Don't Miss What's Invaluable - Charles R. Swindoll

our speaker is not a stranger you've heard him before Lord willing you'll hear him again but he's the pastor of the Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco voice of insight for living radio author of hundreds of books and a friend our Chancellor here at the seminary one who continues to teach and encourage what I love about Chuck as I've watched him over the years is he hasn't quit growing and he continues to love to pursue the growth that God is doing in his life would you join me in welcoming our dear friend Chuck Swindoll to our class hasn't quit growing I thought he was gonna say he hasn't quit aging I recently had a birthday and my secretary a a couple of birthdays ago sent the cutest card it was beautiful in the front by the way Paul penny gave me one today and and congratulated me on my 90th birthday this is it isn't my 90th birthday it's a good insulting card that makes me love Paul all the more anyway her birthday card was really beautiful in on the front or these massive redwood trees and and their standing you know gigantically I in little families of trees some of them too big for several people to reach around holding hands around the trunk in and she said when I walked through the redwood forests something like I I'm impressed all over again with how magnificent they are and and how old they are and how healthy they are and you open up you always show you get a car like that this is gonna go somewhere and open it up and says thank you for planting then [Laughter] so thank you Paul for the greeting today oh it's always fun to be back with you and to enjoy the Lord together and to have a little time thinking about ministry you may recall maybe you don't last time I was here I said I want to talk about this semester about the things I'm concerned that you may miss while you're at school you'll gain a lot of things you'll get a lot of things but you could easily miss some very important things that you'll need to take with you and know about and be ready for in the in the years ahead for you have many more years in front of you than than you will ever spend here and they will be a challenging year some of them will be marvelous and rewarding years and others will be a difficult trying times you know that and so you don't want to miss important things in the preparation for your ministry last time I talked about the greatness I don't want you to miss the greatness of God in the midst of the the details of your studies and and the exacting nature of the assignments and all of what you never to forget how great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and how magnificent he is to continue on in his greatness showing us in so many ways the breath of His grace and the depth of his love the magnificence of his mercy doctor Pentecost you should say mercy is God's ministry to the miserable I've always loved that definition you know and it's a it's a good one well I want to talk to you today about some of the things that I would call in valuables I don't want you to miss what's invaluable and you won't find them in the textbooks you probably will not come across them in the classroom though you will be taught well and carefully thoughtfully by qualified scholars there are just some things like the Scottish people say that are better felt than tempt and you you will gather them you will become aware of them in in the process of your ministry and because they are invaluable it's a little hard at times to get our arms around them in fact there are so many of them at the time I have doesn't allow me to cover the base of most of them but I want to I want to choose five of those things that I think are invaluable now I've been intrigued since I was a little boy with the David and Goliath story I I've always loved it like you because the the one no one would have ever expected wins the battle and and when's it handily and and quickly because he was so well prepared David was a slinger and if you don't know what that is that would probably be in today's world of the Warriors most like a sniper not necessarily the most muscular not necessarily the largest or one who could press the most weight but the best shot never a sniper if you're not an expert with a rifle and in the days of ancient fighting the swingers were the best shots and the the weapons they used of course were the stones that were slung from slings as a result of hours and hours of practice where they could ultimately take down the prey or the predator david has been in the field keeping his father's sheep and Jesse trusts him to watch over them and while in the field David I I believe practiced with the sling and used it we know he did because of his reference to the bear and the lion that he said he fought and and he whipped and who was this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the Living God a you know story it's in 1st Samuel 17 I would encourage you every once in a while to reread it I think it's good that we reread things were familiar with as if for the first time I'll tell you that's one of the secrets of my study every time I go to a passage I go to it as if for the first time I don't go back to previous notes I don't listen to something I said in some recording I can't stand to listen to my own recordings and so I I don't go there I go out I go into it some time with a fresh text of the scriptures using one a translation that I may not normally use to keep it fresh because when you're in ministry as long as I've been in and and some of the colleagues I have hearing on the faculty and administration you you have to fight Rep station with repetition comes this tendency to become dull and predictable and I think by going to the story of David and the giant you you will see things you've never seen before and one of the things you may have missed maybe not is