Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
In one sense, we have way too many options to fill our time. A thousand voices scream at us via smartphones, streaming TV, and the world wide web. Developing godly character requires developing our inner lives. Today, words of challenge on holiness. 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, some of us can't even go to bed without our phones nearby.
What has happened to even Bible believing Christians? Dave, I'm going to answer your question in just a moment. But first of all, I want to welcome all of our listeners to December. How quickly time goes. Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner? And we are making available for you a very special resource as you think about the new year.
But first of all, Dave, to your question. Yes, I believe that one of the reasons that it is so difficult for us as a nation and as Christians to repent is because of the distractions that we are encountering. As a matter of fact, recently I came across the phrase doom scrolling. Doom scrolling, that means you're going through your cell phone, you're on the internet, and all that you are looking for is some bad news. And believe me, there's plenty out there. What we want to do in this series of messages and the reason that running to win exists is that we look beyond all of these kinds of distractions to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
Well, I want you to listen carefully now and then following the message, I'm going to be giving you some very important info that will help you begin your new year. What would you do if thieves were to come into your home and steal your children? You wake up in the morning and they're not there. You say, well, that would never happen. The doors are locked.
The windows are bolted. The police would be called and they'd find our children. What if I were to tell you that thieves even now are already in your home stealing the hearts of your children, their values, their souls, and they're leaving you with the bodies to deal with, but their allegiances lie somewhere else. What if it were true that these thieves are not only stealing the hearts of our children, but also the hearts of adults and families and parents are blinded by these thieves that have come in and they have come in with the express purpose of taking over.
The thieves that I'm referring to, basically one word, the media. The Trib had this article, media options swamp the nation. The average American spends 9.6 hours a day in hailing the media, watching television, using computers, listening to the radio, going to the movies according to the census Bureau's statistical abstract. We as a nation apparently spend on average two months of every year just watching TV. Brian Graydom, president of entertainment for MTV network says the more media that's consumed, the more it drives overall usage. It's like an echo chamber effect. The more you use it, the more you use it. It's called addiction.
That's what it is. Today I'm talking about television with all of its impurity that comes into our homes. I'm speaking about the movies with their violence and sensuality and occultism, and I'm speaking about the internet with all of its potential for good and its potential for harm, such as pornography. And at the end of this message, I'm going to read a letter from someone who is caught in that trap.
And I'm also going to read his story of deliverance. I'm also speaking about video games. Have you ever wondered why they are so violent? I didn't know why they had all this violence on video games until I spoke to someone who is converted out of the occult.
And she said that in the occult you gain points and you gain strength in the hierarchy of demonic spirits by the shedding of innocent blood. And that's why the video games are so violent. And that's why kids kill one another on these games. In fact, somebody told me that they were in a home and a little boy, seven years old, comes to his mom and says, I just killed 94 people.
And she just shrugged her shoulders. Well, it's just a game. It's just a game. It's teaching you principles of violence, however, and it is drawing you into the violence of occultism and the power of demonic spirits. Another pastor and I here at the church tried to help a boy who was in the video game and he was going from one level of difficulty to another with all kinds of foreign gods from false religions. And clearly he had received demonic spirits. These spirits wouldn't even let him sit down.
He was just a perpetual motion machine. And yet parents say, well, you know, it is only a game, but it is addictive. Saw on TV recently a new game.
Can't remember the name of it. And it is so addictive that that's the thing that they talked about. They had a section on the news about the addiction of this video game where you connect with people in other countries or something like that.
And one guy said, I took off work for two days so that I could just play it straight and not have to not have to be interrupted. Addiction. That's what it is.
All of the media has the power of addiction. I'm going to introduce you to a word today that we aren't very fond of using in our churches in this century. It's the word holiness. The word holiness makes us feel uncomfortable, doesn't it? God says, be holy for I am holy. The word holiness.
And it is a scriptural requirement for the church and for individuals to be holy. Today, you're going to wander right into Satan's territory, right into his toy shops. And therefore, there will be some resistance to this sermon. Some of you are going to tune me out. Some of you will find it hard to stay awake.
Some of you will come with so many rationalizations that you won't even be able to hear what I'm going to say. I tell you that when we speak about this, we're speaking about all of us. This is not a message where I'm up here and I'm preaching this to you.
