Are Christians Satisfied? Pt 2

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Saturday, April twelfth, twenty twenty five. It is currently six thirty eight pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, the goal in this episode is pretty simple. We're going to try to advance our discussion about Christianity and satisfaction. Right. I kind of asked the question in the last broadcast in part one of this discussion, are you really satisfied with your life? Are you really happy? Content? You have joy? You don't feel any that you're something is missing, that you're lacking something, that you're wanting something, because you just are completely satisfied your Your life is overflowing with satisfaction. Everything just seems so wonderful and perfect. Is that the case? And I will argue that just looking at the reality of life Christian non Christian, the reality is there's a lot of people who are not satisfied. No matter I know, Christians are gonna claim the opposite, and they're gonna claim, Oh, in Jesus, I've got everything I need I have complete satisfaction in Jesus, and they're gonna make all of these big claims, but the reality is no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

1:35 no no, it's not that way. So I'm challenging everything that's basically taught in Christianity on this subject, and it really fits with a lot of the other things that we have been discussing. We talked about fear, well, I don't like the way Christians handled that entire subject, So we challenge that we utilize a kind of a discussion about pornography to once again look at how Christianity handles that, and it completely denies some very important realities. So with this kind of fits together, everything is kind of all interconnected, and hopefully you're seeing that. I don't know if people are going to put all of the puzzle pieces of the puzzle together, but we're having some very important conversations.

2:19 So let's put this all back together, and then we're going to see how far we can advance this all. Right, now, remember, to start this, we have to go back to nineteen forty three. Nineteen forty three, you have the psychologist Abraham Maslow, who proposed a now famous model of human motivation known as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. All Right, and this hierarchy of needs I think is foundational. If we're going to talk about Christians and satisfaction, if we're going to talk about a lot of issues in Christianity, we have to really understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In fact, I'm going to go so far to say I didn't say this in part one, but I'm going to put forth the hypotheses that I don't know if you can truly understand sin without understanding Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I'm going to go so far to even put forth that hypothesis. So I'll and I'll try to defend that as we go through this. All Right, So this model basically says, I'll just kind of break it down here that basically that there's a hierarchy of needs and the end there's basically five levels to these needs. Okay, I think in modern times they've added a sixth, but the five are the core basic needs every human being has and the desire for these needs, these needs are built inside of us.

3:40 You didn't ask for these needs to be there, You didn't ask for these desires to be there. You're born with these needs and desires. Okay, and then you add you're born with these needs and desires and you have a sinful nature. You can just see where all of the problems begins to our right, and nobody wants to talk about it at this level. Christianity, the best he can do is stop it. Don't do it, stop it, don't do it, stop it, try harder, read more, go to church more. It's just very just stop it, stop it, stop it. Just don't do drugs. That's basically the Christian mantra. Now that we'll try to claim, Oh, but you've got the power of God to help you, but I have the power of God to help me, then I should be able to get to perfection. Basically, everything Christianity says is just massively flawed in so many areas because they get the fundamentals so very wrong. Right, So, but this hierarchy of needs, and we'll we'll we'll work through all of this. I'm kind of just giving you some previews of where we're going, all right. But Maslow's hierarchy of needs are these number one physiological needs. This includes food, water, shelter, rest, food, water shelter, rest. Everybody has those needs. And guess what happens.

4:49 You can get a you can get a sense of what happens just by taking some of these away. Right, go one mill, just skip one meal, no food. What happens. Let's say you miss breakfast in lunch by two or three in the afternoon. What happens. You're frustrated, you're irritated, you're grumpy, you're snapping at people. What happened? What happened? What I thought Jesus was enough? And you'll say, well, that's just ridiculous because obviously I need food. Well, I know you do, but all these other needs are just as strong as that in many and many ways, and people don't want to admit. So the point is having Jesus doesn't fit, doesn't fix your hunger problem for food. Right, you have Jesus, but your body still desires food. Guess what, You have Jesus, but your body still needs rest. And if you don't have rest, there's all the ramifications from it.

5:45 And if you remove food, if you remove water, if you remove shelter, and you remove rest, you remove these any physiological needs, it will manifest itself. And how you act, how you think, and it may even lead you to doing that which is in moral and ungodly. All right. Number two safety, So first is a physiological Second is safety. This is security, stability, protection. You want to feel a sense of security. This can be emotional security, mental security. This can be this physical security. You want a sense of stability. You don't want things ever go like it's this way, then it's this way, then it's this way, and then it's this way, and then you're going this direction and whack you get whacked upside the head and pulled this direction. You want stability, you want security, and you want protection. And if any of that is missing, there is may it's gonna show up in major ways.

6:47 You want love and belonging. You want intimacy. This can be mental intimacy, emotional intimacy, physical intimacy. You want friendship, you want relationship. You may want some sense of community. This love and belonging. And once again, if some of this is missing in any way, shape or form, it's going to manifest itself in very obvious and clear ways, and it's going to have a profound negative impact. You want a sense of self esteem. If you're missing that self esteem, then guess what uh, you're you're going to be longing for it and and this esteem can show up. You want to you want to feel a sense of respect, that you are respected, that people respect you at least about something about something that you that you feel like you can be respected for. You want some sense of recognition.

