Oct. 20, 2024

Bible Interpretation Errors Pt 2

Bible Interpretation Errors Pt 2

We continue our look at errors made in bible interpretation

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We continue our look at errors made in bible interpretation

WEBVTT

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This morning is the thirty eight year anniversary of well,

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not a good event. It was thirty eight years ago,

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almost at this exact time, just down the road Jimnet

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High School. Thirty eight years ago today. I was in

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the cafeteria. I got the page overhead that I needed

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to come to the principal's office, and from there I

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was told I needed to get to Hendrick's Hospital as

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soon as possible. And that's when my mom died, thirty

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eight years ago today. And it's weird because typically I'm

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not out here on this day, but it's weird to

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be standing so close to the very place where I

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was sitting, you know, when I got the announcement, and

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from that moment. Once I got that announcement, really nothing

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of my life was ever going to be the say

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you talk about a period of total, complete and utter chaos,

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because that was October the twentieth, nineteen eighty six. Okay, November,

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I don't remember the day in November. If we go this,

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if we drive this direction of good probably fifteen twenty

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minutes disdirection in the middle of nowhere, in about a

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three thousand acre ranch. That's where I took a gun

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and tried to kill myself and then spent eight weeks

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in a psychiatric hospital. So from everything that happened on

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October the twentieth, nineteen eighty six, had an absolutely profound impact. Really,

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I don't even know. I mean, to this day, it

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still impacts me to some level, but it had a

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profound impact on every area of my life. Right. So,

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on one hand, I just wanted to mention it because

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it's just weird standing here so close to where I

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was sitting. It's hard to believe it's been that many years,

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you know, and how my life is never be the same.

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But so in one way, I just want to mention

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it because I'm feeling it. But the other way, I'll

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try to utilize it and somewhat of an illustration. Everything

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turned into chaos. Everything was from that point it was

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hard for me to be able to judge anything, Like

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everything was so confusing. I saw everything through the lens

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of what had happened, emotions, feelings. You could say that

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everything became very subjective, chaotic. I probably made horribly bad

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decisions in light of everything that happened. I mean, I

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don't think I could be I mean, on one hand,

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I'm still to be blamed for any bad decisions. On

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the other hand, it was hard not to make bad

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decisions and light of everything that was going on, and

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then it was like, so that was October eighty six,

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less than one year later, less than one year later,

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my father had gotten remarried, and then of course then

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everything went downhill from there. Just it was total chaos,

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ladies and gentlemen, It was total chaos. And what you

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want to believe, at least at that point in time,

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I wanted to believe deeply that Christianity would offer something

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different than all of that chaos and subjectivity. It would

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give me something objective, something tangible, something I could grab

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on to. And in some ways Christianity does present that,

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But in other ways, Christianity is filled with as much subjectivity, chaos,

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and confusion as what I felt on this day, what

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thirty eight years ago. It is. It's crazy in some ways,

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that's what it feels. And it's fitting because this week

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has been a week where I have felt how just

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totally chaotic and crazy Christianity can be. So what we

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started in the first hour, I'm going to continue in

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the second hour. Here's what we've been talking this week.

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If you listen to the podcast. You know, some things

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went wacky crazy. I was reviewing sermons and I thought

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it was just going to be a fun, you know,

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sermon review. Well, we reviewed a sermon on Second King's

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chapter six, where you have the floating axe head, and

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we heard in the sermon that the ax said, really,

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we don't really focus on the axe head. It pictures

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all kinds of other things, and making the text then

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very subjective, right, because there was no textual basis saying

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that the axaid represents my fellowship with God, and the

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axaid represents my effectiveness for the work of God, and

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the axe head represents my passion for God. There's nothing

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in the text that says that they just inferred it.

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They just implied it. Then they went to Proverbs chapter thirty.

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Oh well, then another sermon, actually it was another sermon.

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Then I went to another sermon, Proverbs chapter thirty. And

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the next thing I find that I'm listening to a

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sermon on Proverbs chapter thirty and I start hearing discussion

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about how there's coming a time where people will eat

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poor people, how people will eat people, and I'm like,

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how in the world do you get there? And from

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Proverbs chapter thirty, and then it was just that all

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these cross references, and then it just turned into craziness.

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And then it got me discussing just the whole how

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subjective interpreting the Bible can actually be. So in the

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first hour, I'm going to go through this quickly. We

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basically discussed this. We discussed the reality and the history

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of Bible interpretation, and what we found is this, and

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I'll just summarize it. This is what we found. If

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you look at church history and you look at the reality,

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the Christianity has been filled for two thousand years with

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endless numbers of endless number of interpretations that contradict one another.

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Everyone thinks they're right and they think everyone else is wrong.

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And if you don't believe with what they believe, well

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then you're wrong and you're basically viewed a heritage. The

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number of interpretations are endless. It is subjective, and it

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is crazy, and there's lots of reasons for this, and

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every attempt to try to fight against it has failed miserably.

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So when it's all said and done, here's the reality.

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Here's the reality. Bible interpretation is subjective. It's not objective

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as much as we want to believe that it is.

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It has become completely subjective. The individual is the authority,

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not the text, and the interpretation trumps the actual objective

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meaning of the text. So the end of the the

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end of the day, that's just the reality. Bible interpretation

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is subjective. The person, the individual is the authority over

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the Bible. The Bible is not the authority over the

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over the person in practical terms. We can argue about

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it philologically, but in practical terms, and that the interpretation

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of the individual trumps the text. And when you reach

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to that level, that is a depressing place to be.

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That is a very depressing place to be. So what

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we're going to do in this hour is we're going

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to look at some of the problems with Bible interpretation

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and how we kind of got here. So this is

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what we're going to attempt to do. Interpreting the Bible

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can be complex, and there are a number of issues

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and common problems that people encounter when approaching Biblical interpretation.

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So we're going to look at the key challenges and

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the key problems people have when try to interpret the Bible. Right.

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Key problems that people have when try to interpret the Bible,

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and remember, everything really went haywire. Basically, we go back

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to the Protestant Reformation right October thirty. First, When we

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go back to October thirty first, what year fifteen seventeen,

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everything goes wrong, right, Because as much as we want

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to say that the Reformation was about indulgences, the Reformation

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was about justification. When it comes down to it, the

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Reformation was about who has the authority? And Luther said,

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even though he may not have used these direct words,

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he ultimately basically said, what, at least in practice the

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churches of the authority, I am the authority. Now he

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would not say he was the authority. He would say

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Scripture is the authority. But his interpretation made him say

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that the entire church was wrong. And then after him

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that people told that he was wrong, and then other

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people would tell them that they were wrong. And it's

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not stopped all the way to this point. And now

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every individual thinks that they are right and their interpretation

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is right, and they don't have to go to school,

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they don't have to have ever read a book on hermeneutics.

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They just opened them Bible, read it, and whatever they

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say they say is the correct thing so the Reformation

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really leads to this. So what we're gonna do is

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we're gonna look at some of the challenges, some of

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the problems that develop out of this absolute mess that

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has arisen within Christianity. Are you ready? So here we go.

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All right, here are some of the hermeneutical problems and difficulties.

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You're ready. Number one, what do you think? Number one?

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Is the first key challenge, key problem in hermonutics. Now

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this one is so everyone says this, and okay, well,

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I'm just gonna lose my mind before we're done with this,

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but just stay with me. Right here we go. Not

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what should be that? That's probably the best one. The

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first one is the failure to consider context. The failure

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to consider context. Now that sounds so good, ladies and gentlemen,

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that sounds so good. I think it's actually just meaningless.

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And here's the reason why everyone says that. Everyone says

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that if I talk to a charismatic and I say something,

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you're just failing to interpret it or look at the context.

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If I was to argue with a Presbyterian today over baptism,

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what they would tell me, you're just not looking at

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it in its context. And a Baptist would tell a Presbyterian,

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you're just not looking at it in in his context.

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A Lutheran would say, you're not looking at it in as

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everyone says that. So in reality, if everyone is saying

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that everyone else is failing to look at it in context,

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and everyone's coming to innumerable different interpretations and everyone disagrees, well,

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then obviously looking at a context does what absolutely nothing.

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But in reality that's what everyone says. It's a failure

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to look at context. So I do believe we need

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to look at context, but I don't think people actually

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didn't really understand what that means. All right, So, according

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to one source, one of the most frequent errors in

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biable interpretation is taking verses out of their immediate literary, historical,

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and cultural context. Now right there, though, that changes it

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a little bit. Right when we talk about context, we're

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talking about what context? Are you ready? Immediate context? What

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does that mean? Immediate context means where the verse is fair,

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what's immediately around it? What's immediately around it? Right? We

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sometimes would refer to that as what textual context? But

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all right, but the immediate context, literary context, what does

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that mean? The genre, the literary genre, the literary genre, right,

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because that's very important. Okay, all right? Next historical context

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what does that mean? Well, what's going on at the time,

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what's happening? Who? What where that kind of thing? Right? Next?

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Cultural context? What does that mean? Well, how did the

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culture at the time understand that phrase? Say? That's more

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than just oh, you got to read it in Everyone says,

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read it in context, and if you think about it,

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this is what's happened. Everyone says, you have to consider context,

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and what does that really mean? It's just a way

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of justifying your belief And if Bobby questions me, I

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can just disregard Bobby and say, what you just need

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to look at it in context. It's a meaningless phrase,

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if we really might. So when someone says, well, we

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got to look at it in context, what do they

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need to demonstrate? What were the things I just gave

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you the immedia, context, literary, historical, and cultural. If they

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cannot explain all of that, then guess what they've not done.

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They have not looked at it in context. When verses

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are isolated from their surrounding text, the meaning can be distorted.

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Let me give you an example. Right, everyone look at Philippians,

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Chapter four. Oh we know this verse right, Oh, man,

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we know this versus quoted all the time flipp Is

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four thirteen. What does it say, I can do all

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things through Christ, who strengtheneth me. That is quoted by everyone, right, boxers,

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people in UFC, basketball players, football players, baseball players. And

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when I was in the military and we'd be doing

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our morning run, my commander would all like, you can

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do all things through Christ who strengthen with me. Christ

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is not strengthening me to run this time? What are

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you talking about? It has nothing to do with that. Right.

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If Christ is a strengthening me to do all things,

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then what would be the logical conclusion? If Christs strengtheneth

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me to do all things, then I could do all things?

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So then who should be the best baseball player Christians? Right?

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Who should be the best basketball players? Christians? Who should

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always in all their fights? Christians? Do Christians do best

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in school? No? No, that is just inevitably not true.

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So when I say cristis strengthened to me to do

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all things, we know immediately. Look, we don't even need

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to know how to read. We can just say something

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is wrong with that conclusion. Right, So how do we

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understand it. Well, it's often applied broadly to personal achievements.

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But the context is Paul speaking about finding contentment and

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all circumstances, not about accomplishing any task. So it's about

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being content. That's more of the content. Right, that's more

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of the context. I should say so, But yet that's

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done all the time. Now that's an egregious example, right,

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I mean, any reasonable person should be like, that's ridiculous.

