Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Dark Side of Being Super-Religious, Part 2
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: Have you grown tired of trying to impress God? Exhausted
- 0:11Speaker 1: from checking off spiritual to-do lists, hoping you've finally done
- 0:15Speaker 1: enough to earn His smile?
- 0:17Speaker 2: Well, you're not alone.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll understands the crushing weight of religious performance. And
- 0:23Speaker 1: today on Insight for Living, he'll lift the burden from
- 0:26Speaker 1: your shoulders. His permission is based on a liberating passage
- 0:30Speaker 1: in Romans chapter 2. Paul, the writer, exposes the trap
- 0:34Speaker 1: that keeps Christians running on empty, desperately seeking approval they
- 0:38Speaker 1: already have. Are you ready to embrace the spiritual relief
- 0:42Speaker 1: offered by God's amazing grace?
- 0:45Speaker 2: Chuck begins with prayer.
- 0:47Speaker 3: How great is.
- 0:57Speaker 3: Our God, how great you are, how full of wonder
- 1:04Speaker 3: and majesty. It takes our breath away, our Father, when
- 1:08Speaker 3: we see evidences in nature before any human being ever
- 1:14Speaker 3: puts his or her hand to it, the awesomeness of
- 1:18Speaker 3: your work, the magnificence of the mountains and the breadth
- 1:23Speaker 3: of the valleys and canyons about us. the beauty, luxury
- 1:30Speaker 3: of trees, and the wilderness and the vast oceans, the
- 1:38Speaker 3: stars numberless above us. How great is our God. It
- 1:46Speaker 3: is only right, our Father, that we pause at least
- 1:49Speaker 3: a week out of the year to give you thanks.
- 1:54Speaker 3: By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise
- 1:57Speaker 3: today To God continually. That is the fruit of our lips.
- 2:02Speaker 3: Giving thanks to his name. We do so today. We
- 2:08Speaker 3: as well pray for those women and men in uniform.
- 2:12Speaker 3: For those who serve in places of public service. At
- 2:17Speaker 3: hospitals especially. Do we pray for those. For those set aside.
- 2:23Speaker 3: Unable to be with family and friends. We pray for them.
- 2:28Speaker 3: Thank you for the work you're doing at this church,
- 2:31Speaker 3: and thank you for shaping lives, including my own, through
- 2:37Speaker 3: all kinds of circumstances.
- 2:40Speaker 2: How great is our God.
- 2:43Speaker 3: We not only give you our thanks, we now give
- 2:45Speaker 3: you our gifts, full of thanksgiving. In the name of Jesus,
- 2:52Speaker 3: our Savior, and everyone said, Amen.
- 2:56Speaker 1: Amen.
- 3:03Speaker 2: You're listening to Insight for Living.
- 3:06Speaker 1: To dig deeper into the book of Romans on your own,
- 3:08Speaker 1: be sure to purchase volume one of our Searching the
- 3:11Speaker 1: Scriptures Bible Study Workbook by going to insight.org slash offer.
- 3:16Speaker 1: Chuck titled today's message, The Dark Side of Being Super Religious.
- 3:22Speaker 3: If I had one message to bring, it would be,
- 3:25Speaker 3: How to be a Christian without becoming religious. I have
- 3:30Speaker 3: in my mind a word picture that will come immediately
- 3:33Speaker 3: to yours and that's a treadmill. There you go. A
- 3:38Speaker 3: religious person is just running faster and faster on the treadmill.
- 3:43Speaker 3: Working and striving and hoping and pleading and praying that
- 3:47Speaker 3: somehow they might please God. Win his favor and gain
- 3:53Speaker 3: his smile of acceptance. Because after all, there is so
- 3:57Speaker 3: much between what we're doing and what God expects. I
- 4:01Speaker 3: just have to stay at it and work at it
- 4:03Speaker 3: and strive and labor, hoping to somehow find God and
- 4:06Speaker 3: know God and please God and gain His affection and love.
