Insight for Living

Bill Maier: Have you ever paused to read a page from someone's private journal, someone who's already gone on before you? There's something captivating about entering another person's world through their own words. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites you to tear a page from Jesus's journal, the Gospel of Mark chapter 1 and watch a savior move from one scene to the next in almost non-stop fashion. What you'll discover is a savior filled with compassion, meeting the broken exactly where they are. Chuck begins with prayer.

Chuck Swindoll: We remember the words of the prophet, our father, in quietness and confidence you will gain strength. Teach us to value the presence of silence, even solitude. In a world filled with noise, from the moment we rise till the last waking moment of our day, the world is busy about us and easy to be caught up in the maddening pace of this endless noise, sound, words. So much of it meaningless and empty. We come today to pull this page from our savior's journal and learn again what it means to pace our lives, to choose our priorities well, to find time for solitude and prayer, to meet needs with hearts of compassion, to help those who hurt, to reach out to those who are broken and have lost their way.

Show us our father how to measure our days and how to mark them well that we may live not busy lives but deep lives. That we might pause and let the wonder in on those occasions when you are obviously at work. When we suffer, it is easy to lose our way and there are many today in this place who are in pain. Pain of heart, pain of body, the pain of grief, ministering to those they love who are set aside, pains of disability, discouragement. Remind us our father that you have never met a disability or disease that you cannot handle.

Show us the value not only in your yes, but also in those unexplainable nose or weight and deepen us through those journeys as well. For we are quickly caught up in our culture, easy to take our cues from those about us who act as though they have answers, but they have none. Show us the value of the eternal even as we live out our temporal lives. And may we not be uneasy with moments of celebration and joy, but may we keep it all in perspective, knowing that you are our sovereign guide and god. Today we surround ourselves with the presence of the lamb of god who has taken away the sins of the world.

In the name of the Jesus who has revealed himself as the lamb of god, we pray and we give. And everyone said amen.

Bill Maier: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study workbooks by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message a page from Jesus's journal.

Chuck Swindoll: When evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill, those who were demon possessed. Look at verse 33. The whole city had gathered at the door. The whole village of Capernaum, he had once been in a synagogue and now he is in the home of Peter and Peter's family and the others are there and and they begin to hear the noise outside through the afternoon and then by evening there's a cacophony of sound. It is all over and they push the door open and there is far as the eye can see there are people in need all around the area.

And he healed many who were ill with various disease and it cast out many demons and was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. Jesus says to them you be silent. Don't speak and they did not speak. It must have been magnificent. He didn't come for the purpose merely to heal and to impress people. He came to preach the good news of the truth, but this corroborated that he was not simply another spokesman. He was from god. And he was able to heal at will under the power of the spirit who filled him.

They have never seen anything like it. Where do we find him within a matter of hours? Well, first of all, he's got to get some sleep. So between verses 34 and 35 he finds a place in the home where he can lie down. He's resting, but I love the beginning of 35 in the early morning while it was still dark. Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Isn't that magnificent? Remember he is the the anthropic person. He is the god man, un diminished deity at the same time true humanity.

Deity never gets tired, but humanity can be exhausted. Deity never needs sleep. Humanity needs rest. And in his humanity, he is exhausted from the day before. However, he has the wisdom, he has the discipline to rise early in the morning. And he gets alone with the father and there he prays. Now back at the house, Peter wakes up, James, John, Andrew. The mother-in-law's ready to fix a great breakfast. She's healed. She's got energy and everybody's there but Jesus. They see the little part of the floor where he had slept. Covers are pushed back and he's gone and so Peter sets out to find him.

In the meantime, the crowds are coming. Remember if there's healing one day, there certainly could be healing the next. And as the word travels, can you imagine the size of the crowd that had begun to gather? Peter works his way from that out into the wilderness verse 36. Look. Simon and his companions search for him and they found him and said to him everyone is looking for you. Literally the Greek reads all seek you. They're all seeking you. Jesus, I mean forgive me here. You're famous. Jesus, look at the crowd. I mean they're come out from under the rocks.

They're all around the house. Jesus, what a chance for you to for us to minister. Jesus said to them let's go somewhere else to the towns nearby. Don't you love it? I mean the word Peter brought the crowds are there. Believe me, that's music to most preachers' ears. They'd give their first born to have a crowd like this, anywhere near where they're preaching or at least half their library. Why? Because most preachers want to be popular. They want to be known. Not saying anything usually, though some have the audacity to do so. They crave a crowd.

