Finding Your Priorities 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, the strong help the weak and the healthy help the ailing. Sometimes economic hardship takes its toll, and so today we'll hear about some practical ways we can support each other in times of need.

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, we've all been through times of crisis, and these times can be real opportunities to display what it means to belong to the body of Christ. Well, Dave, talk about a time of crisis.

COVID-19 is not only a health crisis, it's an economic crisis. The suffering, the pain, the unanswered questions go on for a long time, and our country is hurting, and this is an opportunity for the body of Jesus Christ to live differently. You know, back in 1537, Martin Luther was told that he should get out of Wittenberg when the plague came, but he said, if I lay down my life helping others, I will have died a good death because greater love has no man than this, but that he lay down his life for his friends. Well, this is the kind of encouragement I give in a new book I've written entitled Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters. What is God saying to us? Five chapters are devoted to what God says about these terrible events. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours, and I need to tell you that you're going to be encouraged because I'm going to talk about a hope that really does endure.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now we go to the pulpit of Moody Church and learn how the body of Christ should function. 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 $100 to this project, but I would like to do it anonymously.

Not like that, not like that. 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. Now let's look at the continuation of these verses.

Paul now goes on to show that we should support one another because remember we are not a law unto ourselves. I pick up the text in verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy. There is a kind of love that is very hypocritical. There is a kind of service that does it out of a sense of duty but pretends that it is being done out of love. Abhor what is evil.

My, that text in itself could be a message today. Rather than loving what is evil, we should abhor it and cling to what is good. Be devoted one to another in brotherly love.

Give preference to one another in honor. Not lagging back in diligence but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you, bless and curse not.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep be of the same mind. What's Paul getting at? What he's saying is that it isn't enough simply to serve. He says you must serve in relationship to the entire body. He says you must serve to support others.

You must serve in such a way that you become concerned about the other cells of the body that are around you because we are working at this together. Now looking at your Bible one more time in the 12th chapter I want you to notice something. In chapter 12 verse 1 he said present your bodies a living sacrifice. In verse 4 he talks about the body of Christ. He says for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so also though we are many are one body in Christ.

What Paul seems to be saying is that the reason we should give our bodies to God is because our bodies are actually the body of Jesus Christ. This is Christ on earth. You and I are Christ on earth. I don't mean to say at all that we are divine like Christ is, but we are his representatives.

As thou has sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world. We are that body. Now the human body heals itself. In fact the ability of the body to heal itself is awesome.

It is something that scientists can't explain because you see they can create various elements. They can put something together that is perhaps as strong as a bone, but when it breaks it can't heal itself. Yet God has given the body the ability to heal itself so that if it functions properly it can be healthy and strong and impact society and to impact the world. I want us to consider for a moment the body gathered. The body gathered.

That means us together on Sundays during the week, small groups, that's the body gathered. The reason that the body gathers is to grow and become strong so that if you have a broken bone it is our responsibility to restore you, to help you to fix it. And some of you have slipped in life, haven't you? You may have slipped morally or you have slipped spiritually and you feel as if you are now no longer a part of the body or that you can never really be restored in a full sense to the body. It's our responsibility to help you to do that. You know Paul says in Galatians that if any of you fall, he says if anyone is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such an one with a spirit of meekness and with a recognition that you yourself might be tempted. When you have a broken bone it has to be set tenderly.

You don't want somebody to take a crowbar and to try to set it. And we're in the bone setting business. So if you've fallen, we want to restore you. If you have a disease, we want to heal you by giving you the right nutrients, by giving you the right vitamins through the right teaching, through the right fellowship, through the right interaction in our Sunday schools, in the ABF, in the small groups, in the choir. In all of our relationships what we want to do is to help you be healed. Now sometimes the body has a malignancy and those are some cells that have just decided they're going to do their own thing and not think of the good of the body. And that malignancy such as cancer, these are healthy cells but they no longer are acting for the good of the body.

What they're saying to themselves is we're going to do our own thing and we're going to become strong in ourselves. Now that's why there are times when the body needs church discipline. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 regarding a man who needed discipline and the church was overlooking it, he says a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. So get rid of that man.

