Chuck Swindoll | The Discipline of Spiritual Growth

it's great to be with you on campus this week I was able to take a walk and look at the athletic facility and watch some in practice and to enjoy the feel of the life here that is so vibrant and real and I commend you for that I thought I'd have a little fun with you this morning since the subject I've chosen for the week is so so serious I thought we'd start on a lighter note and have you enjoy a letter from home that was sent by a little boy named Cole to his mom and dad he had he was at a scout camp and decided in the middle of the camp to write a letter home and this is what he wrote dear mom and dad our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried we're okay only one of our tents and two sleeping bags got washed away luckily none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened oh yeah please call Chad's mother and tell her he's okay he can't write her because of the cast I got to ride in one of the search-and-rescue Jeeps it was really neat we never would have found him in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning our Scoutmaster Walt got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone Chad said he did tell him but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him did you know that if you put gasoline on a fire the gas can will blow up the wet wood didn't burn but one of the tents did David's going to look weird until his hair grows back we'll be home on Saturday of Scoutmaster Walt gets the car fixed it wasn't hit fault about the wreck the brakes worked okay when we left Scoutmaster Walt he said that the car that old you would have to expect something to break down that's probably why he can't get any insurance we think it's a neat car we think it's a neat car he doesn't care if we get it dirty or if it's hot sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders it gets pretty hot with ten people in a car he lets us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to him about that Scoutmaster Walt is a neat guy he's a good driver in fact he's teaching Kerry how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn't much traffic did you know you don't need garden rails on roads that don't have much traffic all we ever see up there are logging trucks this morning all the guys were driving off we're diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake Scoutmaster Walt let me because wouldn't let me because I can't swim and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast so he let us take the canoe alone across the lake it was really great you can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood Scoutmaster Walt isn't crabby like some Scout masters he didn't even get mad about our losing the lifejackets he has to spend a lot of time working on the cars so we're trying not to cause him any trouble guess what we have all passed our first aid merit badges when when Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm we got to see how a tourniquet works Wade and I threw up but Scoutmaster Walt said it probably was of food poisoning from the leftover chicken he said they got stick that way with food that they ate in prison I'm so glad he got out of the slammer and became our Scoutmaster he said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing time I have to go now we're going to go to town and mail our letters and buy bullets don't worry about anything we are fine love cold you know why on earth - kids right moms and dads letters like that it's crazy I have a daughter who says it's now clear to me why some animals eat their young as a result of that when you're little like that you don't have a clue as you grow a little older you're supposed to get a clue which brings me to the statement we started with yesterday Malcolm Muggeridge wrote any happening greater small is a parable whereby God speaks to us and the art of life is to get the message I went on to talk about humility yesterday and the value of it the reason is that when you're proud and arrogant you don't ever get the message you don't ever get it when you're preoccupied with yourself the same thing happens in a non-stop hectic schedule when the tyranny of the urgent wins the day it keeps us from going where we ought to go and that is deeper richard Foster has written several wonderful books I hope you will read before your years are over at Wheaton celebration of discipline on the very first page Foster writes this superficiality is the curse of our age the doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem the desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gift people but for deep people a major reason God led you to this school is to deepen you I hope you get that message I hope you never forget that message and I hope when you look back you will be able to say it was in those years I deepened I know you've got a schedule that's maddening you have courses that push you to the brink at the beginning of every semester it it you feel scrambled you want to tell every one of the profs I have other classes too you know this is not the only one that requires all that reading I understand school being like it is tends to make us frantic and in the midst of it we will miss the message that God's plan for us and bringing us here is to grow us deeper maybe you hadn't thought of that it was aw Tozer who wrote years ago while he was pastoring Southside Chicago may not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the coroners of the kingdom like children in the marketplace always chattering about everything but pausing to learn the true value of nothing if you are not careful you will develop the ability to chatter about a lot of things your world will be expanded your mind will be stretched there will be courses that will introduce you to a vast well subtopic that you hardly knew could be addressed and for all you know right now that may become that realm of major for you in the process God has you here to get your attention to help you turn a corner at a crossroads of your life and for some of you that turning will be life-changing my Bible is open to Galatians 1 where there is a very brief vignette of a biography of the man who wrote the letter the Apostle Paul who as he writes of this was then known as Saul of Tarsus and and only that his name was a household word among the people of his country he was by then a Pharisee proud brilliant aggressive violent and he was pursuing a course that was self gratifying until God stopped him along the way and began the process of turning him around don't forget all I said that beginning a process rarely are we suddenly turned around it's a process we read in Galatians 1 verse 11 I would have you know brothers that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ then he pauses and drifts back in his memory today's gone by and reminds them of what many of them would quickly recall you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism how I used to persecute the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions but when he who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me but and listen to these five words I went away to Arabia a whole different geography a whole different climate a whole different culture miles removed from the familiar multiple miles from home and all the familiarities of home he found himself in Arabia as far as I want to go with this text this morning about 8:15 the thought hit me to paraphrase what I just read into the language of Wheaton students so here's what I came up with many of my classmates and faculty members may not have heard of my former manner of life back home in high school I used to fake it much of my faith was a thin shallow some of it downright phony some of my private life was shameful all kept a secret and for some a secret to this day oh I did well academically in fact better than most of my peers in fact I used that to impress my parents and eclipse the emptiness within me but somehow by God's grace I made it on empty as the Lord allowed me to graduate even though I was driven and