Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Glorying and Groaning │ Msg 45 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Glorying and Groaning │ Msg 45 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: When I was a first year student at il Seminary
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Speaker 1: in the fall of nineteen fifty nine, we had a
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Speaker 1: guest preacher in Chaffer Chapel on one of those early
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Speaker 1: morning hours. His name was Alan Redpath, like a red
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Speaker 1: Path has since gone to glory, but back then he
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Speaker 1: was the pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, and
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Speaker 1: I had never met him before, never heard him, though
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Speaker 1: I had read his books. It was a pleasure to
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Speaker 1: hear him with that strong British accent. I've said for years,
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Speaker 1: if you've got a British accent, doesn't matter whether you're
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Speaker 1: profound or not, you're interesting. And he was. Along with
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Speaker 1: being interesting, he was profound in many of the things
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Speaker 1: he said. I'll never forget one of the statements he
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Speaker 1: made that I have frequently quoted since that Chapel hour.
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Speaker 1: When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes
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Speaker 1: an impossible person and crushes him. When God wants to
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Speaker 1: do an impossible task, it takes an impossible person and
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Speaker 1: crushes him. Well, in many ways, we are all in
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Speaker 1: the category of impossible people. It is impossible for us
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Speaker 1: to rein ourselves in as we have learned from Romans seven.
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Speaker 1: It is impossible for us to claim enough power to
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Speaker 1: gain self control over the things that would drive our
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Speaker 1: lives and control our lives and lead us to addictions
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Speaker 1: that we on our own cannot break. Were all impossible,
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Speaker 1: So the crushing process is necessary for all of us. Interestingly,
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Speaker 1: when I heard doctor Redpath make the statement, my mind
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Speaker 1: flashed back to Yucca Beach, a small white sand beach
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Speaker 1: on Okinawa, where I would occasionally walk and spend time
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Speaker 1: during my sixteen months overseas in the Marine Corps. Marines
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Speaker 1: weren't allowed to take their wives with them, and we
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Speaker 1: had married in fifty five, and the sense of emptiness
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Speaker 1: and loneliness was at times overwhelming, just overwhelming to me.
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Speaker 1: And it had it not been for the Ministry of
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Speaker 1: the Navigator, I'm not sure where I would be today.
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Speaker 1: I certainly would not be in the ministry or the
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Speaker 1: faithfulness of a handful of gis and a man who
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Speaker 1: took me under his wing and loved me and encouraged
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Speaker 1: me and challenged me to become more than I was
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Speaker 1: or had ever seen myself to become. We all need
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Speaker 1: people like that, don't we. And thanks to Bob Newkirk's
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Speaker 1: investment of those sixteen months in my life. It was
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Speaker 1: a turning point anyway. I recall the spring of nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifty eight when I made a commitment to the Lord
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Speaker 1: that I would make Philippians three ten a statement of
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Speaker 1: reality in my life by His grace and through power.
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Speaker 1: You may have as I have done. You may have
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Speaker 1: memorized the verse. But rather than just relying on that,
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Speaker 1: let's look together at Philippians three ten, because the verse
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Speaker 1: ties in beautifully with the message we're going to unfold
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Speaker 1: from Romans Chapter eight. Philippians three, verse ten is on
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Speaker 1: the comes on the heels of Paul's admission to those
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Speaker 1: numerous things that he had achieved, and he names a
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Speaker 1: few of them for us, and then admits verse eight,
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Speaker 1: more than that I count all things but loss in
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Speaker 1: view of the surpassing value. I love this of knowing
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
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Speaker 1: loss of all things, and count them. Stop right there.
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Speaker 1: See the word them that goes back to all the
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Speaker 1: things that he has achieved, the pedigree, the accomplishments, the reputation,
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Speaker 1: the fame. Paul's a name back then known among his people,
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Speaker 1: Saul of Tarsus was a household word among the Jewish people,
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Speaker 1: and he became, if you will, uh, the leader of
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Speaker 1: a crusade to stamp out that first century sect called Christians.
