Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Love of God, Part 1

Transcript

The Love of God, Part 1 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Aw Tozer once warned that the Church had traded its
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: high view of God for something so low, so ignoble,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: as to be unworthy of thinking people. That was fifty
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: years ago, and things haven't improved. But today, on inside
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: for Living, Chuck Wendall cuts through the noise of a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: theologically shallow culture to recover something ancient, revolutionary, and life changing.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The love of God, as Scripture actually describes it. Not
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a feeling, not a sentiment, a force so vast, so unconditional,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: so relentlessly personal, that it will reframe everything you thought
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: you knew.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I would like to give you twelve words that I
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: hope you will never ever forget. Here they are what
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: we think about God is the most important thing about us.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Once again, what we think about God is the most
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: important thing about us. I'll repeat that periodically through this
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: message because I want it riveted into your brain.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: You'll need it in this day.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: In which there is a lot of sloppy and silly
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: thinking about God. Matter of fact, if we have a
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: low and inaccurate view of God, our worship will be
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: shallow and skewed and dissatisfying. However, if we have a
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: high view of God and If it is true, our
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: worship will be meaningful and pure, satisfying and deep.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: I'll go further.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: If we shape our thinking about God from the culture
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: around us, our life will remain complicated and even become chaotic.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: But if we allow holy.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Scripture to shape our thinking, God will emerge in our
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: minds as he is real, personal, meaningful, all powerful. What
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: we think about God is the most important thing about us. Tragically,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: not many people think that much about God. In fact,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: there are a few who don't do much thinking at
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: all these days. I like the way one wag put it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: God is a lot like my pastor. I don't hear
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: from him during the week, and I don't understand him
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: on Sunday. You feel that way today. I want you
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: to understand him. I want him to become well.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Real to you.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: He is at work, whether you see him or hear
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: him or feel him, he is there, And as Francis
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Schaeffer once put it, he's not silent. He is at
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: work in what you called tragedies, surprises, and unexpected events.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: He's at work.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: When you began to doubt, he was not in any
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: way out of control. What we think about God is
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the most important thing about us. Truth be told, the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Church of the twenty first century has reached an all
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: time low water mark. Theologically, we have come into shallow waters. Biblically,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: this isn't a new realization. Aw Towzer wrote of it
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: fifty or more years ago. The Church has surrendered her
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: once lofty concept of God and has substituted it for
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: of thinking worshiping men and women. With our loss of
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the sense of majesty has come the further loss of
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: awe and consciousness of the divine presence. We have therefore
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: How true is that adoring silence?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: We are beginning to learn about our heavenly Father. One
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: of the things we are learning is that he is
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: not an old, doting, heavenly grandfather who sits around nodding
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and winking and handing out twenty dollars bills for you
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to buy another video game. The God of the scriptures
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is our awesome, holy, glorious, loving, heavenly Father. A great
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: deal of difference when painted in that light, when you
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: think about the love of God. It's necessary these days
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: that we explain or define what it does not mean.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: God is not one who sits in his heaven nodding
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and saying, no matter what anything goes, because I love you.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: That wouldn't be love. That wouldn't be good for us.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: God is not saying, my love is so strong, so consistent,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: so deep, I'm willing to overlook any sinful thought, word,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: or deed you participate in doesn't matter.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: I love you.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: While I'm at it. He isn't saying my love means
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that nothing you do will grieve me because I care
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: so much for you, I don't even notice it when
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: you walk away. That is not an accurate understanding. In
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: spite of what you may have learned or been taught,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: we're going to discover today what it means to say
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: that God is love. In first John, chapter four, we
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: read a statement that is just three words, and you
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: may have heard them throughout your religious life or spiritual life.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: Verse John four, verse seven, verse eight, you will read
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: God is love. Verse eight concludes with the three words God.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Is love.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: That means this he personifies unconditional love, love permeates who
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: he is and everything he does. His love is spontaneous,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: it is sacrificial, It is consistent, it is self giving,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: it is active, it is full of understanding. But it
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: is not absent from his other characteristics. You see not
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: only why does first John tell us that God is
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: love verse eight, as well as verse sixteen of this
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: fourth chapter. Back in chapter one, I want you to