- 4:13Speaker 3: But that's heresy. Nevertheless, it is the greatest, greatest heresy
- 4:20Speaker 3: known on this earth that If I could somehow work
- 4:25Speaker 3: hard enough and long enough, I might somehow please this
- 4:31Speaker 3: God who has made me. Fact is you can't. You
- 4:36Speaker 3: can't run the treadmill fast enough or lift it high
- 4:39Speaker 3: enough for you somehow to win God's favor. You're sinful
- 4:46Speaker 3: and I'm sinful and none of that will take away
- 4:50Speaker 3: our sinfulness. You see, that's where grace comes in so beautifully.
- 4:56Speaker 3: Grace is what God does for us that we don't deserve.
- 5:00Speaker 3: We can't earn. We're unable to repay. It's unmerited favor.
- 5:10Speaker 3: So he pictures the moral person as he reads this
- 5:13Speaker 3: at the beginning of chapter 2 of Romans. And again,
- 5:16Speaker 3: he cuts through the membrane of the moral person's mind saying,
- 5:20Speaker 3: Even if you're moral and self-righteous, even you have a
- 5:24Speaker 3: need for the Savior, Christ, because none of that morality
- 5:28Speaker 3: changes you inside. And now he comes to the one
- 5:33Speaker 3: in the first century who would be, oh, the most
- 5:37Speaker 3: religious of all. And that would be the first century Jew.
- 5:43Speaker 3: Don't take any of what I say as anti-Semitic isn't
- 5:46Speaker 3: meant that way. Paul is a Jew. writing to fellow Jews.
- 5:53Speaker 3: In fact, if you look at 17 and 18 of
- 5:55Speaker 3: chapter 2, a little closer, you'll see Paul puts a
- 5:59Speaker 3: list together of the things that causes you to, well,
- 6:03Speaker 3: to feel a little smug and arrogant. He says in
- 6:07Speaker 3: verse 17, if you bear the name Jew, Judah means
- 6:13Speaker 3: praise to Yahweh, praise to Jehovah. The name meant praise
- 6:18Speaker 3: to God. Why, if you're called a Jew, you're just
- 6:23Speaker 3: by the title bringing praise to God. It was a
- 6:28Speaker 3: thing of pride. The Lord did not rely on the
- 6:32Speaker 3: Gentile to hear the law and then to preserve the law.
- 6:36Speaker 3: It was given to the Jews. And Jews knowing that
- 6:42Speaker 3: felt proud of that rather than humbled by it. And
- 6:46Speaker 3: as a result, what did they do? Verse 19 says,
- 6:49Speaker 3: Watch it unfold. You are confident that you yourself are
- 6:53Speaker 3: a guide. You are a guide to the blind. You
- 6:58Speaker 3: are confident that you are a light to those who
- 7:00Speaker 3: are in darkness. On top of that, you are a
- 7:04Speaker 3: corrector of the foolish. You are a teacher of the immature,
- 7:08Speaker 3: having in the law the embodiment and knowledge of the truth.
- 7:13Speaker 3: You feel it's sort of dripping with pride. But you see,
- 7:17Speaker 3: when you're reared in the system, that's the way you think.
- 7:21Speaker 3: You view yourself as super religious authorities. Guides to the
- 7:26Speaker 3: blind and light to the darkness and correctors of all
- 7:29Speaker 3: these people who are so foolish and immature. You've been
- 7:32Speaker 3: given to this earth to set the record straight. But
- 7:36Speaker 3: by and by, it turned into an arrogance and a
- 7:39Speaker 3: resistance to sharing that message. His whole reason is not
- 7:43Speaker 3: to put down the Jews. It's to help the Jewish
- 7:46Speaker 3: reader see you need an inner life that's transforming, and
- 7:52Speaker 3: it can only happen through faith in Messiah, Jesus. In fact,
- 7:58Speaker 3: he sort of steps up as an attorney when he
- 8:03Speaker 3: gets to verse 21. You get the feeling here that
- 8:07Speaker 3: his role changes from a writer of Scripture to one
- 8:11Speaker 3: who is now cross-examining The witness. Look at 21. You
- 8:17Speaker 3: therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You
- 8:24Speaker 3: who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
- 8:27Speaker 3: And you who say you should not commit adultery, do
- 8:29Speaker 3: you commit adultery? Remember Jesus' teaching, even in your mind?
