Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Saying Yes! to Christ’s Call, Part 1

Transcript

Saying Yes! to Christ’s Call, Part 1 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:08
Speaker 1: Today on Insight for Living. It has been a dark
0:11
Speaker 1: day in the church when preaching took a back seat.
0:17
Speaker 1: It was never meant to be. The Church of Jesus
0:21
Speaker 1: Christ is always to be a place where preaching is prominent.
0:34
Speaker 2: Sometimes personal invitations change everything. Today on Insight for Living,
0:40
Speaker 2: Chuck Swindoll brings us to the shore of the Sea
0:42
Speaker 2: of Galilee, where four ordinary fishermen were mending their nets
0:46
Speaker 2: and doing what they'd always done. And then Jesus walked
0:49
Speaker 2: by with two simple words that would turn their world
0:52
Speaker 2: upside down.
0:54
Speaker 1: Follow me.
0:55
Speaker 2: No questions, no long explanations of where they were going.
0:58
Speaker 2: Just a call to follow him. So what made these
1:01
Speaker 2: men drop their nets and leave their boats?
1:04
Speaker 1: And what might.
1:05
Speaker 2: Jesus be asking of you? We begin by reading the
1:08
Speaker 2: passage together.
1:17
Speaker 1: We are just underway in our journey through the gospel
1:20
Speaker 1: by Mark. If you're unfamiliar with your Bible, it is
1:24
Speaker 1: the second book in the New Testament. Chapter 1, we'll
1:29
Speaker 1: begin our reading at verse 14 down through verse 20.
1:34
Speaker 1: You will also find an outline in the worship folder
1:38
Speaker 1: that I always fill out ahead of time. And during
1:41
Speaker 1: the message, if you have a pen handy, you'll find
1:45
Speaker 1: that the thoughts will stay longer if you will write
1:48
Speaker 1: a few things down that will be helpful for you.
1:51
Speaker 1: Mark 1, beginning at verse 14. Now after John had
1:58
Speaker 1: been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the
2:02
Speaker 1: gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and
2:08
Speaker 1: the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe
2:12
Speaker 1: in the gospel. As he was going along by the
2:15
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother
2:19
Speaker 1: of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they
2:23
Speaker 1: were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, follow me and
2:29
Speaker 1: I will make you become fishers of men. Immediately they
2:35
Speaker 1: left their nets and followed him. Going on a little farther,
2:40
Speaker 1: he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,
2:46
Speaker 1: who were also in the boat, mending the nets. Immediately
2:51
Speaker 1: he called them and they left their father Zebedee in
2:55
Speaker 1: the boat, with the hired servants, and went away to
3:01
Speaker 1: follow him.
3:09
Speaker 2: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into
3:12
Speaker 2: the gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a
3:15
Speaker 2: copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by
3:18
Speaker 2: going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Saying
3:24
Speaker 2: Yes to Christ's Call.
3:26
Speaker 1: Every preacher remembers his first sermon, unfortunately. We were all
3:34
Speaker 1: younger back then, all less experienced, and most of all,
3:38
Speaker 1: we were scared out of our minds. And when that's true,
3:42
Speaker 1: you always say things that later you realize should never
3:48
Speaker 1: have been said. I could fill the next 30 minutes
3:53
Speaker 1: with my own stories. One former DTS faculty member told
3:58
Speaker 1: me when he first preached, he brought with his Bible
4:03
Speaker 1: to the pulpit 20, 21 pages of notes. And just
4:07
Speaker 1: as he opened his Bible to preach, the notes just
4:10
Speaker 1: flew all over the platform. And he spent the first
4:14
Speaker 1: two or three minutes gathering the notes back together and
4:17
Speaker 1: realized when he did, he had forgotten to number the pages.