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Speaker 1: Until the road to Damascus anyway leaks all those things,
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Speaker 1: I count them but loss rubbish. That I may gain
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Speaker 1: Christ and be founded him, not having a righteousness of
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Speaker 1: my own derived from the law, that's Romans seven, but
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Speaker 1: that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
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Speaker 1: comes from God on the basis of faith. And we've
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Speaker 1: looked at that in different angles, and here it is
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Speaker 1: emerging out of the Philippian letter, now the verse. And
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Speaker 1: this became for me of a statement that would carry
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Speaker 1: me for months to come, during those lonely days on
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Speaker 1: the island, that I may know Him and the power
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Speaker 1: of His resurrection. The Amplified Bible reads this way. For
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Speaker 1: my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that
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Speaker 1: I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him.
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Speaker 1: But it doesn't stop there. Perceiving and recognizing and understanding
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Speaker 1: the wonders of his person more strongly and more clearly.
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Speaker 1: That is happening during our journey together. If I may
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Speaker 1: fast forward to today, that has been happening since we
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Speaker 1: came on board, began to relate to one another and
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Speaker 1: began to share in the instruction time and the worship
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Speaker 1: times and the sharing times. We are becoming increasingly more
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Speaker 1: intimately and deeply acquainted with Him. All of that is
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Speaker 1: such an exciting thought. My hope for you is that
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Speaker 1: it's a discipline that never stops. That you may know
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Speaker 1: Him deeply and intimately, including the power of his resurrection
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Speaker 1: now the tough part and the fellowship of his suffering
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Speaker 1: being conformed to his death. Now, that's the flip side
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Speaker 1: of the same coin, making the coin authentic, the coin
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Speaker 1: being maturity in Christ. That I may know him the
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Speaker 1: power of his resurrection and that sense of fellowship with
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Speaker 1: him in the suffering back to the amplified, and that
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Speaker 1: I may so share his sufferings as to be continually
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Speaker 1: transformed into his likeness even to his death. It was
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Speaker 1: aw Tozer who said and wrote years after I heard
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Speaker 1: Redpath statement, It's doubtful God can use anyone greatly until
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Speaker 1: he has hurt him deeply. That's going to be our
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Speaker 1: focus during the time we spend today in the balance
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Speaker 1: of this hour together, and there is a principle. I
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Speaker 1: want to give you that as you turn to Romans
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Speaker 1: chapter eight, I want you to write this down. I
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Speaker 1: rarely challenge congregations to write something down, but this one
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Speaker 1: I'd like you to take with you. Suffering is a
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Speaker 1: vital part of the path to glory in the Christian life.
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Speaker 1: Suffering is a vital part of the path to glory
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Speaker 1: in the Christian life. Now, I don't want this hour
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Speaker 1: to seem like a somber hour together, or the moments
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Speaker 1: of the time we have left, but there really is
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Speaker 1: nothing funny about suffering. There And if you have been,
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Speaker 1: if since all of you have been through times of suffering,
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Speaker 1: times of loss, times of grief, times of failure, licking
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Speaker 1: your wounds after the as you endure the consequences of
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Speaker 1: a endfull escapade, tossing and turning through the night over
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Speaker 1: something you said or something that was done to you.
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Speaker 1: I've said for years, certainly have one thing in common.
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Speaker 1: We all have someone to blame for something. Everyone of
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Speaker 1: us has someone we could blame for something, and that
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Speaker 1: brings its own kind of suffering. We have all lost
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Speaker 1: people near and dear to us, and the grief, well,
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Speaker 1: the old song puts it none but the lonely heart
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Speaker 1: can know this anguish. There's an anguish with grief. There
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Speaker 1: is a some time, a period of years of recovering
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Speaker 1: from a loss. I've talked to a number of you
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Speaker 1: on the ship who are here alone. It wasn't long
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Speaker 1: ago you had your mate by your side, and some
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Speaker 1: of you are still doing your very best to recover
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Speaker 1: and go on. Not commend you, I applaud you for
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Speaker 1: not drawing your shades and locking your door and turning inward.
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Speaker 1: You're going through suffering, and it is a fellowship with Christ.