- 8:34Speaker 3: You're telling me you've never once lusted in your mind?
- 8:38Speaker 3: You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who
- 8:42Speaker 3: boast in the law through your breaking the law, do
- 8:44Speaker 3: you dishonor God? Let me give you a little hint
- 8:50Speaker 3: of the mind of the Pharisee. Hold your place and
- 8:53Speaker 3: look at Luke 18.
- 8:56Speaker 2: That's it.
- 8:56Speaker 3: Turn back to Luke 18, verse 9. 18, 9. Jesus
- 9:03Speaker 3: is the he in verse 9. And he told this
- 9:07Speaker 3: parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they
- 9:10Speaker 3: were righteous. and viewed others with contempt. Don't miss that.
- 9:14Speaker 3: That sets up the parable. He's telling this story to
- 9:18Speaker 3: grab the attention of those who saw themselves as a
- 9:21Speaker 3: cut above. He says, two men went up into the
- 9:25Speaker 3: temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a
- 9:29Speaker 3: tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself.
- 9:34Speaker 3: I like the way it reads. The Pharisee is praying
- 9:36Speaker 3: to himself, God, I thank you that I am not
- 9:40Speaker 3: like other people. Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this
- 9:47Speaker 3: tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes
- 9:53Speaker 3: of all that I get. Implying, aren't you proud? to
- 10:00Speaker 3: have me in your family? What's wrong with that? It stinks.
- 10:06Speaker 3: It's got pride all over it. Now look at the
- 10:09Speaker 3: other man. The tax collector standing some distance away was
- 10:14Speaker 3: even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. beating
- 10:19Speaker 3: his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner.
- 10:25Speaker 3: Now look at Jesus' evaluation. I tell you, this man,
- 10:28Speaker 3: meaning the tax gatherer, went to his house justified rather
- 10:32Speaker 3: than the other. Now the principle. Every parable has a principle.
- 10:37Speaker 3: Here's this one. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
- 10:43Speaker 3: but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Wasn't Jesus
- 10:48Speaker 3: a master storyteller? Just disarms you. Paul says in Romans 2,
- 10:55Speaker 3: are you kidding? You're telling me that you don't have
- 10:58Speaker 3: a mind that's as vile as the Gentile mind? You're
- 11:03Speaker 3: telling me that your nature is better than another nature
- 11:06Speaker 3: of another human being? Get past all the tradition and
- 11:11Speaker 3: you have come to the fact that you are, as
- 11:14Speaker 3: a matter of fact, not only unrighteous, you are offensive.
- 11:19Speaker 3: Look at verse 24. The name of God is blasphemed
- 11:23Speaker 3: among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written.
- 11:28Speaker 3: At this point, I would imagine the Jewish reader would
- 11:31Speaker 3: suck in his breath, frown and think, how dare you
- 11:37Speaker 3: say that about me? But it's true. When you and
- 11:42Speaker 3: I are around self-righteous people, there is something that's turned
- 11:45Speaker 3: off inside us. And if we didn't know Christ, it
- 11:48Speaker 3: would turn us against that person's God. May I give
- 11:53Speaker 3: a little sidebar application before we get to feeling too
- 11:56Speaker 3: good about ourselves? You and I glean a lot of
- 12:01Speaker 3: knowledge from our time together in our Bible studies, in
- 12:05Speaker 3: our worship services, in our spiritual growth, and we're grateful
- 12:08Speaker 3: for that. It really ought to make us humble rather
- 12:14Speaker 3: than arrogant. It really ought to make us kinder rather
- 12:19Speaker 3: than more rigid. The deeper our faith grows, the more
- 12:26Speaker 3: attractive our lives need to become. Because folks, people watch.