4:25
Speaker 1: The late, great S. Lewis Johnson, whom I always love
4:28
Speaker 1: to hear preach, told our class that his first sermon
4:32
Speaker 1: was memorable. He said, thankfully, it was preached way out
4:36
Speaker 1: in the country. He said, just as I stood up
4:39
Speaker 1: to preach, boom, the back doors burst open and in
4:43
Speaker 1: came a herd of goats. Climbed over the pews and
4:49
Speaker 1: around and all kinds of noise. He said, I've been
4:53
Speaker 1: spending my years ever since then trying to get the
4:56
Speaker 1: goats out and the sheep in. Clever line. One of
5:00
Speaker 1: my first sermons I remember came when I was a
5:04
Speaker 1: student at Dallas Seminary and the local funeral home needed
5:07
Speaker 1: someone to preach the service for a man who had
5:10
Speaker 1: no family left. No one. It'd be a small service,
5:15
Speaker 1: you don't have to preach very long. He didn't know
5:17
Speaker 1: it was my first sermon, and of course I didn't
5:19
Speaker 1: tell him. So when I showed up to preach, no
5:23
Speaker 1: one was there except a man sitting very near the
5:26
Speaker 1: back with a fox terrier in his lap. I learned
5:31
Speaker 1: later that the man who died left a boatload of
5:35
Speaker 1: money to the dog, and the man holding the dog
5:38
Speaker 1: is the lawyer in the church service. I don't know
5:42
Speaker 1: whether to preach on obedience or greed that day. One
5:48
Speaker 1: of the funniest true stories came from the back roads
5:51
Speaker 1: of Kentucky, where the funeral director didn't know it was
5:56
Speaker 1: the young man's first sermon, but he needed someone to
5:58
Speaker 1: preach a homeless person's service, and it would be held
6:03
Speaker 1: at the grave site, really at a pauper's cemetery. Well,
6:09
Speaker 1: the young man said he would do it, but he
6:11
Speaker 1: got lost going there, and he was one full hour
6:14
Speaker 1: late when he arrived. He had driven all around and
6:18
Speaker 1: finally came to the place, and by then the funeral
6:22
Speaker 1: director and everyone else had long since left. Only the
6:25
Speaker 1: grave diggers were sitting there and other members of the
6:29
Speaker 1: crew having their lunch. And he walked over and he
6:33
Speaker 1: looked in the hole, and he saw that the lid
6:35
Speaker 1: of the bolt was already in place, and Didn't know
6:38
Speaker 1: what else to do, but he turned to the workmen
6:40
Speaker 1: standing there and opened his Bible and preached his sermon. Well,
6:44
Speaker 1: they stood up, put their cap over their hearts, and
6:48
Speaker 1: they listened as he finished his sermon. And he felt
6:51
Speaker 1: led to sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that
6:55
Speaker 1: saved a wretch like me. And one of the workers
6:58
Speaker 1: started to cry and another. And before long, the preacher
7:02
Speaker 1: was weeping. And finally, he just sort of stopped. And
7:07
Speaker 1: he prayed with his head bowed low. He walked back
7:10
Speaker 1: to his truck. And just as he reached out to
7:12
Speaker 1: open the door, he overheard one of the workmen say, man,
7:16
Speaker 1: I ain't never seen nothing like that before. I've been
7:22
Speaker 1: putting in septic tanks for 30 years. Don't know it.
7:34
Speaker 1: Rule number one is you always need to know your
7:37
Speaker 1: audience when you preach a sermon. There once lived a
7:44
Speaker 1: man who preached his first sermon when he was about
7:47
Speaker 1: 30 years of age, and he not only knew his audience,
7:51
Speaker 1: he knew them better than he knew himself. And when
7:55
Speaker 1: he preached that sermon, everyone listened. In fact, they gathered
7:59
Speaker 1: and they sat down on this slope near a body
8:04
Speaker 1: of water, and he preached what came to be known
8:07
Speaker 1: as the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew covers the story
8:13
Speaker 1: or the sermon in chapters 5, 6, and 7, which
8:16
Speaker 1: we'll not turn to, but this was the first sermon
8:19
Speaker 1: he delivered and what a masterpiece it was. It was
8:23
Speaker 1: the beginning of a lifetime of masterpieces, though his lifetime
8:28
Speaker 1: would last only three and a half years on this earth. Interestingly,
8:33
Speaker 1: Mark doesn't even bother to mention the Sermon on the
8:36
Speaker 1: Mount or a number of other events as he moves
8:40
Speaker 1: quickly from Jesus' temptation in the wilderness to his ministry
8:45
Speaker 1: in Galilee. If you want it filled in, this passing
8:50
Speaker 1: of time that occurs that Mark doesn't cover, you'll need
8:54
Speaker 1: to read John chapter 1, verse 19, down through chapter 4.
8:59
Speaker 1: verse 54, and you'll cover those events. We'll turn to
9:03
Speaker 1: that in just a moment, but for now, our attention
9:07
Speaker 1: turns immediately, to use Mark's word, immediately we go to
9:13
Speaker 1: verse 14 of chapter 1. Just before we hear the
9:18
Speaker 1: words of the Master, we observe two things in this
9:24
Speaker 1: 14th verse. First, that John has been arrested and incarcerated.
