Running To Win

Announcer (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We've all been given gifts and abilities. It's not how many we've got, it's how we use them that determines the outcome of our lives.

Announcer (Male): Rather than complaining about what we don't have, let's focus today on how to best use the gifts we do have. 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.

Dave: Pastor Lutzer, some of us look at others and say, "Compared to my friends, I don't have any gifts to use for the Kingdom." Tell us why today's message refutes that.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, this is so critical. When the Apostle Paul was talking about works that were going to be burned up, he was, of course, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, speaking of Christians. What he emphasized was not the quantity of people's works, but the quality.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: So it is wonderful to know that we don't have to measure up to other people. We just have to be very faithful with what God has given us.

Announcer (Male): And we here at Running To Win want to help you as you continue your spiritual journey, no matter where you are in the race, no matter how far you have come. And we believe that we have a resource that is going to help you do just that. We're offering a daily devotional with contributions from Evangelist DL Moody and myself.

Announcer (Male): For a gift of any amount, we're making this available for you. Very quickly, you can go to rtw offer.com, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let us go to the pulpit of The Moody Church.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: We often think of the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that there are two judgments. Of course, there's the Great White Throne Judgment, where the unbelieving of all the ages shall stand before the Almighty.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And in a detailed way, God will go through their lives, not to see whether they are worthy to be saved, but rather to determine the degree of punishment that they will receive in hell. That's the Great White Throne Judgment.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But the Bible also teaches that there's a judgment for believers. We call it the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. That means that there's going to be a time when we will stand before Christ and He will know us by name. This summer, I was preaching on heaven, and somebody said, "Will, will Jesus know us by name?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, obviously, the answer is yes. First of all, because Jesus knows everything. And secondly, it says that He puts forth His own sheep. He goes before them, and He calls them by name.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Jesus is going to look into our eyes, and when we see Him, our first joy will be to know that we'll be forever in His presence. But the Bible says that at that time, we will give an account to Him for the way we lived on planet earth, and whether we lived for ourselves or whether we lived for Him. And what an awesome day it's going to be. And it's going to be individual. It's going to be individual.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: It's going to be Christ evaluating us. And the Bible says that we should live in such a way that we will not be ashamed in His presence.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, what I'd like you to do is to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew 25, where Jesus gives a powerful story about the need to be absolutely faithful with what God has given to you. Matthew chapter 25.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: The context is the Kingdom of Heaven and the return of Christ. And Jesus said in verse 14, "For it," the Kingdom of Heaven, "is like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions with them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I want you to notice, first of all, that this is so true to life, because each of the servants was given a different amount. We don't know how much a talent was. It was probably a huge sum of money. We think of talents as the ability to sing, the ability to preach, the ability to write. But actually, talents in this context is money. That's what Jesus is talking about.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And whether we broaden the concept, and it's perfectly fine to do that, to include our abilities, that is fine. But what Jesus is saying is, first of all, in life, there is really no equality. We think that everyone is created equal, and that has to do with their value. But you know that there are some people who have more money than others. There are some people who have more ability than others. There are some people who have better health than others. If there's anything that can be said about life, it is that it seems to be haphazard and scattered. We all have differing amounts.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: George Orwell said in his book that all animals were equal, but then he added that some are more equal than others. And how true that is.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But secondly, I want you to notice that even though they received unequal amounts, it was possible for all of them to receive the very same reward. Because it says, verse 16, "Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more. And the one who had received two talents gained two more."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Let's skip for a moment the one who had one talent and let's go down to verse 20. "And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I've gained five more.'"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.' And the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted to me two talents. I have gained two more talents.'"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And he says, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master." The very same reward.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, isn't God good? Do you notice that God does not expect from a one-talent or a two-talent person the same as He expects from a five-talent person? But notice that the one who had five doubled his, and the one who had two doubled his. And that's all that God expected. It's not as if God expects all of us to be a scientist, all of us to write books, or all of us to be able to do thus and so.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: What the Bible is saying is that God wants faithfulness, whether we're a five-talent person, a four-talent person, or a one-talent person, or if we feel that we have only one-tenth of a talent. It matters not to God because we will be judged with what we had.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Oh, it's been said so many times before. But you see, it's faithfulness in the little things, in obscurity that matters.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: It's easy for me to be on time for a service because if I were late, if I came onto this platform, or if others came onto this platform, and I wasn't up here, people would wonder, "Where's the preacher?" because I'd be seen in front of a large congregation. Do you think that that's more important to God than if you're an usher and you're late? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Because you see, God evaluates us with our responsibility, each according to his ability, each according to his assignment. Do you think that it's more important that I prepare well to preach than for you to prepare well because you teach a Sunday school lesson? Absolutely not. Oh, where did we get this idea? It is a sinful, damnable idea that somehow faithfulness is expected for some areas of responsibility that are more visible, but it is unimportant for that which is invisible.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And some people say to themselves, "Well, you know, if God gave me more, I'd be more faithful." A lie. It's a lie.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You see, these people got rewarded after they were faithful with what they had. Then they received more. And some people want more up front. They say, "Well, you know, if God would bless me more, then I would be willing to give more to Him." That's not the point. The point is faithfulness in what you have. That's what matters.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know that widow who gave her two mites, and sometimes we say the widow's mite. That's terrible. Give her credit. She had two mites, not one. Do you know that if that widow had taken those two mites and had invested it at 4% interest, the amount today would be 28 with about 40 zeroes? And you know what I think? I think that when you invest your money for God, that He gives you at least a 4% return throughout all of eternity, so that you will never believe what faithfulness in something small may mean in terms of eternity. There is no way for you to even understand it, and we blow it all because of our unfaithfulness, not recognizing how honest and truthful God is in keeping His promises of rewarding those who give so much as a glass of cold water in His name.