Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – A Leadership Style That ...
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- 0:07Speaker 1: Ever, notice how the best restaurants reflect their leadership. Walk
- 0:11Speaker 1: into Owl's place, for instance, and you'll quickly discover whether
- 0:14Speaker 1: someone competent is running the kitchen. Well. The same is
- 0:17Speaker 1: true for churches, businesses, and families. But here's what might
- 0:21Speaker 1: surprise you. The most effective leaders aren't the loudest voices
- 0:25Speaker 1: or the most impressive personalities. Today. On Insight for Living,
- 0:29Speaker 1: Chucks Wendall points to Paul's radically different leadership model in
- 0:33Speaker 1: First Thessalonians, one, where success means working yourself out of
- 0:38Speaker 1: a job by raising up others. Chuck titled today's message
- 0:42Speaker 1: a leadership style that works.
- 0:44Speaker 2: Guaranteed, the best leaders come from a scarred past. They
- 0:56Speaker 2: understand suffering, they understand miss treatment. They've earned the right
- 1:02Speaker 2: to be respected because they have labored against much opposition. Now,
- 1:08Speaker 2: there are some things that you don't want to have
- 1:10Speaker 2: as a leader. In verses three through six, you will
- 1:13Speaker 2: find those negatives, and there are four of them I
- 1:16Speaker 2: find here. And then verses seven through eleven, you'll find
- 1:19Speaker 2: four positives that you do want to have. First deception,
- 1:25Speaker 2: verse three. Our leadership, our style of exhorting, our approach,
- 1:32Speaker 2: our ministry does not come from error or impurity. It
- 1:37Speaker 2: has reference to a faulty motive or by way of deceit.
- 1:44Speaker 2: We didn't come lacking integrity. We didn't come with deception.
- 1:48Speaker 2: Verse four is the second negative characteristic. It's flattery, or
- 1:53Speaker 2: as he puts it, being a people pleaser. Let me
- 1:56Speaker 2: read it for you. But just as we have been
- 1:59Speaker 2: approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, and
- 2:03Speaker 2: so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, who
- 2:11Speaker 2: examines our hearts. So good. When you come to the
- 2:17Speaker 2: place where the word of God, the goals of God,
- 2:25Speaker 2: the principles of God are the single most important ingredient
- 2:31Speaker 2: of your mission, you begin to stop pleasing people. You
- 2:37Speaker 2: can't be a slave of people and a slave of
- 2:39Speaker 2: Christ at the same time. Doesn't mean you have to
- 2:42Speaker 2: be abrasive, but it does mean your ultimate goal is
- 2:47Speaker 2: to please the living God. Clyde cook Over at Biola
- 2:51Speaker 2: sent me a statement some time ago. Was a great quotation.
- 2:54Speaker 2: It said, I don't know the secret of success, but
- 2:58Speaker 2: I do know the secret of failure. Try to please everybody.
- 3:03Speaker 2: If you're struggling with pleasing everybody, no wonder you're struggling
- 3:06Speaker 2: with success. The under you're failing, God help you to
- 3:11Speaker 2: see in verse four of chapter two, in verse Thessalonians
- 3:15Speaker 2: that you really are to please God. That means at
- 3:18Speaker 2: any cost. Number three is greed verse five. We never
- 3:25Speaker 2: came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a
- 3:30Speaker 2: pretext for greed. Now they couldn't know that. That is
- 3:37Speaker 2: deeply only God could know that. That's why he adds
- 3:40Speaker 2: God is the witness of that. Greed is the desire
- 3:44Speaker 2: to have more. It is the desire to possess more
- 3:48Speaker 2: than you need, and when taken to the extreme, it
- 3:53Speaker 2: is the desire to possess what belongs to someone else.
- 3:58Speaker 2: We often apply it to money, and perhaps we should,
- 4:01Speaker 2: but it isn't limited to money. There can be greed
- 4:04Speaker 2: of glory, and as a leader, you'll wrestle with that.
