Finding Your Priorities Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. 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. Today we'll look at how to determine our priorities, and then how to live by them.

Please 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. Pastor Lutzer, sometimes we give in to the tyranny of the urgent.

I'm sure you'll be helping us get our tasks in the right order. You know, Dave, those who know me well have heard me say many, many times that life is short and eternity is long. And that's why it's so important for us here at Running to Win to continue to stress the gospel of Jesus Christ. And to the glory of God, Running to Win is now heard in more than 20 different countries.

It is heard in the Middle East, in many countries, and all that because of the support of God's people. I really do believe that when you invest in the ministry of Running to Win, you are investing in eternity. And that's why I encourage you to become an endurance partner. Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

If you want to find out more, here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. Now let's open our Bibles to understand once again how we can think about eternity even as we continue to exist right here in time. So let me begin today by asking a question. What is the church? What is the church? Is it a building? Well, I'm sure by now you know that the answer is no, it's not a building.

In fact, in the New Testament that word church is used many times and it is never used for a building. It is always used for a group of people. Well, what is it that binds the people together? What brings people here? Is it because we have a common interest in the same music styles and we all like to come together and sing many of the same hymns and listen to sermons from the Bible? Is that really what bonds us together here at the church?

Well, that may be part of it, but that's not the main point. Is it because we share common values? We're all upset with the immorality of our country. We're all pro-life. Is that what binds us together?

No, we may agree on those things, but that's not what binds us together into one. Remember that the church is not a collection of individuals. The church is a body. It is an organism that has been created by God and we are a part of Christ and therefore a part of one another, members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And as we emphasized last time, there's nothing that you can do to get away from the fact that if you're a believer, you belong to the body. You're stuck with us, just like my thumb is stuck with the rest of my fingers.

That's it. Well, all of us, I think, all of us I hope would like to live in such a way that we die with very few regrets. In fact, you know that one of the purposes of Moody Church, it can be stated differently, but one of the purposes is to prepare for eternity.

Somebody asks you, what's Moody Church all about? Well, they're preparing us to live forever. And we know that we are going to give an account in the judgment seat of Christ for the way in which we lived and we all want to do as well as we possibly can.

How? What should our priorities be? Well, I've chosen as the text Romans chapter 12, a very familiar passage of scripture, but we shall look at it in its context. Romans chapter 12, where the Apostle Paul is going to argue that first of all we should submit and then we should serve in that order. And we'll be talking about spiritual gifts because the title of this series of messages is Finding Where You Fit, and we want to help you find where you fit within the body. Notice it begins by saying, I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The first phrase to underline is to present your bodies. Those three words, present your bodies to God. Isn't that amazing that God would be interested in these bodies? Whether they are wrinkled or smooth, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are old or young, whether they are beautiful or not so beautiful, whether they are the right weight or not the right weight in relationship to your height, we're to give our bodies to God. Now what I'd like us to do is to notice how this offering is to take place and some of the characteristics of this gift that we are to make to the Almighty. First of all, notice it is voluntary. I urge you brethren by the mercies of God.

Nobody is forcing you to do this. This is something that Paul is saying you should agree on. I notice the contrast in the Old Testament. A lamb was chosen and laid out on the altar. It had no alternative. Nobody went to the lamb and said, you know, we're looking for a sacrifice and you look pretty good. Would you consider this?

No. The lamb was chosen, had no say in the matter, was put to death and had died. But God is no longer interested in those dead sacrifices. He is interested in the living sacrifices and while if we are his people we have been chosen, the other fact of course is that voluntarily by the work of God in our hearts, God wants us to be willing to give ourselves to him. This is a voluntary choice.

I urge you to make it. It is voluntary. Secondly it is complete. Now when that lamb was taken in the Old Testament and laid out on the altar, everything was accounted for.

That which was not burned would have been eaten. It was a total sacrifice to God and Paul says that's the way you should give your body to God. I think personally that it becomes much more meaningful if we give our bodies to God piece by piece. It means that when we yield to God we give him our eyes and we say whatever we see we want these eyes to receive those things that please you. We have to give him our hands and say whatever these hands do may these hands please God.

Wherever these feet take me may they take me to places that please God and not to those places that grieve the heart of God. Whatever my mind thinks I want to give my mind to God whatever it may have within it and then my heart, my affections, a total submission of ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. It is voluntary.