7:40 You want to be recognized. You want some people to to respect you and recognize you. You want to feel that you have a sense of purpose. There's esteem, and then number five is self actualization. You want to feel meaning. You want to have a place you can you can be creative, you can you can do something that's somewhat creative, and you can have some sense of fulfillment. Now anything any if you're missing any of those areas, it's going to have a profound impact. But here's what Christianity does, and this is where things get interesting. Christianity will come along and claim to offer a different solution. Many sermons, books and worship songs tell us that when we come to Christ, we gain a kind of complete soul level satisfaction that transcends and even replaces all of those needs.

8:30 So you have these needs, they may be built into you, but when you become a Christian dun dun, dun dun. You transcend these needs. You have Jesus and that's all you need. You set your affections on things above. You love God, and you desire the Word of God more than food and gold. You don't need anything. That's the way we sell it. That's how Christianity handle handles Maslow's hierarchiveneys. It's like, well, you have these needs, but if you have Jesus, you're never hunger and thirst again. Is the way it will be sold. They say Jesus is enough, that he fills the void, that if we truly believe in him, we won't hunger or thirst anymore, that his word and presence are more fulfilling than food, sex, safety, or human love. This idea is deeply embedded and modern Christian culture. But here's the problem. Most Christians still hunger.

9:23 Most Christians still ache for connection. They wrestle with loneliness, They long for intimacy, They fight fear, and they and they grieve and they have and they and they get bothered and upset if the absence of safety, love, or meaning, and when those needs aren't met, the Church tells them Jesus should be enough. It doesn't lead to Joit typically leads to guilt, It leads to shame, it leads to silence, and ultimately it will lead to pretending that you've got it all when you really don't. So we are talking about this now, and that's kind of just summarizing some of the basic premises of this hypothesis because I'm challenging the Christian's approach to this. So what we talked about last time is we talked about the examples of how a lack of fulfillment manifest We talked about what happens when your physiological needs are not met, when missing when you're missing love and belonging, when you're missing esteem, when you're missing self actualization or meaning. And we talked about how all when you're missing that it's going to manifest itself.

10:30 And we talked all the different ways it can. I'm not going to go back through it. It was a very important conversation. So here's what happens. I decided considering Maslow's hierarchy of needs another thing to spark this was a sermon on spiritual satisfaction and just kind of just discussing this with myself, kind of talking with myself about it, I decided, you know what, let me talk to artificial intelligence about it. So I spent probably three hours having a conversation with artificial intelligence about this entire subject. And I'm going to share with you that back and forth, that conversation. And the reason I'm going to do this, and I mentioned this at the end of the last broadcast, is because I believe by sharing the conversation, instead of just taking the conversation turning it into like bullet points or just turning it into an outline and teaching it, if I share the conversation, I feel it unfolds in a natural way. You get to kind of listen to me wrestle with these questions in real time. You're gonna you're gonna see what I was wrestling with artificial intelligence in regards to this subject of satisfaction. In real time.

11:44 I think it's going to You're gonna be able to hear an honest exploration rather than me just starting with some rigid thesis. You're gonna hear me kind of work through. Now you'll hear some of my hypotheses and some of my theories, because I've already put forth that I have a hypothesis that goes against most of Christianity. But you're going to be hearing the conversation, and from the very beginning, as I'm developing that hypothesis, over time, I think it's going to allow you to listen and follow the progression of thought. Instead of being told believe this, You're gonna kind of hear me try to figure out well how to possibly approach this subject. And I think that the conversation offers a good balance of psychology, theology, scripture, and my own personal reflection in it. And I think that will make it somewhat interesting. So what you're going to hear over the next I don't know, thirty minutes, thirty five minutes, ever, how long I take this episode, you're gonna hear about a conversation. You're gonna hear a conversation about how the I struggle with and try to understand and somewhat challenge the normal understanding of satisfaction that many churches put forth. And I'm going to argue against the way Christianity sells itself because I think it's all I think it's all a fraud. I think the whole thing's a fraud. And nobody wants to admit it. So where

13:15 did the conversation begin, Well, if we start at the very beginning, it started because of a sermon on spiritual satisfaction. So what I originally did is I'm like, hey, Ai, I have a sermon here and that's called spiritual satisfaction. How do you think it's going to handle it? Give me your prediction, and it basically says, well, it's going to handle it like all Christians handle satisfaction, and it kind of gave me the basic overview. So then I gave it the text, and then we had this long conversation about Some one nineteen and how can it be used this way? What is a law gospel? I'm going to leave all of that out because that went on for like an about forty five minutes, and it's going to take us way too far from the subject at hand.

13:56 It was some interesting conversation and definitely, and I've ultimately gave Ai the sermon itself, and AI was like, well, I told you what it was going to be about, because they basically did everything I told you they were going to do to the very letter. And I'm like, well, I don't agree with the way it handled it. And AI was like, okay, well I kind of figured that since you don't agree with anything that Christians do, Okay, but here we go. So then I'm like, all right, how then, how do most Christians? How do most pastors define spiritual satisfaction? How do they understand it? Ai says In the modern evangelical or non denominational context, spiritual satisfaction is typically defined experientially, emphasizing feelings of peace, joy fulfillment, are closeness to God. It's typically tied to emotional well being.

