Cleaning Up the Trash We Regret - Charles Swindoll

our speaker for many years served on our board of in corporate members when he was pastoring the Ivry church in Fullerton California and then became the fourth president of Dallas Theological Seminary if you've never been into a Christian bookstore you may not realize that he has written over 50 books and probably a hundred pamphlets and may not have been exposed to his writings but you should be so go for it if you've never turned on radio and heard that voice that is so distinctively his The Laugh the love of Christ the powerful applicable exposition of Scripture you need to turn it on and listen he's heard in over 2,000 stations around the world on a daily basis he's read he's imitated I just have a cartoon on my desk that came out of a Christian magazine that said a pastor talking to his technician at the back can't you make my voice sound like Chuck Swindoll it's a great cartoon but God has used our brother that our friend in so many ways it's a privilege because he continues to be our Chancellor here at Dallas seminary to do things like this with us and what we'll do on Thursday and other events he continues to be a great encouragement to all of us as he opens the word on a regular basis and never wonder whether or not he'll be faithful to the text of Scripture would you join me in welcoming our Chancellor dr. Chuck Swindoll thank you special welcome to folks my age great to have you here it's terrific Rick I'm so glad you're learning from these people maybe teach him a little Hebrew who knows FB Mar was a pastor in England for a number of years and has left in his legacy works that are still worth reading and one of them I was looking over not too long ago he includes these words and this is the bitterest of all to know that suffering need not have men that it is the result of indiscretion and inconsistency that it is the harvest of once owned sowing at the vulture which feeds on the vitals is a nestling of one's own rearing ah me this is pain he writes it in a book that goes on to describe the terrible consequences of David's fall as he reminds all of us that David is not unique nor are his Psalms of lament meant just for him because David speaks for all of us and writes for all of us when he addresses the subject of personal failure and disappointment in oneself I sat down with my calendar before coming this morning and I accounted the day's I noticed we have less than 40 days before commencement which means a transition some of you are moving out away from the school you'll get your degree and you'll be on your way into the unknown you will hear God's call and it will include I in the years ahead a number of surprises which I need to tell you ahead of time will also include a number of failures on your part we don't like to think about that and certainly we don't want to dwell on it but it is reality and it seems as though transitions are made as times of soul-searching so I want to commend that thought to you as you think about a change that's ahead you who are coming back to the school next fall you'll still have the summer there will be changes that you'll enter into the summer some of you are going into internship programs happen to me in the middle of my years here and I left Texas to go to Northern California and to be an intern with a man named Ray Steadman at Peninsula Bible Church life-changing experience even though it was really only a three-month little over three-month period of time but it was a transition time and I learned so much others of you will take a call to a place that will have challenges that you won't detect as you candidate but they are there and the enemy lies in wait knowing that you are only human and even though well-trained and sincere and committed to the things of God you are nevertheless going to step in it from time to time and you will go through periods of embarrassment and even some shame where the lament Psalms will mean more to you then than they than they do now one of our men who's been with a 17 years at our church is leaving today is his last day I leave here to go to a luncheon in his honor when Jason Stevenson walks away from the familiar world that he's filled and been a part of as our Minister of Youth and goes into the pastor it in another state not far from Flint Michigan a very close to the city that has the largest Muslim population in all the United States 60,000 of them within a few miles of the city where he'll minister he's very excited about it and we're nobody is around to rain on his parade we're excited for him but he's wise enough to know that there there are tests that await him that not even courses at Dallas seminary can prepare you for because tests are tests on character not so much on Bible knowledge they are tests that bring you to your knees and often result in your weeping and an awareness of the great doctrines and there's everything good about that does not necessarily prepare you for such humiliations so I want to spend today and then I'm back fairly soon I think it's the 8th of next month to talk about another side of the same subject today I want to talk to you about you and then on the 8th of April I want to come back and talk about you and others and my thought today has to do with clearing away the trash of your and the next time I'll talk about the the benefits of forgiveness and gaining the health that comes from forgiving others and you have a lifetime of that in front of you just as I do in front of me uh some time ago in fact it was years ago our our lives were filled with football games and and events around high schools because all four of our kids