9:31
Speaker 1: That's John the baptizer. Last time we saw John, he
9:35
Speaker 1: was baptizing and preaching in the wilderness, and now we
9:39
Speaker 1: find John pushed away from the crowd and, in fact,
9:45
Speaker 1: taken and left in prison. The reason for it is
9:50
Speaker 1: covered in Mark chapter 6. When we get there, we'll
9:53
Speaker 1: return to that then, but not now. The point is
9:56
Speaker 1: John is silenced and the hope of Herod was to
10:00
Speaker 1: keep him silenced from here on. Though admittedly, he did
10:05
Speaker 1: see John as a bit of a novelty, and he
10:08
Speaker 1: enjoyed hearing what he had to say, though it never
10:11
Speaker 1: reached his heart. There are still a lot of people
10:14
Speaker 1: like that. John is arrested and incarcerated, but Jesus, we
10:21
Speaker 1: read in verse 14, begins his ministry in Galilee. You
10:25
Speaker 1: see the verse? After John had been taken into custody,
10:29
Speaker 1: Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. Before
10:36
Speaker 1: we look at what Jesus said, let's observe where Jesus was.
10:42
Speaker 1: And right next to the scriptures, my favorite part of
10:45
Speaker 1: my Bible is found in the very back of the Bible.
10:49
Speaker 1: The maps. So if you will turn back to that
10:53
Speaker 1: section of your Bible, there really are maps there. I'm
10:57
Speaker 1: going to watch little dust pockets form around the seats
11:01
Speaker 1: as you turn back there since you've not been there
11:04
Speaker 1: in a long time, quite likely. My map is map
11:08
Speaker 1: number 12, but yours may not be numbered that. The
11:11
Speaker 1: maps are numbered chronologically, and this one takes us to
11:15
Speaker 1: the ministry of Jesus. So if you'll find the map
11:18
Speaker 1: that describes the geography in the days of Jesus, and
11:22
Speaker 1: the reason for that is the map changes from one
11:25
Speaker 1: era to another, and so this one is important that
11:28
Speaker 1: you find. You know you are there when you come
11:31
Speaker 1: to the map that shows two bodies of water. Smaller
11:36
Speaker 1: body of water is to the north. The larger body
11:39
Speaker 1: is to the south, much larger. One is a body
11:43
Speaker 1: that is filled with living fish and other living organisms.
11:50
Speaker 1: The last one, the bottom body of water, is dead,
11:53
Speaker 1: nothing there, by way of fish, fish life, organisms. Nutrients
11:58
Speaker 1: are there, but nothing else. The little serpentine body of
12:03
Speaker 1: water that trickles or at least flows from Galilee, the
12:07
Speaker 1: sea down to the Dead Sea, is called the River Jordan.
12:11
Speaker 1: The Jordan River connects these two as the sea dumps
12:16
Speaker 1: into the body of water that's even lower than the
12:19
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee. Look at the Sea of Galilee on
12:22
Speaker 1: your map. It's an inward lake of warm water called, interestingly,
12:27
Speaker 1: a sea, though it is, in fact, a lake. It's 12.5
12:31
Speaker 1: miles long. It's about 7.5 miles wide. It's located 680
12:38
Speaker 1: feet below sea level, so it's low. It is also deep.
12:44
Speaker 1: It runs in its deepest part from somewhere between 80
12:47
Speaker 1: and 160 feet deep. It's there on this body of
12:53
Speaker 1: water much of Jesus' ministry takes place. And it's around
12:58
Speaker 1: this body of water we find the area of Galilee.
13:02
Speaker 1: Look to the west, to the left of the lake,
13:05
Speaker 1: and you will see Galilee and all of those places.
13:09
Speaker 1: If you look at the northwest corner of of the
13:14
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee up on the shoreline. You'll see the
13:17
Speaker 1: little town of Capernaum will be there next time. But
13:21
Speaker 1: for now, we're along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
13:25
Speaker 1: I love that. So let's go back now to Mark
13:28
Speaker 1: chapter 1. Why would he minister early in the area
13:33
Speaker 1: of Galilee? Because it was less priest-ridden and certainly less Pharisee-dominated.
13:42
Speaker 1: More of the legalism rested in the south, in the
13:45
Speaker 1: region of Judea. Jesus was there and had been there,
13:49
Speaker 1: but his main ministry, at least, as it's kick-started, if
13:53
Speaker 1: you will, takes place in Galilee. Here he is freer,
13:58
Speaker 1: much more able to minister, not so many obstacles, not
14:02
Speaker 1: so much of a hostile opposition, except from his own hometown.
