Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Battles Worth Fighting, Part 1
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Have you ever met someone who seemed determined to steal
- 0:10Speaker 1: your joy? Someone so busy policing how you live that
- 0:14Speaker 1: they squeeze every ounce of freedom out of your fate?
- 0:18Speaker 1: Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens Mark Chapter 2,
- 0:22Speaker 1: where we read about three confrontations between Jesus and the
- 0:25Speaker 1: religious rule keepers of his day. Along the way, Chuck
- 0:29Speaker 1: identifies three battles every believer must be prepared to wage.
- 0:33Speaker 1: These are struggles we dare not surrender because our freedom
- 0:37Speaker 1: in Christ hangs in the balance.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Chuck titled this message, Battles Worth Fighting.
- 0:50Speaker 3: As we journey through the gospel by Mark, we come
- 0:54Speaker 3: to the end of the second chapter of If you
- 0:59Speaker 3: have a Bible handy, please turn to the second book
- 1:04Speaker 3: of the New Testament, Gospel by Mark, and please note
- 1:09Speaker 3: verse 18, the place we'll begin the reading, and we'll
- 1:14Speaker 3: read through verse 28.
- 1:18Speaker 4: Mark 2, 18.
- 1:21Speaker 3: John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came
- 1:26Speaker 3: and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the
- 1:30Speaker 3: disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?
- 1:37Speaker 3: And Jesus said to them, While the bridegroom is with them,
- 1:40Speaker 3: the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So
- 1:45Speaker 3: long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
- 1:48Speaker 3: But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken
- 1:52Speaker 3: away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
- 1:56Speaker 3: No one sows a patch of unshrunk cloth on an
- 2:01Speaker 3: old garment. Otherwise, the patch pulls away from it. The
- 2:07Speaker 3: new from the old and a worse tear results. No
- 2:12Speaker 3: one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine
- 2:18Speaker 3: will burst the skins and the wine is lost and
- 2:21Speaker 3: the skins as well. But one puts new wine into
- 2:26Speaker 3: fresh wineskins. And it happened that he was passing through
- 2:32Speaker 3: the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples began
- 2:37Speaker 3: to make their way along while picking the heads of grain.
- 2:42Speaker 3: The Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they
- 2:45Speaker 3: doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he
- 2:49Speaker 3: said to them, have you never read what David did
- 2:51Speaker 3: when he was in need and he and his companions
- 2:54Speaker 3: became hungry? How he entered the house of God in
- 2:58Speaker 3: the time of the eighth hour. The high priest and
- 3:00Speaker 3: ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone
- 3:04Speaker 3: to eat except the priests. And he also gave it
- 3:07Speaker 3: to those who were with him. Jesus said to them,
- 3:11Speaker 3: the Sabbath was made for man and not man for
- 3:16Speaker 3: the Sabbath. For the son of man is Lord, even
- 3:22Speaker 3: of the Sabbath.
- 3:32Speaker 2: You're listening to Insight for Living.
- 3:34Speaker 1: To dig deeper into the gospel according to Mark, be
- 3:37Speaker 1: sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures
- 3:40Speaker 1: Bible Study Workbooks.
- 3:41Speaker 2: By going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message,
- 3:47Speaker 2: Battles Worth Fighting.
- 3:49Speaker 3: I want to dedicate today's message to all of you
- 3:51Speaker 3: who are Pharisees or recovering Pharisees. I first learned that
- 3:58Speaker 3: label from my good friend Buddy Green, who blows a
- 4:01Speaker 3: great harmonica and plays a terrific guitar and on occasion banjo.
- 4:06Speaker 4: He calls himself a recovering Pharisee.
- 4:08Speaker 3: And I've been around Buddy Green long enough to know
- 4:11Speaker 3: he's no longer recovering.
- 4:13Speaker 4: He has gotten past it. But some of you have not.
- 4:17Speaker 3: And so that causes me to ask the question that
- 4:20Speaker 3: you might be asking, what is a Pharisee?
- 4:24Speaker 4: By that, I mean a modern day Pharisee.
