Rekindled Heart | Dr. Mark Yarbrough

Across Africa, millions of Christians are suffering a Bible famine. They hunger for God's Word, but there simply aren't enough Bibles. Today, Timothy Project is close to launching Africa's first Bible web press. To help complete this project, visit TimothyProject.info. If your spiritual fire has fizzled, don't miss today's Building Relationships with Dr.

Gary Chapman. My prayer is that an individual will walk away if they engage this book and it's going to send them back to the book, God's Word, and that they are going to have a new vigor, a new enthusiasm of saying, okay, Lord, this may be where I am, but I don't want to stay here. And if I'm at a good spot, I want to keep stoking it in order to keep that fire burning. Welcome to Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The New York Times bestseller, "The 5 Love Languages" .

Today, if your spiritual life began with a burst of joy but that feeling has faded, you'll want to hear our guests talk about the rekindled heart. From Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Mark Yarbrough is with us, and he'll present six essentials for reviving your faith. We have his book linked at buildingrelationships.us. It's the rekindled heart.

And Gary, I wonder if you've ever experienced that sense of having your spiritual life fizzle or if you've helped people who've gone through that. Either of those fit. Yes, to both of those. Early on in my educational career, I had a lot of struggles for, I don't know, about six months of just, you know, it was the first time I'd encountered a lot of other thoughts, you know, because I grew up in the church and hadn't been exposed to other ideas and that sort of thing. And so, yeah, it was a real time of struggle and questioning and that sort of thing.

But I'm glad that God brought me to the place, you know, where my faith was anchored in Him. And of course, that makes all the difference in the world. But I've worked with a lot of couples through the years. And, you know, many times it's people who grew up in a church, but maybe doesn't even have a personal relationship with God. And then something happens, you know, tragic happens in their lives.

And then they say, well, if that's the way God is, I'm out of here, you know. And it's sad. But yeah, I'm excited about the program today and the topic today and this book. I think it's going to help a lot of people who. may be going through similar struggles.

Yeah.

Well, let me introduce Dr. Mark Yarbrough. He's a speaker, author, professor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary. You may know him from his best-selling How to Read the Bible like a Seminary Professor and Jonah Beyond the Tale of a Whale. He's also the featured speaker at the Story of Scripture conferences.

You can find out more about him and his latest release at buildingrelationships.us. The title is The Rekindled Heart: Six Essentials for Reviving Your Faith. Just go to buildingrelationships.us.

Well, Mark, welcome to Building Relationships. What a pleasure to be with you, I promise.

Well, tell us a little about yourself, where you grew up, your family background, the path you took leading you to be the president of Dallas Theological Seminary. You betcha.

Well, born and raised in North Texas. I don't know why they call it North Texas. It's the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Last time I checked, we have this thing called the Panhandle, which is much further north, but we call Dallas-Fort Worth North Texas. And so that's been home.

So I'm an official Texas boy. I tell people I wear my boots all the time. And so they're authentic for me. And I grew up in an absolutely wonderful home. I'm serious, Gary, when I say this.

I grew up in as close to a perfect home as you can have on planet Earth in a Genesis 3 world. My mom and dad are still living in their mid-80s, and they are the most faithful, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, evangelistic. Individuals on the planet, as far as I'm concerned, to the day I go home, I'm going to grow up and try to be like them. They're incredible people of faith. And so I had an opportunity to meet the Lord early on.

I grew up in that kind of home where it was mama, dad, dad, and Jesus. And so I saw it lived out. Met my soon-to-be wife. We met actually in junior high, started dating in high school. We married at the end of our sophomore year in college.

and God called me into full-time ministry. I had a previous time where I thought I was going to go into large ranch management. How about that? And the Lord got a hold of me and I wasn't running, but he hadn't made it clear yet.

So in a year of Bible college, the Lord made it crystal clear that I was supposed to go into vocational Christian ministry. And so, Jennifer and I are married. We have four incredible kids. Two of those four are married. Our youngest one, so number three of the four, gets married this coming Saturday as we're recording this.

And so I'm really excited about that.

So three of the four will be married in about five weeks ago. I became a grandfather to our oldest daughter and her husband.

