Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Jonah went to Nineveh, but only after some tough correction from the Lord. Still, his heart was hard. He had no real concern for the people of a great pagan city.

So, are we serving God for the right reasons? 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. Today, Erwin Lutzer continues his series on Brokenness: How God Gets Us To Say Yes, Studies in the Book of Jonah.

We're wrapping up a message from Jonah Chapter 3 on Death To Self-Interest, seeing a prophet finally obeying, but not from the heart.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: It was much better that he go to Nineveh than that he stay home. We can be assured of that. It was good that Jonah went, but his heart wasn't there.

You know, he said like the little boy who was told to sit in a corner. He said, “I'm sitting down, but in my heart I'm standing up.” In other words, if this is what I have to do, this is what I'll do it. But I will grin and I will bear it and I will consider it my duty because after all, God can do such things as create fish and put me in difficult circumstances. So here I am. But his heart was out of sync with God.

My wife and I have on a number of occasions been in Weimar, the seat of the great German Enlightenment, and there is a statue of Goethe. You have to know how to say that word. Of Goethe in Weimar. And in that statue, Goethe is looking at the university, but his feet are taking him to the tavern.

Part of Goethe's problem was he could never quite decide where his loyalties were, and in that case, his feet were going to his real loyalty, namely, the tavern. But in the very same way, it's possible for us to serve God. And we say, “Yes, I'm serving God out of obedience. If this is what God wants, if this is what He has for me, I will do it.” But your heart is out of sync with God because you have not been willing to embrace God's will as something good and perfect and acceptable. And you chafe against it, and you fight against it. And God says, “I want you to say, ‘Yes.’”

Let's consider right this morning here. There are many of you who are listening to this message who are in the right place. God wanted you in this sanctuary today. But I need to ask, is your heart right with God? It's possible, you see, for you to be in the right place geographically and your heart be out of sync with the Almighty.

Jesus spoke of the Pharisees. He says that, “They honor me with their lips.” They're saying the right thing. They come to the right temple. They even bring the right gifts, but their hearts are somewhere else. Their affections lie elsewhere. And what God is trying to say to us today is, “Don't you understand that I want your heart and your vocation and My calling to line up?”

Why all this self-protection, this self-serving rebellion?

So that's the first lesson. The second lesson is that God is bigger than our expectations. He's bigger than our expectations. Who would have ever expected that Nineveh would repent? Who would have ever believed that, that there is this city that would turn to God just because they heard a message of judgment? No one would have ever predicted that Nineveh was going to have this awesome revival, would they?

And Jonah was full of deep resentment because of it. Let me ask you this question. Are you resentful because God is generous? Are you resentful because God sometimes blesses your enemies? And God keeps blessing them and giving them health and giving them money. And God just seems to be lavishing upon them. And here you are. You're trying to serve God and look at what other people have. And why does God have all of this disparity in terms of the way in which He runs His world? And down deep inside, you are resentful because God is merciful and compassionate and patient with people that you and I know He ought to just wipe out, right?

Let me ask you something. Did Jonah need more grace than the people of Nineveh? At the end of the day, no, because not a one of us deserve what God gives us. The reason that we compare ourselves with others and think, “Well, you know, we are worthy of grace.” Did you know that that's an oxymoron? Nobody is worthy of grace. If you're worthy of it, it can't be grace. It is the unworthy who come before God. It is those who have absolutely no claim whatever on their maker, those who bring nothing to the table except their great need, coming in humility and brokenness to receive. It is they who receive mercy. It's not the people who deserve anything that receive it.

And so what you see here in the text is that God is bigger than our expectations. There are people that perhaps you know, whom you've given up on. You no longer pray for them, you no longer believe that God can do anything in their lives. But you don't know. I think of what the king says, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger so that we may not perish.” Who knows what God may do with those who are wicked? Who knows what God may do with those of us who think we're not wicked and who deserve something? Who knows what God may do? He is bigger than our own expectations.

There's a final lesson. And that is that we are responsible for our own repentance. We're responsible for our own repentance. Jesus had a divine commentary on this event. He said this in Matthew chapter 12, verse 41, “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

If we were to read the passage, we discover that Jesus uses the word greater three times. He certainly is greater than Jonah. His message is much greater than that of Jonah. The people of Nineveh heard only a message of judgment. And if you want to know something of what that judgment eventually became, you should read the book of Nahum because that shows that eventually God did judge Nineveh over 100 years later because they went back to their violent ways.