- 4:28Speaker 3: A Pharisee is an uptight individual who makes your business
- 4:33Speaker 3: his or her business.
- 4:35Speaker 4: Usually Pharisees are very.
- 4:37Speaker 3: Religious looking and pious sounding, and they spend too much
- 4:43Speaker 3: time concerned with how you are living your life and
- 4:46Speaker 3: not enough time addressing how they're living theirs. Of course,
- 4:51Speaker 3: the way they are externally would lead you astray because
- 4:57Speaker 3: you would think they are that way internally, but they
- 5:00Speaker 3: are not. Down inside, they are controlling people. They want
- 5:06Speaker 3: to make you as miserable as they are. And they've
- 5:11Speaker 3: never run out of ways.
- 5:13Speaker 4: To do that, it seems. Few people have put it.
- 5:16Speaker 3: Better than Eugene Peterson in a wonderful book called Traveling Light.
- 5:23Speaker 4: And in it, these words appear.
- 5:25Speaker 3: The word Christian means different things to different people. To
- 5:30Speaker 3: one person, it means a stiff, uptight, inflexible way of life,
- 5:35Speaker 3: colorless and unbending. To another, it means a risky, surprise-filled
- 5:42Speaker 3: venture lived on tiptoe at the edge of expectation. Either
- 5:48Speaker 3: of these pictures can be supported with evidence. There are
- 5:52Speaker 3: numberless illustrations of either position in congregations all over the world,
- 5:58Speaker 3: but if we restrict ourselves to biblical evidence, only the
- 6:04Speaker 3: second image can be supported. The image of the person
- 6:09Speaker 3: living zestfully, exploring every experience, pain and joy, enigma and insight,
- 6:18Speaker 3: fulfillment and frustration, as a dimension of human freedom. Remember
- 6:24Speaker 3: that word. Human freedom is searching through each for sense
- 6:32Speaker 3: and grace. If we get our information from the biblical material,
- 6:36Speaker 3: there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping,
- 6:44Speaker 3: daring life.
- 6:46Speaker 4: He goes on. There are people who do not want
- 6:51Speaker 4: us to be free.
- 6:52Speaker 3: By the way, I'm not one that has a lot
- 6:55Speaker 3: of mottos hanging around. If you came to our home,
- 6:59Speaker 3: you wouldn't see a lot of religious artifacts and things
- 7:04Speaker 3: on the wall. No offense here, but that's just not
- 7:07Speaker 3: our style. However, in my study, there is one piece
- 7:11Speaker 3: of paper that's taped on the wall.
- 7:15Speaker 4: How's that for class? I just tape it on the
- 7:17Speaker 4: wall and I read it virtually every week. It is
- 7:22Speaker 4: this piece.
- 7:24Speaker 3: That's the kind of value I place in writing like this.
- 7:27Speaker 3: Listen to what he says. There are people who do
- 7:31Speaker 3: not want us to be free. They don't want us
- 7:34Speaker 3: to be free before God, accepted just as we are
- 7:39Speaker 3: by his grace. They don't want us to be free
- 7:42Speaker 3: to express our faith originally and creatively in the world.
- 7:46Speaker 3: They want to control us. They want to use us
- 7:51Speaker 3: for their own purposes. They themselves refused to live arduously
- 7:57Speaker 3: and openly in faith, but huddled together with a few
- 8:01Speaker 3: others and tried to get a sense of approval by
- 8:04Speaker 3: insisting that all look alike, talk alike, and act alike,
- 8:11Speaker 3: thus validating one another's worth. They try to enlarge their
- 8:16Speaker 3: numbers only on the condition that new members act and.
- 8:21Speaker 4: Talk and behave the way they do.
- 8:25Speaker 3: I am, by the way, describing Pharisees, today's kind of Pharisees.
- 8:30Speaker 3: These people infiltrate communities of faith to spy out our freedom,
- 8:37Speaker 3: which we have in Christ Jesus. and not infrequently find
- 8:42Speaker 3: ways to control, restrict, and reduce the lives of free Christians.
