Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. the founder and perfecter of our faith. A believer's effectiveness is determined by the disciplines of the Christian life practiced every day, every week, every month, every year. Today, we begin a series outlining four disciplines crucial to your spiritual maturity. 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, your series on the disciplines of the soul starts today. I believe you see these disciplines as ways to get close to God. You know, Dave, I have to tell you this: that when I was in Bible college, we would have chapel speakers. One speaker would say, What I discovered is that I was working too hard at the Christian life.
I have to just relax. In Christ. And then the other speaker would say, you know, you have to be disciplined. You should be getting up in the morning. You should be studying the Bible.
You should be praying. Who was right?
Well, I finally discovered who was right when I came across this verse in the book of Hebrews. It says this. Labor to enter into his rest. Both are right. But you and I cannot really relax and enter into rest.
until we experience labor and discipline.
Now, we here at Running to Win are deeply committed to helping believers run the Christian life, and as far as that's concerned, also helping others who don't know Christ as Savior. to come to know him. And I think one of the books that will be of great help to that is one written by Dr. Sweeting entitled, How to Begin the Christian Life. It's good for new Christians, but it's also good for those who have walked with God for many years.
And at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this resource can be yours. But for now, In a world filled with cell phones and all kinds of interruptions, Let us take a moment and understand the value of meditation. Yeah. Mm. Wouldn't it be wonderful?
If all that we had to do was to have good intentions to be like Jesus. And along with those good intentions, attend church once a week. And then God does all the work that needs to be done in our lives while we are asleep. And when we wake up in the morning, we wake up hot. for God.
Wouldn't that be wonderful? That might be wonderful, but it's not the way it is. Salvation is a free gift, no question about that. Salvation is free, but when it comes to real discipleship and transformation of life, which is always what we're after. It needs discipline.
discipline. You know, there are more people who give concern about their houses. They give it more concern to their house. than they do to their souls.
So if the roof leaks, they fix it. If the sink is stopped up, they unplug it. And if a wall is beginning to crumble, they rebuild it. But as far as their souls are concerned, and I'm using the word soul almost synonymous with the word mind. As far as their souls are concerned, anything can come in, good thoughts, bad thoughts, anything can find a home.
and they do not care for their souls. And yet the Bible says, guard your heart. Above all things, guard your heart, for out of it. is the wellspring of life. The most important part of you is the part that nobody can see.
It is your mind or your soul. And we're going to be speaking in the messages that lie ahead on soul care or the disciplines of the soul. And remember, we're after transformation of life and heart. Today, we're going to speak about meditation, and then after that, prayer, how you can pray every single day without monotony. Without wondering whether or not God is listening.
And then we will speak about the discipline of worship, and also, most important, the discipline of silence. and solitude. that can change our lives. The disciplines of the soul. Jesus told a very interesting story.
He said that there was a man who had a demon, and then the demon left the man, and the man's heart or soul was swept. and empty. And so the demon, as he traveled about seeking rest and finding none, found seven other demons who were worse than he was. I guess even among the demons there are some who are more evil than others. And all of them came and inhabited the man.
And Jesus said that the state of that man, the end of him, was worse. than the beginning. Wow, what Jesus is talking about is the danger. of an empty swept Soul. with nothing else.
to replace it. but evil that comes in. Evil always gravitates toward a vacuum. And as a result of that, if we do not fill our souls with what is good, If we do not protect what comes in and expel what should be expelled, our souls will just be a resting place for all kinds of evil and defeat and discouragement and faithlessness. You see, Paul says, Be renewed, he says, by being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Today we're going to speak about that transformation. Today, we're going to speak about how to focus on that which will squeeze out. all of the unwanted thoughts and make us different people. Because we cannot live differently until we think differently and we can't think differently unless we learn to meditate. And the good news is this, that all of us here can do it.
I'm going to be giving you instruction that is so clear, that is so explicit. That no matter who you are, no matter how old you might be or how young you might be, you're going to be able to do what I am suggesting from God's holy word that all of us do together. Transformation, finally, for some of you, is just. around the corner. Aren't you glad you're here?
Now, the Bible does talk about the mind, and we're speaking about that today. Why is this so important to think right?
Well, first of all, because everybody thinks. Everybody thinks. I can imagine there's some woman here who says, well, you know, my husband doesn't. Actually, he does. He does.
He may not be thinking the right thoughts, but he thinks. In fact, there was a philosopher by the name of Descartes who said that he believes that the mind is thinking all the time, and even while we are asleep, he says we go on thinking. And sometimes we become conscious of it and we call it a dream. Descartes believed that we are thinking all the time. By the way, Did you happen to hear about the preacher who dreamt?