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But there's millions of those examples that happen every Sunday

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in churches all across the United States of America, over

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all kinds of issues. So always interpret scripture within the

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immediate context surrounding versus book context, the overall theme of

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the book and biblical context. We have to understand context,

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so that this is a number one problem and interpreting

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Bibles the failure to understand context. All right, so let's

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take this this entire week. Everything went wrong again with

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the two sermon reviews. One was on Second King six

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and the other one was on Proverbs thirty. So go

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to Second King's chapter six. Go to Second King's chapter six.

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I'm gonna try to apply some of this to all

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the craziness that we witness this week. All right, Second

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King's chapter six, I'm gonna try Second King's Chapter six.

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Verse one, and the sons of the prophets said, unto Elisha,

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behold now the place where we dwell with these two

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straight for us. That's pretty straightforward, right. They don't have

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enough room. They don't have enough room, right, So what

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do they say? In verse two? Let us go, we

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pray thee under Jordan and take this every man of beam,

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and let us make a place there where we may dwell.

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And he answered, go yee, So what do they want

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to do? They want to go make a place, And

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what are they gonna need to build a place. They're

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gonna need wood, right, They're gonna need it beams, they're

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gonna need lumber, right. So that what happens in verse three. Well,

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then they ask Elisha, hey be content, I pray thee

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and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will

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go pretty straightforward stuff, right. How would you interpret verse

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one and verse two and verse three? How would you

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interpret all of that pretty straightforward? In literal? Would you not?

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What happens in verse four? So he went with them,

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and when they came to Jordan. They cut down wood.

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Now guess what and the sermon all of a sudden, no, no, no,

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you know what this represents. This rest represents us as

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Christians living out our Christian life and the cutting down

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the wa wo is us working. We're doing that work

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for God. But you know what happens when we start

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doing our work for God? We get apathetic, we get complacent,

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we complacent get we lose our zeal and we stop

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really focusing and we start really stop really paying attention.

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And guess what happens when we become apathetic and complacent

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and we and we don't pay attention. What happens in

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the next verse, verse five, what happens He's cutting down

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a log and the axent fall into the water. This

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is what happens in your Christian life when you're out

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there working for God and all of a sudden, you

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just not pay You stop paying attention, You stop being

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village vigilant. Okay, you're not not a vigilante. You stop

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being vigilant, you start really paying attention, you lose your

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passion and the next thing you know, your axent falls

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into the water. Well, that's the way it's breached. This

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is the way it's pree you lose it. And so

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some of you today are sitting here in this church

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and you've lost your axe head, your passion is gone,

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your zill for God is gone. You've become complacent in

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your Christian life, and you need a revival. And everybody,

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everybody listen to that sermon, was doing what? Amen? Amen? Amen?

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What is't you talking about? What is it? What does

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that have to do with it? Where did you even

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come to that conclusion? You know what that is, reading

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the Bible and making it up. That's the hermoneutic found

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in most churches. There's nothing to do with that. Where

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does it say? Where would you even go to find where?

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It means? Oh? You want to know how this was

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taught to me in one school that I attended. Okay,

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the taking the axe and chopping down the tree, That

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is you and I trying to keep the law of God.

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We try to keep the law of God, and the

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more we try to keep the law of God, ultimately

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happens the axe head comes off because we cannot keep

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the law, and then we fall into the water. And

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the water represents the judgment of God because God used

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water in the arc right and he used the water

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to destroy the Egyptian army. Oh, I got even cross references, right,

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So then I submerge into God's judgment in God's rat

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But then the stick is put in the water. Is

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that what happens? And it makes it float. That's the

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cross of Jesus Christ, who died for me, who then

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resurrected me, and now I'm used by God. That's that's

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how I was taught in one of the schools I attended.

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Does that preach good? Yeah? Could would you sit there

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going wow? I never saw that this represented that? And

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that you know why you never saw that because it's

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not there? It sounds good Now any immediate context, would

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there be anything here to go? When we get to this,

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we start making this represent this and this represent this. Well,

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guess what. To be fair, people do this with these

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miracles and second kings all the time time, do they not?

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This represents this, This represents this, This represents that. But

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the context does not give that away, does it. There's

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nothing in the context that would be like hmm. Now,

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I can agree it seems like a strange story. I

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can agree. All the other miracles up to this point

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seem to be something of great seemed to be bigger,

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seemed to be more significant. This seems like pretty insignificant.

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The what makes it significant in this case? Well, now

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this is the cultural context. An axe head would be

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made of iron, most likely, and that was of great

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value at the time. Now look at the text. What

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is it about this axhead? Oh, it was borrowed. Now, yeah,

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if you borrowed someone's iron axe head and it just

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dropped to the bottom of the Jordan and you can't

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get it back, that's pretty significant. Now it seems insignificant

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and light of all these other miracles. But what does

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it demonstrate? It could our argue it demonstrates God's care

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even for the insignificant thing. Now, so there may be

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an application from that, but even there you gotta be careful.

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So okay, but that's the way you handle it. The context.

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Now go to Proverbs chapter thirty So we have a

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cultural context, we have historical context, right, and it immediately

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destroys a lot of what preachers do. This is the

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verse where everything went crazy this week. Proverbs thirty fourteen.

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There is a generation whose teeth are as swords, and

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their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from

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off the earth and the needy from among men. So

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in the sermon, okay, and I'm gonna have to get

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somewhat graphic. I apologize to the kids, but I just

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have to get graphic here because this is how it

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happened in a sermon. That sermon. They read that verse

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and then guess what they said? There is coming a

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time where poor people are gonna be taken, their heads

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are gonna be removed, their blood is gonna be drinking,

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and people are gonna eat their flesh. And I was

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sitting there behind the microphone almost ready to just door

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dash me some alcohol, okay, because I'm like, what is

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happening right here? What is going on? Now? Just look

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at the context. Look at the immediate context. Do you

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see any key clues? And verse fourteen itself, what would

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be some key clues in verse fourteen that maybe this

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is not about literally eating people? Teeth? Are his swords?

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What else? Jaws? That's not? Now? What's the key phrase there? Sarah?

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You should know this? What's the key phrase there? As

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which indicates that it's using a literary device known as

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a metaphor. Correct, okay, right, orse simile, thank you? I

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was I was hoping someone would use the word simile, right,

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or in a similes if that's the clue. Not if

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you don't need to go to the perverse before it,

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go to the verse before, just right before it. What

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does it say the verse before? It? Is that a

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verse condemning a generation's eyes? No, the eyes represent why pride? Right,

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that's it's about pride. It's using what literary device? He

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would it be metaphorical language? Okay, it's so immediately you

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were like, whoa, well, wait, not only that, what's the context?

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What's the literary context? It's a proverb, which is a

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form of poetry, and poetry tends to use metaphorical language

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and simile, right, So just a little bit of context,

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and you would immediately go, wait a minute, I think

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maybe we're getting a little carried away here, right, I

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think maybe I don't know if we should be running around.

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And so then they go to the Book of Psalms,

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which is poetry, or then they go to the Minor Prophets,

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which is prophetic. Guess what in all of those literary genres,

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what is commonly used metaphor and similes and those types

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of things. So you would just looking at the context

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should have stopped it, but now it did not. Only

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did it not stop it, everybody in the church was like, amen, Amen,

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they're gonna take the poor and they're gonna eat them.

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And I'm like, what is happening? And this would be

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a conservative church that would argue, we believe in the historical,

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grammatical method of interpretation, while this just goes utterly completely chaotic.

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Just a little bit of context should do what should

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fix it, But it's never fixed. This never stops in Christianity, right,

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So what's the first major issue in hermeneutics. It seems

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to be a problem people fail to consider context. But

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when we say context, what kind of context are we

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referring to? Immediate, literary, historical, and cultural? And you take

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some of that information, I'm not is that gonna fix

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every problem? No, because listen, no matter how many problems

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we fix, let me state this and dogmatically, Bible interpretation

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is subjective. I don't care how much you do. It

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will always be subjective. It will always be. But we

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should be able to eliminate craziness. But no, and guess what.

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The churches where the craziness tend to always be the

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more successful churches. How about number two. The first problem

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is a failure to consider context. Number two is reading

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personal or modern ideas into the text. Is when we

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read personal or modern ideas into the text. There's two phrases,

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exegesis and is Jesus? What is isa Jesus? Exit Jesus.

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And this is not technical, so people are online, don't

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get all ticked off at me. I'm not giving technical definitions.

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Exit Jesus is. The idea of pulling from the text

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isid Jesus is where we put into the text. We

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are not to put anything in the text anything, nothing.

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Pastors love to do this when they tell when they

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have these stories in the Old Testament, they'll start saying, well,

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they said this, or they said this or and they

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almost start acting it out and they just create their

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own story and it sounds good. Everyone's laughing because the

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pastor is being of a good communicator. It's basically the

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shows and TV show And you know how I despise

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that with every ounce of my being. Why because it

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creates complete, made up dialogue. It's not in the Bible.

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And once you create, when you when you start reading

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things into the text, what's the problem with that? You

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begin to destroy the text itself, so we cannot read

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anything into this. This occurs when an interpreter projects their

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own ideas, their own biases, their own culture, their own

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values onto the Biblical text, rather than letting the text

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speak for itself. This leads to misinterpretation as the text

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is forced to align with a personal preference or contemporary viewpoints.

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We can't read what we wanted to the text. And

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we do that all the time. When Jesus says turn

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the other cheek, resist not evil, love your enemy, we're like, ah,

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I mean, come on, what about this. We can't tell

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Jesus what he means. Do we like that view of

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turning the other cheek, resisting not evil, loving your enemy?

439
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You're kind of like, that seems ridiculous. And anytime I

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ever preach on that section of the Summer Amount, almost

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inevitably someone walks up and goes, well, what about this?

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And well, I don't think that's what it means. Well,

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of course you don't think that's what it means because

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you don't like it. Okay, of course I don't like it,

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but you can't read your preference into it. But this

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is very important. Here's a good example, many read their

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modern political ideologies into scripture, such as to try to

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force the Bible to support a specific political system, either

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to support capitalism or to support socialism, or to resport

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support a republican idea or a democratic idea. Guess what

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you're trying to read that into an ancient text that

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doesn't give a care about the United States of America,

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about capitalism, socialism, or Republicans or Democrats, because it doesn't

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care about any of that, because it doesn't speak to

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any of that. Correct, And guess what people did the

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exact same thing when we read in Romans thirteen. We

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all know this passage, right, Romans thirteen. Romans thirteen, verse one.

458
00:29:33.319 --> 00:29:36.160
We know what happened. We saw this happen in real time.

459
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:39.200
All everyone in this church is old enough to remember

460
00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:42.039
what happened. Romans thirteen one. Let every soul be subject

461
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:44.319
under the higher powers. For there is no power but

462
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:46.480
of God, the powers that be our ordain of God.

463
00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:51.200
Whoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.

464
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:54.480
And they that resist shall receive to themselves damn nation.