- 8:51Speaker 3: If you have not run into a Pharisee, you don't know.
- 8:54Speaker 4: What you have missed.
- 8:56Speaker 3: Because there is one lurking in every church, in every
- 9:01Speaker 3: mission field gathering, in every Christian organization, at every Christian school.
- 9:08Speaker 4: It seems as.
- 9:09Speaker 3: Though they proliferate in their work of killing grace and
- 9:16Speaker 3: stealing freedoms.
- 9:19Speaker 4: Other than that, I don't have.
- 9:20Speaker 3: Much of an opinion regarding Pharisees. They love rules and
- 9:24Speaker 3: regulations and they love for you to get in line
- 9:29Speaker 3: and do those things that they have been doing, believing
- 9:32Speaker 3: that they are more spiritual and therefore they have the
- 9:36Speaker 3: right to bully you into living the life that pleases them.
- 9:41Speaker 3: It rankers them when they are confronted and in fact
- 9:46Speaker 3: they rarely are And it's with that point I sigh.
- 9:52Speaker 3: Because nothing stops Pharisaism like a strong, blunt confrontation.
- 10:01Speaker 4: But they are rarely confronted.
- 10:04Speaker 3: Like bullies, they usually get their way, and the result
- 10:09Speaker 3: is a loss of liberty and freedom in the family
- 10:13Speaker 3: of God.
- 10:15Speaker 4: I'm going to level with you here.
- 10:17Speaker 3: When we founded this church, when we first thought of
- 10:21Speaker 3: beginning Stonebriar Community Church, I remember because it was all
- 10:26Speaker 3: in my mind at the time. My greatest concern was
- 10:31Speaker 3: what to do with legalists who will come in and
- 10:35Speaker 3: tear up the fellowship. My concern was not with the
- 10:38Speaker 3: lost people. Lost people have never been of concern to me.
- 10:44Speaker 3: They're simply lost and they don't know why they're miserable.
- 10:49Speaker 3: Pharisees know why, but they want you to be that
- 10:52Speaker 3: miserable with them so that their numbers will increase and
- 10:55Speaker 3: they will get the joy of controlling your life. And
- 10:58Speaker 3: I knew as soon as we began, there would be
- 11:01Speaker 3: those who would try to manipulate and get their way
- 11:05Speaker 3: rather than help us all seek Christ's way. Over the
- 11:10Speaker 3: passing of these years, the fears have come true. But
- 11:14Speaker 3: by God's grace, we have done our best to confront
- 11:17Speaker 3: them as often as we can and.
- 11:19Speaker 4: As boldly as we must. But still they persist.
- 11:23Speaker 3: There will always be those who are busy living your
- 11:27Speaker 3: life instead of taking care of the logs in their
- 11:31Speaker 3: own eyes. Now, why would I come across so bluntly? Well,
- 11:36Speaker 3: I learned the script from Jesus. He did that, and
- 11:41Speaker 3: that's part of the reason he was crucified.
- 11:43Speaker 2: Whoops.
- 11:44Speaker 4: What have I got to look forward to, huh?
- 11:47Speaker 3: Tragically, tragically, when we come to verses like we're going
- 11:51Speaker 3: to encounter in Mark chapter 2, we're going to see
- 11:54Speaker 3: the beginning of it emerge, and it takes on a
- 11:58Speaker 3: whole new direction.
- 11:59Speaker 4: And listen to me.
- 12:01Speaker 3: Before it is over, they will have nailed him to
- 12:04Speaker 3: a cross. The Judaizers who were determined to get their way,
- 12:10Speaker 3: those who were in official religious positions, they were the
- 12:14Speaker 3: enemies of Christ. And they couldn't stand it that he
- 12:18Speaker 3: stood against their man-made rules.
- 12:22Speaker 4: Never stood against scripture, of course. Not. He would never
- 12:26Speaker 4: do that.
- 12:27Speaker 3: But he stood against their additions to what scripture had taught.
- 12:32Speaker 3: And by the way, that's still going on. We'll see
- 12:35Speaker 3: more and more of that as we get deeper.