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I was walking through the auditorium early this morning, and I saw someone give me my glass of cold water. And God will reward him in this life as well as in a life to come.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, notice. There is, however, someone else in this parable that we've deliberately avoided until now, but he's the focus of the story. All the other men were simply a context in which Jesus could talk about this very famous, or infamous, one-talent person.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now, I want you to notice what he's like. Because maybe you have met a one-talent person. It says, verse 18, "But he who received the one talent went away and dug it in the ground and hid his master's money."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And then, of course, he needs to give an account to God as well as the others. So for that, we're going to skip to verse 24 because now it's his time to give his explanation. "And the one who had received the one talent came and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter any seed. And I was afraid. And I went away and I hid your talent in the ground. See, it's here. It's here. Here's your talent.'"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: "But the master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave. You know that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest.'"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: That's bad enough, but listen to this. "Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has, shall more be given, and he shall have in abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away, and cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Ouch! Ouch! Who is this worthless slave? I'll tell you, he's somebody who was mighty wrong. And he was wrong about a number of different things. First of all, he was wrong about himself. He was wrong about himself.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: He had a sense of inferiority. Everybody else has got five talents, two talents, 10 talents, and here I am just with one talent. So what I do with this one talent isn't very important. A spirit of comparison. Paul says those who compare themselves with themselves are not wise.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I tend to think that the one-talent person said, "If I can't have five talents, I'm not going to serve with my one talent. If I can't sing like Pete LaLuza, I'm not going to sing. If I can't preach like Chuck Swindoll, I'm not going to preach. If I can't look like so-and-so, if I'm not as good looking as so-and-so, then I'm not going to do such-and-such."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And you see, it is that kind of an attitude that made him wrong about himself, that sense of inferiority, which the flip side of which is pride. Milton, you remember, said that Satan fell because he would rather be king in hell than a servant in heaven.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And you know there are many of you who come to Moody Church who are uninvolved because you think that your part is too small, too insignificant. You see other people serving with great ability, and you say to yourself, "They don't need me." And God says, "Watch it because you are wrong. Dead wrong."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Comparison is such a curse. It's such a curse. I remember one day, my daughter came home from school and said that we were supposed to find the North Star. I've always had trouble finding the North Star. Maybe there is no North Star up here in Chicago.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I can find the Big Dipper. I can sometimes find the Little Dipper. But it's hard to find the North Star. But you know, books have been written, I'm sure, about the North Star and all the other stars. And we went out one night, and it was foggy. It was in the city, and then there was some smog. You know, whenever I get out of the city of Chicago for too long a time, you know that I actually have to start up a car and breathe some smog because your system, your system needs it.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And we went out there and we were looking at all these beautiful stars. Whole books have been written about them. Which one is brightest? Which one shines now? Which one shines then? But I'll tell you something, that when the sun comes out, all of the stars fade into oblivion. All the differences among them disappear as long as the sun is out. And I'll tell you that when we begin to stop comparing ourselves with ourselves and begin to compare ourselves with Jesus Christ, there is no essential, noteworthy difference among us. We are all sinners, saved by grace, struggling to do the best we can and failing along the way. We're all in the same boat.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: So he was wrong about himself, inferiority. "I can't do it. I'm not as gifted as somebody else." Secondly, he had a wrong attitude towards life. Notice what he says to the king. He says in verse 25, "I was afraid. I was afraid." What was he afraid about? Well, he was afraid of God, but he was also afraid of failure. That's what he was afraid of.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: He said, "You see, if I take this talent and invest it, that means that there's some risk involved. And I want to play it safe. I want to be so conservative that I do nothing unless I know up front that I'm going to be successful in it."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And there are some people just like that who just hate all risk. I remember working with a person who was so conservative that he believed that nothing should ever be done for the first time. Very interesting.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: "I can't do it. I can't respond to the needs that are listed weekly in the bulletin. I can't get involved." Because of fear, "I might fail. I might do something wrong. I might not look good." And that actually is the other part of his attitude here toward life is he was so concerned as to how he looked in the presence of others. So self-conscious. "I'm in the presence of those who have five talents. And I've only got one."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: I want you to know that he was totally wrong about life. God has a sense of humor. God uses some people that we wouldn't use. I've seen this happen. I've seen God use people that I wouldn't use if I were God.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And yet, you know, God in His mercy and His grace makes us all different. And when we are feeling inferior, the criticism is directed ultimately toward God. We're saying, "Why did You create me thus?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And that's the third mistake he made right there. He had a wrong attitude toward the Lord. A wrong attitude about himself, a wrong attitude toward life, and a wrong attitude about the Lord. He says, verse 24, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man. You reap where you did not sow and you gather where you'd scattered no seed. And so I was afraid, and I hid your talent in the ground. Here it is for you."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Now notice what he's saying. He's critical of God. He's saying, "God, You're just exploiting us." "You know, You expect us to make money with the money that You've given to us, and then then You come and You, You receive all that money." And that's true, by the way. And the reason that God can demand that is because the money that He gives us is His, and our ability to multiply it is His as well. But you see, he was critical of God.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: And and there are many people who are very critical of God. They say, "God, why is it that You have put me in this predicament with my limited abilities, with my limited resources? Why is it, O God, that I have been asked to play this role? You are harsh, and You are demanding." And he actually becomes angry with the Lord, saying, "You are not fair to me."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, you know, God wasn't pleased. You know, after an explanation like that, I guess he expected the king to say, "Well, you know, that really makes sense. I I understand your viewpoint. I'm trying to see life from from through your lenses. And so I think that that's fine then."