14:06
Speaker 1: We'll get to that later also. Notice, if you will,
14:10
Speaker 1: in verse 14, he comes.
14:13
Speaker 1: His method is preaching the gospel of God. See the
14:19
Speaker 1: word preaching? It's the same Greek term as in 2
14:24
Speaker 1: Timothy 4, verse 2, where Paul exhorts younger Timothy to
14:29
Speaker 1: preach the word. Keruso is the Greek term, and it
14:34
Speaker 1: means to make an authoritative proclamation, to be a herald
14:40
Speaker 1: before the public. In those days, kings would send out
14:45
Speaker 1: their edicts verbally and they would hire or they would
14:49
Speaker 1: have on what we would call their staff, their own courier,
14:53
Speaker 1: and he would go into the marketplace or the public
14:56
Speaker 1: square and he would caruso the message. He would make
15:00
Speaker 1: an authoritative proclamation. It was always bold and it always
15:08
Speaker 1: captured the attention of the public. It has been a
15:12
Speaker 1: dark day in the Church when preaching took a back seat.
15:18
Speaker 1: It was never meant to be. The Church of Jesus
15:23
Speaker 1: Christ is always to be a place where preaching is prominent.
15:29
Speaker 1: No minister should ever apologize for the bold proclamation of
15:34
Speaker 1: the message of Jesus Christ, of His Word. When the
15:40
Speaker 1: preaching is replaced with something else, the church instantly loses
15:45
Speaker 1: its voice. It becomes less significant in the community and
15:51
Speaker 1: becomes less of a teaching place for the education of
15:56
Speaker 1: God's people. The preaching of the word is to include
16:00
Speaker 1: the declaration of the gospel as well as the communication
16:04
Speaker 1: of information regarding the Christian life. In this case, Jesus
16:09
Speaker 1: isn't at a church. He is along the shore of
16:13
Speaker 1: the Sea of Galilee, but he is making an authoritative
16:17
Speaker 1: proclamation regarding what? What is his message? Look, he is
16:23
Speaker 1: preaching the gospel of God. The word rendered gospel is euangelion.
16:29
Speaker 1: It means good news. It is good news of truth
16:34
Speaker 1: as opposed to the messages that were given in that
16:37
Speaker 1: day that were deceptive. It is a good news of
16:41
Speaker 1: peace as opposed to that which is chaotic and filled
16:47
Speaker 1: with unrest. It is a good news of hope in
16:51
Speaker 1: the midst of hopelessness and emptiness. It is good news
16:56
Speaker 1: of immortality, the life after this one in a world
17:00
Speaker 1: that's given to temporal happiness and momentary release. Jesus' word
17:06
Speaker 1: regarding the gospel of God is a bold declaration making
17:11
Speaker 1: people aware of their need for the living God. Now
17:14
Speaker 1: he gets even more specific. Mark adds with the word saying,
17:20
Speaker 1: verse 15, see, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel
17:25
Speaker 1: of God and saying, and if you carry a Bible
17:28
Speaker 1: with red letters, that is those words spoken by Jesus,
17:33
Speaker 1: you immediately notice your text, the font, has turned red
17:37
Speaker 1: because these are the first recorded words of Jesus in
17:40
Speaker 1: Mark's gospel. Not the first time he's preached. John covers that.
17:46
Speaker 1: Other gospels cover that, but this is the first time
17:49
Speaker 1: in Mark's gospel. Notice that his message has three characteristics. One,
17:55
Speaker 1: it is urgent and relevant. Two, it is transforming and personal. Three,
18:04
Speaker 1: it is free based on grace. Let's go over all
18:10
Speaker 1: three of them. First, it is relevant. We read here,
18:15
Speaker 1: the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is
18:18
Speaker 1: at hand. There's urgency. Every time someone preaches, you ought
18:23
Speaker 1: to feel a sense of urgency. Another word is passion. Passion. Passion.
18:30
Speaker 1: It bothers me greatly that preachers bore audiences. As my
18:37
Speaker 1: dear friend Howie Hendricks puts it, a mist in the
18:40
Speaker 1: pulpit puts a fog in the pew. If the pulpit's sleepy,
18:45
Speaker 1: the congregation is snoring. The ministry of the word is
18:50
Speaker 1: always to be delivered on tiptoe. It is to be
18:54
Speaker 1: delivered with relevance and urgency. The kingdom is at hand.