- 12:37Speaker 4: Into this gospel by Mark.
- 12:41Speaker 3: Now, if your Bible is open to Mark 2, verse 18,
- 12:45Speaker 3: you will see.
- 12:46Speaker 4: Immediately that this.
- 12:49Speaker 3: Group of Pharisees have been watching things occur, and they
- 12:53Speaker 3: are now all over him, wanting to know, why aren't
- 12:57Speaker 3: you getting into line along.
- 13:00Speaker 4: With the rest of our followers?
- 13:02Speaker 3: You see, Jesus came from Galilee preaching this gospel of fresh,
- 13:09Speaker 3: wonderful news regarding forgiveness and hope and purpose and abundance
- 13:14Speaker 3: of life.
- 13:15Speaker 4: And he met.
- 13:17Speaker 3: Straight on, face to face, those who had been dominating
- 13:21Speaker 3: and controlling the people with their constant put-downs, their negative emphasis.
- 13:28Speaker 3: And they ran into Jesus and they met their match.
- 13:31Speaker 3: I love the boldness of our Lord as he handles
- 13:34Speaker 3: it great. What we're going to have here in the
- 13:37Speaker 3: verses in front of us are three battles worth fighting for.
- 13:41Speaker 3: First is the battle for joy. Second is a battle
- 13:45Speaker 3: for flexibility. And third is a battle for grace. We'll
- 13:50Speaker 3: take them in order. First, the battle for joy, which
- 13:54Speaker 3: we call peace. Fasting and feasting. That's in verses 18
- 13:59Speaker 3: to 20. John's disciples, verse 18, along with the Pharisees
- 14:06Speaker 3: and their disciples were fasting. And they came and said
- 14:10Speaker 3: to Jesus, why do John's disciples fast and our disciples fast?
- 14:16Speaker 3: And we are fasting, but your disciples do not fast.
- 14:22Speaker 3: One of the classic characteristics of modern day Pharisees, otherwise
- 14:27Speaker 3: known as legalists, is that they will observe what you
- 14:31Speaker 3: do not do that they believe you ought to be doing.
- 14:36Speaker 3: And if you don't do it, they add pressure to
- 14:39Speaker 3: you to start doing it.
- 14:40Speaker 4: Classic case in point is fasting. Remember, the context.
- 14:47Speaker 3: Here is Jesus has been feasting with a bunch of
- 14:51Speaker 3: riffraff who had gathered around Matthew, the former tax collector,
- 14:57Speaker 3: who has his buddies come to a meal. Remember verse 15?
- 15:00Speaker 4: Look up there.
- 15:01Speaker 3: It happened that he, that's Jesus, is reclining at the
- 15:04Speaker 3: table in his house with many tax collectors and sinners
- 15:10Speaker 3: who were dining with Jesus and his disciples.
- 15:13Speaker 4: A number of them are lost.
- 15:15Speaker 3: Uh most of them are lost most of Matthew's friends
- 15:18Speaker 3: do not know Christ Matthew is leaving his profession and
- 15:23Speaker 3: his buddies are saying goodbye along with a lot of
- 15:26Speaker 3: people he's been doing business with and they're all together
- 15:30Speaker 3: and Jesus is in their midst now I know that
- 15:34Speaker 3: your first thought is good for you Christ good for
- 15:37Speaker 3: you that's right where you ought to be would you
- 15:39Speaker 3: have been there If you would not have been there,
- 15:44Speaker 3: it's probably because of Pharisees. Today's Pharisees. What would they say?
- 15:51Speaker 3: What would you say?
- 15:53Speaker 4: I'll make it even harder.
- 15:55Speaker 3: If you're downtown Dallas, and you're walking along a busy
- 15:59Speaker 3: area one evening, and you look into a bar, and
- 16:02Speaker 3: there is Chuck Swindoll having dinner with all the people
- 16:05Speaker 3: in the bar. Have a feeling there would be letters
- 16:10Speaker 3: to the elders. Along with phone calls made so that
- 16:15Speaker 3: other people might pray more intelligently. And very little said
- 16:20Speaker 3: to me personally because I was in there and shouldn't
- 16:23Speaker 3: be in there.