- 4:09Speaker 2: There can be greed of results. There can be greed
- 4:12Speaker 2: of numbers. There can be greed of facilities, bigger buildings,
- 4:18Speaker 2: greater impact. There can be greed of popularity, greed of
- 4:24Speaker 2: even truth. We have more of the truth than anyone
- 4:29Speaker 2: else I read this past week. Greed has three facets,
- 4:35Speaker 2: love of things, love of fame, love of pleasure, and
- 4:40Speaker 2: these can be attacked directly with frugality, anonymity, and moderation.
- 4:48Speaker 2: Isn't that a good quote? These things can be attacked
- 4:52Speaker 2: with frugality, anonymity, and moderation. Put the brakes on. As
- 4:57Speaker 2: a strong leader, control yourself. Get a hold of this
- 5:03Speaker 2: greed that drives you to be the top, the best,
- 5:06Speaker 2: the most, the fastest, the most successful, the one with
- 5:10Speaker 2: the most money, the most sales. Take a look at
- 5:14Speaker 2: your greed and ask, is that really what's driving me?
- 5:19Speaker 2: See how this directly addresses those things that people can't see.
- 5:22Speaker 2: That's why God must be the witness. Number four would
- 5:25Speaker 2: be authoritarianism. That's verse six. We didn't seek glory from men,
- 5:31Speaker 2: either from you or from others. Now I like the
- 5:35Speaker 2: next phrase, you will too, even though as apostles of
- 5:42Speaker 2: Christ we might have asserted our authority. Isn't that great?
- 5:48Speaker 2: There is something believable about Paul. Here is a man
- 5:52Speaker 2: who could have flown into the city with pomp and
- 5:56Speaker 2: demanded the top treatment and gotten it. Spiritual leaders get
- 6:03Speaker 2: away with murder because they do it all in the
- 6:07Speaker 2: name of God. And who's gonna pull rank on God?
- 6:14Speaker 2: I love the story Jay Kessler told me some time ago,
- 6:16Speaker 2: said when he took over youth for Christ, said he
- 6:21Speaker 2: had a lot of great vision, he says. He called
- 6:22Speaker 2: the board together and he said, now, listen, everybody, God's
- 6:26Speaker 2: talked to me, and God's led me to make certain decisions,
- 6:28Speaker 2: and God's leading us to do this and that. And
- 6:30Speaker 2: the board members sat there. They broke up for lunch,
- 6:33Speaker 2: and crusty old board member named Fred Smith out of Dallas,
- 6:37Speaker 2: whom some of you know, pull Jay aside, said no, Jay,
- 6:41Speaker 2: if you want me to be on the board and
- 6:43Speaker 2: be a part of your board, I'm glad to do it,
- 6:46Speaker 2: but please don't bring me from Dallas to vote against God.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Jay said, I learned a very important lesson. Be careful
- 6:56Speaker 2: about quoting God as your single source of authority. Be
- 7:01Speaker 2: careful about that. The point is clear. And there are
- 7:05Speaker 2: some who hear me right now, who are superb spiritual leaders.
- 7:09Speaker 2: Your followers will let you get away with all kinds
- 7:12Speaker 2: of things. Part of the reason is they're afraid of you.
- 7:17Speaker 2: Part of the reason is just your position is intimidating.
- 7:21Speaker 2: Part of the reason is that's what you do with
- 7:23Speaker 2: spiritual leaders. You put them on a pedestal and you
- 7:29Speaker 2: hold them aloof and you protect them. You do it
- 7:35Speaker 2: out of respect, to be sure, but you do it,
- 7:39Speaker 2: and the spiritual leader can assert an enormous amount of
- 7:42Speaker 2: authorlready and get away with it. It's got to be
- 7:46Speaker 2: human has to live with himself or herself. Take a
- 7:51Speaker 2: look at the rights you're taking advantage of, if in
- 7:55Speaker 2: fact you are and only you know. The best kind
- 7:59Speaker 2: of leader is the servant leader. I don't mean a
- 8:03Speaker 2: guy that sticks his hand in his pocket says all
- 8:05Speaker 2: shucks all day. That's not servant hood. Not a person
- 8:09Speaker 2: that says no, I can't no, I'm not qualified, No
- 8:12Speaker 2: I'm not the one. No I'm the worst in the group.
