bible says the natural person, that is the person who doesn't know Christ as Savior, who doesn't have the Holy Spirit.
And I've had this happen. People read the Bible and they say, you know. I have to tell you, I've tried to read it. It makes no sense to me. There's no way I can really put it together.
And uh I just close it and say, you know, this isn't a book for me.
Now, I know that the Bible can be very complicated, especially if you begin in the book of Genesis and end in Leviticus. As everybody does on their New Year's resolutions. But they can even read the New Testament and simply not get it.
Now, I'm going to preach another message in this series on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the unbeliever, drawing them to Christ. It's why it's so important for you to see these messages together. I'll tell you. Apart from the Holy Spirit of God, you can be sitting. on a pile of diamonds.
and think that it is coal. You can be exposed to the most glorious truth. that could ever Engulf the human mind or imagination. You can have that happen and still not. Get It.
Because there are some things that are spiritually understood, and the enlightening of the mind in relationship to the scriptures. is absolutely essential. And when I preach on that topic in the future, I'll give you some examples of how the gospel has been preached to some people, it has been clarified, and they still don't get it because only the Spirit. can bring the conviction and quicken the mind.
so that they grasp it. And that's why it's so important that whether we teach in a Sunday school or a TMC community or whatever it may be. We always have to depend on the Holy Spirit. When I'm sitting up here before I stand to this pulpit, what do you think I'm thinking about? I'm not trying to figure out if I remember the sermon.
Though that hopefully happens before I come here. But what I'm saying is I depend on the Holy Spirit. I depend on the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. If you don't show up in this message, It is a lost cause.
wasted effort. Because only the Spirit can open our minds and show us the truth that we need to know.
Now, there's something else that the Spirit does, and that is, because of his work in us, through us, he is our peacegiver. See, that's why Jesus can say in verse 27, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. What a glorious promise.
that really deserves a message of its own, but I'm going to give you only Only a very brief exposition of it. Peace I leave with you. Notice, first of all, Jesus said, I'm giving you my peace. Could you imagine those words? on the lips of somebody else.
Freud, you know, was the great psychoanalyst. Trying to help people with all of their guilt and all of their problems. Could you imagine Freud saying to a client? Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you.
Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Wow, would that ever be comforting? Freud's piece. Jesus can say that because Jesus Christ is. God, and he can speak with authority about the kind of peace that he gives us.
So Jesus here says, peace I leave with you. What kind of peace? Peace, first of all, with God. Here is a verse of scripture that I hope will grip the heart of many a person. Romans 5.1.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have access to the Father as a result of it.
So therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. That takes care of our past. The past is over because our relationship with God has been redeemed and restored and we can rejoice in that. By the way, Can all those of you who are listening to this message say that? That you are at peace with God and you know it because your relationship with God has been restored?
It only happens through Jesus.
So that takes care of the past. It also takes care of the future, doesn't it? I mean, now, let's clarify. This peace doesn't mean that you won't have sorrow. You won't have sorrow.
Of course you're going to have sorrow. when somebody dies, sorrow because of a wayward child. But the Bible says that we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. Hope. We do not sorrow as those who have no hope.
It's a different kind of sorrow. There is a peace that is connected with the sorrow. And that can happen. I failed to mention earlier that this past week. Danita Travis, who is the executive director of Buy the Hand Club for Kids, her dear mother, with whom she had a very close relationship with Home to Heaven this past week.
So it's hard. But it's not overwhelmingly hard because there is a peace. They shall see each other again. We can say that with confidence. And it's not a kind of peace that means that you will not ever be harassed.
Treated unjustly. Or even put to death. After all, this is Christ's peace, and look at what they did to him. Think of what he went through. With all the mockery and the hatred and the betrayal and the pain.
But here is the point. Whether your fear today is an economic fear, a health fear, Relational fear because of the future. Terrorist fear. because of what is happening in the world. Whatever that fear is, The fact is that if your past has been taken care of and you have a relationship with God that's been restored through Jesus, and your future is absolutely secure, that you know.
that when you die, you'll go to be with Christ. What then actually is it? that you and I fear. Anything in between those two things can't be that great. That's why Jesus said, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that they run out of ideas.
There's nothing more they can do. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body. in hell. Jesus said, peace I leave with you. My peace.
