Motivated By Love Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Our motivation for service in the body of Christ and for serving our marriage partners must be found in what the Bible calls agape love, the love that comes from God. Only then can we endure life's tough times and remain faithful to our commitments.

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, many people take their cues for what love is from the media, but the love we see coming from God is far different. And Dave, what you have just said should be emphasized in the life and the heart of every teenager. And as far as that's concerned, in the life and heart of every single adult, we are not talking simply about human love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 introduces us to a concept of love, an unconditional kind of love that only God can give and only he can birth it in our hearts. That's why it's so necessary for us to turn to his word. It's also necessary for us to turn to his word to interpret what is happening in our culture.

Let me ask you a question. What does God have to do with pandemics, plagues and natural disasters? Has the Church of Jesus Christ been here before? How did people in the past deal with the plagues that oftentimes came throughout the Middle East or Europe? What lessons does God want us to learn?

And are we learning those lessons? All of that is included in my new book entitled Pandemics, Plagues and Natural Disasters. What is God saying to us? At the end of the day, I want people to be able to continue to trust God, even though they may look around and humanly speaking, see no reason to believe that he is on their side. What we want to do is to give people a vision of God that enables us to continue to believe despite the hardships. The title of the book Pandemics, Plagues and Natural Disasters, What is God Saying to Us? For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Go to RTWOffer.com.

That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337, 1-888-218-9337. Now we open God's Word and we have a new understanding of love as we study 1 Corinthians 13. Now as you look at this, you are aware, of course, that we're talking about a supernatural kind of love. That's why it is so important to realize that love is the distinguishing mark of the church because we don't have this kind of love naturally.

There's a big difference and you must contrast human love and divine love. Human love is dependent upon the one who is loved. I love you because you are lovable. I love you because of what you do for me. I love you because the way in which you make me feel. I love you because I think that you can help my career.

I love you because of what you do for me. That is human love. And there are two things that attract us to other people. The first is appearance. If you were born beautiful, and I'm looking over the congregation right now to see that indeed there's some of you who fit into that category, you had all kinds of advantages. When you were a little child, your mother got stopped in the supermarket because people wanted to look at you and to see you smile, whereas the rest of us just had to keep on going in the shopping cart. Beauty is a tremendous advantage. It is also in our culture a tremendous curse, particularly young women who get lured into relationships because of their beauty. One time I was speaking at a college and I was explaining this in more detail and I said, beauty is a curse.

And I explained what I meant and I'm told that later one of the young women went into her room, looked into the mirror and said, oh God, if beauty is a curse, would you smite me with it and may I never recover? We're attracted to people who are beautiful. And then the other thing, of course, is personality. People who have they just ooze charisma.

We're attracted to them, particularly the charmers, you women, you know, the charmer. Oh, he just makes you feel so good. Of course, you don't know that there's a good chance that he's actually concealing all kinds of hidden motives and insecurities and even anger.

But you don't know that. You say to yourself, oh, he just he just loves me to death. He just loves me to death. And what you don't realize is that it is human love based upon the one who is loved.

He loves you because of what he thinks you can do for him. The Song of Solomon is a poem about human love and husbands, you can read this to your wives. It's found in the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. Behold you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down from the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins and not one of them has lost its young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like the halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

Are you enjoying this? Amen. Right. Your neck is like the Tower of David built in rows of stone.

On it hang a thousand shields and all of them the shields of warriors. That's human love. You say, well, is there anything wrong with human love? Of course not. It's what makes the world go round. It ensures the existence of the next generation. Nothing wrong with human love.

But there is one problem with it and that is it cannot endure the storms. That's the problem with purely human love. Many years ago I was preaching in Peoria and a woman came up to me after I preached and she showed me her arm, which was still scarred. And she told me this story. She said that she was burned on 80% of her body. Terrible scars all over.

It was a wonder that she didn't lose her life. And when she was in the hospital, her husband came and saw this very marred and scarred, deformed body. And he said, you know, you're not the woman I married.

And he left her and divorced her to marry someone who was more healthy and more beautiful and had a better body. That's human love. Human love says, as long as you're doing something for me, I can love you.

