The Importance Of Integrity And Humility (With Chuck Swindoll)

thank you the only standing ovation I ever got back home was when I finally finished the exposition of job they were on their feet cheering thank you for your kind welcome I have loved God's Word virtually as long as I can remember I was reared by a mother who loved Christ and a and a dad who learned to love him from my mom and I mean my roots go back deeply into those early years where I remember the the Scriptures being a vital part of my home and family in fact the first prayer I remember from my mother god help you if you ever do that again as I recall was the first prayer then there were others that followed to a different type we sang in our family in fact we one of those families has stood around the old upright piano and sang and my brother played beautiful a piano and and could have been a concert pianist but God called him to the mission field in 32 years later he left Wayne azari's in his return and lives now in South Florida and minister still to this day he also sang wonderful bass and my sisters saying Alto in fact she sang for the Dallas Civic Opera for over 12 years as a contralto and and my mother sang soprano and I sang tenor sounds like a country-western family doesn't it mother sang Sopranos is saying Aldo and well down at First Methodist Church of my mother read in the paper that they were going to be having auditions for the Messiah and my brother was by then about 18 my sister 16 I was about 12 13 and and my mother wanted all of us to audition to sing in this magnificent work by Handel and I kind of dragged my feet but I went down there Walter Jenkins was going to lead it and if you know music you know he is one of those unique conductors that knows the score by heart pipe organ part all of the parts of the orchestra and of course all of the all of the arias and recitatives and all of the music is just he just has it in his heart he's he's gone now but back then he was going to be conducting and my mom wanted us all to have the experience of singing under him and amazingly they accepted all of us and I was obviously the youngest in that choir of about 200 voices and I will never ever forget ever forget the experience of having all of those trained voices around me 200 maybe 225 strong and here I was a little tenor standing alongside these great soloists and people who could have done that piece and had done it most of their lives and I had never known the experience that was going to be mine at that moment the marvelous work of Handel begins with the tenor recitative right out of Isaiah 40 Comfort ye comfort ye my people I'd memorized that from my mother's tutelage and she used to say to me forever verse you memorize I'll memorize - and I thought well I'm going to put her onto the table and so I I memorized James and she memorized Hebrews and I said I quit that's enough I can't outdo you anyway my lips were moving as he sang and then he went into the Aria every Valley shall be exalted every mountain and Hill made low the crooked places straight and the rough places plain and then the whole choir stood and we began with the words right out of Isaiah 40 verse 5 and the glory the glory of the Lord shall be revealed I couldn't finish it tears just ran out of my eyes and every every year to this day Cynthia and I and our 53 years of marriage and rearing of our four kids we faithfully listen to Handel's Messiah straight from the Scriptures the scriptures is what held me to Christ when I went into the Marine Corps and I found myself eight thousand miles from home ultimately in a in a Quonset hut living with about sixty other Marines ninety seven of percent of them either had head or currently had venereal disease there was a prostitute on virtually every corner 5000 of them moved in by the United States government and they were there to quote service the Marines that was a world I lived in though I was married and Cynthia was back home I was over there and I remember thinking if I don't stay true to the Scriptures I'm going to be in that village with one of those nissan's and I by the grace of God and by the COS of the work of the navigators the faithfulness of a man named Bob Newkirk who loved me and saw potential in me that I didn't even see in myself he took this young marine under his arms under his wings and built into me a love a deeper love for the scriptures and for the memorized word and for the practical applied word and I want you to track this all the way through from earliest years to where I find myself today had no idea what I'd be doing in my life but I knew this if I'm going to survive I got to stay true to God's Word you ever work with the navigators you know that years ago he has a little verse pack that you'd use and you'd memorize verses out of this verse pack little tiny cards and I've been on the island about three months and I had a bunkmate that showed up named Eddie Eddie day his suits back then we called him Eddie to Jesus and so Eddie Eddie was from New Orlean Borland and he found out I was a Christian he says I will tell you something but don't lay that rip on me I didn't come over here to be evangelize okay that's no problem he's justjust lay off okay all these guys tell me you're a preacher I said no I'm I'm not a preacher I'm just in this outfit he said well okay I'm not