Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. If you think trusting Christ means all your pathways will be strewn with roses, think again. Many of Christ's pathways were pathways of suffering. If we're serious about following him, eventually we'll leave the oasis and head into the wilderness. 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. In our series on What Would Jesus Do, we've come to the desert. Pastor Lutzer, I believe you see the desert as a place of conflict, but also one of communion. Not only that, Dave, but when you stop to think of it, the Bible says that it is the Holy Spirit that drove Christ into the wilderness.
And you remember in the Old Testament it is God who brought Israel into the wilderness, into the desert.
So our deserts are actually appointed by God. And yes, it's a place of conflict. It's also a place of communion, because when Jesus passed the test, the Bible says angels were there to minister to Him. I pray that all who are listening that all of us will be committed to be faithful to the end. I've written a booklet entitled Walking with Jesus: A Radical Return to His Priorities.
What it helps us to do is to understand what it would be like to live like Jesus. in the ordinary experiences of life. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Call us at 1-888-218.
9337.
Now, at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again because we believe this will help you in your spiritual journey. For now let us listen. Yeah.
Now my dear friend, I'd like to say to you today. that every one of us is brought at some time in our life into the desert. You look at Jesus Christ, he is baptized by John in Jordan, receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and he is driven into the sphere of conflict. Yes, it is a place of communion and it is a place of commitment, but first of all, prayer always is a place of conflict. You look at the nation Israel, God delivers them out of Egypt, and where do they go?
They go into the desert. Why did God bring them into the desert? He said, I want to humble you and I want to prove you, to see what is in your heart, whether you will keep my commandments or not. There is nothing like the heat of the desert. to bring out what is in the human heart.
And so Jesus is there. in the desert. Paul was taken to the desert, spending many years in the desert after his conversion, having God's full attention there in the desert and God having his, something going on that would forever change the life of the Apostle Paul so that he could become that great missionary statesman and be the one responsible for writing 13 books of the New Testament. In fact, what is the bottom line of what I'm trying to share to you today? I'd like to say that conflict Conflict in the desert precedes communion and it even precedes commitment.
conflict. You go into your closet as Jesus said we should do. Jesus said, when you pray, go into your closet, and after you have shut the door, pray to your Father, which is in secret, and the Father, which sees in secret, will openly reward you. I want to tell you the minute you go into that closet and you close the door and you say, this hour is God's. Instantly, you go there to meet God, and Satan shows up right away.
There he is, to distract you. to tell you about all of the things that you should have done last week. One of the best things you can do is to take a notepad with you into the closet.
So everything that Satan brings to your attention, you just write down. As a matter of fact, if you do that, I'll tell you, you will not miss a single thing that you have to do. Everything comes to you the minute you enter into the closet.
So what you do is you recognize that there is going to be a time of conflict. If you had a sordid past, Satan will throw it up into your face. Even your forgiven past will come to mind. And he will bring into your life every discouragement, every way to derail you, every way to put you down, and to say, What makes you think that God is going to hear you after the way in which you've lived your Christian life? This is a waste of time.
And you go through all those times of agony. I want to tell you that the minute you go into the desert, The minute you go into the closet and close your door, within you, all of the serpents that lie on the bottom of your heart will rear their ugly head, and you'll know that you are not just meeting God. Satan. has come. To take your desert time.
and make it a time of hopeless discouragement. Sidlo Baxter. A great preacher. Talked about some of the struggles that he had. He was going to get up at 5:30 in the morning to pray.
We're not asking you to do that. because uh that may be a little early. But notice, he says: just as the stars in their courses fought against Cicero, So the stars in their courses seemed to smash my well-made plans to smithereens. I would rise at 5:30, 15 minutes to wash and dress, and then an hour and a half for prayer and Bible study. I had it all planned out, but I won't take time to tell you of all the subtle ways that Satan used to trip me up and trick me out of keeping my plans.
My times for prayer were getting crowded out, and my periods for Bible study were getting scarcer. And what is worse, he said, I began to get used to it. He said, I began to excuse myself. My prayer life became a case of sinning and repenting. Every time I got down to pray, I had to start weeping and ask the Lord's forgiveness.
I had to repent. that I hadn't prayed more. Then it came to a crisis, he says. At a certain time one morning, I looked at my watch, and according to my plan, for I was still persevering, I was to withdraw for an hour of prayer. I looked at my watch and it said Time for prayer, Sid.
But I looked at my desk and there was a miniature mountain of correspondence and conscience said, you ought to get those letters answered.
So I swithered, he says. Prayer letters, shall it be prayer letters, prayer letters, yes, no, yes, no. While I was swithering, a velvety little voice began to speak in my inner conscience. Look here, said, What's all this bother? You know very well what you should do.
The practical thing is to get those letters answered. You can't afford time for prayer this morning. Don't you think the Lord knows how busy you are? You're converted, you're born again, you're in the ministry, people are proud of you, you're having conversions. Doesn't that show that God is pleased with you?
