Comfort Gone Wild

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. What could possibly go wrong with a verse that reads like this? Comfort ye, comfort. Ye my people, saith your God. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. That's the entire verse. I just read it two times. Let me read it one more time. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. That's Isaiah chapter forty, verse one. What could possibly go wrong with a verse that reads like that?

0:48 I mean, is there anything controversial about that? Is there anything difficult about that? Comfort ye, comfort yee? So we have comfort. We have the comfort ye, comfort yee. Who is the y? And then who's being comforted? My people? Someone is to comfort my people, saith your God. So God is telling someone to comfort my people. Who are the my people? Who is the e? We know obviously God? Who is the my people? Well we're in Isaiah forty, so that should be easily to figure out. You go to Isaiah thirty nine. Oh okay, people go are taken into Babylonian captivity. Well, then that follows Isaiah forty. So then the people who are going to be comforted are the people in Babylonian captivity.

1:36 Who is the ee, Well, most likely that's Isaiah, the prophet who is supposed to is being given in a sense, this prophecy of comfort and God is the one setting this up. It seems simple, it seems straightforward, should not be complicated, should not be difficult, should not be controversial. But inevitably, what happens a verse that should be so simple? Obviously, I guess it's more complicated than I would like to believe. Maybe I'm naive, maybe I'm foolish, but I would think this verse should be relatively easy to handle, even by people who've never gone to Bible college or seminary. But it seems that the people have gone to Bible college and seminary are the ones who have the most difficulty in handling the text. And the people sitting in the pew don't seem too worried.

2:25 About what's being done with the text. So we're going to be talking about comfort and how comfort. Oh, I guess has gone wild. I guess comfort gone wild. Well, we're going to talk about that, but first I guess I probably should do this. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Thursday, November fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently four five pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas, where I need some kind of comfort because I'm losing my mind. All right, let me try to explain what has happened this past Sunday. Standing behind the pulpit at Victory Baptist Church located in the middle of nowhere, Texas, I spent.

3:19 Two plus hours. On Isaiah forty, Isaiah thirty nine, and Deuteronomy twenty eight and following right, that's kind of where we were we were doing, and we're doing a lot. Of work on Isaiah forty. In fact, we've started an entire series on Isaiah forty through fifty five. So we've been doing all of this work. And the reason we've been doing all of this work is because I have grown completely frustrated with how pastors take this section of Scripture and just do whatever they want with it, and I feel misapply it, and I feel in some ways that offer things to people that doesn't belong to those people, and those people are never going to get what they're being promised, they're being lied to, and I get really frustrated with that. So I'm like, we're going to go through Isaiah forty through fifty five and try to turn this into something positive.

4:14 Well, if you listen the. First hour, I think went pretty good. I think it went okay. I think we did a pretty good job. I think it was okay. I mean, you can go listen to those messages and draw your own conclusion, but I think the first hour went pretty good. Then the second hour came and I think I was doing. Pretty good in the second hour. And then I was looking at the I had finished a section. I kind of finished all of our work by going back to Isaiah thirty nine and Deteronomy twenty eight. I'd gone back and kind of done all of that work, and I kind of looked at the clock, and I thought, you know, I probably should stop right here, because the next thing I wanted to do was go to Isaiah forty look at the Hebrew word for comfort. I did a little bit of that, but not a lot, and then I was going to go look at where that Hebrew word is used throughout the entire book of Isaiah. Okay, So I had this idea, but then I kind of looked at the time on the clock. I'm like, oh, it's about it's about noon. I really don't have time.

5:20 I don't really have time to do that, right, I'm not going to get very far, so I need to wrap this up. So I decided. To talk about comfort, because well, comfort is right here. Comfort ye, comfort yee. That's where this entire that's the introduction really to this entire section of the Isaiah forty through fifty five. And the reason we know this is kind of an introduction is because it changes everything the first thirty nine versus really there's a lot about judgment and guilt and shame and sin and coming judgment, and all of a sudden in chapter forty it's comfort yee, comfort yee. So I'm like, okay, here's a good chance to talk about comfort. Right, We've talked about it on the podcast, So I can kind of introduce this and say this to the people sitting in the pew, because you know, I think, you know, they most likely they haven't heard the podcast, so I can just kind of offer something here. So standing behind the pulpit, if you've listened to the sermon, you can look at the battle. You can time it out and note that it's probably happening around twelve oh five pm.