So we're just kind of in that phase and stage. And we just said goodbye this a couple of months ago to Jennifer's father.

So the first of our four has gone on to be with the Lord now. And so we've walked that journey as many other people have. And so it's been an interesting few months of saying goodbye. and saying hello. And then sending one off and marriage.

So we're just kind of in that season right now. Yeah, well that's exciting.

Now you said you met your wife in high school. Did you date in high school or you just saw each other?

Well, we met in junior high, believe it or not, and we actually did start dating in high school.

So, about our junior year, we actually started dating. We were in a big friend group together and involved in young life and And she had grown up in a what I'm going to call a nominal Catholic background. And when I met her, I thought she knew the Lord, and then I found out she did not. And I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with her and watching her come to faith and then watching the Lord do an amazing work in her family. And we watched immediately her younger sister come to faith and then an older sister come to faith.

And so we just saw the Lord do some amazing things. And we would have married right out of high school, but it would have like totally freaked our parents out.

So we decided to wait till after our sophomore year and honor their wishes. And so right after our sophomore year, we got married. A sophomore year of high school. I mean, no, in college, in college, let's be clear. That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, sounds like God led you all together early on, and you really would have known each other quite well before you got married.

So, yeah, we did. We did. Indeed, it was a blessing for sure. And then the Lord led me on to Dallas Seminary, where I did a lot of my studies. And I've actually been employed there since.

Since 2001, and then I moved into the presidency in 2020.

So, right in the middle of this little thing called COVID. And so that was kind of an interesting time to start a new transition, but the Lord has just been incredibly gracious, and things are really well at Dallas Seminary. Mm-hmm.

Well, that's great. I've heard good things for many years about Dallas Seminary, and I'm glad that things are going well.

So you decided to write about rekindling faith. Why do we need this message today? We need this message today because everywhere I go, this is the story I hear. Look, life is full of ups and downs, as you know. And we do live.

I used that phrase a minute ago, we live in a Genesis 3 world, right? In terms it's tainted by sin.

Sometimes we create our own messes. I'm raising my hand right now. And other times, things are done to us. We just live in this broken world where, in God's sovereign hand, He allows things to happen that we wish He would not. I've got my own list, I know you do too.

And we find ourselves there. And so the reality is, is that sometimes we can we can see our faith in moments that it's it's a fire that's just full Full vibrant. And other times it's not. This really kind of came to play in me. I'll give you just a little quick story on this: I'm an avid fly fisherman.

And so I was up in the mountains of Wyoming with some friends, and kind of the rule of camp, even in June when we were there. is the first person that gets up has to light the fire.

So, I'm usually the first person up. And so, I was getting some wood together, and I had a friend of mine that was sitting there at the fire, and he knew I was coming back with some wood to put on it. And you know, the night before, we'd had this big giant bonfire going, and so that morning you could still see the coals. They were covered up with ashes though. And you could still see it.

And he looked at the fire before I put the wood on that morning, and he pointed at it, and he said, That's my faith right now. He said it used to be like the fire last night. And that got me thinking about this metaphor of the rekindling process and using that as a picture of our faith. We do have these moments where it's on fire, mountaintop moments and bellies. And so that's, I find myself in a lot of dialogue with individuals across the country and across the world.

This is an issue that is true of all believers. And so, what do we do to rekindle that faith? And if it is on fire, what do we do to stoke it to keep it going?

So, that's why I kind of phrased it: six essentials. This is not a to-do list, it's not an exhaustive list, it's six things that have been personal to me, things that we talk about at Dallas Seminary with our students that I talk about with believers all over the place.

So, that's kind of how the book came about. I know you travel around the world and all. Do you see this as much in other countries as you do here in America? I think I would say I see it a little bit more here, but I certainly hear it everywhere. I think there's something to this that's related to our humanity, right?

Again, we live in a broken world. And I hate being the pragmatist here, but we're all in a conveyor belt, right? We're dying. And I mean, this is a biblical truth, and life is hard. And sometimes we do the right things, and it doesn't always go the way that we want it to.