18:59
Speaker 1: You have been waiting for Messiah. I am he, says Jesus.
19:04
Speaker 1: And he's able to stand before them personifying the message
19:08
Speaker 1: of Messiah. You've been looking for the coming of Messiah.
19:13
Speaker 1: You are looking at the one who qualifies the fulfillment
19:17
Speaker 1: of God's promises. The kingdom has come and is at hand. Second,
19:22
Speaker 1: you will notice his message is transforming and personal. Repent. Repent.
19:29
Speaker 1: What does that word mean? Listen carefully. It means to
19:33
Speaker 1: change the mind. To change the mind. Meta around nos, mind,
19:43
Speaker 1: metanoeo is to change the mind. What does that mean?
19:48
Speaker 1: A person without Christ lives lives in sin. If you've
19:52
Speaker 1: never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, you may not look
19:56
Speaker 1: like a sinner. You may look like other believers sitting
20:00
Speaker 1: around you. You may not even sound like you are
20:03
Speaker 1: depraved and debauched in your soul. You may pay your
20:07
Speaker 1: bills and certainly take care of your family and live
20:10
Speaker 1: a responsible life, but you are living without God and
20:14
Speaker 1: without Christ. Your whole life, your frame of reference is sinful.
20:19
Speaker 1: Your motivation is sinful. Your goals in life are self-serving.
20:24
Speaker 1: Your purpose for living is to please yourself, to find happiness,
20:29
Speaker 1: to take care of just your own and very few others.
20:32
Speaker 1: You are not by nature generous. You are not by
20:35
Speaker 1: nature giving. You are driven by selfishness and sinfulness. Most
20:41
Speaker 1: places won't tell you that. Count on it. Here, you'll
20:44
Speaker 1: hear about it. Jesus is declaring you need to repent.
20:47
Speaker 1: In other words, change your mind regarding a lifestyle and
20:51
Speaker 1: a mentality of sinfulness and turn toward the gospel, the
20:58
Speaker 1: good news of Christ. And how do I do that?
21:00
Speaker 1: I believe. Think of them as going together. Don't separate them.
21:06
Speaker 1: You haven't really believed in the Lord Jesus until you
21:09
Speaker 1: have turned from a mentality toward trusting in sinfulness and
21:13
Speaker 1: turning toward the one who can forgive you of your sin.
21:18
Speaker 1: You have not really repented, that is in full sense,
21:21
Speaker 1: you've not really turned until you've believed in the Lord Jesus.
21:25
Speaker 1: And please observe, it stops with the word believe. Believe.
21:31
Speaker 1: Don't add one thing to it. The gift of God
21:36
Speaker 1: is the free gift. Don't force people to make Jesus
21:41
Speaker 1: Lord of their lives before they can believe in the Savior.
21:45
Speaker 1: That's called lordship salvation. Stay away from it. It will
21:50
Speaker 1: confuse you. There are many who teach you must be sincere.
21:55
Speaker 1: You must be deeply committed. You must follow Christ with
21:58
Speaker 1: your whole heart. And if things aren't transformed in your life,
22:01
Speaker 1: you didn't really believe. You just claimed to have believed.
22:05
Speaker 1: That's adding to the message of salvation. Do I not
22:09
Speaker 1: believe in Lordship? Oh, I do with my whole heart.
22:11
Speaker 1: But I don't believe a sinner can trust in the Lord,
22:15
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He can only trust in the Savior. Jesus
22:19
Speaker 1: died for me. How can I know Jesus? I must
22:22
Speaker 1: believe in him. That is, I acknowledge before you, God,
22:26
Speaker 1: that I'm a sinner and I know Christ can forgive
22:29
Speaker 1: me of my sins and I trust in him and
22:32
Speaker 1: him alone by faith alone because of grace alone. It's
22:37
Speaker 1: a message that's freely given. Well, isn't there a purpose
22:41
Speaker 1: in the Christian life? Absolutely. Now that I've come to Christ,
22:45
Speaker 1: I need to grow in him. And that's where lordship
22:48
Speaker 1: plays its part. But don't be confused about it. One
22:53
Speaker 1: man put it this way. Many Christians today disagree over
22:56
Speaker 1: what a person must do and believe in order to
22:58
Speaker 1: become a Christian. Some attempt to front load the gospel,
23:03
Speaker 1: which includes adding the need to confess all known sins
23:06
Speaker 1: and committing one's life for service to Christ as a
23:09
Speaker 1: condition for gaining the free gift of eternal life. Well,
23:13
Speaker 1: the point is that's not free. you're adding to it
23:16
Speaker 1: in order to receive it. For others, he continues, there's
23:19
Speaker 1: the need for backloading the gospel, stipulating that if a
23:23
Speaker 1: person truly believes in Christ, there will be a changed
23:27
Speaker 1: life evidenced by continued good works. If there is not
23:30
Speaker 1: enough visible change, then the reception of eternal life was
23:33
Speaker 1: a mere profession. You know the problem with that? You
23:37
Speaker 1: never know when it's enough. You know, I'm sometimes criticized
23:43
Speaker 1: for Teaching easy believism. Well, what's hard believism? What's hard believism?
