Finding Your Place Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. In the body of Christ there is great diversity. Mature Christians enjoy the gifts of every member of the body, since each believer has a unique contribution to make to the growth of the Kingdom of Christ on earth.

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. Master Lutzer, are the gifts some are given more important than the gifts others receive? Well, the answer to your question, Dave, is yes, there are some gifts that are more important than others, but it is essential for us to recognize that every single gift is necessary. Some parts of my body are more important than others, but every part makes a contribution.

Every part is necessary. Now let me ask you a different question to all of our listeners, and that is, when Job experienced the death of ten children, and you know the story well, I'm sure, it is because God had given the devil the authority for wind and for hail to kill his children and his cattle. Why didn't Job at the end say the Lord gave and the devil took away? Because he had good theology. Those are the kinds of questions I discuss in my new book entitled Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters, and the subtitle is very important, What is God Saying to Us, where I emphasize the sovereignty of God?

Let me put it to you plainly. If COVID-19 is out of God's hands, then I am out of God's hands, because after all, I could get the virus, I could die of the disease. Would you like encouragement? Would you like some tough theological questions discussed? Pandemics, plagues, and natural disasters, here's what you do.

For a gift of any amount, you go to rtwoffer.com, that's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let us open our Bibles as we continue our discussion of spiritual gifts. You know why there's inferiority in the church?

And I would like to take care of that in the next couple of minutes if I could. I'm going to try, but I'm not so naive as to think that I can accomplish it. But let me tell you why. It's because of the idea, the perverse idea, that church is going to church on Sunday and having a wonderful meeting, and that's church. And when you go to church, you notice that there are certain people who lead the service, there are certain people who sing because they're particularly gifted, and therefore people say, well, I can't sing like that, I can't read the scripture like that, I can't speak like that, and therefore there's nothing for me to do. Oh, please, get rid of that idea forever.

Bury it. What we need to do is to understand that the body of Jesus Christ is to go about the earth healing the brokenhearted. The body of Jesus Christ comes together on Sunday, but it has its ministry on Monday and on Tuesday as we go out into the world and represent Jesus in stores and factories and office buildings and wherever we may find ourselves as his representatives.

And that's what we need to understand. And we will never electrify the church again. We will never see the church transforming society unless once again we understand the vision of Jesus going about explaining to people how they can have a relationship with God, explaining forgiveness and reconciliation to God, and going into the highways and the byways, being willing to be identified with the people of the world to lead them to the savior about whom we sing so beautifully. And that's the responsibility of the church. And you see, that's why we need all the members of the body. Everyone has a function, maybe not in a public meeting, but every member functioning uniquely made by God to fit somewhere in the body.

No room for inferiority, but no room for superiority. We come to the same text. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? You know what the problem with the eyes are? They say, well, why can't everybody be an eye just like me?

And the mouths bless them. They say, why can't everybody be a mouth just like me? And so they begin to feel that other members are inferior because everybody should be like me.

I cannot tell you the harm that has come to the body of Jesus Christ and the weakness of the body because there are members in the body who will not accept other members who have weaknesses. Particularly, it's difficult to accept those who have weaknesses in the area in which we are strong, you see. And so we say, in effect, why can't he be like me?

Well, I think it was Will Rogers who said, I've never yet met a man of whom I wish there were two, so that's one reason why he shouldn't be like you. My dear friend, would you get over that? You see, many of you don't know me very well. You hear me on Sunday, but you don't really know my weaknesses, not really.

Now, those who work with me do, and some of them here are on the pastoral staff sitting right behind me. They know my weaknesses, but the reason they never say anything to anybody about them is because I know their weaknesses, too. There are areas in which I am weak, and the members of the pastoral staff, they are strong in those areas, so we work together. We try to minimize our weaknesses.

We maximize our strengths because we're helping one another, but there's no room for inferiority. I learned from someone that I have a part of my body that is absolutely essential to my preaching, but it's a part of the body that you have never seen, and I predict you'll never see it. It's my big toe, because apparently, if you didn't have a big toe, you couldn't maintain your balance. Do you know that your toes are constantly sending these messages to the brain and saying, now you have to tilt a little bit this way, and he leaned this way, so to compensate, you've got to do this, and just to think, all that is happening, and I'm not even aware of it.

It's happening quite well, actually, without me being aware of it. So do you realize today that I could not preach like I do if I didn't have a big toe? So since I've learned that, I've always been protecting my toes, and don't you dare step on my toes, because they are a part of my ministry. You see, what God wants us to do is to understand there is diversity.

