The Gift Of Belonging (Part 1) – 1 of 2

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

Loneliness, it's a terrible thing. We're all meant to interact with others, and having a place to do that is crucial. For the believer, that place is the church, and it's here we can receive what Pastor Erwin Lutzer calls the gift of belonging. Today we'll find out what this means. 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, can the church provide a better place for people to feel like they belong than, say, a social club?

Dave, in a single word, absolutely. You know, when you ask that question, I'll tell you exactly what came to mind. A young woman that basically came off the streets here in the city of Chicago, she came into the Moody Church. She was bearing a child, fathered by a man who was in prison. And that young lady came here. The child was born. The church surrounded her with love. Friends blessed her, and they have continued to do so, even as the child is now grown.

And it's been wonderful to see that she was converted to Jesus Christ and had a purpose in life. Now, no social club can do that. And while I'm on the topic, I think it's so important for people to recognize that watching a computer on Sunday morning is not the same as going to Moody Church.

Now, some people do that because they have issues. They cannot go to church, and so we appreciate technology. But there's nothing like connecting with other believers. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled Conquering the Fear of Failure, Lessons from the Life of Joshua. We're making this resource available to you this month because we believe it's going to be a tremendous blessing to you. At the end of this message, I'm going to be telling you about the very first chapter of this book. But for now, let me give you the contact info.

You can go to rtwoffer.com, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, let us turn our attention to the Word of God and the need to belong. So what does Moody Church have to offer the city of Chicago? That's the agenda for four messages. Last week, I spoke on the gift of hope, the living hope that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord, the gospel we have to offer. Next week, I'm going to speak about the gift of significance, and we're going to discover that significance in the Scripture is very different from what we think of significance from the standpoint of the world.

It's a different kind of significance entirely. And then today, however, I'm going to speak to you on the topic of the gift of belonging. We were created by God to belong. We all want to belong. We're social creatures, and if we don't belong, we are not going to be able to be the kind of people that God wants us to be.

Never before have we needed this gift as greatly in America as we do today. We need it because of the fracturing of the family. There are people who don't seem to belong within their families, and it is from the families that we get our sense of self-worth and who we really are.

And the church needs to become the family to those particularly whose families are shattered by divorce and alcoholism. Listen to the words of a teenager, I am so lonely I can hardly stand it. I want to be special to someone, but there is no one who cares about me.

I can't remember anyone touching me, smiling at me, or wanting to be with me. I feel so empty inside. I'm sure that that teenager is not one who attends the Moody Church because we have a wonderful program for teenagers, but do you sense the loneliness and the despair, the sense of rejection and alienation that is found today in society? And then in addition to that, we have what I call the cult of ethnicity. No longer can we be spoken of simply as Americans, but we're African-Americans, we're Asian-Americans, we are Hispanic-Americans, we are Anglo-Americans, and I suppose some of us are Canadian-Americans because we all want to talk about our background. And somehow that unites us, but it can also divide us. Surely you agree that we are divided religiously, we're divided politically.

This nation somehow has lost its center. But there is a kind of unity that is mentioned in the scripture and spoken about that is the kind of oneness and belongingness that can be found nowhere else, nowhere else. It is a belongingness that is actually created by God, and it differs from all other relationships. And the reason that this is so different is because it is unlike such things as people united based on a common interest. Some people like photography, so they join a group on photography, or they are united by sports, they're Cub fans or Sox fans, and this is what unites them. We find also that there are those who are united because of race, united because of the pleasures, maybe they go skiing together.

There are all kinds of reasons for people to be together if they have a common interest. But today I'm speaking of a kind of unity that is not based on common interest, but is actually based on sharing a common life. It is a unity that is created by God and metaphysical unity, that is to say it is above the physical and God says it's so special that I need to create it.

And that's the text that we want to look at today, an example of God's creation. Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to the second chapter of the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter two, where this kind of unity is spoken about. You know that a few years ago we here at the Moody Church shared with you our promise statement, just simply fourteen words.

Moody Church is a trusted place where anyone can connect with God and others. Last week I spoke on what it means to connect with God, though I shall refer to that also this week, but today we're going to emphasize the basis of connecting with others and community within the church. And in Ephesians chapter two we're going to see how God brought this about. In fact, you can't understand its significance unless you realize that there was a great deal of animosity between Jew and Gentile. Paul is going to say beginning at verse twelve and following that God brought Jews and Gentiles together.