23:52
Speaker 1: I do believe that you must believe. And I do
23:55
Speaker 1: believe that the Lord offers the message of repent and
23:58
Speaker 1: believe to this day. That's the good news. And when
24:01
Speaker 1: you trust in the Lord Jesus with your heart and
24:04
Speaker 1: your soul, you turn to him. Simple prayer. Lord, I
24:08
Speaker 1: realize I'm lost. I believe Jesus can save me from
24:12
Speaker 1: my sins and I trust in him. You have believed
24:15
Speaker 1: he who has the son has the life. He who
24:18
Speaker 1: does not have the son of God does not have
24:20
Speaker 1: the life. That's his message. Don't try to make a
24:24
Speaker 1: gift cost anything. It's free. It's free. Jesus paid it all.
24:32
Speaker 1: That's where the cost is paid. Jesus paid it all.
24:36
Speaker 1: All to him I owe. Save left a crimson stain.
24:39
Speaker 1: He washed me white as snow, the old hymn goes.
24:51
Speaker 2: What a relief to be reminded that the gospel is free.
24:55
Speaker 2: There's nothing to add to it, nothing to earn. When
24:58
Speaker 2: you turn to Christ and trust in him, you have believed,
25:01
Speaker 2: and the life he offers is yours. Jesus paid it all.
25:05
Speaker 2: You're listening to Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll. Chuck
25:09
Speaker 2: titled today's message in Mark's gospel, Saying Yes to Christ's Call.
25:13
Speaker 2: To purchase the Searching the Scriptures Bible Study workbooks for
25:16
Speaker 2: this brand new series in Mark, Just go to insight.org
25:20
Speaker 2: slash offer or call us at 800-772-8888. Well, it's mid-October
25:29
Speaker 2: and Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. We
25:32
Speaker 2: want to tell you about a creative resource that we've
25:34
Speaker 2: designed for your family, hoping that the next few months
25:37
Speaker 2: will become rich with spiritual meaning. I'm referring to a
25:41
Speaker 2: book published exclusively by Insight for Living, Everlasting Light is
25:45
Speaker 2: a 25-day Advent devotional that invites you to step out
25:49
Speaker 2: of your busy schedule and into a prayerful rhythm of waiting, reflection,
25:53
Speaker 2: and preparation. This includes scripture to anchor your heart, a
25:57
Speaker 2: quote from Chuck Swindoll to shape your thinking, and pastoral
26:01
Speaker 2: reflections from our own Carlos Sesueta to carry into your day.
26:05
Speaker 2: This hardcover devotional is ready today, so you'll receive it
26:09
Speaker 2: in plenty of time for Advent. Ask for the book
26:11
Speaker 2: called Everlasting Light when you include a contribution to support
26:15
Speaker 2: the ministry of Insight for Living. I'm sure your heart
26:19
Speaker 2: is heavy, as mine is, about the tension prevailing here
26:22
Speaker 2: at home and around the world. Do we need any
26:25
Speaker 2: more convincing that our troubled world needs the love and
26:28
Speaker 2: compassion of Jesus? This only amplifies the need to shine
26:32
Speaker 2: the everlasting light of God's love through Insight for Living.
26:36
Speaker 2: You can partner with us right now by going to insight.org
26:40
Speaker 2: slash donate or call 800- 772-8888. And when you give,
26:47
Speaker 2: remember to request the 25-day Advent devotional called Everlasting Life.
26:59
Speaker 2: What does it truly mean to follow Jesus?
27:02
Speaker 1: I'm Bill Meyer.
27:03
Speaker 2: Join us when Chuck Swindoll provides a biblical answer tomorrow
27:07
Speaker 2: on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Saying Yes to
27:13
Speaker 2: Christ's Call, was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the
27:18
Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R.
27:21
Speaker 1: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
27:25
Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.