And so, how do we reconcile this? And so, what do we do as believers? What do we do as Christ followers? And so, that's kind of how I came up with these six. And again, I could have had 15.

But I wanted to zero in these that I think kind of move us towards the basics. That if we find ourselves where, yep, I'm in a moment of life where I can see the coals, it's covered with ashes, what can I do to get that fire going? And if I find myself in that great moment of a mountaintop moment and the fire is just full flame ahead in that picture, in the metaphor, what can we do to stoke it and keep it alive? Mark, what do you think are the top two or three reasons that Christians struggle to keep their walk with Christ vibrant? Wow.

How long do we have on this one? You said top two or three.

So I'm just going to throw out some things. I mean, sometimes it's our own stupidity. I'm just going to own it, and I say this of myself, as anybody that's listening to this. If we're honest, we would say that.

Sometimes we simply do things ourselves that we know we shouldn't.

Sometimes it is sin. uh things that we know we should be doing So that's one. Another one that I would say that's close to that is just negligence. we can neglect our spiritual life. Just like we can our own physical health.

And sometimes we just don't talk about that. And the reality is that sometimes we're not good at taking care of our bodies, right? I mean, I know I should work out. I know I should eat healthy. I don't always do that.

And that is true, and I'm not trying to bifurcate our, you know, I have my physical, and I have my mental, and I have my spiritual. We are whole beings, but I do believe that when it comes to our spiritual life, scripture speaks an awful lot about this: of how to nourish, if I can use that kind of language.

So, negligence is there, and then again, I've kind of already alluded to this, but. In this messy, broken world. Uh there are things that are uh done to us. I speak with a lot of people that live in great pain of things that others did to them, or things that come upon us again that we wish we wouldn't, but the Lord providentially allowed it to happen. And so those would be two or three things that I would say kind of impact us in regard to impacting our spiritual life, our walk.

So I'd say those are two or three things that I think of. Yeah, I could certainly agree with that.

So how would this book, The Rekindled Heart, how can it be used in a home with husband, wife, children? How do you see it being used in a practical way in the home?

Well, I see it being used as a book that can be used in a lot of different ways. Number one, it's for an individual, that is for certain, for individuals that are readers and want to be asking those questions. What are essentials that I need to be addressing in my walk with the Lord, wherever I am on that spectrum? I've actually already been talking to people as it's been out now for a few weeks that they've been using it in their homes in terms of family devotionals. There's a lot of Material in here that I think is very relational.

I tell a lot of stories, you know, and you know this as a writer, as an author, and a speaker, that we all speak out of our lives, don't we? Right. And, you know, it's the stuff of life. And so I certainly have my share of crazy stories and that are embedded into this particular book. I also know that it's being used right now in a lot of like Bible studies for small groups.

So we're real excited to see how the Lord's choosing to use this. And ultimately, it's for His glory and pray that it'll stir in the hearts of people.

So those are a few ways that I'm already hearing as it's just been out for a few weeks now. Yeah, I can I can see that. In small groups, I would think it would be very helpful.

Now you share some personal stories about times in your own faith when when your faith dwindled. Tell us one or two of those. I can remember a dark moment in uh high school. And I told you I met the Lord early on, and He drew me to Himself. And so, as a little kid growing up, I didn't have huge moments of rebellion running from God, but there's a difference between that and then having a vibrancy of faith.

And going into high school, I had a dear friend of mine that I had grown up with. Dear friend, I mean, all the way through. I mean, we'd been in, you know, little league sports together and on every team and things like that. And in our high school years, As is common, this is still true today, right? You have a lot of filtering off.

And I watched him start to run with a crowd. that alarmed me. And he started drinking. It was something that, again, alarmed me. I could see kind of danger ahead in that regard.

And I can remember having a discussion with myself of going, man, I need to confront my friend. And um I stayed kind of silent. In a horrible turn of events, he chose to drive drunk. And he was in a horrible accident. He and another, a friend of ours, died.

And it was horrible. It was tragic. He and I had kind of lost touch over a six-month window there where he started running with a different crowd. And this is not to applaud me at all for not running with that crowd. That's not what I'm trying to say.