6:24 I think I can just kind of mention something briefly be over by twelve ten twelve fifteen, our normal time, and and it won't. Go too long. So in my mind, this should be relatively quick. It would just kind of remind every one of a very important practical point. So I basically asked everyone a question that a lot of pastors take Isaiah forty and a lot of verses found in Isaiah forty that may talk about God's power, God being creator. So I asked everyone, when we think about God's attributes, when we think of his power, when they think of him as creator, does that bring you comfort? Now, I've already been talking about this on the podcast, so there was a part of me that people in the church would say, well, I mean I thought maybe it would. But after I, you know, we discussed this on the podcast, I've changed my mind.

7:19 But no, the people said I think it would. I don't think maybe. I don't think anyone disagreed. I would have to go back and try to listen to see if I can hear. The people speaking. But at least two individuals were very clear to say no when I think of God being all powerful and think of God being creator. I find comfort in that, and so I think, in some statement, well, you guys will do very well in any church you go to. But I don't accept this in any way, shape or form. I don't believe it should bring any comfort. And immediately you could kind of feel like, you know, like someone went and turned the temperature way down in the church. It felt like it got called. Now that may be my perception. My perception may not be right, but I felt like, all of a sudden, Oh, I just messed up because I don't think everyone here agrees, and I no one argued with me, no one said anything.

8:17 I am very grateful, but I think that there is a lot of people who don't like my approach to this subject of comfort. As we've talked about in Isaiah forty. I don't think a lot of people appreciate my approach to the entire section of Isaiah forty through fifty five. And if I look, in fact, I have. Been sitting here for a little over an hour, and I was just looking at one sermon after another sermon after another sermon on sermon audio on Isaiah forty, verse one and I mean, I don't think any of those sermons that I could find, at least I didn't stumble upon one. They seemed to even care about applying this comfort to the original people. It's all about you get comfort, and you get comfort, and you get comfort and you get comforted. Hey, you in the back, you get comfort.

9:01 And we all get comfort from Isaiah forty And we all should find great comfort that God is all powerful and God is creator. We should all find comfort in it. And I I I'm not I'm not convinced of that at all. Maybe there was a time in my Christian life. Oh, I have a famous book. Where is it? I think it's in the church library. It's a famous book on God's attributes all right. I can't remember the name of the author. I mean it's like famous famous. The thing is like eight hundred pages. I had to use it for one of the schools I went to on you know, theology proper and the attributes of God communicable noncommunical, Okay, all of those things about the attributes of God. And I think in every chapter where the attributes, you know, an attribute of God is picked and then it's broken down into multiple chapters.

9:56 I think and in every single case, whatever the attribute it is, Oh, this should bring the child of God great comfort. This should bring the child of God great comfort. And I probably use that and preach that countless times about the comfort that we should find that our create we have a creator who's all powerful, who's omnipresent, who's omniscient. Yes, we find great comfort. And I now am almost the skeptic of that perspective. And here's the reason why. Now we'll get into Isaiah forty a little bit more.

10:36 But if we go through Isaiah forty and go through some of these passages, we learn about God's power creator. I think we even have a section here about him knowing the stars or naming the stars, something along those lines. There's a lot of that and this section of scripture. Now, of course, in the section of scripture, it all has a textual and historical context that I guess no longer matters. But let me just I'm gonna go ahead and challenge. And I don't think this is controversial to me, It should not be controversial. But for some reason everyone thinks that what I say is like insane. But it's only insane because I guess I'm one of the few voices is willing to challenge this me. Just I talked about it Sunday. I know it was controversial, but let me just say it again. Knowing that God is all powerful brings me absolutely no comfort. It absolutely raises nine million questions that leave me without comfort. It leaves me comfort less.

11:40 What do I mean by that? Well, here's an all powerful God, all powerful, he can do whatever he wants. He's also all knowing, he knows everything, and he's also present everywhere at all times, all right, And I can just go through situation after situation after situation after situation situation and go I find no comfort in these situations because the all powerful God who's present everywhere, who knows everything, is doing absolutely nothing to He didn't do anything to prevent it, he's not doing anything to stop it. He's not doing anything to make it better. And we could go through child abuse, child molestations, even child molestations inside churches, human trafficking, sex trafficking, disease, murder, and we.

12:21 Can go on and on and on and on and great. But the pastors come along and say, God is all powerful. You need to find great comfort in that tonight. Why unless I know the power is going to intervene in my particular situation to fix it or make it better. It provides no comfort. It's just a piece of information. There is a God, he's all powerful, he's present everywhere, and he knows all things. But he's not gonna do anything to fix this or stop this, or do this or do this, or do this or do this or do this. But find great comfort. See it sounds so spiritual. Now I can find great comfort that because of his power, he has secured my salvation and because of his power, I can be guaranteed an eternity where there's no more pain.