465
00:29:54.839 --> 00:29:58.119
That sounds pretty clear, does it not, Well? Guess what

466
00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.519
that was clear to everyone? And until when until COVID,

467
00:30:05.799 --> 00:30:08.960
and then all of a sudden we needed new interpretations.

468
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:13.680
And so then it was well, this is it. You

469
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:16.759
do this when the government is good. You do this

470
00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:19.079
when the government is godly, and you do this when

471
00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:22.279
the government gives you good rules. Now the historical context

472
00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:27.400
is Paul's writing when who's in charge? Niro the guy

473
00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:31.680
was a lunatic. They were like, well, he didn't mean that.

474
00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:34.440
And so then there was all these new interpretations. Why

475
00:30:34.599 --> 00:30:39.400
was there new interpretations because we were ticked off because

476
00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.839
there were rules about what churches should or shouldn't do. Now,

477
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:45.720
whether we agreed with the rules or disagreed with the rules,

478
00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:48.319
what were we called to do? To do everything in

479
00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:55.000
our power to do? What to submit? And so I

480
00:30:55.160 --> 00:30:57.599
kept saying over and over there are countless ways you

481
00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:00.119
could work around it. In some cities and some d

482
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:02.839
they just restricted the number of people that could be

483
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.599
at any one service. So what did I tell churches

484
00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:12.519
to do? Have ten services? Problem solved? In fact, what

485
00:31:12.599 --> 00:31:14.799
did I tell all churches to do during the pandemic?

486
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:18.000
If they allow you to have in person service and

487
00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:24.640
they just reduce the number, just have services when Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

488
00:31:24.920 --> 00:31:27.880
Increase the number of services. Just reduce the number of

489
00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:32.680
people who can attend. Problem solved. Oh but we can't

490
00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:37.119
do that because no one's gonna tell us what to do. Well,

491
00:31:37.160 --> 00:31:39.079
that has nothing to do with the Bible, does it.

492
00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.640
The Bible would say, hey, wait, let's work around it.

493
00:31:42.839 --> 00:31:46.079
Would are we necessarily in agreement with it? Whether it

494
00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:48.160
didn't matter if we're an agreement with this, the text say,

495
00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:52.079
whether you agree or disagree, this has to submit. So

496
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.680
you submit, whether you like it or not. And then

497
00:31:54.680 --> 00:31:58.240
what we tell our kids, I make the rules. You

498
00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:01.599
do what I tell you. Oh, but parents love to

499
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:03.559
tell the kids that. The parents just don't like to

500
00:32:03.559 --> 00:32:08.680
be told that. There were ways to work around it, right,

501
00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:11.519
there were countless ways to work around it. But what

502
00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:18.079
were churches afraid of losing money? Okay, that's what I said.

503
00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:20.160
And I remember I always said that. There was that

504
00:32:20.279 --> 00:32:24.039
charismatic pastor in Louisiana who was on CNN to this day,

505
00:32:24.079 --> 00:32:26.599
I respect, I hate that man's theology with every ounce

506
00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:28.680
of his being, but I love the way he handled

507
00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:31.640
the interview. Hey we're going to be having services? Well? Why?

508
00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:34.720
And he said he pointed over towards the bibs and

509
00:32:34.759 --> 00:32:37.359
look at all that, Look at the buildings. That costs

510
00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:41.319
money to keep operating. If I close down, we go

511
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:44.880
out of business. Now, he didn't make it out. He

512
00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:47.960
just straight up said, I have to do it for money.

513
00:32:48.759 --> 00:32:51.359
At least I admire that, right, I mean, I look,

514
00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:53.440
he was like, I'm going to break the rules, but

515
00:32:53.519 --> 00:32:56.119
I have to break the rules. And I can understand

516
00:32:56.119 --> 00:32:59.119
when it comes to financial issues. It was very difficult, right,

517
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:02.079
how do you make could work? But I also knew that.

518
00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:05.119
Guess what, I got so tired of churches whanting about it.

519
00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:07.519
They could have been broadcasting twenty four hours a day,

520
00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:11.559
seven days a week. So what did I do during

521
00:33:11.599 --> 00:33:15.240
the pandemic. I increased them hours of broadcasting dramatically, right

522
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:18.720
that just during the time of just during the time

523
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.160
of the pandemic, I think I produced close to like

524
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:27.440
three thousand hours of content. All I did was just

525
00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:29.839
strive here to an empty building, turn on a microphone,

526
00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:32.359
and can talk about whatever. Every church could have been

527
00:33:32.359 --> 00:33:35.480
doing that, but no, we couldn't do that. We had

528
00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:39.240
to fight instead of doing what Instead of worrying about fighting,

529
00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:43.519
we could have been doing what ministring. I don't know

530
00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:46.000
people were dying. Maybe we should have been more worried

531
00:33:46.000 --> 00:33:50.119
about people dying than our own little kingdoms. But see,

532
00:33:50.200 --> 00:33:53.720
that's where we start reading what our preferences into the text.

533
00:33:54.039 --> 00:33:57.839
You cannot do that? Does that make sense? So what

534
00:33:57.920 --> 00:34:00.680
should we do instead of reading it into the text.

535
00:34:00.680 --> 00:34:05.039
We should practice exegesis, which means drawing the meaning out

536
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:10.400
of the text based on what original context, not on

537
00:34:10.440 --> 00:34:12.559
what we read into the text. So those are two

538
00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:16.159
common problems in hermoneutics. Failure to consider context and number

539
00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:21.360
two reading things into the text. And you know why

540
00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:24.400
we want to read into the text because we don't

541
00:34:24.480 --> 00:34:27.679
like what the text says. Look, I want to change

542
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:30.000
the text all the time. Do you want do you

543
00:34:30.039 --> 00:34:33.159
want to change it? I want to change it. Right,

544
00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:34.679
wouldn't it be great if we could just make it

545
00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:38.599
say what we wanted to say? Right, it would be great.

546
00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:42.280
But well we do this Number three? Here we go

547
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:53.039
over allegorizing historical narratives. This is where we over spiritualize,

548
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:56.960
over turn into a historical narrative, basically into an allegory.

549
00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:01.719
All right, now, this happens all the time. Let me

550
00:35:01.760 --> 00:35:09.000
give you an example. All right, go to Matthew chapter eight. Oh,

551
00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:11.360
well they know that, but I'll just use some other examples.

552
00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:14.159
Just let me use it. Yeah, clearly the second kings

553
00:35:14.199 --> 00:35:15.880
all of a sudden, an ax head's not an axt

554
00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:20.079
and it becomes this. They're over allegorizing a historical text.

555
00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.840
But look at Matthew chapter eight. Everybody knows Matthew chapter eight,

556
00:35:23.159 --> 00:35:26.079
verses twenty three through twenty seven. Everybody look at it.

557
00:35:26.199 --> 00:35:36.000
Matthew chapter eight, twenty three through twenty seven. What do

558
00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:38.000
you see when you get to Matthew eight twenty three

559
00:35:38.039 --> 00:35:47.880
through twenty seven, tell me what you find? All right?

560
00:35:47.960 --> 00:35:50.480
Jesus is going to quiet the storm. Where is Jesus

561
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:53.280
in this text? He's on the boat? Is he is

562
00:35:53.320 --> 00:35:58.159
this the text where he's asleep? Yeah, he's asleep, right,

563
00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:02.360
and they wake him up because they're all going to die,

564
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:09.079
and he does what he quiets the storm. Now, inevitably,

565
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:11.360
if you go to a church, guess what's gonna happen

566
00:36:11.400 --> 00:36:17.360
when they preach this text. The ocean is our life,

567
00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:22.800
and we're selling across the ocean. The boat represents us, right,

568
00:36:23.320 --> 00:36:28.719
and the storms represent what the trials and troubles and

569
00:36:28.840 --> 00:36:33.760
difficulties in our lives, and sometimes we will forget that

570
00:36:33.880 --> 00:36:37.000
Jesus is in the boat with us because we see

571
00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:41.559
the storm. We see the storm more than we see Jesus. Oh,

572
00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:44.039
this preach is good, right, And if we'll just put

573
00:36:44.039 --> 00:36:48.239
our eyes on Jesus, Jesus will do what he'll say,

574
00:36:48.280 --> 00:36:51.760
Peace to all our problems and all our difficulties. And

575
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:56.000
we can have a sail across the ocean on smooth

576
00:36:56.079 --> 00:36:58.639
seas if we will just put our eyes on Jesus

577
00:36:58.639 --> 00:37:00.840
and not on the storm. Same thing when they talk

578
00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:03.599
about Peter see, Oh, and guess what they're doing with

579
00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:07.559
all of those texts. That's just completely alglorizing it. That's

580
00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:10.679
all that's They do the same thing with David and Goliath.

581
00:37:10.920 --> 00:37:17.239
What does Goliath represent our our temptation or fear or challenges?

582
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:21.079
And then David, he grabbed those those small rocks, right,

583
00:37:21.199 --> 00:37:24.480
and each rock represents what it can represent scripture, it

584
00:37:24.559 --> 00:37:26.840
can represent prayer. And then we take what God has

585
00:37:26.840 --> 00:37:29.119
given us and we can bring down the giants in

586
00:37:29.159 --> 00:37:31.960
our life that has literally nothing to do with it

587
00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:36.599
has nothing to do with anything. And then and then

588
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:39.880
Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The walls of Jericho

589
00:37:39.960 --> 00:37:42.079
represent all the things that stand in our way and

590
00:37:42.119 --> 00:37:44.280
living out our Christian life. But if we'll just follow

591
00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:47.800
God's instructions, it'll bring the wall down. Every story just

592
00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:53.639
turns into what this big allegorized mess, and it's ridiculous.

593
00:37:53.639 --> 00:37:58.920
And this happens in churches everywhere. This is the common

594
00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:05.360
way these things are preached. We cannot We have to

595
00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:09.119
stand against that and not allow that to happen. All right,

596
00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:12.079
So this happens when historical events in the Bible are

597
00:38:12.079 --> 00:38:15.280
interpreted as purely symbolic or allegorical, even when there is

598
00:38:15.320 --> 00:38:17.719
no indication that the text should be understood this way.

599
00:38:18.119 --> 00:38:22.199
This approach can lead to speculative or subjective interpretations that

600
00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:27.079
deviate from the plain meaning of the text. For example,

601
00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:29.880
some interpreters may treat the story of David and Goliath

602
00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:34.239
as an entirely allegorical, with every element the stones Goliath

603
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:37.280
representing something in the Christian life, rather than seeing it

604
00:38:37.320 --> 00:38:41.599
as a historical account with philological and moral lessons. We

605
00:38:41.719 --> 00:38:46.039
have to distinguish between historical narrative, which is primarily descriptive

606
00:38:46.199 --> 00:38:51.280
of real events, and allegory, which is intentionally symbolic. In

607
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:55.239
interpret narratives in a way that honors their historical setting,

608
00:38:55.599 --> 00:39:00.440
unless the text explicitly calls for an allegorical reading, unless

609
00:39:00.440 --> 00:39:04.679
there's something in the text that's like, hmm, this is weird,

610
00:39:05.239 --> 00:39:08.239
then we try to figure out why, but we still

611
00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:13.440
maintain what the historical aspect of it. Pastors just run,

612
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:18.039
they go crazy, this represents this this, And I was

613
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:21.760
taught to preach that way. That was a common way

614
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:26.360
for me to preach, right, And there was at least

615
00:39:26.360 --> 00:39:28.800
a little bit of it early on here in the church.

