Running To Win

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. At the racetrack, time is how victory is measured. The same is true for Christians in life's race. How we use our time determines our effectiveness for God. At the end of our lives, we'll be judged on how we used our minutes, days, and years. 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. Pastor Lutzer, we're now in a series on Crowning Christ Lord, and today we're discussing our use of time. There's no doubt that time is a limited resource.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, what you have just said is very convicting to me, and I'm sure that it is convicting to all those who are listening. The fact is that all of us have had times when we have wasted time. Wasted it on frivolous pursuits, so to speak.

And what we have to do is to recognize that what you've said, Dave, is perfectly true, namely that we do have to give an account for our time. And I believe that one of the best ways we can do that is to have a devotional every single morning, giving the day to God.

And at the end of this message, I have a special resource I'm going to introduce to you as you begin the new year, which we are anticipating, you will have an opportunity to begin every day with a verse of scripture and something that will inspire you and help you on your spiritual journey.

So for now, you listen, but in a few moments, we'll be giving you that information. And now let us go to the pulpit of the Moody Church. I told you I like the word circumspectly. It means to walk very, very carefully. That's what he says in verse 15, redeeming the time.

The best illustration is think of some cities in the world in which they have huge walls that are built up around compounds and homes, and these are concrete walls, built for security. I remember seeing them in Mexico and in Central America.

And on top of these walls, which are filled with that are made of concrete, they have broken bits of glass that were put into the concrete, so that when you walk up sometimes just the whole top of the wall is nothing but broken bottles. It's to discourage people from from going over.

What's interesting is to see a cat walking along the top of the wall, picking every step very, very carefully. That's the image of walking circumspectly as the Apostle Paul said.

Because I want you to know there's broken glass all over the place. There are all kinds of things that lead us into sins and temptations and that draw us away from God. There are a thousand voices clamoring for our attention, saying, no, no, no, to the disciplines of godliness and holiness.

And if we listen to those voices, we soon find that we are spending our time on things that will not last. Redeem the time. Just take it even out of special moments and use it for God. That's the first command.

The second command I want you to turn to the book of Romans. Romans is just to the left of Ephesians. There's Corinthians in there also, of course, but Romans chapter 13. You'll notice that the Apostle Paul says that we should not only redeem the time, but he said we should understand the times. Understand our times. Are you a student of our times? I hope you are.

It says in verse 11, And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone. The day is at hand.

Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality. And our world is filled, drowning, choking in sensuality.

Not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. In the imagery here, what Paul is doing is he is comparing the return of Christ to the day.

And he's saying in effect that we are living in the night and we must recognize that the day is coming, our redemption is drawing near, and because our redemption is drawing near, it is time for us to wake up and to realize that we are in a battle for daylight kind of living, namely, purity.

So the first thing he says is, knowing the time, it is high time to wake out of sleep. He's saying to the people, wake up. Wake up. Don't you see what is happening in today's world? Don't you understand that we are in serious spiritual need?

And I'd like to just share that with you this morning. Do you realize that we are in serious spiritual need? And I don't mean simply our nation. I don't mean the city of Chicago or the United States of America. I mean even we here at the church. We are in great spiritual need.

There are marriages that that struggle with all kinds of friction and difficulty. There are children who are struggling with temptations. There are homes that are being torn apart. There are people who are going through emotional turmoil, and there are many who are living in carnality and finding it satisfying with no heart whatever for God.

We need to wake up. God's alarm is ringing, and how many times does it have to ring before we say, yes, wake up. Secondly, he says, dress up. He says, this is the hour for you to awaken from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

He says, let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. He says, get dressed for the battle. Don't you know? We don't have forever. We don't have forever. And I want you to know, by the way, that we do not have forever. We don't have forever.

Jesus chided the religious leaders of his day for being able to anticipate the weather, and knowing what a red sky in the evening would mean the next day. He says, but you don't have any sense of the times. You don't understand the times.

And could I say, as a parenthesis, what what incredible times, what incredible times we live in today. You know that John and Joy Hayward, not sure if they're with us this morning, but they have been worshipping here missionaries of ours in France, they were telling us about what's happening in Europe. You can get a little card. It's like our credit card.