14:58 I feel full when I worship or pray or read the scriptures. See, you can have complete emotional well being. But what I always love how Christianity does this? Like when you're a Christian, you'll get emotional well being, but then you're told no, no, no, no, it's not just as simple as becoming a Christian. If you really want emotional wellbeing, you got to read your Bible. You've got to go to church, you got to pray, you got to join a small group, you got to do Bible study, you got to do devotionals, you got to have a quiet time. And now all of a sudden, it becomes a list of thirty seven things you have to do in order to get emotional wellbeing. But I thought I got a emotional well being because I have Jesus. Well, you do have Jesus, but you don't get your emotional wellbeing until you do abcd FG. Well, how much of it do I do to have emotional well being? Well, the more you do, the better your emotional wellbeing will be. Well, if I'm doing all of these things, do I have emotional wellbeing? What about all the other? Okay, well, then you could just it just becomes a vicious cycle. So typically they will tie it to emotional well being. They will also kind of connect it to a sense of purpose or identity. I know who I am in Christ, and I feel complete. Hey, your identity is found in Christ. Now, look, I'm not rejecting this idea that my identity should be found in Christ. But what comes with it is your identity is in Christ. So you don't need anything, You're not lacking anything. You should be perfect, you should be satisfied, you don't need self esteem. You've got Christ's esteem. And it all sounds so good, it sounds so good. But yet, even though we are in Christ, even though He's our identity,

16:32 come on, two thousand years of church history as my proof. Christians have complained, there's been frustration here. They just in the biggest details to the smallest details. There's a lack of satisfaction because all you have to do to get Christians to act a certain way is just remove part of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and you will see a completely different side. Even though they talk to big game relational connection. See, you can have satisfaction because God speaks to me. Is how some will say, I feel his presence. So you have a relational connection. You may be longing for relational connection, but you don't need relational connection because you can have the perfect relational connection because you have God. Again, it sounds so good, it preaches so good. I won't even get into the issues here, but this is how typically Christians will handle this idea.

17:32 You have complete satisfaction. Why because and they will usually connect us having perfect satisfaction and contentment and all of this because you now have victory over sin. You're now living a spiritually victorious life. You don't live in defeat. You've been set free. You're a new creature, the oldest passed away now and well and everyone says, amen, Amen, Amen to it, and then you but nobody wants to admit you're perpetually in a state of sin twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. So so much of how Christianity teaches us it's a lie. You've got to be have complete, perfect emotional wellbeing. I have a sense of purpose, I have relational connection to my God, and I have victory over sin. I'm more than a conqueror.

18:21 And all of this is understood in a practical way. And the reality is, no, you're in a perpetual state of sin, and you're not. All these things you're claiming. Your life demonstrates you don't. You're not even experiencing these things. They will also connect this spiritual satisfaction to personal growth or spiritual progress. Typically within Christianity, it leans more towards a therapeutic language, satisfaction as an inner calm, a fulfillment sometimes detached from deeper theological or covenantal realities. It's just basically, everything is good in life. Everything's wonderful, everything's great, everything is as perfect as it should be because you've got Jesus and that's all you need. So I'm like Okay, thank you. I think that pretty much agrees with everything I hear and see. So I'm like, okay, A, I can agree with this. But then I asked Ai a question.

19:24 I said, do you think Christians really, at a true and honest level, actually experience this kind of spiritual satisfaction as it is defined by most sermons and Christian books? Do you I know what all the Christian books say, I know what all the sermons say, I know what I've been told my entire Christian life, But do you think anyone really experiences what Christianity constantly sells? Ai says, Christians do not experience spiritual satisfaction in the way it's commonly defined in sermons and books, at least not consistently, consistently, sustainably, or deeply. And many are quite aware of that reality.

20:21 So AI is like, no, they don't. And most and many Christians really know this. They know it deep down. They may not admit it, but they do not. They're not experienced this in a consistent way, in a sustainable way, or in a deep way. It's a facade. It's all pretend, and it's it's maddening because I fell into the same trap of a lot of this nonsense, buying into this, believing this. So I asked Ai, well why not? I mean, that's that's a bold statement for Ai to go, No, don't think it's happening. I'm like, WHOA, that's that's pretty cold.

21:01 Why not? Ai says? The definition is unrealistic. The definition is detached from reality. This is what Ai said. Most sermons and Christian books describe spiritual satisfaction as feeling close to God, living in peace and victory, overcoming sin on a regular and consistent basis, enjoying Bible reading and prayer daily, having emotional and spiritual fullness. This is essentially an idealized an ideal. Basically, you're kind of giving the the the the perfect idea of what almost heaven. Right. It's it's this, It's essentially an idealized experiential state, and it's marketed as attainable if you just do the right things. It's it's the ideal concept, right. It's more, it's like Christianity sells this essentially that this is what it should be, and it sounds almost like heaven. It almost sounds like glorification, and they want to say that this is what you can experience. It's something that that basically this is how it should be in your everyday life, and Christian's Christianity market markets it as an attainable thing. You can have it.

22:27 But here's the thing. Christians play this game with you. It's almost like bait and switch, right, because what they do is they say it's attainable, you can have it, and they almost sell out, like if you get Jesus, that's all you ever need, you'll be content. But then inevitably you don't read the fine print because it'll be like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. You become a Christian, but you've got to do a B, C, D, E, F, G, h I, J, K, leman O, P q, R S, t U, v w X, y n Z, and we'll go to a couple of other alphabets because you've got to do those things as well, and you know what those things are going to be. You've got to pray, you gotta read, you got to go to small group, you gotta go to church, you need to tie ten percent, you got to do this, you got to do that.

23:08 You got to do this, you got to do that. And you're like, well, wait a minute, I thought so you've got to do all of these things in order to supposedly get this satisfaction. This kind of satisfaction is rare if you ever even briefly experience it. It's fleeting, and it's largely at least AI is allowing for the possibility largely unattainable in this life. I think AI is being nice. I don't think it's largely unattainable. I think it's one hundred percent unattainable. And Christians lie to everyone when they sell this nonsense and sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. So the first problem why Christians don't ever experience this is because the definition is detached from reality. It's just it's unrealistic. It's unattainable.