interested you got that yeah so I lay up on my top bunk and I'd figure out the Lord how can I get this guy in any way interested not so I said to him one day hey Eddie can you help me with some of these words he said I don't want you late a trip I'm like no I just want you to help me with some of these so I dropped down about 40 of those verse cards on him and I said let's see if I can do these they were like John 3:16 and first John 5 11 and 12 you know ones you could you can do backwards at night and your sleep and so I go for God uh so okay so for God so loved God God so loved the world so I go over those verses so got to where Eddie would say hey we're gonna go over all those religious words tonight I'd say yeah for God I'm gonna give them to you so I drop another 40 verses on him down there well anyway it's a great story 2530 years passed my phone rang in Fullerton California and on the other in the line I heard this voice hey swindle I said this can only be Eddie diseases yeah hey you know that trick you played on me in Okinawa yeah hey man it worked as I I'm loving Jesus now not a great story as the rains come down to snow from heaven and what are the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be when it goes forth out of my mouth listen to this Isaiah 55 it shall never return to me empty but it shall accomplish the thing for which I sent it my word will never return void say those words with me my word will never return void it will never be empty it will always serve a purpose first in the lives of those of us who digest it who apply it who memorize it who meditate on it who ponder it and by God's grace who declare it now that that's our calling it will never return void God has given us his word not to satisfy idle curiosity he's given us his word to change our lives to transform us from greater areas of darkness into greater areas of light to move us from the way we would live our lives in the flesh to the way we are to live our lives in the spirit that's why we have the scriptures don't be looking for extra scriptures don't wait for God to speak in the middle of the night don't study the cloud formations look for messages from God I called me a number of years ago and she said I got a message from God it was 2 o'clock in the kitchen and I said to her did you have tacos the night before sometime you think you're getting messages from God and it's really gas it's not it's not from God you got you got his word and if that when you exhaust that then start looking for extra stuff when you get through all of this and you get always nailed down and go after extra stuff and you'll never you'll never do that it says in a go inexhaustible text remember one of my profs at Delta seminary said at the end of the day when finished this great theology 101 class he turned the light off walked out of the room and his last words were gentlemen we have an infinite text not a magnificent word this magnificent infinite text of Scripture is ours now the great thing about a conference like this is that you get rejuvenated you get revived you get refueled because it's easy to think when you're out there in the middle of nowhere and you're the only show on the block you're the only one around it's easy to think you've got this thing pretty well wired you got this thing put together and then you come together and you're with one another and you realize there are some things I could be doing better there are some ways I could improve on my ministry and and my comments today have to do with that in fact I I was reading in max de pries wonderful little book leadership jazz this story that seems to say it better than I could say it a German machine to a company once developed a very fine drill bit for drilling holes in steel the tiny bit could bore a hole about the size of a human hair the seemed like a tremendously valuable innovation so the Germans sent samples off to Russia the United States and Japan suggesting that this was the ultimate in machine technology from the Russians they heard nothing from the Americans came a quick response inquiring as to the price of the bits available discounts and the possibility of licensing agreement after some delay there was the predictable polite response from the Japanese complimenting the Germans on their incredible achievement but with a postscript noting that the German bit was enclosed with a slight alteration excitedly the Germans opened the package and carefully examined their bit and to their amazement discovered the Japanese had bored a neat hole through it not time you think you got it wired you come to realize there are better ways to do what I do there are things that I'm not doing that I should be doing I've gotten neglectful or lazy and I've gotten a little off course so today I want to get you back on course with the Scriptures just in case that happens to have been your experience and because I don't know any of you or most of you I do not know I I direct this to everyone here in my Bible I've got it open to first Timothy chapter 4 and I hope you'll continue to be a good student of the letters to Timothy they are letters to us and directly sent to a young man who was timid who needed to be stirred up in his gift and Paul does that and in doing so he is speaking to all of us and you you never go you never grow too old for further insight