Running To Win

Announcer: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith.

Dave McAllister: It's always good to have out with the old, in with the new, especially when it comes to replacing bad habits with good ones. Running life's race at top speed means having a mind filled with the word of God. Today we'll discover the key to overcoming bad habits, scripture meditation. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, some may see meditation as a form of Eastern religion. What's different about the meditation you're advocating?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, I'm so glad to be able to answer that question and I'll tell you why. Many years ago in a college class, we were asked to go into a temple that belonged to an Eastern religion and we were told that we should empty our minds. Now imagine that. That's very dangerous because it opens you up to the spirit world. Scriptural meditation is very different. Scriptural meditation is to be able to focus on the word of God, to read it, to memorize it, to think about it so that you have something that occupies your mind during the day.

For example, this morning I was reading in the book of Matthew and Jesus Christ warned that the time was going to come when the love of many will wax cold. So I asked God to show me whether or not my love for Jesus Christ was on the wane or on the increase. In other words, you take something with you during the day. Scriptural meditation fills our minds. It renews our minds. Well, this is one of the last days to receive a copy of the book entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit. I wrote this book because it discusses such issues as scriptural meditation, but also the resources that God gives us to change our behavior.

For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you can do. You can call us at 888-218-9337 or you can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. And remember this, God is good. He's able to change us. He gives us a new nature with supernatural power, but it is not automatic. Listen carefully. Think of all of the new thoughts that Abraham had in his mind as he left that mountain. Think of all of the new insights that he had into God and into his working as a result of that struggle. His knowledge and his appreciation of the Lord God Jehovah was enlarged.

And that's what God wants to do when he rids you of that sinful habit. God wants you to readjust your values that you might see that the important things are the things that are not seen and the unimportant things are the things that we work for every day. The things that are seen necessary in this life, but not the important things. Now you'll begin to see then that God has something much broader and much more important in mind. You know what God's will is for us, don't you? You know sometimes we quote that verse, Romans 8:28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And I've heard so many people say, well, we know that God has some good in it, but we don't know what it is, but someday we'll know. No. You should know right now what the good is. Right now, right now what that good is in Romans 8:28, you ought to know it right now. Do you know what it says in the next verse? Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That is the good that is referred to in the preceding verse. And you see God works all things together for good.

That is to say he takes all of the struggles of life. Why? That we might be conformed to the image of his son. That's what God wants to do in your life. It's not just a matter of giving you victory over a sliver of your existence. It is that he might be able to begin a much larger work. And you have to readjust your values and say, do I really have my priorities in life straight? Have I really allowed God to show me what is important? If you want to find out what is important, I'd like to give you a little assignment.

Sometime this week when you have a spare moment, take a sheet of paper and write down all of the things that you would do if you were told that you had only two years to live. Oftentimes that's a good way for us to really focus our priorities. It's amazing what happens when people discover sometimes that they may have a terminal illness. I wish that upon no one. I certainly dread it myself. I don't know how I would handle it, but I've known people who have said that in moments like that you finally can distinguish much more clearly the important from the unimportant, the things that are above from the things that are on the earth.

And God says that's what you should do. Readjust your values. Second, refocus your thought life. Notice this, set your mind on the things above, it says in verse two, not on things of the earth. You see when we are readjust our values, which I mentioned a moment ago, in doing that, that answers the question that I raised a few moments earlier about those who can't break their sinful habits because they misunderstand the purpose of the struggle. When I tell you now that we should refocus our thought life, this is the answer to the principle of replacement that I spoke about a moment ago.

It is not enough simply to renounce sin. What we must do is we must begin to consciously and deliberately set the focus of our minds directly upon the scriptures. And it is through the process of the meditation of the word of God that the works of the flesh are literally squeezed right out of our life. There's a young man, I call him young. He's about my age. He was the pastor of a church and he lost his wife two years ago because of terminal cancer. And I have never seen a man so radiant and with such tremendous ability to have taken that even though he was left with two small girls, children.

And I asked him, I said, how is it that your experience is so different from so many others that I know? Why was it that you and your wife were able to handle that all the way to the bitter end? I said, weren't there times when you were in deep anxiety? Oh yes, he said. He said, we had our times of deep anxiety, but we wouldn't tolerate anxiety. I said, well, how did you not tolerate it? He said, I would read my wife the Bible chapter after chapter after chapter and then he says it was in times like that that God's peace just overwhelmed us.