24:03 It's just ridiculous. It's basically trying to say, you know, to quote a famous lyric, heaven on earth. We don't get heaven on earth, ladies and gentlemen. Number two second problem sin doubt, losing my voice, Sin doubt and suffering are ongoing. I would like to say, AI says, sin doubt and suffering or ongoing, I'm going to be like, this is what I'm going to say, sin, doubt, and suffering are realities of your life and my life. People struggle with spiritual dryness, they struggle with doubt, they struggle with apathy, they struggle with guilt, and they often do this quietly because you're not supposed to do it loudly and be open and honest with it. Because something's wrong.

24:57 Because you've got Jesus, and that's all you ever need. Have you got Jesus, You'll never hunger and thirst again. If you've got Jesus, you don't need anything else, because that's the way it's always sold. Now you say, well, there's verses that seem to indicate this, and I think these verses are radically misunderstood because we take these verses and I think they refer to something spiritual and we make it somehow related to our physical, materialistic life. And I think that's where the problems begin. Ongoing sin and failure make it hard to feel spiritually satisfied because you're in a perpetual state of sin. How are you going to feel spiritually satisfied when here's the reality. God says, be holy. You're not holy. You've never been that for one second of one minute of one hour of one day.

25:45 You're never going to be that. You're in a perpetual state of sin. The Bible says to love God with all your heart and mind, body and soul. You have never done that, you never will do that. The Bible system may meditate on His law day and night. You have never done that. You never will do that. The Bible says to love His word more than you do gold, silver, and food. You have never done that, and you never will do it. I can go on and on and on and on. Scripture after scripture after scripture. You live in a perpetual state of failure. But you're supposed to somehow know. Oh, I'm spiritually satisfied now. It depends now if you're talking about how you understand this, If we talk about my positional standing before God, I can have complete satisfaction, right because in Christ I perfect and obedience.

26:29 But in my practical life you're in a perpetual state of failure. Every single time you open the Bible, you're confronted with God's law that says you are a failure. And if you think otherwise, then you are not reading the scriptures even remotely. Honest, sin, doubt, and suffering or ongoing and this life, prayers feel unanswered all the time, as much as you want to pretend otherwise, prayers feel unanswered all the time. The Bible can feel closed. Emotions fluctuate, that's just a reality. Alive. Emotions fluctuate. Why because emotions are not so simple as you get Jesus and now all of your emotions are right. Because emotions are complicated.

27:15 They're they're there's all kinds of things going on inside of us. There, they're they're influenced by external factors. They're influenced by internal factors. There's body chemistry going on, there's a million issues. So therefore, you're never truly going to have complete satisfaction the way Christians lie to you and tell you you can. All right, If spiritual satisfaction is measured by how close we feel to God or how victorious we are, then most Christians will always feel like a failure or a second class believer. You're always going to feel like you're a failure. You're always going to feel like you're a second class believer. You're always going if you're even remotely honest. So what's the game that is?

28:00 You got to pretend the game is you got to pretend to be that which you know everyone knows you're not, but you continue to pretend that way. So why do Christians never going to feel true satisfaction? Is because the definition is detached from reality. It's unrealistic. And because sin, doubt, and suffering is a part of this life and it's always going to be a part of this life. For some people it's more than others, but it's always going to be there. Third, most Christians fake it, not necessarily out of hypocrisy, but out of pressure. The way satisfaction has talked about makes people feel ashamed if there aren't experiencing it, pretend they have to. They have it to fit in at church or small group, buy books, go to conferences, or seek experiences hoping for that missing feeling.

28:52 So instead of honestly saying, I don't I'm not satisfied, I'm not content, I'm unhappy about this. No no, no, no, no, no no no, I still sin. Oh, you can't say that. You mask all of the inner emptiness, you mask all of the needs not being met, and you pretend, and you pretend, and you pretend and you pretend, and you may overcompensate because you feel that something is not right. So what you do you become you get involved in a performance based religion, and you do do do Do, do do do, and then you become arrogant, judgmental, and condemning to cover up the reality that you know something still isn't right. Even though I'm a Christian, you start sounding like you're singing YouTube. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. So obviously, most Christians are never going to find true satisfaction because many of them are spending most of their life faking it. Number four the laws misused.

29:50 When spiritual satisfaction is presented as the result of your obedience hunger and effort, then it's functionally law and not gospel a lot of times. And that's this weird thing. If you get Jesus, you've got everything you need. You'll never hunger and thirst again, but almost inevitably again, bait and switch, you get Jesus, you get it all, and then all of a sudden switch no no, no, no, no no, you get Jesus. But now you got to do this, and you got to do this, and you got to do this because if you don't do this and you don't do this, and you don't do this well, then you won't feel satisfied, you won't feel content, you won't feel happy. You've got to be basically perfect then you'll be happy. I'm telling you you can be perfect. You're still not going to be happy because why Because you've got these needs inside of you, and the minute those needs are not being met, I don't care how godly you are, I don't care how holy you are.

