Best of 2010

Message 1: Getting Past the Guilt of Your Past

Sermon Overview We are all imperfect people who have “been shot” by the pain of life, and we have all “shot” and wounded others. In this deeply personal message, Charles and Cynthia Swindoll tackle the heavy burden of past guilt and shame. Cynthia shares her powerful testimony of climbing out of a five-year abyss of severe depression—a pit deepened by tragic losses, bad medical advice, ungodly counseling, and unresolved anger. Using Isaiah 58, the message outlines the biblical path to true freedom: taking full responsibility for our own actions, removing the yoke of blame, and humbly seeking forgiveness without bringing up the other person’s faults.

Key Facts

• Personal Responsibility: You are entirely responsible for your own wrongdoings; healing begins when you stop blaming your parents, circumstances, or abusers for your current sinful reactions.
• The Danger of Ungodly Counsel: Relying on ungodly advice that encourages you to blame others and harbor anger gives the devil an opportunity and leads to a deeper spiritual and emotional abyss.
• The Right Kind of Fast: According to Isaiah 58, God desires a lifestyle that loosens the bonds of wickedness, removes the pointing finger of blame, and makes you vulnerable to those you have offended.
• The Power of Forgiveness: Harboring unrealistic expectations and unforgiveness turns a person over to emotional “torturers,” but humbly asking for forgiveness restores relationships and brings profound healing.

Scripture References

• Isaiah 58:1–12
• Romans 3:23
• Ephesians 4:26–27
• John 8:31–32
• Philippians 4:8
• Matthew 18

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Message 2: Looking Back: Clearing Away the Trash We Regret

Sermon Overview As the year turns, it is essential to look back and clear away the trash of our past regrets. Unresolved guilt and unconfessed wrongs act like swarming locusts that systematically devour our joy, productivity, and relationships. Charles R. Swindoll uses the minor prophet Joel and the lament of Psalm 31 to show that God uses the painful consequences of our actions to get our attention. However, God also offers a magnificent promise of hope: He will restore the “years the locusts have eaten” if we genuinely repent and repair the breaches we have caused. This message challenges believers to stop rationalizing their failures, put their pride in their pockets, and seek out those they have offended to make things right.

Key Facts

• Locusts of Discipline: God uses life’s devastating consequences (symbolized by the devouring locusts in Joel) as divine discipline for our disobedience, pride, and stubbornness.
• Start Immediately: True repentance means starting immediately without offering “plausible but untrue” rationalizations or shifting the blame for our conduct.
• Return Completely: Repentance is incomplete if there are hidden reservations or carefully kept secrets; we must return to God completely.
• Repent Openly: We must repent openly without hesitation, actively seeking out the individuals we have harmed to confess our faults and ask for their forgiveness.

Scripture References

• Joel 2:12–27
• Psalm 31:9–11
• Exodus 10:1–6

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Message 3: Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Anxiety

Sermon Overview Worry is a mental monster that kidnaps our joy, strangles our peace, and steals our sleep. Tracing the Latin and German root words for anxiety, Swindoll reveals they literally mean “to choke” or “to strangle”. This choking effect is vividly illustrated in Luke 10, when Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha. While Mary sat peacefully at Jesus’ feet, Martha was distracted, frustrated, and strangled by the incidentals of hosting. Swindoll provides a self-examination of how we “add, subtract, multiply, and divide” our way into anxiety, and encourages believers to let Christ take the lead on the “tandem bike” of life.

Key Facts

• The Strangling Nature of Worry: Anxiety highlights the human viewpoint and strangles the divine perspective, replacing faith with fear.
• Distracted by Incidentals: Worry chokes our ability to distinguish essential priorities from incidental details, causing us to become completely distracted by temporary things.
• The Math of Anxiety: We manufacture worry when we add unnecessary expectations, subtract God’s presence from our crises, multiply our fears with imagination (“what-ifs”), and divide our lives into secular and sacred compartments.
• A Matter of Focus: Jesus did not rebuke Martha’s service, but her distracted, pulled-apart attitude; true peace requires focusing on the “one necessary thing” rather than being in a tumult over many demands.

Scripture References

• Luke 10:38–42
• Philippians 4:4–7
• Mark 4:14–20

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Message 4: Doing Right When You’ve Been Done Wrong

Sermon Overview Everyone has experienced the deep sting of being wronged by others, and our natural human instinct is to retaliate. Swindoll pairs the theological commands of Romans 12 with the gripping Old Testament narrative of David and King Saul in the cave of En-gedi. Even though an insane, jealous Saul was hunting David to kill him, David refused to take his own revenge when Saul was completely vulnerable. Believers are called to a supernatural standard: blessing those who persecute them, overcoming evil with good, and letting God handle the vengeance. Swindoll reminds us that God often uses difficult, unbroken people to crush our pride and teach us deep submission.

Key Facts

• Resist Natural Instincts: The natural human reaction to an offense is to get even, but believers are commanded to deliberately resist this instinct and bless (speak well of) their enemies.
• Fight the Urge to Retaliate: We must never pay back evil for evil; retaliating only intensifies the offense and disobeys God’s command to live at peace so far as it depends on us.
• Trust God’s Justice: Believers must quietly step back and leave room for the wrath of God, trusting Him to handle all vengeance in His perfect timing.
• The Crushing Process: God frequently uses a cruel “outer Saul” as a scalpel to painfully cut away the proud “inner Saul” hiding within our own souls.

Scripture References

• Romans 12:14, 17–21
• 1 Samuel 24:1–22
• Proverbs 15:1