- 8:15Speaker 2: That's a worst kind of pride. But one who knows
- 8:20Speaker 2: himself or herself well enough to tell himself the truth
- 8:26Speaker 2: and will put brakes on were necessary. The one hundred
- 8:31Speaker 2: and fiftieth anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, Carl
- 8:34Speaker 2: Sandberg addressed an assemble Diplomatic Corps and a Joint Session
- 8:39Speaker 2: of Congress. The date was February twelve, nineteen fifty nine.
- 8:43Speaker 2: Lincoln students will remember it. His address was called Lincoln,
- 8:47Speaker 2: Man of Steel and Velvet. Among other things, he said,
- 8:52Speaker 2: not often in the story of mankind does one arrive
- 8:55Speaker 2: on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is
- 8:58Speaker 2: as hard as rock in his as drifting fog, who
- 9:03Speaker 2: holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible
- 9:06Speaker 2: storm and peace unspeakable. While the war winds howled, he
- 9:13Speaker 2: insisted that Mississippi was one river, meant to belong to
- 9:18Speaker 2: one country, that railroad connections from coast to coast must
- 9:23Speaker 2: be pushed through. While the war wavered and broke and
- 9:27Speaker 2: came again as generals failed and campaigns were lost, he
- 9:31Speaker 2: held enough forces of the North together to raise new
- 9:34Speaker 2: armies and support and supply them until new generals were found.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Who made war as victorious war has always been made
- 9:43Speaker 2: with terror, frightfulness, destruction, valor, and sacrifice, passed words of
- 9:48Speaker 2: man to tell in the mixed shame and blame of
- 9:52Speaker 2: the immense wrongs of two crashing civilizations. Often with nothing
- 9:57Speaker 2: to say, he said nothing, He slept not at all,
- 10:02Speaker 2: And on occasion he was seen to weep in a
- 10:05Speaker 2: way that made weeping appropriate, decent, and majestic. A little
- 10:11Speaker 2: anecdote that Sandberg adds. A man from Indiana at the
- 10:15Speaker 2: White House overheard the President say, Wories, don't it seem
- 10:21Speaker 2: strange to you that I who could never so much
- 10:23Speaker 2: as cut off the head of a chicken should be
- 10:26Speaker 2: elected into the midst of all this blood. There's a
- 10:30Speaker 2: humanness about that. He isn't affected by his position. He's
- 10:36Speaker 2: a leader you could sit down with and talk be
- 10:40Speaker 2: like that. Now there are some positives. First is sensitivity
- 10:46Speaker 2: to needs verse seven. We prove to be gentle among
- 10:50Speaker 2: you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
- 10:57Speaker 2: I think it's significant that Paul picks up on a
- 10:59Speaker 2: feminist trait of tenderness and he applies it to himself.
- 11:06Speaker 2: How much we need it. There's a tenderness. I think
- 11:10Speaker 2: he was at times close to tears and maybe in them,
- 11:14Speaker 2: giving them, as Lincoln a decency and majesty that fits tears.
- 11:21Speaker 2: He wasn't a glory hog. Mothers aren't that He tenderly
- 11:25Speaker 2: cared for them as a mother would for her own children.
- 11:29Speaker 2: There's nothing of selfishness in the mother role. There is
- 11:34Speaker 2: this constant giving. There is this deep commitment. There is
- 11:37Speaker 2: this absolute resistance against running. There is this staying with
- 11:43Speaker 2: the family if it means living on the street, because
- 11:46Speaker 2: that's the way it is with mothers. There is this
- 11:49Speaker 2: caring for deep needs and so it is among good leaders.