30:38 You're going to feel it because it's built inside of our body, and then we have a sinful nature inside of us. So when spiritual satisfaction is presented as the result of your obedience, hunger, and effort, then it's functionally law and it's not gospel, and it becomes a burden. You're not satisfied because you don't want God enough. You're not satisfied because you're not seeking your affections on things above. You're not satisfied because you're not seeking first the kingdom of God. You're not satisfied because you haven't died to yourself. It becomes a performance metric. If you were spiritual enough, you would feel full. If you were spiritual enough, you wouldn't be depressed. You wouldn't be discouraged, you wouldn't be frustrated, you wouldn't be better. Come on, snap out of it, act right now. They may say it in a nicer way, but when you strip away all of the verbiage, it becomes do more, do more, do more, do more. So it becomes a cycle of guilt. Try harder, want it more, Come on, you can do it. This will ultimately crush people who are honest about their feelings and their emotions and their desires and their needs and their wants. So why do most Christians not experience Number one, The definition of satisfaction is completely unrealistic. Number two, Sin doubt and

32:08 suffering are going to be a part of life. And guess what, Sin doubt and suffering is always going to impact Maslow's hierarchy of needs because one of the reasons you're suffering is because one of those needs are not being met. Number three, most Christians are spending their time faking it, so they're not going to get anywhere. And typically this is once again a never ending problem of where everything becomes law based and not gospel based. And number five, I think this is important. True satisfaction is found outside of ourselves. The paradox of the Gospel really is this. You're not spiritually satisfied by what you feel or by what you do. You're spiritually satisfied because Christ is your satisfaction, no matter what you feel, no matter what is going on Christ in Christ, Christ is my satisfaction.

33:01 This leads us back to a positional understanding. In Christ. Positionally, I will never hunger or thirst. I don't need anything to be eternally saved. There's nothing I have to do to keep my salvation, so I never have to hunger and thirst for righteousness because it's all been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. He's everything I need spiritually to get me from salvation to eternal glory, to a new body. No more pain, no more suffering, no more death I don't have. I can be perfectly content and what Christ has done for me now there I can find satisfaction. But that satisfaction is far different than what it turns out practically, because practically I may be depressed, I may be discouraged, I may be frustrated, things may be going horribly wrong.

33:47 But in my position, I'm perfectly satisfied because Christ is my satisfaction. He satisfied the wrath of God on my behalf. He paid for my sins. Jesus kept the law perfectly. When you could not, and you cannot, he cried out and abandonment so you could be accepted. He was the Word made flesh. When you can barely read the word, here's your peace. When your soul feels absolutely chaotic. That's not emotional, it's not circumstantial. It's positional. It's the objective satisfaction we have in Christ, even while the lot, while we lack the subjective feeling of it. Positionally perfect satisfaction, perfectly complete, never hunger, never thirst again, never need anything again. Practically, may never feel this, may never experience it, may live a life of so many negative things. Most Christians don't experience spiritual satisfaction the way it's preached or sold, and when they don't, they often feel like something is wrong with them. They try to hide to fit in. They try to hide it to fit in. They chase after books, worship, experiences, disciplines, trying to recapture it. They go to this conference, they'll buy a book on the five spiritual disciplines, and they do this, and they're gonna do this, and they're gonna

35:19 do this, and they're gonna do this, and they're always chasing this elusive thing where they can truly feel satisfied, truly feel the blessed life. No, but I am blessed in Christ Jesus spiritually, not based on anything that's gonna happen in my life. Because my life may be filled with pain, turmoil, and missing a good portion of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And God doesn't guarantee or promise that he's gonna make me feel better because these needs are meeting missing. Because with those needs are missing, there's going to be issues and what can ultimately happen. Well, Christians will chase and chase and chase, and sometimes they just stop chasing, they stop running, and they're like, this is all this whole system is a lie. It's all garbage.

36:03 You Christians are insane. Y'all got mental problems because you're all pretending. It's like you're still running around and dress up at Disneyland and you haven't woken up to realize the real world calls. And it's not this nonsense that you Christians teach because they never hear the gospel. They hear this law based system, but the Gospel tells us a completely different story. Satisfaction is not found in your experience. It's not based on your experience. It's found in Christ, who satisfies God's wrath fulfills God's law, and invite sinners who are still thirsty, who are still broken, who are still weak, who still doubt, who still sin, to rest not in what they can do, but what He did perfectly in his finished work. This is you do not trust or rest in your feelings. You don't trust and rest in your good deeds. You don't trust and rest, and how good a Christian you can be, you, it's all finished in Him. Your rest in that. So I was like, WHOA, that's really good, Ai, that's some really good stuff. And they drave home some really good points, and of course I added my own thoughts in some of that, but yeah, it's We had a good conversation.

37:25 But I was left with kind of After I had that conversation, I'm like, hey, so these are my words, I said Ai. I didn't say Ai, but speaking to Ai, typing to Ai, I said, many Christians who claim to have this so called spiritual satisfaction, which I don't believe anybody actually does, but I do find this somewhat irritating to me. Many who claim to have this spiritual satisfaction are often at the exact same time surrounded by material stability. They have a home, they have a family, they have food, they have income, they have health, they have security, they have intimacy, they have relationship, they have all the things.

38:26 They basically have pretty much everything on Maslow's hierarchy of needs pretty much met. They've got most of them there, and so it's not always clear whether they're satisfaction is truly spiritual, are just the psychological and emotional comfort that comes from having a good life. Now you'll see this a lot sometimes. The Christians were so loud about Oh, in Jesus, you got everything. In Jesus, you got everything.

