In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith shares the story of how God transformed the lives of 10 men, including Greg Laurie, Raul Rees, Mike McIntosh, John Corson, and Skip Heitzig, who were once gang members, drug addicts, mental patients, and society's rejects. These men were used by God to spread the gospel worldwide, showing that God can use anyone. Pastor Chuck encourages listeners to check out the book "Harvest" which tells the testimonies of these transformed lives. He concludes by reminding believers to walk in fellowship with God, be strengthened by His Spirit, and trust in His eternal plans.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today we'll be continuing with David's Prayer for Relief as we turn in our Bibles to the 56th Psalm beginning with verse 8 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith For you tell my wanderings Put down my tears into thy bottle Are they not in thy book? Now in those days, tears were a valuable thing And every lady had her tear bottle Beautiful little bottle with a big wide rim on it And whenever they'd cry, they'd run, grab their tear bottle and hold it up And they would bottle their tears And these tear bottles became very valuable collector's items for the person Because they would see that little bottle of tears And they would represent to them the emotions that they had experienced in life And so they were just a valuable possession And they were prized possessions, these tear bottles Because it represented so much emotion A very meaningful thing, because they prized these bottles of tears so highly David is saying, Lord, you catch my tears in your bottle All of my tears, are they not written in your book? I just don't know how complete God's records are of man But we are told in the book of Revelation that when man stands before God, unregenerate man stands before God that the books will be open and they will be judged out of the things that are written in the books Now, I suppose that God is capable of keeping complete, absolute, complete records In fact, we are told that that judgment will not just be of the things that you've done but the motives for why you did them So God doesn't just keep the book on the actions but the thought that was behind the action the motive that was there And many of the things that we have done that we think, well, I'm going to get a good score for that Because our motive was wrong I really had my motive I hope everybody sees how sweet and generous I am That they observe what I did for that poor little old lady, you know And they'll say, my, isn't he wonderful? Isn't he generous? Isn't he kind? My, he's marvelous, you know And that will be my reward As far as the books that God was keeping on me they've been wiped out And I'm glad for that Through Jesus Christ, the record's clean There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus God has erased the books But for the wicked, they stand before God The books are open and they are judged out of the things that are written in the books Whatever they be Lord, are they not in thy book? He said, my tears, my sorrows, these tragic experiences You've kept record of them When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back This I know, for God is with me Again, as he puts it in perspective As he sees God's part Then there arises that confidence When we are faced with the problems The mistake that we so often make is we begin to concentrate on the problem And as we dwell upon the problem, it magnifies, it grows It becomes overwhelming We need to concentrate upon God Cast the burden onto Him And then begin to look at the greatness and the power of God And as we do, then we have that confidence Well, God's going to take care of it And putting our focus upon God Confidence comes, assurance comes, peace comes And we're able to ride out the storm Because I know that God is going to help me When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back This I know, for God is for me Do you know that God is for you? That's such a glorious thing And Paul said, if God is for us Who can be against us? The wonderful thing is that God is for you Cast your burden upon Him He will sustain you Learn to turn things over to God Learn to see things in that perspective In God's strength, in God's power, in God's ability Not in my weakness, oh, I'm too weak for this Oh, I can't handle this, oh, I've had so much I just can't take another thing And I see it with my diminished capacities And I'm prone to just despair But if I see it in God's perspective If I turn it over to God And begin to just think of the power of God The universe that He created all And I begin to see it in its proper perspective Then, hey, no problem God's gonna handle it God is for me In God will I praise His word In the Lord will I praise His word In God I have put my trust And I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me You see, he gets things in perspective And the words are no longer filled with anxiety And despair and whatever But now he speaks confidently Because I've put my trust in God I've put my trust in the word of God And in the word of the Lord And I'm not gonna be afraid What man can do Thy vows are upon me, oh God I will render praises unto Thee So often when David was in trouble He would make vows to the Lord Lord, you get me out of this And man, I'll do this for you And so David speaks a lot about the vows Paying the vows I will pay the vows that I made In the day in which I was in trouble, David said For you have delivered my soul from death He escaped from King Achish He got out of there God set him free You've delivered my soul from death Will you not deliver my feet from falling That I may walk before God In the light of the living God, you've been my help, my strength Now, David's still in trouble He's fleeing from Saul And he goes down into the area of En Gedi And there he hides in this cave Saul is pursuing him And David and this rugged, ragged band of guys Rough, tough characters Who are running from the law Who are in trouble Who are in debt They are gathered with David And they're hiding in the cave Saul and his trained army are pursuing them And as they are hiding there in the back part of the cave As Saul is looking for a place to spend the night They spot this cave and they come And Saul and his men all settle down there in the cave They take off their gear and lay it beside them And here David and all these guys are back there Hoping that no one sneezes Watching these guys just settle down for the night Right there in the mouth of the cave And David and his buddies are all up there in the dark shadows Hiding in the back part of the cave And Saul and his men are right there Be merciful unto me, O God Be merciful unto me For my soul trusteth in Thee Yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge Remember that beautiful psalm that has brought such comfort He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide neath the shadow of the Almighty My dwelling place, where is it? In the shadow of God And David said, in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge Until these calamities are over What calamities David was facing So Lord, I'm just going to hide in the shadow of Your wings I'm going to make that my place of refuge I will cry unto God Most High Unto God that performeth all things for me He shall send from heaven and save me From the reproach of Him that would swallow me up David really despaired of his life He came to the place where he said I know that one day Saul is going to do me in I know that one day it's going to be over Saul is going to get me He really despaired But Saul was seeking to swallow him up God shall send forth His mercy and His truth My soul is among lions These characters with the heavy beards And they look like a bunch of shaggy lions And