You see that's the answer. To simply have said, oh God, please deliver us from anxiety and then to get up from off your knees with a blank mind, open and ready for anxious thoughts once again will not work. You can say, oh God, deliver me from this sinful habit, please, please, and I yield to you. And your mind as you get up from that chair is empty and it's a receptacle and open, ready receptacle for all sorts of angry, difficult, confusing, and sinful thoughts once again and it will never work. God's principle is never to have you simply renounce sin.

It is always to step by step fill your vacuum with habits of righteousness. And when that happens, the others have no room. Look at what Paul says here. He says, put off these things, he says, but put on the new man. I could show you in the book of Ephesians and elsewhere he says the very same thing. He says, put off the old man with his deeds, but also put on the new man and do these things. You see he says not only don't be drunk with wine. What does he say in the very same verse?

But be filled with the spirit. You see the way in which you break a sinful habit is not only to renounce it, but it is to fill your mind with the word of God so that in your life new thought patterns can be developed. Now I think that what you ought to do is go home and find verses of scripture that relate to all of the specific problems that you face, whether it is anxiety or anger. Regardless of what that sinful habit is, learn verses of scripture and begin to memorize those verses of scripture or else take them and put them on 3x5 cards and have them in your car or at work where you can glance at them.

And constantly be filling your mind with the word of God relating specifically to the problems that you face and suddenly you'll discover that your thought patterns will begin to change and you'll be able to think righteous thoughts rather than evil ones. You know there's that old sermon illustration that everyone uses, but I've got to use it again because it's so good. You know the best way to take air out of a bottle is not to invent some sort of a huge vacuum pump, though I suppose that's possible, simply to pour water into the bottle does the job much better.

And if you think that your mind can somehow be delivered from the sinful habits that you have by simply living in a vacuum, you are wrong. You will return to those sinful habits and your latter state will be worse than your former because God wants to change us. And he does it through the renewing of the mind. You know that verse in Philippians? Paul doesn't say now folks, don't think evil thoughts. He says that, but many, many more times often he says things like this, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are righteous, whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are of a good report, if there be any virtue or if there be any praise, think on these things.

So it is not a matter of renouncing only, it is a matter of putting on the new habits of righteousness and the new thought patterns that God wants to give you. There's a third thing in this passage and that is this. We should reckon ourselves, reckon ourselves to be dead to sin. Notice this, it says in verse five, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed which amounts to idolatry. You see when we face temptation, we must recognize that Jesus Christ has already won a legal victory over the sin that plagues you.

Legally that sin has been broken because he took you from being in Adam and he put you into Jesus Christ and in the process of breaking that old relationship and forming a new, there is no jurisdiction that sin no longer can have over you legally. Years ago when slavery was abolished in Jamaica, I understand that there were many slaves in the remote areas who did not know that their day of emancipation had come. Consequently all over Jamaica in some of the areas there were still people who were operating and living like slaves and being obedient to their masters and all the rest simply out of ignorance, they did not know that slavery had been abolished.

Now in the very same way if we are ignorant regarding the totality of the work of Jesus Christ, we will have a tendency in our lives to keep obeying the old master when really he has no right to rule us. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he won a legal victory so that we no longer have to be slaves to sin, but the Bible says here, consider yourselves to be dead to the works of the flesh. And you can do that. You can do that. Now this is the answer to the problem of self-effort that I told you about a moment ago.

It is not a matter of me saying I determine no longer to do this sin. At best that can only be the first small step in the right direction. But what you must do is say, I determine to visualize, I don't mean physically visualize, but I determine to visualize myself as being victorious in Jesus Christ. And I have decided to shift the focus of my attention not so much to the struggle that is going within my heart as the victory that was accomplished on the cross and I keep focusing my attention to that and I will determine to do that.

You know I have found sometimes that when I face temptation, I don't have the strength to be able to say I turn from that temptation. But it's an amazing thing. This is just a personal experience and you might find it to be different, but I do have sometimes in the moments of facing temptation I do have the strength to say, Lord Jesus, I look in your direction. Now in looking at the direction of Jesus Christ and considering him and reckoning myself to be dead, I am turning from sin, but it is not merely a bare turning from iniquity.

It is a positive turn towards Jesus Christ and Christ helps us to do that. And that's why our will becomes stronger as we develop as a habit of righteousness looking to Jesus Christ and the victory that was settled there. You remember the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus, Joshua was in the battle with the Amalekites. And the Bible says that Moses went on to the mountain and he began to pray and he began to intercede. And Moses had his arms raised and as long as Moses had his arms raised, Joshua prevailed. And when Moses had his hands down, Amalek prevailed.