But what I am saying is that That moment when he died. It was a confrontation of my own faith. Meaning, Mark, did you do everything that you should have done to love him well?

Now, this is not trying to put Gary a guilt upon me.

Sometimes we do everything right, and it's. It doesn't go the direction that we want. I know I've already said that, but my point is: I don't think I was having a vibrancy of faith. That was lovingly aggressive, that was proactively going and talking to people and friends and sharing my faith. I was just kind of more quiet and dormant.

And so I had a crisis at that moment after walking through that great pain, but it really was a question that the Lord used to shake me and say, Hey, is this faith real or not? Are you going to proactively let your light shine? Are you just going to sit back quietly, you know, in the grandstands here? And so that was a moment that I very distinctly remember. Yeah, yeah.

I can see how that would be very traumatic, particularly in those high school years. Boy. And a friend. Yeah, you bet. It was and still is to this day.

Yeah.

Well, we know that our culture today is a highly comparison culture.

So do you think that that factor has anything to do with the lack of spiritual fire in our lives? Without question. And I am becoming just more and more dissatisfied in seeing the tragic ramifications of what we're seeing with the realm of social media. Yes, technology can be used for good. And praise the Lord for that.

You know, here we are in different states and we're talking with one another right now. And so praise the Lord for that. And I've got dear friends that I keep up with. And so I'm not meaning that it's all boo, bad, you know, all of that. But what it has produced, and look, you know about this, you talk about it, the data is there.

in regard to comparison, and it is praying to perceived ego in what brings validation. I mean, in our younger generations in that regard, it's horrific. The ultimate question for a believer, right, is one of identity. and our identity must be rooted in the Lord Jesus. And that is enormous.

But I am telling you that the megaphone that is coming from a non-believing world, you know, the pattern of this world, when the Apostle Paul talks about that, right, in Romans chapter 12, you know, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. And he was saying that back then. Think of how he would be shouting that today. There is a pattern of the world. The evil one's been at this since Genesis 3, and he's just regurgitating the same old junk.

But where is our identity? And we've got to camp out on the fact that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I am a child of the king. And so, when someone comes to faith, I mean, the instruction, the privilege that we have of reforming their thinking, of saying, This is who you are because of what Christ has done for you.

So, if we let the volume of the world supersede the teaching of scripture in regard to this issue of identity. And that's frequently what is happening.

So, to answer your question specifically without me going on a rant here, is that that is what is happening. And so, we must be on guard about that. And that's why renewing of our mind, as the Apostle Paul says, in that same context. And that means let's keep preaching to ourselves of who we are in Christ Jesus. And that is going to do more good than anything that we can do.

And that, in part, is part of what these essentials are dealing with. We can all identify with that, and the number of hours that people spend on social media, for example, feeds that. But on the other hand, how about the time we spend reading the Bible compared to the time we might be online? And how does the reading of the Bible relight the flame of faith?

Well, I mean, it's it's the simplicity of saying We need to feed our lives the things of God. in his words. I was just preaching last night. We were looking at 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17. You know, these wonderful words, again, where Paul uses all Scripture is God.

breathed. The claim that he is making there, let me go all nerd on you for a minute. Pasagra faith anastas is what he says. And these beautiful Greek words, he is saying, This scripture that we have is the very breath of God.

So here you and I are talking with one another, and we talk by exhaling, right? I mean, that's how words are formed. We all know that. And Paul chooses to use these words here of saying, you know, Scripture is the very breath of God, it's His word in written form. To come back to your question.

It's what are we feeding ourselves? You know, you look at the national stats, and I mean, we're up to six hours of media a day. in terms of US intake. And so it's a very simple question that I ask believers all the time: what are you feeding your spiritual life? And you know what I frequently hear?

It's like, well, yeah, I read my Bible maybe a couple minutes a day. And it's like, how much time are you spending on social media and you're intaking from the world? It's a simple logistics here: the ratio is out of balance. And so, this isn't always difficult to see what the problem is, but we have to reorient our life. I never forget taking my first computer programming class back when I didn't know what I was going to do with my life.

