Church is Discouraging?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Thursday, February the twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten forty two am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if possible, I need you to grab some paper, something to write with, because I'm going to ask you some very important questions. I want you to write down the questions and I want you to write down the answers. Okay, Now, for some reason you don't have paper and something to write with, Use your phone, use your tablet, use your memory. But I really want you to give these questions great consideration because I think they're very important and well, they're going to be critical to this discussion. And I think this may go maybe a part one, maybe we'll do a part two, part three. I don't know. I don't know how many parts we'll do it. Maybe I'll finish it all in this episode. We will see. But it's a very important conversation. Okay, are you ready? All right? I really want to grab something to write with. If you can if not just pay close attention till everyone around you sh I have to pay attention. All right, he's about to ask questions and I have to give the answer or I don't know, something bad will happen. All right,

1:34 are you ready? Here we go. I want you to think about your life. I want you to think about the past. I want you to think about the present. Right in your life? What has been? What is? What are the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life? I want you to think about the past. Maybe going to answer this by in the past, these were the three greatest sources of encouragement, But in the present, these are the three greatest sources of encouragement. Maybe you're maybe the past and present is going to be different, so you may want to answer it that way. Maybe you just have three and they have been true in the past and they are true and the present. What are the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life? Now?

2:27 You may be able to answer it really quick. You may not want to write it down. You're like, well, if I write this down, someone's going to see that they're not on the list, and they're going to be very offended because I'm saying that they're not a great source of encouragement in my life. Well, maybe they need to see it. I don't know. I don't want to create any drama around you, but I really want you to consider what are the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life? Number two? I think you know where I'm going. Look at the past, look at the present? What has been? What is? What are the three greatest sources of discouragement in your life? So? What have what has been? What has? What? What is? When it comes to encouragement, What are the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life? Past? Present? And when it comes to your life past and present? What has been? What is?

3:19 What are the three greatest sources of discouragement in your life? Encouragement, discouragement, the three greatest sources of it? What? What? What? What do you think? What do you think? Come on, I'm waiting for you. Like if we were, if I was in front of a live audience, I would really want to hear what people would say. But I don't know if people. I think people would be like you almost don't want to ask this in front of a live audience, right because if they're sitting there next to their spouse. You know they want to look and say, well, my spouse is the greatest source of encouragement in my life, or my kids are the greatest source of encourg in my life. But at the same time they may be wanting to say, my spouse or my kids are the greatest source of discouragement in my life. I know you're not supposed to say that. Or if you're asking the question in church, they may feel they're supposed to say this church is a great source of encouragement in my life.

4:16 Or they may want to say the church has been a great source of discouragement in my life. But see here, it's a podcast. No one has to know. So in this case, if you don't want to write it down, just at least acknowledge in your mind. What are the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life? Maybe past? Maybe you need a list for the past, a list for the present. What are the great greatest sources of discouragement in your life? Again, you may want to have three from the past, three in the present. I don't know how your If your life has changed, you can draw your own conclusion and how you want to answer it, but I really want you to give it serious thought. Now are you ready? I'm going to ask this question. Aw, you're looking at your list three areas of encouragement, the greatest sources of encouragement, and the three greatest sources of discouragement.

5:05 You're looking at your list now on your list, does the Church or does Christianity or and is it you know? Well, put it this way, does one of these or both of these show up on your list? The Church or Christianity or the Church and Christianity? Do you have them both? Do you have one? Do you separate them? In your christian life? Has the Church been a source of encouragement or has the Church been a source of discouragement? In your life? Has the Church been a source of discouragement or encouragement? And has it been a source of discouragement or encouragement when it comes to Christianity? And I'm separating Christianity in the church. So in your life, has the Church been encouraging or discouraging? And in your life do you feel Christianity has been encouraging or discouraging? Now, I know what you're supposed to say, I know what the church answer is, but we don't care about church answers here on this podcast. Forget the Church. Answer forget it, honest, brutal honesty. In your life, the Church and Christianity encouraging or discouraging, And I'm separating them because I think sometimes Christianity can be very encouraging, but the source can be an institution of nothing but great discouragement. I think the Church is at best a mixed bag. I don't think

6:36 the Church is ever one of these at any given time. I think the Church is sometimes encouraging, sometimes discouraging, and I think in many cases it leans towards the discouraging more than the encouraging. That's my own personal feelings. I mean I could see it here right now and tell you stories of great discouraging things that happened in my Christian life through the Church because of the Church. So in general, just in your life, Okay, forget Christianity, forget the Church right now. When you answered that question three the three greatest sources of encouragement in your life, does the Church of Christianity show up? The three greatest sources of discouragement? Did Christianity in the Church show up? So I want you to consider the church in general, how would you rate it encouraging or discouraging? What has your experience been as a Christian attending churches? Come on, look back over your life encouraging or discouraging? And then just Christianity in general, do you feel like encouraging or discouraging? Now?

7:39 For me, the church has been a great source of discouragement at times, great source of discouragement, absolutely, just at times brutal. And the and the and the way the church has been discouraging. I mean, I can go through when when I got the notification that my you know, mother basically was dead in the hospital, and you know, everybody knew what was going on, and the people who knew what was going on, I got, I got griped at. I got basically people were frustrated with me because I had not mowed the church lawn. I had not cut the grass. And it's like, well, I don't know, I don't know, my mom's in the hospital waiting for her to be pronounced dead. I'm sorry I didn't get to that right. I when my father died, how someone in the church sent me an email I don't know. Forty eight seventy two hours after my father had died, and then got all ticked off because I didn't respond and try to and try to try to make some point that I didn't care about people. And it's like, I don't know. My father died seventy two hours ago. I don't know. I don't And so I mean I could go on and on with examples of what happened in the church, so so many, so many crazy things. So I mean the stories would be pretty legendary of discouragement, not encouragement. And so I separate the church from Christianity.