- 16:23Speaker 4: How do you know what I'm doing in there? How
- 16:27Speaker 4: do you know why I'm in there?
- 16:30Speaker 3: See, Pharisees don't take time to check the reason behind it.
- 16:33Speaker 3: They just look at the surface things and they form
- 16:35Speaker 3: conclusions and then they attack. And no one can attack
- 16:39Speaker 3: like a legalist.
- 16:41Speaker 4: No one. not even a lost person. So they attack Jesus.
- 16:47Speaker 4: These are Judaizers. These are Pharisees.
- 16:50Speaker 3: They want to know, why don't you fast like we're fasting?
- 16:54Speaker 3: Understand that the law requires certainly one day for fasting.
- 17:01Speaker 3: A day of atonement is a required day of fasting.
- 17:06Speaker 3: Fasting invariably revolves around something that is serious, somber, Others
- 17:14Speaker 3: would say there should be a fast around the time
- 17:16Speaker 3: of Purim, one of the celebration days in the Jews'
- 17:22Speaker 3: calendar of events. Others would have other days they would fast.
- 17:27Speaker 3: The Pharisees, listen to this, required at least twice a week.
- 17:33Speaker 4: Twice a week.
- 17:34Speaker 3: The law never requires it. They required it. As a
- 17:40Speaker 3: matter of fact, they added to the law hundreds of
- 17:43Speaker 3: their own rules and regulations.
- 17:47Speaker 4: It wasn't in the law.
- 17:49Speaker 3: They added those things to the law and they gave
- 17:52Speaker 3: the same credence to their additional laws as they gave
- 17:57Speaker 3: to the law of God. And they couldn't understand why
- 18:02Speaker 3: Jesus' disciples weren't fasting along.
- 18:05Speaker 4: With the others.
- 18:06Speaker 3: Why don't they do what we do? Why aren't they
- 18:11Speaker 3: somber and sober? Why all the joy? Why all the
- 18:16Speaker 3: pleasure in ministry as you're involved in it? And there
- 18:19Speaker 3: isn't enough solemnity and seriousness. Now let me add here,
- 18:23Speaker 3: because you could jump to a wrong conclusion. Do I
- 18:26Speaker 3: believe in solemnity? How about Good Friday night? You didn't
- 18:30Speaker 3: hear any laughter Good Friday night, nor should you. It's
- 18:34Speaker 3: a very solemn occasion. You may have fasted that day,
- 18:39Speaker 3: and I respect you for that. I wouldn't ever require that,
- 18:43Speaker 3: but I would respect your taking that so seriously that
- 18:47Speaker 3: when you're focusing on the death of our Savior and
- 18:50Speaker 3: we're about to climax that day with time around the
- 18:53Speaker 3: table in the darkness and the seriousness of that scene,
- 18:59Speaker 3: you have every reason to be somber.
- 19:02Speaker 4: But life is not meant to live every day like
- 19:05Speaker 4: Good Friday night.
- 19:07Speaker 3: There is a place for that, but there is also
- 19:09Speaker 3: a greater place, more days, I would say, for rejoicing.
- 19:14Speaker 3: And the joy of the believers, the disciples of Jesus,
- 19:19Speaker 3: rankered these Pharisees. I read this piece, this line this
- 19:25Speaker 3: past week. A sense of joy is the grace note
- 19:29Speaker 3: in the musical score of the Good News Symphony.
- 19:32Speaker 4: Isn't that a nice statement?
- 19:35Speaker 3: David McKenna said that joy is the grace note in
- 19:38Speaker 3: the musical score of the Good News Symphony.
- 19:41Speaker 4: Now, please observe Jesus who does not back down. This
- 19:46Speaker 4: is a battle worth fighting for. But look at how he.
- 19:50Speaker 4: handles it.
- 19:51Speaker 3: He asked them a question. He's great at counter questions.