He was preaching. And then he woke up and found out he was. Everybody thinks, even preachers. Thank you. Secondly, your mind has power.
It has power. The mind has so much power because it can relate to God. I remember as a boy, I used to think to myself, well, God doesn't know what I'm thinking. If I may preach imprecisely for a moment, he knew my thoughts better than even the movements of my body, because God exists in the realm of spirit, and your mind exists in the realm of matter and can influence matter, which is a huge philosophical problem that's been debated throughout the centuries, how that can be, how something immaterial can actually affect something material. But your mind can connect with that which is material, but it is also your mind that connects with God.
Your mind. has power. Another reason is of course as I've emphasized your mind shapes your life. As a man thinks in his heart, So is he.
So I want to look you in the eye today and tell you that you're not what you think you are. But what you think. You are. The real you is your thought life. And today we're going to talk about transforming it.
Psalm 1 is the text. Psalm 1. And what I'd like to do as you turn to that in your Bibles is to point out, first of all, the benefits of what we're going to speak about: meditation. The benefits of meditation, you'll notice, and for this, we're going to go actually. To verse three.
We're going to do verse three before we do verses one and two. It says, he, that is the person who delights in the law of God and meditates day and night, he is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers. Two blessings that come from meditation. First, stability. He's like a tree that is planted beside the rivers of water.
He has an unseen, unseen root system that goes to a stream.
so he will not wither at a time of drought. He can handle adversity. He can handle false accusations. He can handle the pushes and the pulls of life, the emotional and the spiritual drain of relationships that have gone sour. He can handle that.
Why? Because he has roots that extend to a stream. You've heard me say before, but a tree has as much of a root system beneath the ground as that which you can see above the ground. And blessed is that tree that has found a stream. a hidden secret stream that will keep it from withering.
a sense of stability, but also a sense of prosperity. His leaf does not wither. The Bible says he brings forth his fruit in his season.
Some people interpret that to mean, well, you know, there's a season for grapes and for figs and for bananas and for oranges and in the same way we have the fruit of the Spirit and sometimes there's a season for love and a season for joy and a season for peace. But then there are people who say today does not happen to be the season for love. No, that's not the way it works. What he means is this, that fruit takes time to develop. takes time to develop.
And God develops these fruits in us. But notice that whatever he does prospers. There is such a thing as a doctrine of prosperity. Our problem is that as it is preached today, it is often taken out of context, wrenched from the full teaching of the Bible, and made to say something that the total Bible teaching would not say. But listen to the words of Joshua.
Thou shalt meditate, God says, in the law of God. Thou shalt meditate therein day and night, then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. I believe that every time the word success is mentioned in the Bible, it is connected. to meditation. Do you want to be a success?
Anybody here wants to be a success? You must, you must meditate. I have a habit, you know, as a pastor to always say, you know, this is the most important series I've ever preached. I said that about the last series, and it was right back then. But it's also true now.
This is one of the most important Sermons. And series of messages I've ever preached, and you must. Hear all of them. How do we actually meditate? How do we begin?
Let me give you this as a preliminary. First of all, what you do is you pray. Before you open your Bible and you pray one of the verses of the Psalms, O Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. The reason that that is so important is because someone has written, as long as my mind is raging with thoughts, ideas, plans, and fears, I cannot listen significantly to God or any other dimension of reality. That's why we're going to preach a message on the gift and the discipline of silence and solitude.
I'm in a learning curve on that one. But I'm discovering that there is such a rich relationship with God that can be developed through silence and solitude, and God knows, God knows. how much we need it.
Now First of all, A word about discernment before we get to meditation. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. You see the progression there, don't you? Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He's walking in the counsel of the wicked just out of curiosity.
He wants to see what the wicked are doing. He wants to, well, here's a good one. He wants to understand the wicked a little better so that he can evangelize them.
So he's walking in the counsel of the wicked. And then there's something that gets his attention, and he stands. in the way of sinners. He's lingering now. in the way of sinners.
And then, lo and behold, he He decides to say, well, you know, actually. I'm enjoying this. And all of the others say, hey, why don't you pull up a chair? and sat down.
So he ends up sitting In the seat. of scoffers. and mockers.
Now that doesn't mean that he's mocking like the rest, but he feels at home among the mockers and among the ungodly. He discovers that he not only feels at home, but he begins to participate in their attitudes, their beliefs. their world of view. You know, there's a book that's been written that basically says this: that Christians think essentially like the world. We think about like the world regarding childrearing.
We think like the world does regarding money, regarding values. We bought into the whole system and we don't even know about it. First of all, we walk. Then we stand And then we sit. Blessed is the person who does not imbibe the values, the attitudes.
and the beliefs. of this world. You want to be like that? The text is going to tell us how discernment. We could say contemplation at this point.