We may say well you know what's the big deal? Today Jews and Gentiles are friends, but in those days the hostility was the same kind that you find today between the Jews over in Israel and the Palestinians. Just centuries of deep-seated animosity and differences. The Gentiles despising the Jews and the Jews despising the Gentiles whom they often referred to as dogs. And Paul says that through Christ God broke down these differences and actually created one new person. Verse twelve of chapter one you'll notice that it discusses the Gentiles separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers to the covenants of promise. God didn't make the promises of Abraham to the Gentiles he made them to the Jews and so they were of no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us Jew and Gentile both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility probably referring to the wall that kept Gentiles out of the temple area. You can imagine how they despised that by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility. God says the body that I'm going to create is so unique that it's going to take precedence over all of your differences and it's going to kill the hostility. What a powerful creation of that body God brought about. So very briefly let us look at three figures of speech that Paul uses to show the unity and the belongingness of the people of God. The first is the metaphor of body. I've created one body out of these two warring factions through the cross one body. Why body?

Why is that used? First of all because the body stresses diversity. Diversity. My toe is not my hand. My ear is not my tongue. Think of the diversity of the body. There are some parts of the body that we always keep covered. There are other parts that we never cover and yet the body has a sense of unity as we shall see but it's the diversity that we can celebrate. Thank God. Thank God I have only one tongue and not three. Thank God that you only have two ears and not six.

You're hearing enough as it is. Thank God for diversity and thank God that Moody Church in the last years has stressed diversity not diversity of lifestyle but diversity in terms of personhood. We had a missionary conference not too long ago and one missionary said that as he looked out over the congregation he noticed that there was not a single row that he could see where everyone in that row belonged to the same ethnic or racial class. That's the kind of diversity we like. A few years ago we took a survey here at the Moody Church and discovered that we have more than 50 different countries of origin. 50 different kinds of ethnicity that is represented here at the Moody Church. We want the Moody Church to be as diverse as our community. We want the Moody Church to be as diverse as heaven. So if you're not into that kind of diversity you're not ready for heaven where there are going to be people from every tongue and people and nation all gathered together all singing praise to the lamb.

So diversity but also the body represents interdependence. We need one another. The foot cannot say to the hand I have no need of thee.

After this service I'll probably be going for lunch. My feet will take me where I want to go but when I get there my hands are going to have to pay for the food and to eat the food and my mouth will have to be involved in the process at some point. Why? Because we're all interdependent and pulses even the weak members of the body are necessary. You know sometimes here at the Moody Church we have people who may lack a lot of the gifts that we think are necessary. They may be weaker members of the body going through their own struggle and pulses he does not say put up with them he says they are necessary. Interdependence we all need each other.

The weakest among us is needed by the rest of us. Interdependence also of course unity the unity of the body. I just thank God that my body is coordinated. When my mind says be sure to go somewhere and gives direction to my feet my hands cooperate. Think of all of the cooperation that is happening right now as I speak to you. My tongue is cooperating with my mind my hands are cooperating with my mind.

There's a sense of unity of the body. Now what if I wanted to go in one direction and one foot says I'm going to follow but the other foot says I'm not going. I'm not going. What if my hands said I'm not going I'm tired of you lifting me up like that. I'm sick of people seeing me. I'm not going to do it anymore. You can understand I'd have problems in the body and we have problems in the body of Christ when we have members that are renegades saying I want to do my own thing independently of the body.

I don't need to be part of the community. What the body illustration signifies is that we have we share a common life. We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones and Jesus is the head of the church and as best as we can we take our orders from him and we're coordinated as our physical body so we are coordinated as a spiritual body that God created uniquely that is different from any other relationship. Look at verse 18. The Apostle Paul says that for through him we have access by one spirit to the Father. God does not have one Holy Spirit for African Americans, another Holy Spirit for Asian Americans, another Holy Spirit for Anglo-Americans. No, it is through one spirit that we all, Jew, Gentile, all of us have access to the Father.

Why? Because he created he created a brand new entity called the church, the body of Jesus Christ and we represent him in this world. That's the first image. A second image is new family. Now actually there's a another image that I will comment on briefly. It says in verse 19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens.