Accept it, and enjoy it, and delight in the fact that we have some people in this church who are very, very different. There's unity, there's diversity, and thirdly, there is interdependence. Interdependence. Look at verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. And Paul then goes on to say, it is truer, as I mentioned, that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker, are necessary, and those members that we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and they actually become very, very important. And so he goes on in verse 25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care one of another. And if one of the members suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one of the members is honored, all the members rejoice with it, because there is this interrelatedness within the body of Jesus Christ.

Here in Chicago, there used to be a law school, I don't know if it still is in existence, called the Kent Law School. And I'm told that there were two students who met almost on the first day of class, and they became fast friends and graduated together. One was a man without any arms, but he had good eyes, and another was a blind man. And the blind man would carry the books in accordance with the instructions and the guidance with the man who had no arms, and then in the evening when they studied, the man without the arms would read, of course, to the man who was blind, and that's the way they got through law school together. And it's a wonderful story that even though both of them were physically challenged, they made up for their own weaknesses by compensating by someone else coming to the rescue to help them.

Now that's what is called interdependence, interdependence. And I'm here today to try to exalt with all that is within me, and to the best of my ability, to exalt those works in the church and those gifts upon which we generally bestow less honor because they are invisible, but God honors them, and what we need to do is to think of creative ways in which to honor them as well. Let's take, for example, the maintenance people here at the church. You usually don't see many of them. Usually you see them when there is some kind of a tragedy that has happened or some kind of a need, but how long could we operate without the maintenance crew here at the church?

Not very long. How long could we operate without the nursery workers, without the ushers, without the parking attendants, without the Sunday school teachers, without the social committee that prepares those lovely meals that we have? How long could we operate without these ministries, which are often done in those areas where there is less visibility? Don't you dare tell me that they are less necessary. There's a terrible equation sometimes in our minds. Visibility, important.

No visibility, less importance. God says, no. They are all necessary to the working of the body, interdependent, one upon another. What is the bottom line?

The bottom line is simply this, my friend, today. You are a cell in the body. You are a part of the body of Jesus Christ. If you have believed in Christ and you impact the entire body for good or for ill, you impact it.

I'm not sure if it's true that a bee flying in Bolivia impacts the air currents in the United States, but I am sure of this, that your spiritual life impacts the Moody Church. No matter how remotely you may be involved in our ministries, no matter how distantly and independently you think you might be, every cell in my body either contributes to what's happening or else becomes a drag on the body and what is happening, because there's no such thing as a cell making it on its own. It receives the life from the body, the sustenance from the body, its interdependence on the body, and if it becomes a parasite and it lives off the body but doesn't contribute to the body, then it becomes a drag to the body. Now I don't mean to say, now there's some people who are going through times of hurting or there are some people who for whatever reason are unable to serve.

I'm not talking about them when I use that word parasites. I think of that man that I met in Florida who so tenderly looked after his wife who had Alzheimer's disease and how even though she couldn't serve him, how he served her, and therefore there are people within the body who give us opportunities to serve and they are not harming the body, they are benefiting the body. But there are some people who through their criticism, through their angry spirit, through their independent unbroken spirit and heart, they become a weight to the body rather than a blessing to the body. And we must bear them, yes, because the body must function but whether you're a hindrance or a help depends on the kind of cell you are within the body of Jesus Christ. Notice Paul says that we should have the same care for the body.

Last part of verse 25. I guess what he means is the same care that our physical bodies have. Have you ever slipped on ice? You slip on ice and your hands will go out and they'll absorb the blow and they won't even think about it.

They'll just do it like that. I've slipped on ice and my hands didn't say, well, you know, we don't want to get hit. Let's just go to the back and just let them fall on his face and his chest.

My hands have not done that. When I slip, they don't even pray about it. They don't say, now what shall we do?

Let's think about it. Instantly they are there and they will be willing to absorb the blow. The wrist will be broken, the fingers will be broken, the arm will be smashed, but we've got to do everything to protect the head and the heart and we'll do it.

That's the body of Jesus Christ functioning the way in which God intended it to function. You find somebody. You find somebody who is hurting. Paul says in verse 26, if one of the members suffer, all the members suffer with it. You say, well, what good is that if we just all suffer? The idea is that you suffer in order to help that other member in his or her suffering and you lighten their load. We can lighten the load of missionaries by writing to them.

We can lighten the load of those who are going through grief by calling them on the phone, praying with them, encouraging them, strengthening them, Paul says, strengthen those who have fallen down. And so that's the way we help and that's the way the body functions. You know anything about your white cells? I've never seen any of my white cells, but I read about the white cells in my body and you've got some too, though you've not seen them. I'm told by doctors that they ramble through the body as if they're going nowhere, just aimlessly.