13:15 Or suffering death. So that, in that sense that power can give me comfort for the future, but giving me comfort in any immediate distress or pain. I where is comfort in that? And I know it's controversial to say that. I know people. I've received emails people people just like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, if you can convince yourself that you find comfort in that, well, congratulations. I don't want to be the one to ruin it. I just don't. I just don't get it. And I and I talked about this that in a lot of the messages we even I even challenged all of you and and and, which was a challenge obviously to the people at church. Well, but I mean people have to listen to the podcast for it to for them.

14:00 To get the challenge. But my challenge was when we say God brings comfort, what do we mean by that? What comfort? How are we defining comfort? Is it just a feeling? Oh I got a feeling. Oh I know, my house just burnt down and my child died, but I've got comfort. What is it just a feeling. You get God just gives you a good feeling? Is it comfort? Because you know, well God is going to you know, I'm going to go to the mailbox in twenty four hours and there's going to be a check covering everything that I need and I'll be able to really be able to rebuild and it will. Even be a better house. Is that the comfort that God's going to actually intervene in a some kind of supernatural way. Well, we know that doesn't always happen. I mean, right, so then is there comfort?

14:47 What comfort? So then, and I. Told everyone to really formulate what do you mean by comfort? What do you mean by that? Is it just a feeling? What is and what is the feeling based off just because you're supposed to to have it? So I challenge that, and then not only that, I asked not only to ask everyone, what is this comfort? Well? How do you get it? Do you just is it just handed to you? Like? Right? Well? So what is it? And how do you get it? So we talked about all of that. We've been talking about it, and I'm still just as perplexed by it. But you go to sermon after sermon after sermon, oh, comfort, comfort, We get comfort God comforts as people comfort comfort, And I'm like, oh man, why do we take.

15:35 Thing? It just seems so frustrating. So what I'm going to do is just talk a little bit more about this, but I do want to explain kind of a struggle that I'm I'm having a little bit here. One of the things I've noticed obviously, twenty twenty four has been a big year of change, right because for my entire twenty three twenty four years years of ministry every Sunday morning, Sunday school Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, right, so I get four hours of teaching behind the pulpit every week for twenty four years. Other than just a few times when I would miss or we'd have to cancel or something, but basically every single week I was guaranteed four hours of teaching. So then it made it pretty like if I did something on a podcast, right, I could kind of throw out the idea in the podcast, and then I could develop that, and then on Weesday, say Monday or Tuesday, I do a podcast or a broadcast and I kind of throw out an idea. Then on Wednesday I could stand behind the pulpit and then present it in a more preaching way and it came across like whatever I didn't like about how it came across on the podcast, then I could improve it for the sermon. Right, So then if so Monday and Tuesday broadcast could be taken care of Wednesday, then Thursday, Friday or Saturday, any of those broadcasts, then I got three hours on Sunday to do that. Well, I no longer have that. I just now have possibly two hours on a Sunday morning because you know, as everyone knows, the churches were just kind of waiting for the end.

17:06 Of it, right, So. That that has dramatically impacted things. So there's a lot of like, Okay, we talk about it on the podcast, and I'm not super happy with it, but that I don't necessarily have. And so then when I get to church on Sunday morning, it's like, well, I don't have Sunday night how to And so I'm still trying to formulate a lot of that and I've definitely seen it having a negative consequence on how I present things. So I'm going I'm definitely got to get better at that. But on this particular subject, you know, and roundabout way I thought on Sunday morning, I was just gonna be able to briefly mention it, but it turned into a longer I mean, I went way overtime went I almost went an hour and a half. Like that's way too long. That's way too long.

17:48 So but I felt, well, once I kind of realized I don't think these people are getting it, like, I felt like I had to redo it all. So I want to at least talk about this, all right, ladies and gentlemen, So let's just come up with a basic principle that we all need. Right when we go through the Bible and we see. Promises or provision or action or anything along those lines, we got to be very careful with just reaching into the text, pulling out of the text, and then trying to claim that that promise is for me, that comfort is for me, that provision is for me, so that I can find some kind of peace, some kind of comfort, some kind of.