- 11:54Speaker 2: As a nursing mother, there is a sensitivity to needs.
- 11:58Speaker 2: Second is affection for people. Having thus a fond affection
- 12:04Speaker 2: for you. People weren't used by the apostle. They didn't
- 12:08Speaker 2: find themselves at the end of the tether as he
- 12:11Speaker 2: swung them from one objective to another. That wasn't Paul's style.
- 12:16Speaker 2: He loved them too much for that. The popular idea
- 12:21Speaker 2: is that the tough minded executive is a professional with
- 12:24Speaker 2: a cool air of sophistication, who carries himself at a
- 12:28Speaker 2: distance from the people. You don't find that in scripture.
- 12:32Speaker 2: You certainly don't see that in the life of the Savior.
- 12:35Speaker 2: That's why he made such an impact. He wasn't like
- 12:37Speaker 2: most of the religious leaders. You could touch him. He
- 12:42Speaker 2: made sense. He had an affection for people. Just a moment.
- 12:49Speaker 2: When was the last time you said to some other
- 12:52Speaker 2: adult outside your family, I love you. You have no idea
- 12:59Speaker 2: what that would mean speaking to a man I greatly admire.
- 13:04Speaker 2: Just two weeks ago, just as we were ending the conversation,
- 13:07Speaker 2: he said, oh and Chuck, Yeah, hey, I love you.
- 13:15Speaker 2: I could hardly say goodbye, even though I sensed down
- 13:20Speaker 2: inside there was a love relationship, he told me, and
- 13:25Speaker 2: not just love you songs say that love you, love you,
- 13:31Speaker 2: but I put a pronoun on it. Say you put
- 13:36Speaker 2: a name on it, call the name. I dare you.
- 13:40Speaker 2: It's remarkable what that will do. I love you. Paul
- 13:45Speaker 2: said that that was fond affection. And look at this,
- 13:50Speaker 2: there was transparency and authenticity of life. We were pleased
- 13:56Speaker 2: to impart to you, not only the gospel, but our
- 13:58Speaker 2: own lives. Isn't that wonderful? Why because you became dear
- 14:03Speaker 2: to us. Don't miss this third one and authenticity of life.
- 14:08Speaker 2: We imparted life. Are you a teacher of the scriptures?
- 14:11Speaker 2: You are imparting life. You are imparting secrets. You are
- 14:15Speaker 2: imparting struggles. You are imparting scars. You are imparting reality.
- 14:20Speaker 2: Impart that paint the real picture. Add the browns and
- 14:25Speaker 2: the blacks and the grays. Leave room, leave room for
- 14:29Speaker 2: the humanity. You're imparting life. I think at times some
- 14:34Speaker 2: young Christians must listen to our story and just kind
- 14:37Speaker 2: of ah, I'll never make it because we don't impart life.
- 14:45Speaker 2: I imparted not only the gospel but our own lives.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Why because you were dear you See, having someone dear
- 14:51Speaker 2: to you means you let down the barriers, you open
- 14:55Speaker 2: up you recall see sing it again verse nine. Remember
- 14:59Speaker 2: how we worked among you with labored night and day,
- 15:02Speaker 2: so as not to be a burden to any of you.
- 15:04Speaker 2: We proclaimed to you the Gospel, so we didn't hedge
- 15:07Speaker 2: on that, but your witnesses and so is God. How devoutly, uprightly,
- 15:11Speaker 2: and blamelessly we behaved. I've circled those two phrases. We proclaimed,
- 15:15Speaker 2: line we behaved. See there was the triangles were congruent.
- 15:22Speaker 2: I remember being under the ministry of a certain Bible teacher,
- 15:25Speaker 2: and I listened to what he said, but I couldn't
- 15:28Speaker 2: square it with His life confused me. For the longest time.