and further ideas and new motivation I will never retire I have no plans ever to hang it up my ideal way to die is to die in the pulpit and while they're recording the sermon my chin hits the pulpit on the way down that's the last breath of my life right there that's a I tell my wife that's the second best way to die but I'm not going to go any further with that come on you guys first Cynthia would dive she knew I just said that first Timothy chapter chapter 4 okay look toward the end of the chapter verse 11 first Timothy 4:11 prescribe and teach these things let no one now listen you guys who were younger by that I mean 30 and under look at this Timothy was probably 35 roughly 35 40 let no one look down on your youthfulness by the way it isn't your youth that will be criticized it's your immaturity that it's it's the immature issue that that's your struggle and mine and that's ageless that's timeless but don't let anyone look down and the fact that you're young and age but rather now look closely in speech in conduct in love and faith in purity show yourself an example of those who believe and he doesn't stop until I come until I come Timothy give attention to the public reading of scripture by the way don't leave that out of your worship meetings it's easy to know that times short and to think well we didn't we did a little more music than we should have done we don't have much time we'll just kind of leave out the scripture we give attention to the reading of the scriptures jonno w start said it well the only thing inspired and anything you have to say is the reading of the Word of God everything else is fallible when you read the scriptures you are exposing people to the infallible the inerrant message of God so give attention to the public reading of the scripture to exhortation and to teaching do not neglect the gift the spiritual gift within you which was showed bestowed on you through the prophetic utterance and the laying on of hands by the presbytery take pains with these things it means exactly what it says and believe me ladies and gentlemen it will there will be times when it will be downright painful to stay at the study work downright painful to stay consistent painful to put your tail in the chair and stay seated in that study for the extended period of time you need to be sitting there or kneeling there and poring over the things of God take pains with these things no matter how gifted take pains with these things be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all now the verse pay close attention to yourself until your teaching last a night we talked about yourself we talked about the the whole issue of dealing with difficult people have already got some notes from folks who have bores in their vineyard and I appreciate your your vulnerability and telling me a little about that and God help you and God hold you close as you go back and face some of that take take special attention note to yourself and to your teaching this what I want to talk about today - you're teaching persevere in these things for as you do this you will ensure not not eternal salvation this is a deliverance from self a deliverance from the flesh you will ensure a salvation a deliverance both for yourself and for those who hear you there is nothing like God's Word to do that it is the most cleansing agent when mixed with the power of the Holy Spirit it is able to cut where no surgeon's scalpel can ever reach the soul and spirit they cannot do surgery on that God's Word does it is able to reach deeply where nothing else can touch them not logic not intellect not not convincing argument not debate the Word of God is like a two-edged sword when we recently moved into our new Worship Center and I had a new pulpit built and a wonderful craftsman I commissioned to do that and on the front of the pulpit is an open Bible with a two-edged sword and and it is a reminder to me every time I walk into that place of worship that we are to hold forth the open Bible which is like a two-edged sword cutting into the heart deeply where nothing else can reach so pay attention to yourself I will tell you what I'm concerned about regarding ministry these days and that is the whole issue of erosion I am watching the erosion of biblical exposition in a 21st century and I hope as I'm standing before you that I'm looking into the eyes of people who are going to stem the tide of that erosion the thing that's so difficult about erosion is that it is silent it is subtle and it is slow over the passing of years there is a there is a a quiet subtle removal from serious exposition of the scripture I'm not talking about dull and monotonous kind of long sermons for the sake of talking a long time I'm talking about insightful interesting well thought through messages that are based on and drawn from the Word of God let me see if I brought with me today this statement from oh yeah great Walt Kaiser leading evangelical scholar issued a simple but striking statement in his commencement address at our seminary back in 2000 it was a call to those of us in ministry to be engaged in biblical preaching and teaching Kaiser said this when a man preaches he should never remove his finger from the Scriptures if he is gesturing with his right hand he keep his left finger on the text if he reverses his hands for gesturing puts his right