craving to be liked and never able to come to terms with who I am or determine what God would have me become since I never took time for that and at that crucial crossroad of my life I went away to Wheaton now all of a sudden Galatians 1 is September 4 2008 all of a sudden that's your story why would God lead you here why would you be selected and several others you may know not chosen why would you have a place in this student body when there are so many others who would love to be sitting where you sit why you oh there's all kind of guesswork you could put into that up some some great thinkers have even tried to guess why Paul went away to Arabia John Chrysostom said he went as a missionary to to evangelize a barbarous and savage people how does Chris Liston know that I I doubt that's the reason he went to Arabia another says that he sought protection from unconverted Jews who became his enemies Arabia became his escape how does he know that it's a guess the best answer is given by the venerable JB Lightfoot who writes of a veil of thick darkness hangs over Saint Paul's visit to Arabia a veil of thick darkness truth be told for some of you to this moment there's a veil of darkness that hangs over your mind when you think why exactly am I here what is this what are these years all about I believe it's best to keep it simple and very practical he went away to Arabia because he needed the discipline of solitude and obscurity remember I mentioned Paul was by now a household word among the people of the Jews he needed no more of that just as you need no more of the popularity you knew in high school you need no more of the fawning over people or trying to please them or impress them you need to go deeper than that and some of you are and I commend you he did he time to be alone with his God just as you do he needed time to seek God's mind through courses like this and beyond the course that was forced upon him I believe he lived with veterans he didn't even know I believe he spent time watching sunsets thinking away from the crowds of what on earth this future of mine is going to be like I went away to Arabia he was there to hear God's voice you who loved to get into the wilderness know there's something about something about distance in a wilderness that brings the voice of God closer there's something about the mountain peaks there's something about the crashing waves along a shoreline there's something about life away from home the familiar places where you spent your years away from mom and dad away from the names that are just a part of your life that you could click off one after another of people who were your your peers in school there's a reason you're in this Arabia part of it is to break old habits and you know them so much better than I my own give take full time my life and so I leave yours with you you need to reorder your private world that's part of the reason you've been led to Whedon when we look back over Paul shoulders and we see his lifestyle we see a man who who carried out treacherous things things that haunted him the rest of his years he's even said to his friend Timothy I was a violent aggressor he had blood on his hands innocent Christians and now he has time in Arabia to reflect on that and if I read this section correctly he doesn't return until years pass at least three before he's back at Jerusalem to take on the mantle of his calling and what we would call his life career for the next two or more decades it's a pretty pretty impressive list of things from his past he was busy about pleasing people verse 10 he's actively engaged in a misguided course of life verse 13 he's advancing more than his peers he's extremely zealous for his convictions verse 14 pretty impressive he was busy and active and engaged in advancing in zealous but he wasn't deep the founder of our seminary one of our us-trained once wrote that so much of our busyness is little more than a cheap anesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty life just stay busy I challenge you this morning to slow down deliberately and purposefully discipline yourself towards solitude it was during my fall semester as a young first-year seminary student to hear the president I should say the pastor of moody Bible Church who was then dr. Alan Redpath Dallin read doctor read path of from Great Britain had a way of saying things that sort of stuck and I'll never forget his line the conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment the making of a saint however is the task of a lifetime when you entered Wheaton College God had in mind for you another direction then you have taken thus far I don't know what it is it's here you will find out who you are hopefully I'm asked frequently by younger men in ministry what are some things you can help us with as we get underway I say I'm going to pass I'll tell them I pass on to you what I've never read anywhere else but has helped me the most know who you are in the process of time accept who you are and finally spend your life being who you are truth be told some of you haven't gotten to first base in that you don't know who you are so you're working hard to be someone else or like somebody else or like a composite of others you admire it's not God's plan for you you're you you're the only one you have a sphere of responsibility and influence in the future that you today cannot even imagine what you don't realize is the value of these years in Arabia and I want to make you aware of that I want you to know that September isn't just another month to come and go and pass into oblivion it's a significant month in your life never to be lived again so will be October so will be the long winter months here in the North Midwest not just another cold season but a season to deepen listen listen like Paul listened at sunset in Arabia listen in the early morning hours pay attention to what the prof doesn't say read between the lines as Foster put it we don't need more intelligent people or more gifted people we need deep people this chapel was named after the man who wrote these words we live in a restless impatient day we have little time for preparation and less for meditation or worship we feel we must be active energetic enthusiastic and humanely effective and we cannot understand why inactivity in weakness weariness and seeming uselessness should become our lot it all appears to be so futile and foolish now without plan or purpose some of you just getting underway cultivate the discipline of spending some time all alone others of you are well on your way they're a senior sitting here only months until graduation take time take time go deeper cultivate things that aren't a part of the curriculum the conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment making of a saint it's a task of a lifetime bow with me will you the profit is written as the rain comes down the snow from heaven and returns not without watering the earth and making it bring forth and bud even so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth it shall never return void but will accomplish the thing for which I sent it mega lations 1 become for some of these students the beginning of a process where solitude and quietness and even obscurity replaces the need for popularity and activity and impressing people and pleasing others help each student's father to discover who they are to accept how you have made them and then to become your women and men in a world that's lost its way for Jesus sake everyone said amen thank you you're watching w ET n TV a Broadcasting Service of Wheaton College for a copy of this program please call the media resources department of Wheaton College at seven five two five zero six one

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Keywords: wheaton, college, illinois, Wheaton College (College/University), Wheaton College Chapel, Chapel (Building Function), Edman Memorial Chapel, Christianity (Religion), Charles R. Swindoll (Author), Fall Special Services

Id: yuGiu57o0-A

Length: 27min 43sec (1663 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 22 2015