- 15:32Speaker 2: It confused me, and I kept explaining it away, thinking well,
- 15:37Speaker 2: I'm not really seeing what I'm seeing. But I was
- 15:42Speaker 2: to get out of that tail spind took me the
- 15:44Speaker 2: better part of ten twelve years. Because he didn't impart life.
- 15:50Speaker 2: Imparted truth, and it was true, good truth. I still
- 15:55Speaker 2: rely on some of it. But his life was a lie.
- 16:00Speaker 2: There is nothing like incarnating the truth, so that what
- 16:03Speaker 2: you say mixes with what you live, and it is
- 16:07Speaker 2: an undeniable, invincible message. All hell can break loose and
- 16:13Speaker 2: you stand fast. See there's authenticity of life. Fourth, there
- 16:20Speaker 2: is enthusiastic affirmation verse eleven. You know, we were exhorting
- 16:28Speaker 2: and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a
- 16:31Speaker 2: father would his children. Isn't that good? Dads will understand
- 16:35Speaker 2: if you have ever sat in front of the father
- 16:36Speaker 2: of the quarterback of the team, you'll understand. I love
- 16:42Speaker 2: sitting in front of fathers of quarterbacks. I mean they
- 16:46Speaker 2: have got a connection. Now that son can't hear that dad,
- 16:50Speaker 2: but that dad is continually giving messages to that side.
- 16:55Speaker 2: And he's sacked and he's a you know, twelve to
- 16:57Speaker 2: fifteen yard lost. That's okay. Let's take him down the field.
- 17:01Speaker 2: Take him down the field. Now I can barely hear
- 17:03Speaker 2: the father. It's under you know, it's under his breath.
- 17:06Speaker 2: But that son, he takes him down the field. Now,
- 17:09Speaker 2: go for it. Shoot that pass out to the right.
- 17:11Speaker 2: The guy's got to take it to the right. Now,
- 17:13Speaker 2: you got to go over to the right. And it's amazing.
- 17:15Speaker 2: The guy goes over the right and he shoots the
- 17:17Speaker 2: pass and they go right on down the field. Because
- 17:20Speaker 2: this father is imploring and encouraging his son. There is
- 17:25Speaker 2: continued affirmation. I have never heard a good father of
- 17:29Speaker 2: a quarterback say, why don't you give up? Coach? Put
- 17:35Speaker 2: somebody else in.
- 17:38Speaker 1: No.
- 17:39Speaker 2: Father is forever affirming, enthusiastically affirming his boy. I've seen
- 17:48Speaker 2: him stand drenched in rain on the bench. Go for it,
- 17:53Speaker 2: Go for it. Excuse kids out there knocking himself dead,
- 17:57Speaker 2: mud up to his thighs, you know, trying to just survive.
- 18:01Speaker 2: And his father never thinks of quitting. People need affirmation,
- 18:08Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen. Christian people need affirmation. We have been
- 18:12Speaker 2: beaten black and blue. We have been stripped to the bone.
- 18:15Speaker 2: We have been told we are sinners until we can
- 18:18Speaker 2: spell the word backwards. We need to know that we
- 18:22Speaker 2: are in Christ and therefore as righteous as Christ himself.
- 18:27Speaker 2: That there is hope for sinners, that there is a
- 18:31Speaker 2: future for failures, that there is forgiveness for the saint.
- 18:37Speaker 2: We can't let our wounded die. We've got to stop
- 18:40Speaker 2: shooting them somehow. They have to know if they come back,
- 18:45Speaker 2: there'll be affirmation. Like a father who waits for a
- 18:49Speaker 2: son that lived in a pigpin, imploring, encouraging, and exhorting
- 18:54Speaker 2: who knows how many would come back if they really believe,
- 18:57Speaker 2: they would be affirmed unforgiven the ultimate objective to get
- 19:03Speaker 2: the biggest church, to have the greatest reputation, to have
- 19:11Speaker 2: the largest practice. You know better than that, so that
- 19:16Speaker 2: you may walk in a manner worthy of the God
- 19:18Speaker 2: who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. Now,
- 19:21Speaker 2: that good thing about it is it's for your benefit.