finger on the text that uses the other hand for gesturing he should always be pointing to the scriptures I love the way he puts that put your face in the scriptures when you study and keep your finger on the scriptures as you preach it is the Word of God which is alive and active and sharper than a double-edged sword your your your Bible is your is your safest way of getting through to hard hearts and carnal lives and feeding the hungry sheep who come and by the way sheep come where there is good food they love to be fed good food that is our calling that is our giftedness that is our responsibility I got a heartbreaking letter dated July 13 2008 from a friend I've known for over 20 years who lives in another state he says Chuck I just finished listening to your sermon last month on worship a commitment not a war it washed over me like a cup of cold water for a man lost and wandering in the desert he says some nice things and he says absolutely everything you talked about has been happening in our church gradually I've talked I talked to that message about erosion but happening gradually over the last 20 years listen to this I joined our church 26 years ago in the most fruitful days of our pastors ministry it was an exciting time of church growth and pastoral and personal spiritual growth fuelled by the expository preaching of this man at that time but toward the end of the 1980s I began to notice a change we began to take our cues from other large churches we sent delegations of our pastors to study their methods and the emphasis changed from preaching to believers to preaching to seekers the unapologetic preaching style that convicted me of my failings in my spiritual life gave way to a more entertaining watered-down style tailored to the needs of others and I began to go hungry I'm very grateful for the truth from God's Word that he taught me but near the end of his ministry I look forward to his replacement because I was eager to digest more substantial spiritual teaching this man happens to be a medical doctor bright guy really sensitive to spiritual things and really needed to be challenged in that he said I anticipated a new man a pastor would have the same fire in his belly that our pastor had when I first joined our church I believe the church would benefit from that change it's now been three years since our new pastor replaced him although he's an accomplished public speaker and I'm sure he has a heart for God unfortunately he has taken us even further down the path of modern worship that you so eloquently described gone is expository preaching sermon s as you describe them are now all too common today's sermon for example lasted twenty minutes there are plans to renovate the Worship Center recovering now the organ pipe so it doesn't look like a church parenthesis I wonder what it's going to look like the music grows more and more out of line the choir that was once over 500 strong we now have trouble finding a hundred and twenty five on a Sunday morning he says with your permission I would like to send a copy of your sermon on worship to our present pastor that's a great idea isn't it perhaps you could send me about five copies of the CDs because there are others on the staff who need to hear this too yeah I was really excited about the thought of synonym my stuff then yes god bless you for your courage he says I fear that I cannot be honest about my feelings with others in our church lest I be considered a disruptive influence and he says rather lamenting that he doesn't know where he's going to go now for spiritual food I hope that's not your church I hope that couldn't be written by someone who is under your ministry your pulpit ministry men and women we've drifted a long ways since I got out of school in 63 I was privileged to study under some of finest those 19 faculty members at that school I would put them up against anyone including the great minds of Princeton in the early 20s and the exposition I heard at Dallas seminary chapel and the expositions of those individuals as they traveled and I often followed to hear them what was like nothing I'd ever been around part of my training including being mentored by race Stedman up at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto I was one of the first interns that Ray had and I will never forget his influence on my life I'll quote from Ray in a minute but what a what a regular guy what a faithful God what an authentic vessel what a faithful expositor never went to college went from the Navy by special invitation into the seminary and finished four years and became an amanuensis for Harry Ironside and a driver back in those days and then he married Elaine and they went 1950 and started at a little church in Palo Alto I had the privilege of hearing him and being around him and having his life rub off on but he turned to the text it's like the text came alive and that didn't just happen because he was ray Stedman because I knew him in those days when his door stayed locked and his blinds were pulled and you couldn't enter up he's in the study doing the work that every faithful pastor who fills a pulpit ought to be doing every Sunday so today my words to you have to do with the the discipline of what's involved in that and the importance of keeping God's Word clear when we communicate it making it something