9:07 So in your life, what are the three greatest sources of encouragement? What are the three greatest sources of discouragement? And where do you put the church there in encouraging discouraging, and where do you put Christianity? Now? In some ways, I just want to stop right there. It's been nine minutes and twenty three seconds. I should just stop and go. I really want you to consider that today and we'll talk later, but we're going to continue here, all right. I want you just to really think about this. So I did a little bit of research, right so, based on all available studies, based on all available research on human psychology, sociology and well being. All right, so this is all based off again, are you ready on all available studies and research on human psychology, sociology, and well being, all of that combined, here are the three greatest sources of encouragement and the three greatest sources of discouragement for people in general. So generally speaking, when you bring in all the research and all the study on human psychology, sociology, and well being, here are the three greatest sources of encouragement and the three greatest sources of discouragement. Are you ready?

10:31 What do you think Number one is? What do you think number one? What do you think is the strongest or the greatest source of encouragement for a person? What do you think it is? Do you think it's the Church? Do you think it's God? Do you think it's Christianity? Do you think it's the Bible? What do you think it is? Well? What's listed Number one is strong relationships and social support. Now this is where some people may point to the church. Some people may not. All right, but here we go. Here's a little bit of what we have discovered by looking at all of this research. Studies consistently show that strong personal connections, whether through family, friends, or community, are among the greatest sources of encouragement. Social support provides emotional stability, reduces stress, and enhances overall life satisfaction.

11:29 So if you want a basically, if you want a great source of encouragement, you need a good relationship or relationships plural. You need people. You need someone there to build you up, to encourage you and support. And if we think about this, this is why we typically find ourselves in relationships. Why do we find friends, why do we find a spouse, is because we're looking for the encouragement to be built up, to be supported, to be caught. You know, someone day catch me when I fall. Kind of concept. Relationships are typically where we find the greatest amount of encouragement, or at least that's where we should.

12:11 Now some will say, well that social support. Some will say well, that's the church. But just make it very clear, it doesn't have to be a church for you to get social support or strong relationships. You can find them in a book club, you can find them in all kinds of different social settings. And this in finding a group of friends who like this, it can come from so many things, not necessarily the institutionalized church. Some people, Now, the church likes to promote itself. Hey, you can't do life alone. Be a part of a small group. Be a part of this so that you can have this social support. Now, sometimes churches offer great social support. Some churches may not. Now and what we could really offer, we could get into a whole discussion, is how much of the response on ability is it of the church to provide said social support. Is that the church's function, Is that the church's mission, or is what's supposed to happen is that you're a Christian and you go to church, you meet other Christians, and then you develop the personal relationships and that's where the emotional support comes from. It's not necessarily that the church has to create the system to make it happen. Is that you meet people and you make it happen. Is that the church's responsibility. We could get into a big discussion about that, but just make it clear what the number one source of strong encouragement typically comes from relationships. Now, sometimes relationships can be

13:41 some of the most discouraging thing, or they could be an encouraging thing, and the church can kind of function at least play a part in this So that's number one. Strong relationships and social support. That's where people tend to find the greatest source of encouragement. Number two a sense of purpose and meaning. A sense of purpose and meaning. I'm sorry there, I hit the microphone. A sense of So a sense of purpose and meaning. Now this one is interesting because this one's a little bit more subjective. The first one's very objective. It's very clear, right, get do you have friends, do you have a social support? Well, you typically are going to see that as the greatest source of your encouragement. Not God people, not scripture people. Now, when we preach it, we may say the greatest source of encouragement is God, it is his word. But I think when it comes down to practicality, that's again theoretical theology.

14:39 It sounds good in a sermon and everyone will say amen. But if they're really brutally honest, the greatest source of encouragement doesn't come from a God in whom they cannot see. It doesn't come from philological principles they find in the word of God. It comes from a person. People. That's where they get their encouragement, That's where they find it. Right. Number two, A sense of purpose and meaning. Now, this one again is somewhat subjective, but this is what we find. Right. People who have a clear sense of purpose, whether through faith or work, or personal goals or service to others, tend to have a greater sense of resilience and motivation.

15:22 Research suggests that having purpose increases overall happiness, mental health, and even longevity. So you need a sense of purpose, you need a sense of meaning, and I think that I think when it comes to this, remember when I talked about what is the three greatest sources of encouragement past present? Sense of discouragement? Are sources of discouragement past and present. The reason I did that is because really for number two here a sense of purpose and meaning. I think people find different sense of purpose and meaning at different times in their life. Now I know what the Christian answer is going to be. Well, my sense of purpose meaning comes from God. I'm created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Congratulations, you memorize the first question on the catechism. That's great, that's awesome. It's good to know that. But I think a lot of that's theoretical.

16:12 When it comes down to it. I don't think we may say we find great encouragement from having a sense of purpose and meaning because we're living for God. But if you look at the lives of most people, if they're even remotely honest. Now this may not be true of a pastor, but the average person sitting in the pew, if they're honest, the purpose of their life. I mean, they spend most of their life going to work, making money, saving money for retirement, taking care of their family. Their purpose and their purpose, and it shows up at different stages in their life. Their purpose may be going to college to get that college degree so they can get their job. That job their purpose in life, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. Many times it's to find a spouse. It's to find the love of my life.

17:02 Meaning in life can be found in that relationship. You find great sense of meaning in your and your spouse and your children. I think that that it's constantly fluctuating. Now I know the theological answer is, Hey, Christians, you should have this great source of encouragement because you have purpose and meaning in your life. And your purpose is God. You are created by Him for Him. Your meaning in life is Him. Your purpose is to serve Him. Your purpose is to further the Kingdom of God. Your purpose is that. That's well, that sounds good, but in some ways I think that actually becomes a source of discouragement. What do I mean by that, Well, you're trying to tell people, Hey, your whole focus should be God, your whole focus should be His word, prayer, fasting, church, you know, witnessing.

17:50 That's true, should be your life. But at the same time, they're like, well, wait a minute, I got a job, and I got this, and I got and it's like so then they have to feel guilty that God is not the first thing. So they actually find themselves in conflict and being discouraged. Well, I want God to be first. I want to love God the most, but I care about my job, and I care about this, and I care about that, and I'm trying to do this and I'm trying to accomplish this, and I'm trying and so they live in a constant state of feeling guilty that they know theoretically God is supposed to be the purpose and meaning, but they're really finding purpose and meaning and everything else, even though they may try to deny that.