39:11 A lot of times you look and go, but look at your life. You're claiming Jesus is your all, Jesus is all you need. Jesus is your satisfaction. You claim all of this stuff in a practical way, But look at your life. Let's go through Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Name one thing is missing, Name one thing missing. You got every single one of them. So if you've got them all, they're for crying out loud? Then how do you know that's Jesus satisfying you and that you or it's not? Or is it really Jesus satisfying you? Or is it just the psychological and emotional comfort that comes from having a good life. You've got pretty much everything, so how can you be claiming it's Jesus? You don't know if it's Jesus. You can say, oh, day, it's Jesus.

39:56 You've just added Jesus to your list of everything else you've got maslow'shierarchy of needs check check, check, check, check, and then add in Jesus. Oh but Jesus is the thing satisfying me. Stop your nonsense, so AI said, Let me be blunt. Material comfort, emotional intimacy, physical intimacy. Add all of that stuff together gets confused with spiritual satisfaction. If you ask someone who says they're spiritually satisfied, would you feel that same satisfaction if you lost your job, you lost your health, you lost your marriage, you lose your kids. Would you still say God is enough? If everything was stripped away? Would your peace survive the unraveling of your life? All these things were taken away. Go with Maslow's hierarchy of needs and start removing things. Now, I know what you're supposed to say. Oh, I'll be satisfied because Jesus is all I need. Well again, it's big talk. When you got everything. It's big talk to say that in the sanctuary, or you're sitting next to your nice little family. And then you all get together and walk out holding hands, get in the car, stop

41:27 by your favorite restaurant, get some food, go home, play outside, go to the park, walk the dog, give everyone a hug and kiss, and then you and your wife get in bed together. Oh yeah, you've got everything. But I know when you start stripping some of those away, people don't sound like they're all satisfied, do they? Hmm, job, didn't sound so satisfied. Did he just keep that in mind. We'll come back to that in greater detail. So this question exposes something. A lot of what passes for spiritual satisfaction in the modern church is deeply entangled with material ease and circumstantial blessing. Now they may say, oh, I have all of this because God gave it to me. Well, that a great good. That's good. But the person one block away who doesn't have all of that. Waight, God didn't bother to give it to them. Okay, now we get into a whole different theological discussion. So I think a lot of what is put forth as satisfaction in the Christian Church it's fraudulent. It's fake. You claim to be so satisfied and that Jesus is your everything because you've got all this stuff. And my question is, if Jesus is everything, why do you need all of this other stuff? Why do you need timacy, Why do you

43:00 need physical intimacy, Why do you need companionship? Why do you need this? Why do you keep by? Why do you have this and this and this? Oh you should need is Jesus. It should just be you God, the word, prayer, praise, confession, meditating on it, feeding upon God's word, because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. You hunger and thirst after righteousness. That's that's what it should all be about. It's a it's a big game to say all of that and then you have everything else. Imagine your life and a monastery or a convent, become a nun become a monk. That's your life. Just God, just God. Morning prayers, afternoon prayers, evening prayers, late night prayers, following the Liturgy of the hours, reading, attending services, hearing homilies, reading from spiritual books. That's it. Nothing else. You don't have anything else.

44:23 Now that's going to challenge your whole concept of satisfaction in about three point two seconds, so Ai again says, a lot of what passes for spiritual satisfaction in the modern church is deeply entangled with material ease and circumstantial blessings. We could ask this question, what if job won thirteen through nineteen happened to you Job chapter one, verses thirteen through nineteen. Just write down job one thirteen through nineteen.

45:07 What'd you should do to take a piece of paper, write it out like, just paraphrase it. Just get the basic concept of what happens here. Just write it down and just put it somewhere like on the refrigerator. You could see it every day and just ask what if what if it happened to you? See, the test of spiritual satisfaction is not when your life is full, it's when your life is empty. Job lost everything his livestock, his servants, his children, his wealth, his health, his wife even told him to curse God and die. Now in all of that, Job did say, though he slay me, yet I will trust in him. Now did he have satisfaction? Now, me and Ai had a little back and forth here, all right, and I'll go to the I'll skip some of this and go down to the next conversation. Because we had a conversation about this. Ai is like, well, most Christians are going to say, well, job was satisfied, and I'm like, that's complete garbage. I don't believe he was.

46:08 I believe he maintained trust in God. That's far different than being satisfied. And we'll talk about that in a second. Jesus said this would be the test. A person's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Blessed are the poor in spirit. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. If our so called spiritual satisfaction collapses when life gets hard, then it wasn't really spiritual. It was circumstantial. But see, my thing is, I think it even goes deeper because if we truly had this satisfaction, because Christianity basically sells the idea that we can have this satisfaction that goes you know, we don't need Maslow's hierarchy of needs because we have Jesus. But the point is is, if you sell it that way, it's just a garbage because we wouldn't then be pursuing all of these things. Why do we pursue all of these things?

47:08 Why do we I gotta do this, and I want this, and I need this, and I desire this, and I need this and I need this because we're still hungering and desiring. Because we have all these needs and all of these desires, why do we get frustrated? Why do we get irritated? A much of our fighting and frustrating and bickering and backbiting and gossip and slander and bitterness and unforgiveness. So much of our sin is because we still have these needs, and when those needs are not met, they manifest in very real ways. So our ongoing sin in some ways prove that we're not truly spiritually satisfied, because we're truly spiritually satisfied. The way Christians sell it, you wouldn't want anything, you wouldn't need anything, so you wouldn't even worry about sin because you would have no need for it because you're perfectly content and happy with what you have. But that's not the case, is it.