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Speaker 1: That is a what is it? Our principle says it
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Speaker 1: is a vital part of the path to glory. A
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Speaker 1: vital part of the path to glory. Now, that is
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Speaker 1: the theme of Romans eight, beginning about verse eighteen down
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Speaker 1: through twenty seven. I'm not sure we'll cover all that territory,
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Speaker 1: but we'll get into it deep enough for you to
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Speaker 1: see this from several angry. Verse eighteen makes it wonderfully
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Speaker 1: clear that when glorying and groaning are placed side by side,
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Speaker 1: the glory will be far greater than the groaning. Though
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Speaker 1: I would add, at the time of the groaning, it's
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Speaker 1: hard to believe that it's hard to believe that there
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Speaker 1: really is a sun beyond those clouds. It's hard to
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Speaker 1: believe there really is a grand future in the midst
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Speaker 1: of a grinding, heartbreaking present. It's hard to see reasons
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Speaker 1: for why we are going through what we are going
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Speaker 1: through at the time we are going through it. Romans
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Speaker 1: eighth eighteen to twenty seven will lift you above the
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Speaker 1: clouds and reminds you there is a glory that will
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Speaker 1: surpass the groaning. Look at the verse eighteen, for I
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Speaker 1: consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
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Speaker 1: worthy to be compared with the glory that is to
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Speaker 1: be revealed to us, referring ultimately to our time of
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Speaker 1: face to face enjoyment and reality with our Savior, forever
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Speaker 1: and ever. I want to turn to a couple of
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Speaker 1: other sections that say a similar thing. Turn ahead to
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Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, verse chapter four. A's the second letter, chapter
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Speaker 1: four of Corinthians, verse sixteen, and then when you find that,
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Speaker 1: locate a little further on One Peter chapter five Bruce James,
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Speaker 1: One Peter five, Okay tewod Corinthians four sixteen eighteen, and
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Speaker 1: then one Peter five four sixteen therefore we do not
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Speaker 1: lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet
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Speaker 1: our inner man is being renewed day by day. He
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Speaker 1: doesn't stop there. He adds, for momentary light affliction is
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Speaker 1: producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond
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Speaker 1: all comprehension. While we look not at, while we focus
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Speaker 1: not on, while we are not preoccupied only with what
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Speaker 1: is seen, but at the things which are not seen.
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Speaker 1: For the things that are seen are temporal, the things
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Speaker 1: which are not seen eternal. And in the one Peter five,
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Speaker 1: verse ten, after you have suffered for a little while,
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Speaker 1: the God of all grace, who called you to his
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Speaker 1: eternal glory in Christ, will himself look at the benefit, perfect, confirm,
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Speaker 1: strengthen establish you. If we were doing a Bible study
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Speaker 1: on that, we would camp on those four verbs and
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Speaker 1: would stay there through the evening. When you get to
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Speaker 1: the verbs, pause and let the wonder in the verbs
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Speaker 1: are the spine of the sentence, and they're not the
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Speaker 1: only important words, but they become the thoughts, the major
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Speaker 1: thoughts in the sentence structure of our language. And here
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Speaker 1: he closes with four of them, Christ himself, as a
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Speaker 1: result of suffering, will perfect will confirm, will strengthen, will
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Speaker 1: establish you. Now. The reason I camp on it is
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Speaker 1: because we forget that in the midst of the suffering,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of my loneliness for those sixteen months,
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Speaker 1: it was hard for me to see the benefit. Little
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Speaker 1: did I know would it was part of the plan
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Speaker 1: of my heavenly father in shaping me and molding me
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Speaker 1: into the image of his son. But we often see
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Speaker 1: depression as the present moment battle the rut we're stuck in,
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Speaker 1: and we don't realize that that period of depression gives
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Speaker 1: us a capacity of compassion in the years to come.
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Speaker 1: When we meet with and talk to and share life
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Speaker 1: with those who are depressed, we have been there. We understand.
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Speaker 1: Who better understands the loss of a child than you
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Speaker 1: who have lost a child. Who better understands the response
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Speaker 1: that you went through when your doctor said it's cancer.