- 19:55Speaker 3: While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the
- 19:57Speaker 3: bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have
- 20:03Speaker 3: the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
- 20:07Speaker 4: He no longer asks, but now makes a So look
- 20:13Speaker 4: at his answer.
- 20:17Speaker 3: It's important you understand the background of it because even
- 20:21Speaker 3: though weddings today certainly are times of great joy, weddings
- 20:25Speaker 3: in those days were extended periods of great joy.
- 20:31Speaker 4: One man writes this.
- 20:32Speaker 3: After an ancient Jewish wedding, this is after the wedding,
- 20:36Speaker 3: the couple did not honeymoon. but stayed at home for
- 20:40Speaker 3: a week of open house in which there was continual
- 20:44Speaker 3: feasting and celebration.
- 20:46Speaker 4: Everybody likes that idea, but the groom. But we'll go on.
- 20:50Speaker 3: For the hardworking, this was traditionally considered to be the.
- 20:55Speaker 4: Happiest week of their lives.
- 20:59Speaker 3: The bride and the groom were treated like a king
- 21:02Speaker 3: and a queen that week. Sometimes they even wore crowns
- 21:07Speaker 3: in their celebrations.
- 21:08Speaker 4: You picture that?
- 21:09Speaker 3: They were attended by chosen friends known as guests of
- 21:13Speaker 3: the bridegroom, which means literally children of the bride's chamber.
- 21:20Speaker 3: Their guests were exempted from all fasting through a rabbinical ruling.
- 21:25Speaker 4: Which said, quote, Isn't that great? Isn't that great?
- 21:36Speaker 3: For us believers on the other side of the cross
- 21:39Speaker 3: and resurrection, the application for this is hugely encouraging. We
- 21:43Speaker 3: are not just guests of the bridegroom. We are the
- 21:46Speaker 3: bride of Christ. This is more than metaphorical language. It
- 21:51Speaker 3: is reality.
- 21:53Speaker 4: It speaks of.
- 21:54Speaker 3: The deepest intimacy and exchange. We actually have the spirit
- 21:58Speaker 3: of God. Therefore, we are to outdistance the attendance of
- 22:02Speaker 3: the bridegroom in the intensity of and continuance of joy,
- 22:09Speaker 3: our joy. I'll tell you, there is nothing that should
- 22:14Speaker 3: characterize the body of Christ like joy. Why in the
- 22:19Speaker 3: world has laughter been turned to the comedy routines on television.
- 22:26Speaker 4: And been absent from the church?
- 22:29Speaker 3: The church ought to be the place where there is
- 22:31Speaker 3: the loudest of laughter and the freest opportunity for joy
- 22:36Speaker 3: and pleasure and delight in one another. Isaac Watts was
- 22:42Speaker 3: right when he wrote, Joy to the world, the Lord
- 22:45Speaker 3: is come. There's every reason for there to be laughter
- 22:49Speaker 3: and joy and happiness. And that's his whole point. The
- 22:54Speaker 3: bridegroom is with him, meaning himself. I'm still with him.
- 22:58Speaker 3: Now notice the first reference in Mark's gospel to the
- 23:01Speaker 3: cross is in the verse that follows. Verse 20, first
- 23:05Speaker 3: reference to the cross. The days will come when the
- 23:09Speaker 3: bridegroom is taken away from them and.
- 23:12Speaker 4: Then they will fast in that day.
- 23:14Speaker 3: There will be a day when there will be a
- 23:17Speaker 3: somber mode of sadness as they see the bridegroom gone
- 23:22Speaker 3: from them. And in this case, nailed to a cross.
- 23:29Speaker 3: and how sad that will be, but for now, how
- 23:33Speaker 3: wonderful it is that we can rejoice. Please notice there's
- 23:36Speaker 3: no response from the Pharisees. When you confront a legalist
- 23:40Speaker 3: with the facts, they usually have no answer. But they
- 23:45Speaker 3: run back to their little huddle and try to get
- 23:47Speaker 3: an answer as they beef up their position, which really
- 23:52Speaker 3: is without root and logic. So Jesus confronts them with this,
- 24:00Speaker 3: and he addresses their lack of joy. I won't apply
- 24:04Speaker 3: it here any further than saying part of being free
- 24:09Speaker 3: is being free to laugh. Even laugh at yourself, laugh
- 24:15Speaker 3: at life, and help your family know how to laugh.