went to the same high school and both of our girls were cheerleaders and so we were parents of cheerleaders and one of our daughters became the head cheerleader so we were really involved and it happened to be a championship year for their football team and it was good that I had a pickup because we hauled all the stuff that they needed for their ball games and if you remember or maybe you're involved in those years now every girl lets a cheerleader during the summer before she starts to yell they all build boxes big boxes that they stand on there about about three feet off the ground and they kind of take a jump and get up on them so they can be seen when they lead their cheers there were nine cheerleaders in our high school and the nine boxes that perfectly into the back of my pickup fit right in almost like we should call the machine shop almost a press fit they fit right in and Cynthia said to me after I got all nine the pickup I think you should tie them down I got no no way there's there's no need there is no need to time down you once again you tend to be a little anal about stuff like that and it they're going to be fine she's you need to time down we got it's an away game and there's a lot of wind between here and there what's up in a part of the mountain area above Fullerton and I didn't tie them down so let me cut to the chase and say the girls could not be seen as well when they did their cheers at the football game because they were three feet lower than they normally would have been was not truckin long we're late and we're trying to get there ahead of time so they can be there ahead of time and I took a glance in my rearview mirror which was a fatal look as I saw one box and then oven and we had like we had like maybe 300 feet of debris I they splintered and the problem was our daughter was following us in her car and she looked like a deer in the headlights she like and then my wife shared with me thoughts that it's amazing how your wife can sound like the Holy Spirit at times you know it's a little later then and they never let me live that down that's kind of the joke in our family ol dad the great prophet never one to make a mistake on things like that a few hundred yards of debris before too many years of your life you'll have your own just as I have mine the question is what are you going to do about them because the last person you find in your life that you can forgive is yourself and it does a number on you a person who lives under self condemnation becomes rather ineffective in ministry and it's easy to get that way if you have a tender heart and who wants anybody as a minister that doesn't have a tender heart and we can be our worst enemies in some 32 we have a man a 31 Psalm 31 we have a man with a broken heart and we don't know exactly what it was that prompted him before writing the 31st Psalm but it was it was serious and this is one of the limit Psalms otherwise known as petition Psalms where it's a cry out to God it's not a Psalm 51 where there's been an abject failure and laying out of a full confession where David begins that be merciful to me O God but this is a psalm of lamenting some things that have occurred and he calls on God in you O Lord I have taken refuge let me never be ashamed in your righteousness deliver me incline your ear to me rescue me quickly be to me a rock of strength a strong hole to save me for you are my rock mark that run ahead to verse 4 that ends with you are my strength we get the chorus you are my strength when I am weak you are the pleasure that I see you're the treasure that I seek you're my all and all we get it from there and look at verse 14 you are my God he's calling out to the one who is his rock his strength and is God just as you and I must do when we hit times like this and as Meyer says it's the bitterest of all to know that it's your fault you have no one else you should try to blame but you look within and rather than condemning yourself you look up and say to the Lord God and all honesty my rock my strength my god hear me when I call in so many words this situation is eating me alive when you get down to the core of the psalm which begins about verse nine you have to pause and do a little extra analysis because you can you could there analyze some details verse nine be gracious to me O Lord for here's a reason because I'm in distress my eyes wasted away from grief he's been you've been weeping he says my soul and my body also because we're in distress sorrow accompanies us in the difficult thing I might add about ministry is that Sunday comes every three days I mean it's there it's it's comment baby and it doesn't go away because you had a bad Thursday or because you had a fight at home on Saturday Sunday's coming and you're on these are realities that you cannot escape and over the years you learn not to tribe you learn to cry out for strength from your rock from your God because we're in distress sorrow accompanies that's that's verses 9 and 10 my eyes wasted away my life is spent with sorrow by the way I love this about David I love it that he that he didn't fake it well I did for that period of time but other than that he's all out there and he writes about it interesting during those horrible months of his adulterous relationship we have no record of a song how can you sing the Lord's song in a foreign land so whatever may be the need he is in distress and sorrow accompanies him read on my life is spent with sorrow verse 10 my years with sighing my strength has failed because of my iniquity here's a second reason but because we're sinful guilt accuses us you you you you you you hear it through the night you feel that