The Gift Of Significance – Part 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.

We're born, we live, we die. All of us wish our short lives will mean something to someone else. Our need to matter to others drives much of the why of what we do. Today we look at another gift we can't live without, the gift of significance. Stay with us as Pastor Lutzer explores what can make us significant.

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, not many of us will be significant to the world, but we can be significant in our own spheres of influence. Dave, what you have said is so profound and so necessary for people to hear, and let me tell you why.

Recently, I've been giving a lot of thought. I have been to Europe and I've seen these buildings that have been built, and you think of all of the thousands of people who have worked, and they have lived, they have died, and there is no record of them. And even if there is a record of them, nobody is paying attention. What is my point? The only way that we can have significance is to recognize that we can serve God where we are, whether we are remembered or not. That's why I think that this sermon series entitled The Gifts You Can't Live Without is so important, because what I emphasize as I talk about hope and belonging and significance and love is really what is needed for us to have that sense of purpose, whether we are recognized by the world or not.

Now what I've discovered is that there are many people who tell me that they have listened to some of the sermons on Running to Win, but then of course they miss others, and we understand that. Schedules are oftentimes very difficult to manipulate. So here's what I suggest. What about getting this series of messages in permanent form so that you can listen to all of them and you can listen to them again and again? For a gift of any amount, you can have this series of messages. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series of messages, The Gifts You Can't Live Without. We are born seeking significance. We want to mean something to somebody. We want meaning in our lives.

We want to matter, and we'll do anything that we possibly can to matter. Now if you are born in a dysfunctional home, you have a disadvantage because your family is supposed to reflect back to you that you have value and self-worth and that you can amount to something and that you're important. But if you came from a home where there is abuse and alcoholism, then of course, you have an added strike against you in terms of your search for significance because you may feel that you are entirely insignificant and have no hope at all of significance.

But even if you came from a good home, you have the same problem. Because of sin in our lives, you have an issue that is very important and that is that there is a part of us that we do not want to reveal to anyone. And we think to ourselves that people knew who I really was.

They'd reject me and I'd have no friends. So what we do is we begin this search for significance. We want to matter and for some people significance is what you own. So they put all of their energy into making money more than they could possibly spend because that's their sense of significance. Look at what I've accomplished. They buy that new car and want others to be impressed by it.

I remember a man saying that. He said, I bought this car. I wanted to impress the neighbor. I drove into my driveway.

He was mowing his lawn and he never even looked up. And here I wanted to say to him, I'm significant. Look at this jalopy I just bought. So there are some people who say no, significance comes by who you know. So they pursue famous people or well-known people and they become socialites because that's their sense of significance.

And then you have in our society today what is devastating to millions of our teenagers, namely an emphasis on sexual attraction. That the way in which you gain significance is by your appearance. And if you appear right and attract the right people and can use your body for certain purposes of attraction, why then indeed you've achieved significance.

The bottom line is this. What the world says is the way in which I achieve significance is to make much of myself and hope that others will make much of me. And if people make much of me, I will have my significance.

But at the end of the day, that route I can assure you is hollow and empty and leads to deep dissatisfaction and an eternal unfilled longing. This is a series of messages entitled what Moody Church has to offer the city of Chicago. We began with the gift of hope, the gift of belonging. Today, the gift of significance.

What we can say to the city of Chicago is overwhelmingly blessed and wonderful. It's not that we can confer significance on anyone, but we know the message that can. Well, what I've decided to do today is to preach on three passages of scripture. And I'm bringing in many respects, a very simple message. You know, I've always prayed that the Lord would keep me simple and some members of my staff thinks that he's overdone it. So we're going to be simple today, but we're going to be clear and we're going to be life transforming. It's my responsibility to speak. It's your responsibility to listen. And I pray to God that we shall end at the same time.

All right. Turn in your Bibles to the fourth chapter of John. John chapter four, you know this story well. It's been preached on here at the church. I've preached on it. A missionary speaker preached on it recently, but I want to look at it just a little differently. You know the story of the woman at the well.

Some of you have probably memorized it. She's a woman who comes to the well at noon. She meets Jesus. Jesus interacts with her regarding living water. She misunderstands, but it's his way to get her attention.

And I'm picking up chapter four at verse 16. Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. The woman answered him, I have no husband. Jesus said, you're right in saying I have no husband for you've had five husbands and the one now that you have is not your husband. You know, you're speaking the truth here. You don't have a husband. That's right.