18:30 And this is where Christianity can start becoming a source of discouragement because you're given a standard which you're never going to be able to meet. But it sounds like that if you can find purpose and meaning, whatever that may be at any given time, whatever it can be, I mean, I think it can, your purpose and meaning can change so drastically. It can be like, my purpose and meaning is this, And it may be I'm gonna run a marathon. So you're running every single day, you're posting on social media how far you've run, and your your all your fitness goals, and your purpose and meaning becomes that even though you would say no, no, God is my purpose and meaning. Yeah, but you're giving a lot of time and energy for this. Now, once you maybe run that marathon or accomplish your weight goals or what are your fitness goals, the next thing you know, you're finding a new one. And I think it's conn I don't think it's ever so black and white as we want to make it out to be in the church.

19:24 So what are the is the number one source of encouragement strong relationships and social support. Number two a sense of purpose and meaning. Number three personal growth and achievement. Progress in life, whether in learning new skills, Overcoming challenges or achieving personal or professional goals is a major source of encouragement. The feeling of accomplishment reinforces self worth and motivation. Again, for most people, this oh, I want to accomplish this. Oh, I want to get this, I want to do this, I want to We have these things we want to do, and that becomes a greater source of encourage. Even though we want to say God is the source, Come on now, it's people, it's purpose and meaning, and it's personal growth and achievement. When you achieve something, you feel good, you feel great. When you accomplish this, you get that promotion, you get this done, you accomplish this, you have this goal, you finish this part of schooling, you get this certificate, you get this diploma, You accomplish this, you do this, you get that pay raise, you get that promotion. All those different things they are a part of feeling encouraged.

20:36 So the three major sources of encouragement based on all the studies of psychology, sociology, and basically human well being are number one, strong relationships and social support. Number two a state of purpose and meaning, and number three your own personal growth and your own personal achievement. So if you feel like you are growing and you are moving, you're advancing in your life, and you are achieving things, you're gonna have a sense of encouragement. If you feel like you've got a purpose and meaning and you are pursuing it, you're gonna have a sense of encouragement. And if you've got people around you encouraging you, cheering you on, supporting you, you're gonna feel encouraged. And those that means that encouragement can happen with or without Christianity, with or without God, with or without the Church. Now we want, we want, we may as Christians, we try to reframe that saying we get encouragement from God in these areas.

21:33 But I will argue that when we place God there as the way we're going to get our encouragement, we actually lead to discouragement. But you know the reason why, because we're never going to actually meet it's going to become now this religious standard that we're trying to achieve, and we're gonna fall short, and we're gonna fall short, and we're gonna fall short, and we're going to constantly live feeling guilty even though it's supposed to be the thing that brings us encouragement. Hey, you're supposed to live it being living your life for God's glory? Are you living your life for God's glory? How do you know you're living your life for God's glory? Well, you do this, and you do this, and you got to do this, and don't do this, and do this and don't do this. Hey, your purpose and meaning is the Kingdom of God. How do you know you're living your life for his purpose and his meaning? Well, you spend more time reading his Bible, reading the Bible, going to church. You do this. You give more money to this you're doing When you look at your personal growth and achievement, you're looking at personal growth and achievement based on how many people you've won to the Lord. How this everything then becomes this, It becomes this almost legalistic thing you're trying to achieve, which it's supposed to be the thing to encourage you. But you find yourself feeling guilty and shameful, so you then find yourself discouraged. We have to I know, I know I'm not supposed to say any of these things, but we're supposed to. We have to at least admit that. So, what are the three greatest sources of encouragement based on extensive research into psychology, sociology, and human well being. Number

23:04 one strong relationships and social support. Number two a sense of purpose and meaning. Number three personal growth and achievement. What are the three greatest sources of discouragement? What are the three greatest sources of discouragement? Loneliness and social isolation. A lack of meaningful relationship is one of the biggest source of discouragement and mental distress. Studies link social isolation and increase rates two increased rates of depression, anxiety, and even physical health problems. When you wake up one day and you're like, wait, how did my life end up here?

23:53 Isolated alone? Bad things start happening. Bad things start happening. They start happening physically, they start happening mentally, they start happening emotionally. According to all the studies, Now there can be some people will may prefer isolation and loneliness, but it seems that it may have a temporary benefit, but all long term things are getting all mixed up and confused, and it can be not such a good thing. Now, some people will say, we'll see church will fix this. You go to church, you're no longer socially isolated, you're no longer lonely. Well, the people at church can only provide so much in many cases those relationships, I mean, depending on your situation. I think a lot of times people who are lonely, like for whatever they end up, they can go to church and they can meet people.

24:56 But a lot of those people have You're going to see people who have their own lives. They got their families, They've got their husband, they got their wife, they got their kids, they got their jobs, they got they're busy, they got a million things going. You may like, well, where are they to help me? Well, they've got their own lives to live. What do you expect them to do? Just invite you over Monday through Sunday so that you have They can only provide so much. Now maybe of some benefit, but again the church is only gonna I mean, there's plenty of other social interactions and social groups and things you can do where you can find that same thing, finding a sense of community, as churches talk about. You can find it in a lot of different things. But people can become very discoursed and that There's been plenty of people who go to church and then will complain that they feel lonely and they don't feel like anyone cares about them because they're looking for something that I don't know if any typical organization like that can necessarily provide.

25:56 They can try to create situations where you can, but there's only so much it can do as an institution. Loneliness and social isolation is a source of great discouragement. And there are a lot of people, I mean, there's been lots of studies right now that we're in an epidemic of loneliness and an epidemic of isolation. And some people blame social media, some people blame a lot of different things how to break that. But when people find themselves in that situation, I'm telling you it's not good when they find themselves kind of like, man, how did I end up alone? How did I end up alone?