- 12:33Speaker 3: They watch us. They watch things where words aren't even used.
- 12:39Speaker 3: They watch Attitudes unfold and they watch reactions. They watch
- 12:46Speaker 3: how we get along as a family. You think the
- 12:52Speaker 3: squabble in a church doesn't make the headlines in the
- 12:55Speaker 3: minds of a community?
- 12:57Speaker 2: Why?
- 12:58Speaker 3: They form their opinion about our God and how we
- 13:01Speaker 3: get along, how we conduct ourselves, even when they hear
- 13:07Speaker 3: us pray. Our creditors who notice when we pay our
- 13:11Speaker 3: bills form opinions about our God. That's why the Lord
- 13:17Speaker 3: on occasion mentions staying away from even the appearance of evil.
- 13:23Speaker 3: You may not have evil in mind, but if it
- 13:25Speaker 3: gives the appearance of evil, you know what? The perception
- 13:29Speaker 3: will be you're doing evil. Got to be careful about that.
- 13:35Speaker 3: We're the only gospel a lot of folks are going
- 13:37Speaker 3: to read. And Paul says to this Jew that reads,
- 13:43Speaker 3: the name of God is blaspheme. I'm sure by now
- 13:45Speaker 3: the Jew at least has one thing to fall back on.
- 13:49Speaker 3: The one distinguishing characteristic of the Jew, unlike the Gentile,
- 13:54Speaker 3: is a very sensitive word among Gentile circles, but is
- 13:58Speaker 3: not sensitive to Jews. It's the word circumcision. Why, the
- 14:03Speaker 3: eighth day after birth, that infant is circumcised, usually by
- 14:08Speaker 3: the rabbi. And it is a mark of the Jew.
- 14:12Speaker 3: It is a mark that that Jew is a part
- 14:13Speaker 3: of the covenant of God. Genesis 17 spells all of
- 14:17Speaker 3: that out to Abraham. And it began there, the father
- 14:21Speaker 3: of the Jews. So the circumcision became another reason for saying,
- 14:27Speaker 3: I am, I'm guaranteed freedom from the wrath of God.
- 14:31Speaker 3: I have a corner on righteousness. I'm in the covenant
- 14:34Speaker 3: with God. And look at what Paul writes about this
- 14:37Speaker 3: talk about, uh, Touching a nerve. Look, indeed, verse 25,
- 14:42Speaker 3: circumcision is a value if you practice the law. But
- 14:46Speaker 3: watch what he says. But if you're a transgressor of
- 14:48Speaker 3: the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the
- 14:52Speaker 3: uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not
- 14:55Speaker 3: his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Stay with the thought.
- 15:01Speaker 3: Paul is saying it is Yes, it is a physical right,
- 15:04Speaker 3: and certainly it is a mark of the Jew, but
- 15:06Speaker 3: there's no magical ceremony. There's no charm in the circumcision.
- 15:11Speaker 3: It's not meant to be an insurance protection from wrath.
- 15:14Speaker 3: There's no substitute here for obedience. As a matter of fact,
- 15:17Speaker 3: it's a commitment to obedience. Next verse, 27, he who
- 15:23Speaker 3: is physically uncircumcised, that's the Gentile, If he keeps the law,
- 15:28Speaker 3: will he not judge you, who though having the letter
- 15:30Speaker 3: of the law and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?
- 15:34Speaker 3: What's his point? Your inner life doesn't match all of
- 15:38Speaker 3: the things that these things you're hanging on to claim
- 15:41Speaker 3: to match. There's a disconnect. The dots aren't connected. For
- 15:48Speaker 3: he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor
- 15:52Speaker 3: is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. He
- 15:55Speaker 3: is a Jew who is one inwardly. Now we're getting
- 15:59Speaker 3: to the heart of the issue of a relationship with Christ.