616
00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.320
Probably I moved away from it relatively quick, but because

617
00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:34.639
the more I learned about Hermoneutics, the more I'm like,

618
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:37.119
what am I doing? But I mean, considering one of

619
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:39.239
the schools I went to, I definitely was taught. You know,

620
00:39:39.719 --> 00:39:43.519
Harold Camping taught me there. Well, it's the same method

621
00:39:43.559 --> 00:39:47.239
taught in the Roman Catholic Catechism that there's multiple layers

622
00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:51.159
or multiple levels of meaning to scripture. Right, you have

623
00:39:51.199 --> 00:39:54.239
the historical meaning, you have this moral meaning, and you

624
00:39:54.239 --> 00:39:56.920
have the spiritual meaning. Well, the spiritual meaning. You can

625
00:39:56.920 --> 00:39:59.880
take any text and say, okay, well there's the historical,

626
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:04.440
there's the moral, but now here's the spiritual meaning. And

627
00:40:04.519 --> 00:40:07.639
so this can represent this and this can represent this. Well,

628
00:40:07.639 --> 00:40:10.519
guess that sounds so good. But guess who gets to

629
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:15.960
determine what represents what? The preacher or the person in

630
00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:21.360
the view. Well, that just turns Bible interpretations what completely

631
00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:25.760
subjective that we cannot do that to the text. So

632
00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:29.599
what is problem? Number one? Failure to consider context. When

633
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:32.320
we talk about context, we're talking about a lot of

634
00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:34.199
different things, are we not we talked about all of

635
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:39.079
the different context historical literary okay, uh, we read things

636
00:40:39.159 --> 00:40:42.119
into the text that's is of Jesus. That's a major problem.

637
00:40:42.199 --> 00:40:45.840
Number three over allegorizing historical narratives. And I will say

638
00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:50.840
the over allegorizing historical narratives is literally what preaching is.

639
00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:54.880
And why why do we have to do that so

640
00:40:54.960 --> 00:41:01.159
much in our preaching? Because people when it comes to preaching,

641
00:41:01.199 --> 00:41:03.880
what do people want? I say it all the time.

642
00:41:04.079 --> 00:41:07.960
They want a sermon. They don't want to actually study

643
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:11.119
the text. There is a difference between a sermon and

644
00:41:11.199 --> 00:41:16.199
studying the text. A sermon has to follow basic like

645
00:41:16.599 --> 00:41:19.199
I'm doing a presentation, right, I need a good intro,

646
00:41:19.639 --> 00:41:22.079
I need a good body, I need a good conclusion.

647
00:41:22.360 --> 00:41:24.079
I got to have a hook. I got to make

648
00:41:24.079 --> 00:41:26.000
sure I can pull the people in. I got to

649
00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:28.360
make it interesting, I got to make it applicable. And

650
00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:31.039
so what does that lead to? It leads to fantas

651
00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:35.360
basically fantasy day. You know, it's fairy tale time where

652
00:41:35.360 --> 00:41:37.000
I'm going to tell a story. I'm just gonna go

653
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:38.519
to the Bible. I'm like, well, this is this and this,

654
00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:41.360
and everybody's like, ooh, I never saw that. Of course

655
00:41:41.360 --> 00:41:44.199
you never saw it because it's never been there, right,

656
00:41:44.920 --> 00:41:49.119
it's never been there. Preaching is not supposed to be storytelling.

657
00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:55.239
Preaching is supposed to be equipping and doing what getting

658
00:41:55.320 --> 00:41:58.280
us to confront the text, having us come face to

659
00:41:58.320 --> 00:42:01.920
face with the text and all of its complexity and

660
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:07.360
all of its difficulty. Is that fun? No? Is that

661
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:12.280
always interesting? No? But I mean I would hope it's interesting.

662
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:14.239
I mean, it's the preacher's job to make it interesting.

663
00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:17.199
But it's not always. Sometimes it's just not all right?

664
00:42:17.199 --> 00:42:20.559
What's number four? So what's number one? Again? Failure to

665
00:42:20.559 --> 00:42:23.440
consider context number two, reading into the text number three,

666
00:42:23.960 --> 00:42:30.360
over allegorizing number four, ignoring the genre. Different books of

667
00:42:30.400 --> 00:42:33.360
the Bible belong to different genres, such as what are

668
00:42:33.400 --> 00:42:39.320
some of the major genres in the Bible poetry, prophecy,

669
00:42:40.679 --> 00:42:45.280
historical narrative. We can say epistle with a letter, each

670
00:42:45.320 --> 00:42:48.360
of which requires a different approach to interpretation. Ignoring the

671
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:51.360
genre can lead to misunderstanding whether a text is meant

672
00:42:51.360 --> 00:42:54.559
to be taken literally or figuratively. Psalms use what kind

673
00:42:54.599 --> 00:42:59.920
of language poetry, So interpreting phrases like the mountain skipped

674
00:43:00.159 --> 00:43:04.679
like rams probably would be a good idea to do.

675
00:43:04.760 --> 00:43:08.360
What not read that literally? Because the mountains were not

676
00:43:08.360 --> 00:43:13.960
skipping like rams? Can we that probably makes sense? Okay? Right? Right?

677
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:18.440
Always consider the genre of the book and passages you're interpreting,

678
00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:21.920
recognizing that poetic books often use figurative language, while historical

679
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:25.199
narratives should generally be taken more literally. So in our

680
00:43:25.519 --> 00:43:29.719
example of this crazy week of everything that happened, the

681
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:33.599
Proverbs text is in Proverbs, which is poetry. The Psalm

682
00:43:33.760 --> 00:43:37.679
fourteen is in Psalms, which is poetry. The Mica three

683
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:40.960
is in a prophetic section. All of those are very

684
00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:44.400
wide typically are going to be seen as using metaphor

685
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:49.000
figurative language, spiritual language. It makes sense. What was so

686
00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:52.480
bizarre to me is the pastor went on and on

687
00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:55.800
and on about the proverbs being literal, people eating flesh,

688
00:43:56.039 --> 00:43:57.519
you know, people are going to be eating and all

689
00:43:57.559 --> 00:44:00.079
this stuff. He went crazy then made all kinds of

690
00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:03.239
lies about Satanism and just it was just like an insanity.

691
00:44:03.480 --> 00:44:05.360
But then guess what he did when he got to

692
00:44:05.440 --> 00:44:09.320
John six fifty three, where Jesus said, unless you eat

693
00:44:09.320 --> 00:44:11.960
my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part

694
00:44:11.960 --> 00:44:14.760
of me. All of a sudden he said that was figurative.

695
00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:17.079
If we were going to use a hermoneutical argument, which

696
00:44:17.079 --> 00:44:19.360
one would be more likely the one we should take literally?

697
00:44:21.800 --> 00:44:28.679
The one in John. Why, it's a it's a historical biography,

698
00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:32.079
it's a historical narrative, right, And so just think about

699
00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:34.440
John in the beginning, was the word, the word was

700
00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:36.159
with God, and the word was God. Do we believe

701
00:44:36.159 --> 00:44:39.840
that to be literal? The word became flesh and drought

702
00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:42.840
among us? Do we believe that to be literal? And

703
00:44:42.920 --> 00:44:47.960
we start going through John, we would be like literal, literal, literal.

704
00:44:49.079 --> 00:44:51.199
So then all of a sudden we get to John six.

705
00:44:51.239 --> 00:44:54.519
What happens now if we go to John six, go

706
00:44:54.559 --> 00:45:00.760
ahead and look there. John six fifty three is where

707
00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:04.599
the famous verse happens, Right where Jesus says you have

708
00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:08.400
to eat my flesh and drink my blood. Everybody knows that, right,

709
00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:12.360
that's in verse fifty three, correct, All right? Now, remember

710
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:14.599
the rules that we've been given so far in this

711
00:45:14.880 --> 00:45:18.679
What do we have to do? We have to consider context.

712
00:45:19.199 --> 00:45:22.519
What can we not do? Read into it? Right, and

713
00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:27.199
we got to consider we don't want to over alglorize,

714
00:45:27.239 --> 00:45:29.920
and we do not and we want to consider genre, right,

715
00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:33.119
all right, So y'all just start skimming John six and

716
00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:35.280
tell me what clues you would have and how we

717
00:45:35.320 --> 00:45:38.920
should handle verse fifty three. Just skim it and see

718
00:45:38.960 --> 00:45:41.559
if what clues you would have to go Maybe wait

719
00:45:41.599 --> 00:45:43.880
a minute, wait a minute, there's something here that could

720
00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:46.480
possibly tell me I need to handle this a little differently.

721
00:45:47.519 --> 00:45:49.440
What would you find in John six that may give

722
00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:52.159
you a clue? Remember we found the clue in Proverbs

723
00:45:52.199 --> 00:45:54.320
thirty verse fourteen, within the very verse and the verse

724
00:45:54.360 --> 00:45:57.039
right before it. This may take a little bit more work.

