Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Believers running life's race know that their effectiveness is determined by the disciplines of the Christian life, practiced every day, every week, every month, every year. Today, we begin a series that outlines four disciplines crucial to your spiritual maturity.

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 begins a series on Disciplines of the Soul: Four Ways to Get Closer to God. Listen now as he speaks on the first of these four ways: the discipline of meditation.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Wouldn't it be wonderful if all that we had to do was to have good intentions to be like Jesus? And along with those good intentions, attend church once a week, and then God do all the work that needs to be done in our lives while we are asleep. And when we wake up in the morning, we wake up hot for God. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

That might be wonderful, but it's not the way it is. Salvation is a free gift, no question about that. Salvation is free, but when it comes to real discipleship and transformation of life, which is always what we're after, it needs discipline. Discipline. There are more people who give concern about their houses, they give it more concern to their house than they do to their souls.

If the roof leaks, they fix it. If the sink is stopped up, they unplug it. And if a wall is beginning to crumble, they rebuild it. But as far as their souls are concerned, and I'm using the word soul almost synonymously with the word mind, as far as their souls are concerned, anything can come in. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, anything can find a home, and they do not care for their souls. And yet the Bible says, "Guard your heart. Above all things, guard your heart, for out of it is the wellspring of life."

The most important part of you is the part that nobody can see. It is your mind or your soul, and we're going to be speaking in the messages that lie ahead on soul care, or the disciplines of the soul. And remember, we're after transformation of life and heart. Today, we're going to speak about meditation. And then after that, prayer. How you can pray every single day without monotony, without wondering whether or not God is listening.

And then we will speak about the discipline of worship, and also, most important, the discipline of silence and solitude that can change our lives. The disciplines of the soul. Jesus told a very interesting story. He said that there was a man who had a demon, and then the demon left the man. And the man's heart or soul was swept and empty.

And so the demon, as he traveled about seeking rest and finding none, found seven other demons who were worse than he was. I guess even among the demons there are some who are more evil than others. And all of them came and inhabited the man, and Jesus said that the state of that man, the end of him, was worse than the beginning.

What Jesus is talking about is the danger of an empty, swept soul with nothing else to replace it but evil that comes in. Evil always gravitates toward a vacuum. And as a result of that, if we do not fill our souls with what is good, if we do not protect what comes in and expel what should be expelled, our souls will just be a resting place for all kinds of evil and defeat and discouragement and faithlessness.

Paul says, "Be renewed," he says, "by being transformed by the renewing of your mind." Today we're going to speak about that transformation. Today we're going to speak about how to focus on that which will squeeze out all of the unwanted thoughts and make us different people. Because we cannot live differently until we think differently, and we can't think differently unless we learn to meditate.

The good news is this: that all of us here can do it. I'm going to be giving you instruction that is so clear, that is so explicit, that no matter who you are, no matter how old you might be or how young you might be, you're going to be able to do what I am suggesting from God's holy word that all of us do together. Transformation finally, for some of you, is just around the corner. Aren't you glad you're here?

Now, the Bible does talk about the mind, and we're speaking about that today. Why is this so important to think right? Well, first of all, because everybody thinks. Everybody thinks. I can imagine there's some woman here who says, "Well, my husband doesn't." Actually, he does. He does. He may not be thinking the right thoughts, but he thinks.

In fact, there was a philosopher by the name of Descartes who said that he believes that the mind is thinking all the time. And even while we are asleep, he says, we go on thinking. And sometimes we become conscious of it and we call it a dream. Descartes believed that we are thinking all the time.

By the way, did you happen to hear about the preacher who dreamed he was preaching, and then he woke up and found out he was? Everybody thinks. Even preachers think. Secondly, your mind has power. It has power. The mind has so much power because it can relate to God.

I remember as a boy I used to think to myself, "Well, God doesn't know what I'm thinking." He knew my thoughts better than even the movements of my body. Because God exists in the realm of spirit, and your mind exists in the realm of matter and can influence matter, which is a huge philosophical problem that's been debated throughout the centuries: how that can be, how something immaterial can actually affect something material.