They remind me of a college student who just can't make up his mind as to what his major should be. And that's the way the white cells are, meandering, no special aim, just here we are. But the minute you have a pin prick, they come from all over and nobody knows who lets them know.

You know, they don't have a fax machine and say, everybody get to the hand, we're in trouble. But they come from all over the body and instantly there are some of those white cells who immediately take the bacteria and they wrap themselves around the bacteria and then they detonate and they end up dying and they give their life to keep poison from entering the body. And if you have enough of those happening, we call it pus. And you see these white cells of which I think there are, what is it, 50 million, whatever, they exist in the body, but the moment they are needed, they are there, willing to lay down their lives. And is not that what the scripture says we should be willing to do for one another, even give our lives for the brethren as one of our brothers did 2,000 years ago on the cross?

That's the responsibility of the church, the body functioning. So the Apostle Paul says, there is unity, the baptism of the Spirit. There is diversity.

Oh, let's just celebrate, celebrate our differences. And when you see a weakness, recognize that you have yours too, you have yours too. And then there's interdependence. And the bottom line is that the way I live, the victories and the defeats in my life and my use of my gifts or my lack of use of giftedness all impacts the body, and it becomes a part of the total picture. I'd like to remind you that the body is so important to Christ, so important to him, that it is the body for which he died. And as Paul says, the only way to get into it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that happens when we receive Jesus Christ as Savior. When we receive him into our lives, many different things happen. The Holy Spirit indwells us.

We drink from one's spirit. The Spirit baptizes us. We become a part of Christ. We receive a new head. We receive a new name, a new identity, and we thankfully are going to spend eternity in a brand new and different place. That's the ministry to which now we have been called as the Moody Church, as part of the total body, as an arm of the body, the great and joyous responsibility of representing Christ however he's put us together, however he's planted us, for his glory and for his honor. For as the body is not one member but many, so also is Christ. And I say, let it be.

Let it be so. And you join me as we pray. Our Father, we want to thank you today for every single person who has listened to this message. I thank you for every weak part of the body, and there are some. Going through trials and hurts and pains and disappointments, I thank you for each part of the body. I thank you that there is no such thing as a member of the body who is simply a nuisance because you have created each and each plays a part. Thank you for those who are strong in the body, those who can lift us up, those who can encourage. Thank you for those who are multi-gifted and then there are those with one gift or perhaps because of illness unable to use any gift, but still all a part of us sharing the same life, headed for the same destination, loving the same Savior. Father, help us to fall in love with Christ that we might fall in love with each other. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. And you know, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I need to emphasize that the Bible stresses that we shall be together forever and natural disasters remind us that life is short. Eternity is long.

I've written a new book entitled Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters. What is God saying to us? I believe that it will be a great blessing and a help to you to think through theologically God's relationship to these events. It's also a great book that you can give to unconverted friends because they will be challenged to see God in a new way.

For a gift of any amount, you can go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. What constitutes marriage in the eyes of God? One listener wants to know. He asks, Is it still true, as it seems to say in the Old Testament, that if a man has sex with a woman, then she is his wife, even though they did not have a ceremony and lack recognition from the government?

Thanks so much for your very practical question, but there are a couple of things that we need to sort out as we answer it. First of all, it is not true that in the Old Testament you were married to the person that you had sex with. Now, it's true sometimes it appears that way because you remember Isaac, for example, took Rebekah to his tent and they became intimate and she became his wife. But always remember that in addition to that sexual relationship, there was also a promise to live together, and that's what the wedding feast was about. It wasn't simply a man connecting with a woman sexually and then suddenly you have a marriage. No, there had to be a commitment, and that's true in the New Testament as well.

I frequently have counseled young women who perhaps got pregnant who feel obligated to marry the father of the child. But if it's going to be a bad marriage to begin with, it'll probably be a bad marriage farther on because the act itself did not mean that they were married in God's eyes. What was lacking is the vow, the covenant to live together until death do us part. Now, you also say they did not have recognition from the government. The reason for that is, of course, that Israel had an entirely different system.

It wasn't so much the government that gave them recognition as the community. And that's why, to repeat again, the wedding feast was such a big thing. It's because in the eyes of that community, the elders and the leaders of Israel, people were married.

Today, our structure is a little bit different. We do have governments, and as a result of that, we also, when we marry someone, file certain papers and applications with the government. So always remember, marriage is the intimate relationship plus the promise to live together.

The vow has to be a part of it. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for that clarification. 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. As members of the body of Christ, we have a mission to fulfill, and a disciplined use of our resources is key to getting God's work done. Next time on Running to Win, we'll look at how to determine our priorities, and then how to live by them. Plan to join us for a message on finding your priorities, taken from Romans chapter 12. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.