that on the way to the giant eye David stops and picks up five smooth stones from the from the brook it says in one of the translations and and he puts those stones in his pouch and I remember visiting the valley of a law in what I think my very first time in the Land of Israel and I picked up of five stones from the little place that was once a ravine it's dried up now but the valley itself is vast maybe a mile across from one crest to the other maybe not that far but it seemed larger than I would have expected but there is that part in the bottom were there these stones and I brought back five stones from the valley of elah and I couldn't wait to use them in an illustration and dr. Pentecost is sitting off to the side getting ready to correct something I've said whatever it may have been and I say that tongue-in-cheek one of my all-time favorite people on earth dr. P and I who knows who knows but maybe these stones were stones that David picked through and I should have known better than to say something like it cuz afterwards he was on me like a white on rice and a and he said jut what you need to know is it about every other week maybe every month several pickups come from Tel Aviv and where they're mixing cement and they dump rocks in that area because tourists come thinking David may have been down here picking up some of these right these rocks are not from what okay okay you have a way of messing up a lot of illustrations for me and we had a laugh about it and I don't use those rocks anymore as a result of his messing up my illustration but I did bring five rocks today to remind us of giants giants that I had faced and still face on occasion giants that you will face and don't look at me like you won't because I know human nature and I know ministry and I know when the two get together there is a gigantic clash in several areas of our lives before I get to the Giants let me remind you of a humorous scene where the tint of Saul is turned into a fitting room I think it's a it's rather humorous that when Saul finally allows himself to let David go in the battle because he just can't believe this teenager is going to take on the Giant when Saul is hiding in the tent along with the army of of Israel he puts his armor on David Saul is about a56 long and David is like 36 regular and so he's got this it was all Skoda male and he's got his helmet he's looking through the ear ear hole and helmet swings around on him he's got this great big sphere and our sword and he says to shoot the boot Solan walking around trying to maneuver in Saul's gear and he's I love the line I can't go in these I in other words I can't wear your stuff and fight like a I'm I'm made to fight this is how I Eisenhower killed a lion and the bear and this won't be the way I'll take on the Giant you cannot go in these scholars garb let me tell you it fits them when I left I tried to be a little bit of each one I'll never forget I and my first time they really tried that was up in New England not a good place to try somebody else's stuff and my wife was watching me and listening to me carefully and seeing me trying to sound scholarly and and look like a mixture of the profs that had taught me and she said to me one day because it was really one flop after another and she said to me why don't you just be who you are and I go what kind of a statement is that I are you kidding she says no she says I like you like you are I think they will too but they haven't seen you yet like you really or cuz you're so busy being somebody else I said no that's not true she said it is true and I said no what is it and she said yes it is and we had one of those loving kind of conversations and I finally realized she was right and I was wrong and I decided I I can't go in Saul's armor I can't look even a little bit like like it's Johnson I can't be just partially Dwight Pentecost III certainly can't be how Hendrix and I'm I'm I'm not qualified to be a Bruce walki I can't be a John Wall vert these are all names of those that were my mentors and my teachers and I realized for for whatever reason David chose five stones and there's all kind of speculations maybe there were five giants I don't think so I think David's a practical guy he could have missed the first time you don't take one shell with you when you're a sniper you take a belt full of them and and you got a clip full of them in your rifle you you often miss so 80 took five and he and he put one in his put him in his pouch and then he fit one in his sling and he wasn't wearing Saul's gear when you step into ministry you will face giants and you will have to confront them you will have to fight them and you will have to defeat him because if you don't they'll wipe you out they've been studying you a lot longer than you've been aware of them because the enemy knows you better than you know yourself and and a lot of these things I'm going to some of these things I mentioned are gonna be mental and if it's a very practical kind of talk it's the only kind of talk I know to bring but these are the things you're going to be dealing with these and so many others when you step out on your own and you're not sure founded by the comfort of four walls called a classroom or being talked to by a one who knows what he or she is talking about called a professor you're on your own you're on your own of course you have the Spirit of God of course you have the savior of course you have his word of course you have your training but you know what I mean if you're the preacher you're the you're the one who delivers the message it's never gonna be better than you prepared it's it's often when it is used of God it'll be a surprise because he will use you after a very difficult week that you spent thinking you're not gonna be able to deliver anything so I've got five small stones here they're not all smooth but they're stones and