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Speaker 1: It's cancer. And as one of the gentlemen I met
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Speaker 1: in years past happens to be a professional golfer, and
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Speaker 1: I've never seen him since then, but I'll never forget
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Speaker 1: the night he's spoke at one of our seminary banquets,
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Speaker 1: and he told all of us, he said, when I
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Speaker 1: heard the word cancer. I left the doctor's office and
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Speaker 1: I went to the men's room and I threw up,
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Speaker 1: and I lost not only my dinner, I lost my
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Speaker 1: whole future in that moment. I've never known that, but
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Speaker 1: I'll never forget that state. He has a capacity to
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Speaker 1: understand what it is like when you get that news
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Speaker 1: and suffering. Does that please in your Christian growth? Back
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Speaker 1: to Roman's aid, please don't discount the suffering times. Don't
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Speaker 1: see them as wasted hours, are lost days, or unfair months.
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Speaker 1: Though there will be everything within you that will be
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Speaker 1: tempted to think like that. Paul refers to them as
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Speaker 1: that which isn't really worthy to be compared with the
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Speaker 1: glory that will come. And I think it's glory not
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Speaker 1: only for the future, in heavenly glory, but I think
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Speaker 1: it's the glory that comes as a result of the
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Speaker 1: maturing process and the way God then begins to use us.
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Speaker 1: Tozer put it this way, we think of ourselves as
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Speaker 1: inhabiting some parenthetic interval between the God who was and
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Speaker 1: the God who will be. But in this ever present
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Speaker 1: now we are lonely, with that ancient and cosmic loneliness.
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Speaker 1: Put so well for many God is the God of yesteryear,
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Speaker 1: or he's the God of our future. God is the
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Speaker 1: God of now, our present. The tears, the brokenness, the crushing,
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Speaker 1: the feelings that you can't go on. God is present
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Speaker 1: in the midst of them. And that's all part of
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Speaker 1: His process of shaping and changing and honing and doing
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Speaker 1: for us what nothing else would do. In that way,
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Speaker 1: we heard our lovely songstress last evening, as Sarah spoke
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Speaker 1: of the times in her life when she lost the
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Speaker 1: song Remember and what was it about that moment that
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Speaker 1: all of us could identify with? And then God allowed
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Speaker 1: her to come back with a song that spoke of
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Speaker 1: that sense of loss and the brokenness that accompanied them.
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Speaker 1: Now back in Romans eight, the Apostle, who is so
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Speaker 1: good with his approach to subjects like this, looks at
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Speaker 1: this from all different angles, like you would look at
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Speaker 1: a at a diamond that has been etched and shaped
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Speaker 1: and laid on a black piece of velvet, and a
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Speaker 1: bright light from above shining on it as only the
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Speaker 1: jeweler can do when you're looking at a gem. It
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Speaker 1: reminds me of scary moments in my life when Since
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Speaker 1: and I had been sitting together in a jewelry shop.
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Speaker 1: And I'm not looking at the facet jewel, but that's
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Speaker 1: all she's seeing. She's seeing look at that. I go, yeah, right,
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Speaker 1: oh wow, look at that. And the jeweler gets out.
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Speaker 1: He hears that, he gets a bigger diamond. You think
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Speaker 1: it's pretty there, look at this one. And this gem
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Speaker 1: is flawless, And I go, right, okay, good, And she says,
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Speaker 1: you have others, and I go, Paul, and he'll get
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Speaker 1: another one. Then he lays it out in my eyes,
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Speaker 1: got one about the size of hand. Laying out here.
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Speaker 1: Paul looks at this subject from all angles, and he
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Speaker 1: magnifies it. And he keeps reminding us that the backdrop
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Speaker 1: is black. But without the light shining onto this, you'll
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Speaker 1: miss it. You'll miss a major part of your growth
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Speaker 1: as a believer, as a follower of Jesus. And Hebrews
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Speaker 1: five eight. I just read it last night. Though he
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Speaker 1: were a son, yet he learned obedience through the things
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Speaker 1: he suffered, to the things he suffered. Amazing statement, So
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Speaker 1: why would we be any different? We learn obedience through
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Speaker 1: the things we suffer Verse nineteen. For the anxious longing
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Speaker 1: of the creation. So at this moment he goes to
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Speaker 1: an illustration in nature, and he stays there until he
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Speaker 1: has looked at it from all these different angles. Look
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Speaker 1: at the mention of creation, the creation verse twenty for
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Speaker 1: the creation twenty one, that the creation twenty two for
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Speaker 1: we know that the whole creation. So it's creation, creation, creation, creation.