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: notice in verse five we read, this is the message
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: we have heard from him and announced to you, that
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: God is light. There's another three words to compare our
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: contrast with God is love.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: The one who is.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Loving, consistently, unconditionally loving, is also the God of light.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And you will read at the end of the verse.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: In him there is no darkness at all. That means
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: not a trace of darkness, not a touch, not a hint,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: not a particle of unholiness or impurity. God is holy,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: God is just. God is pure, God is full of splendor.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: God is light.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: We must keep these two thoughts in balance. The one
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: who is love is also light. His love reaches out,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: seeks us and desires us. His love tempers his justice
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: and his righteousness. His love prompts his grace to us.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: His love must never be separated from his other characteristics.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: It is an attribute of our heavenly Father. And so
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: I would add to my statement another word. What we
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: think about God's love is the most important thing about us.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: We're all members of a family. You came from a family.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Perhaps you have married and come into another family as well.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Perhaps you've never married, or you're not now married. The
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: point is we understand family, so we understand the love
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: in a family.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Let's take you who are married. Perhaps I should say
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: those of us who.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Are married, We who are married, have relationship with another
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: individual like no other person on this earth. We love them,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: We want to believe unconditionally, and sometime we will even
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: say that. The fact is, our love has limits, and sometime,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: as we have learned in these last few years, our
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: love has to get tough. There are boundaries you don't cross,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: even though you are unconditionally loved. A wife would never
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: say to you her husband as he's on his way
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: to a sales meeting in another city, Hey anything goes, sweetheart,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: no matter what you do, I love you whoa not
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: anything goes, she says to him, in effect, my love
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: for you is deep, and I believe in you. Therefore
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I know you'll remain faithful to me. There's a limit
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: on that love, and it's balanced by the reminder that
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: there needs to also be faithfulness. How about a parent's
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: love for a child. Let's go there where all the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: children of someone. We have a father, we have a mother.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Your mother or father may still be with you, maybe
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: have gone, but you have a memory of being reared
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: in the home of your parents. Leave first, John, and
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: go to Hebrews chapter twelve. Back a few books. Hebrews
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: twelve will talk about the love of a father, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: you will see love at work in a surprising way,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and it will help us understand and define love. Hebrews twelve,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: verse six. Those whom the Lord loves.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: He disciplines. Look at that.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Wait a minute, those whom the Lord loves he disciplines absolutely.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: In fact, if you read further, and we will, that's
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: how we know we are his sons, we are his daughter.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, He scourges
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: you endure. God deals with you as with sons. Now
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: look at the question for what son? We could even add,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: what daughter? Is there whom his father does not discipline.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: If you are without discipline, of which all they become partakers,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that you are illegitimate children, You're not really sons. Furthermore,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Shall we not much rather be subject to the father
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: of spirits and lived. They disciplined us for a short time,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: as seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: our good, that we may share his holiness. All discipline
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Yet those who have been trained by its afterwards, it
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. I believe those were
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: some of my mother's and father's favorite verses of Scripture.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: I've used those verses in the early years of rearing
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: our children. I have some funny stories I could tell
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: you about quoting verses like that, and I would sometimes say,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and I learned not to say it as a result
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: of a story.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: I would sometimes say to one of our children, you know,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: to discipline you right now hurts me more than it
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: does you.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: They always gave me that, yeah, really, look well.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: One occasion, our youngest daughter, Colleen, and I were on
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: the way up the stairs. She had disobeyed and disobeyed
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and disobeyed again and again, and I said, come here,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: young lady. We were on our way up the stairs,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: and the tears started. No one could cry quite like Colleen.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And on the way up the stairs, my father's heart
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: began to sort of well, ye a little. And I
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: remember the verse of Scripture, the one whom a father
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: loves he disciplined. So I get to the top of
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the stairs and I walk in the room and I
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: close the door, and see that's those big crocodile eyes
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: at me and says, and I said, you know what, honey,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you need to know this hurts me as much as
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: it hurts you. She said, Dad, I've got a great idea.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Don't do it, and both of us will be happier.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: So I stop saying things like that. The truth is,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: it does pain the Father. It does grieve the Lord