18:31 Hope, some kind of expectation. Because if I'm taking things that are not for me and I'm finding some kind of peace, hope, comfort, whatever the case may be, I'm only fooling myself. And when the when the walls come crumbling down, when the everything collapses in and on itself, then you're kind of left there going. Well, what happened? What happened? Well, what happened is you were clinging to promises to give you hope and peace and comfort that wasn't for you, and you took a specific promise or a specific kind of comfort and you took it and transferred it to your situation when no, there may be comfort for you, but not that specific type of comfort. So I just want to spend a little time. And I know that most of you probably don't think this is a big deal, but to me, it's a big deal. It's like if you go to a doctor and they're giving you just saying whatever, saying whatever they think you want to hear, so that you walk away with comfort and peace and you feel so much better. But reality that nothing has changed.

19:51 You still got the disease. You're still going to die, but they gave you some some fraudilent promises. Oh you feel so much better. That is horrible evil. And I think so much preaching is we offer so much just trash, and everyone takes it and goes, oh, but it was a great sermon. What good is a great sermon if you've been misled? Oh? So drives me crazy. So drives me crazy. So let's consider. So here's my concern is that many pastors take Isaiah forty verse one and teach about you and I having comfort.

20:33 And we've mentioned this now over and over and over and over again. They may also add other scripture in between Isaiah forty and fifty five in this section to offer us comfort as well. They may use things about God being Creator and his mighty power. Textually, I think I can argue this isn't for us, and what comfort if we really just honest with ourselves. Is there to be found in God being all powerful unless that power is actively being utilized to fix whatever is causing you are me pain and distress.

21:26 It's theoretical, it's not practical. So when we look at the contextual application of Isaiah forty one, or Isaiah chapter forty verse one, all the way to Isiah the end of Isaiah fifty five, and we look at the comfort that it possibly offers, I think we're going to see something different. And even though many pastors apply the passage directly to individual believers today, emphasizing a general and encouragement and offering some kind of hope in God's power, this approach misinterprets the specific context of Isaiah.

22:13 Chapter forty, which was written. To exiled Israel facing the historical reality of Babylonian captivity. I do not know how many times I can repeat this. So this comfort in Isaiah forty verse one cannot state, cannot be more clear. Here is rooted in God's promise of a specific deliverance, the return from exile. So if we just take a few moments to understand again the original context and comfort in Isaiah forty verse one, Isaiah forty verse one, as we have already read, opens with comfort, comfort my people, speaking directly to Israel, at a time when they were enduring the consequences of their rebellion through exile.

23:06 This message was a divine assurance that despite their suffering, God had a plan for their physical and national restoration. That's why God comfort It's not like hey find comfort in My power, and it's theoretical no comfort be comforted in the fact that I am Creator and I'm all powerful, because I'm going to physically and nationally restore you. Not only in its historical context, I think some. Of it even points beyond even our time to win. Israel is fully restored, as all the promises mentioned in Ezekiel and other places and arounding involving the New Covenant.

23:52 So the comfort in Isaiah forty through fifty five, as we have now stated multiple times, is not general. It is tied to a specific promise of deliverance. God in Isaiah forty through fifty five. Anyone should be able to read this is reassuring Israel that punishment is ending and that He will soon add. To bring them home. This is a practical comfort. For a people facing the very real prospect of being freed from captivity. This is real comfort based on what they're facing the reality of being freed. It's not theoretical, it's not mystical, it's not allegorical.

24:33 It's no, it's real. God's power alone, God being creator and all powerful and present everywhere at all times, isn't inherently comforting unless it's being actively used on behalf of those in distress. Now, in Isaiah forty through fifty five, God his power is demonstrated through his actions. His creation power is directed as directly tied to his authority over the nations and his ability to use cyrus to free his people, his power, his sovereignty.

25:16 It's not theoretical. In Isaiah forty through fifty five, it's specifically going to be activated in that situation. You can't be You can preach to everyone, Hey, God is all powerful, fine comfort, What good is that comfort? Unless God? What is God going to do? He's going to raise my mother from the dead? Is he going to raise my father from the dead? Is he going to do? What does he see? Then that power is just theoretical. Now if you tie the power to something specific that he has done, well, he has forgiven all of my sins, removed them as the east from the west. He's made me a child of God, He's translated me from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And now my name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and I will be an eternity, will will be no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death.