They crave numbers. I thought of this and was saddened when I when I read Layton Ford's account of days gone by. Listen carefully. In his book Transforming Leadership, Billy Graham's faithful associate for many years Layton Ford wrote this. Several years ago, I had lunch with Richard Dortch who had just been chosen to become the executive vice president of the PTL club, a multi-million dollar religious televangelism network. Dortch had headed his denominations work in Illinois and had an outstanding track record. I was frankly very impressed, writes Ford, with what he had to say and with his seeming sincerity and competence.

He planned to recruit a strong finance director and several MBAs to establish some fiscal sanity. It's going to be like turning the Queen Mary around with a teaspoon, he said. It won't be easy, but I plan to do it. I I wished him well and then watched from a distance. Eventually Jim Baker, the head of PTL, resigned in disgrace over a sexual liaison and its cover up. Both he and Dortch were convicted for the misuse of funds. How? I wondered. Could a man with such seemingly good intentions go so wrong? So I read with interest a later interview in which he Dortch described how the managers of PTL came to define success.

It is all tied to how many stations we have on our network or how big our building is. It is so easy to lose control to compromise without recognizing it. At PTL, there was not time taken for prayer or family because the show had to go on. We were so caught up in god's work that we forgot about god. He also talked about the impact of television on preachers. I quote a television camera can change a preacher quicker than anything else. Those who sit on the sidelines can notice the changes in people once they get in front of a camera.

It turns a good man into a potentate. It is so easy to get swept away by popularity. Everybody loves you. Ears are waiting for you. Cars are waiting for you. You go to the head of the line. That is the devastation of the camera. It has made us less than what god had wanted us to become. If you will allow me, Peter thinks Jesus, you could be on TV, man. Let's go somewhere else. That's the man I want to follow. That's a man worth following. There is a remarkable self-restraint in Jesus's words. He must have frowned realizing once again, Peter, you have such a long way to go.

May I say to you who are very gifted, very competent, if not now, soon to be very successful, be careful about your own clippings, please. Please. Solomon writes let another man praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips. Peter was to learn that. Jesus knew it. So the lesson, let's all write it down. In solitude, he prayed and gained the right perspective. In solitude, he prayed and gained the right perspective. Cut solitude and silence out of your life and you're a goner. I say to the young men and women at the seminary, Dallas Seminary, when I have the opportunity to speak in their chapel, the ones I'm most concerned about who fill this chapel today are you who are most gifted, who can just handle the text with ease, who have the splendid, winsome personality.

I get scared for you. I get nervous. How important accountability is. And Jesus is accountable to his father and they just talked it over. No doubt the father whispered move on, son, move on. So he says let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so that I may preach there also, for that is what I came for. Don't you love it? He doesn't even mention healing. Healing always draws a crowd because the broken lives are more known to people than broken minds and broken hearts. Everybody wants relief from physical pain. But he says I'm not called here to do that primarily.

I'm called to preach the truth. That's my ministry. He's come to seek and to save those who were lost, keep the perspective right. That's how we gained it in solitude. And so we read he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. Lesson learned, staying focused, he pressed on. Staying focused, he pressed on. Now what does all of this say to you and me as we tear this page from the journal and take a look at it and do a little analysis? Well, I think it says four things at least.

Allow me. The first is this has to do with compassion. Compassion encourages us to care for those who hurt. Compassion encourages us to care for those who hurt. Joseph Parker used to say to young preachers preach to broken hearts and you'll never lack for a congregation. There is one in every pew. While I was a part of the installation of Mark Young up in Denver, Denver Seminary, the new president, we were all so happy to to be there, to applaud this wonderful promotion for Mark and he very graciously has taken the the responsibility of leadership.

Well, there's an installation service and a part of it was a the night before there was a banquet, wonderful banquet. And they brought in some graduates from Denver Seminary who would chair. And it was great to hear each one of them. One especially stood out. He is involved now in a compassionate ministry and he serves the public. I will not name it or him except to say his words were just I just hung on everyone of them. He told a wonderful story. Understand the Denver Seminary really got on the map through Dr. Vernon Grounds, faithful years of ministry as president there.

Dr. Grounds known for his heart as well as his mind, his scholarship. And while Dr. Grounds was the president of Denver Seminary, this particular man, many years younger, was a student there at the school. And he said one dark day in my first year I I was so low and I kind of stumbled into the chapel and it was one of those chapel services where everything was clapping and singing and smiling and jumping and having a great time. He said I didn't feel like slappy, clappy, happy. I just felt like crying. So I walked out of the chapel and walked into the kitchen which in the old building was adjacent to the chapel and he said I poured myself a cup of hot water to make tea and I'm not sure if he said he ever got the bag into it or not.