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Speaker 1: When you see words repeated in a passage of scripture,
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Speaker 1: take note, God isn't stuttering. He hasn't run out of
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Speaker 1: something to say, so he's filling it in with the
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Speaker 1: same word. It's God's way of underscoring and emphasizing and
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Speaker 1: reminding you over and over of an important analogy. So
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Speaker 1: let's stay with creation. For the anxious longing of the
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Speaker 1: creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
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Speaker 1: Now he writes a magnificent way that will not have
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Speaker 1: time to develop. But just stay with the thought. Creation
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Speaker 1: is anxiously longing for something a relief Verse twenty for
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Speaker 1: the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly. Verse twenty
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Speaker 1: one that the creation itself also will be set free
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Speaker 1: from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the
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Speaker 1: glory of the children of God. For we know that
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Speaker 1: the whole creation grows where we got our word groaning
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Speaker 1: with the glorying groans and suffers the pains of childbirth
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Speaker 1: together until now. I want to read this for you
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Speaker 1: from the message. Listen to how Eugene Peterson renders that.
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Speaker 1: All right, so don't you see that we don't owe
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Speaker 1: this old do it yourself life one red scent. There's
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Speaker 1: nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best
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Speaker 1: thing to do is to give it a decent burial
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Speaker 1: and get on with your new life. God's spirit beckons
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Speaker 1: there are things to do and places to go. This
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Speaker 1: resurrection life you receive from God is not a timid,
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Speaker 1: grave tending life. It's adventurously expected. Greeting God with a
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Speaker 1: child like what's next, Papa. God's spirit touches our spirits
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Speaker 1: and confirms who we really are. We know who He is,
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Speaker 1: and we know who we are, father and children, and
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Speaker 1: we know we are going to get what's coming to
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Speaker 1: us and unbelievable inheritance. We go through exactly what Christ
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Speaker 1: goes through. If we go through the hard times with him,
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Speaker 1: then we're certainly going to go through the good times
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Speaker 1: with him. That's why I don't think there's any comparison
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Speaker 1: between the present hard times and the coming good times.
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Speaker 1: The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next.
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Speaker 1: Everything in creation is being more or less held back.
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Speaker 1: God rains it in until both creation and all the
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Speaker 1: creatures are ready and can be released at the same
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Speaker 1: moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation
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Speaker 1: deepens all around us. We observe a pregnant creation. I
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Speaker 1: love that we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times
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Speaker 1: of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But
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Speaker 1: it's not only around us, it's within us. The spirit
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Speaker 1: of God is arousing us. Within we are also feeling
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Speaker 1: the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours
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Speaker 1: are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does
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Speaker 1: not diminish us anymore than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother.
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Speaker 1: We are enlarged in the waiting. We of course don't
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Speaker 1: see what is enlarging us, But the longer we wait,
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Speaker 1: the larger we become. Well, that's happening on this cruise,
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Speaker 1: isn't it, I tell you? And the more joyful our expectancy.
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Speaker 1: Now I jumped ahead a little because that's where he's
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Speaker 1: going here. After he deals with the whole world and creation,
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Speaker 1: and the fact that creation lives under the curse that
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Speaker 1: began with Adam's fall, and continues on, continues on, it
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Speaker 1: waits to burst forth into a glory. It's that we've
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Speaker 1: never seen before, and it's never experienced since the garden.
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Speaker 1: Now look at how he ties it in twenty three.
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Speaker 1: Not only this, not only this about creation, but let
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Speaker 1: me draw the analogy to us, as God's people, We
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Speaker 1: also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit.
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Speaker 1: Even we ourselves, he repeats, grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly
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Speaker 1: for our adoption as suns, the redemption of our body.