725
00:46:00.119 --> 00:46:03.719
Oh well, verse ooh thirty five. We're not far from

726
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:07.480
fifty three. We're not far from fifty three. In fact,

727
00:46:07.480 --> 00:46:11.679
it's part of the same discussion, right, I think it's

728
00:46:11.719 --> 00:46:14.519
part of the same narrative, right, and what does Jesus say,

729
00:46:14.719 --> 00:46:18.679
I am the bread now? The minute he says he's bred, immediately,

730
00:46:18.679 --> 00:46:21.599
what is any good Bible student? Or just forget being no,

731
00:46:21.880 --> 00:46:24.440
I take that bag. Bible students are the worst people

732
00:46:24.480 --> 00:46:28.639
to talk to, right, people who actually read books. Any

733
00:46:28.679 --> 00:46:32.840
person who reads books would immediately go, I think this

734
00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:38.079
is figurative. How would we know it's figurative? Jesus wasn't

735
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:41.039
a loaf of bread, So immediately, now I'm on to something,

736
00:46:41.119 --> 00:46:43.920
right now, I'm on to something. And he's going to

737
00:46:43.960 --> 00:46:46.000
try to draw a contrast in the text. What does

738
00:46:46.039 --> 00:46:49.960
he draw a contrast between the actual bread that the

739
00:46:50.119 --> 00:46:53.719
israel ate in the wilderness, the manna. Now they ain't

740
00:46:53.800 --> 00:46:56.400
that bread. It was awesome, it was great. But what

741
00:46:56.519 --> 00:47:02.960
happened after they all ate that bread? They die? Jesus

742
00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:05.360
wants him to understand that by party taking of him,

743
00:47:05.559 --> 00:47:09.360
you'll never hunger, you'll never thirst, and you will have

744
00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:14.559
eternal life, meaning that then this bread is somehow different

745
00:47:14.559 --> 00:47:18.079
than that bread. That bread was physical. Jesus is obviously

746
00:47:18.119 --> 00:47:21.239
pointing to a different kind of bread. And so now

747
00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:24.320
how do we consume this bread by faith? Right? If

748
00:47:24.360 --> 00:47:26.639
you look at the text, So then how can we

749
00:47:26.679 --> 00:47:30.760
eat understand the eating and the drinking. We have to

750
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:35.000
understand it. That is a very graphic way of saying

751
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:39.360
we must believe in Christ. So then we can see

752
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:41.760
where we could possibly then take it that way. It

753
00:47:41.800 --> 00:47:45.039
requires a little bit of work, does it not. Now

754
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.960
would Catholics agree with us on that? Absolutely not? But

755
00:47:51.039 --> 00:47:53.360
you see where we can't ignore now in this case,

756
00:47:53.400 --> 00:47:56.559
the genre here doesn't help us, right, The genre here

757
00:47:56.599 --> 00:48:00.320
would actually argue for what a more literal interest. That's

758
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:02.480
where you have to be careful, because even if you're

759
00:48:02.480 --> 00:48:04.880
in a certain genre, what do you also have to

760
00:48:04.920 --> 00:48:08.840
look for the little language and the clues leading up

761
00:48:08.840 --> 00:48:11.559
to it. I think here the text gives us the clue,

762
00:48:11.599 --> 00:48:14.519
does it not? When sin as Jesus says I am bred,

763
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:17.639
we know he's not bred. We know something has happened here.

764
00:48:17.920 --> 00:48:22.960
He's now utilizing a literary device. He's using what he's

765
00:48:22.960 --> 00:48:27.519
trying to contrast himself with physical bread, and he's trying

766
00:48:27.519 --> 00:48:30.159
to draw a correlation. Right. I think we should be

767
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:33.920
able to figure that out. Now. Guess what, though we

768
00:48:34.079 --> 00:48:37.840
have philological incentive to read it that way. Let's be fair.

769
00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:41.599
If I'm a Catholic, I would have a philological incentive

770
00:48:41.639 --> 00:48:45.639
to read it a literal. So you see where that

771
00:48:45.880 --> 00:48:50.199
where a Bible interpretation can become very subjective. Right, So

772
00:48:50.239 --> 00:48:53.199
we have to understand this, right, We always have to

773
00:48:53.199 --> 00:48:55.880
consider the genre of the book and the passage we

774
00:48:55.920 --> 00:48:59.639
are interpreting, recognizing the poetic books use figurative language, while

775
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:03.880
historic narratives should generally be taking more literally. All right,

776
00:49:04.239 --> 00:49:10.119
So what's number one? A failure to consider context? Number two?

777
00:49:10.159 --> 00:49:13.920
And that context involves more than one thing, does it not? Okay?

778
00:49:14.360 --> 00:49:19.840
I want, ever want to remember all the things that involves, right, immediate, literary, historical,

779
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:24.880
and cultural right. Number two, don't read into it. That's

780
00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:29.320
is of Jesus. Don't do that. Number three over allegorizing

781
00:49:29.360 --> 00:49:33.239
a narrative. Don't do that number four ignoring the genre.

782
00:49:33.800 --> 00:49:41.519
How about number five neglecting historical and cultural context. We

783
00:49:41.559 --> 00:49:45.440
cannot neglect historical and cultural context. The Bible was written

784
00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:48.400
in ancient Near Eastern and Greco Roman contexts, which are

785
00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:51.559
very different from modern Western cultures. Failing to take the

786
00:49:51.719 --> 00:49:55.280
historical and cultural context into account can lead to misunderstanding

787
00:49:55.280 --> 00:49:59.679
of customs, laws, and social practices described in scripture. The

788
00:49:59.679 --> 00:50:04.039
practice a foot washing in John thirteen. In ancient Jewish culture,

789
00:50:04.320 --> 00:50:07.679
this was a customary act of hospitality, but modern readers

790
00:50:07.679 --> 00:50:09.920
may miss the significance if they do not understand the

791
00:50:09.960 --> 00:50:13.960
cultural context. We have to study the historical background and

792
00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:17.079
cultural setting of the text using any resource that we

793
00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:22.679
can possibly find. Right, We have to do that. We

794
00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:25.599
have to know the context. Right? Does that? Is that

795
00:50:25.639 --> 00:50:29.679
going to fix every problem? No? But it's a why

796
00:50:29.760 --> 00:50:32.119
does it? Why does it sometimes not fix the problem

797
00:50:33.800 --> 00:50:38.360
because sometimes people don't agree on what the historical context

798
00:50:38.519 --> 00:50:42.840
or the cultural context, which is maddening. Right, But we

799
00:50:42.840 --> 00:50:45.880
should at least attempt to. Here's what we should be

800
00:50:45.880 --> 00:50:47.920
able to do. We should be able to always ask

801
00:50:47.960 --> 00:50:51.320
ourself what is the historical and cultural context? And then

802
00:50:51.639 --> 00:50:55.440
try to determine how how many different perspectives there are

803
00:50:55.480 --> 00:50:58.239
on the context, because if there's three or four different

804
00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:02.280
contexts are perspective that at least limits our options? Does

805
00:51:02.320 --> 00:51:05.800
it not? That limits our options? So that should make

806
00:51:05.880 --> 00:51:08.480
things at least somewhat better for us? All right, everybody

807
00:51:08.519 --> 00:51:17.199
got that? Okay, So what's number one? Failure to consider context? Right?

808
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:21.239
Number two? Don't read into it. Number three, don't over

809
00:51:21.360 --> 00:51:26.159
allegorize it, don't turn it into a story. Just let

810
00:51:26.159 --> 00:51:28.559
the story be the story. Don't make it say something

811
00:51:28.599 --> 00:51:33.800
it doesn't right. Number four ignoring the genre. You got

812
00:51:33.800 --> 00:51:36.159
to be able to know if it's poetry, if it's history.

813
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:39.719
Got to know the literary type. Number five, do not

814
00:51:39.800 --> 00:51:43.480
neglect the historical and cultural context. Do not neglect the

815
00:51:43.559 --> 00:51:54.480
historical and cultural context. Number six an over emphasis on

816
00:51:54.760 --> 00:52:02.320
application without proper interpretation, and over emphasis on applying the

817
00:52:02.360 --> 00:52:08.000
text without interpreting the text. Application, application, application. What is

818
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:14.400
most preaching application preaching is This is why I hate

819
00:52:14.440 --> 00:52:18.199
the sermon, the concept of a sermon, because sermons almost

820
00:52:18.239 --> 00:52:24.079
emphasize application, application, application, application, application, because just to interpret it.

821
00:52:24.119 --> 00:52:25.880
How do the people sitting in the pew feel about

822
00:52:25.880 --> 00:52:34.039
the interpretive part? Give me something practical. Well, when you

823
00:52:34.119 --> 00:52:37.000
want something practical, then the pastor has to emphasize what

824
00:52:38.159 --> 00:52:42.559
application over interpretation. And once you begin to emphasize application

825
00:52:42.599 --> 00:52:46.159
over interpretation, inevitably what's going to happen. You're going to

826
00:52:46.239 --> 00:52:50.360
ultimately destroy the actual meaning of the text. It almost

827
00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:55.320
always happens, all right. Some interpreters move too quickly to

828
00:52:55.400 --> 00:52:58.119
an application without first doing the hard work of proper

829
00:52:58.159 --> 00:53:01.920
exegesus interpreting the original meaning of the text. This can

830
00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:04.639
lead to applying the text and ways it was never

831
00:53:04.719 --> 00:53:09.199
intended to be applied. This problem often results in misapplication

832
00:53:09.599 --> 00:53:12.920
or misuse of scripture. And what's the most famous example

833
00:53:13.159 --> 00:53:21.239
of all time for this, Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. What

834
00:53:21.280 --> 00:53:24.159
does Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven say, I know the

835
00:53:24.199 --> 00:53:27.920
plans I have for you, I know these plans to

836
00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:31.760
bless you, to prosper you. What is the problem with

837
00:53:32.079 --> 00:53:36.480
applying that to us? It applies to people coming out

838
00:53:36.480 --> 00:53:41.800
of Babylonian captivity, not people graduating from high school, okay,

839
00:53:42.199 --> 00:53:47.840
has nothing at all to do with that. In fact,

840
00:53:48.119 --> 00:53:50.960
when I had to go to the which child it

841
00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:53.400
of yours? It was Lydia. When I had to go

842
00:53:53.400 --> 00:53:56.280
to Lydia's graduation for this nonsense and they read that,

843
00:53:56.440 --> 00:53:58.000
I just wanted to raise my hand and say, no

844
00:53:58.039 --> 00:54:00.360
one in the school should be able to graduate knowing,

845
00:54:00.920 --> 00:54:06.719
because that means you can't read. Because if you could read,

846
00:54:06.960 --> 00:54:10.039
what conclusion would you come to? This has nothing to

847
00:54:10.079 --> 00:54:13.360
do with these high school graduates. It has zero to

848
00:54:13.519 --> 00:54:19.559
do with them, none, zero. And if you can't read that,

849
00:54:19.719 --> 00:54:22.159
you shouldn't be graduating from high school. You shouldn't be

850
00:54:22.199 --> 00:54:25.440
graduating from kindergarten. Okay, you should be going back learning

851
00:54:25.480 --> 00:54:29.199
basic reading comprehension skills. And wait, the person according that

852
00:54:29.320 --> 00:54:32.320
wasn't at the val Victorian I think it was during

853
00:54:32.360 --> 00:54:36.960
the Valvictorian speech. Right, that's even worse. All right, removed,

854
00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:39.639
they should not be male Victorian. They should be going

855
00:54:39.679 --> 00:54:44.119
back to remedial reading. And that's not trying to be mean.

856
00:54:44.199 --> 00:54:47.440
I mean, that's just the fact. Jeremiah twenty nine is

857
00:54:47.480 --> 00:54:50.840
not about people in Ablene, Texas graduating from a public

858
00:54:50.840 --> 00:54:53.719
school or private school or whatever school it was. Right,

859
00:54:54.079 --> 00:55:02.039
Can everyone agree with that? Everyone knows that. Okay. This

860
00:55:02.119 --> 00:55:04.000
is typically applied to some kind of a promise for

861
00:55:04.119 --> 00:55:07.239
Christians without recognizing that it was initially addressed to the

862
00:55:07.280 --> 00:55:11.880
exiled Israelites in a specific historical context. The promise in

863
00:55:11.960 --> 00:55:14.679
Jeremiah is about God's plan to restore the people of

864
00:55:14.719 --> 00:55:24.760
Israel after their exile. Where after their exile where Babylon? Right?

865
00:55:25.199 --> 00:55:29.840
Not from high school? All right, this is not where

866
00:55:29.840 --> 00:55:33.639
a kid can go. I'm being set free. Look, this

867
00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:37.039
was now, this is how messed up? This is all right?

