I Believe In Belonging Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Going it alone has a certain appeal for some, no one to tell you what to do or when to do it. But in the long run, all of us need someone else, other people with whom to make the journey of life. For the believer, the place to get that is the church.

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, tell us about this new series you're calling I Believe in the Church. Well, you know, Dave, I think that in our day when there is so much individualism, we have to rekindle a desire and a passion for the church. And by that, I mean the gathered body that meets in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, where there are the ordinances, where there is leadership.

We need to be sure that we are committed to a body. Now, we're living at a time when because of the internet, many people stay home and go to church, they choose their favorite preacher, and they listen to him. But we need to recognize that that is quite different than actually attending church, doing life together. And that's why I think that this series of messages is so critical, perhaps more critical than it ever has been in the past, because of the fact that there are so many people who no longer attend church.

And we need one another. And Jesus said that upon this rock, I will build my church. And the early church was always a church of community. Throughout the centuries, the strength of the church was dependent upon that community, and that has not changed.

So let's listen carefully. I want you to know that I believe in the church. And I believe in the church because Jesus said that the church belongs to him.

It is his church. I believe in the church because Jesus said that he would build his church. I believe in the church because Jesus said that it was invincible.

The gates of Hades would not prevail against it. And because of that, I also believe in this church, which is a part of the larger body of Jesus Christ. I believe in the vision and the ministry of the Moody Church, founded in 1864. When we speak of the church, we are not speaking of a building.

I know we use that terminology, don't we? We say that I'm going to the church. But actually, the church is not a building. The church is the body of Jesus Christ. The church is people. The church is the people whom God has called out of the world, saved, and now sent back into the world to represent him in the midst of this generation. You are the church. That's why, as I've mentioned before, when a plane is coming into O'Hare Field and we're coming over Lake Michigan, and I look down upon the city of Chicago, I often try to find the building Moody Church.

Sometimes I can see it, sometimes I can't. But I say to myself that that's not the church anyway. The church are the people who are in factories and hospitals and homes.

The church, that's you and me representing Christ wherever he has planted us. Now of course you know that here at the Moody Church, we want a vision that honors God. We want a vision that is not limited by our past. We thank God for our past. It's wonderful to belong to a church that is so well known within this city and really in evangelical circles at least throughout the United States and throughout the world.

My wife and I have been to China where we met people in a church there who knew of the ministry of DL Moody and knew of Moody Church. But I want you to know today that we do not want to look to our past and to have people think in terms of what has happened here in the past. We want to have a vision that makes people think of what God is doing at the Moody Church in the present, not just the past. We want to be able to look at the past as a rudder but not as an anchor. We want to be able to look at the past as, what shall we say? It is a guidepost but it's not a hitching post where we think that we are great because of our past. That's not the point.

God forbid that it should be. So we want a church that is much larger and not tied to our past in that sense. We also would like to ask God to give us a vision that is not limited by human opinions. Now, don't misunderstand. I know that God leads through human opinions, through the opinions of the leadership of the church.

I understand that. But I'm saying that we certainly don't want to be hindered by the opinions of a few people. And I can say that today because as I speak here today, I'm not aware of any instance in which we are being hindered because of the opinions of a few.

But it sometimes does happen. We should not be hindered because of our traditions in the sense that our tradition always has to be revised and come under biblical scrutiny. And there are things that we can learn from churches in America as well as churches around the world. So we want to be open to God. We do not want to have a vision that can simply be a human vision in that sense about what we can visualize, but rather what God desires to do in and through us. So we don't want to have the vision limited by such things as our history or human opinion. Nor do we want here at the church a vision that is limited by such things as being misdirected. I believe that a misdirected vision is one that is an internal vision that sees only what it is that we want to do rather than being able to look outside of our walls and seeing the great need.

Maybe I can put it more clearly. A misdirected vision is a vision where people are concerned about the survival of the church. Can we survive? I want you to know today that our mindset is not the question of whether or not we can survive, but the question of whether or not we can thrive under the good hand of God. We are interested in seeing people come to know Christ as Savior.

It isn't simply a matter of having our bills paid, though thank God we know that that's our responsibility and it is happening, but that's not the beginning and the end. It's not keeping the doors open simply because the doors happen to be open. It is rather us reaching out incarnating Christ to our community and seeing his good hand of blessing and benediction upon us. Ten years ago, it is almost ten years ago I believe, we adopted a vision statement and the vision statement deliberately was written in such a way that it would not be ingrown.

It would not turn in upon itself. It was a vision statement that wasn't merely us thinking of what God is going to do in us, but the way in which we are perceived and the impact that we have in our community. We wanted to make sure that it was a vision statement that was something much larger than simply these facilities. Our vision for the Moody Church is to be known in Chicago. Well, let me stop there and say that we are quite well known in Chicago, but sometimes we're not known for the right things. There are so many misconceptions that exist outside there.