26:43 What do I do? How do I process this? How do I And there's no easy way to make it, Like you know, there's no simple answer. We'll find a situation where you're not alone, Okay, well then what do I do? How do I do that? Well, depending on their state in life, it may be will go find someone and then hopefully you find someone and you won't be alone. Other people may be in a situation where they don't have that and they're still alone for whatever reason. Now can Christianity come in and offer a solution. Well, then you want to say, well, find it in God. Well that's easy to tell. It's easy to tell someone. Hey, I know you're alone. Okay, now now I'm going to tell you this. Then I'm going to go over there and you know, hug my husband and hold his hand, and we're going to go right off into the sunset.

27:34 But hey, I want you to know you shouldn't be all overcome with your feelings of loneliness and isolation because you believe in God and you're supposed to live for God, and you're supposed to find your satisfaction in God, and you're supposed to find your comfort in God. And as long as you have God, you're never alone. And God is with you. And they preach you this big sermon and you're like, well, you preach a big sermon when you've got everything you've got, you've got a million things other than God. But you're gonna tell this person you need to find your satisfaction in God. You need to find your happiness and God. A lot of times churches do this to singles. I know you're single, and I know you're lonely, and that can lead to sin and lead to problems. But just remember you have God. You've got everything you need. God will stick closer to you than a brother. He's there. He will never leave you, he will never forsake you. You'll never be abandoned. You have God. So spend time with God. Develop your relationship with God. Find your happiness in God, find your contentment in God. Because if you've got God, you've got everything you need. And then singles look at you and go get out of my face. All right? You tell me that as you're about to go get into your car and drive off with your spouse and go home and spend the evening with your spouse and get in bed with your spouse. You get out of my face. I think sometimes singles can get really offended at that, because we like, you just got God, you don't need anything else. Well, if you don't need anything else, why everybody in this church has somebody else. Okay, what are you talking about?

29:00 All right? I tell oh that can be that's got to be frustrating being a single and being having that cram down your throat while everyone's living a life of having all the other stuff that they say you don't need because you've got God. Well, if nobody needed those other things because they have God, well, then they wouldn't all have those other things, would they. So? Number two a lack of control or uncertainty. When you feel powerless in the faces of life's challenges, whether due to financial struggles, illness, or political instability, or other uncontrollable factors, that can lead to great sense of discouragement. Research shows that perceived control over one's circumstance is a key factor in mental resilience.

29:57 So what can bring discouragement? Loneliness and social isolation. Number two A lack of control or uncertainty. You just feel like you have no control. You're facing a challenge, you're facing a difficulty, but you can't control it's you can't make it better, you can't fix it, you can't resolve it, you can't do anything. Well. Man, that lack of control can begin to really discourage a person and lead to life Look that that loneliness and isolation can lead to lots of problems when you're like, there's I don't I don't know what's going to happen. The situation's out of my control. Man, That can be discouraging as well. Number three failure and repeated setbacks. Some failure sometimes can be motivating.

30:53 Sometimes failure can motivate you fail yeah, but repeated failure without or support can lead to total and complete discouragement. And this is once again where I think the church sometimes in Christianity can be very discouraging because Christianity provides you a moral system be holy as God is holy, which you can never achieve. So you're in a perpetual state of failure. Okay, well that's that's not encouraging. And the church itself can be Hey, you've got do this, guys. Pray more, read your Bible more, go to church more, give more, witness more, do this more, do this, Glorify God more, do this, love God more, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. And so you're just like for crying out loud, like it can be a moment where you're like, I can do it. But then there can be a moment like this this is going nowhere. So whether it's your career, whether it's in your relationship with your spouse or with your kids, whether it's a personal endeavor. Feeling like once efforts are futile can create deep frustration and spare. It can happen on a podcast where you're working. You're working, you feel like you're not getting anywhere, you're not doing anything, you're not accomplishing anything, and well, that gives you that feeling of despair.

32:10 It can happen in ministry. It can happen in your job. It can happen in your marriage. It can happen when you just you feel you just failure and set back and you don't seem to be advancing. You can just become everything can begin to unravel. So, based on studies of human psychology, sociology, and human being well being, the three sources, the three greatest sources for encouragement are people, relationships, people who encourage you, build you up, support you, which is a social support structure right of some sort. It can be individuals people. I guess you could try to find it in an institution. Number two, a sense of purpose and meaning a sense of purpose and meaning. And again I think that's very transitional and that's transitory. It can change a lot. I know what Christianity would say, but again, I think that can begin to become a source of discouragement. As we've talked about number three, personal growth and achievement, those are the sources of encouragement. The three greatest sources of discouragement loneliness and social isolation, a lack of ConTroll or uncertainty, and failure and repeated setbacks.

33:24 These findings come from a mix of psychological, sociological, and neurological research on what influences human well being. Those are the sources of encouragement and the sources of discouragement. Now, nowhere did any of those say specifically faith Church. God didn't say any of that. And this is where the Church would push back and go, well, those are all wrong. The greatest source of encouragement, the greatest source of you know, of all the things you need, comes from God, and they may even put the Church on there, comes from Christianity.

34:08 And while that's what we're trying to discuss now, I will argue, I will argue, and I don't have a good answer when it comes to the Church in Christianity. I think that there, I think we have to draw a distinction between church and Christianity because I think the Church has been a source of discouragement. I think the Church has been a great source of discouragement throughout church history. Right, you want to consider some I think now you could argue that it's also provided encouragement. I'm not going to say it hasn't, but it's been a significant source of discouragement for many people. And this discouragement often arises from a lot of different factors. So let's consider some primary ways in which the Church has actually been a source of discouragement. Let's consider how the Church has been a source of discouragement through I think throughout church history. You ready number one, unrealistic spiritual expectations and legalism. Unrealistic spiritual expectations and legalism. I don't think we can get around this.

35:36 And this is why some of those things, some of the things I said, it can actually it can actually go hang on. Okay, wow, okay, I was I was looking at the all of my stats and everything was going crazy here. So let's let's consider this, all right. So when it comes to the church, and this has gone in a completely different direction than I originally planned because we had all these technical problems at the beginning. This is not going in the direction I had planned. Okay, but that's all right. I had I had audio cued up. We're not even going to get to the audio, but that's okay. We've talked about what are the three greatest sources of encouragement? The three greatest sources of discouragement? All right?