868
00:55:37.280 --> 00:55:41.079
The American history, man, American history is messed up. Okay,

869
00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:45.239
so America there was and I can't tell you how

870
00:55:45.280 --> 00:55:48.960
widespread this is, but this is a historical fact. Many

871
00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:53.519
of the slave owners wanted their slaves to know about

872
00:55:53.559 --> 00:56:01.639
the Bible for what reason? Because there's passages in the

873
00:56:01.639 --> 00:56:07.280
Bible about slaves doing what, serving their master and obeying right.

874
00:56:07.679 --> 00:56:10.119
So they wanted them to know the Bible because it

875
00:56:10.320 --> 00:56:13.079
served them well, just like a man may want their

876
00:56:13.079 --> 00:56:15.280
wife to study the Bible because it will tell her

877
00:56:15.320 --> 00:56:20.119
to submit. Right. Okay, so you can say there's always

878
00:56:20.239 --> 00:56:24.199
what personal and involvement, But what happened when many of

879
00:56:24.239 --> 00:56:28.079
the slaves started learning the Bible stories? What story did

880
00:56:28.119 --> 00:56:33.360
they kind of find themselves drawn to? What stories? Do

881
00:56:33.400 --> 00:56:39.400
you think the slaves may have been really drawn to exodus? Right,

882
00:56:41.320 --> 00:56:46.320
because this was about what being set free from bondage.

883
00:56:46.360 --> 00:56:50.159
So many of the spirituals that they would sing sometimes

884
00:56:50.239 --> 00:56:54.599
while working in the field would be referencing what being

885
00:56:54.639 --> 00:56:58.559
set free from slavery. And the slave owners were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

886
00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:01.239
You don't need to be reading them part of the Bible. Okay,

887
00:57:01.400 --> 00:57:04.159
we don't need no exodus going on here. I need

888
00:57:04.199 --> 00:57:06.360
someone to work my fields, and well, I don't have

889
00:57:06.440 --> 00:57:11.360
to pay. That's kind of messed up, is it not? Okay,

890
00:57:11.400 --> 00:57:13.199
let's let's not kind of mess up. Let's say what

891
00:57:13.239 --> 00:57:19.239
it was that is horrible? That's horrible? Is it not?

892
00:57:20.079 --> 00:57:25.039
This absolutely horrible? So guess what, So we we when

893
00:57:25.079 --> 00:57:29.400
we overemphasize application, we will just simply apply it to what, well,

894
00:57:29.440 --> 00:57:32.960
whatever context that may work for us. Correct. If you

895
00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:35.199
are a slave, which content which one? Which part do

896
00:57:35.239 --> 00:57:37.320
you want to apply? You want to apply exodus to

897
00:57:37.320 --> 00:57:41.719
whom you okay? Right? And if you're a slave owner,

898
00:57:41.920 --> 00:57:46.480
you want to apply the submission part to whom them Okay, right,

899
00:57:46.599 --> 00:57:48.960
And that's the way it works. If you're a parent,

900
00:57:49.199 --> 00:57:51.800
you want to apply the whole idea of obeying your

901
00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:56.840
parents to whom your kids okay, And the kids want

902
00:57:56.880 --> 00:57:59.159
to apply the text about not provoke your children to

903
00:57:59.280 --> 00:58:04.800
reth to apply that to home their parents. Okay. Everyone

904
00:58:04.920 --> 00:58:09.360
loves application when we are applying it to whose benefit us?

905
00:58:09.559 --> 00:58:12.760
But over when we we when we focus on application,

906
00:58:13.159 --> 00:58:18.000
that's what immediately happens, right, That's immediately happens. So how

907
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:22.440
do we stop the overemphasizing application? How do we how

908
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:25.480
do we stop the overemphasizing of application? You know what.

909
00:58:26.039 --> 00:58:27.679
Yet I can tell you we need to get rid

910
00:58:27.719 --> 00:58:34.599
of sermons. The whole sermons structure is guilty of this.

911
00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:38.679
We need people not preaching sermons, but actually trying to

912
00:58:38.719 --> 00:58:42.119
teach the text. And that's got and what's been the

913
00:58:42.159 --> 00:58:45.840
criticism in this church from day one? It's too much

914
00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:49.639
like a seminary. It feels like a university classroom. Doesn't

915
00:58:49.639 --> 00:58:53.840
feel like change, You feel like change. Okay, what do

916
00:58:53.840 --> 00:58:55.440
they want? They want three points and they want to

917
00:58:55.440 --> 00:58:57.760
be up by noon. They don't want to be challenged.

918
00:58:57.760 --> 00:59:00.440
They don't want to that's always been the criticism. Well

919
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:03.599
in some ways. Look, I understand the criticism. You walk

920
00:59:03.639 --> 00:59:09.559
into this place. It does not feel like what any

921
00:59:09.599 --> 00:59:11.400
other place, right, I mean, come on, let's be honest.

922
00:59:11.440 --> 00:59:15.079
We do things completely different. Nobody. How many churches are

923
00:59:15.079 --> 00:59:20.800
having a lesson on hermeneutics today? None? Okay, Right, So

924
00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:23.679
we got to destroy the sermon. And I guess is

925
00:59:23.679 --> 00:59:26.239
that ever going to happen? No, because if it was

926
00:59:26.280 --> 00:59:28.639
to happen, it would be a full blown revolt and

927
00:59:28.679 --> 00:59:30.719
everybody would leave the church and go find a pastor

928
00:59:30.719 --> 00:59:33.920
who'll give them the sermon. Even though people say they

929
00:59:33.920 --> 00:59:37.280
want in depth teaching They don't really want in depth teaching.

930
00:59:37.639 --> 00:59:39.360
They want a sermon. They want it to feel like

931
00:59:39.679 --> 00:59:42.639
what they think church is supposed to feel like, because

932
00:59:42.679 --> 00:59:44.760
they have an idea of what church is, and you

933
00:59:44.880 --> 00:59:47.800
will follow their idea or they will go somewhere else.

934
00:59:47.840 --> 00:59:50.800
I mean, I've watched it the entire time, and I

935
00:59:50.880 --> 00:59:54.800
understand that. Look, I look, I don't, I don't. I

936
00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:58.920
don't blame anyone. I mean to want this is completely

937
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:02.440
radical compared to what most people want. Now. My thing is, though,

938
01:00:02.639 --> 01:00:04.760
when you go to the other place, you're going to

939
01:00:04.800 --> 01:00:09.320
overemphasize application over interpretation, and well then then the Bible

940
01:00:09.400 --> 01:00:11.519
just becomes subjective and meaningless, and you're going to over

941
01:00:11.599 --> 01:00:14.119
allegorize it in all these other things. So the first

942
01:00:14.360 --> 01:00:17.239
solution is we got to destroy the sermon. That's never

943
01:00:17.280 --> 01:00:21.320
going to happen. What's the second solution. We have to

944
01:00:21.559 --> 01:00:32.400
emphasize observation over everything else. Observation trumps everything else. Bible

945
01:00:32.480 --> 01:00:40.760
study is what observation observation Observation that means simply doing

946
01:00:40.800 --> 01:00:45.480
what observing what the text says. You don't try to

947
01:00:45.480 --> 01:00:47.360
figure out what it means. You just try to figure

948
01:00:47.360 --> 01:00:50.760
out what it says. Can you observe it. Can you

949
01:00:51.039 --> 01:00:54.360
understand what's going on? The who, the what, the where,

950
01:00:54.519 --> 01:00:57.239
the when the hell? Not even trying to figure out

951
01:00:57.239 --> 01:01:01.880
what it means? Bible study. All the Bible study methods

952
01:01:01.920 --> 01:01:08.239
I've taught over and over and over are all about observation, observation, observation, observation, observation, observation.

953
01:01:08.440 --> 01:01:10.039
What do I've taught y'all about the reason we do

954
01:01:10.119 --> 01:01:11.880
out Why do you do outlines? Why do I tell

955
01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:14.960
you to do outlines? Because what is the number one

956
01:01:15.039 --> 01:01:22.000
observational tool you have in your toolkit? Outlines? Because outlines

957
01:01:22.039 --> 01:01:26.119
are supposed to be observational, they're not supposed to be interpretive.

958
01:01:26.480 --> 01:01:29.119
Because what are you doing with an outline? You're taking

959
01:01:29.159 --> 01:01:32.480
what's on the page and you're doing what You're bringing

960
01:01:32.519 --> 01:01:35.239
it to paper, and it's making you read through it

961
01:01:35.320 --> 01:01:37.199
over and over and over, going Okay, this will be

962
01:01:37.320 --> 01:01:40.519
number one, Okay, then this will be ABC, or however

963
01:01:40.519 --> 01:01:42.280
you're going to break your outline down. I don't even

964
01:01:42.320 --> 01:01:43.960
care if it's done properly. I don't care if it

965
01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:46.199
passes at a school. It's just you need it on

966
01:01:46.280 --> 01:01:48.760
paper because it's making you go through the text over

967
01:01:48.800 --> 01:01:51.960
and over, not to interpret it simply to observe it.

968
01:01:51.960 --> 01:01:54.599
And that's why your outlines should never have any phrases

969
01:01:54.599 --> 01:01:58.400
that are interpretive. They should only have phrases that are observational.

970
01:01:59.159 --> 01:02:01.280
And the more you do that, then guess what if

971
01:02:01.320 --> 01:02:03.599
someone comes and says something about the text, What can

972
01:02:03.639 --> 01:02:06.719
you say? Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wooh, that's not there.

973
01:02:07.360 --> 01:02:09.639
How do you know, Well, I've read it fifteen times

974
01:02:09.639 --> 01:02:12.760
that I've outlined it, so you can take your nonsense

975
01:02:12.760 --> 01:02:14.719
and get out of my face. Now, guess what if

976
01:02:14.760 --> 01:02:19.880
you do that, you'll ruin most sermons because most sermons

977
01:02:19.920 --> 01:02:24.039
are saying things that are not there. They're not actually there.

978
01:02:24.320 --> 01:02:26.039
So we got to get rid of the sermon. We

979
01:02:26.079 --> 01:02:29.519
have to focus on observation. Then we focus on interpretation.

980
01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:32.440
This is where we engage in exe Jesus to determine

981
01:02:32.440 --> 01:02:35.320
the original meaning, and we use the tools such as

982
01:02:35.400 --> 01:02:40.719
Bible commentaries, dictionaries and understanding the historical culture and literary context.

983
01:02:40.960 --> 01:02:43.159
So we have to get rid of sermons because sermons

984
01:02:43.159 --> 01:02:47.280
almost immediately obliterate the text. That whole thing destroys it.