Not getting rid of him permanently but to restore him, cut yourself off from him and excommunicate him from the church. So that's a part of our responsibility too. You see what God is saying is that we need each other.

We need to submit, we need to serve and then we need to support. Be devoted to one another, rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep and bring everybody along as the body grows. Today in your bulletin you have a statement of our vision for Moody Church and I hope that you take it home and memorize it.

It is to be known in Chicago as a caring, culturally diverse community and a lot of weight rests on that word community because this isn't simply an ordinary community. This is a community that has been bonded together by Christ himself and that we might represent Christ through a clear witness, quality ministries and individual lifestyles. Don't overlook that because there is such a thing as the church gathered but there is also the church scattered. The church gathered on Sunday, the church scattered on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and that's where ministry happens. That's where there is the fire of God in the life of Moody Church. Remember when Jesus went to his hometown and he took the scroll from the synagogue and he began to read, isn't it instructive as to what the people said?

They didn't have any complaint about what he was reading but what they said was why is he doing that? This is the carpenter's son. Carpenters aren't supposed to read the Bible. This is for the priests.

My friend today, the average person in the city of Chicago thinks this. Why are you talking about God and you're just a carpenter? Pastors and priests are supposed to be doing that. I want you to know today that no matter what we preach, no matter what we sing, no matter what happens within this building, we will never impact the city of Chicago for Christ until there is a vision of every single person believing that he or she has been planted by God in their community and in their vocation to represent Jesus Christ. Until every carpenter knows that he is a carpenter for Christ. Until every banker knows that he is a banker for Christ. Until every hospital worker knows that he or she works there for Christ. Until every hairdresser knows that he or she is there for Jesus Christ. We will never enliven the city of Chicago and the city will never talk about Christ because we are his representatives.

Have you ever noticed this? Turn to Acts which is a book just before the book of Romans and let's look at verse one. The book of Acts verse one. Now the book of Acts was written by Luke just as the book of Luke was written by Luke.

But notice what Luke says in verse one of Acts. He says, the first account I have composed Theophilus. Theophilus, that word means lover of God.

That would be a nice name to name a son, Theophilus. About all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. What he's saying is I wrote the book of Luke to tell you the things that Jesus began to do and to teach. Now the book of Luke ends with the ascension. Could it be that what Jesus Christ began he doesn't finish? Did he begin something and then end it halfway?

No. The book of Acts is a continuation of what Jesus began both to do and to teach. You see the body of Jesus Christ, the physical body that was raised from the dead is now in heaven but Christ says I am on earth just as surely as I was during my incarnation because I am now there in the lives of my people and they are my body and they continue to do and to teach what I began.

And you read it in the book of Acts and then you read it through 2,000 years of church history with varying degrees of success and failure, the church continues the work of Christ. My friend today, will you remember that you have been created by God for his glory? You have been saved for his glory and now you represent Christ for his glory wherever, wherever you may work, serve, or live.

You represent him. So Paul is saying first of all submit yourself to God. Submit yourself to God. Give your body to God. Simply say Lord all that I am, all that I have, all that I ever hope to be I give to you and if there are some mountains in your life that you think God cannot overcome, I want you to see today that God is greater than those mountains of limitation, greater than those mountains of sin. God is greater.

You submit. Secondly, God wants you to serve. Find out what your gift is but then you support, support. Let there be no person who has broke a bone but that there is someone who is willing to help be restored. Let there be no person who is lonely or feels rejected but that someone is willing to make them a part of the circle again.

We support. Recognizing that the purpose of it all is that we might glorify God through representing him when the church is scattered, gathered today, scattered tomorrow. Some of you may know the story of the church in Berlin, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church built in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm the first in which you can go and you can see reliefs of the Kaiser and Christ together because in those days the nationalism of Germany was such that it was believed that those who died in World War One were actually martyrs for Jesus Christ. But nevertheless, the church was terribly bombed during the war and you'll never understand the extent to which the bomb damage really happened unless you see a picture of how it originally looked and only really a part, the part that supports the steeple is still there. And the people of Berlin decided that they would not restore the church completely, they would allow all the bomb damage to be there as a memorial to World War Two with a hope that it would never happen again. In the church there is a statue of Christ which during the bombing fell and his right arm was broken off. And they were going to restore the statue and finally they decided no we won't.