You know, those of us who have had the good fortune of never being even tempted by alcoholism or drugs, we can all identify with addiction and we can all identify with the power of sensual sexual temptation because we've all been there. So this is a message in which we, as a family of God's people, are speaking God's word, but it's for every one of us, including those of us who are in leadership. And because it is so important, I would like us to bow in prayer one more time and ask that God will give us receptive spirits and hearts as we listen to his most holy word. Father, we pray that those who have fallen into traps of sensuality, we pray today that even as they have concluded that they can't get out and they can't change, we pray that you shall surprise them and bring deliverance and hope and help.
Because Lord, apart from you, we can do nothing. And we ask now that all who are listening may say, Lord, whatever you are going to tell me to do, I will do. By the way, those of you who are listening, are you willing to tell God that whatever you show me today, I will do?
If you are, you tell him. In Jesus name, amen. First Thessalonians chapter four, series of messages when God comes to church. When God comes to church, the church is holy. That's the theme of First Thessalonians chapter four.
And please find it because we're going to plunge right into the text and we're going to find out what it has to say to us today. Paul preached to pagans. And now he expected these pagans to be holy because Christianity is different from all of the other religions of the world.
All other religions are external only. Christianity actually changes the heart and the desires and the aptitude and gives inner strength so that it isn't just a matter of willpower. It's actually the power of God in deliverance and strength. So if you've never trusted Christ as savior, I urge you to do that. That's the entry point to be able to find God's power and God's strength.
Now let's plunge into the text. Finally, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus Christ that as you receive from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus, for this is the will of God, your sanctification.
You say, what's that big word? This word sanctification is really the word holy. Hagia is the word holy to be set apart. Hagiasmos is sanctification. In fact, that's why the footnote says we could read it for this is the will of God, your holiness, that you abstained from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That's characteristic of someone who doesn't know God.
They can't control their passions that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these things, as we told you just that far. Today, we're going to answer three questions. What pleases God? Why should we please God? And how do we do it? And each one of those questions is critical and very important.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. First of all, what pleases God? Well, this is the will of God, even your holiness abstained from sexual immorality. The Greek word is porneia, from which we get the word pornography. But it refers really to a whole range of sexual impurity.
Prostitution, all sex outside of a man, woman, marriage would fall into this category and all kinds of bizarre things that are happening in our society. And so Paul is saying, first of all, you abstain. Next, you'll notice positively, he says that you should learn to control your own body. That's probably the best translation. The word is vessel, so some people think that it has to do with a wife, but probably the way in which we have that translated here, it's correct to control your own body in holiness and honor. The Bible says in the book of Romans, chapter eight, verse 13, put to death the deeds of the body, because if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans used to say, you have to hunt down sin. You have to kill sin or sin will kill you.
I've been reading about that text in Romans during the past weeks, and someday I'll preach a message on it. But for now, to simply point out, the Bible says, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God. And by the way, control your body with honor and holiness.
If you're giving into somebody today sexually, that really means that you think more of them and what they want to do than you do the honor of your own body and the holiness of your own body. Therefore, glorify God in your body, the Bible says. And then the apostle Paul goes on and he says, don't transgress and get involved in hurting your brother. It says, verse six, that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter.
What's that all about? Well, you can maybe say brother or sister. Maybe Paul means it broader than simply a brother in Christ. Maybe also what he's saying is that if you mistreat a brother's wife and get her involved, you have obviously defrauded and transgressed and hurt your brother.
Or maybe if you're involved with some young woman inappropriately and from the standpoint of impurity and you've introduced her to impurity, you're actually having an effect on some brother someday who will marry her. At any rate, Paul is very, very clear here that in our relationships, there are always relational issues that are involved. There are God issues, as we shall see, but there are relational issues when it comes to this matter of sexual sin. So the question is, what pleases God?
And the answer is sexual purity. That's what pleases God. And the next question is, why should we please God? I mean, why bother? Why listen to this message? Why order the CD?
Why should you keep hanging in here at this point? Well, let me give you some reasons why we should please God. First of all, you do want to please him because you love him, don't you? Don't you want to please somebody that you love? Isn't that the whole motivation of love is to please? That's what the scripture says right there in verse one, that you ought to live and to please God just as you are doing. But he says, do it more and more. You want to please God. And pleasing God is the one fact that we cannot rationalize in all of this business.
I often think of Joseph when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him. He could have justified it rationally. He could have said, nobody's going to know about it.
We're going to come armed with a pack of lies if we're found out. Today, you can add to that. We can control pregnancy. We can do all this and we love one another.
And furthermore, as one couple told me, it's much cheaper to live together. And so we can rationalize it all. But the thing that you can't rationalize is God. Joseph said, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? I don't want to hurt the God I love, he said.