36:19 And that that got my mind thinking in all kinds of different ways. And I think that and in some of those I can hear how the church will try to answer it. But I think the church's answer almost always leads to discouragement. So I'm going to forego what I was originally going to do and let's just dig into this. What I think the Church is a great source of discouragement. And here's the reason why. Number One I think this is I think maybe this is the key. The church offers this unrealistic, these unrealistic spiritual expectations and legalism. So the church will say, hey, God and Christianity and the Bible, that's where you find your encouragement, that's where you find hope and peace and all of these things. But almost in how probably it's like this is what it should look like, but you have to do this and do this, and do this and do this, and you got to put God first, and you got to do this, and you're supposed to love God. He's supposed to do this. And at some point all of these expectations just puts you in a cycle of trying, trying, trying, trying, and you never getting there, which actually leads to one of the sources of discouragement. I think it almost it's counterintuitive, whether people realize it or not. Right many churches teach that believers should experience victory over sin, constant joy, and unwavering faith, creating an impossible standard. This leads to people feel like a failure when they struggle with doubt, sin, or suffering. Legalism adds burdens that Christ never placed unbelievers, making the Christian life feel like an unachievable checklist rather than a life of grace. I think that's just absolutely factual. Hey,

37:53 Christianity is supposed to be the thing that encourages you, but it encourages you by basically either promising you that you can achieve something which you cannot achieve, and then you're gonna fall on your face. You're gonna fall on your face over and over and over and over and over, or say that you can have encouragement and all of this stuff if and there's always a strong if you do this, this, this, this, this and this and this. So it's legalism with false hope, false promise that you can achieve something which you can never truly achieve. That's if that's not a recipe of discouragement, I don't know what it is. People often feel that no matter how much they try, they're never good enough. It creates guilt, shame, and spiritual exhaustion instead of true encouragement in Christ. So the church offers unrealistic spiritual unrealistic spiritual expectations of what you can achieve, what you can do even though you can't.

38:52 And then it gives you a list of dues and don'ts and rules of what you have to do and should do and can't do in order to have all the things that promises you that. If that's not a source of discouragement, I don't know what is. So number two number two a misuse. I think this is the second way the church discourages. It misuses scripture to give people a false hope. The church loves to come in and offer, Hey, here's this scripture, here's this SCRIPTUREY grab onto this, here's this promise, this promise, and you're like, oh, yes, yes, I've got all of this hope, I've got that, and now I'm encouraged. The only problem is churches misuse versus like Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven. Right, I know the plans I have for you to bless you has nothing to do with us, not a thing Philippians four thirteen.

39:55 I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. No context is offered Roman's eight twenty eight. All things work together for good. These are just thrown out there, and they lead people to expect earthly success, healing, or a problem free life. When reality doesn't match these promises, believers feel that either they have felled God or that God has felled them. Churches love to grab scriptures and offer it up as a sense of hope, a sense of encouragement, and you get encouraged for a brief period of time, and then you're like, wait a minute, this doesn't seem to work, and this doesn't seem to work, and this doesn't work, and this doesn't work, and then the church, and you're like, then you were more discouraged than you were when you showed up. All of this leads to false expectations that inevitably lead to disappointment. When suffering doesn't go away, people feel abandoned by God or lied to by the church. So how does the church discourage gives unrealistic spiritual expectations? And legalism Number two misuses scripture to give false hope. Number three, all the hypocrisy and corruption in the church, now this can discourage. Now, the reason this discourages is all the hypocrisy and corruption in the church contradicts everything the church says. Because the church says, hey, we all now are Christians, so we have supernatural ability to do this, and to do this, and to do this, and to do this even though after two thousand years of church history, what have we found that Christians inside the church and outside the church,

41:25 what do we do? We sin? We sin? We sin, we sin, So we are only hypocrites if we pretend that we don't. If we will acknowledge God's standards are that which we cannot achieve, we never will. We're always, in practice are going to fall short of the very standards which we preach and teach. Unless we acknowledge that, then there's going to be a sense of hypocrisy. But there's always going to be sin, and there's always going to be corruption in the church. There always is going to be And when you think about church, we have scandals of every kind in church history, financial corruption, sexual abuse, child molestation, cover ups, authoritarian leadership. People have been deeply wounded and messed over in Christianity and within the church.

42:18 Many churches protect their reputation over victims, leading to disillusionment. Leaders will preach humility but live in luxury or demand moral purity while secretly sinning. This creates deep discouragement. Rarely the church is this place where hey, everyone, look, guys, guys, we know what we're called to try to do, but let's all be honest here. We're all we're all trash, We're all perpetual sinners. Can we admit this? Can we function as a church with not pretending that we're something that we're not, but acknowledging everyone here is in sin of some sort. Look at the person to your right, they're perpetually in sin. Look to the person to your left, they're in perpetual sin. Look at the person behind you, They're in perpetual sin. Look at the person in front of you, they're in perpetual sin. Now hold up a mirror.

43:13 You're in perpetual sin. So everyone can drop their rocks, everyone can drop their pretense, everyone can get rid of their robes of self righteousness. Everyone can stop saying I think the God that we're not like other people, because we are the other people, we're the sinners. But because the church doesn't do that. Well, if everyone in the church perceives that they have now a supernatural ability to basically keep the law of God to some level, even even if they deny perfection, they almost preach it as if you can get close. I mean, they teach that you're a new creature in Christ. Old things passed away, all things have become new. I mean, I don't know how they can't how they can teach that to be true practically and not yet demand perfection, but they try to hold some idea of being perfection. I'm not reaching perfection.

44:02 But the point is everyone believes they can. Well, you know how much discouragement's going to lead to when everyone realizes they can't and that they don't. So this makes people question whether Christianity's even real. It leads many to walk away from the church, believing it's filled with self serving individuals rather than true followers of Christ. But see, that's a problem as well. You walk away saying all of those people in the church are sinners, none of them are really following Christ. But I am you're you're only That's not the solution because what you have to realize is those people are no better than you, and you're no better than them because we're all sinners. So how does the church discourage unrealistic spiritual expectations and legalism?

