Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. the founder and perfecter of our faith. Like runners getting a second wind, we're not left to carry out the great commission without resources. Jesus promised His disciples power, and when He has first place in our lives, that power begins to flow. How do we receive it?
Stay with us. On today's broadcast, you'll find out. 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, those first-century onlookers who knew the disciples had to have been shocked seeing the transformation of these men when the Spirit took control.
And you know, Dave, one of the things that the devil has done, and I say the devil has done it. is that he has oftentimes turned Christians away from the doctrine of the Holy Spirit because of excesses. they've seen the misuse of the Spirit. And what you and I need to do is to get back to the ministry of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us by Christ, indwelling us. As is frequently said, he is resident But he must be president.
The question is: how do we receive the fullness of the Spirit? That, of course, is the subject of today's message. Also, at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info for a book that I believe is going to be a great blessing to you. And even as I look at the contents, I notice that chapter 3 is entitled, You and the Holy Spirit. Right now, let us listen and I'll give you that contact info later.
to experience the power of the Spirit.
So in order to help us and to make this very simple, You know, I always prayed that God would keep me simple and my staff thinks that he's overdone it. But to make this simple, I am going to be referring to other passages of Scripture now just to help us to understand how do we walk. In The Spirit. But first of all, I have to tell you a story, and then we're going to apply it. You know, there are two different ways.
That you can tell whether music is on a CD. One way is to read the label. The label says there's a certain song on the CD and it's a reputable company, and so you say, Yeah, I believe that that song is on that CD. It's one way. The other way is to take the C D and to put it into a C D player and listen to the music.
In the next few moments, I'm going to tell you how you can take the C D. and put it into The player. to experience the power of the Spirit.
But first, the story. When archaeologists uncovered the pyramids and they went down into the pyramids and they found all those mummies. What they discovered was that in some instances, grain was put into jars and buried with them. How old Was that grain? Old.
And they took that grain and they put it into the ground. And believe it or not, It grew. Amazing. For 4,000 years there was life in the kernel. For 4,000 years those kernels had the ability to reproduce themselves and there they were in a jar doing nothing with no life and no reproduction for 4,000 years.
And there are Christians like that. They have the Holy Spirit. You can read the Bible, and the Bible says that the Holy Spirit indwells all Christians. But they've never experienced the life, they've never put the C D into the player, they have never allowed the blessed Holy Spirit of God, who's been given to us, to break out of their lives and produce the fruit of the Spirit.
so that they can become a fruit-bearing Christian and make a difference and Live with God first.
So I'm going to tell you how now and it's all based on four words Or words. The first is yielding, yielding. I want to share with you what I have been doing for the last three or four years, virtually every single morning. Before I get out of bed. Before I try to prove the power of mind over mattress, I lie there and I say, Father, today...
I give you my day. Today I give you my eyes. Today I give you my mind. Today I give you my body. Today, I give you my affections.
Today, as best as I know how, I give you. Today. You see, what God wants to do is to go into all of the rooms of our life. You know, you come into the room, and there's the library with a computer. And Jesus wants to feel at home in your room that has the computer and the books on the shelf.
Can you invite Jesus into your computer room and say, Jesus, This computer is yours and everything I use it for honors you. Jesus wants to come into the Into the dining room where our appetites exist. And he says, Am I king here? Is it okay? Can I look what you've got in your cupboards?
Jesus also wants to come into the other rooms of our life, maybe the den where the television set is, and say, now I'm going to sit with you on the couch and let's watch the news together. Do you invite Jesus into every area? of your life. The first is yielding. The second is feeding.
Now, let's go back to the pyramids. and the grain, why didn't that grain grow? for 4,000 years. Answer is number one, they were in a place, those kernels were in a place that were Too dark, the place was too dark, and it was too dry. And then they weren't even in the ground.
They were in a jar. Yielding takes those kernels and it at least puts them in the ground. It doesn't guarantee that there will be any fruit, but at least it has the potential. That kernel does for growing. And so you take it and you put it into the ground.
That is yielding. The next step is feeding. feeding. How do you feed? You have two things.
You need rain and sunshine. And the rain is God's word. The rain, as we begin to observe God's word and we begin to read it and meditate it, it is like rain that comes from heaven, God says in the book of Isaiah. And so it begins to take the hardened kernels that are so twisted. And those hardened kernels, a shell that has been growing for years and years and years, begins to get soft.
And sometimes we have temptations that are so overwhelming that we don't know how to counter those temptations. And so we run for our Bibles and we begin to read the Word of God chapter by chapter by chapter until the power of God's word lessens the temptation and it gives us the strength to be able to say the word no. That's the rain. And then, what's the sunshine? It's meeting with the people of God.
I've said this before, but I want you to know this very, very clearly. I believe that the Bible teaches that when God's people gather together, like we are gathered together here. And thank God there are so many of us who are gathered together. That the presence of the Holy Spirit of God is uniquely present. Among God's people.