And you can use that card at toll booths, you can use it to make telephone calls, you can use it to make purchases in stores, in grocery stores, all over. This can be your card that takes care of all your financial transactions.

And when they showed it to us, I said, now this card is very important. What if you lost it? Well, that would be very serious. What is the next step? Well, the next step is to tattoo the number either on your head or your hand, so that you wouldn't be able to lose it.

And by the way, if we had a cashless society, you realize, of course, it would cut out all this drug nonsense. We could take care of the drug problem today because there would be no money that could possibly change hands between people under the table, so to speak, that all financial transactions would have to go through a giant computer, which then could be traced, and all of the drug problems in the United States and the hidden crime and all that could pretty well be looked after if we went that direction.

And that's happening now. That's the direction in which Europe is moving precisely. As the Bible has predicted 3,000 years ago through the prophet Daniel and through through other predictions in the book of Revelation 2,000 years old.

God says that this is going to happen, and it's happening. And very gently and lovingly, and speaking first of all to my own heart, and secondly to yours, could I say to you, wake up. Wake up. Our salvation is nearer than when we believed.

Even if we live a normal life, our salvation is nearer than when we believe because soon we're going to be standing before God, and we're going to have to give an account for the way in which we lived, and what a pity to have to tell him that basically we spent our life earning a living. And that's it. What an awful thing to have to say, to look into the face of Jesus who gave himself for us and say, well, all that I can tell you is that I earned a living.

And that you were not number one on my list of priorities and that time you gave me was frittered away with things that burn at the judgment seat of Christ, and it's all over and you can't relive it, and not one minute will be given to you to relive by God.

The first command is redeem the time. The second command clearly is to understand the time. Thirdly, I want to say that the command is to use the time, to use the time. What is it that is essential? I mentioned to you a few moments ago that there are some people who plan to be successful. They plan their lives in all kinds of educational pursuits and career goals.

And they think that godliness is going to happen by itself without any planning. Without any planning. I'd like to give you something to ponder. Did you know that I think it is true to say that your love for God and my love for God should be measured?

Should be measured by the amount of time that we give him. That's fair enough, isn't it? Isn't your love for your wife, your love for your boyfriend or girlfriend determined essentially by the amount of time invested in that relationship?

If you this past week did not spend some quality time with God to have your soul refreshed, how do you think that makes him feel? That to think that he could be so unimportant in your schedule.

The Bible says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. And there's no way to love him unless you give him time. Secondly, I'd like to say that the love for God is not only measured by the length of time, but also our love for God is measured by the quality of the time that we give him.

You know, psychologists are always telling us parents to spend quality time with our children. What they're saying is, is don't just give your kids a few tired moments at the end of the day. Give your children moments that are important, moments when you are at your best, moments when you are able to function at peak performance, moments that are special to you.

Make some tough choices for your children. You know that's what God wants us to do for him is to make some tough choices for him. Not just give him some tired moments before we go to bed, but to take out some very important moments when we could be doing other things and say, these moments belong, belong to God.

And I could be doing 20 other things, and it means so much to God because he knows I could be doing 20 other things, and just to think I chose him above all of these other responsibilities that could fall upon my lap.

What I'm saying to you today is please give God quality time. Are you into CADVAD? Last fall we talked about Chapter a Day, Verse a Day, this little booklet, which I think incidentally, we have for sale in our bookstore.

And all that you do, and I I I'm just so gratified at the number of people who said that it has changed their devotional life. You answer the questions on various sections of scripture, and every single day you begin to do that until it becomes so much a part of you. You say to yourself, there's no way I could live a day without fellowship with God. That's what he's after.

Love is measured by the quality of your time. One day you remember Martha and Mary. Martha was cumbered about with much serving. My wife always says that Martha gets a bad deal because we do need the Marthas. That's true.

But Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus said, Jesus said, Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. The implication is that what Martha was doing would be taken away from her.

Notice it says, Martha was cumbered about with many things. And she became very critical, and people who are busy for God, but don't have the heart of God, are going to be very critical people. They're going to be miserable people. They're going to be looking at other people with with all kinds of criticisms because because their own heart isn't right.