And that's the one thing that you can't rationalize. All the lies in the world, all of the deceptions in the world, you can't get around the fact that you're hurting the God you love. You're displeasing God. And so that's one reason it says that you want to please God. That's characteristic of somebody who has been born of the Holy Spirit.
If you're here today and you're blowing God off and saying, I don't care what he thinks, then you have all the marks of somebody who does not know Christ as Savior. You're not part of the family. We're glad that you're here. We're glad that you're listening, but you haven't entered into the family yet.
I hope you will. So that's one reason. The other reason is in verse six. You'll notice I read it briefly a moment ago that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter because the Lord is an avenger of all these things.
Ouch. God is an avenger to those who are involved in sexual immorality. God does this in two ways. First of all, inherently in his moral law.
Inherently. There are two kinds of laws. There's the law of the stop sign. You can put up a stop sign and then City Hall can say, hey, we don't need a stop sign there. They can take it down. But there's another law characterized by the law of the fire.
The law of the fire says that when I put my hand into the fire, it will get burned. You say, well, City Hall could change that. I mean, the Congress of the United States could change that. I'm sorry, Congress can't change that.
Because you see, that's inherent within it. And inherent within sexual sin are certain consequences that can never be expunged or circumvented. Society tells us that isn't true.
But Congress can't change that. You think of all of the broken lives. You think of the degrading experiences that I don't need to tell you about today because God just put it right in into the whole business of sexuality, that there are certain consequences that can't be overcome. And then in the future, God will judge us. You say, well, not us as Christians, because after all, we're under grace and so it is safe to sin. Did you know that under grace and how we thank God for grace, but under grace, it's not safe to sin?
Because someday, even at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, the Bible speaks about it as a time that connects it with the word terror. Now that doesn't mean that God is going to judge us or condemn us because it is true there is no condemnation which is in Jesus Christ. But when we see our lives just burn up as wood, hay, and stubble, and when we have nothing to offer Jesus, that's why the Bible says live in such a way that you will not have shame at his coming.
It's a terrible thing, yeah. Never safe to sin. You'll notice it says in verse 7, for God has not called us for impurity, but holiness. By the way, that's another reason, is the calling of God. But for those of you who think that this is just old fashioned, here's your verse, verse 8. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Wow. Well, that certainly is an admonition that we have to hear in this generation. You know, I have frequently said that there are two doctrines that destroy the church. One is the doctrine of the essential goodness of humanity, and the other is the endless tolerance of a non-judgmental God.
Well, I want to speak to you very briefly about the fact that the New Year is just around the corner, and we have a resource that we think is going to be a tremendous blessing beginning January 1st. It's a book entitled Without Excuse. This book, of course, is based on Romans chapter 1 verse 20, where it says that because of creation, people are without excuse. Wish I had more time to talk about it. It has 365 pages, color pages, actually, of scientific evidence to show the uniqueness of God's creation.
Each day, you'll learn about a new aspect of God's creative activity. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book, Without Excuse. It'll certainly be a blessing as you enter the New Year. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Darrell listens to Running to Win in Ohio and wants advice on what, for him, is a real dilemma. Here's his story. Our teenage daughter now tells us that when she's 18, she's moving there to be with her friends that are in this group.
I also miss them so much when they're gone. Please give me some direction. Well, my friend, I want to speak to you very candidly. You are the father, and you are to be the head of your home. And even though I can understand the pressure that you are under to satisfy your wife who wants the children to be with her father, the fact is that this is a very serious matter, and your children are being led astray.
And you can see not only by the doctrines that are being propounded, with which you disagree and I also disagree, but also friends probably and friendships are being made in that environment, and that's why your 18-year-old daughter wants to go back there when she is old enough. You, at this point, must take authority and help your wife to understand that the answer is no, your children are not going to be going there. There are probably alternatives for your children to be able to be with their grandfather. I just pray that it isn't too late for your 18-year-old daughter, and I'm concerned about your other children.
So this is a matter that needs to be resolved between you and your wife, and it needs to be handled lovingly, that there needs to be some tough love, and you need to say where the lines are being drawn. Even as I talk to you, my friend, I'm praying for you, because I know that this is difficult, but you need to see your way through. You have responsibility for your wife, and God will hold you accountable for the teaching and the guidance of your children.
I pray that you'll be able to step into that role and do it successfully. Thank you, Daryl, for bringing that question to us. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for the clarity of your answer. 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.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago. Next time, why the best advice when thinking about committing a sin is to run in the other direction. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