Yes, He indwells all of us, that's for sure. But he is there when we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. He is there when we gather together in the name of Jesus with one mind to sing praises to his name, to pray together, to learn together, and to submit together. God is there. And that actually is The sunshine.
that is needed. And so there's feeding. Then, of course, there's weeding. There's weeding. Because the minute you begin to make this commitment, you fail over here and you sin over here and you slide back over there.
And so, what are you going to do? Are you going to just simply say, well, see, it doesn't work? As often as you need to, you get up from your situation and you confess your sin. And you get going. Remember.
That your level of spiritual maturity can be accurately gauged by the length of time between the sin. and the confession.
Some people say, well, you know, I've already blown it this morning, so I'll just keep sinning all during the day, and then I'll get it all straightened out. You mean that's never happened to you? I think I know why you're laughing. I'll get it all straightened out, or I remember being in one church. Where everybody always confessed their sin every Sunday morning.
They kind of let it bunch up. You know, I mean, you know, you're sinning anyway over here, and you're sinning over there, but Sunday's coming. The minute we know that we have grieved this spirit, that's the moment to stop and to say, Jesus, I confess my sin right now. Take this sin away. and again restore the fellowship to me.
There is weeding. You see, that's what the early church was able to do there in the upper room. We don't have time for the upper room. We are so busy, we have to hurry through services. And one of the reasons, by the way, we want a family life center over there is so that we can have our service.
without having classes on both sides. But we're constantly under the gun in terms of time. We say, oh God, I want to be holy, but I have to be holy in a hurry. God says, I'm sorry, but you can't be holy in a hurry. And then there's a last step, and this again relates directly to the Holy Spirit.
For years I struggled with the filling of the Holy Spirit. For years, I used to wonder as a young preacher, how can I be filled with the Spirit? Do I have to talk in tongues?
Well, we're going to speak about that next week. Do I have to do this? Do I have to do that? And how do I know it? I attended a denomination that believed that you should come forward and you should seek the filling.
And that wasn't wrong. It's just that what do you do when you get up off your knees and you find out the next day that you have the very same struggles?
So I wondered, what is the filling of the Spirit? Until I came across a marvelous passage in. John chapter 7. You need not turn to it, but you need to listen. it.
Jesus said, He who believes in me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. And then it says, This he spoke of the Spirit, which those who believe on him should receive, they will receive it. when he is glorified. The Spirit has not yet been poured out, it says, for Jesus was not yet glorified.
Now follow this. carefully. How did you receive Jesus Christ as Savior? By faith, right? Even though you maybe didn't feel different and even though you wasn't sure whether or not a took you you received them by faith.
And then later on you began to say, hey, there are changes here. How do we receive the fullness of the Spirit? And I'm talking about the Spirit's fullness, not the indwelling, which all of us have as believers. You receive the Spirit's fullness by faith. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.
Just as we depend upon the crucified Christ for forgiveness, in the very same way we depend upon the ascended Christ who poured forth the gift of the Holy Spirit, we depend upon the ascension of Christ and the poured forth Spirit in simple faith to receive for his fullness. Just before I stand up to speak. What do you think I'm thinking about?
Well, I'm thinking about what I'm going to say. I hope I have something prepared, and I think usually I do. That's not really what's on my mind. In my heart, I'm praying to God, and I need to tell you exactly as I pray. I always say this.
Father, I thank you today that Jesus Christ poured forth the gift of the Holy Spirit to his people. I thank you, therefore, that the fullness of the Spirit is available to me, and in faith I receive that fullness for today's ministry.
Now sometimes That doesn't even change the way in which I feel. It doesn't necessarily instantly give me a heart that's hot for God. I wish that it did, but it doesn't. But I begin to go about my ministry, or I begin to speak, or whatever it is that God. Calls me to do, and I discover that there is a supernatural.
Power That is giving me the ability to do something that is beyond my very limited natural ability, and that's somehow God. is here. In faith. You say, well, that's fine, but how often do you have to do it?
Well, you know that I've often quoted the words of D.L. Moody, but they fit here, so you shall hear it again. When D.L. Moody. Was asked why is it that you have to be filled with the Spirit so often?
He said, Because I leak. That's why I have to be filled with the Spirit so often. I leak. I can't speak about you, though, I suspect. that you leak too.
We all leak.
So what we need to do. is to say in faith we receive the Spirit's power. We cannot yield alone. Listen. The moment we want to really get serious with God, every rationalization that has lain dormant for years is going to.
rear its ugly head. All the forces of Satan are going to say, yeah, you can't do that. You can't, you can't. In fact, I won't let you, the devil says. How do we overcome that?
You shall receive power to be who you need to be. You need power to yield. Can't just be the yieldedness of the flesh. You need power to yield to God by the blessed Holy Spirit of God. It's the only way we can do it.
We have to be energized by the Spirit. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, I'm basically yield to God. Kind of. 60%, maybe, 70%, you're giving yourself a better grade than God might, but. You know.