He just burst into tears and just broken. He said I just slid down the kitchen cabinet and sat on the floor and finally just lay down in the kitchen all alone. I'd come to the end. Finally he said I was able to push myself up on one elbow and sunk my head in my hands and I felt an arm around me. Another man had sat down by me. I felt the warmth of his body next to mine and he pulled me over and whispered I I don't know what it is that's broken you, but I want you to know I care.

And I'll stay right here till you get up. And he said I opened my eyes and looked. It was Vernon Grounds. In my address to Dr. Young at the charge to the president, I looked at him and said keep sitting on the floor with the students. When's the last time you sat down on the floor by someone who's down there? You will minister to them as in no other way. Or the time that you hardly had enough, but you reached into your wallet and thought that person could sure use this 10 bucks better than I.

And you press it into their hands and say I want you to have this. It may help you right now. Just a word of encouragement. Compassion encourages us to care for those who hurt. My prayer for Stonebriar Community Church is that we will not lose our compassion because when we lose our compassion, we lose our ministry. We lose our way. The second lesson I learn is humility energizes us to stay gracious. You see when we are compassionate, we become humble. We don't become the star of the show. There's one star and he wouldn't even see himself as that and that's the savior.

But when you reach out to other people, there's humility involved and that humility energizes us to stay gracious, to stay gracious with those in need. The third lesson, solitude and prayer empower us to restrain our own ambitions. Solitude and prayer empower us to restrain our own ambitions. Believe me, the crowds won't restrain your ambitions. They'll fan the flame. They'll tell you how great you are. But how fickle a crowd can be. It's easy to forget that the ticker tape today become the brick bats of tomorrow. How quickly the crowd turns. Many of these same people in a matter of a few years are saying crucify him.

Crucify him. How quickly they turn. Without solitude, you'll lose your way. How valuable it is to let solitude restrain our ambitions. Fourth and finally, discipline enables us to continue reaching out to the lost. Jesus said let's go to those in other parts of Galilee. Let's go there. My friends at Stonebriar Church wrapped in the cocoon of this building, if we are not careful, we can build our own little world and forget that two blocks away or less there are those who've never heard the name of Jesus Christ once, not clearly. They've never heard the gospel of grace.

May god remind us that it isn't just about being here and all the great things as wonderful as they are and certainly we are to enjoy them, but may remind us over and over. We take what we get here and we release it. We give it. I challenge you this week to share with at least one person the story of Jesus and the gospel, just one person. I challenge you. Just one person. Beginning to do that regularly will transform your life. It'll take discipline. You've got it. Just apply it. May we bow together. Now we have a few moments of our own solitude.

How necessary it is. You've listened so well. May I ask are you certain that you know Christ? Are you absolutely sure that the savior lives in you? If you're not sure, this is a moment to make sure. He who has the son has the life, but he who does not have the son of god does not have the life. Simple prayer is all it takes. Father, I'm lost. God, you and I are at a distance. I'm a sinner. I want to be born into your family. Thank you for Christ who died for me and has been raised for me.

I take him personally now. I take the gift. Our father, we thank you for what we have heard and how Jesus has ministered to us today. Thank you for his model of magnificent humility. Thank you that he never sought a crowd. Thank you that he never looked to himself, but always to you, always putting others first. Teach us how to do that in Jesus's name. Everyone said amen.

Bill Maier: Allow this moment to sink in. A savior who never sought the spotlight, never looked to himself, but always put others first. And if you prayed that simple prayer along with Chuck Swindoll, if you accepted the gift of salvation for the very first time, we would love to know. That decision is the most important one you'll ever make and you don't have to walk it out alone. You can write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000 Frisco, Texas 75034. As you may know, we make it our mission here at Insight for Living to create Bible study resources so you can search the scriptures on your own, just as Chuck did to prepare this sermon series on Mark.

This study is no exception. In fact, because of the scope of Mark's gospel, Chuck has divided this study into three volumes. Our Searching the Scriptures Bible Studies for Mark come in three spiral bound workbooks and all three workbooks are published and ready to go. To purchase these volumes, either for personal or group study, call us at 800 772 8888. Also, did you realize that Chuck has completed his personal memoir? It's brand new and you can be among the first to own this once in a lifetime book. Chuck titled his memoir Awakened by Grace. To purchase a copy today, go to insight.org/memoir.

It shouldn't surprise you that this book is filled with fascinating stories told as only Chuck can tell them. He describes how a stuttering young boy spent his childhood in the shadow of World War II. He describes his decision to attend seminary and most importantly, Chuck shares how god was working out his purposes, preparing him for a lifetime of public ministry. To purchase Chuck Swindoll's personal memoir Awakened by Grace, call 800 772 8888 or go to insight.org/memoir. I'm Bill Maier. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his verse by verse study through the gospel according to Mark Thursday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message a page from Jesus's journal was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.