index finger in your sternum you caused this you said that you offended and guilt just accuses us it's the way he says it in in verse 10 my strength is failed because of mine iniquity my body is wasted away and then to make matters even worse there are others around that accuses look at the next part verse 11 because of all my adversaries I become a reproach especially to my neighbors an object of dread to my acquaintances those who see me in the street flee from me they go to the other side of the street when they see me coming so the third is we have adversaries because of that misunderstandings assault us I found a good rendering of this in the message listen listen to this paraphrase be kind to me God on D in deep deep trouble I've cried my eyes out I feel hollow inside my life leaks away grown by grown my ears fade out in size my troubles have worn me out my bones to powder to my enemies I'm a monster I'm ridiculed by the neighbors my friends are horrified they crossed the street to avoid me so he writes a song uh just as an aside begin to develop the practice of keeping a journal you will find that it is a magnificent spiritual therapy it's not a diary you're not writing down events of the day with times and and those kind of superficial things a journal is what God is teaching you and what and how you are dialoguing with him probably haven't had the time during the school year all you need is another assignment right now especially with exams coming but when the summer kicks in think about getting a small private a little maybe even a spiral work that you can enter something in if not every day most days why do I tell you that because you will find that thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through the fingertips uh troubles that you cannot quite put into words your your journal will help you do that and you will also find that it will help you probe deeper than you would otherwise if you just traffic there mentally there's something about pushing words through your fingers don't do it on a computer do it by hand it's called hand writing I and and just don't do it too later write a book from it I don't want to read somebody's journal first it's none of my business and second is his journal or hers not written for publication my children have never read a page of my journal and they've known me of course all their lives my wife's never looked at a page of my journals there are several volumes of them in my library and they contain I can go back to some I dated some I didn't today's and I can remember the day I wrote it when I read this is like a journal this is a recorded Pringle you'll learn to pray also much more effectively when you began to keep a journal and has he writes of their see he just kind of lets it all turn from here to Psalm 56 okay just just a brief catch there before we go to one of the Minor Prophets Psalm 56 be gracious to me O God for man has trampled upon me fighting all day long he oppresses me my foes have trampled upon me all day long for their many who fight proudly against me when I'm afraid I will put my trust in you in God whose word I praise in God I have put my trust love it I shall not be afraid what can mere man do to me and talk about the torturing of critics all day long they distort my words all their thoughts are against me for evil they attack they lurk they watch my steps as they have waited to take my life because of wickedness cast him forth in anger put down the people's Oh God see where he fights his battles he fights them on his knees I I love the words of the martyred missionary Jim Eliot the saint who advances on his knees never retreats God is on his throne we're on his footstool then there's only in these distance in between let me urge you to become women and men of Prayer and don't wait'll the summer for that to begin you don't think it's your prayers have to be lengthy or eloquent in any way they simply need to be honest and vulnerable they need to be pointed and just like David as he writes this song well I'd love to go further and all that in fact I I just can't look past his words here verse 8 you have taken account of my wanderings you put my tears in your bottle you've got a beautiful way to put it or they're not in your book God is a merciful God and when we pour out our hearts to him and tears come he takes special note of it Spurgeon writes this his sorrows were so many that there would they would need to be a great wine skin to hold them all this is from the treasure of David such floods of tears had david wept that a leathern bottle would scarce hold him he trusts that the Lord will be so considerate of his tears as to store them up as men do the juice of the vine and he hopes that the place of storage will be a special one by bottle not a bottle it's God's bottle were they not in thy book yes they are recorded there but not only let let not only the record but the grief itself be present to thee look on my griefs as real things for these move the heart more than a mere account however exact how generous are his estimations of us how tender his regard you know what happens when I pour out my heart like that silence he doesn't answer audibly he answers deep within and you change something changes inside of you as you begin to personify the humiliation of all of this there's something not just stirrings but there's something that that roots within you in God and it holds you so close to him I know how some of this sounds I used to sit as a student and listen to men that would come to preach it at the seminary I could name several you know all the names and yet I will never forget the words of John Mitchell from