70%, 80%? Is there a closet in your life, though, that you have not allowed God to touch? Is there a closet where you said, God, you can have this room, this room, this room, but the downstairs closet is locked and I don't even know where the key is, God, you can't get in there. God says I want the run of the whole place. And for those of you today too weak to give God the key.
Too weak to open the door, I should say. Those of you who are too weak to open the door, would you at least give him the key and say, Jesus, this is one door I can't open. I can't open it, but I do give you the key. Putting God first. We are the bride, the Bible says, and Jesus is the bridegroom.
Now, what would you think of a bride who says, well, you know, I really do love my husband. And I intend to be true to my husband 360 days a year. They should be pretty good. But I need four or five where I can sleep with other men. I mean, what are we talking about here?
A couple of extra days on. I mean, you know, I am true 360 days a year. Do you realize that when we speak about making God first. We're talking. 24-7.
Are you willing?
Some of you won't be. You'll say, no, I'm not going that way.
Some of you are. But within time your commitment will wane. But I believe that there are hundreds of you, including myself, the staff and the elders, I really do believe that there are hundreds of us who are never going to be the same again. Because we say, whatever the cost, God is first. Would you join me as we pray?
Father, who are we to do your work? Who are we to pry open hearts that have long since been closed? Who are we father to? Open closets that have been nailed shut, that have been welded shut through years of. bitterness or anger.
Who are we, Father? Who can do all that? We can't. We humbly confess today that our resources are totally. useless.
But we do expect you to do what we can't. How many of you, after listening to this message, say, by God's grace, I don't know whether or not Christ is going to be first, but I. I want to do whatever is necessary so that he would be first. Would you raise your hand today? Do we have.
Do we have takers? Do we have takers in the balcony? Yes, hundreds of you. Father, whatever this means to all of us, By your grace may we follow through. Take our hearts.
The whole bit. In Jesus' name, amen. Uh Uh Okay. My friend, this is Pastor Luther. Could I have a moment of your time and talk to you about something that's very sobering?
And that is the fact that our hearts are deceitful. and desperately wicked. Did you know that your heart tells you more lies than any person has ever told you? We want to justify ourselves. We want to make ourselves look much better than we really are.
We are filled with a sense of self-righteousness. We see sin in other people's lives and We don't see the sin in our own life. That's why I believe that this series of messages is so critical. And it's also important for us to always go back to the basics. Dr.
George Sweeting, who is in heaven today, wrote a book entitled How to Begin the Christian Life.
Now many of you say, well, you are past the beginning of the Christian life, and I understand that, but we always have to go back to the basics. I don't know about you, but I have to keep learning and relearning many of the lessons that I already know. For example, the contents of this book has to do with how to grow in the Christian life, you and the Holy Spirit, how do we receive the Spirit's fullness, you and your Bible, how to pray. Daily Prayer and Bible study, How to be sure of your salvation, you and the world, you and the church. I mention that because this book really covers the gamut of basic Christian doctrines.
For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because this is what you can do. You can go to rtwoffer.com.
Now, if you missed that, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book, How to Begin the Christian Life. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word.
rtwoffer dot com or pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. Even at the beginning of this year, let us run together, as you've heard me say many times, all the way to the finish line. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Dr. Lutzer, today's question comes from Kevin, who is a prisoner in Texas.
I received material from some prosperity evangelists, and I have grown in my walk with God by what they teach. But they also teach that we can be healthy whenever we want to be, that we have to just take authority over sickness and disease. Also, they say that if we confess that we're wealthy, we'll get money.
Now, I've tried doing both of these things for a few months, but after all this, my medical tests show that I have problems with my liver. And I've not received any extra money. In fact, my money from the commissary now comes in late.
So why doesn't it work for me?
Well, Kevin, why doesn't it work for you and for millions of others? Unfortunately, these prosperity teachers are misleading millions and millions of people. It is not true that we can simply say to our wallets, Be full of money, and they will be. You look at the Bible, Jesus himself had nowhere to lay his head. Poverty is not considered to be a curse as such.
In fact, in the book of Hebrews it talks about those who are persecuted for the faith, those who starve to death.
So be encouraged, Kevin. The promises of God are oftentimes misunderstood and misapplied by these prosperity teachers. they forget the conditions that are oftentimes wrapped up with these promises. They forget that our authority is not absolute. It is relative.
We cannot bind Satan and forbid him to work in a given city like some people teach.
Now that does not mean that we shouldn't pray, that we shouldn't seek God, and that we should be willing to believe God for answers. But what it does mean is we can't have whatever we want simply because we speak the words. My heart goes out to you, Kevin. Learn what you can from these teachers, but be sure that you can separate the true from the false. Good words from Dr.
Erwin Lutzer for all of us today. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running2Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life.
We now know that we get God's power through yielding, feeding, weeding, and filling. We know He owns our hearts when He's first.
Next time, we'll find out that He also owns our tongues. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
