Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Too many people bring high hopes to faith healing meetings only to be told that they lack enough faith to claim their deliverance. Can believers expect physical healing on demand? Today, some straight talk on when God fulfills His promises.

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, we continue a series on the triumph of unanswered prayer. Erwin Lutzer is talking about what to do when the answer is delayed and about how faith healers often manipulate people.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Sometimes I weep because there are so many of God's dear saints who can't tell the difference between grass and Astroturf. The sheep. The sheep.

You look at those rallies and they're filled with poor people. Why? Because they're saying, "I want what my guru has. If I have enough faith, I can drive the kind of car he does. I can live in the kind of homes in which he lives." On and on it goes. My dear beloved friend, this is just between you and me and nobody else listening: things in that department are out of control. Making promises. I remember somebody coming to me absolutely weeping and saying, "God has forsaken me. I claimed my healing and it hasn't come." No, that's no proof that God has forsaken you. The Bible says very clearly that if you suffer according to the will of God—and sometimes the will of God involves suffering—that indicates great reward.

There's a member of our church here who recently had knee surgery. He said that one knee was so painful, these are his words, "I'll never have the other knee repaired until I'm in the presence of Jesus." In the presence of Jesus, you get two brand-new good knees. You get some good hips. You get a good body. You get a good mind. You get some good feet. You get it all over, and the Bible says that when we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Until that time, there's sickness, there's heartache. It is mean, it is cruel for a person to go into a hospital room, as I have seen, telling the person that you are sick because you don't have enough faith. If you had more faith, God would heal you, and they lay that guilt on. I remember one person telling me that people brought him books with all kinds of things marked about how if he had the faith, he could walk out of this hospital. No, my dear friend, some of the best and the most godly people have suffered physically and died. But this isn't the end. The inheritance, the full inheritance, is coming. Abraham saw some things. He saw the fulfillment of the promise regarding Isaac, but he didn't see the land of promise. Abraham is still waiting. Some of us think that the promises that God made to Abraham have still not been fully fulfilled to him and to his seed. He's still waiting, but he dies in faith, believing in a city built by God.

It's very important for us to realize that faith is needed for endurance, not just miracles. Sometimes we just need to endure. Sometimes I've had to say to people regarding circumstances that simply will not change, "What you're doing is right. All that I can tell you to do is to keep doing what you are doing: to trust and to believe and to be patient and to trust." How else can God develop faith in our hearts except that we look at circumstances that we think God should change and He doesn't, and we keep on believing anyway?

You say, "Pastor Lutzer, this message is throwing a bucket of water on people's faith. Don't you want us to believe God for great things?" Yes, I want us to believe God for great things, preferably the things that God wants us to believe Him for. Should we pray more? Yes. Next week, I'm going to present, God willing, one of the most important messages I think I've ever given, certainly the most important I've ever given on prayer. We're going to take that verse that He rewards those who diligently seek Him out, and we're going to have a whole new paradigm for prayer, a whole new way of praying. So you be here. You say, "We can't be because we're visiting from Atlanta." The same plane that brought you from Atlanta to Chicago this week can bring you back next week. Let death be the only reason why you don't show next Sunday. If you die, it'll be proof that all of our inheritance isn't in this life. There's another world coming.

Endurance. This is going to be explained in a future week, what endurance means to God. Young man came to a pastor and says, "I don't have patience," and the pastor said, "Let me pray for you. God, I pray that you'll bring trouble and sorrow to this young man." Excuse me. Good prayer. Romans chapter 5, verse 3. It is suffering, the Bible says, that brings about patience, and patience brings about hope, and hope brings about faith, and in that, God is glorified.

So my dear friends, there are some of you who are hanging on and you are tempted to give up in your faith. Keep on believing, keep trusting, keep committing, and we'll talk about what that means in a future message. Keep committing in such a way that you draw near to God and He grants you the ability to endure. Yes, we do pray for healing, and here at the Moody Church, we anoint people with oil when they come to us. We've had a couple of instances where people would say, "Yes, there was definitely a healing that took place." Many instances where we can't say that, but there's still a purpose in that anyway that will become clearer.