- 19:24Speaker 2: Those you are leading are to discover. If you do
- 19:26Speaker 2: as I lead, you'll benefit. It'll be good for you, Christian,
- 19:31Speaker 2: It'll be good for you As you lead your class.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Your followers will walk better exciting. It'll be good for them,
- 19:38Speaker 2: not good for you. Leader works himself out of a job.
- 19:43Speaker 2: The followers become the new leaders. They emerge. If you
- 19:47Speaker 2: give them breathing room, they take charge. They begin to
- 19:51Speaker 2: carry the torch, catch the switch. It isn't simply your
- 19:56Speaker 2: objective to get something done. It's for their good love
- 20:01Speaker 2: That whole idea so that you may walk in a
- 20:04Speaker 2: manner worthy of the God who calls you to His
- 20:07Speaker 2: kingdom and glory. If we ever caught that, what a
- 20:09Speaker 2: remarkable change would occur in the Church of Christ. Three essentials.
- 20:15Speaker 2: Number one, There must be intersecurity. To operate like this,
- 20:19Speaker 2: there must be intersecurity. Second, there must be a commitment
- 20:22Speaker 2: to excellence. You can't fudge on that commitment to excellence.
- 20:28Speaker 2: And third, there must be deliberate faith in the Living
- 20:31Speaker 2: God that's in between the lines. An inner security that'll
- 20:37Speaker 2: keep you from pleasing people, that'll keep you from flattery,
- 20:41Speaker 2: that'll keep you from manipulating, an inner security. Second, there'll
- 20:45Speaker 2: be a commitment to excellence. No matter how tough it is,
- 20:50Speaker 2: you're gonna make it. You're gonna get there, and you're
- 20:53Speaker 2: going to do the very best you could do, and
- 20:56Speaker 2: you're committed to that. If no one else in the
- 20:57Speaker 2: organization is, you're committed to excellent. And third is a
- 21:01Speaker 2: deliberate faith in God. I've chosen those words carefully, deliberate.
- 21:04Speaker 2: You don't stumble into faith because everything else fails. You
- 21:08Speaker 2: deliberately decide that you will leave room for the Living
- 21:11Speaker 2: God in your life, that Jesus Christ will indeed be supreme,
- 21:15Speaker 2: He will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
- 21:21Speaker 2: There's the name Howard Rutlidge ring a bell. Howard Rutledge,
- 21:27Speaker 2: pilot in the Air Force Vietnam. Good leader, fine pilot,
- 21:33Speaker 2: shot down. He had been a busy man working his
- 21:36Speaker 2: way up in rank in the Air Force. He found
- 21:39Speaker 2: himself now with time that he hadn't had before, as
- 21:43Speaker 2: he became a part of that horrible ordeal in Vietnam
- 21:47Speaker 2: as a prisoner of war, he writes in his book
- 21:51Speaker 2: in the Presence of Mine Enemies, during those longer periods
- 21:55Speaker 2: of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate
- 21:59Speaker 2: the important thing from the trivial, the worthwhile from the waste.
- 22:04Speaker 2: I was too busy, too preoccupied, to spend one or
- 22:07Speaker 2: two short hours a week thinking about really important things.
- 22:11Speaker 2: Now the sights and sounds and smells of death were
- 22:14Speaker 2: all around me. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid
- 22:18Speaker 2: my hunger for a steak. Now, I wanted to know
- 22:22Speaker 2: about that part of me that will never die. Now,
- 22:25Speaker 2: I wanted to know about God and Christ and his Church.
- 22:31Speaker 2: But in heartbreak, the name of the prison camp solitary confinement.