And I quickly found out, by the way, it was not computer programming. But I took this computer programming class, and I can remember the professor walking out on stage at the University of North Texas, and he said these words all these years it sticks with me. He said, trash in, trash out. What comes in will go out. That's what he said.

Now, he was talking about computer programming, right, in terms of code. And if you have bad code, it's going to lead to things. But my goodness, the Lord used that to slap me upside the head years ago of saying, Mark, that's true of your life. And I frequently give that to other believers and say, hey, what's coming in, it's going to have an impact on what goes out. That's for sure.

Are there examples of this rekindling of relationship with God in the Bible itself? And if so, share one of them or two of them with us. Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

I mean, you know, scripture is replete with challenges of what we need to do. One of my mentors of the faith, a longtime professor at Dallas Seminary, that I got to spend a lot of time with, a guy by the name of Howard Hendrix. Gary, does that ring a bell with you, brother? Oh, yes. And yeah, I can remember Hendricks coming into my office one day, and he, as he traditionally did, he would put his hands on the table and lean across and he says, Yarbra, that's what he always called me, Yarbra.

He'd say, Don't you ever forget the Bible was not written to satisfy your curiosity. It was written to change your life. And he had all these, Hendricks had all these great prophisms, as we called it. Oh, yeah. And Prophet used to tell me, he said, Mark, just take the big 10 themes of scripture and talk about them all the time.

And I thought that is so true. Yes, all scripture is beautiful, but the common themes that we have are some of the big ones that I talk about. In the rekindling process. And so in your question, does scripture talk about this? It does.

I mean, I used the passage a minute ago of 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17, and Paul is admonishing Timothy while he is in Ephesus. I mean, so we almost have to take a step back and say, don't we think Timothy already knew this? Sure, he did. But what did Paul say? He reminded him that all scripture is God breathed because it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that Timothy, right, as a servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Timothy already knew it, but Paul is admonishing him. Last night at the church that I was preaching at, the passage that we kind of zeroed in on was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Think about that. That's probably like the t-shirt version of the book of Proverbs, right? You know, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways, submit or acknowledge to him, and he will make your path straight. These constant pleas in Scripture. To trust and remember who God is.

So I could argue that about half of the Bible is admonishing believers, the child of God, the people of God, at that particular time, wherever we are in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, that it's an admonishing of remember who you are because of who God is. And so, I really think that all of Scripture is challenging us. to live out what it is that we believe. As Hendrik said, right? Not to just be satisfied with our curiosity and knowing more, but to let it change our life.

So scripture is full of that. Uh Thanks for joining us today for the Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman podcast. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The 5 Love Languages" . Find out more about your love language by going to buildingrelationships.us.

You can download the podcast there and discover more ways to strengthen your relationships. Our guest is Mark Yarbrough, the author of The Rekindled Heart, Six Essentials for Reviving Your Faith. Go to buildingrelationships.us or visit fivelovelanguages.com. Mark, as we continue, are there other factors from our tech culture, which we all acknowledge as we are a technical culture today, that contribute to the dwindling of faith? Oh, definitely.

And I tell you what, I would say this, as I do regularly, to moms and dads out there that could be listening to this. Guard your children's use of technology. I can't say that enough. My goodness, I hear stories of um and I see it. You know, children that are six, seven years old that have full open phones and access to the web.

And I mean, they will find them. They will troll them. Your children will have access to things that in previous eras, you know, when we wanted to sin, we would sneak behind a fence and have something in our hands, and we were telling stories. And the open access to the evil one is rampant. And so, for the love of your children, if a mom and dad is listening to this, is to come up with guardrails.

Press that off. Put a phone in their hand that only has certain aspects of things that they can do in regard to texting you. I certainly understand in this crazy, ugly world of wanting to stay in constant contact with your children. That I get. but you are going to have to be proactive as a parent.

And you're going to have to guard your technology at home. You need to know what they see. My sweet, precious wife had a goal when our kids were at that age, which they're not now, but she was going to know everything, every password. They turned their phones in at night, even in their high school years. And I think there are guardrails that we have to put in place.