they represent different things so we let that little stone represent the first giant and this giant is expectations unrealistic expectations so the answer to whipping this giant is that it is essential to be real the very best thing you can present and give to your congregation or your council or your team that you're serving with or the organization you become a part of is authenticity I urge you to begin now cultivating authenticity you need to be fully human absolutely authentic as gifted and helpful as these professors are you're not one of them you never will be thank goodness the Lord is not creating clones you can learn from them of course you can pick up things from them I hope that's what education is about but it is perfectly okay to be 100 percent you some of you still don't believe that and so when you leave your your going if you're not careful you're going to be afraid of vulnerability your your going to work hard and get it giving a picture that is not real and the folks will see right through that listen to Paul's words in first Corinthians 2 I just wrote him down with my own hand last evening in my chair in my family room wall Cynthia was sitting near me Paul wrote I came to you in weakness timid and trembling I'm reading verses 3 and following of 1st Corinthians 2 when I came to you in Corinth you don't think about this but this is Paul I came in weakness timidity and trembling my message and my preaching were very plain rather than using clever and persuade of speeches I relied on the power of the Holy Spirit I did this so you'd trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God he says in 2nd Corinthians 4:2 I love this line we tell the truth so I urge you with this stone to tell the truth don't pose don't try to be someone you're not learn the words I don't know and don't be afraid to use them people will love you for that even when they come thinking you will have an answer and you say you know that's a great question I'm not sure I know the answer I'll do my best to think on it and come back to you with an answer but right now I don't know that I can answer that don't be afraid to say that why would you be afraid to say that it's the truth I read about a story in West Virginia a true story of a mine a coal mine a shaft a caving in and there were some trapped in the mine and the story was of the pastor of the village where some of the people whose daddy whose husbands were trapped in that in that cave in as a coal of West Virginia morning and he's standing there a little brush of snow was blowing and he's in this heavy flannel shirt as a picture of him I remember seeing it in this article any heavy leather Oh rugged leather jacket he's had big hands and he's got his arms around his a couple of his parishioners and he's praying it's an artist's rendering because they didn't take a picture matter of fact that's the other part of the story I want to get to a reporter from the evening news arrived late because it was so cold driving a little Volkswagen and his camera had frozen up he was blowing on it to get it warmed up back in the days of the video cams and he finally got it to working and when it finally got working here at the pastor say Amen and he wanted to get that prayer on on the video a clip for the evening news so he trucked up to the pastor he said pastor my name is so-and-so I and personally looked at him like why are you here he saw the camera and the man said to him I I do the evening news on station so it's a channel so-and-so and he says if you don't mind I'd like you to do the prayer over and then I you'd be on the evening news I and the pastor looked at him as if insulted and said to him I prayed and I won't pull and that's the kind of man I want as my pastor the man who told a story later was the reporter said he's one of the few persons he's ever met who wouldn't reduce something to be on the evening news be real careful about the evening news be real careful about the media they've got an agenda and they'd love for you to fulfill it for them even if you have to pose don't pose you're not doing an evening news you're being real I love the fact that he said I prayed and I will not pose don't know who he was or I'd call his name god bless him may his tribe increase now one of those people who will only stand in the snow with him as he prays for their families I'll tell you what you be a pastor with that kind of authenticity they'll fight for you to the end of your life they'll love you forever authenticity watch out for expectations many people will have unrealistic expectations you can't fulfill don't even try be who you are regardless next stone is the giant of approval approval this is expectation this is needing to please people the kind of related but they're in separate categories in ministry there's a whole lot of is Paul writes in one of the Galatian chapters is says if I were still trying to please people I would not be a servant of Christ so what I'm saying the byproduct of that is it's lonely to lead it's only to lead it's essential to be real it's lonely to lead I didn't always know that I I when I was in school I thought that a leaders life was a whistle a charming life I thought it was sort of an enviable position to be a leader and I thought how great it would be to be invited to places and people listen when you talk and you're surrounded by those who you know hang on your every word and so I thought and I've come to realize that there's loneliness in true leadership over the past several decades I've grown to realize that leaders are lonely people because you're you're a thinker and by being a thinker you're just by nature lonely you do things often in you in your mind you're dissatisfied with the status quo and when you're out there risking as a leader people follow by the grace of God but they're not out in front of you in many ways you're on your