- 24:19Speaker 3: One of the responsibilities of every parent is to help
- 24:22Speaker 3: their children know the joy of laughter.
- 24:26Speaker 4: The fun of living.
- 24:29Speaker 3: I've said for years, I hope my kids remember me
- 24:32Speaker 3: as the one who had fun in life. I hope
- 24:36Speaker 3: my children remember laughter in the walls rather than a
- 24:40Speaker 3: preacher who frowned at them all through their.
- 24:42Speaker 4: Childhood and young adult years. I hope they learn to
- 24:45Speaker 4: laugh at life.
- 24:47Speaker 3: I hope they learn to laugh even beyond the hardship
- 24:51Speaker 3: and strange events that occur in life.
- 25:01Speaker 1: Can't you just picture that? Laughter echoing through the walls
- 25:04Speaker 1: of a home. That's the joy Jesus fought for, and
- 25:08Speaker 1: it's the battle worth fighting in your life, too. Today
- 25:11Speaker 1: on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Mark
- 25:14Speaker 1: Chapter 2. He titled his message, Battles Worth Fighting. There's
- 25:18Speaker 1: much more Chuck has to show us in this passage,
- 25:21Speaker 1: so please keep listening. If you enjoy Chuck's captivating way
- 25:24Speaker 1: of sharing stories from the Bible, If you smile at
- 25:27Speaker 1: his spontaneous laughter, and you're grateful for his ability to
- 25:31Speaker 1: weave truth from Scripture into everyday living, well, we have
- 25:34Speaker 1: something you'll love. It's Chuck's once-in-a-lifetime memoir, filled with the
- 25:39Speaker 1: wisdom he's acquired over nine decades of life. In this
- 25:43Speaker 1: brand-new tell-all, Chuck opens his heart like never before. It's
- 25:47Speaker 1: called Awakened by Grace. When you contact Insight for Living
- 25:51Speaker 1: to purchase the book, we'll make sure a copy is
- 25:53Speaker 1: sent to your home right away. Call 800- Also, we're
- 26:04Speaker 1: pleased to offer a 25-day Advent devotional from Insight for Living.
- 26:09Speaker 1: When you request it today, it'll arrive in plenty of
- 26:11Speaker 1: time for the holidays. It's called Everlasting Light. Our only
- 26:16Speaker 1: request is that you include a donation to support the
- 26:18Speaker 1: ministry of Insight for Living, delivering biblical truth on the radio,
- 26:23Speaker 1: the web, and the internet. and all the other ways
- 26:25Speaker 1: you can freely access Chuck's Bible teaching. This thank you
- 26:29Speaker 1: gift from Insight for Living will elevate your family's celebration
- 26:32Speaker 1: of Christmas, and your gift will help others embrace the
- 26:36Speaker 1: hope of Jesus, our everlasting light. In our history together,
- 26:40Speaker 1: has there ever been a more urgent time to deliver
- 26:42Speaker 1: that message? Thanks so much for giving generously as you
- 26:46Speaker 1: measure the impact of Chuck's teaching on your life and
- 26:49Speaker 1: countless others. Again, the Advent devotional is called Everlasting Light.
- 26:54Speaker 1: Call us at 800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org slash donate.
- 27:10Speaker 4: I'm Bill Meyer.
- 27:11Speaker 1: Join us again when Chuck Swindoll continues his comprehensive study
- 27:15Speaker 1: in the Gospel of Mark, Monday on Insight for Living.
- 27:21Speaker 1: The preceding message, Battles Worth Fighting, was copyrighted in 2010
- 27:26Speaker 1: and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026
- 27:30Speaker 1: by Charles R.
- 27:31Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
- 27:35Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.