That could be a whole. Episode and dialogue for us in that regard. But that is my admonition just right here: is that you have to be proactive and be involved in the lives of your children as it relates to their technology. You can't run from it. It's going to be there, and so you're going to have to be vigilant.

I hope our listeners are hearing that because I fully, fully agree with that. I tell you, we've got to do something rather than just letting turning them over to the force of the enemy that is so apparent on technology today.

Well, you know, for those of us who are walking with God and sometimes Christian leaders whom people respect, they say such things as, you know, oh, I wish I had your faith. How how would you respond if someone says that to you about your life and your your faith?

Well, number one, I'd say I don't know if we ever know fully the faith of someone. I would say that. I would also say that, you know, a lot of times I'll have somebody say something like that to me. And I'll say, well, let me tell you about some of the heroes of my faith that I'm striving to be like them. Things that I can see externally, things that I know.

I know them intimately in their walk with the Lord and things like that, even though I fully can't ever know their faith. But so I try to point that forward. This is not me. It's not you. Again, we're not going to fall into that area of comparison, but I want to come back to that individual and say, number one, we all have individuals that we look to in the faith.

And that's very biblical. Paul said, hey, hey, follow me as I follow Christ, but we're all pointing ourselves to the Savior, right? There's only one hero in this story, and his name is Jesus. And I think we need to constantly remember that. But I can then come back to that individual and I could say something to the effect of, well, what is it in your faith that you would like to see grow or improve?

And I think that's a healthy place for all of us to be in.

So it's not a question of comparison. It's a question of me and my personal walk with the Lord and my role in my community of faith. And so I think there's all sorts of good discussion that can come out of that and avoid that art of comparison and all of us to be able to deflect to the Lord Jesus. Yeah, and I think sometimes, you know, it's an awkward question sometimes, I think, for Christian leaders or people that they look up to, you know, that sort of thing.

So when you think of this book and you think of the churches around the country and the world, how can churches use the book, The Rekindled Heart, to encourage their people?

Well, I tell you, this will make it sound like it's a marketing ploy, and that's not what it is. You know, as an author, you ride out of seasons of your life. Where the Lord's working on you. To connect to people where we think that they are. And I know where people are as I'm privileged to travel and speak with many, many individuals.

My prayer, even to things that we've already talked about, is that this could be something that a pastor, a small group leader, could put in the hands of someone that finds themselves in that moment of saying, My faith is not exactly where I want it to be. It's there, it's present, but maybe it's like those coals that are covered with ashes. And that I would pray that this stirs in the hearts of a reader saying, Yes. Part of this has to do with our thinking. A reminder of what God has already said.

Yeah, in this book, maybe there is a little bit of to do, but it's not to do in the sense of, you know, do these, you know, 22 steps and watch things explode in your life, you know, in your walk with the Lord. It's not guaranteeing that.

So it's not that kind of a, there is no self-help to this. It's going back to the word. This is reminding people of what God has said. But like I said at the beginning, I would pray that this could be also a tool. that individuals could use.

In small groups, in Sunday school classrooms, where they're walking through it step by step. We've actually put out a, this is Moody has done this book, and they put out a study guide that kind of goes with it. And so that prompts some additional questions. Even in the book itself, at the end of every chapter, I have a section in there called Additional Rekindling. And it just throws out four or five questions to try to prompt some thinking and some discussion.

So I would pray that it can be used by individuals, by groups, individuals that find themselves, whether their faith is full flame, full throttle, or whether they find themselves wanting to totally get a fire going again. I pray it could be a tool for that. I certainly would agree with that. I think discussing a book like this in a small group could have tremendous impact upon individuals. Di did anything surprise you as you were writing this book?

It surprised me how fast I could fill up the pages based upon what Moody wanted me to write in terms of the length. You know, I kept going back and I kept saying, What's my word count again? And, you know, six essentials. I think I started off with about ten essentials and I had to kind of whittle it down because I just was reminded all over again of, you know, the Lord has said so many things to us and his word and these big themes that we see over and over and over again. And as I went back and I wanted to try to jump into some real familiar passages.