985
01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:51.719
Then we get to what observation observation observation, Then we

986
01:02:51.760 --> 01:02:58.559
get to interpretation. Interpretation always comes after observation, and I

987
01:02:58.599 --> 01:03:00.800
started taking people off in the true because what would

988
01:03:00.800 --> 01:03:04.199
I say, Hey, before you argue with me, you've got

989
01:03:04.199 --> 01:03:07.199
to demonstrate that you've done what you've actually done an

990
01:03:07.199 --> 01:03:09.719
observational study on the text. Would people come to me

991
01:03:09.800 --> 01:03:12.360
with their observational study? No, would they still tell me

992
01:03:12.400 --> 01:03:17.440
I'm wrong? Yes? Well, then there's no point. Then when

993
01:03:17.480 --> 01:03:22.159
do you get to application after that? And how when

994
01:03:22.239 --> 01:03:27.559
it comes to application, guess what? The application must align

995
01:03:27.719 --> 01:03:33.400
with the original context and meaning. The application must align

996
01:03:33.840 --> 01:03:37.800
with the original context and meaning. It has to be

997
01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:41.679
somewhat in accordance with it. So, for example, what would

998
01:03:41.760 --> 01:03:45.639
be an application to Jesus coming the storm? What would

999
01:03:45.679 --> 01:03:49.199
be a reasonable application to that story? What would be

1000
01:03:49.239 --> 01:03:55.400
a reasonable application to Jesus coming the storm? Someone give

1001
01:03:55.400 --> 01:04:04.440
me a reasonable application? Well, the main application of that

1002
01:04:04.559 --> 01:04:06.880
story is that Jesus was more than just a man.

1003
01:04:07.199 --> 01:04:10.760
He was God because he had power over creation. It's

1004
01:04:10.760 --> 01:04:16.159
a story about proving the deity of Christ. Right, That's

1005
01:04:16.199 --> 01:04:18.960
what is more about. Because I can't necessarily trust that

1006
01:04:19.519 --> 01:04:22.039
take from the story that I can trust Christ to

1007
01:04:22.039 --> 01:04:23.960
calm the storms in my life, because it's not about

1008
01:04:23.960 --> 01:04:26.199
the storms in my life, and Jesus may never even

1009
01:04:26.199 --> 01:04:29.000
bother to calm any storm in my life. He doesn't

1010
01:04:29.039 --> 01:04:34.440
even come physical storms, right, So you got to be

1011
01:04:34.519 --> 01:04:37.639
very careful in doing that. What's the story from David

1012
01:04:37.719 --> 01:04:47.400
and Goliath? What would be an application from that? What

1013
01:04:47.440 --> 01:04:53.639
would be an application from David and Goliath? Well, it's

1014
01:04:53.679 --> 01:04:57.960
a story that demonstrates God's faithfulness right to David. I mean,

1015
01:04:58.360 --> 01:05:00.960
he makes serious promises to David. He uses David right,

1016
01:05:01.280 --> 01:05:04.360
so he maintained his promises. There, what else is it?

1017
01:05:04.360 --> 01:05:09.039
It demonstrates God's faithfulness to whom Israel. Oh wait, remember

1018
01:05:09.039 --> 01:05:11.400
whenever we get to the Old Testament, many of those stories,

1019
01:05:11.480 --> 01:05:13.920
the reason things are happening is because of the covenant

1020
01:05:13.920 --> 01:05:16.199
made with Israel. So God does his things for Israel.

1021
01:05:16.280 --> 01:05:18.400
I can't say that God's gonna knock out giants in

1022
01:05:18.400 --> 01:05:20.320
my life because it doesn't, and then I would have

1023
01:05:20.320 --> 01:05:22.960
to then make giants something else. So there, it was

1024
01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:28.920
more about God utilizing David right, which he promised him

1025
01:05:28.960 --> 01:05:31.000
that he was going to utilize and do these things

1026
01:05:31.039 --> 01:05:33.559
with him and through him. That would be more the application.

1027
01:05:33.719 --> 01:05:36.559
I know, that's not very exciting. That's hard to preach, right,

1028
01:05:36.920 --> 01:05:39.440
because I've got to somehow make it about us and

1029
01:05:39.559 --> 01:05:41.760
what God's gonna do for me. But I can't take

1030
01:05:41.760 --> 01:05:44.920
from that that God's gonna do that for me. Right,

1031
01:05:46.920 --> 01:05:49.800
Is God's gonna make me an expert in using a slingshot?

1032
01:05:49.880 --> 01:05:53.920
Like that's no, has nothing to do with that. Does

1033
01:05:53.960 --> 01:05:59.400
that make sense? So the application has to remain somewhat consistent.

1034
01:05:59.599 --> 01:06:01.880
And that's that's the hard part from a preacher. Let

1035
01:06:01.880 --> 01:06:04.840
me make it very clear. That's hard for me because

1036
01:06:05.039 --> 01:06:06.719
I can sit there and if I'm going through the

1037
01:06:06.760 --> 01:06:09.880
interpret the observation and the interpretation, and I get ready

1038
01:06:09.880 --> 01:06:11.960
to go to the application, you can tell by that

1039
01:06:12.000 --> 01:06:14.280
point you've probably already lost fifty percent of the people.

1040
01:06:15.599 --> 01:06:17.800
So you got to get the people back, right, So

1041
01:06:17.880 --> 01:06:20.639
what's a good way to get them back? Hit them

1042
01:06:20.639 --> 01:06:23.880
with a good application that will be very speak directly

1043
01:06:23.920 --> 01:06:25.840
to them, and then everyone will say what when they

1044
01:06:25.920 --> 01:06:30.400
leave good sermon? Pastor? It was a good sermon because

1045
01:06:30.440 --> 01:06:33.000
I made everything up. So yeah, you like this stuff

1046
01:06:33.000 --> 01:06:35.239
when I make it up. But if I just kind

1047
01:06:35.239 --> 01:06:38.000
of say, well, I don't know how we really apply this,

1048
01:06:38.800 --> 01:06:40.960
that's people gonna be like, no, I got you got

1049
01:06:40.960 --> 01:06:50.280
to give me something better. Than that, right, right? So

1050
01:06:50.559 --> 01:06:52.239
what was number one? I'm just gonna review and we'll

1051
01:06:52.239 --> 01:06:58.119
stop here. A failure to consider context. Number two, don't

1052
01:06:58.159 --> 01:07:04.039
read into the text. Number three, don't overalgorize the historical narrative.

1053
01:07:04.079 --> 01:07:10.960
Number four, don't ignore the genre. Okay, Number five, don't

1054
01:07:10.960 --> 01:07:19.519
neglect historical and cultural context. Number six, don't overemphasize application

1055
01:07:19.679 --> 01:07:24.519
without proper interpretation. And number is that. That's it. We

1056
01:07:24.559 --> 01:07:26.559
want to get to number seven, and we don't kin

1057
01:07:26.599 --> 01:07:30.559
how old are you? That's a twelve year old repeating

1058
01:07:30.599 --> 01:07:33.800
all of those hermeneutical principles, the one who was doing

1059
01:07:33.800 --> 01:07:35.679
it for those listening alone, as a twelve year old

1060
01:07:35.920 --> 01:07:40.280
repeating that, meaning that adults can learn these principles, and

1061
01:07:40.320 --> 01:07:43.679
so can a twelve year old because those principles would

1062
01:07:43.719 --> 01:07:47.599
be applied and basically just basic reading comprehension, those principles

1063
01:07:47.599 --> 01:07:52.599
would apply to some level correct. Learning to read the

1064
01:07:52.679 --> 01:07:55.400
Bible is all of just about learning to read. Now

1065
01:07:55.480 --> 01:07:57.159
here's the side, and well, we didn't get through all

1066
01:07:57.239 --> 01:07:59.000
of the things I wanted to get through, But here's

1067
01:07:59.039 --> 01:08:01.280
what I wanted to demonstrate. Here's what we want to demonstrate.

1068
01:08:01.320 --> 01:08:06.039
Here's the reality Church history shows us. What that Bible

1069
01:08:06.079 --> 01:08:09.880
interpretation has been subjective and it will always be subjective

1070
01:08:09.920 --> 01:08:13.320
to some level. Church history has proven, especially within the

1071
01:08:13.320 --> 01:08:17.840
Protestant world, that who is the ultimate authority, the individual,

1072
01:08:18.039 --> 01:08:21.680
not the text, and that the interpretation trumps the text.

1073
01:08:21.840 --> 01:08:24.000
People don't like that. I'm like, okay, well you don't

1074
01:08:24.039 --> 01:08:25.840
like that, then we've got to try to fight against it.

1075
01:08:26.039 --> 01:08:27.840
So how do we fight against it? I try to

1076
01:08:27.840 --> 01:08:30.279
give you principles to try to fight against it. Do

1077
01:08:30.279 --> 01:08:33.039
you think those principles are ever going to work? No?

1078
01:08:34.119 --> 01:08:38.359
Why are they never going to work? People won't use them,

1079
01:08:38.720 --> 01:08:43.119
Churches won't teach them, and churches won't use them themselves.

1080
01:08:43.199 --> 01:08:46.600
Pastors won't use them because we've created a system where

1081
01:08:46.760 --> 01:08:50.079
a good portion of preaching is more about, I hate

1082
01:08:50.079 --> 01:08:54.079
to say it, entertainment than it is actually digging into

1083
01:08:54.079 --> 01:08:58.640
the text. People want to be entertained. People get mad

1084
01:08:58.680 --> 01:09:01.000
at their kids. All my kids is to be entertained. Well,

1085
01:09:01.039 --> 01:09:02.680
when you go to church, you want the same thing.

1086
01:09:04.279 --> 01:09:06.039
You want it to be interesting. You want to be exciting,

1087
01:09:06.079 --> 01:09:07.600
you want to be quick, you want it to be funny,

1088
01:09:07.680 --> 01:09:10.840
you want to be moved, you want to feel something.

1089
01:09:11.239 --> 01:09:13.680
Because if you just break a text down guess where

1090
01:09:13.720 --> 01:09:16.760
you sometimes lead with I don't know how to apply that.

1091
01:09:17.159 --> 01:09:19.359
I don't really know what to do with it. Now.