I've had more than one person say, I used to go past the Moody Church. There are people who have gone past this place holding their nose because they thought that we were some stereotype that they had in mind and then they've come here and they've enjoyed the worship and the fellowship and the love and they've discovered that they were entirely wrong in their conceptions. And so we want to be known in the city, but it's not just that we want to be known for what we are against.

We also want to be known for what we are for to share the love and the compassion of Jesus Christ with a city that so desperately needs it. You'll notice also that the vision statement goes on to be a caring, culturally diverse community. There's a lot of talk today about diversity. A lot of it has to do with lifestyle diversity.

That's not what we mean. We're talking about ethnically diverse, culturally diverse, racially diverse. I think one of the strengths of Moody Church is that as you look around you, you know that there are some people whose skin color is different from yours. And it's wonderful to serve in a community and a church in which we have sort of like a mini United Nations with people from different backgrounds in different countries. We have, and I won't mention them all, but we have African Americans. We have Asian Americans. We have Hispanic Americans. And then, bless God, we also have some Caucasian Americans as well. And if you were going into an ice cream shop, they would be the ones that would be plain vanilla.

We've got some of those too. And so God has given us this sense of diversity, this sense of saying that we need to reach out beyond ourselves. The rest of the vision statement says to be known as a diverse community that seeks to transform lives because it's the gospel, the gospel that we are really interested in.

Living out the gospel, living out the social implications of the gospel, but living out a life of love and commitment and sacrifice wherever it is that God has us. Our children's ministry, there are things that we haven't even shared with you yet because God is giving us leaders and giving us vision to be able to reach this city through its children. And as we think of the more than 70 missionaries around the world that we support, all these become our mission field.

I'm not saying, of course, that we can do it all by no means. We thank God for the hundreds of churches and dozens of organizations that are involved. But we pray that we will be able to have a part in what it is that God is doing.

Because we still want to see his hand for evangelism, for the edification of his people. We want Moody Church to be a place where you can not only belong but where you can become the person that God wants you to be. Touching your community, touching lives, building bridges, and showing the world that Jesus Christ cares and that he loves them. So I have a question for you today that I need to ask. Are you willing to embark with us on this journey? Is this also your vision?

Do you have within yourself a commitment that says, yes, we want to go where you are going. We want to see the impact that we can make and we are willing to sacrifice to give and to go and to pray and to be so that our vision can be fulfilled. A vision that we believe is from God. As we've said before, a vision that reaches toward tomorrow, helping change a city that could change the world.

And I'm asking you today, between you and me, though you must answer in your heart, unfortunately you can't answer out loud because it could sound a little bit confusing, but in your heart I want you to answer this question. Are you with us in the vision that God has entrusted to us? Now, there are some people who are members of the church who perhaps are not involved in the church. We have members who become members and then they drift off somewhere else. And that's a little troubling, but there may be reasons for it.

We're not being judgmental at that point. But there are also some of you who are here today who are not members. And there are some people who don't become members of a church for a couple of different reasons. First of all, some want to keep their options open.

They say, well, you know, we attend there but sometimes the preaching isn't good and we want the option of going somewhere else. There are those who may say, well, you know, we want to be there and we can support and we can be involved but we don't want to really buy into it because we just want to make sure that we don't get tied down to anything, that expression tied down to anything. You know, it used to be years ago that loyalty was a very, very prized virtue and many people had it.

Today, that's not the case. Years ago, a person would keep his money in a bank because that's where his father kept the money in that bank. And you just were loyal. You knew the people in the bank and that's where you did your business and that's where you had your commitment. Today's generation is not into that kind of loyalty.

If they can find one-eighth of an interest point more on their money, they will forget loyalty and they'll simply say, I'm going to go where I'm going to get the most. And that's the way it is sometimes with churches. I will attend, I will be there if you bless me, if you preach to me, if I like the music but I want to make sure that my option is open so that I can go somewhere else at a moment's notice. I hope you're not thinking that but some people do. So I'm asking you today, in case you're missing it but I don't think you are, I'm asking you today, are you willing to commit to what God is doing among us and to the vision that he has given to us as the leadership of the church?

A vision that ultimately turns out to be as big as the world. There are other people who don't become members because they say, you know, I don't find it anywhere in the Bible. It isn't scriptural. And the whole idea of membership is something that's man-made. You know, there's a zinger for you.

It's man-made. Well, I want to give you some reasons today why I think that belonging to a church and becoming a part and committing to the church and it's not just your name on a roll but that commitment and that sacrifice, why it is thoroughly biblical. Let me give you some reasons. First of all, because I think that church membership affirms your identity, your identity where you belong. Take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 5 and we shall be looking at a few passages in the book of Acts very briefly. But Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira have just died. You remember they lied. And in order to make the point that God hates lying and he wanted to get the church off to a good start, he had them drop dead because of misrepresentation. And it wasn't even a flat out lie.