complicated and difficult simple helping the average person who will never see the inside of a seminary understand the text whether you're teaching revelation or job or Deuteronomy or one of the Psalms or a gospel or a letter of Paul the individual who is listening to what is being taught ought to be able to go home and sit down at the kitchen table open his Bible or her Bible write to that same passage and work their way through it just as you taught them because you made it clear now there are three gates we walk a truth through what we want to make it palatable and understandable the first is accuracy is what I'm saying true to the biblical text second is clarity is what I am saying free of code language so that the uninitiated can understand what this is about I'm not throwing around 4-bit theological words to impress I'm not swarming him with Greek terminology or Hebrew even though I could on occasion those words are used and they're helpful because they add color and a depth of understanding but only for that reason when I think of clarity I think of my position I go to my doctor and I want to know what's my condition does he find anything if he found anything I don't want him to drag out five medical books and read them to me I want him to tell me in language I can understand you Chuck you need to know you you'll have this growth I'm not concerned about it but it needs to be taken out and I'll say where is it he'll tell me where it is and he'll say I will ask a number of questions and he'll say you have to go into surgery you'll be under the knife or you know 45 minutes it'll cost such a such such that you'll be out of the hospital in so much time and chances are good you'll be in great shape it looks like it's benign and and he done a quick analysis he could have told me an hour stuff but he doesn't do that he makes it clear exactly what my problem is and he answers the questions that are in my mind and then the third gate is the gate of practicality or if you want to put it you help people see how relevant the Scriptures are by the way the Bible then have to be made relevant it is relevant it's the preachers job to show people how relevant it is the passage we just read in first Timothy four is very relevant it's my job to help you see how relevant by emphasizing words and phrases and the connecting thoughts and the overall meaning of that text of Scripture that's what exposition is in fact I found a wonderful passage of scripture over there at the end of Ecclesiastes that I'd like to turn to next with all of you turn to ecclesiastical it'll dust pockets pop up from the seats today as you find Ecclesiastes because chances are good you haven't been spinning your devotional time there lately please II ask these though the word is Co helath and it means a speaker or maybe like the speaker of the house and we would like to translate it preacher that's the way the new American Standard Bible does the preacher and that kind of makes it applicable for our situation when you get toward the end of the preachers words as solomon draws us to a close in verse 9 look at this maybe it's section you've never seen before but I think it would come to life for us in addition to being a wise man now watch closely all of you preachers watch this in addition to being a wise man so that's where we start by the grace of God over the years through pain experienced a no teachable spirit mentoring education as well as just the Hard Knocks of ministry we become increasingly more wise in addition to being a wise man the preacher also taught the people knowledge keep reading he pondered searched out and arranged many proverbs the preacher sought to find delightful words the Hebrew term means Pleasant we would use the word the words easy to listen to interesting he sought to find ways to make it interesting to make it live and to write words of truth correctly notice the comment about writing he sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly Sir Francis Bacon made this statement that I will never forget reading reddit years ago speaking makes a ready man reading abroad man writing an exact man one of the reasons I write is to get my thoughts exact it's easy to be sloppy without writing the difference between reading and studying is a pencil and piece of paper so you put a piece of paper beside your Bible and you begin to write things down you're beginning to study and as you write things down you're making the understanding of the text more exact you're clearing away the debris of the superfluous the unimportant and you're cutting to the chase of meaning the goal of the expository and how to live that out often after the reading of Scripture I will say and we always stand for the reading of Scripture at Stonebriar Church just before I have them be seated I say may God in a very special way at a very special blessing to the reading of his word and even more importantly to the living out of its truths the expositor assembly is not simply dumping knowledge from one his mind to another's mind he's using knowledge for the purpose of helping people grasp the text remember remember uh the scholars words he talked about keeping your finger on the text to what kaiser's words now look at eleven the words of wise men are like goats love that word like goats and matters and masters of these collections are