- 16:05Speaker 3: No outward act is going to in any way ingratiate
- 16:08Speaker 3: you to God. It is simply a mark that's supposed
- 16:13Speaker 3: to reveal the truth. In your lives, it isn't the truth.
- 16:19Speaker 3: I thought of a wedding band that many of us
- 16:22Speaker 3: wear on our ring finger on our left hand. The
- 16:27Speaker 3: wedding band represents fidelity. That's why it's in a circular,
- 16:32Speaker 3: unending shape. But there's no guarantee that the wedding band
- 16:37Speaker 3: keeps me a person of fidelity. But it should be
- 16:41Speaker 3: a statement that says I'm a faithful husband because I wear. No,
- 16:46Speaker 3: it's not because I wear the ring. It's just that's
- 16:48Speaker 3: just a mark. The label on a can ought to
- 16:51Speaker 3: be what's inside the can. But it's really a label
- 16:54Speaker 3: unless what's in the can is authentically faithful. Circumcision is
- 16:59Speaker 3: like the ring or the label. Paul said it's what's
- 17:03Speaker 3: on the inside that matters. He who is a Jew,
- 17:08Speaker 3: he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision
- 17:10Speaker 3: is that which is of the heart, but the spirit,
- 17:14Speaker 3: not by the letter and his praise is not from men,
- 17:17Speaker 3: but from God. Religion that's outward is only a curse.
- 17:22Speaker 3: It's a blinding curse. thickens the heart, it dulls the senses,
- 17:28Speaker 3: it substitutes ritual for reality. Paul's hope is to break through.
- 17:35Speaker 3: You know what religion does? It makes you proud of yourself.
- 17:39Speaker 3: You have your own inner merit badges and you hang
- 17:43Speaker 3: on to those thinking when you die God's going to go, whoa,
- 17:46Speaker 3: look at that list you did and his life's been
- 17:49Speaker 3: about you. A long time ago a friend sent me
- 17:51Speaker 3: a little thing on how to be miserable. I guess
- 17:53Speaker 3: he thought I Needed it. As I read through the list,
- 17:58Speaker 3: it's yellow with age. I've carried it so long. It says,
- 18:01Speaker 3: here's how to be miserable. Think about yourself. Talk about yourself.
- 18:04Speaker 3: Use I as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in
- 18:08Speaker 3: the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say
- 18:11Speaker 3: about you. Be suspicious. Expect to be appreciated. Be jealous
- 18:15Speaker 3: and envious. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself.
- 18:19Speaker 3: Insist on consideration and proper respect. Demand agreement with your
- 18:24Speaker 3: own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful
- 18:28Speaker 3: to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service
- 18:31Speaker 3: you have rendered. Be on the lookout for a good
- 18:33Speaker 3: time for yourself. Shirk your duties if you can. Do
- 18:36Speaker 3: as little as possible for others. Love yourself supremely. Be selfish.
- 18:42Speaker 3: This recipe is guaranteed to be infallible. It will surely
- 18:45Speaker 3: make you miserable. It may make you want to gag.
- 18:49Speaker 3: You know why? Because it's all about you. That's what
- 18:52Speaker 3: religion does. It's all about you. That's why that treadmill
- 18:57Speaker 3: has to keep going fast and has to rise higher
- 18:59Speaker 3: than the one next to you. That's why you'll stand
- 19:02Speaker 3: on a street corner and hand out tracks in the
- 19:04Speaker 3: worst kind of weather and you'll do it for hours
- 19:08Speaker 3: because you're earning your way in. My wife and I
- 19:11Speaker 3: used to live near a temple of a religion where
- 19:14Speaker 3: we saw people coming and going and it was always
- 19:17Speaker 3: a sense of More, more, more. We've got to do more.