And then you'll notice it says that Mary chose the one thing. And Jesus said, there is only one thing that is needful, really only one. You've heard me say before that we make life far too complicated, don't we?

There's only one thing that's important, and that is our walk with the Almighty. And it's amazing how everything else fits into place. My dear friend, it is time. It's time. It's always time to pray. Always time to pray.

It's always time to be reconciled with some brother or sister with whom you are out of fellowship. Some of you are avoiding problems in your life, problems of reconciliation because they are so painful. There are people to whom you should go and ask forgiveness. There are letters that should be written. There are phone calls that should be made, and you're not making it because because you know it is so makes you uneasy.

Well, it is time. It's time. It's time to be cleansed. Some of you perhaps are allowing sin to to stack up in your life and saying, I'm not going to get right with God until I know I can really live for him. If that's the case, you may never ask his forgiveness because you can never be assured that finally you're going to live victoriously.

It is time to be cleansed and forgiven and washed through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's time to do that. You know, also, it's time to be saved. The Apostle Paul says, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

Some of you here today have never believed on Christ personally. You've never received him into your heart. You've never been converted and changed by God. That's not happened. It's time to do it. Today is time, the time to do it.

And I want you to know that it is never too late to do what is right. Some of you say, oh, but I've blown it so badly. There's only one way to give God your time, and that is to give God yourself, to be so yielded to God, to simply say, Lord, I want to give you time.

I want to make a list of priorities. I want to decide what I'm going to do, and I'm going to make some tough decisions to prove to God that my time is his time. That's what God wants. All the clutter messes things up, has to go.

Of course, the day will come when you won't have any time on planet Earth. The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to say just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. Now is the only time we own to do his precious will. Do not wait until tomorrow, for the clock may then be still. It's all going to be all over.

No more time. It's gone. What I want to do in these four messages on stewardship, beginning with time, and then we'll talk about talents and treasures and all the other things that God has given us. I want to give you an opportunity to give yourself to God.

To say, Lord, forgive me for wasting time. Forgive me for all the things, the disorganization, the the the fruitless things that I'm doing. Lord, today I give you myself, and I give you my time. Let's pray together.

Our Father, today, we we know that if the truth were known, in the minds of hearts of many people and all of us, even in my life, we so often give you little time. We give you the leftovers. We give you what's left after television, sports, our own workload.

And then if there's anything left, we say, finally, God gets his moment. Lord Jesus, break into our hearts with such a sense of dedication today that we might see the urgency of the hour, that we might understand that we are in in incredible days.

And it may well be that very soon, it's all going to be over. It's all going to be over. Don't regret because we just blew it. Lord, we're so needy. We've wasted so much time. I've wasted so much time.

Would you help us, Lord, in this hour to say, God, I'm going to give you the first fruits of my time, the best of my time. And I want you to pray in the congregation. Pray to God. Some of you who have never believed on Christ, you can be saved even in this moment if you understand the Gospel and trust him.

Some of you, the Spirit of God has pointed out that you need to make things right in your life. Today's the day to do it. Today's the time. You need to be cleansed, forgiven. Today is the time, not tomorrow, today. You need to reorganize your life, get your act together. You've got to begin today. You talk to God.

Father, please forgive our foolishness. May we walk as wise people, seizing the time. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): Yes, my friend, and amen. I certainly hope that you have a pen or pencil in your hand because in a moment I'm going to be giving you some very important contact info. Let me ask you this question, do you use a daily devotional?

Some of you may say yes. Others of you perhaps have never done that, but one of the best ways for us to use our time is to begin the day with God and to be encouraged by his word, and daily devotionals do just that. I've written a 365 Daily Devotional, pairing it with the writings of our founder, D.L. Moody.

I think that this would be a wonderful resource even as you think about beginning the new year. It'll make a wonderful Christmas gift also for others. So here's what you do. You go to RTWoffer.com. That's RTWoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Now, because I believe that this resource will be a great blessing, I'm going to give you that contact info again. Here it is, RTWoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And even as we approach the end of this year and anticipate the beginning of the next, I want to thank you for being our partners in sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.