And even if you can't pray, don't worry about it. Face up to it. You're not one of those spiritual ones. By the way, is there anybody here today that can relate to that? He says, I don't want to use extravagant phrases, but if you had plunged a dagger into my bosom, it couldn't have hurt more.
I'm not the introspective type, but that morning I took a good look into Sidlo Baxter. I found that there was an area of me that did not want to pray. Is there anybody here? that knows of such an area in your life? He said, I didn't want to pray, but as I looked more closely, I found that there was a part of me that did.
The part that didn't was the emotions, the part that did was the will.
So I asked myself, Sidlo Baxter, are you going to let your will be dragged about by your changeful emotions? And I said to my will, Will, are you ready for prayer? Will said, Well, here I am, I'm ready.
So, Will and I set off to pray, but the minute we turned our footsteps to go and pray, all of my emotions began to talk. They said, We're not coming, we're not coming, we're not coming.
So I said to Will, I said, Will, can you stick it out? Will said, Well, I can if you can.
So, Will and I dragged off those wretched emotions by the scruff of the neck, and we went to prayer. if you had asked me, did you have a good time? Do you think I would have said yes? A good time? No.
It was a fight all the way. What I would have done without will, I do not know. In the middle of my most earnest intercessions, I suddenly found that one of my principal emotions was away out on the golf course playing golf. And I had to run out to the golf course and drag him back. A few minutes later, I found one of my emotions had traveled a day and a half and was preaching a sermon I hadn't even yet prepared.
I had to say, come back. It was exhausting. But we did it. This went on for about two and a half weeks, but Will and I stuck it out. And then one morning during that third week, I looked at my watch and said, Will, it's time for prayer.
Are you ready? Will said, yes, I'm ready. And just as we were going in, I heard one of my chief emotions say to the others, Ah, come on, fellows, there's no use wearing ourselves out. They'll go pray no matter what we do. Suddenly, one day, while Will and I were pressing our case at the throne of heavenly glory, One of my chief emotions shouted, Hallelujah, and all the other emotions said, Amen.
And for the first time, the whole territory of the territory Of James Sidlow Baxter was happily coordinated. in the exercise of prayer. Do you think it's easy? It's not easy. The minute you say, I'm going to pray.
You're headed. for conflict. But what we're really trying to say is to everyone, whether you are single, whether you have a family or not, for everyone, we would like to ask the question, what would Jesus do? We want to say, Lord Jesus, I'm giving you an opportunity to change me. to develop some disciplines in my life that I need to develop.
So all that we can possibly do We want to help you with. E.M. Bounds said, Prayer, he says, is no pretty duty put into a corner, no piecemeal performance made out of fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life. But it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time, and all of our strength must be given. Because prayer is above all a time of conflict.
So the conflict precedes the communion and the communion precedes the commitment. You see, if we don't know God very well, we're going to be very hesitant about committing ourselves to him. One of the reasons you and I find it so hard to give ourselves to God without reservation is because we are unsure as to whether God is trustworthy enough. to have us all. I have a friend in California with whom I spoke this past week on the telephone.
He teaches a Sunday school class of 20 couples. in San Bernardino, California. He said that last Sunday he handed out a survey to his class, and it was very easy to fill out. It had to do with the satisfaction level. that the class was experiencing.
And he said, he asked them five questions: like, How satisfied are you with your marriage? How satisfied are you with your vocation? How satisfied are you with your church? How satisfied are you with your spiritual life? How satisfied are you with life in general?
And then they could answer one to five: one meant dissatisfied, strongly dissatisfied, and five meant excellent. He told me over the phone, he said, I cannot believe that people in this affluent area, in an evangelical church, Live. with such a low level. of satisfaction. Three or four, he said, put one or two for their marriages.
He says, many of them put one or two for their vocations. And this is in a good part of the country with lots of money and in an affluent country. area. Low level satisfaction. Why do you think that is?
Do you realize, my friend, today, that we were not made to fundamentally find a satisfaction in all of these things unless our satisfaction is first of all Hidden God. Struggling in agony, facing decisions, facing health problems, facing family problems in the midst of our need, facing memories and hurts and agonies. There, we come occupied with our need into the desert and we leave occupied with our God because we have decided to withstand the conflict. We will persevere, we will not fall into temptation because we will rather pray. And there, in the presence of the living God, we find that there is.
Joy. And rest. and satisfaction. At last. A few moments ago, I told you about Mueller, who you remember began all those orphanages.
Not to help children, that was a secondary cause. His first desire was to prove that God was trustworthy. He was so burdened for businessmen. He said, You know, there are businessmen who conduct their business. In a wrong and deceitful way, because they think that if they're honest, God won't bless them.
He wanted to disprove that notion. He said there are people who are not enjoying their life because they fear that they are coming to old age. without having made adequate preparation.
So he said, they are distrusting God.
So he wanted to prove. That God could be trusted.
So he began orphanages without asking for money. God led him in that way. But listen to his testimony. He says the point is this. He's talking about now his own relationship with the Lord.
He says, The Lord taught me a truth. As far as I know, the benefit of which, he said, I have not lost for more than forty years. The point is, I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day. Was to have my soul. Content.