But your mind can connect with that which is material, but it is also your mind that connects with God. Your mind has power. Another reason is, of course, as I've emphasized, your mind shapes your life. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." So I want to look you in the eye today and tell you that you're not what you think you are, but what you think, you are. The real you is your thought life, and today we're going to talk about transforming it.

Psalm 1 is the text. Psalm 1. And what I'd like to do, as you turn to that in your Bibles, is to point out first of all the benefits of what we're going to speak about: meditation. The benefits of meditation. You'll notice, and for this, we're going to go actually to verse three. We're going to do verse three before we do verses one and two. It says he, that is the person who delights in the law of God and meditates day and night, he is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Two blessings that come from meditation. First, stability. He's like a tree that is planted beside the rivers of water. He has an unseen root system that goes to a stream, so he will not wither at a time of drought. He can handle adversity. He can handle false accusations. He can handle the pushes and the pulls of life, the emotional and the spiritual drain of relationships that have gone sour. He can handle that. Why? Because he has roots that extend to a stream.

You've heard me say before, but a tree has as much of a root system beneath the ground as that which you can see above the ground. And blessed is that tree that has found a stream, a hidden secret stream that will keep it from withering. A sense of stability. But also a sense of prosperity. His leaf does not wither.

The Bible says he brings forth his fruit in his season. Some people interpret that to mean, "Well, there's a season for grapes and for figs and for bananas and for oranges. And in the same way, we have the fruit of the spirit, and sometimes there's a season for love and a season for joy and a season for peace." But then there are people who say, "Today does not happen to be the season for love." No, that's not the way it works. What he means is this: that fruit takes time to develop. It takes time to develop.

And God develops these fruits in us. But notice that whatever he does prospers. There is such a thing as a doctrine of prosperity. Our problem is that as it is preached today, it is often taken out of context, wrenched from the full teaching of the Bible, and made to say something that the total Bible teaching would not say.

Listen to the words of Joshua. "Thou shalt meditate," God says, "in the law of God. Thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." I believe that every time the word success is mentioned in the Bible, it is connected to meditation. Do you want to be a success? Anybody here wants to be a success? You must meditate.

I have a habit, as a pastor, to always say, "You know, this is the most important series I've ever preached." I said that about the last series, and it was right back then. But it's also true now. This is one of the most important sermons and series of messages I've ever preached, and you must hear all of them.

How do we actually meditate? How do we begin? Well, let me give you this as a preliminary. First of all, what you do is you pray before you open your Bible and you pray one of the verses of the Psalms: "O Lord, open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law."

The reason that that is so important is because someone has written, "As long as my mind is raging with thoughts, ideas, plans, and fears, I cannot listen significantly to God or any other dimension of reality." That's why we're going to preach a message on the gift and the discipline of silence and solitude. I'm in a learning curve on that one, but I'm discovering that there is such a rich relationship with God that can be developed through silence and solitude, and God knows how much we need it.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, my dear friend, I want to take this opportunity of welcoming you to a brand new year. And you know, even as we think about this year, it is so important for us to enter it with a sense of discipline, to recognize that we do not become spiritual by osmosis. We don't wake up in the morning more spiritual than we were when we went to bed at night. It takes a commitment to God and to the disciplines of the Christian life. And we're so thankful that we have this opportunity to share with you, and we wish you a very blessed New Year. From my heart to yours, God bless.

Dave McAllister: Erwin Lutzer with part one of The Discipline of Meditation, the first of four messages on Disciplines of the Soul: Four Ways to Get Closer to God. Next time, more on why we must guard our minds through meditation. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago. Disciplines of the Soul is more than a series; it's a set of CDs with all four messages by Pastor Lutzer.

We'd like to send it as our thank you when you give a gift of any amount to support Running to Win. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. That's 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. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is a ministry of the Moody Church.