- 19:21Speaker 3: We've got to be more involved. More involved. Wait.
- 19:27Speaker 2: Stop.
- 19:29Speaker 3: It is a gift. Stop all the religious activities and
- 19:34Speaker 3: understand nothing in our hands we bring simply to the
- 19:38Speaker 3: cross we cling. He has done all of the work.
- 19:42Speaker 3: He has paid all of the price. Why am I yelling?
- 19:46Speaker 3: He has done it all for us. There's nothing we
- 19:50Speaker 3: have to add to it. Religion says keep striving.
- 19:55Speaker 2: And a.
- 19:58Speaker 3: Relationship with Christ says don't bother. Some time ago, my
- 20:06Speaker 3: longtime friend Fritz Ridenour wrote a wonderful little book called
- 20:09Speaker 3: How to Be a Christian without being religious. Listen to
- 20:13Speaker 3: his story. Many a Christian looks at Christian living like
- 20:17Speaker 3: a pole vaulter eyes the 20 foot barrier. He works
- 20:21Speaker 3: on his form. That is, he gets his praying down pat.
- 20:25Speaker 3: He learns the right cliches and how to quote the
- 20:27Speaker 3: favorite proof texts at the right psychological moment. He constantly
- 20:32Speaker 3: tries to find the springiest pole he can. That is,
- 20:36Speaker 3: he's always looking for the new spiritual author, the new
- 20:39Speaker 3: conference speaker, some new spiritual giant with whom he can
- 20:43Speaker 3: identify and thereby somehow have some of the spirituality rub
- 20:47Speaker 3: off on him. And naturally, like any good vaulter, he
- 20:50Speaker 3: practices diligently, showing up at all the meetings and services,
- 20:54Speaker 3: making sure he looks and sounds as spiritual as the
- 20:57Speaker 3: next guy. But inside, he doesn't really feel that he
- 20:59Speaker 3: could ever do 20 feet. He still equates Christianity with
- 21:03Speaker 3: being good, and he just doesn't feel he'll ever be
- 21:06Speaker 3: good enough. Well, In one sense, this kind of Christian
- 21:10Speaker 3: is right. He isn't good enough, and he never will
- 21:13Speaker 3: be as long as he goes at it that way.
- 21:15Speaker 3: To go back to the pole vault comparison for a second,
- 21:18Speaker 3: the bar is not just 20 feet up, it's 1,000
- 21:21Speaker 3: feet high. And all the poles are toothpicks. Being a
- 21:26Speaker 3: Christian is not a matter of making all the right moves,
- 21:29Speaker 3: earning brownie points, or spiritual merit badges. Being a Christian
- 21:33Speaker 3: is a matter of faith, personal faith. and commitment to
- 21:38Speaker 3: Jesus Christ. If I had that one message to deliver,
- 21:43Speaker 3: that would be one I'd deliver, and I just delivered it.
- 21:47Speaker 3: I hope it's not my last, but if it is,
- 21:49Speaker 3: it'll be one worth remembering. If you've relied on yourself
- 21:54Speaker 3: to get you from earth to heaven, you're in for
- 21:57Speaker 3: a major stop along the way. A real surprise. Jesus
- 22:03Speaker 3: paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin left
- 22:06Speaker 3: a crimson stain. Christ washed it white as snow. That's
- 22:11Speaker 3: for the Gentile. That's for the Jew. That's for the
- 22:14Speaker 3: blatant sinner. That's for the religious traditionalist. That's for you.
- 22:20Speaker 3: That's for me.
- 22:23Speaker 2: Let's bow our heads.