I lie even among them that are set on fire These guys were just a rough, rugged group of guys I mean, they were the thugs that had gathered to David Those that were in trouble, those that were in debt and all And they were a tough bunch Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows And their tongue a sharp sword I imagine David had to separate a lot of these guys In the squabbles with each other They were just that kind of guys Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens What a contrast to these bunch of guys that I'm surrounded with Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens Let Thy glory be above all the earth Again, turning from the situation Turning to God Getting your mind upon Him O God, be exalted above the heavens Let Your glory be above the earth Turning my heart, my mind to God Is such a cure for the blues For discouragement, for despair They have prepared a net for my steps Now, the way that they trapped animals in those days Was with a net They would set up this net And you would hit this rope And the whole net would come And wind around the animal And they'd catch it But they were doing this for David They were setting nets Or they were digging pits And then they would cover over the pit So that as you were running along Bang, you know, down into the pit And no way out And so they had dug pits to trap David They had set nets for David They've prepared a net for my steps My soul is bowed down They have digged a pit before me In the midst whereof They have fallen themselves Oh, right, you know It's just They're fallen in their own traps That they were laid for David My heart is fixed, O God My heart is fixed I will sing and give praise In another psalm David prayed an interesting prayer He said, Unite my heart, O Lord To worship Thee One of the problems that we have Is a divided heart So many times my heart is divided Towards my desires and towards God's will And I find myself with a divided heart I want to do what God wants done And yet I also want to do what I want done And David said, Lord, unite my heart Give me a singleness of heart The problem is an unstable heart Constantly changing Gung-ho one day for the Lord Gung-ho the next day for the flesh And I know so many people that have this problem Of this divided heart or the unstable mind Now James tells us that a man Who has an unstable mind Is unstable in all of his ways That we need to have a fixed course David says, My heart is fixed, O Lord My heart is fixed I have fixed my heart upon You Not a divided heart Not a vacillating Lord, I've fixed my heart And I will sing and give praise Awake! And literally it is, I will wake up the morning I will awake the psaltery and the harp And I myself will awake early These are the things that you put down In the times of discouragement You let them rest The psaltery, the harp But I'll pick them up I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people I will sing to Thee among the nations For Thy mercy is great unto the heavens And Thy truth to the clouds Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens Let Your glory be above all the earth A beautiful theme for David's song I will sing of the glory of God I will sing of the mercy of God Of the truth of God So, David ends his psalm Well, he's still not out of trouble As we go into 58 and 59 We find him praying over other problems that he's facing And thus, David seeing the beginning of the breakdown of the judicial system Was concerned He prays about it He cries out about the breakdown of the system Do you indeed speak righteousness? The word O-congregation is rejected by most scholars The word in Hebrew could be O-hi-one Referring to the judge Or another possible, just a little change of a letter Would be you dummies Do you judge uprightly? O ye sons of men This was the issue that David is going to address in this psalm The failure for true righteous judgment To be issuing forth Yea, in your heart You work wickedness You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth Justice is often been pictured with the scales The balances And so they are weighing the balances, the wickedness With their own perverted actions themselves In other words When a judge does not live righteously He then has a very soft attitude towards those who are doing wicked things We had a judge in the harbor municipal courts here A few years back Who was known as being very lenient With people who drink And crimes that were committed while a person was drunk And it became so well known that the lawyers would just say When you go in just tell the judge that you've been drinking Now this particular judge had problems He was an alcoholic And so he understood well The problems of things people do when they drink And I sat in his court to observe this for several days And people would come in and they would be accused of these things And they would say well judge I have a drinking problem And I was just too drunk I guess to really know what I was doing And he would sort of slap them on the wrist He said well now I want you to promise that you won't drink anymore And I'm going to suspend your sentence you know And I'm going to let you go And I'm glad you understand you have a problem And you promised me now you're not going to drink again And the guy could go out We had one of our older dear saints here in the church Who was brought in before him on a traffic violation And so she wanted to show him some evidence She just appeared and she didn't follow the legal protocol And he said a charge for contempt of court And he threw her in the jail for a few hours And horrible she's just a sweet innocent old lady in the church That didn't know the court procedure And yet very stern very severe Tough judge Had she just said oh I'm sorry sir I've been drinking And I just thought I'd come up He'd say well that's alright lady let's see it you know And so David is complaining that because of their own wickedness They are not judging righteously the evil deeds that are being done I am deeply concerned with the breakdown of the judicial system in the United States I wonder how some of the decisions can possibly be called righteous Can't quite handle that And David was really upset with the breakdown in his day We'll return with more of our verse by verse venture through the Bible In our next lesson As Pastor Chuck continues with the judgment of the wicked And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience you can order online anytime When you go to the wordfortoday.org And while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs, and so much more Once again that's the word for today online at thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse by verse venture Through the Psalms That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today Now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith With today's closing comments May the Lord be with you and give you a blessed week As you live and walk in fellowship with God May you be strengthened by His Spirit in your inner man So that you might be more than a conqueror through His love And through the difficulties, the trials May we keep the perspective Of God working out His eternal plans in our life For our eternal good May you come to that place of strength Power Through the ministry of the Spirit to your heart As He works in your life effectually In Jesus' name Mike McIntosh, John Corson, Skip Heidsick and others And see for yourself that if God can use these guys To spread the gospel worldwide Then God can use you too To read a sneak preview of the book online Visit thewordfortoday.org Or call The Word for Today at 800-272-WORD I want to encourage you to check it out This just might be the book to change the life of a loved one Or even you, visit thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California