Finally, it's so important to realize that faith for our future is actually based on faith that looks backward. Today we talked about the faith that looks forward, but you need to look to the faith that looks backward. In the writings of the Apostle Paul, faith is seen as something that we look back toward because you're looking at the work of Jesus Christ. You are looking at what He did on the cross for you and the completeness of the redemption, and that's where our faith begins. Then we commit to God for the future and we trust God for whatever lies ahead, knowing that eternity is coming.

Let me put it to you this way: there are some of you who are listening to this message who do not yet belong to the city of God. You belong to the city of man. I don't mean to say by that you don't believe that Jesus is a Savior, because I think you probably believe that or you wouldn't be listening to this message. What you cannot say, though, with assurance—and notice the Bible talks here about the assurance of faith, it is the assurance of things hoped for, it is the assurance that we have met God all the way through this text—what you cannot say with assurance is, "Jesus is my Savior. I have personally trusted Him as mine." You must do that to be translated from the city of man to the city of God.

Here's another way in which you know whether or not that translation has taken place. Augustine said in his book that when we belong to the city of man, we have in our heart such a love for this world, almost to the contempt or the neglect of God, because we're this-world absorbed. Once we belong to the city of God, once God does that miracle in our hearts and our desires are transformed and we've been given new hearts, then we love God so much that we have very little regard for the things of this world.

The love of God swallows up all other loves. So the question that I need to ask you today is simply this: have you trusted Christ as Savior so that you become a member of the city of God? Once you're a member of the city of God, like Abraham, like Noah, like Moses, you begin to look and live in light of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. The eternal city. That's your hope and that's your motivation, and that's why you can put up with what you put up with in this world. All the while believing, trusting, all the way to the end. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for Abraham because even though he had lapses in his journey, spiritually speaking, on the whole, he really did believe you. I don't know how much you showed him, but the fact that he had confidence in a city that was designed by you—I think of all the architects who are listening here today. They've done some wonderful things, but imagine a city whose architect is God.

We thank you for that eternal hope that has been birthed in our hearts through your word and by your Spirit. We ask, oh Lord, that those of us who are members of the city of God, that we may go on our way with joy, accepting whatever you give us. For those who are members of the city of man, turn their heart today toward Jesus. Now before I close this prayer, it is time for you to talk to God if God has talked to you. You tell Him whatever you believe you must.

Our Father, would you accept the cry of our hearts? Make that cry acceptable through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we come into your presence. We ask today that you will grant us the grace to be great men and women of faith, to keep believing even if we don't see all the promises in this life. Grant that, oh God, we ask in Jesus' blessed name, amen.

Guest (Male): Yes, my friend, oftentimes we don't see the answer to our prayers, but the good news is this: there are some promises we can always believe. They are promises regarding our salvation, the assurance of God's presence with His people, God's love for His people.

I'm holding in my hands a book entitled How to Begin the Christian Life. It's written by Dr. Sweeting, who at one time was the pastor here at the Moody Church. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours, and by the way, this is the last week in which we're making it available for you. It has to do with our relationship with the world, how to grow in the Christian life, assurance of salvation, daily Bible study, and prayer. We think it will be a great help to you and also a wonderful book to pass along, especially to new Christians but also others whom you want to encourage in their Christian walk.

Erwin Lutzer, concluding "When the Answer is Delayed," another message on the triumph of unanswered prayer. Sometimes we don't recognize an answered prayer. Next time on Running to Win, don't miss "When the Answer is Disguised."

We'd like you to have a book by George Sweeting on How to Begin the Christian Life. It tells new believers how to follow Jesus. This book is yours as our thanks when you give a gift of any amount to support Running to Win. For details, call 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.