Portland who talked about reading your Bible Scottish read you Bible but let your Bible read you and as you get into the scriptures like this it begins to show you the real you and write that down I read recently that the number one quality missing and type a people is self-awareness it's good to remember there's many of you are type a I think type A's are drawn to Dallas seminary you're taught by Taipei's and it's nothing wrong with that there's a lot of us running loose you know and yeah but but Taipei's can be so engaged in the stuff in the in the in the issue in the action and whatever it may be the discipline that you miss you and that's the part that ministers to people need to be a good student of yourself you didn't know where he was strong know where you're weak and no know what your limits are and not be afraid to acknowledge it I had the joy in my student years of studying alongside two men who taught me how to study because when I arrived I was allowed to come to school on probation which I was very grateful for that they even would have interviewed me and I met up with two men they're just brilliant beyond belief at least to me they were Bill Bell who came with a master's from LSU having graduate from Georgia Tech and then he came into a seminary and then Ralph Alexander who had studied at Rice and Bill was a theology major in ralph was a Hebrew major as we called it then and I remember Ralph saying to us on occasion you know you guys can stay up real layton and take all this in but he's I got I got to tell you I need a nap every day if I don't get a nap I'm not effective after about seven o'clock and I remember being burn the candle at every end I guess it only has two ends but I I was burning it at both ends and I looked at him like what but you know what I've come to realize in fact I said to Cynthia this morning you know what I think I think Alexander rubbed off on me I think I'm the type that kind of needs it a nap time to time she goes when you have time for that I've come to realize that I do better if I have a little break in the day and and don't try to hit everything running he's just part of knowing me and I've learned that a reason I keep running is because it leaves the impression that I'm never out of energy but I am out of energy and what do I need to leave that impression uh and so you get older many things mean less among them what people think and you realize you're responsible one you're accountable to others but you're responsible ultimately to one and he's the one you need to listen to and follow because he's the one that's going to help you when you hit moments like this now then all of this is kind of a preparation for Joel okay blow the dust off the little book of Joel okay don't everybody turn it once okay I see little dust pockets coming up from various chairs around here we're not in Joel very often we actually know very little about Joel we know what his name means and we know his daddy's name all of that's in verse one but here's a man who's ministering in a time of desolation and you know what's come in locusts they've come in like a swarm and they devastated the land you ever seen swarms of locusts I've never had seen them till I was traveling in Southern California driving back from Mount Hermon back to Southern California and I pulled over at a service station and I got out and I I stepped out of my car and I felt crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch I thought what on earth is down here and I look down rose going to open my gas cap and they were all over that I was like what is this the guys is all locusts they come see the difference and I looked over here and it was green and fairly lush and I looked over there and it was white stalks no vegetation he said obviously they're moving in this direction and we are right now it was it was night he said we are right now right in the middle of it so I suggest when you pull your cap off your gas get the nozzle in there in there quick so I did but I'd never seen locust in fact they are described for us in verse 4 look I'm going somewhere with this so this isn't a lesson in in insects I want you to know that we're going somewhere verse 4 what the gnawing locust has left the swarming locust has eaten what the swarming locust has left the creeping locust is eaten look at the growth and intensity what the creeping locust has left the stripping locust has eaten wake up says the Prophet so he's talking to people who are who they are going through a time of infestation of these insects they're annoying locusts that cut off the leaves and they drop and there are swarming locust called literally licking locusts is what the word means they eat and devour what's dropped so that is even left on the ground the creeping locust picks up and consumes what remains and the stripping locust literally eat the bark off the plant which leaves them like white stalks look at verse 7 it has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splatters it has stripped and bare and cast them away their branches have become white so you get down to the quick of the of this stalk and it why eesh appearance you remember among the plagues that sent to Egypt were the locusts remember that and the reason they were sent was to get Pharaohs attention because he wouldn't listen to God through the lips of Moses and because he wouldn't obey what Moses told him to do same problem now we don't listen or when we listen and don't obey devastation happens verse 12 of chapter 2 even now declares the Lord return to me with all your heart with fasting weeping there it is again weeping mourning rend your hearts not your garments return