25:59 Now I can find comfort. And what God has done specifically and that thing, then the comfort makes sense. When we speak of Israel, God's power was comfort. God's power was a comfort because it was actively moving to change their situation. They could take heart and his might because it was being directed towards their deliverance and a tangible and this is most important promised way, because all of this deals with the covenantal relationship and the promise that you're going to go into captivity, but I will bring you out and I'm going to bring judgment on those who brought you into captivity. It's all connected to specific promises the power. So when we look at these things, you can't just rip them out of context and say you get comfort, and you get comfort, and you get comfort, and all of you should find comfort because God is all powerful. Well that's great, Pastor are you still preaching my child's funeral? Do you think his power show up and raise them from the dead. See, whenever you have a pastor who applies Isaiah forty verse one, or much of Isaiah forty through fifty five directly to Christians today without any context, they risk offering a theoretical or abstract comfort, emphasizing God's power without grounding it in any specific promise relevant to the listener's actual circumstance. And

27:32 that's what we heard in many of these sermons, and some of the sermons you haven't heard unless you've been also listening to sermons on Isaiah forty through fifty five. It's just theoretical nonsense, Oh fine, comfort in God's power, And everybody in the congregation's like, amen, I'm a what are you aim any It's theoretical. It's of no value unless you apply it to something specific and only that you're taking the comfort being offered to those people, shoving them out and asserting yourself in it and claiming it's all for you, which is another major problem in this that we've. Been talking about. If God's power is presented without an understanding of his specific promise or action, it will feel distant, it will feel impersonal, it will leave the listener wondering how this comfort applies to them when they aren't seeing any concrete intervention in their own lives. This leaves people disillusioned, discourage, and start deconstructing because of like, none of this stuff works.

28:33 And if God's power is somehow promised to me and I'm supposed to find comfort in it, then the first thing I want to do with his power is to remove my sinful nature so that I never said again, then all the problems would be over. But obviously he's not even using his power to remove my sinful nature. He's not using his power to end human trafficking, sexual trafficking, cancer, disease, war storms, or anything. And I say that people like, oh, you sound like an atheist. No, I'm looking as someone who can look at the world and go, that's what's really happening now. Am I denying his power? Absolutely? Not. Am I saying God is not all powerful? He is all powerful. But I cannot take that and then just say, hey, you're going through a tough time. Well, remember God is all powerful. He'll fix everything. Stop telling people that he will make all things right an eternity. You have no assurance that God's power is coming to your rescue. When you're suffering any tangible, real problem in life, you have no assurance that He is coming to do anything for.

29:44 You, none zero. You have no way to know that His power didn't show up to save John the Baptist. His power didn't show up to save any of the Apostles. Who were marred word. His power didn't show up to save all those Christians who were martyred and killed during persecutions in Rome. Now we want to think. That the power is always right there, activated to do something. The power is there because because it's God. But the power for us seems to be focused on saving us from our sin, raising us from our from our spiritual death, giving us eternal life, Christ's righteousness being imputed to my account.

30:38 And then there will come a time. No more pain, no more suffering, no more death than a new body. If you present God's power with an out an understanding of specific promises or actions, it will feel distant, it will feel impersonal. It will leave you wondering how the comfort applies when there aren't any concrete interventions in your life. For Israel, the comfort in Isaiah forty through fifty five was directly tied to their return from exile.

31:21 It was a. Physical and historical promise. Now, as a Christian, we may find hope in God's power and character, but the specific application of these promises doesn't necessarily guarantee immediate deliverance from any personal suffering. It doesn't guarantee any deliverance from any suffering. Now then, yes, but not now. So when you say, oh, I find great comfort that God is all powerful, I know that's what you're supposed to say, because you've been trained to give church answers. But church answers are just about as worthless as a Disney fairy tale. Our comfort as a Christian is rooted in the broader work of God's redemptive plan. It's found in the fact that Christ ultimately fulfills the themes of deliverance and restoration on a spiritual level. This does not translate in any way, shape or form to an immediate relief from pain. It just points to a future hope.

32:39 We can fight and comfort in what Christ did. We can find comfort in his death, burial, resurrection, and ascending to the right hand of the Father, from which he will come to judge the living and the dead. And then we will come back and then his power will be full on full display. He will judge, he will destroy, he will set up a kingdom, and he will fulfill all. Those promises to Israel. Everything will be done tangible, it will be done real, it will be done practically. But we cannot take all of this power and somehow, Oh, you've got power, You've got comfort, You've got comfort, You've got power. God's power alone feels abstract. His character, his faithfulness, compassion, and redemptive purpose, is consistently applicable. When we come to the fact that God is faithful, that He's compassionate, that he redeems, it's applicable to us. We can be comforted as a Christian today by God's unchanging character and his long term commitment to redeem and restore. But we got to put it in its proper context.