- 22:37Speaker 2: There was no pastor, no Sunday school teacher, no Bible,
- 22:40Speaker 2: no hymn book, no community of believers to guide and
- 22:44Speaker 2: sustain me. I had completely neglected the spiritual dimension of
- 22:49Speaker 2: my life. It took prison to show me how empty
- 22:53Speaker 2: life is without God. What's it going to take to
- 22:58Speaker 2: convince you that life is in do without God? You're
- 23:02Speaker 2: surrounded by people who've learned that lesson good people, strong leaders,
- 23:08Speaker 2: capable people, some of them affluent because of the blessing
- 23:11Speaker 2: of God that's fallen upon him. Apart from any manipulation,
- 23:16Speaker 2: they have deliberately chosen to follow Jesus Christ. Now, why
- 23:22Speaker 2: haven't you good leaders follow the right people. There's none
- 23:27Speaker 2: better than the Savior. That's about together. Please come to
- 23:33Speaker 2: know the Savior. Now, please acknowledge that you're not the
- 23:37Speaker 2: leader of your life, the captain of your soul, the
- 23:39Speaker 2: master of your fate. How stupid, that's not even smart.
- 23:44Speaker 2: You will die, and whatever power is greater than you
- 23:47Speaker 2: will take over after death. You know that. Trust Jesus Christ,
- 23:53Speaker 2: who came, lived, lied, and died for your sins, built
- 24:00Speaker 2: the bridge to heaven. Believe in him. Now deliberately make
- 24:05Speaker 2: room for the living God. Today, Come, thou Almighty King,
- 24:13Speaker 2: help us thy name to sing, Help us to praise
- 24:18Speaker 2: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, our leader,
- 24:27Speaker 2: our Lord. To you. We submit our lives for Jesus sake.
- 24:33Speaker 1: Amen, This is insight for Living. If you've made a
- 24:45Speaker 1: decision to trust Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord today,
- 24:48Speaker 1: we would love to hear from you. You can write
- 24:50Speaker 1: to us at Insight for Living, post office box five thousand, Frisco, Texas,
- 24:56Speaker 1: seven five three four. I'll repeat that address again in
- 25:00Speaker 1: just a moment. Our Bible teacher is Chuck Swyndahl, and
- 25:03Speaker 1: the message you heard today comes from a collection of
- 25:06Speaker 1: twelve sermons. It's a practical series Chuck titled Contagious Christianity.
- 25:12Speaker 1: If you'd like to do an in depth study in
- 25:13Speaker 1: First Thessalonians, we highly recommend you request the Searching the
- 25:17Speaker 1: Scripture's Bible Study Workbook for this series. This popular spiral
- 25:21Speaker 1: bound resource will transform your experience from listening to Chuck
- 25:25Speaker 1: teach into discovery for yourself. To order the workbook for
- 25:29Speaker 1: Contagious Christianity, call us at eight hundred seven seven to
- 25:33Speaker 1: two eighty eight eighty eight or go to insight dot
- 25:37Speaker 1: org slash offer. In closing, I want to tell you
- 25:40Speaker 1: about one of Chuck's most highly requested books. It ties
- 25:44Speaker 1: in naturally with his study on Contagious Christianity because it's
- 25:47Speaker 1: about finding outrageous joy. Chuck's book is called Laugh Again.
- 25:53Speaker 1: To be clear, joy isn't the same as happiness. Happiness
- 25:56Speaker 1: depends on what's happening, but joy joy runs deeper. In
- 26:01Speaker 1: his book Laugh Again, Chuck helps you understand Paul's radical
- 26:04Speaker 1: approach to joy in the Book of Philippians. Even when
- 26:07Speaker 1: life feels dark, even when you're tired or afraid, authentic
- 26:11Speaker 1: joy is possible, not because you're ignoring reality, but because
- 26:15Speaker 1: you know the one who's bigger than your reality. We'll
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- 27:01Speaker 1: Chuckswyndall continues his series called Contagious Christianity Monday on Insight
- 27:07Speaker 1: for Living. The preceding message a leadership Style that Works
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