44:54 Unrealistic spiritual expectations and legalism number two? And misuse of scripture to give false hope number three, hypocrisy and corruption and leadership Number four. The church's treatment of those who struggle. Many believers who struggle with mental illness, addiction, doubt, difficult life circumstances. They're met with judgment rather than compassion, because Christianity has this idea you shouldn't be struggling. You have God boom, you can do anything, you can do it. And while people struggle and they fail, and they struggle, and they may struggle with sexual sin or or they may struggle with this, or they may struggle with worry. They may struggle with anxiety, they may struggle with this, they may just it's basically stop it, don't do it, repent, be a good person. Well, congratulations, that's going to fix a lot of problems. Churches tend to oversimplify advice, which is basically, pray more, have more faith, read your Bible.

45:55 You'll feel better. That's typically the church's response, so those who leave the faith are deconstructed, are often shunned or labeled, labeled, rather than engaged with, loved and understood. Now it's typically you're the problem. You're the problem. You're the problem. You're the problem. You're the problem. You're the problem, because they want Christianity to be like, no, you have problems, you become saved, and then now dun dun, du duh, we basically walk on water. And then we still talk about all those bad people outside of the church because in here we've got all of our stuff all figured out. Now that works for a while, and it may be encouraging for a while, and you may be able to live and play the part, and you may able. It'll put on the facade, and you may be it'll put on the robes of self righteousness, and it may all work, but sooner or later everything begins to crumble. And then when you find yourself struggling, Christianity doesn't have any good answers for you other than stop it, do this, read your bibble more, do this, pray what's your problem? And you're like, okay, well never mind, I give up. So then this leads people to feeling alone. Wait, what's one of the real things of discouragement one of the things that encourage you need people? Right, Well, now you feel alone, and you feel like you're alone and you're suffering and nobody is going to support you. So many walk away feeling that the church doesn't care about their real struggles.

47:19 Now again, at the same time, it's complicated, right, because the church can only do so much. A lot of times people always walk away saying, well, the church didn't care, the church didn't care. But at the same time, the church can't. The people in church can't take care of everyone's problems. They can only do so much for you, right, There's only so much they can do. They may be able to show up a couple of times they be able to call on you that there's some things they can do, but ultimately they can do very little as an institution. Now, if you develop close friends, then those friends can but the church itself, those people have their own lives. So then it becomes this, what are we expecting? And again it's odd because on one hand we preach that all the encouragement, all that you need, all all the support you need comes from Christ, it comes from his word. But at the same time people will then say, well, the church didn't do that. Well wait, so so the institution is the thing that's supposed to do it for you and not God. Well, then why do we continue to say God is the one that he's my wrong, he's my refuge, he's my he's my hope, he's my shield, he's my defender. He's We say all it that God does all of these things for us. He's my he's my spiritual You know, the Word of God is my food.

48:33 It is my milk, it is my meat. It sustains me, it gives me hope, it helps me. Well, then if God in his word does all of that, then why are you worried about what other people are doing or not doing well. Then you realize you need other people. Okay, well, now what is the expectation of what the church can and can't do? That becomes very complicated. Another thing that the church has done that leads to discouragement is the celebrity pastor and the church as an industry. The rise of a celebrity pastor and the church is an entertainment driven business has created superficial Christianity. People come seeking spiritual depth but are met with self help sermons, entertainment, and shallow theology. Conferences, speaking tours, and book deals create a culture where pastors are treated like celebrities rather than shepherds.

49:25 People seeking deep theological truth often feel let down when I go to church. The focus on marketing and image makes Christianity feel an authentic. It's marketing, it's money, it's get people we need, and it's programs, it's activities. Sometimes if you come looking for something, you can feel greatly discouraged. You can feel like, what is this? This is something other than what I thought. So the church can be a source of discouragement. A sixth way the church can it can be a source of great discouragement. The church's failure to address philological and doctrinal issues. Honestly, many churches water down doctrine to avoid offending people, leading to a lack of biblical depth. Others promote one sided interpretations of scripture, ignoring historical and philological complexities. When believers seek answers to difficult questions, they are often dismissed or labeled as oh, come on, I know what. They're going to be labeled as a trouble maker. We don't want it. We got to make it simple, we got to make it easy, we got to make it comfortable. We can't dig in in any meaningful, serious way. And if you start asking hard questions and you're the troublemaker, so what happens. It discourages people. Those who ask deep questions feel like church does not want them to think critically. The church doesn't want you to think critically. People who study theology and depth often fill alone when churches avoid difficult discussions. The

50:57 church doesn't want to honestly deal with things, doesn't want to honestly deal with reality. It just wants it wants. It doesn't want to deal with real issues and really dig into say, well, here's what the scriptures teach me. When this scripture doesn't make any senswer Wait, this is complicated, or that's hard for me to wrap my mind around, or what about this or what about that? Well, wait a minute, and all these very difficult things that we talk about all the time on the podcast and in churches. Sh you're not supposed to talk that way. It's supposed to be this very shallow. It has a it has the it has the appearance of godliness, has the form of godliness. But there's no substance. You can't really dig in and struggle. There's no place for struggle. There's no place for questions, there's no place for doubt. It's just supposed to be accept this and shut up. You're supposed to just shut up in color, stay within the lines.

51:52 And you're like, well, things don't make sense to me. All right. God created a world. He's all knowing and all powerful. Yet his all know and all powerful didn't bother I don't know, not to create satan or to destroy satan. But he allowed Adam and Eve to sin. Instead of stopping it there, he let people be born sinners. So people are born sin sinful, they're born condemned. But if they sin, doing what is according to their nature, then that sin is wrong. And if they don't do this, they're gonna burn forever in hell. Yeah, there's some serious questions there. And the powerful God could intervene and stop this or stop this, but he doesn't stop this sin. He doesn't stop this sin. But then he will punish you for the sin that he did not stop. And I'm supposed to pray to what God to intervene. He is the very God who did not intervene to stop the problem that I'm praying about. These are very hard questions, you see, sh You can't if you start talking like that in church, you will be cast out. So you just have to shut up in color now, For many people, they got no problem. Bring them the crayons, bring them the coloring book. They're gonna color very nice within the lines, going to get an A plus. Look at Oh, you did such a good job. And then you've got people like me and they're like, what are you doing. You're you're not even, You're not even, you're not even coloring within the picture. What is this? This is trash? Get out.