Passages that we know for a believer that has maybe been in church or has been walking with the Lord, and maybe for even somebody that doesn't, to bring up some passages that we've heard before. And so I wanted to use some familiar texts. To orient us in this discussion, to remind us of how frequently the Lord talks to us about remembering. And all of these things, all of these essentials, I think I could say that. And, you know, you go back in the Old Testament and look, God is.

So many times he says to his people, remember. We forget. I mean, you know, in a previous era, what did he do? A big moment happened in Israel's history, and God would say, okay, everybody, pause, pile up rocks. You know, and it was, you know, hey, pile up some rocks because you're going to forget.

And then you'll pass this way again. And your kids are going to look at that pile of rocks and say, hey, what is that big pile of rocks there for? And it's going to jar your memory. And so, look, we are creatures that forget and we move forward. And so, these essentials, in many ways, are saying, hey, let's remember some of the things that God has said we dare not forget.

So, I think I was surprised by that to answer your question over again of how many times that, you know, this theology of remembrance is so critical for us simply because of the fact that we forget. Here's a quote from the book. Rekindling your passion for God often begins by returning to that place where you once trusted Him fully for everything. It's in that space of surrender that the fire of faith can burn bright again. Speak to that concept.

Yeah.

I get excited about that. Not because I said it, by the way. I wasn't like amening myself.

Okay. I just think it's true in regard to looking back. We need to tell our stories over and over and over again. And I love just wonderfully cornering people. In fact, I frequently do this, not to make people squirm or feel awkward, but just say, hey, in your own words, tell me when you came to the Lord.

When God showed up in your life, In a grand way, and you embraced the Lord Jesus, and you trusted Him by faith. Of what he has done for you. And you came to that understanding that it was no merit of your own. There's nothing that you could do to make yourself right with God. but it was clinging to the cross of Christ.

And I love getting people to talk about that. And I mean, look, in certain traditions of Christianity, you know, we'll have people talk about campfire moments or walk in the aisle at church when an invitation was given. They'll tell a passionate story of a father or mother, praise God, that shared the gospel. And it was a simple proclamation of John 3:16. We'll tell the moments of crisis in our lives where someone was at the point of death.

And the Lord intervened. And a drug addict that was at that moment of saying, man, I'm going to die. And they cried out to God, and God showed up in a miraculous way. Every one of these. And we could go on and on and on.

Wherever we are in that spectrum, every one of those is a Damascus Road story. They all are. And, you know, I hear people all the time say, oh, I don't really have much of a testimony. And I'm going, stop it right there. Yes, you do.

You have moved from death to life. You have a Damascus road story. Maybe it was, yeah, it was, you know, verse four of just as I am, and you grew up in a beautiful home like I did. You know, maybe it's this traumatic story of, you know, you cried out to God and he preserved your life and you swerved left and had you gone right, it would have been the end of it. But every one of those is the same route.

It's God's miraculous intervention. And so I think it's so critical. For us to go back to the beginning and tell our stories over and over again, we need to remember from where we've come. And so it's in that beautiful space of surrender that we have, generally speaking, most people go, I remember, I've forgotten that moment, but if I can go back there. I can get them to start rekindling their walk of faith and to say, okay, what do we need to do to stand in that moment?

Yeah.

So asking that kind of question to them, we are really helping them. uh in in terms of the journey to be rekindled, right? Oh, without a question. I mean, people can rekindle their faith. And so part of this is just like sitting down in a, and I don't mean this in a counseling situation, in a formal counseling situation, but think of what we're doing.

We're helping to lead people on a journey to say, hey, let's remember what God has done. And let's start there, and that's a good place to begin to take new steps forward. Yeah.

Sometimes it's experiences in a life that will cause a Christian to realize that they need to come back, you know, that they're walking at a distance from God. Right? Have you heard some stories like that? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Look, we all speak out of life and experience and moments. I think life is made up of a bunch of, you know, individual moments. And part of this is just getting people to talk. And certain generations are not comfortable with talking. And to help people process in this messy, broken, ugly world where again, things happen to us.

And so I do think that that's part of that is just being: hey, let's just talk about the goodness of God in our lives. And that is a good way to start reframing this discussion to people talk about the value of kindling and rekindling their walk of faith. Mark, as you know, this program is entitled Building Relationships.