With God. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how much I might even glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a contented, happy state so that my inner man might be nourished. I wish I could take time to read the. Rest of the quote, but it goes on for a couple of pages, and what he says is: if my inner man is not nourished, He said, I find it difficult to witness, I find it difficult to serve, because I'm doing it with a wrong, discontented heart. If God isn't satisfying to me, how then can I go out into my community and tell people, receive Jesus Christ, because God is satisfying?
And he's not satisfying to me. What Mueller said is that he began every day after that, not with prayer as much as the reading of the scriptures, and he would read and meditate and pray until his soul was satisfied. Then he said he was ready. for the rest of the day. You know here at the Moody Church that we print a bulletin, which each of you reads from beginning to end every single Sunday.
and we're thankful that you do. In order to make sure that we don't have too many typographical errors, what we do is prepare a proof sheet that gets sent to a number of people to proofread it.
Some of us aren't very good at spelling. This week, my secretary, who has a very keen eye, came to me and said, look at the title of your message. in the bulletin. The title of my message in the bulletin had the word desert spelled with two S's. Following Christ into the desert.
Now, I don't think that would have been a good title for a message. But there is some good theology. connected with it. When you go into your closet and you shut the door. And you're there with God.
The conflict comes. The agony comes. But then you begin to worship. And you begin to commit. And you begin to read.
And you say, God, I am going to stay here as long as I have to stay here until my soul is content. You know what David said in Psalm 4? He said, You know, the wicked are dishonoring me every day. They're saying all kinds of things. They're taking my honor and they're turning it into shame.
He said, Everywhere I turn, I'm being evil spoken against. But just a couple of verses later he says, Lord, you give me more joy than they have at the time of harvest and with all of their new wine. What he's saying is, despite their promotions, despite their upward mobility, despite the fact that everything is going well with them and they have some new wine to go along with it to enjoy it, he says, God, you are pouring more pleasure and joy into my life. Than they have. At the end of the desert of tears and agony and conflict.
There is. The dessert. Spending time. with God.
So that he can change us, so that we're in a position. to transform our church. to transform this community. and to follow Christ wherever he leads. Let's pray together.
Our Father, today we want to thank you for the example of Jesus. Your word says of him that he offered up supplications with strong crying and tears. unto him that was able to save him from death, He said his soul was in agony. And yet you sustain them. Drew that awful.
Getsemane experience. and the impending cross. And we pray today, Father, that in the blessed name of Jesus, That you will help every one of us to have our own desert, the place where we go. to pray. Clearing the entire schedule.
And say, Lord, this time. is for you. And we know that if we do that, The desert. Fall of its loneliness and isolation. will eventually become our delight.
Teach us these things, Father, we pray. In Jesus' name. Oh then. Yeah.
My friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I've been doing some study of how technology has made us a distracted generation. It's so hard to concentrate because of all the information that is coming over our cell phones, the computers, etc. What we need to do is to get alone with God and sometimes God sets us aside.
so that we can indeed get alone with him. and it may even be in a desert. I've written a book entitled Walking with Jesus: A Radical Return to His Priorities. What it does is, it goes through events in the life of Jesus and then asks this question, How does our life match His, and where do changes have to be made? For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you and we think it will help you in your spiritual journey.
Hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because this is what you can do. You can go to rtwoffer.com. Of course RTW offer is all one word. RTWffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218. nine D three thirty seven.
And from my heart to yours today, thank you for the many of you who pray for us. The many of you who support this ministry, because of people just like you running to win, goes around the world. But right now you can go to your computer and type in RTW offer And thanks in advance for helping us. Time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Today's listener question might be coming from someone who wants to go it alone spiritually.
Please comment on this statement, Dr. Lutzer. you can't have a real relationship with God without having a real relationship with God's people both in and out of God's Church.
Well, generally speaking, I would say that the answer is yes. that you need a relationship with God, but you also need a relationship with God's people. As far as the New Testament is concerned, there is no example, there is no encouragement to going it alone. staying home and watching a church service on the Internet is a good thing to do if you have no other option. But to connect with God's people, think for a moment about the New Testament emphasis on the body of Christ, where the entire body is functioning.
And in the process of our relationships we strengthen one another, we encourage one another. Take the first chapter of the book of 1 John and read it, because it is about fellowship. John talks there about being in fellowship with us. And then he talks about being in fellowship with the Father. and being in fellowship one with another.
It is interesting that in the New Testament All of these are tied together. Of course, if this was a counseling situation, I'd sit down and ask you why you asked the question. Is it because you don't want a relationship with God's people? Maybe you've been hurt.
Well, what you need to do is to somehow overcome that. Find some of God's people. join in on what they are doing. Contribute to the work. Because you cannot really be a strong Christian unless you are connected.
Some wise words from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer dot com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Believers get to life's goal line by faithfully following Christ, who lived to minister to people. Taking his gospel to needy people is our primary reason for running the race every day.
So, are you making an impact in your area of influence?
Next time on Running to Win, our series continues with a message on following Christ into the community. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