It was kind of like a white lie. Let's suppose they sold the land for $1000 and then they told the church we sold it for $500 and then they gave the $500 and that was perfectly fine. But they pretended, they pretended that they gave all of the money and God said, you've lied to the Holy Spirit and you are dead. I had one pastor say to me, you know, if God worked that way today in the church, we'd have to have a morgue in the basement.

All right, now that's the context, but I want you to pick it up in verse 13. After that happened, no one else dared join them even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. Boy, that sounds pretty close to church membership to me.

You see, what was happening is the people of the world knew exactly who belonged and who didn't belong and the line was much clearer than it is today and today the lines are blurred. But in those days, if you belong to the Lord, you belong to this company and if you didn't belong to that company, everybody knew that too. I want you to know today that your commitment to Moody Church, your decision to become a member and a part of what we're doing can tremendously help you in your witness because you can tell people that you are members of the Moody Church and you say, oh, but they have so many misconceptions. The minute you mention the word Moody, they're thinking about all kinds of weird things. My dear friend, that's why God put you there to help them clarify those misconceptions and you can do that by telling them the story of D.L.

Moody. I can't tell you the number of people who think that we somehow belong to the Moonies. Now, my dear friend, God has called you to evangelize but he's also called you to help people correct their misconceptions that they might have that have been developed throughout the years. There's a sense of belonging that says I belong there and I hope that every one of you who is a member and who will be a member can say I belong to Moody Church and can say that without embarrassment but in the proper sense with a sense of pride and saying I know where I stand and it's okay if you know that too. It's a sense of identity. It's identity for us to know who you are. It's identity for the world to know also who you are. They joined the company, the Bible says.

Let me give you a second reason. It affirms our unity, unity. We can look at chapter 2 for a moment. It says in chapter 2 verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This is Acts chapter 2 verse 43. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles and the believers were together and had everything in common. They said we belong to one another. Oh, my dear friend, I can tell you this, that belonging somewhere and belonging to one another is a great strength in the church. It's a strength for you.

It's a strength for us because we all profit by our strength. You know that old line that says, you know, if we don't hang together, we will hang separately. And the unity of the church, the strength that is derived, we can do things together that we can never possibly do individually as we've already seen today by having this vision for missions and being able to touch the world in some sense with the gospel and with the love of Jesus Christ. And we are unified in the doctrines of the apostles as it mentions. You know, people today say, oh, every church should just be unified. Just take all of Christendom and unify it.

No, no, no, no. The purpose of doctrine is to unite, but it is also to divide people and to say, here's the dividing line. We believe this and you believe that and because of the conviction of our belief, we respect you and we love you, but we're not into fellowship with you.

That's important. I'm going to preach God willing a whole series of messages on the business of understanding how to properly judge these kinds of things in today's world, but we affirm our unity. We speak well of one another and if somebody speaks ill of a believer, that person is then taken to the believer about whom he is speaking ill and he resolves it because we will not tolerate disunity. God says he wants unity in the church and when you become a member, what you're saying is, I believe where you are going. I believe in your vision. I believe in your doctrine. I believe in your passion and I want to sign up and go with you. And I have to say today, very honestly and openly, we need you to come with us where we're going.

We can't do this alone. This is Pastor Lutzer. Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher who told this parable. He said some wild ducks were flying northward and one of them landed in a barnyard. He thought that he'd stay just for an hour or two and then he stayed for one day. Finally, he stayed for a week and he made friends with some of the tame ducks on the farmyard. Eventually, he decided to stay there all the time. He loved the food.

He loved the fresh water. When the ducks flew overhead in the springtime, it is then that there was something within him that seemed to stir, but he discovered that he was not able to fly. He hadn't flown for a long time.

He had gained weight. Well, the end of the story is that eventually that wild duck lived in the farmyard and never joined his companions again. I tell that story because that's the way we are in the world, isn't it? It's so very easy for us to become accustomed to worldly things that the things of the Spirit that we should respond to oftentimes no longer stir us. Now that, by the way, is the introduction to my book entitled Holy Living in an Unholy World. And the intention of this book is to help us think through the relationship of rules, what legalism is, what legalism isn't, and how do we conduct ourselves in a world that clearly has lost its way, and how is it that we can continually stir ourselves up to good works, commitment to Jesus Christ in a world that wants to pull us down to its standard? Now for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.

Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. This is a resource that we have never offered before. It's entitled Holy Living in an Unholy World. Discussing all kinds of issues, decisions that we have to make, it helps us think through what holy living really is in the midst of an unholy world. Well, once again, that contact info, go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let me express my deep gratitude to you for your prayers, for your gifts, because together the gospel of Jesus Christ is going around the world. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time on Running to Win, more about why church membership is so valuable. We now know it affirms our identity.

Join us as we explore more of Reason No. 2, It Affirms Our Unity. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.