own you color outside the lines you will sometime break rules you will certainly break with traditionalism I found a great quote Yaroslav Pelican from Yale said tradition is the living faith as of those now dead traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living isn't that a great statement why do not think of that that's a it's a great life tradition which is what Paul says to Timothy we uphold and don't run from tradition this school is built on many of the great great truths dripping with meaningful tradition but traditionalism what a difference leaders break with traditionalism legalism gets its fuel in traditionalism when you stand against legalism you will be shot at and he'll sometime hit you and it'll hurt you won't necessarily have a lot of close friends as a leader I'm not saying you don't want friends I'm saying aye leaders frequently operate without a lot of close friends you will have some loyal souls who will stand with you hopefully there'll be among your elders there'll be among your team but leader leadership is you know it draws criticism like watermelon and draws flies and when you lead you have to fire some people and that's lonely most of you never fired anybody so you can only imagine when they're on your staff they're like a family member but they're not doing the job and they continue not doing the job after warnings and you finally have to let them go and they have a family and they have friends in the church but there are other people who know they're not doing their job and they wonder why the leader in doing his job and purging the ranks and Christian circles we hang on to mediocre people too long when you're a leader you you spot it and you deal with it so only you won't learn how to do that here there's no guidebook there's no course on it some of the profs have never fired anybody and I don't mean that to be critical it's just a fact probably most of them have because they're they're veterans but I when you're a rookie and you're getting going you you can only imagine what that would be like it's horrible some of the hardest thing you have to do is release people from their positions maybe there's to be a layoff you're the one that has to call the shots they're Adlai Stevenson was introducing John F Kennedy on one occasion and he he said this you remember that in classical times when Cicero and finish speaking the people said how well he spoke but when demosthenes had finished speaking the people said let us March there's a loneliness and leading the March lead it don't expect your step person if you're the leader of the staff to lead it you lead it the organization expects you to be the leader do it well do it right but do it and when you do it right you'll be lonely and you won't have their approval that is everybody's approved it's getting worse failure there we go this giant is called perfection you will want to do everything perfectly I understand that's a great goal it doesn't work but it's a great goal that you will adopt because you're studying from a perfect book about perfect truth and you operate here in a pristine environment nothing nasty happens here nothing filthy happens in classrooms see I come out of the ranks of the Marine Corps I've seen nasty I've witnessed filth I've heard the worst words you can hear so they'll help deal with my perfectionism but I still got a touch of it you won't hear much about failure here by the way when I graduate in the seminary I don't know that I'd ever heard the word failure it was kind of theological f-word it occurred to me but you will fail you will fail it's gonna be hard to do that you hear it you oh yeah I know I'm not perfect prone to wander lord I feel it that's me baby will you do it in front of 200 people you will give faulty advice you will make wrong decisions you will hire the wrong people you will be inaccurate in your interpretations on occasion you will break confidences you will speak too quickly and judge too severely without knowing the facts later you'll have egg on your face none of this will be pleasant but it will be all part of being human the giant will loom large because you want never to do those things you'll need to make some things right when you've hurt people and you were wrong you're not too big for that do that quickly by the way don't let the Sun go down on your anger and don't let too many moons pass before you seek forgiveness including with your mate when you've heard her or him thing about ministry is you'll be given kid gift kid-glove treatment you'll be you'll be respected because of your role and so the some of the best lessons you have to learn will be learned when you fail oh by the way I came across oh here guess who said this I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career I've lost almost 300 games 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and I missed it I failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I now succeed Michael Jordan I didn't think Michael Jordan ever missed the last shot I didn't think Meru ever struck out he's a strikeout champion you're gonna strike out you're gonna miss the shot you're gonna come across really strong and dogmatic he'll be wrong and somebody come up later and saw you off that limb with a set of facts and and that'll be hard to hear so failure will be a giant you'll have to deal with you're not perfect so give yourself a break number four image public persona the great temptation in ministry is how do you look in public and when you're younger that means more to you than when you're older when you're older you can't hide it she does what you are you know Erma Bombeck put it very well she said age is an interesting thing you have everything you've always had but it's four inches lower I think she's probably right everything starts to bag down and but this matter of image will be taken care of when you give up