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Speaker 1: For in hope we have been. But hope that is
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Speaker 1: seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he
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Speaker 1: already has. But if we hope for what we do
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Speaker 1: not see, with perseverance, we eagerly wait for it. In
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Speaker 1: the same way, the Spirit helps our weaknesses. Or can't
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Speaker 1: we identify with the next statement, For we do not
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Speaker 1: know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit
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Speaker 1: himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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Speaker 1: I was there so many times last year. I've lost
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Speaker 1: count hardest year of my life, those difficult trials I've
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Speaker 1: ever gone through. I thought, when you get to this age,
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Speaker 1: and I thought, if you've been in ministry this long,
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Speaker 1: you know, God to take a break, you know, just
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Speaker 1: give me a break. But I realize that wouldn't be
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Speaker 1: a break. He's doing some of his best work in me,
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Speaker 1: and may I say, in you by making it a
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Speaker 1: difficult year. He's not unfair, he isn't cruel. Remember the
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Speaker 1: fellowship of his sufferings. Remember, if God's going to do
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Speaker 1: an impossible task, he got the part of it is
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Speaker 1: crushing us, and so he's reshaping us. And the process,
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Speaker 1: the groaning, goes on, and we get to the place
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Speaker 1: where we don't we don't even know how to pray.
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Speaker 1: You've been there, haven't you. We don't know the words
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Speaker 1: to use. So you know what we do. We groan,
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Speaker 1: and the spirit of God interprets the groans and takes
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Speaker 1: them to have and in the form of well worded prayers,
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Speaker 1: because he interprets the heart that's broken and bruised, feeling
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Speaker 1: that it can't go on, and all of that is
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Speaker 1: part of the labor pains of maturity. Now I can
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Speaker 1: stand here and give you quotations, and I can use
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Speaker 1: words that may make the time seem almost beautiful, but
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Speaker 1: it isn't beautiful. It's terrible. It's painful. I thought about this.
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Speaker 1: I've never seen anybody show me a picture of their
31:45
Speaker 1: wife in labor, never seen a picture. Look at this. Here,
31:50
Speaker 1: she's really hurting. Look at this. You know what they
31:54
Speaker 1: always show. They always show me the baby. The baby's
31:57
Speaker 1: clean and wrapped in a pink blanket, just the cute
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Speaker 1: as she can be, and all cleaned up, and all
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Speaker 1: that gunk is off and all that he smells good
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Speaker 1: and just cute little face. But to get there, I
32:15
Speaker 1: don't I don't know. I've never done it. But you women,
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Speaker 1: you know, you know. I remember one of our daughters saying,
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Speaker 1: right in the right in the upper our topmost part
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Speaker 1: of her of her pain, just get that thing out
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Speaker 1: of there. She's talking about her baby. I thought, we're
32:32
Speaker 1: doing our best, you know, And and you know the
32:35
Speaker 1: doctor's working at you. Get that thing out of there.
32:37
Speaker 1: Why because of the pain she's coming apart. That's what
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Speaker 1: you feel like. It's birth pangs. The suffering is like
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Speaker 1: birth pangs, but they are birth pains, not death pangs
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Speaker 1: coming from the from the sad and the tears and
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Speaker 1: the heartbreak will emerges life and a fresh future and
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Speaker 1: a whole different perspective. And when you weigh that pain
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Speaker 1: against the glory and the benefits, there aren't worse to describe.
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Speaker 1: So I borrow from Martin Lloyd Jones. He offered a
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Speaker 1: simple word picture. Imagine, he said, a man sitting at
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Speaker 1: a table with a pair of scales before him. On
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Speaker 1: the one side of the scales are his sufferings. On
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Speaker 1: the other side of the scale filling his vision with
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Speaker 1: a much heavier weight of the glory yet to be.
33:57
Speaker 1: And what seems so heavy before now appears to be
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Speaker 1: light as a feather. It's not that his sufferings are
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Speaker 1: light in themselves. Remember that said that, it's not that
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Speaker 1: the sufferings are light in themselves, but they only become
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Speaker 1: light in contrast to the far greater weight on the
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Speaker 1: other side of the scale. And that's the magnificent part
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Speaker 1: of this passage verse twenty seven. He who searches the
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Speaker 1: hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is, because
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Speaker 1: he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
34:50
Speaker 1: And then we get to that next verse that we
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Speaker 1: all can't wait for but we'll leave that for the
34:55
Speaker 1: next time. I don't know where you are in your journey.