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: when we walk away from him. He saddened over the
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: fact that we make a foolish decision and walk in
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: the flesh. And he's our father, He loves us, he
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: cares about us deeply and profoundly. But his love doesn't
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: exist as a solitary virtue.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: He's also just righteous. He's holy.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Let me show you an example of the Father's unconditional love. Deuteronomy,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: chapter seven, I Love this versus Scripture Deuteronomy seven, verses six, seven,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: and eight. These words were spoken by Moses to the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: people of Israel, to the Hebrews. They have been through
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: the wilderness. They are right on the verge of the
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: promised land. He is delivering his swan song in this
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: book of Deuteronomy. The word itself means second law, so
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: it's a reiteration of the law, and he is assuring
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: his people of the Father's love. Look at Deuteronomy seven six.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: You are a holy people to the Lord your God.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: The Lord your God has chosen you to be a
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: people for his own position, out of all the peoples
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: who are on the face of the earth.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Now the verse I Love.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: The Lord did not set his love on you, nor
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: choose you because you were more in number than any
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Is that great? Why does the Lord love us because
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: he loves you?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Remember when your parents back to parents again, Remember when
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: your parents would say I want you to do that.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: You'd say, why because I said so? And it never
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: seemed to make sense. And I find it right here? Lord,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: why do you love me because I said so? In fact,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: there's nothing about you that draws me to you. There's
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: nothing all that impressive, and I've seen you at your worst.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: But because I choose to love you. That is the
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: sovereign act of God, allowing his mercy to overrule his justice.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Knowing we deserve the worst, he provides the best. And
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: the people of Israel could remember over and over again
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: it's because the Lord chose to love them. On your
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: way toward the New Testament, stop off at Jeremiah. It's
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: one of the great prophets of the Old Testament.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: Just after Isaiah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: You will come to Jeremiah chapter thirty one, verse three.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Jeremiah thirty one, verse three, Here we are. The Lord
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: appeared to him from Afar, saying, I have loved you
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: loving kindness. I want to linger here just long enough
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to remind you of a him that was written.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: On this.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: George Wade Robinson, back in the nineteenth century, was so
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: moved when he read verse three, I have loved you
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: with an everlasting love that he wrote that him loved
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: with everlasting love led by grace, that loved to know
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: gracious spirit from above, thou hast taught me. It is
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: so Oh, this full and perfect peace, Oh, this transport
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: all divine in a love which cannot cease. I am
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: his and he is mine. Cannot cease. We're getting close
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: to unconditional here, aren't we. It cannot cease. Before I
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: turned to anything further. Some of you are resisting the
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: thought because you've not known unconditional love as long as
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: you can remember. Tragically, some of you don't remember your
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: parents telling you they loved you. Maybe there's been a
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: long time since someone, another adult has told you that
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: they love you. I'll never forget. While I was a
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: part of the leadership at Dallas Seminary, one of our
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: profs had written a major work on the Book of Leviticus.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I mean it was it was a mother of all
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: books on Leviticus. Let me put it, he wrote more
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: about Leviticus than Moses knew. And I we had a
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: we had a chapel service, and we were honoring him,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: and I was so moved when I saw him standing there,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: so humble, and the publisher was there, and everybody student
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: body was sort of applauding.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: And I just stood up.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: And then people saw me standing up and realized I
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: meant to, and so they stood up, and then they.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Started the plotting. And I walked up to the prof.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: And I threw my arms around him, and I could
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: tell by his response that was a new thing. And
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I whispered in his ear and I said, doctor, so
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: and so, I want you to know how much I
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: love you and respect you for your work. He wrote
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: me a note that afternoon. I wish I would have
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: saved I would be reading it right now because his
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: words are much more eloquent than mine. He said, I
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: want you to know that, never in my adult life
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: have I ever had another man to tell me he
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: loved me.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I was shocked. Shouldn't have been, but I was.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I thought someone that brilliant, that capable, that
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: effective in the classroom surely there were people telling him
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: they loved him. You need to hear it today.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: God loves you. Don't go there.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: I can just feel the resistance you'd seen me last week.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: I don't care about last week. Okay, doesn't affect his love.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: The one who knows you the best loves you the most.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: God loves you. He come to the place where he says, well,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: that's it. That's the last time. It's gonna take you