You're not married to this guy. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you say that's Mount Gerizim. I've been to Jacob's well where this happened and you can stand at Jacob's well and there's Mount Gerizim and there's Mount evil.

So you can reenact the story. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but you say Jerusalem is the place where you should worship. Jesus said, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit.

Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Wow. Now just think of this woman. Think of the reputation that she had in town. Five men now living with a man to whom she wasn't married. Think of the disconnectedness in her spirit. You get married that many times or you have sexual partners and your soul begins to dissipate.

There's no ability to focus because you're breaking God's laws. So there she is destitute. She comes at noon alone. The women in the town always went in the morning when it was cool and it was kind of a social event.

She probably was ostracized. So she comes alone at noon when no one will be there and she meets this stranger and this stranger says to this broken fallen woman, you know, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. In fact, the father's seeking such worshipers. He's saying, first of all, that worship is not a matter of geography. It's a matter of spirit.

It doesn't happen just because you're in church, just because you sing the right songs. It's not automatic, but you also worship in truth. It's a matter of honesty where you hang out your dirty laundry for God to cleanse you and give you the ability to worship him acceptably. So it's worship in spirit. It's worship in truth and it's also a priority. The father is seeking such to worship him. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth seeking those whose hearts are perfect towards him. And he says to himself, there's a fallen woman who's had a bad marriage experience five times now living, but if she has the right heart, I found her. She can be a worshiper of God.

Wow. She mattered to God. And she's the first person in the Gospel of John to whom Jesus revealed the fact that he was the Messiah and she ends up being an evangelist. This is beautiful. She goes back to town, says there's a man there who told me everything and they think, oh wow, and what a story he must have known.

Who is this guy? And so they all go and the Bible says they also believed and in effect God used her as a wonderful evangelist as a link between Jesus and the town. And look at who she was. No reason to think that she had significance, but she left that day. I matter to God. And if you know that you matter to God, it really doesn't make that much difference whether you matter to anyone else. You speak about the gift of significance. That woman goes down in history as a follower of the Lord and as a seeker of God and as a worshiper. And that is enough to give anyone significance, any sinner significance.

Wow. Here at the Moody Church, we can give and we can help give to the city of Chicago the gift of significance through worship. As I say, we don't confer significance, but God does when he seeks worshippers and we plan our worship service in such a way that you'll notice and we could take out time to look at the bulletin today, but we won't. It begins with an invocation. What are we saying in the invocation? We're inviting the blessed Spirit of God. We're inviting the Father to come and to meet with us and to open our hearts to his truth. Now, I need to say that if you haven't prayed before you came in here, probably the invocation will mean nothing. And if you come late and miss it, your heart may not be in tune with God at all, although it may be, depending on how you came to church.

But the point is that what we're saying to people is here is the opportunity. Have you ever noticed that here at the Moody Church, our worship is so God-directed? I mean, look at what the choir sang today. Christ in me, Christ beside me, Christ to comfort me, Christ to be with you. What we are trying to achieve is to give people the opportunity to connect with God who is seeking worshippers and to say he's seeking you and he's conferring on you the gift of significance. You matter to God. And we have to say to the city of Chicago, you matter to God no matter who you are. And that's a gift that we can confer.

Could I ask you a question? Have you ever invited anyone to our worship service? We've had people who live in the neighborhood who come and say, you know, for years we walked past your church and had no idea what you people were up to. We thought that you were some kind of a false cult. I remember one woman said that when I walked past the church on Clark Street, I used to hold my nose until I got past your building.

They have no idea. I believe that there are hundreds, maybe thousands if they came here, they said, you know, this is a place where these people are serious about worshiping God. And if you worship God, you matter to God. The gift of significance. Well there's a second passage that we need to turn to and that is the book of Ephesians chapter 4. This is kind of a traipse through the scriptures today, but the book of Ephesians chapter 4, Galatians, Ephesians, and you can find it.

And the reason I know you can is because I just did. Ephesians chapter 4. Now you'll notice that there's so much that could be said in every text.

I have to be careful about that by the way. A pastor began by saying, you know, there's just so much in this text. I don't know where to begin. And it was a small church and someone in the back shouted, please begin somewhere near the end. But I'm plunging right into the middle of this text.

This is what it says. It's talking about maturity. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 14 and following that we're not blown away by every wind of the doctrine. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together. I love this by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. What Paul is saying is that every joint, now we have to interpret that word for some young people, no doubt. We're talking here about a body.