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But I'll tell you, he doesn't hear that. He hears some very harsh words. "You wicked, lazy slave. Wicked, lazy slave." He had dug a hole for his talent. What he didn't realize is that he had actually dug a hole for himself. That's what happened because he thought that his service for the master, because he had only one talent, was unimportant.

Announcer (Male): My friend, would you listen to me carefully? If you want to be encouraged, I think that one of the best ways is to remind yourself of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody. There is no connection between his early beginnings without an education to speak of and all the things that God did through him. What an example he is of someone who is faithful with what he had, and God multiplied it in a hundred different ways, and he can do the same for us.

Announcer (Male): What I'm excited about is we're offering a daily devotional with contributions from Evangelist D.L. Moody and myself. Even as you read this, you'll understand much better Moody's heart. And then I come along and also comment on the verse of scripture that he has chosen. What a wonderful way it would be for you to begin each day of the new year. 365 devotionals. I hope you take advantage of this offer.

Announcer (Male): Here's what you can do. Go to rtw offer.com. Let me give that to you more slowly. Go to rtw offer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Right now, you can go to your computer, rtw offer.com.

Segment Announcer (Male): It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Ever wonder what happens at the moment of death? Well, Trish wonders, and she sent us this question.

Trish: Please answer whether you think our souls go to God when we die, or whether our souls or spirits sleep with our body until the Day of Judgment.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Trish, thank you so much for your question. You know, I receive a lot of literature from people. God bless them who believe that the soul sleeps until the resurrection.