But when you stop doing things for me and when you're, when you stop being the person I thought I married, when you begin to cause me difficulty and when hardships come into the wedding, I'm out of here. I'm out of here because human love says I can only take so much. It is only divine love. It is divine love that endures. It's the love of 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Many years ago there was a song that said, I don't love you anymore. To waste our lives would be a sin. So release me, dear, so that I could love again.

And we might add, and again and again and again. Because what human love always does is it sees a better deal somewhere else. Because human love is saying, what's in it for me?

Who would benefit me the most? I want you to contrast this with divine love. Divine love is based on the lover. Divine love says I can love you even if you change because the love of God is coming into my heart. It's shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit.

So I can put up with you. And I can endure all things as we read in the text. Because the love is coming from God. And that's the kind of love that God had for us. It says in Romans chapter 5 that when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But now notice. But God commends his love toward us even that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He loved us when there was as yet no response whatever from us. He went on loving us anyway and set up a scheme of salvation that would eventually capture our hearts. But he loved us when we were in rebellion. He loved us when we were very, very, very unlovable.

And he loved us anyway. That's why divine love is the fruit of the Spirit. You read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and what do we have? We have a discussion here of what the fruit of the Spirit looks like. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. It's supernatural. It comes from above. It is not generated by your nature or my nature. It comes to us from God.

And that's why we can love. There's some of you here today who don't know that work of the Spirit. Maybe because you've never trusted Christ as your Savior. That's one reason and I appeal to you to believe in Jesus as Savior. But there are others of you who've trusted Christ as Savior but if I may be so clear as to say that your heart is so full of resentment, of anger toward God and toward others, your heart does not give the Spirit of God that has been poured out upon his people an opportunity to work in you.

And therefore there's no help from God in the midst of your situation. Many years ago when they went into the pyramids of Egypt, they discovered that grain was buried along with the pharaohs. And surprisingly though this grain was thousands of years old, they took it and put it in some soil and gave it some sunshine and some water and it grew. There you have the life in the kernel but it is there. It cannot break forth. It's helpless. It cannot reproduce.

Why? Because as Jesus said except a corn of wheat falls into the grounds and dies it abides alone. Now if we are willing to die to our selfish interests and die to our resentments then we discover that the power of God and the love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the blessed Holy Spirit of God begins to do his work in us and we love on a supernatural level and not just the natural level of love.

That's what divine love is. And by the way, that's the way the early church won the world for Christ in the paganism. One day Bishop Samuel who died in a hail of gunfire when Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Egypt in the early 1980s told a friend of mine how Christianity captured pagan North Africa. He said in those days there wasn't abortion as we know it today but people took babies that they didn't want and they left them on the steps to die. If somebody came along and wanted the baby they could pick it up if not the baby would just cry itself to death for starvation. Now what should the church do? What they did is they organized baby runs and they went into the highways and the byways looking for abandoned babies and remember in those days they did not have baby bottles so they brought them to nursing mothers who adopted these children as if they were their own. And the world took note and said where in the world is all this love coming from? And then when the plagues came the Christians died differently as I've mentioned many times and that gave great impetus to the Christian cause because they died with hope. But furthermore they would take these bodies many of the Christians had were garbage collectors because they were marginalized they were given the poor jobs they would take these dead bodies that were trashed and would wash them and bury them arguing that in light of the resurrection and final judgment even the wicked have a right to a decent burial. And through acts of kindness they won the world. They gained credibility. That's the way we're going to touch the world folks.

That's the way it's going to be done. You've heard me say it that the world can out entertain us the world can out finance us the world can outnumber us but let it never be said that the world can out love us. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who's been given unto us.

Supernatural love. Some of you may be acquainted with the name Charles Weigel though I wouldn't expect you to be he lived many many years ago he wrote the hymn no one ever cared for me like Jesus and that's why I know of him but Charles Weigel was in Pasadena California one time at a Bible conference at which he was speaking. And one evening when he came into the meeting someone said to him did you enjoy the rose gardens and he said yes. He thought that he had been seen and that was fine but then somebody else said hey did you enjoy the rose gardens and he began to think wow wonder how many people were out there and then he heard it from others and he said how come all of you know that I was in the rose garden. And they said because you brought the fragrance of the roses with you. How are people in the loop tomorrow going to know that you've been with Jesus?