1092
01:09:19.359 --> 01:09:20.800
I should be able to take the story of David

1093
01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:22.520
and Goliath and make it fun and make it exciting

1094
01:09:22.520 --> 01:09:24.720
and make it dramatic, right, I should be able to

1095
01:09:24.760 --> 01:09:27.960
Any good preacher worth his pay should be able to

1096
01:09:27.960 --> 01:09:30.720
do something great with that text. The only problem is

1097
01:09:30.760 --> 01:09:32.840
everything they're doing with that text is probably taking you

1098
01:09:32.880 --> 01:09:38.279
further and further away from the actual text. So many

1099
01:09:38.319 --> 01:09:40.760
of those miracles we want to make all we want

1100
01:09:40.760 --> 01:09:43.800
to make everything about us, and so much of it

1101
01:09:44.159 --> 01:09:47.640
we've talked about it. Many of those miracles and those

1102
01:09:47.640 --> 01:09:50.239
things had everything to do with God making promises to

1103
01:09:50.319 --> 01:09:53.800
Israel and then fulfilling those very promises. I can't run

1104
01:09:53.840 --> 01:09:56.159
in and say, well, since God did that, he's gonna

1105
01:09:56.239 --> 01:09:58.399
do this for me. Because any of us who've lived

1106
01:09:58.399 --> 01:10:02.520
life long enough, what do we realize God doesn't step

1107
01:10:02.520 --> 01:10:05.880
in and do all of that stuff? Does he? If

1108
01:10:05.920 --> 01:10:10.000
he did, wouldn't it be an amazing If God was

1109
01:10:10.079 --> 01:10:12.359
just feeding people like he fed Israel, there would be

1110
01:10:12.840 --> 01:10:15.399
over what five thousand about five thousand people die a

1111
01:10:15.439 --> 01:10:17.920
day from starvation. There wouldn't be any of that. Wouldn't

1112
01:10:17.920 --> 01:10:21.960
that be great? That'd be awesome, wouldn't it right, wouldn't

1113
01:10:21.960 --> 01:10:24.079
it be great? If God was doing all of these

1114
01:10:24.279 --> 01:10:27.239
wonderful miracles, it would be wonderful because then our lives

1115
01:10:27.239 --> 01:10:29.359
would be radically different. But he didn't even do all

1116
01:10:29.359 --> 01:10:36.439
those miracles for people in the Bible, which sometimes is disturbing. Right,

1117
01:10:37.880 --> 01:10:41.279
other people messed up and He just forgave them. Someone

1118
01:10:41.319 --> 01:10:45.079
reached out and touched the ark and he killed them.

1119
01:10:45.279 --> 01:10:49.840
And anisis a fire lied once and died, Abraham lied

1120
01:10:50.039 --> 01:10:54.319
multiple times, David lied. Don't even forget all the things

1121
01:10:54.359 --> 01:10:58.319
Solomon did. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense from a

1122
01:10:58.600 --> 01:11:03.119
historically the bib Bible itself. Right, So, but we can't

1123
01:11:03.159 --> 01:11:05.439
then go and then somehow try to tell people when

1124
01:11:05.439 --> 01:11:09.399
they leave church this morning, Hey, you just remember Jesus

1125
01:11:09.479 --> 01:11:11.319
is in your boat. He's gonna calm all of your storms.

1126
01:11:11.319 --> 01:11:14.439
He just remember those walls of oppression that's keeping you

1127
01:11:14.520 --> 01:11:17.119
from God's purpose in your life. You just march around

1128
01:11:17.159 --> 01:11:19.359
it and the walls will come down. All the way

1129
01:11:19.399 --> 01:11:22.000
people preach all of this stuff. It sounds so good.

1130
01:11:22.159 --> 01:11:24.399
The people in the pew feel better, But it's just

1131
01:11:24.479 --> 01:11:28.560
an illusionary fairy tale, because the reality is it doesn't

1132
01:11:28.600 --> 01:11:32.279
work that way, does it. Do we deny the historical

1133
01:11:32.319 --> 01:11:34.199
reality of what we read in the Bible? No, we

1134
01:11:34.239 --> 01:11:38.239
believe those stories actually occurred, but we cannot extrapolate from

1135
01:11:38.279 --> 01:11:41.239
that that God's going to do ABC and D for us,

1136
01:11:41.800 --> 01:11:44.399
because if he was doing that for us, well, it

1137
01:11:44.399 --> 01:11:48.239
would be all over the news, wouldn't it. But it

1138
01:11:48.239 --> 01:11:50.399
doesn't work that way. So then we have to try

1139
01:11:50.399 --> 01:11:54.319
to spiritualize it. We have to take the literal miracle

1140
01:11:54.319 --> 01:11:57.439
and then spiritualize the literal miracle into a spirit We

1141
01:11:57.600 --> 01:12:01.439
just it's so illogical and broken, and I wish there

1142
01:12:01.520 --> 01:12:03.039
was a way to fix this, but I know this.

1143
01:12:03.720 --> 01:12:06.359
If we don't get it fixed, we're just going to continue.

1144
01:12:06.399 --> 01:12:08.359
I mean, obviously it's never going to be fixed, but

1145
01:12:08.399 --> 01:12:10.359
you're still going to have people take a Bible, go

1146
01:12:10.439 --> 01:12:13.079
to Proverbs thirty and then tell me that that's a

1147
01:12:13.119 --> 01:12:15.119
prophetic passage about what's going to happen in the future

1148
01:12:15.199 --> 01:12:17.640
when people eat poor people. How do you get that

1149
01:12:17.680 --> 01:12:20.960
from Proverbs thirty? I will never know that's insane or

1150
01:12:21.000 --> 01:12:24.159
that an actset actually represents my fellowship with God. That

1151
01:12:24.279 --> 01:12:27.319
I guess I borrowed. I don't know who I borrowed

1152
01:12:27.359 --> 01:12:30.159
it from. I guess I borrowed my fellowship. That doesn't

1153
01:12:30.159 --> 01:12:34.640
even fit with the text itself, right, So that's going

1154
01:12:34.680 --> 01:12:37.920
to continue to happen, and the more sermons you listen to,

1155
01:12:38.039 --> 01:12:39.800
the more you will hear it, and the more it

1156
01:12:39.840 --> 01:12:42.119
should bother us. There's no way to get back. And

1157
01:12:42.159 --> 01:12:46.520
it's just it's kind of sad that thirty eight years ago,

1158
01:12:47.479 --> 01:12:51.439
at this very moment, I probably was pretty close to

1159
01:12:51.479 --> 01:12:53.800
already at the hospital or getting ready to walk into

1160
01:12:53.840 --> 01:12:56.319
the room. My whole life was going to turn into chaos.

1161
01:12:56.600 --> 01:13:00.520
And it's kind of sad that Bible interpretation is about

1162
01:13:00.560 --> 01:13:03.720
as chaotic as that, and it should be much more

1163
01:13:03.800 --> 01:13:08.039
stable and sure. But we have taken this Bible, which

1164
01:13:08.039 --> 01:13:09.920
is the Word of God, and we have literally just

1165
01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.760
destroyed any objective meaning, and we've made it about us,

1166
01:13:15.199 --> 01:13:19.920
and we now are in charge. And until we acknowledge that,

1167
01:13:20.119 --> 01:13:24.079
there's no hope we are the authority of the text.

1168
01:13:24.119 --> 01:13:28.159
Isn't the authority the interpretation trumps the text. That's the

1169
01:13:28.199 --> 01:13:32.159
reality of Christianity. And I don't know how do we

1170
01:13:32.239 --> 01:13:34.840
fix it other than acknowledging it and to acknowledge it,

1171
01:13:34.840 --> 01:13:37.479
we'll get you in trouble. And if I was to

1172
01:13:37.520 --> 01:13:40.119
acknowledge this in most churches, where would I be on Monday?

1173
01:13:41.479 --> 01:13:45.680
Probably unemployed or everybody would be calling me telling me

1174
01:13:45.680 --> 01:13:47.520
they're going to leave the church because they're ticked off.

1175
01:13:47.880 --> 01:13:50.720
But you can be ticked off at me. I've got

1176
01:13:50.720 --> 01:13:52.960
two thousand years of church history to back up my claim.

1177
01:13:53.640 --> 01:13:57.159
Bible interpretation is as subjective as subjective can be, and

1178
01:13:57.239 --> 01:14:01.560
there's no end to how many interpretations there are out there.

1179
01:14:01.680 --> 01:14:04.720
There is no end to it, So we all should

1180
01:14:04.720 --> 01:14:07.319
be a little bit more humble. We still have to

1181
01:14:07.319 --> 01:14:09.800
try to fight for what we believe the Bible teaches right.

1182
01:14:09.840 --> 01:14:12.279
We still have to, but we also have to always

1183
01:14:12.279 --> 01:14:15.960
be humble and ready to admit that what we could

1184
01:14:16.000 --> 01:14:20.680
be very wrong. And we're constantly growing and changing and challenging.

1185
01:14:20.880 --> 01:14:23.760
And that's why I've always been changing in things that

1186
01:14:23.800 --> 01:14:26.239
I may believe, because I'm always trying to figure it out.

1187
01:14:26.479 --> 01:14:28.840
So I wish I could lead it on a much

1188
01:14:28.880 --> 01:14:31.880
more positive note. Just know that there are real principles

1189
01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:35.119
out there. There are real principles of hermonuitics out there.

1190
01:14:35.920 --> 01:14:39.680
They're there. How to convince Christianity to care about them.

1191
01:14:39.720 --> 01:14:45.000
I don't know, I don't know. And even just remember,

1192
01:14:45.039 --> 01:14:46.880
and even if we get all of ourselves to be

1193
01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:49.199
on the right page of interpreting it, it doesn't make

1194
01:14:49.279 --> 01:14:52.600
us better, just make it. Does that make us more spiritual?

1195
01:14:53.199 --> 01:14:56.119
Does that make us more godly? No? It just makes

1196
01:14:56.159 --> 01:14:59.560
us more hopefully aware of what the Bible actually teaches.

1197
01:15:00.079 --> 01:15:02.199
That's the best we can hope for. Don't think it's

1198
01:15:02.199 --> 01:15:05.760
going to make us better. Good interpretation does not make

1199
01:15:05.800 --> 01:15:11.640
you better. Good interpretation just makes you more knowledgeable. Now,

1200
01:15:11.720 --> 01:15:14.439
we would hope knowledge would always lead to better a lot,

1201
01:15:14.520 --> 01:15:17.159
but it doesn't always lead to that. It doesn't. Sometimes

1202
01:15:17.159 --> 01:15:20.199
it actually leads to the opposite. Knowledge could actually lead

1203
01:15:20.239 --> 01:15:26.319
to pride, so it can actually backfire. But we are

1204
01:15:26.319 --> 01:15:28.520
supposed to know it, so all we can do is

1205
01:15:28.560 --> 01:15:30.119
try to know it better. All right, let's pray the

1206
01:15:30.119 --> 01:15:32.560
Lord got we come before you this afternoon. Lord. It's

1207
01:15:32.600 --> 01:15:36.039
a it's a sad state of affairs when it comes

1208
01:15:36.119 --> 01:15:38.680
to how to interpret your word. Everyone in this room,

1209
01:15:38.720 --> 01:15:41.199
we've all made mistakes in doing it. We've all done

1210
01:15:41.199 --> 01:15:45.199
it incorrectly. We've probably taught other people incorrectly. Forgive us

1211
01:15:45.199 --> 01:15:48.159
all for our failure. We will not worry about anyone

1212
01:15:48.159 --> 01:15:51.680
else's failure. And help us find a way to understand

1213
01:15:51.720 --> 01:15:56.079
your word so that we can find stability, find objective

1214
01:15:56.119 --> 01:16:01.399
truth and not subjective chaos. Thank you for all that

1215
01:16:01.439 --> 01:16:04.800
you've done, forgiving us your word, and hopefully we will

1216
01:16:04.840 --> 01:16:06.439
become better stewards of it. And we asked us in

1217
01:16:06.520 --> 01:16:09.359
Jesus name, and God's people said