So what could a rekindled heart do for a struggling marriage? Oh, I tell you what, I talk to couples all over the country and world, as do you. And frequently when I talk with couples that are Married, they're Christians, and I asked the question. Hey, have you guys had the privilege of sitting down together and telling each other? How you came to faith.

It is amazing how many couples have not done that. And they're missing out. When they get to rehearse their story of the grace of God. in their individual lives. And to know the details of that, of communicate that, about their homes and the hurts and the things that God used along the way to break them and bring them to faith, number one.

But then, what inevitably comes out of that is a closer bond between a husband and wife. Because they both realize that they're there by grace. And so I think there is great good of just constantly telling and talking about the goodness of God in our lives. And that can bring about. A renewal in the life of a marriage when you realize that here's what brings you together: it's God.

And that is the union that holds your walk together. And so I encourage couples all the time: I'm like, if you haven't done it, do it. If you have done it before, do it again. And there's great benefit in that. I can see that, and I would agree that many couples have never done that.

They just haven't thought about it. Yeah, they haven't thought about it. I think it's a good challenge for couples to be able to do that and say, tell your story of the grace of God in your life. Yeah.

Well, as we come to the end of our discussion today, Mark, what do you really hope readers will gain from reading and experiencing? of this book, The Rekindled Heart.

Well, my prayer is that anybody that reads it is going to. Identify where they are on a spectrum. Meaning, maybe I'm at a moment in my life where My walk with the Lord is just on fire. And maybe I'm at one of those down moments, like my friend was when he pointed to the fire and said, That's my faith. I pray that we'll kind of assess.

Assessment is very important. And ask that question and say, Lord, uh how do I need to think? What do I need to engage with you on? What sins do I need to confess? What do I need to put into action?

Not as a magic to-do list. But as a proactive way of saying, I want my walk of faith to be more vibrant. And that can occur, by the way, even in down moments, moments of great pain. And my prayer is that an individual will walk away if they engage this book, and it's going to send them back to the book, God's Word. And that they are going to have a new vigor, a new enthusiasm of saying, Okay, Lord, this may be where I am, but I don't want to stay here.

And if I'm at a good spot, I want to keep stoking it in order to keep that fire burning. And so that's what I pray for everybody. And, you know, the last thing, and I really kind of wrap this up even in the book, and I say to individuals, you know, because there's always an individual that's out there that says, you know, Mark, you don't know what I've done. You don't know where I am, and I don't know how God's going to deal with me. Yes, I'm a Christian, but.

I've done X, Y and Z. And to that individual, I always want to say, Hey, do you remember when Peter denied the Lord? And how our precious Savior brought him back, interestingly enough, to a fire. and reminded him of his loss, But said, Pete, I'm still with you. I want that person to walk away saying, The Lord is still there.

And he is longing for your walk of faith to be vibrant, and God will restore. And so I would say that to anybody that is listening, anybody that reads this book. to say that God is patient. and he is longing to have a greater walk with you. Why don't you have a greater walk with him?

He's waiting.

Well, that's a powerful way to conclude our time together today. Let me thank you for being with us. Let me thank you for writing this book. And I fully agree with you that if someone will take the time to read this book, I think it's going to help them look and ask, you know, where am I and how close am I and how can I be closer and put my faith totally in Him and in His Word.

So again, thank you for what you are doing at Dallas Seminary and for what you're doing in your personal ministry around the country and around the world.

Well, brother, that goes to you as well. Thank you for who you are for so many years and your faithful commitment to the Word and helping others mature in their faith. Privileged to be with you. Thank you. And if you want to find out more about this excellent resource, go to buildingrelationships.us.

The title again is The Rekindled Heart. Six Essentials for Reviving Your Faith by Dr. Mark Yarbrough. Just go to buildingrelationships.us.

And next week If you are the parent of a special needs child, Don't miss our discussion. Hear that in one week. A big thank you to our production team, Steve Wick and Janice Backing. Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman is a production of Moody Radio in association with Moody Publishers, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

Thanks for listening.