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: a long time to get back in my good graces.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Shame on you. No, look at it again.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: I have loved you with an everlasting love in your
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: darkest times, when you are not only feel but you
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: are most unlovely.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: You really aren't all that loving to others. He would
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: write you a note at that moment and tell you.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Listen, I love you right now. I love you this morning,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: he says, I love you.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I know all about your past. I know all of
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: the things, all of the things you have done, should
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: have done, didn't do. I know the regrets, I know
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: all the dark side. I don't know all the secrets.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: I love you.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: I love you, and I remind you of that today tonight,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: when you turn in, God is still saying I love you.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: It's not a great thought, it's an everlasting love.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: What we think about God is the most important thing
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: about us, and today, Chucks Mondahl has given us something
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: worth thinking about for the rest of our lives. God's
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: love isn't sentimental, conditional, or fragile. It's everlasting, sovereign, and unshakable,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and it's yours to dig deeper into these truths. Inside
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: for Living has an exclusive set of Bible study resources.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: They're designed to take you beyond listening, deep into the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: passages that Chuck's been unpacking. The Searching the Scripture's Bible
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Study Workbook walks you through the text with probing questions,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: cross references, and space to write what God is showing
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you personally. Combine it with the complete sermon series on
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: CD or MP three, and you have a devotional resource
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: that'll serve you for years to come. To purchase the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Searching the Scripture's Bible Study Workbook for this series on
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: God's Attributes or the twelve audio messages, go to insight
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: dot org slash offer, or you can call us at
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: eight hundred seven seven to two eighty eight eighty eight
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and now Here's Chuck I came.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Across a quote not long ago that I haven't been
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: able to shake. It was from a man named John Allen,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: a Salvation Army saint who was near the end of
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: his life. John made this shocking statement, I deserve to
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: be damned. I deserve to be in hell. But God interfered.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: That last part is worth repeating. God interfered.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I love that more than I can say, because that's
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: the story of the Cross. We were running hard in
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: the wrong direction and God stepped in. He didn't send
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: a memo, he didn't offer a suggestion. He hung on
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: a cross and bled and died and rose again. That's
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: not a metaphor. That's history, and that interference has changed
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: every life that's ever truly reckoned with it.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Here's what keeps me up at night.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Millions of people are still running the wrong direction and
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: they don't know it. They're busy, they're sincere. Some of
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: them are sitting in church every Sunday, but they've never
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: had a real personal life altering encounter with the Cross.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: We proclaim that's the whole reason insight for living exists.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: And here's what I want you to understand as we
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: approach June thirtieth. When you send a gift to Insight
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: for Living, God's word doesn't just sit in a quiet studio.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: It goes through radio, through the Internet, through social media,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: through printed resources, into homes and hearts all over the world.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: You are the one who sends it. Your generosity is
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: your ministry. Someone somewhere is about to have their own
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: God interfered moment. The Cross is going to reorient their
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: entire life. Your gift makes that possible. Please don't wait,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: give today, and give knowing that what you're investing in
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: is genuinely, permanently, eternally important.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Your gifts truly make an impact. Recently, we heard from
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: one of your fellow listeners who said, Dear Insight for Living,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: yours is the voice I run to when life in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: this world becomes too much. Thank you for grounding me
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: and pointing me back to the Cross. These moments are
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: made possible through the generous gifts from friends just like you. Today,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: we'd like to say thanks for your contribution by providing
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: a brand new booklet from Chuck. It's called The Cross.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: We proclaim. You know there are probably mornings when you
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: wonder if you have anything left to give in the cross,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: we proclaim you'll be reminded that you were never meant
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to do it in your own strength. Let us send
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: you this booklet today. It's yours when you include a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: donation to support the Ministry of Insight for Living. Here's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: our mailing address, Insight for Living, Post Office Box five thousand, Frisco, Texas,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: seven five three four. You can also call eight hundred
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: seven seven to two eighty eight eighty eight, or give
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: online at Insight dot org slash donate.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: I'm Bill Meyer.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Join us when Chatswindall continues to describe the inexhaustible Love
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of God tomorrow on Insight for a Living. The preceding message,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: The Love of God was copyrighted in two thousand and eight,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, twenty sixteen, twenty nineteen, and twenty
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: twenty six, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: twenty six by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: strictly prohibited.