Where you ask the Lord, Lord, what is there in my life that I've picked up from the world? What is there within my life that needs to be changed? Could you identify your three main problems?
Some people can't, and no wonder they're not working on them. They don't even know what their problems are. Why don't you take a sheet of paper and limit it to three of your main problems? I say limited because you may not have that much paper with you today. And so, what you do is you try to identify those things in your life that God has to change, that you're interested in transformation.
And now, notice. If the first is discernment or contemplation, now we get to discipline or meditation. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates. whenever he feels like it. Is that what your Bible says?
I must be reading from the reverse division. He meditates during the day. And during the night. Because he goes to bed meditating. And so he does meditate in the law of God all night.
Blessed is that person. And you. And I can be that person, and I'm giving you instruction today. on how you and I can be that person. Wow.
So, how do we meditate?
Now, there are two ways to read the Bible. Just like there's two ways to take a trip. My wife and I have driven across this country in many different places, sometimes with our children. And oftentimes there is only one goal, and that is to get there. Just get there.
You fill the car with gas. If you stop, Along the way, it's for a hamburger that you eat in the car while you're driving. Because remember, there's one goal, you get there. And the trip is fine, and sometimes you enjoy the scenery, and sometimes you say, Well, you know, we saw a beautiful mountain, or we saw, depending on where you drive, a beautiful hill, or we saw a tree. And you say to yourself, you know, and we got there.
Now that's the way some people read the Bible. And this is the danger for some people who want to read the Bible through in a year. They're going to read and read and read and read, but they're like D. Al Moody, who said that when he was hoeing potatoes. He used to have to put a little marker in the soil because he could never tell where he had hoed.
and where he had not yet hold. And so we've all had the experience of needing to put a marker in our Bible because suddenly we're reading and we get to the end of the chapter and we say, hey, I read this chapter yesterday and didn't know it.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that, and we encourage you to read through the Bible. As a Christian, if you've never done it, you should. But there's another way to take a trip, and really, we need to take a trip in both ways. The other is to say, you know. If I don't get there, That's not so serious if I don't make it by nightfall as to where I have decided.
I'm going to be. I'm going to enjoy this trip. You know, when you're driving along and it says historical marker one mile ahead. We're actually gonna pull off and see what's there. And when it says scenic overlook.
One mile ahead. We're gonna stop. We're gonna breathe the air. And if you're like my wife, we're actually going to take some pictures. And then when we come home, we've got all of these pictures that we've taken and we just really have enjoyed this and we didn't get quite as far as we wanted to, but who cares?
It was just great. to drive and to enjoy the trip. Right now I'm talking about the second way. to read the Bible.
Well, my friend, you certainly are going to have to listen to Running to Win next time. to hear the rest of this message. But I do want to emphasize that there are times when we are going to read the Bible quickly because we want an overview, but at the same time, There are those moments when we are going to meditate in the law of God day and night. And I think that a resource that will help you is a book written by Dr. George Sweeting.
For example, it has to do with daily prayer, how to study your Bible. How to be sure of your salvation, your relationship to the world, and so forth. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. The title of the book is how to begin the Christian life, but it's for all of us. Very quickly.
Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-228. 9337. Thanks in advance for helping us even as we get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
Once again, go to rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life.
Now, as a famous pastor, Dr. Lutzer, people see your name on lots of books, endorsing the contents or the author. Today's question comes from a listener who wonders how good of an idea that is. Ron writes to us from Illinois. He says You are listed among the ESV Bible endorsers.
Can I get your thoughts regarding Bible translations?
Well, Ron, yes you can, and I'm not sure that my view is as important as many other scholars throughout the country. But here at the Moody Church we use, I preach from, what is known as the ESV, that's the English standard version. It's been out for several years, and it is more literal, but also more readable, than, say, the King James Version. King James was a great translation, but as you know, language changes and there are many, many old constructions and old words in the King James that we don't really use and understand any more.
so modern translations are a good thing.
Now what you can do, for example, if you find that the ESV is even too literal for you, There's nothing wrong with choosing the NIV, the new international version. and it is a more readable translation. And then you can even go to paraphrases. And there's the Living Bible, and a new version of that is very good to read.
So let's understand that we do have the original language, but because of the changes in language and because it's possible to say the same thing in different words, That explains why We have different translations today. Bottom line: choose a translation, use it, read it, love it. and move on from there. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer.
If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer dot com. That's rtwoffer dot com and click there 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.
We can't run life's race if our minds are not disciplined. Through a din of competing voices, we need to hear the voice of God, and meditation in the scriptures is the way we do this. Are you hearing God's voice?
Next time on Running to Win, we'll turn again to Psalm 1 for more on the hows and whys of meditation, a key to getting close to God. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