like will driven nails see the word like repeated that's a word of analogy this is like that analogies are all the way through the scriptures this is like that these words verse 11 are like there's the analogy goads what's a goad well it's a it's long rod that has a pointed end it may be metal or it may simply be wooden and you when you prodded the oxen along in those days when they had carts pulled by art they would go them they would punch them into ROM it's they'd shove that that goad against him it would prompt him to move on the words are like that they prod people awake they sometimes startled and occasionally words like that are good to use startling words that are unexpected all of this takes time and time is what we have little of because there are a lot of people pulling on us wanting us to do this and take care of that and handle this and and I understand most of you do not have churches with large staff so you must do a lot of things the secret in in sustaining a pulpit ministry in a setting like that is volunteerism you involve you engage people who aren't necessarily on a paid staff but you engage them in the use of their gifts to help carry out the work of the ministry so you can do your homework in order to have these gold-like words and these well driven nails really it's like pegs for the driving of a tent Shepherd the old Bedouin 's have tents all over the the wilderness areas of of Israel and they have the tents driven down by stakes or pegs we would call him that's the word here these are the words are like gods and the Masters of these collections are like well driven nails that cinch it in place we have master carpenters built our home and I noticed that to this day when I look for the head of a nail I cannot find it they have all been cinched into place they're driven beneath the surface of the wood and they're covered over words driven into hearts or like that it isn't it isn't brutal work it's sensitive work and the care that is necessary to deliver a message that is remembered and as effective requires that kind of care requires the discipline of time and I challenge every one of us to take another look at our calendars and our weekly calendars and circle the days that will be set aside except for emergency days that will be set aside for nothing but prayer and study nothing but prayer and study no phone calls no interruptions eat lightly start early work late have a place a desk doesn't have to be elaborate I have the pleasure of a wonderful library thousands of volumes I've collected over the years I just love the feel of the books in my hands I just like to smell a books I mean there's just something about it just it just does something to me I don't know it just it it's just part of who I am and and I am never more delighted unless it's spending time at a hardware store I like doing that too but but when I'm in my study I have not only my study but next to it is a library with all these volumes and is worn where's be my friend since where else can you have 8000 professors at your fingertips I love that thought you people expect that of you they haven't come to church to waste their time it's irretrievable you'll never have that Sunday morning time again they expect you to have done your homework I expect back to my physician for him to know what he's talking about I expected him to be read up on the latest journals I expect him to know the latest technology so that he can do that surgery in the most exacting way that is his job nobody's around telling me Chuck you need to be ready for Sunday Chuck you've got about 72 hours and you're on a Chuck a day and a half from now and you're in the Pope no one ever calls to tell me that it's an inner clock every week of my life revolves around next Sunday I am never free of Sunday it's like a mistress III think of it in the daytime and I dream of it at night I am I am don't push that analogy too far point across here it is there always there always there that's I get up early and I think Sunday I got two more days two more day I got to work on that transition that get introduction is not the introduction that goes with this tack and I'll throw away that first page and I'll go back and I'll put that together so that it fits I'll work over it and I'll work over it I have men like John or Deb you start to thank for that that discipline listen to what he writes this is just wonderful we must daily soak our selves in the scriptures we must not just study as through a microscope the linguistic minutia of a few verses but take our telescopic eye take our telescope and scan the wide expanses of God's Word assimilating its grand themes of divine sovereignty in the redemption of mankind it is blessed wrote CH Spurgeon to eat into the very soul of the Bible until at last you come to talk in scriptural language and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord so that your blood is bibley n-- that is a great line what type blood do you have biblia that's the kind of blood I carry bibley and the very essence of the Bible flows from you your people expect that of you they long to know that you can speak to them with some sense of humble Authority and you know where of you speak you obviously can never know it all you obviously have a vast amount of ignorance someone said and education is going from an unawareness to