And so Jesus Christ's message is greater than that of Jonah. Jesus preached a message of love and compassion. He said, “I came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Me might be saved.” It's a message of love, it's a message of grace, it's a message of, of wonderful inclusion to those who humble themselves to come and to receive it.

The city of Nineveh will rise up and condemn the city of Chicago someday. The city of Chicago has had the opportunity to believe in Jesus. You can buy Bibles, no matter what translation they are. You can buy Bibles in any one of the bookstores in the city of Chicago. You can turn on radio and you can hear messages. You can turn on television and sometimes even there hear the gospel if you're listening to the right person.

And you can seek God. We have churches that are open. And in Nineveh they didn't have any of that. The city of Nineveh responded to only one preacher. The city of Chicago has heard dozens of preachers and has dozens of churches. And they, with greater opportunity, have not repented.

I think that Jesus would say that the people of Nineveh shall rise up and condemn this city because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater time, with greater opportunities, and greater grace is here. But now I'm speaking to you.

Who knows how many people there are here today who have never personally received Jesus Christ as Savior? You've never responded to the Jesus who is much greater than Jonah. You've never opened your life to Him and said, “Lord Jesus, I want You to, to be my Savior and I trust You as my righteousness and I'm trusting You for my forgiveness.” I mean personally, not just generally, but personally to know Him on that kind of a level and to respond to Him. You know what the Bible says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”

Because we live in a day when God's arms are open to everybody. And you have not fallen so far but that God can receive you. The Ninevites were received by God after all. Despite their violence and their wickedness and their huge sins, they were received. How much more under this era of grace in Jesus can we all be received?

Perhaps the men of Nineveh shall rise up and condemn you someday because they repented in the day of judgment. But possibly you haven't. So I have to ask you as I conclude, has God brought you to the point where you're willing to say, “Yes”? I say that to those of you who do not know Christ as Savior, but as well as to those of you who do. What is there that, that holds you from finally giving up the fight and the manipulation and the criticism of God to finally say, “Okay, God, it's over.”

Let's pray. Our Father, we want to thank You for this story. A story that reveals the human heart. A story that is such a beautiful contrast between Your compassion and one man's petty anger at Your will and purpose. Teach us from it, O God, we pray today. And may Your grace be evident in the lives of all who would repent, in all who would submit, and in all who would be broken in Your presence and say, “Yes, Lord.”

And now you talk to God. If He's talked to you, you talk to Him too. What is it that you need to say to Him today?

Father, do not deal with us at this moment as a church. Deal with us as individuals. At this moment, we're not thinking of the city. We're thinking of ourselves. Grant, O God, that sense of submission and yieldedness to Your matchless, undeserved grace. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer and I want to take out a moment and talk to you heart to heart. Life is hard, isn't it? And there are so many people who turn away from God because they've experienced abuse and hardship. And they don't recognize that God's grace and God's power is greater than their past.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of writing a book entitled, Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved. My wife and I came to know her and her husband. She experienced a great deal of abuse, abandonment, rejection, name it, and she experienced it.

But at some point in her life, when she heard the gospel, she submitted to God and this is a book of hope. It shows that you do not need to look upon your past as your identity, but rather the future that God has for you. And what you can do is to turn away from anger, to lay down the feeling of revenge and say, “God, I am Yours.” And she and her husband actually were used of God as missionaries to New Guinea.

If you're looking for a book that is a book of hope for people who have felt that they have been abandoned, forgotten, this is a book that I think will be a great blessing. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to get a copy and by the way, this is the last week we're making it available. I want you to get a copy, read it, and then give it to someone else whom you know desperately needs it.

I just reread the book recently, and with tears in my eyes, I recalled the story of a woman who experienced all that, and yet followed the Lord. And today she is in Heaven. She no doubt knows the passage of Scripture that Paul wrote, that the suffering of this present world is not worthy for the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Guest (Male): That was Erwin Lutzer concluding Death To Self-Interest, the third message in a series on Brokenness: How God Gets Us To Say Yes, Studies in the Book of Jonah. Next time, we turn to Jonah chapter 4 and find a pity party. Join us then for Death To Self-Justification.

Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved, it's a heartwarming story of how God took a child abandoned in an orphanage and gave her a whole new life. Written by Pastor Lutzer, this book will demonstrate that there is hope even when no hope is visible. Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved will be sent to you as our gift when you give a gift of any amount to support Running To Win. Call us at 1-800-215-5001. Online go to offerRTW.com. That's offerRTW.com. Or write to Running To Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running To Win is a ministry of The Moody Church.