the public persona and realize that it's hardest at home you can run two or three churches easier than have a godly home because you treat your parishioners better than you do your own mate unless you're unusual you're much more courteous you listen to them better and you treat them with greater respect because of your persona you want them to think best of you what you do behind closed doors is the most important thing you do can I give you a challenge how about being a better daddy than you are a minister how about being a better mama than you are counselor we had the privilege of doing the memorial service for dr. Hendrix and part of the privilege was hearing from his family as they told the underside of his life when doors were closed and blinds were drawn in no one was looking they loved him dearly that's what will be remembered it really won't be how much you did in public it's it's gonna really rest with those who lay it arrest and choose your tombstone and buy your casket and share your memories it's hardest at home your mate may get sick and you'll have to be the key you need to be the caregiver be willing to do that say no to all the outside extra stuff so you can take care of her or him they deserve it you ever wonder what that's like just remember Greg Hatteberg forgive me Greg I know that embarrasses you but you're like folks we really meet what a model you've been with Lisa okay one more this is selfishness quite a list huh this is a servanthood is the answer learn to be a servant I know you hear about that all the time seminary does talk a lot about servanthood you have somebody in your staff that did the work tell everybody they did the work don't you take a moment's credit for that you didn't do it point out the one that did it when other people have helped you get a job done remember them and write their name in your book when you have an editor that helped take your primitive lines and turn them into something beautiful and prose and the in the book give the editor the credit deserve become a servant at heart listen this story and I end with it I hope you'll never forget this years ago a reporter interviewed the famous opera singer Marian Anderson he asked Marian to name the greatest moment in her illustrious life she had many moments to choose from there was that night when Toscanini told her before the Symphony Orchestra that hers was the finest voice of the century she didn't name that there was that private concert she gave at the White House for both president and his wife Roosevelt and mrs. Roosevelt and the royal couple from England she didn't name that night there was the time she received the $10,000 buck award be okay the Bach award as the person who had done most for her hometown Philadelphia she didn't mean that awarded she could have named that Easter Sunday when she sang beneath the Lincoln Memorial before crowd of 75,000 which included cabinet members and Supreme Court justices and most of the members of the Congress she didn't name that which of the great moments did she choose none of those or hundreds of others she could have chosen miss Anderson looked at the reporter and stated the greatest moment of her life was the day she was able to go home and tell her mama she didn't have to take in washing anymore I love that story but it's all said and done will you please remember those who changed her diaper will you never forget the one who was there for you when you were that surly teenager so difficult to handle still trying to figure out life or the one who helped you when you didn't have enough money and they were there for you or maybe they came to your rescue when you were sick and they stayed by you too you got well maybe you were little maybe you were older how about a little special special moment of thanks from mom and dad or maybe a granddad a grandma most significant adult in my life was my maternal grandfather I adored him justice of the peace of El Campo Texas what a man taught me how to fish with a rod and reel taught me how to handle a boat taught me how to handle an outboard motor taught me how to drive I was driving his 39 Ford and he said okay you're doing pretty good I was all over the road and he said let's get in the garage now I say great I can't take you to grudge I had those two places on the side or too close he said now you do it drop on in so I thought I was hitting the brake and I hit the accelerator hey I tore off the right fender he's sitting over here he had his pen knife out doing his nails and he said let's try that again son you buy now I got tears and I said granddad I think I was about 14 that's a great that I can do he says you can do it I said whoa I'm tore up your car he says son I can get new fenders but I can't get new grandsons try that again there's a great man greater than any faculty member I ever had and I had some great faculty members but he had time for me and he knew me better than my own folks knew me it's another story God is our strength when we are weak he's the treasure that we seek Christ is our all in all keep that in perspective he didn't about you didn't about me it's about him thank you Father for the absolute pleasure and privilege of studying at the school thank you for the things we're taught help us to keep in mind the things we could easily miss even invaluable things like these Giants of expectation and approval and perfection and image and pride that god-awful pride keep us real Lord even though we get really smart here keep us real remind us over and over then we couldn't even breathe if it weren't for you we wouldn't even have a heartbeat or a brainwave thank you for loving us in spite of ourselves in the name of Jesus everybody said [Applause]

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

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Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 23 2019