It is complete. It is a priestly sacrifice. You didn't know that you were a priest. Maybe you didn't know that you were a priest and that you could even offer a sacrifice.

The Old Testament it was limited to the priests. The people brought the sacrifices but the priests had to offer them. Here we are invited to offer these sacrifices because we are priests before God and the scripture says that it is acceptable to God. Christ makes our yieldedness acceptable.

The Old Testament you have the sacrifice of praise you have the sacrifice of our wealth but here we have the sacrifice of ourselves and when that happens God sees that he really does have all of us every bit of us as a sacrifice to God. It is worship. Notice it says and this is the new American translation it is your spiritual service of worship.

That's the way you worship God. Now we come together here at the church and we sing hymns and we are led in prayer and we are led in scripture and we have an exposition of the word and in a sense that of course is worship. In fact we have a committee that meets together because we want to do all that we possibly can to make this a worship experience. My friend today worship does not stop at 12 o'clock on Sunday. Worship happens 24 hours a day. Worship is also supposed to happen on Monday and on Tuesday because worship means that I have given my body to God as a sacrifice for him to use it as he wills and that is something that I'm committed to day in and day out. It is worship that is acceptable to God.

And finally let me say it is reasonable. The King James says which is your reasonable service and and certainly it is reasonable. You know when Paul says in chapter 12 verse 1 I urge you by the mercies of God you can't understand that unless you realize what happens in chapters 1 to 11. Paul talks about sin, the fact that we are born in sin and slaves to sin. He talks about redemption. He talks about sanctification. He talks about the role of Israel in God's plan and how the word of God will never fail and he breaks out in that great crescendo of praise in chapter 11 verse 33. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him that he might be paid back to him again for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Now in light of that isn't it reasonable isn't it reasonable to say God here I am totally. Now let me ask you a question why is it so easy to do that on Sunday to put ourselves on the altar on Sunday and then find ourselves crawling off the altar on Monday?

Why is it? Well he says in verse 2 do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind. It is the pressure of the world. It's the pressure of the world without that corresponds to our old nature within and that's why sacrifice of this kind is very difficult very difficult.

It is not at all easy. There is such a thing as the suffering the suffering of temptation. You know that Phillips puts it this way he said do not let the world push you into its own mold and that's a very interesting translation. You know that when you have a mold that means that all the fenders go into this mold and that's why when they get taken out and they put on a car all those cars look alike. I don't know how many of you remember these days but I can actually remember back to the 50s.

Isn't that amazing? I can remember before I was born but in those days you could see a car a half mile away and tell which one it was because there were just Fords and every Ford looked alike and the Shebs all looked alike and then I think you had the Plymouth and one or two other kinds and that was it. That was it.

Those were the only kinds. They all looked alike. Today I can't find my own car in a parking lot. It is so confusing. Listen my friend you know what the world says you're all going to look alike. You're going to look alike and the pressure is there.

The pressure is there to see the same movies, to be bought at the same price, to love the same money, to fulfill the same lusts. The pressure of the world is there and that's why it's so difficult to stay on that altar. Paul says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed and the Greek word is metamorphos. Same word that is used for the translation, the transfiguration of Jesus Christ and be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So often do you need to have your mind renewed every day before nine o'clock in the morning. Every day before nine o'clock in the morning you spend that 15 minutes pouring over the scripture and saying God I won't put the scripture down until I have a promise or something from your word to sustain me by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Now here's what Paul is saying.

First of all he's saying I want you to submit, submit. And now he says I want you to serve. If you underline the words, present your bodies, now you can underline the phrase prove what the will of the Lord is that is good and acceptable and perfect. And how do we prove it? We've given ourselves to God. We have yielded ourselves to God. And now how do we prove his will?

Now you're looking at the text aren't you? You know I believe we make a big mistake in stopping at the end of verse two and preaching a message and telling everybody to go home. I think that verse three is a continuation of verse two because he says four through the grace that is given to me.

He is still thinking of the very same idea, namely the will of God. And what he's going to say is the way in which we experience of the will of God is first of all to know ourselves. For through the grace given to me I say to every man, and this of course includes all the women, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith, to know who you are. Don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Have you ever noticed in business or in work relationships how oftentimes a person's perception of himself is so different from the perception that other people have of their abilities and their gifts and their talents? And we're all subject here to the possibility of deception.