53:12 You're a failure. And you're right, I am a failure and I am trash. Because I just can't color within the lines because there's too many things to struggle with a number seven. Another way the church discourages is the church's approach to suffering and the Prosperity Gospel influence. Many churches teach that if you have enough faith, God basically is gonna heal you, bless you, or remove all your suffering. That's basically the concept. This false theology leads to suffering suffering believers to blame themselves when prayers go unanswered. Even non Prosperity Gospel churches subtly push this mindset, making suffering believers feel like they are less faithful. Hey, if you will do this, and you'll do this, God's gonna fix all your problems. He's gonna make it all go away. Well, he doesn't always make it go away. The sickness is not going away. The sickness is terminal. Death is coming.

54:10 So stop telling people that, oh no, it's going to give Your situation is going to get better, This is gonna get better. Just stop it. It only leads to discouragement. It may give temporary encouragement, but it destroys and then and or the ideas well, things aren't getting better because you're probably in sin. You probably did this wrong, and you probably did death wrong. I'll never forget on the Christian Post school shooting out a Christian school, right. You know what the Christians in the comments section and the Christian Post were saying, Well, what was this school not doing right? Because God didn't protect it? Is it something they're teaching? Something about their doctrine? Are they in sin? So the idea is that if the Christian school was teaching the right doctrine and not in sin, that nobody there could never be a school shooting there. There could never be a church shooting. There can never be a school shooting if we're doing the right thing. What kind of ridiculous ridiculousness is that? But that mentality is so ingrained in many Christian minds that if you do it's basically job's friends all over. If you do good, everything's going to be good. If you do bad, well, then bad things are going to happen. So if you do bad, you must have done something bad. Which wait a minute, we're all perpetually in sin, so then bad things should be happening to all of us. But see that goes back to the Christian mindset that some of us basically don't sin. I see, so this just isolates those who suffer,

55:41 and it creates disillusionment when suffering persists despite faithfulness. Another thing that discourages about church is what church politics, division and power struggles. Many churches become obsessed with internal power, denominational battles, political agendas rather than the gospels. Factions form over secondary issues, leading to church splits and in fighting. Pastors use their position to control rather than to serve. Instead of finding unity and peace, people find division and hostility. Many leave the church altogether because it mirrors the world's power struggle rather than Christ's humility. Now we're already at fifty six minutes. I didn't even get through all the lists, and most of that list was compiled by asking Ai, how does the church discourage throughout church history? And AI had no problem pulling up all kinds of examples. So I didn't even get through all of them, but I did ask Ai, so what happens? What needs to change? Well?

56:39 AI said, number one, honest theology. Stop using out of context promises, teach real biblical encouragement. We need honest theology. And I would say, in my mind, when I say honest theology, honest theology just means being honest with the text, honest with the struggle, honest with the difficulty, honest with the things that don't make sense, honest with the struggles in life, honest about this in life and this doesn't work, and this doesn't and this happens, and this happens, and and honest about all of the issues that I've brought up already through this. Number two, we need grace over legalism. We need to help people understand that God's grace sustains them, not their performance. It's got to be grace over legalism.

57:22 It's got to be imputed righteousness over practical righteousness. We also need leadership that's willing just to be just to be honest and say I'm a sinner, I fail, I make a miss, and pastors can say that and everybody like, oh, okay, well that's humble. And then when they fail, everybody's like, oh, I can't believe he told you five hundred and seventy two times and he fails and he's in sin. Well, it couldn't have been that sin. Well, what did you think it was? He that he was eating his kids? Oatmeal cookies. Did you think it was something small, Well, I thought it was just he was very sensitive to sin, so you know he was you know, he yelled at his kid for a second. Or when if someone is telling you they're a sinnered, that means that there could be some sin. Well, there shouldn't be sin, but there's going to be sin, and everyone's life to some extent, and it can get greater at any given time. We need to support those who struggle. We need to walk alongside those who suffer, doubt, or fail instead of judging them.

58:37 So the church can either uplift or the church can crush. Now there's a lot more. This did not go anywhere close to the direction I wanted to go. It did not I have an entire all This started at around four in the morning when I heard Insight for Living podcasts with Chuck Swindall Charles Windall, depending how you want to run, refer to him as And it was one of his older messages and it was on encouragement and he gives this awesome illustration about encouragement, which got my mind thinking about all of this. Well, then as I started thinking throughout the morning, just what about this? And looking this and what about this, and asking AI questions and then considering this, and then looking up this and then looking up that, and then I listened to the entire message from Chuck s Windall, and it's like, well, what about this? And what? It just started? It started building.

59:26 And so then once we tried to go live, and then everything, well, you talk about discouragement, everything kind of went wrong when we first went live, So then we just started the program again. And then well then everything, my entire everything from my opening, everything went wrong. Everything, this whole thing has gone completely off the rail. This did not go anywhere close to the direction I wanted to go. I wanted to play that clip, is what I wanted to do, and then I wanted to talk about I said, I forgot to play the clip, and so then I was so far into it everything got messed up. I also I wanted to share with you. It was funny because when I started talking about encouragement and discouragement to artificial intelligence, my AI chatbot said basically said, oh, here's how you think about encouragement and discouragement within Christianity.