Let me comment on that. He's saying God created a new nation, a new nation. In fact Peter says we are a new nation created by God. Do you realize that that new nation means that we have an identity of citizenship that transcends our country of origin. It transcends our racial, economic and educational backgrounds and vocations. It is found in that which God created a brand new nation and right from the beginning God wanted to say that's what I'm up to.

I'm up to creating a transnational community. Think of this in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 8 and Ethiopian is converted. He is a descendant of Ham. You know that there were three sons of Noah that basically populated the world. The sons of Ham who went down to Mitsrayim as it says in Hebrew into Egypt. The sons of Ham. You have the sons of Shem who are the Jewish people and then Japeth, the Indo-European peoples.

Alright now notice. Chapter 8, a descendant of Ham, the Ethiopian is converted. Chapter 9, a Shemite, a Jewish man by the name of Paul is converted on the way to Damascus. Chapter 10, you have a Gentile representing Japeth. He is converted and God is saying right from the beginning that the gospel is for everyone and it unites anyone who trusts in Christ who comes by way of the blood as it mentions here and there is a unity that is created.

A brand new nation. I've talked to people who try to work with Palestinians and Messianic Jews. Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews. I mean can you in fact I attended a conference where it emphasized the Palestinian side of the equation. Do they get together with their Jewish brothers and sisters?

Yes, but I've been told that what they need to do is to put on the table or put on the shelf all of their political agendas but they can still come together as brothers and sisters in Christ because they have a unity that is greater than even their political and historical differences. Only God can create that and then a new family. It says we are members of the household of God. A brand new family.

Why? Because we share the same father. God is our father. That's what God was trying to communicate.

Jesus was trying to communicate to Mary. I send to my father and your father. Well if God is the father of Jesus and the father of Mary Magdalene it is clear that Mary Magdalene and Jesus are brother and sister and so they are. God is our father. Jesus is our brother and the Holy Spirit is our companion and it is this relationship that at times even transcends our earthly family relationships and so it should be. I've had more than one person say to me usually single mothers who have said to me Moody Church is my only family and may that be the case that in the lives of those who perhaps do not have a family in the lives of broken homes may this be the family. We share the same brother.

We share the same father and we have the same companion. May it be said that Moody Church is the family, the community of God and so what the Apostle Paul is saying is very very clear. Always remember if you belong to a club, a music club, sports club you give a part of yourself but when you belong to Jesus you're giving everything to him and to one another.

Now what does Moody Church have to say to the city of Chicago? How are we able to give them the gift of belonging? Remember the words of the teenager that I read I would like to belong to someone but there's nobody out there for me.

How do we give the city this gift of belonging? First of all let me speak candidly. If we are like bushels of apples who roll into Moody Church on Sunday morning, roll out Sunday afternoon and never see each other and never have community we really can't be the people of God the way in which God envisioned it. It is not living out the unity about which I have spoken. God doesn't want us to simply be independent apples. He wants to make applesauce and that's going to take something more than simply connecting in a worship service. You see you can praise God and you can worship with 2,000 people or more but you can't have fellowship with 2,000 people and you can't overcome sin unless you belong to some kind of a small group. Now for some here at the Moody Church the small group might be the choir. For me it is my prayer partners with whom I met yesterday morning for two hours as we shared requests and as we prayed for one another and as they prayed for me. I've often thought to myself where would I be without my prayer partners who are part of my group, who help me, who pray for me, who exhort me, who encourage me.

So we all need to be a part of this. You can't overcome sin and we can't influence the world unless we have community. Indeed it is so important that we belong and I trust that you connect with a church. Now some of you may not be able to go to church for some reason but the connection with other believers is so critical to our spiritual growth.

But let me ask you another question. Are you dealing with fear? Perhaps fear that a relationship is going to go sour, fear of failure, fear of health issues that might encumber you. What is your fear? I'm holding in my hands a book entitled Conquering the Fear of Failure.

The subtitle is Lessons from the Life of Joshua. The first chapter is entitled The Grasshopper Complex. What is the Grasshopper Complex? Well you remember when the spies were sent into Canaan they came back saying that we were like grasshoppers.

Grasshopper Complex is turning away from a God-given privilege because of fear. For a gift of any amount this book can be yours. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Did I say that too quickly? Here it is again rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. It's an incredible feeling to belong with others in a common cause. Christians find their sense of belonging in a local church. But that church is only a small part of a much larger group, the body of Christ, the worldwide fellowship of believers in Jesus. Next time, more about what being in that group entails. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.