48:00 Christians who talk about peace, joy, contentment, and satisfaction are not facing starvation, they're not facing persecution, they're not facing prison. They have health care, and in most cases, they're relatively healthy. They have electricity, they have clean water, they have access to churches, Bibles, and freedom of worship. They're financially and relationally stable. Even if life has some challenges, overall, they've got most of that. So what they call satisfaction is often basic human comfort paired with religious language, not the kind of deep, durable, soul level satisfaction that many Christians talk about. So what does all of this do well? It creates unrealistic expectations for suffering Christians. Why aren't you joyful in your trial? Why aren't you joyful? What is your problem? It causes guild and believers who are poor, lonely, sick or depressed. Maybe I just don't love God enough, Maybe something's wrong with me. It gives the wrong impression that Christianity is a pathway to peace in this life, rather than through crosses pain and deferred hope, because that's the reality the Christian life. You go through pain, suffering, deferred hope, sin, guilt, shame. Most Christians who say they're spiritually satisfied are also well fed, Howe's loved, safe, and employed, And that raises the question would they still claim spiritual

49:31 satisfaction if all of that was gone? If not, maybe it wasn't spiritual satisfaction to begin with. Now at this point, I interrupt Ai, and I'm like, hey, hey, I'm not sure Job confessed to having spiritual satisfaction. To me, he sounds very unsatisfied practically, emotionally, and mentally. AI says, You're right to question this. The idea that Job was spiritually satisfied in the way modern Christianity defines it calm, content, emotionally emotionally peaceful, is not only inaccurate, it completely misses the point of the book. All right. So AI's like, Okay, You're right to question it because the way AI framed it was a way like many Christians would frame it.

50:22 I don't know if a I was trying to say what most Christians was trying to say how most Christians would put it. But I'm just like, ah, he's trusting him. But I don't think that's satisfaction, right. So this is what AI then goes on to say. Job was not spiritually satisfied by today's definition. If we define spiritual satisfaction as feeling close to God, having enter peace, being emotionally fulfilled, experiencing spiritual victory, feeling content no matter the circumstances, then Job fails the test absolutely horribly. He felt it miserably. What Job actually experienced He experienced emotional and mental agony, Job chapter three, verse eleven. Why did I not perish at birth? Job three twenty four? My groans pour out like water? Job chapter ten one. I loathe my life.

51:14 Job is not just sad. He's in full blown despair. He curses the day of his birth. That's not spiritual satisfaction by any modern definition. So when Maslow's hierarchy of needs are pulled from Job's life, he wishes he was dead, he wished he was never born, and he loathes his very existence. That's not satisfied. Job experienced spiritual confusion and accusation. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands? Job ten three, Though I cry violence, I get no response. Job nineteen seven, Job nineteen six. Basically, God, you've wronged me. Basically, Job is accusing God. He feels abandoned, betrayed, and unjustly treated. This is not spiritual peace, it's spiritual torment.

52:08 There's no sense of closeness with God. There are long stretches of the book where Job pleads with God and hears nothing in return. He feels like God is hidden, silent, and distant. He does not know the end of the story. We read Job with hindsight, knowing God will restore him, but Job didn't. He lived most of the book in darkness, confusion, raw pain, still holding onto some faith, but not feeling satisfied at all. So what was Job actually doing. He wasn't showing satisfaction. He was showing faith in the middle of dissatisfaction. Job never pretends to be okay. He doesn't mask his sorrow with cliches. He doesn't call his suffering a blessing in disguise. He doesn't feel peace. He protests it, he mourns it, he argues, but he refuses to curse God.

52:55 That's faith, not satisfaction. Faith and satisfaction are two different things Job had faith and his dissatisfaction he did. That's the reality. The Bible never commands emotional emotional satisfaction. It shows us to be honest, to lament, to protest, and to grief. It doesn't. Everyone thinks it will gives you this, Hey be emotionally satisfied. No, no, no. The Bible basically says, be honest, scream out and a lament, which is a spiritual scream of pain, agony, and dissatisfaction. Protests grieve. Faith doesn't mean feeling good. That means clinging to God when you don't feel good, everything is wrong and you're ticked off about it. Spiritual satisfaction, as it's preached by most churches.

53:56 They would condemn Job to the fifteenth level of hell. He kicked out of Sunday School. If Joe come walking into Sunday School has said some of the things he said, he would be kicked out, excommunicated, done. He's a sinner, he doesn't love God, he doesn't trust God. He would all basically, ever, we would treat him like his friends did. I don't act like we wouldn't. Oh, give me a stinking break, because we also self righteous. We would think what is wrong with him? We would condemn Job. We would condemn many of we we condemn the psawmist, We would condemn many of the prophets. We probably would even condemn Christ. Come on, trust in him. Why are you grieving?