That's the question. How are people in your family and in your sphere of influence going to know that you've been in the presence of Jesus? It'll only happen if we bring the fragrance along with us. And when we bring that fragrance oftentimes we don't even have to tell people that we belong to Jesus because they'll know that we have brought his fragrance, his love, his caring, his concerns because our selfish interests have been put to death and we say Jesus love through me, care through me, live through me. That's what first Corinthians chapter 13 is all about. Some of you who are listening to this the Holy Spirit has been working in your heart. You know that there are blockages to the love that God wants to have in your heart and the blockages are deep and I understand there that they are there and I'm not being naive about our ability to put them away.

All that I know is that if we do everything else and lack love we are nothing. Would you join me as we pray? So what has God said to you today in this message?

What do you need to say to him today? Father, would you by the blessed Holy Spirit of God do what my words cannot do? Would you untie the knots? Would you generate faith? Would you give life? Would you give hope that has long since died? And would you help all of us in a moment of real honesty to examine ourselves and ask who do we hate?

Who do we dislike? How does first Corinthians 13 apply to us? In those hearts in which you've begun a work completed we pray in Jesus name.

Amen. Well my friend this is Pastor Lutzer and speaking of love I want to ask you a question. How does the world with all of its problems, its pandemics and plagues and natural disasters and so much that is happening on this planet that is so very painful, how do we square that with the love of God? Can we go on believing in the love of God when we know right well he could rid us of these difficulties?

Those are the kinds of questions I answer in the book entitled pandemics, plagues and natural disasters. What is God saying to us? Are they judgments? What are we to learn from these experiences? How can we continue to trust God in the midst of one disappointment after another? I wrote this book to encourage believers and to help them to know that it is important for us to go on believing no matter what.

Well this book can be yours for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Ask for the new book entitled pandemics, plagues and natural disasters. What is God saying to us? And how can we continue to believe in a time of great hurt and unanswered questions?

It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. I think many listeners will identify with the concern of Kelly who has a family problem. She writes, My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are highly narcissistic. My husband and I have struggled to love them while also making them accountable so as to not condone their actions.

This has been difficult on our marriage and I recognize we both need help forgiving them. I sympathize with them to some degree since I was a victim of verbal abuse within my family and sometimes exhibit some of the same narcissistic characteristics. I'm seeking a Christian perspective on this topic.

I'd appreciate any information you could provide. Kelly, I want you to know that I found your question very, very interesting. It's intriguing because it deals with human nature. First of all, narcissism. Let me simply say that narcissistic people basically receive all information and they want answers to two questions. Number one, how does this make me look and how does this make me feel? They are very self-centered, very self-focused, self-absorbed.

Everything has to do with them. So narcissistic people are very difficult to live with and I can understand that when your mother-in-law and sister-in-law are narcissistic and they want to control your marriage, which narcissistic people want to do because, remember, they always have to be the center of the attention and control is one of their means to get it. I'm glad that you and your husband have set down some boundaries and I hope that you stick to those because in-laws can destroy good marriages. Secondly, I'm interested in the fact that you yourself admit to narcissism. That's a tremendous step forward.

Most narcissistic people are so defensive that if you point out their narcissism, they've got a hundred reasons why they don't have a problem but other people do. So I hope that you make progress and that progress can be made as you begin to be less self-defensive, more willing to admit that you are wrong, to confess what you see in your heart and to give your husband the privilege of helping you along. And by the way, he may struggle with his problems too, so both of you need to help each other. I'm optimistic that you are making progress, Kelly. Thanks for letting us know your question and God bless you. Some wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at 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 Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Some feel that the gift of tongues is evidence of the Holy Spirit's presence. Others say modern tongues do not form words in any known language. Next time on Running to Win, Erwin Lutzer begins a careful study in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, a study you won't want to miss. We'll see what the Bible says about the regulation of spiritual gifts in the local church. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.