And they haven't. You can go there to Berlin today and you can see the statue. Christ stands there but without a right arm. What the people wanted to say is that we are his arm. We are his arm.

And that's the bottom line. We are his body. We are his arm. If anyone is going to minister to unwed mothers, we are the ones who are going to be doing that. If anyone is going to be ministering to single mothers whose husbands have left them, we are the ones who are going to do the ministry because we are Christ to that person. If anyone is going to minister to those who are broken in body and broken in spirit and helplessly addicted, we are going to be doing the ministering because we are the hand of Christ, his body. If anyone is going to have to know the good news of the gospel and how they can connect to God and become a part of him, we are going to do that because we are his body. And tomorrow morning I'm going to think about the members of Moody Church and my heart is going to well up with praise and gratitude to God knowing that the church gathered is now the church scattered with not just a representative of Jesus Christ located here singing the songs and listening to the message, but we are now scattered throughout greater Chicago, everywhere, being Christ, being the body, energizing, giving life, restoring and blessing. That is our calling.

And when we find where we fit, we'll die without regrets. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you that very graciously you have allowed us the privilege of living at a day and age when the body of Christ is so sorely needed in our broken world. When we think of the pain of abuse and we think of the heart-wrenching decisions that people have made, the mothers who have had abortions who need to be restored and they need to be affirmed and know that they're forgiven and cleansed, and we think of all the fathers who have neglected their children, where can we even begin?

The needs are so great. But we thank you today that you've called us to do your work and to continue what you have begun. Lord, everybody is coming out of the closets today. We pray that believers might come out of the closets. And may your grace and your love be extended to all. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer and I need to ask, have you ever lived at a time when the world has been so needy?

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc throughout the world. What the world needs is the body of Jesus Christ to function. But in order for us to function, we need hope. Sometimes we hear preachers say, oh, you know, just trust God. Well, yeah, trust God. Does that mean that you're going to get your job back? Does that mean that you're going to be healed? Does that mean that all of your prayers are going to be answered?

No. What I discuss in my book entitled Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters, What is God Saying to Us? I there show that God has given us a hope that endures to the end, no matter how difficult life is.

God has called us to this moment. And for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com and I'll give you time to get a pencil or a pen to write down also this phone number, 1-888-218-9337.

The book is Pandemics, Plagues, and Natural Disasters, and that number, 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. When helping others begins to hurt, when is enough enough?

Linda listens to Running to Win in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has this story. I have a needy neighbor. When I try to help by giving him groceries, I run out of food. When have you helped too much?

When do you need to stop giving and care for yourself? Linda, first of all, I want to commend you because obviously you are a woman who has a great deal of compassion. There are plenty of people who would see the very same situation as you do.

They would see this man in need and they would find opportunity to pass by on the other side, reminding us, of course, of the parable that Jesus Christ told of the Good Samaritan. It seems, however, as if you have gone to the opposite extreme. Maybe you've helped too much. In fact, that's the question that you are asking. So let me give you a couple of thoughts.

I hope they'll help you. First of all, let us make sure that when we help others, we don't simply contribute to their codependency. Now, I don't know whether you're doing that because I don't know the situation.

I don't know this man's needs. But it is possible, you know, for people to get so used to having others serve them that they forget that they also have responsibility. So you need to be sure that you take care of that. Secondly, if you have a family, remember that your first obligation is to them. You can help others, but in terms of obligation, when do you stop? If you yourself run out of food, well, there's an obligation there to your husband and to your children.

Finally, I'd suggest that you do both. Do what you can to help this friend across the street, but take care of yourself as well, so that the conflict does not become an either-or, but that you, with the help of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, are able to balance both obligations. Thank you, Linda, for your compassion. And thank you, Pastor Lutzer, for your answer.

If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can. Just 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. Our lives are the books people read every day. Those outside the church are drawn to experience the love that we as believers share. Next time on Running to Win, a look at why we do what we do and what our underlying motive must be if we're to reach the lost. Join us for Erwin Lutzer's fourth and final message, The Motivation of Love. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.