54:43 Why are you, you know, sweating as if great drops of blood? Why are you why are you so worried? Why are you filled with so much anxiety? Why are you screaming out on the cross? My God, my God? Why has self forsaking me? Have a little faith, Jesus? What's your problem? We can't say anything like because we if we express strong feelings, we make the We got to make the little church uncomfortable. We can't make the little Christians uncomfortable now because Christianity is nothing more than a Hallmark movie or a Disney movie. Oh, it can't be a Disney movie because that's satanic, all right. It's it's, it's, it's, it's it's. An episode of Veggie tells a real picture of righteous suffering Jesus. You can think of Jesus on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

55:43 Job did not feel satisfied practically, emotionally, mentally, or even spiritually by modern definitions. And that's the point. The deepest spiritual maturity isn't calm satisfaction. It's raw, relentless faith when all satisfaction is gone. Now, I'll stop right there. We still didn't get anywhere near where I went to go. Well, I mean we got a lot further. There's still much to this conversation. Because I said it went on for three hours. There's a disconnect with the way Christianity sells itself well, it sells the satisfaction. And again, I think, if you want to understand sin. Now, I didn't get to defend this much, but we will get there. I'll put forth some of my ideas here. I think when we look at Masslow's hierarchy of needs, when those needs are not met, it manifests itself in very clear ways emotionally, physically, behaviorally, mentally, and spiritually. And a lot of sin is directly connected to these these needs. Not being mad or satisfied. I'm not justifying the sin. I'm saying there's a deeper reason for it. And a lot of times you see this game gets get played. Right. As people get older, older,

57:19 teen years, going into the single years, they have some needs. They have some desires, right, oh, come on, now do we do? I'll try to be you know, careful how I say this. But they have some needs and desires for intimacy, for love, for relationship. They desire it. Now the church will say, hey, hey, hey, find it as fast as you can and get married as quickly as you can, because you can't meet these needs other than you meet the needs this way. So a lot of people then run, they get married very very early. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it's a complete and total and utter disaster. But Christianity is even aware that these desires are there, but we got get these met as fast as possible. But for many things don't work out so smoothly. So in many cases they kind of withdraw from the church, maybe kind of walk away from the church, don't get so close to the church because they got these needs, these wants and these desires, and they kind of walk away.

58:16 In many cases there or even if they stay in the church, they're involved in sin. They're struggling in sin, but a lot of cases they keep it hidden and nobody knows they're struggling and they're doing these sins, but sh keep it, keep it down. Low, and then what happens, Then they can finally get married. They get married and now they have a family and then done. Dun dum, God gives me power over my sin. I'm completely satisfied. Look at me, and it's like yeah, because now you're able to fulfill the very thing that you were struggling with. Now you have a way to fulfill it. Now you have a way to meet that desire. You have that need, you have the relationship, you have physical intimacy and physical satisfaction on a pretty consistent basis. You've got this, You've got that. Now you talk a bit game, and sometimes it's those young Christian couples who are loud condemning and think that they've got it all figured out because they're Christians and they're got it. Fifteen minutes ago, before you had all of this, you were struggling and sinning and frustrated and depressed and because some needs weren't being mad.

59:21 So it's not that all of a sudden Jesus satisfied you. Now you have a way to get the very needs mat And now that you've got the needs met all of a sudden, now it's zip bitty dude. Uh zip bitty dah. All of a sudden, the rainbow is in the sky, Skittles are falling, unicorns are running by. Everything is wonderful, everything's happy. You're in the honeymoon stage. Life is good. You're pursuing your career. You may be starting to make a little bit more money. You've got freedom now, you're you're not living under your parents. Things are going good. You've got you want to do this. You're thinking about all the things you want to do in life. You've got all of that going. So, all of those emotional needs that is on the Mazzole hierarchy is being matt and you're saying, it's Jesus, It's Jesus, stop it. You just got all the needs mad, And so you become this arrogant, condemning, self righteous jerk. And many times the facade begins to crack, and then you realize, huh, not as perfect as you pretended to be? Are you? Not so righteous? Are you? Because sooner or later, the other needs will begin to emerge, other desired things won't be going out perfectly, and then guess where you're going to be?

1:00:44 And so what happens, Well, some cases of what over forty percent. I depend I don't know the latest number, somewhere between forty and fifty percent. Sometimes it's been listed as fifty. Sometimes it's been around forty two, forty three. But a good number of those Christian marriages. Wait, I thought everything was perfect. Now or this happens, or this happens, or this happens, and there's grumbling and there's fighting, and there's bickering and there's unhappiness. But I thought Jesus took care of it all, made everything perfect, complete satisfaction in him.

1:01:28 I should never hunger and thirst again. I should be completely content. I shouldn't need anything. Sometimes we can't see that we're fooling our own selves. Now, I know some of your quoting scriptures, right, you're quoting, but Jesus says this, and I understand again. I believe many of those passages have to be understood from a positional perspective, because in a practical sense, come on now, or we have to understand them as law calling for something that we never can do, which drives us to Christ, who is our satisfaction.

1:02:11 Christ does fulfills all of that perfectly for us. That's it. It's going to all fall apart. We will get to some of those scriptures further on in this, but now we're over an hour, and I think we did pretty good. I think we took that apart pretty good, and we took apart job, and I think I think we did pretty good. All right, we'll stop right there. Thanks for listening. We'll continue this. I don't know if we'll get to anymore tomorrow, maybe tomorrow May. I would like to try to do this. Maybe so tomorrow we'll be live streaming everything for church. So a lot of times I like to start one like at around not eight forty five, try to be done about nine fifty, then go ten to eleven, then start, but it always gets really rushed, and so I may not do that tomorrow and just try to just do ten and broadcast at ten, broadcast at eleven, and then yeah, and then maybe just wait till Monday to do more on this. And we got to get back to our study on Salem. We still got to do the storms of life stuff, so and Acts twenty seven we need to work on that. We still got a lot of things to do. But yeah, all right, thanks for listening. In other words, I'm not satisfied with where I'm currently at and some of these series and I'm not really satisfied and how tomorrow is going to go because I don't really know, and probably when I'm done, I won't be satisfied about that, and okay, well all right, thanks for listening. God bless