Remember this, that if you believe a lie, it becomes the truth for you. And if you think that you are something that you are not, you actually believe that lie and find it very difficult to accept the truth. You know of course that all of us struggle with thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and we express this first of all through bragging. But everybody knows nobody loves a braggart, so we do it in another way.

We don't overvalue ourselves but we pretend to undervalue ourselves, hoping that someone will correct us, hoping that somebody will set the record straight. So a woman might say, you know, I'm so sorry for the food that I've just cooked you because I'm just a terrible cook. What she wants you to say is, hey, you're not a terrible cook. This sounds or rather this tastes great.

This tastes great. Somebody says, you know, I'm not very good at speaking. And what they want you to say is, you're very good at it, really, really, really. They want you to correct them. You know the way to expose the hypocrisy is of course just to agree with them.

Simply say, yeah, that's right, I agree, you are a terrible cook. Yeah, you aren't very good at that. As a matter of fact, you're very perceptive when it comes to this. Please don't miss this point. You know what Paul says? He says that you should not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think as a way of having sound judgment.

The Greek word means sanity. Come to think of it, what is a characteristic of insane people? They think that they are someone whom they are not. You can go into mental institutions and find those who believe that they are Jesus Christ or Napoleon.

They don't really know who they are and they are thinking of themselves in terms of someone else. If you want to be sane, know who you are. Okay, know yourself. That's the way you'll know the will of God and then know your gift. Know your gift. Verse four, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. And since we have gifts that differ and aren't you glad they do according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly. And now he lists seven. And could I say that many people believe that these are the basic core gifts.

Probably you have one of these seven. Prophecy, that's the ability to give forth the word of God and to exhort men and women to repentance and faith. To service, verse seven, in his serving, do well in your serving, or he who teaches in teaching, the ability to communicate God's truth. Or he who exhorts, exhortation and teaching are related, but an exhorter is always very anxious to see the change in the lives of people because of the word of God and the way in which he has taught it.

He always aims toward changed lives. He who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives, let him do it with liberality. Most of the giving in the early church was secret. Some of it may not have been, but the person who has the gift of giving usually does it secretly. It's not like the person who stood up in a meeting and said, you know, I would like to give a hundred dollars to this project, but I would like to do it anonymously.

Not like that, no. And then notice it says he who leads, do it with diligent. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

And so those are the seven gifts. And what I interpret Paul to be saying is this, if you want to know the will of God, if you want to know where you fit, you must know yourself and you must know where you fit and how you serve within the body. So what Paul is really saying is first of all, you submit and then you serve.

And that's the order. You know, my friend, this is Pastor Luther. I'd like to ask you a question. Do you think that this statement is correct?

It's just coming to mind right now as I speak. That God has given to the church all the resources that the church needs to fulfill his sovereign will. And what he wants all of us to do is to live up to our potential, to the opportunities that he gives us. And you know, it is of course an investment in our church. That's what we've been emphasizing in these messages, but also an investment in ministries that continue to share the gospel.

Running to win is now heard in Arabic, in Egypt, in Iran, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East. And we do that because we are deeply committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is for everyone. Would you help us? Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

I like to think of it as holding our hands as together we are making a difference. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button for information.

Or if you prefer, call 1-888-218-9337. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. The Bible tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. This poses a dilemma for Jesse, one of our many running to win listeners. Here is the question Jesse asks, I have heard that faith is a gift from God and not something we can obtain on our own.

Is this true? Can you tell me how we can obtain faith? Jesse, it's a very good question.

But let me say this. I do believe that faith is a gift of God. But that doesn't mean that this faith is given to us in some kind of a vacuum, where we just simply walk around hoping that God someday is going to give us this gift of faith. Faith is generated actually by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you want to know how to get faith, what you do is you read the word of God. Now I do believe that on behalf of those who believe and trust Jesus Christ as Savior, that faith is indeed a gift. It is not something that you and I can conjure up, but it is a gift given to us by the Holy Spirit. But that gift is nurtured and it is given to us also by the word. The word and the spirit work together to grant faith.

So there's your answer. Get into the word of God, have it wash your soul, and it will also bring more faith to your heart. Thank you, Jesse, and 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. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. In the body of Christ, the strong help the weak and the healthy help the ailing. Sometimes economic hardship takes its toll, and so on our next Running to Win, we'll hear about some practical ways we can support each other in times of need. Plan to tune in as Erwin Lutzer tells us about more of the gifts we can use in the body of Christ. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.