In fact, her and Aaron who were up on the mount, they helped Moses keep his hands in the air. Where was the real battle taking place? The real battle was taking place on the mountain. It was not taking place in the valley. What was being done on the mountain was being translated into personal victory in the valley, but the real issue was being settled on the hilltop where Moses was interceding for his people. Now the more clearly we are able to see that it is at the cross that the issue was settled. The real big issues of life were settled there, the more easily we will be able to embrace that victory for ourselves and say, I take that as mine.

Despite the struggle that is going on within me, I keep looking to the cross and thanking God that sin was defeated there. And then by means of the Holy Spirit, the victory that Jesus Christ accomplished will be translated into the personal experience of our own lives. If I could summarize this sermon in a single sentence, it would simply be this, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I meet so many people who don't want to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. People who cry up to God for deliverance that they might be free from these things and they don't seem to be delivered because there's only one way to do it and that is to positively, actively, consciously, deliberately walk in the spirit, refocusing your whole values in life and recognizing that what God wants to do in your life is to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ and the your temptation or habit is but a step in that direction.

And he wants you to change your whole thought patterns through the assimilation and the meditation in the word of God and he wants you to constantly see the greatness of Jesus Christ's victory on the cross. I'll tell you I get a little weary about preachers who tell people that all that they have to do is really yield to God and that 's the end of it. All that you have to do is yield to God. I was brought up in a church that believed in a second blessing. You don't one of the problems I had with the second blessing was that it didn't seem to be around when I really needed it.

There is no one experience that will decisively end your temptations. In fact, you've got to learn to live with temptation. We're going to talk about that next week. You've got to learn to accept it as a way of life, but you've got to learn to handle it the way in which God wants. But once we begin to establish a systematic program of applying these scripture to our lives, we will see that some of the habits that we have struggled with so long will sort of fall by the wayside like leaves in the spring when the new life of a tree begins to break forth.

Not one isolated act, though it begins there, but a whole different direction and a whole different pattern of the way of life. Psychologists tell us that it takes 21 days to break an old habit and to begin a new. I hope it won't take you that long, though for some of you it might take that long. Might take a long time to lay aside the garments of the flesh and begin to establish patterns of righteousness. There's some of you here if you're really, really, really fed up with your sin. And one of the problems I have with people is that sometimes they aren't really fed up with their sin.

They still aren't sure whether they want to get rid of it. But if you're really desperate, some of you could stop your losing streak tomorrow. If you began each day affirming your position in Jesus Christ, meditating in the word, and asking God for wisdom to see what he'd like to do in your life, he will take that sinful habit and it will be broken, but in its place there will be righteousness. There will be habits of godliness and great spiritual maturity. Look at that habit as a stepping stone, not a stumbling block, but a stepping stone toward knowing the Lord God.

Walk in the spirit, Paul says, and then you'll break those sinful habits. Let's pray together, shall we? Our Father, we thank you that your word says that you have given to us everything that is necessary for godliness. We thank you, Father, that there is no sinful habit that anyone is involved in, no matter how many years they've been involved in it, that you cannot break. And, Father, we know that sometimes you do not break it because you want them to see a much larger picture as to what you'd really like to do in their lives and how you'd like to use this.

And we pray for ourselves, Father. Many of us have sinful habits. Many of us have patterns of behavior that we think we cannot change. And we know that you want to. And we pray, Lord, that you might make us open and ready to respond to what you would like to do in our hearts through the cross and through your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer and I want to emphasize what I have already said and that is that breaking a stubborn habit, we have resources to do that, but those resources are not automatic.

In a book I've written entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit, there is a chapter entitled The Intercession of Christ and other believers. Oftentimes we need that kind of support as we confront Satan and as we confront sinful patterns that must be broken. And this is one of the last days we're making available for you the book that I've just referenced, namely How to Break a Stubborn Habit for a gift of any amount. I really do believe that this book will be a great blessing to you personally, but also I think that it will be a book that you'll be able to share with others and it will enable them to understand also that the resources are available for us in Jesus Christ.

We'll never be perfect in this life, but we don't have to be a slave of sin. Here's what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1888-218-9337. Now because this is one of the last days that we're making this resource available, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. I hope that you take time to go to church over the weekend that you might be able to bond together with other believers in prayer and in worship because as I emphasize, we are in this together even as we run toward the finish line.

Well, right now you can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1888-218-9337 from my heart to yours. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for your prayers and for your support.

Announcer: You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North La Salle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's road map for your race of life. A life filled with patterns of righteousness has no room for bad habits. Pastor Irwin Lutzer has now concluded developing habits of righteousness, the third of four messages in his series Getting to Know. Next time don't miss Breaking the Chains of Bondage. For Running to Win, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.