1:00:16 And I'm like what, I'm like, what are you doing here? Like? So AI was like, here's how you're going to answer the question. I'm like, well, whoa well, wait a minute. You don't know this. You don't know how I'm going to answer that. Who do you think you are? You don't know me, but what do you do? And and well Ai did pretty good. This is what This is what Ai said. And this is like I hadn't even I wasn't I didn't even ask it about what I think. I was asking it about what is what do we know about encouragement and discouragement and other fields of study? But Ai said, based on all your studies, referring to my studies, based on all of my research, and based on all of your fiel logical reflections, here's what I think you might consider the three greatest sources of encouragement and the three greatest sources of discouragement, particularly in light of your theological framework. And I was like, this is creepy, Okay, I wasn't asking about me. Why are you talking? Who do you think you are? So this guy you want to know what Ai said about me? All right? Ai said that this is what I would say that if someone came to me right now and said, hey, what are the three greatest sources of encouragement? What should I look to for the three greatest sources of encouragement? Ai said, what do you think? Ai said, my number one source would be, or what I would say other people need to find to be their greatest source. Hey, this is creepy.

1:01:46 AI said, I would say that the imputed righteousness of Christ should be our greatest source of encouragement. And I'm like, you don't know that. You don't know me, But from a thiological perspective, I absolutely would, it says. This is what Ai says. Since you emphasized the doctrine of imputed righteousness as essential, this truth would be a primary source of encouragement. It assures that believers are counted righteous in Christ despite their continual failure to meet God's perfect standard. Encouragement comes from knowing that their standing before God is not based on their flawed love, their flawed obedience, but on Christ's perfect love and Christ's perfect obedience. Wow that I'm like, Okay, AI, just thank you. That is true.

1:02:40 From a thiological perspective, I would say that. From a thiological perspective, I would say, if you need encouragement, don't look to the church. Okay, don't even look into Christianity, alar look to the imputed righteousness of Christ, because that's where I can find encouragement, because then I know I'm declared to be righteous, perfect and holy, which then guarantees me an eternity where there's no more pain and no more suffering and no more death. It has nothing to do with me, hey, I said. Number two, the sovereignty and faithfulness of God. Given your strong focus on historical and textual accuracy, you likely find great encouragement in the unchanging nature of God his faithful inness to us promise, particularly those concerning redemption and judgment. They provide a sense of stability in a world where human effort and affections fall short. So it says, basically, I would say, look to the unchanging God. Look to God. He doesn't change, his character remains consistent, He is sovereign, he is faithful.

1:03:40 Because if I look to anything else in this world, it's unchanging. It's faught. I mean, it's changing. It fluctuates people this They may like you, they may dislike you, they may support you, then they may not support you. They may be there and then the next thing you know, they're not there because of sickness or this or because, and so the only thing you can count on is well, God is at least he exists and he is unchangeable. So yeah, that's that's pretty accurate. And then number three, AI said, scripture as law and gospel. Your approach to biblical commands, especially regarding love as law that exposes sin and drives people to Christ's efficiency, aligns with the classic distinction between law and gospel. The encouragement is found in the Gospel. God has provided what humans lack, and this truth brings comfort to those who see their own deficiencies clearly.

1:04:31 So hey, I said, hey, the Bible, you will you would find the Bible as a source of encouragement if you understand it with the law gospel distinction, and if you don't, then I would say would be the greatest source of discouragement you've ever read in your life, because your every page is going to be like do this, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do that. By the time you end it, you're just going to be like, i'm's going to end my life. There's no point in reading it. But law and gospel gives me some sense of Yeah, all of those laws point me to who did it for me? Now I find encouragement. So yeah, AI got that right. Now what would uh what would you think? Uh? A, I would say, my I would point to being the three greatest sources of discouragement, AI said. Number one the pervasiveness of human sin and selfishness.

1:05:21 Your view that even human love for God is inherently selfish suggests that the corruption of human nature is deeply discouraging reality to you, No matter how much someone strives to love or obey, that will always fall short, which can create an ongoing sense of frustration grief over sin. Yeah, I don't. I don't even believe that human love is actually pure in any way, shape or shape or form. Because we love because we get something from it. Okay, that's what we want. We need it, and if we don't get it, then we go and fight. We tri we want to look somewhere else because we we we want to be loved and we need to be loved because we have wants and needs that can be met through that. And I guess what it fits perfectly? What's the greatest source of encouragement? According to psychology, sociology, and studies of human well being, it's other people. Why do we need other people because we get encouragement? Yeah, oh man, that's okay. So but yeah, but at the same time, that can be discouraging because everything we do is being done through our own selfishness. We're self seeking. Yea yeah.

1:06:27 Number two the widespread misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture. You have consistently expressed your frustration with how many preachers and teachers mishandle biblical texts, particularly by making passages immediately about the listener rather than respecting their historical and philological context. This apparent neglect of proper interpretation likely serves as a great source of discouragement for you. Well, thank you AI. And then number three, it says the disconnect between philological claims and observable reality. You have pointed out a tension between philological claims guaranteed healing freedom from sin with what actually happens in real life. This failure of certain Christian teaching to align with lived experience, whether in terms of suffering, moral struggle, or unanswered prayer, seems to be a key point of discouragement for you. I'm like, hey, I why'd you shut up? Who do you think you are? I was weird. Hey, I just threw that out there. This morning, I was asking questions about encouragement discourage me. It's like, hey, do you want to see how smart I am? I can tell you what things encourage you, and I can tell you what things discourage you. From a philological perspective. Now, if you want to get practically what encourages me, music is obviously way way way way up in the list.

1:07:49 I have certain things that encourage encourage me, but those are like, well, do they encourage me or do they make me happy? That maybe blurring the lines. Now this this message discourages me. I'm probably, I'm probably. I probably will delete this because this turned into a train wreck. I could definitely present this in a much better organized I don't know what happened here. I don't even know what happened. I don't like this just went I don't know what happened. I think what happened is that beginning where everything got all messed up, is where everything went wrong. So here's what I would say. I'll just end with this because most likely this is going to be deleted, so you can just go ahead and hear this. Today we talked about encouragement, discouragement. What do you do you consider yourself a source of encouragement or do you consider yourself a source of discouragement? Are you the encouraging one or the discouraging one? How can you encourage today? How can you discourage today? Because we are always either encouraging or discouraging, always some way, shape or form. All right, thanks for listening. Everyone, have an encouraging day. I'm gonna go now be discouraged because I don't really know what just happened. And thanks for listening. God bless