I give to you. How is that communicated? for the Holy Spirit of God. I hope that you Understand that my burden today in speaking about this is, as we give you some bottom lines here. Is first of all that I want all of us to develop what we can call a Christ consciousness, or we could say spirit consciousness.
in our life.
So that we always are aware of the fact that the Spirit is with us, in us, behind us, as we sang about Christ, because He does communicate Christ to us in Christ's absence.
So that when you Walk down the street. When you are harassed at work. When things don't go their way and the world is difficult, and people betray you. That you always know that it is happening in the presence of the Spirit, who knows all about it, by the way. Have you ever realized we don't really have to explain anything to Jesus?
We spend a lot of time praying, explaining it to Him, and say, Jesus, did you get that? Or do I have to go over this again? He knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, and he is beside you. and in you. I want you to develop that Christ consciousness.
This past weekend I was also on a retreat. Don't ask me about my schedule this past week. And the question was asked: why is it that if we have the Holy Spirit of God, why is it that we have so few? Evidences of his fruit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The answer is this.
It's not automatic. It's not that the Holy Spirit comes and says, okay, I'm here to take over and. And I just want you to get in line. It's not that That spirit is sensitive. That's why he's likened unto a dove.
And unless there is a time in our life when we die to ourselves, The spirit Is grieved and he really can't. Exercise Everything within us. that he would desire. to do. And I pointed out that During the days when archaeologists were excavating the pyramids, they discovered that there was grain buried with the mummies with the pharaohs.
4,000 years old, right? 2,000 years before the coming of Christ, 2,000 years since that time. Seems to me that That is about 4,000 years old or Is it six thousand? I guess math isn't my strength. As I always say, as long as I'm right 90% of the time, who cares about the other 5%?
I think four thousand years before Christ, the pyramids were. Not sure now whether it's two or four. Take your pick. Could I simply say this? The grain was very old.
Can we agree on that? The grain was very old, a couple of thousand years at least. taken out of the darkness planted in soil with water and sunlight. And it grew. For a few thousand years, however many you think, That life bound up in the grain.
But no expression of it. Jesus said, except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. You see, as long as it's about our agenda, what we want to do, the bitterness that we want to hang on to, the lifestyle that we want to live, no matter what God says, as long as it's all about that, the Spirit says. I'm with you and in you if you're a believer. But I'm not manifesting Christ to you.
Because you have to deal with those issues. Are you willing today to die to self? and say, Lord, live in me. No matter what. May we pray together.
And so, what do you have to say to God today? You talk to him right where you are now in this moment of silence. You talk to God. And you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the issues that you need to deal with.
so that the Spirit might have his way. Hear the prayer of your children, Lord, and also hear the prayer of those who aren't your children, who are crying up to you. for help and for forgiveness. Let the Spirit have his way among us. And answer all the prayers of your people offered in this moment.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well my friend, this is Pastor Luther and I have to confess I have had to learn to die daily. When we talk about falling into the ground, as Jesus indicated a corn of wheat has to do.
so that it bears fruit. This is not a once-for-all event, but we must give ourselves to God day after day to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that the ministry of running to win is not the ministry of a man or a church or an organization. It is your ministry. It is the partnership that we have.
I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens to this broadcast. In Russian, Once again, reminding us that this ministry goes around the world. This person writes, Today Satan wants to scatter, to divide the church. And he goes on to say that running to win is creating Christian unity.
Now, of course, the unity that we want to create is always unity of the truth. But what he has said is correct. Oftentimes the church has divided over issues that it should not divide over. how desperately we need to humble ourselves.
Well, I'm so excited to be able to announce that thanks to some of our generous donors, we now can tell you that any gift that you give during the month of August will be doubled. Imagine that. Would you consider helping us? What an opportunity to make an investment that has eternal results not only in Russia, but of course in America, in English, seven different languages around the world. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because I'd like to give you some contact info.
I'd like you to write this down. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course rtwoffer is all one word. RTWoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-888. 218-9337.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Nothing quenches thirst quicker than a glass of water. Jesus offers a different kind of water to slake a different thirst, the thirst of the Spirit.
Next time on Running to Win, a dramatic setting for Jesus, who proclaimed himself as the source of what he called living water. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