awareness of your own ignorance and it's very true you are aware of this entire subculture of information when you get a broader education but you always have these tools available as point is obvious pay attention to yourself and to your teaching take pains with these things be absorbed in them help your wife understand the need you have and work it out in two hours I say to city I need about 15 hours for this message coming up on Sunday if I don't know the text weld it'll be maybe 20 hours if I know the passage pretty well it could be as few as eight or seven I don't go back to another sermon I've done and then repeat it because I met another church I start over because in starting over there's always new truth to find in the text that I'm working with I preached Ecclesiastes and when I got to this the other day thinking about our time together I saw things I had never seen before the goads and well driven nails the whole idea of and by the way I skipped over it says they are given by one Shepherd at the end of verse verse 11 great some time as you are preparing you'll stop and just look up and say thank you Lord for that insight that is so good now you can't say that in the pulpit but you say that when you're in a study that is so good I never saw that before it's like a like a composer of a song I mean surely these wonderfully gifted people that can sit down and and play these instruments must say on occasion that is from God that came from God when when Jack Hayford wrote majesty y'all haven't tell you the story sometimes he writes it on the back of an envelope he is traveling and he got the thought majesty worship his man and he starts writing he says to his wife you see got some paper and so you know I've been thinking he worked on it for like nine years he's got this great composition and it all came he said chuck it came to me like enough in a flash and I couldn't write it down fast enough I had a message the other day that flowed like that and it was just marvelous I wish all of them did and I mean some are like passing razor blades but others I mean they are tough tough to pull off probably shouldn't use that analogy either but what do I care we're talking hard work folks and and I mean it when I when I say it didn't it isn't going to come easily and the longer your edit it seemed like but you get more exacting and you get a little bit better at what you're at but you also find that the discipline of staying at it it is a constant thing it's just a constant thing if I'm thankful for anything from my military experience it was the it was the learning of discipline taking over my emotions and and convincing myself I won't go with my feelings I will go with what I know to be right and best and the people longed for you to be that kind of pastor I haven't said much about compassion or caring or shepherding that of course is a given but they want to know when you stand and deliver you stand and deliver and if Easter has come you got a message they will never forget that's a great Sunday by the way to deliver a message for those who don't know the Lord from a lizard because they've come in off the street and they think they need to be religious for a day you got them I tell you another great service is a funeral I love I mean I don't love funerals but I mean I I love the opportunity a funeral brings people got a buddy of theirs in that box down there and they're scared that they're going to be in that box someday and you tell them they're going to be in that box someday you got your attention I'll tell you you got their attention then you can give that gospel and often say when I'm at a cemetery I'm doing a final statement there I'll say by the way you may not know it but you're standing on resurrection ground wow they kind of move over like this I don't want stop something from coming up while I'm standing here all of these are wonderful opportunities marvelous opportune inviting you can believe it by the Commandant of the Marine Corps back when Charlie Krulak was a commandant and I got to go to the National Cathedral can you believe this this feed picker got to go to the National Cathedral and I show up and put a big old robe on me I'm going to speak in here and here sitting in front of me is all the brass of the United States Marine Corps dress whites with their medals the Commandant right on down all the hotshots over here is a graduating classroom from Quantico who are just about ready to become officers in the Marine Corps back here are the are the others and the families it was packed and Charlie crew like says to me when I walk in I'd never met him before and he threw his arms around his the Commandant I like messed my pants he threw his arms around me they said head he said and now Lord I commit to you this man may he speak under the power of the Holy Spirit think Jesus is coming right down it isn't so good I mean that's the Commandant where it was he when I was in the Corps anyway that's another story I stood up and I preached on integrity and I looked in the faces of all those graduating marine officers and I spoke from the scriptures where God chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds from following the use great with young he brought him to feed jacob his people and Israel is inheritance so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and he