to the Lord your God in your ministry you will find yourself in need of returning to the Lord your God even though you're faithful in declaring his truth even though you have not wandered from the Orthodox position you will find that you cool off you go through periods that lack fruitfulness and productivity and you know that you and the Lord are not on real clothes speaking terms and you have to come to terms with that the Lord verse 18 then will be zealous for his land will have pity on his people when you return to him and the Lord will answer and say to his people behold I'm going to send you grain new wine and oil now you who know the book know where I'm going is verse 25 having done all the things that should have been done he says then I will make up to you for the years the swarming locust has eaten look at the words make up from the word Shyam Shyam it means to be complete sound it's the idea of entering into a state of wholeness a restored relationship according to Haris Archer and walki to be complete and sound to enter into a state of wholeness a restored relationship I will help all of that occur I will make up for you the years that the locusts have eaten then he describes them just as earlier that the swarming locust that the creeping locust the stripping locust and the gnawing locust my great army which I sent among you you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who is dealt wondrously with you I love this that my people will never be put to shame you don't have to live in shame you bring your life before the Lord and he has a marvelous way of helping you go on John Greenleaf Whittier wrote of all the sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these it might have been my words today are designed to keep you from having to ever utter those words when you come toward the end of your ministry and look back with a sigh and think God it it could have been so much more the locusts they've made me barren I didn't listen when I did listen I didn't I didn't obey so I'm going to leave three words of application for you and I'm through how do I go about taking care of this here they are number one start immediately without hesitation come to terms with where you are in your walk you get know great for it there will be no statement made on commencement regarding your spiritual life oh the one who speaks will address it but you know what I mean no one will know but you will know so if you find that those triangles are in congruent but what God wants of you and what is happening right now they aren't in line start right now and have no hesitation start before the day ends start before the exams arrive start before we get right down to the wire don't put it off start now don't pass it off own it all and learn early in life that blame solves nothing take full responsibility because he is able to make up for the years and to bring you into a restored relationship like you long to have so that's four start immediately without hesitation here's the second returned completely without reservation whatever it was that pulled you off track and got you into this cool or even cold relationship that once was warm remember how sweet it was when you first came remember how meaningful the voice of God was to you when you saw his mind regarding your training returned completely without without reservation with all your heart Rinne your heart not your garments and the third is repent fully without rationalization or not fully acknowledge and this is where I am and I am altogether responsible for being at this place I've learned so much but there's a part of me that is still vacuous and trust me it's that part of you that will be exposed when you're away from these classes and these assignments and this place of academic pursuit the real condition will be revealed and I want you to know an integrity of life that can be so rewarding we say goodbye to our friend at the church after our lunch today and Jason's gone will not see him often we'll hear from him from time to time but he moves now from the familiar 17-year familiar a wonderful reputation work well done deep roots lives changed but now B moves to a whole new realm where it kind of starts over kind of begins again and takes on a role as a senior pastor that he's never had before um we really are going to pray for him at lunch today because he is where I'm talking about all of your being before too long the message is make sure you are deep within what you appear to be from without I want that for you as much as anything I could name that's it father you truly are our strength when we are weak you are the treasure that we seek are all in all and if you don't help us search our hearts to see if there would be any way of pain within we're not going to search and when we do we'll be going through the motions so I pray for younger and older alike remind us all that we don't outgrow carnality you don't ever get too old we cannot learn so a hero's Lord when we say to you in the midst of the humiliation and the process of discovering those things that need not have been those hundreds of yards of debris clear it up Lord and clean it up make up for the years the locusts have eaten that we might be your women and men all the way down to the core of our being in the name of Jesus everybody said you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 146,150

Rating: 4.7478991 out of 5

Keywords: Dallas Theological Seminary, DTS, Dr. Charles Swindoll, forgiveness, awareness, introspection, responsibility, repentance, strength, renewal, Psalm 31

Id: X_L9QHggr70

Length: 44min 28sec (2668 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2016