33:56 Isaiah forty through fifty. Five foreshadows coming of the Servant, which obviously, in some sections we would say points to Christ. This points to a. Comfort that may not always that may not always change immediate situations, but it assures of God's eternal promises. So anything that points to Christ, we can say we find comfort in that, but that doesn't mean anything is going to get better in the here and now. If we learn the historical context, it can help us today understand that God's comfort is often part of a larger plan that may not always be immediate, may not always be visible, may not always be personal. It would encourage us to trust in God's timing and purpose that goes way beyond our present circumstances. Comfort ye, Comfort ye, my people.

35:05 My people are not you. It's not me, It's the people. In Isaiah thirty nine, where we read these words Isaiah thirty nine to five, then said Isaiah Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord our host. Behold the days come that all that is in thine house, and that. Which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, should be carried to Babylon. Nothing should be left. Saith the Lord, and of thy sons thou shall issue from thee. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. Babylonian captivity was coming. They suffered during the Babylonian captivity for seventy years.

35:54 But God had already. He already knew that was going to happen. He already told that it was going to happen, and He already had prepared the comfort for them when they were there, and as that time was winding up, the words of Isaiah would then be given to them. Not by Isaiah himself. Isaiah's way dead before it happens. But these words of comfort come to them. It's not theoretical, it's not abstract. It's practical dealing with their practical situation where God's power and God's attributes are going to be utilized to bring about the power, to bring about the circumstances and bring about the release and the deliverance from real captivity. And I cannot then find that same comfort in my life based off these things. It's a fact God is all powerful.

36:41 It's a fact that God is omni present. It's a fact that God is omniscient. It's not a fact that any of those attributes will be utilized to help me, help you, or help this world and its immediate context. It does mean that that power has been utilized for to bring about salvation, to save us, to preserve us, so that we will be presented in heaven and then receive a glorified body. That power will be utilized to resurrect us from the dead. We could get into that, but as far as in our practical. Lives, you want peace.

37:26 The peace we have is the peace focusing on what we are salvation and what we will have in eternity. You want comfort. The comfort is what God has done for us in salvation. Peace and comfort about how things are going to work on workout in this life. You're gonna find yourself broken. Now. I know that was a little bit redundant, but I'm really to me that this is the whole crux of this comes right here. All of these sermons go to Isaiah forty. Like comfort, comfort, all right, I'm gonna give all of you guys some comfort today so you can leave with some comfort.

38:08 You came to church and I'm going to provide you comfort, and. They're giving you it's a lie, fraudulent. You should be ticked off. Now. I don't know if that's helpful. Now. What I could have done. In fact, what I had done, I had a sermon queued up, had about ten sermons queued up on Isaiah forty, but all of them were going to take you an hour, two hours, three hours to review, even if I didn't review all of them, and I'm gonna end up basically saying what I just said, In fact, reviewing any more sermons on Isaiah forty at least the beginning versus are it's almost a waste of time because it's the same thing.

38:56 They take the passage, apply it to us, and just destroy anything here about it. That's why we're doing this work on Isaiah forty through fifty five. So on Sunday, we will look at comfort you, comfort you, we will look at the Hebrew word, we'll look at all the places it's used in Isaiah. And I will once again say some of these exact same things. But I gotta if we don't get this point, then I then just forget everything. In fact, if I'm just being honest with you, I kind of what that's what I feel like doing, just, you know, just forget it. You know what we started Isaiah forty to fifty five through fifty five. There's almost a part of me says, just forget it, just forget it.

39:41 It's a waste of time. It's just a waste of time. Nobody, it's not going to change the way it's preached. I can tell you that. But I hope we can get past Isaiah forty one and get into some of the other things. I'm hoping we can, so we will see, we will see, all right, I'll stop there. I know that was thirty forty minutes. Man alive. Yeah. I don't find any comfort in doing this. In fact, I feel more frustration than I even did this. In fact, I almost want to delete it. In fact, I don't know what I'm going to do. But there you have it. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix the problem, ladies and gentlemen. But it's not like some made up problem.

40:21 It's literally. The misuse, misapplication, misinterpretation, twisting. And I really what I feel most upset about. What I feel most upset about is that this is presented to people who go through difficult times. And I guess if it makes them feel better, great, But is it What good does it do to feel better when you're feeling better based off a lie? I don't know. We'll stop there, God Blas