guided them with a skillful hand psalm 78 73 72 my mom chose me to memorize those three verses by the way and they came back to help me at that moment and then I said to those officers and to these men whose rank is just mind-boggling I mean they make decisions and thousands move in maneuvers and I said to these men without integrity you're living very near the edge of design the only source of integrity of course is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ charlie crew lad goes amen right down here the common that guy next to him didn't know what his Peter wine is watch he was looking at the comment not like what is this a great moment what an opportunity to go you know why I was invited because Charlie crew like knew I delivered the goods it wasn't me it in my brains it didn't my stuff it didn't my rank is that he knows that I'm going to stand up there and tell them what the Word of God says as best I can the time I have to do it 25 minutes I had I packed the gospel in there as carefully and as appropriately and in a relevant way that they got it I even had a chance for them to receive Christ as their Savior that's great what an opportunity I just loved it and you will have moments like that but you don't need to National Cathedral you have your church you have the opportunity to share the Savior and your voice is like no other voice in the community your church can be the unique place for the declaration of the Word of God don't sell it short don't slack off say it straight say it with conviction say it with humor all of this fits together in a way that that makes it palatable and well receive the words that are like goods and well driven nails they are God's Word given by the Shepherd and you have been entrusted with them and you have been given this place of ministry for this time and then you're gone and another generation comes and takes it from there it's like a passing of the other of the relay I believe men and women that we have the most magnificent opportunity in the history of all time to do the kind of work that we ought to do so that we can take advantage of this moment in a world that's lost its way when the decision was made and our nation had cast its vote I was led by God to speak on the sovereignty of God I'm doing a series on the Holy Spirit really on the Godhead I'm calling it how great is our God and I've done four on the character of God I've done four on the cross of Christ I'm doing now for in the power of the Spirit and before I began that last quadrant I thought I'm going to I'm going to say some things about the sovereignty of God so that people remember that he is still God and we are still not remember I didn't I didn't give him credit for that that's how it happens as michael w smith has said john piper writes at the heart of every pastors work is book work called it reading meditation reflection cogitation study exegesis whatever you will a large and central part of our work is to wrestle wrestle God's meaning from the book and then to proclaim it in the power of the Holy Spirit Billy Graham was asked if you had your life to live over again what would you do differently here his his answer I wish I had studied more and preached less people have pressured me into speaking to groups when I should have been studying and preparing Donald ray Barnhouse of tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia said that if he knew the Lord was coming in three years he had spent two of the year studying and the last year preaching there is no substitute for the prepared man of God to deliver the Word of God virtually all of you are younger than I I'm counting on you I'm in your corner but I don't have your sphere of influence you're touching lives I'll never reach Stand and Deliver be his voice his man in this tragic but marvelous era when we can make him known father I'm grateful for your presence here this day for the purpose of the conference for the vision of this church and it's leadership for the hope on the faces of these to whom I speak for the joy that's such an obvious part of their lives for the full spectrum of being human the brokenness and sadness and tears of grief and pain and the hilarity of side-splitting laughter that brings pleasure to your heart keep us real and keep us human and keep us authentic our Father in a world of phonies may we change the opinion of the masses who have cultivated the idea that preached the Scriptures is the work of a dinosaur and that the delivery of the message is the work of a has-been may they hear in our passion and in our preparation a message so vital that they cannot ignore it or remain indifferent to it raise up Oh God from this assembly of men and women strong voices of the future that the world may hear again as it once did the Word of God alive active sharp and will never return void in the Blessed name of our Savior Jesus Christ everybody said amen amen you

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 296,390

Keywords: chuck, swindoll, preach, the, word, greg, laurie, harvest, integrity, humility, chuck swindoll sermons, chuck swindoll sermons online, chuck swindoll messages online, the importance of integrity and humility, integrity and humility, preach the word conference

Id: 3LZdRUnBYgc

Length: 57min 37sec (3457 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 25 2009