35:05
Speaker 1: I have the feeling that you needed this time on
35:09
Speaker 1: the cruise as much as we did in light of
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Speaker 1: what this past year is held. And I also know
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Speaker 1: that God isn't true, and I know the beauty of
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Speaker 1: his workmanship is such that He has the pattern in
35:28
Speaker 1: mind for us and the crushing. Whereas where we emerge
35:33
Speaker 1: to be like Christ, like Christ, we couldn't be there
35:39
Speaker 1: without the dark days, the brokenness. Who would know this
35:49
Speaker 1: better than than Johnny Ericsson. Back in nineteen eighty six,
35:55
Speaker 1: she wrote a sweet book called Choices and Changes. She
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Speaker 1: closes with this story. Everywhere we go in Poland, people
36:06
Speaker 1: give us flowers. But how odd it is to see
36:11
Speaker 1: these same flowers swishing in the wind here here in Auschwitz,
36:21
Speaker 1: even though the grounds of this death camp are so
36:23
Speaker 1: very tidy, delicate wisps of wildflowers cropping up here and
36:29
Speaker 1: there around the bases of brick buildings and trunks of trees.
36:38
Speaker 1: And I shiver, not so much from the cold as
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Speaker 1: from the thought that people handicapped like me were the
36:47
Speaker 1: first to be exterminated, labeled as useless bread gobblers by
36:57
Speaker 1: the Nazis. But the flowers are something I didn't expect,
37:06
Speaker 1: and for that reason they're out of placeness touches me
37:11
Speaker 1: as nothing else. Chen and I journey the short distance
37:16
Speaker 1: from Auschwitz to Berkenhau. Here, trainloads of Jews and dissidents
37:23
Speaker 1: were emptied out into the freezing night to face the
37:27
Speaker 1: machine guns of powerful and insane men. Children were gun
37:34
Speaker 1: butted one way, their mothers herded the other. Men were
37:41
Speaker 1: separated into groups of young and old, but virtually all
37:46
Speaker 1: of them, millions of them, ended up in one place,
37:53
Speaker 1: the incinerator now crumbled and overgrown at the end of
38:00
Speaker 1: the camp. Nothing now stands in this old camp. What
38:08
Speaker 1: are you thinking, Ken asks, stooping to pluck a wildflower.
38:15
Speaker 1: I was thinking of Tonta Cory Corey Tenboom. I finally answered.
38:23
Speaker 1: She was in a place not unlike this, on nod
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Speaker 1: toward the field of ghosts. By all accounts, she should
38:32
Speaker 1: have died years ago in that concentration camp. I sigh.
38:41
Speaker 1: Ken shakes his head in wonder. I recall Tonta Cory's
38:47
Speaker 1: recent funeral at a small suburban cemetery a few miles
38:51
Speaker 1: south of Los Angeles. It was the flowers that impressed
38:56
Speaker 1: me that day. No hothouse blooms stuck in styrofoam, cut
39:03
Speaker 1: out shapes of hearts or crosses or doves, none of that.
39:08
Speaker 1: No white satin banners with gold sprinkled messages of sympathy
39:14
Speaker 1: and love. Instead, there were vases, dozens of vases of
39:20
Speaker 1: freshly cut tulips of yellow and red, bouquets of dewy
39:26
Speaker 1: white carnations, and bunches of heavy red roses. Someone it
39:31
Speaker 1: clipped all of them from Corey's backyard. The casket was closed,
39:39
Speaker 1: the music was bach. The eulogies were glowing, but understated.