Some of us who belong to an older generation, you know, we sometimes get into problems here. What Paul is saying is that within the body, every single person, every single person matters. And what you're doing is you are building yourselves up together by community, by sharing a similar life.

You are building yourselves up together and strengthening the body in love. That's what's happening. There's room for everyone. Now there's some people who say, I believe in the invisible church. I don't join a church.

I have no special loyalty to a church. If it gets boring, I move down the street because I belong to the invisible church, they say. And so I've noticed that for people like that, when the offering baskets are passed, they put invisible money into it because they belong to the invisible church. But mind you, when something good is going on, they want some very visible ministries. You know, we've been emphasizing name tags because we're serious about community. And Pastor Hertzberg has been riding that horse for a little while and we have to commend him because it is more successful than we thought it would be. We said everyone who believes that this is your church home, you can sign up. We've had three times as many name tags, people desiring name tags as I personally believed we would have, at least three times as many.

So that's wonderful. But one of the things we've discovered is that as we try to track these people and find out who they are, we have no record of them. They've not volunteered, they've not given, they've not participated in any small group, they're not a part of the ADF structure so far. And so we're just saying, who in the world are you folks? And how about joining us and joining hands with us and making a huge difference together in the city of Chicago?

How about doing that? We believe in the invisible church, the universal body. But in the New Testament, nobody just belonged to the invisible church.

Everyone belonged to something that was very, very visible. Now, what this means is that every part of the body functions and it functions together because what we need is we need you. I can't imagine that God raised up ministries and then supplied no members of the body to be able to serve it. In our children's ministry here, we could use between 25 and 35 children's workers. That's how great the need is. Now, it is true that to work with children, you do need to be a member and to teach, you need to be a member of Moody Church and that's part of our policy.

That has to do with all kinds of legal implications as well and we track that and we're very serious about that. But there are many ministries for which, of course, you don't have to be a member. To be a greeter, to be an usher, to work with a parking committee.

There's just a dozen different things that you can do without being a member but some things, you have to be a member for. But folks, is God playing a game with us? He's giving us a brand new building, the second floor devoted to children and we expect to see a great increase in young couples and children in our ministry and he has not raised up those who are going to support this ministry.

I don't think so. So can we join hands together and say that we're going to make a difference in the lives of these children and children's children even at great personal sacrifice? Can I hear you say yes to that today?

Now, third passage. You matter to God. You matter to us. You matter to the body. You matter. If you leave here today and somebody asks you what did Pastor Lutzer preach on and you don't remember that he's told you that you mattered, I come up later and we'll try to work with you. All right? We should not use the sanctuary for an adult nursery.

That would be a bad thing to do. Third passage. You matter to others and this passage alone is worthy of an entire message and it's going to come one of these days but quickly, second Corinthians, second Corinthians chapter four verse four. We often emphasize first Corinthians because it's the book where Paul is dealing with problems within the church but if you ever want to be blessed, you say I don't know what passage to read to be blessed. Read through second Corinthians.

It's Paul sharing his heart. It's the riches of the Christian faith. Chapter four, second Corinthians verse four verse three. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake.

For God who said let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us and then Paul goes on and lists all of his afflictions for which God grants him grace, the treasure in the earthen vessel. I want to speak personally to you today to all who are listening because I can't help but think that there are many of you who feel very insignificant. People don't thank you. You don't seem to fit within the structure that you find yourself.

Maybe you don't even have a family. God can make you significant. The fact that he has created you and that in itself gives you significance but if you come to faith in Jesus Christ you can be significant to God. That's why I think this message and the other messages in this series are so very important for us as we think about growing in the Christian faith. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to make these messages available to you in permanent form. Sometimes we listen to one message in a series and then we have to miss the other. Well, in this way you can listen to these messages again and again. The title of the series is The Gifts You Can't Live Without and of course the messages are hope, belonging, significance and love. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I'm going to be giving you some contact info. For a gift of any amount these messages can be yours.

Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. Of course RTW offers all one word or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Right now I encourage you to go to RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title, The Gifts You Can't Live Without. 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. Feeling like we're significant drives all of us to do what we do. We're learning that we can matter to God through worship and we can matter to our local churches through service. Next time on Running to Win, a further look at a third gift we can't live without as we explore how we can matter to others. Please join us then. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.