- 22:26Speaker 3: I don't know what you're relying on to get you
- 22:28Speaker 3: to heaven, but if it's anything but the blood of Christ,
- 22:32Speaker 3: you're going to miss it. I don't know how hard
- 22:35Speaker 3: you're planning on working, but if you think you're going
- 22:37Speaker 3: to add to what Christ has done, you are disillusioned
- 22:41Speaker 3: and terribly flawed in your thinking. Christ came that he
- 22:47Speaker 3: might do the work of our salvation, and it's completed,
- 22:51Speaker 3: it's done, finished, paid in full. And you have available
- 22:56Speaker 3: to you a gift. A man in a previous service
- 23:00Speaker 3: attending our meeting here at Stone Brow Community Church said
- 23:04Speaker 3: to me when I heard that salvation was a gift,
- 23:06Speaker 3: I wanted to leap to my feet and rush to
- 23:08Speaker 3: the prayer room. In fact, I did when the service ended. Today,
- 23:15Speaker 3: if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and him
- 23:18Speaker 3: only as eternal salvation, he is your only hope. I
- 23:25Speaker 3: invite you to turn to him now. Thank you, Father,
- 23:29Speaker 3: for helping us see beyond the membrane that can blind
- 23:33Speaker 3: us and breaking through with the sharp two edged sword
- 23:37Speaker 3: of the spirit. Thank you that our praise is really
- 23:43Speaker 3: not from men, but from you. And we await it because.
- 23:47Speaker 2: We are in Christ.
- 23:49Speaker 3: And since you're satisfied with him, praise your name. You're
- 23:53Speaker 3: satisfied with us. Find in us, our Father, an openness
- 23:58Speaker 3: and a willingness to hear the truth and adapt our
- 24:01Speaker 3: lives to it and build our church on this solid
- 24:04Speaker 3: foundation of truth. That we might humbly walk through this
- 24:10Speaker 3: life filled with gratitude and thanksgiving. Break our stubborn Jonah-like
- 24:17Speaker 3: hearts that hold back the message because of some pride
- 24:22Speaker 3: of knowledge or birth. Our privilege. Make us like that
- 24:30Speaker 3: tax collector. Who simply needed your mercy. To continue to live.
- 24:38Speaker 3: We trust you our father. To help us work this through.
- 24:42Speaker 3: And understand what it is you have us learn. And
- 24:46Speaker 3: how we are to change. I ask it in the
- 24:50Speaker 3: name of Jesus. Everybody said.
- 24:53Speaker 1: Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living with our Bible teacher,
- 25:08Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll. He titled today's study in Romans chapter 2,
- 25:12Speaker 1: The Dark Side of Being Super-Religious. Many of our listeners
- 25:16Speaker 1: are devoting extra time to this in-depth study in Paul's
- 25:20Speaker 1: letter to the Romans. And to help you make the
- 25:22Speaker 1: most of your personal study, we've prepared a special bundle
- 25:25Speaker 1: of resources. The first is our Searching the Scriptures Bible
- 25:28Speaker 1: Study Workbook. The edition for Romans comes in two volumes
- 25:32Speaker 1: due to the length and depth of Paul's letter. And
- 25:35Speaker 1: the first volume is ready right now. Also, Chuck wrote
- 25:38Speaker 1: a full-length commentary on Romans. It's hardbound that it's from
- 25:42Speaker 1: the Living Insights Commentary Series. Anyone who loves the Bible
- 25:46Speaker 1: should own this resource from Chuck. In his approachable style,
- 25:50Speaker 1: he helps us discover the rich theological treasures found in Romans.
- 25:54Speaker 1: And finally, Insight for Living has produced a collection of
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- 26:19Speaker 1: Before we wrap up today, I'd like to extend a
- 26:21Speaker 1: word of thanks to those who consistently support Chuck's teaching ministry.
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- 27:02Speaker 2: I'm Bill Meyer.
- 27:10Speaker 1: Join us again on Monday when Chuck Swindoll continues his
- 27:13Speaker 1: study in the book of Romans right here on Insight
- 27:17Speaker 1: for Living. The preceding message, The Dark Side of Being
- 27:22Speaker 1: Super Religious, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and
- 27:28Speaker 1: the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R.
- 27:32Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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