39:48
Speaker 1: The only extravagance was the profusion of flowers, and the
39:56
Speaker 1: little stone chapel was filled with their sweet frag Now
40:04
Speaker 1: I sit in the silence of this vast field, memories
40:08
Speaker 1: of Corey stirring my thoughts. She concludes. I recall another
40:16
Speaker 1: memory of Corey and flowers, the evening at that convention,
40:21
Speaker 1: when amid the applause of thousands, she lifted her bouquet
40:26
Speaker 1: of roses toward heaven. She would be the first to
40:31
Speaker 1: say that books on a bestseller list mean nothing except
40:36
Speaker 1: that lives are changed through them. She would say that
40:40
Speaker 1: a first run major motion picture of her life was
40:44
Speaker 1: not worth all the accolades, except that people were helped
40:48
Speaker 1: through it. Even a ministry that took her all over
40:52
Speaker 1: the world with opportunities to speak and meet headlining names
40:57
Speaker 1: and evangelical circles, she would say, only counts in the
41:03
Speaker 1: Kingdom as far as it serves Christ. And I would
41:07
Speaker 1: say the same, says Johnny. In both my public ministry
41:13
Speaker 1: and my private life with Ken, God constantly asks me
41:17
Speaker 1: to uncover my face. But that is my joyous choice
41:24
Speaker 1: to ask him to chasen and purify and melt any
41:28
Speaker 1: resistance to change, I might secretly hold on to a smile.
41:34
Speaker 1: In fact, I throw my head back and laugh out
41:38
Speaker 1: loud as I tell Ken of the time I first
41:42
Speaker 1: met that remarkable woman years ago. We were both attending
41:46
Speaker 1: a convention where our new books were being presented. Corey
41:51
Speaker 1: approached from down the long red carpeted hallway of a hotel.
41:56
Speaker 1: People were all about, and many sought her attention. She
42:00
Speaker 1: strode directly toward me, hiked her cane on her elbow,
42:08
Speaker 1: reached for my hand with those strong hands that all
42:13
Speaker 1: survivors have, and she announced in her thick Dutch accent.
42:21
Speaker 1: One day, my friend, they will be dancing together in
42:28
Speaker 1: heaven because of the Lord Jesus. And today I can
42:33
Speaker 1: laugh and rejoice because Corey is dancing now over the
42:40
Speaker 1: devil and over this place, and once changed, we shall
42:48
Speaker 1: all join her. Bail your heads with me, will you please?
43:04
Speaker 1: Wherever today finds you, and whatever you left at home,
43:09
Speaker 1: and whatever scars you may still be nursing, and wounds
43:15
Speaker 1: you may still be licking. However deep the pit our
43:24
Speaker 1: savior is deeper still He's made no mistake. Your past
43:32
Speaker 1: is what was planned, including the wrongs, including the unfair treatment,
43:46
Speaker 1: including the absence of a father or mother, including whatever
44:00
Speaker 1: God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an
44:07
Speaker 1: impossible person and crushes him. Corey Tenboon would have had
44:15
Speaker 1: little ministry like she had had it not been for
44:19
Speaker 1: berken Out and the other camps they took her, or
44:27
Speaker 1: the death of her loved sister and precious Papa. So
44:36
Speaker 1: I ask you this afternoon to stop the fight, stop
44:41
Speaker 1: the resistance movement. Let it be, turn the groaning into glorying.
44:52
Speaker 1: Let it be Otherwise you will become a bitter old woman,
45:04
Speaker 1: a vile old man, and little by little people will
45:11
Speaker 1: separate from you rather than be drawn to you. People
45:19
Speaker 1: are drawn to scars. You know. It's the one thing
45:24
Speaker 1: we have in common. If you've never met the Savior
45:34
Speaker 1: as your own personal lord, we have a booklet for you,
45:40
Speaker 1: just for you. It's not something to give to someone else,
45:44
Speaker 1: it's for you. If you need that information on your destiny,
45:51
Speaker 1: someone at the door will provide you with a book
45:53
Speaker 1: titled Destiny. Take it tonight, Read it. Father. Thank you
46:07
Speaker 1: for what you teach us in between the lines of
46:10
Speaker 1: our lives. Thank you for breaking and shaping and crushing us,
46:18
Speaker 1: and for staying near us through the birth pangs, and
46:22
Speaker 1: by your grace on occasion, showing us the new births
46:28
Speaker 1: that come, the new depths, the new dimensions that only
46:34
Speaker 1: suffering can bring. In the Savior's name, everybody said Amen.
46:49
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Glorying and Groaning was copyrighted in two
46:53
Speaker 2: thousand and eight, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
46:56
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swindall. Inc Rates are reserved
47:00
Speaker 2: worldwide