Isaiah 40: Mistake

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Have you ever been doing something and all of a sudden you get this feeling like, wait, I think I've done this before. Or you go somewhere and you're like, wait a minute, I think I've been here before. You just get that feeling like, wait, I've been here, I've said these words, I've done this, and maybe you forgot in the past, but it feels like, all of a sudden, you just feel like I have been here, I've done this, I've said this is why am I getting this feeling? Well, you can have that feeling. And it may be interesting. You may try to figure out why you're feeling this. Maybe all of a sudden it will come to you, Oh, yes, I was here when I was seven, or or this happened when I was ten, and all of a sudden, the memory comes flooding back, and Okay.

0:54 It's cool, it's interesting. It's no big deal. But it becomes a very big deal when you are teaching. When you are preaching for basically your Sunday morning service, and all of a sudden, somewhere not very far into the beginning, you realize, oh no, I am literally teaching. I'm literally preaching what I have already taught just a few weeks ago. How is this happening now? At that very moment, you have to make a decision. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Do I just stop it and go wait, time out? Nevermind, let's start over. I guess you could or you just continue on and see if anyone figures it out. And then at the end, well, then you feel embarrassed and humiliated.

1:50 Well, I'm here to tell you. This morning and my teaching of Isaiah chapter forty. Yeah, I taught what I just taught a few weeks ago. It was a bad mistake. And all I can do here is try to explain what happened, apologize, get it out of the way so that we can move forward. So I guess in the meantime, let me go ahead and do this. And I do this all the time, so I know this is being repetitive, but I do this all the time. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Sunday, February sixteenth, twenty twenty five. It is currently four to twelve pm Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, this explanation, this apology, it may not mean much to anyone else.

2:40 It may not even be necessary. Most people may not even listen to this, or they may start it and go, I don't care, and I can understand, so I'll just get this out of the way. I'm doing it more for myself because after something like that happens. Whenever I make any kind of mistake, it really really bothers me. Now, maybe that's because of pride, maybe that's because of ego. I'm very much willing to acknowledge that I'm a human being and those things are there. I wish I could say there was no pride, there was no ego, and that I was this humble person. But it doesn't always work that way. But when I make a mistake, when I mess up, I hate it. It eats at me, and then what it makes me do is just right there in that intro I was thinking, when I was trying to explain, have you had that feeling before? I was already questioning, wait, do you have a feeling before? Well, have you been there before? You would know that you've been there before, and so then I was just already, you know, questioning what I was saying.

3:37 And so what happens is after I make some kind of mistake like that, then every little thing just becomes amplified in my mind. Just right there, I took a look, I made a little sound with my voice. That's already going to bother me. The intro's already going to bother me. I'm going to question everything I do because I messed up this morning. So now everything is just it's going to be. It's going to be. It's gonna be torture. It's what it's going to be. It's gonna be. It's gonna be basically every time I turn on the microphone for I don't know how long the feeling will last. It's just gonna bother me and bother me, make me question everything and make actually doing the podcast miserable for I'm hoping for a short amount of time.

4:20 So I'm really doing this more for me. So here's what. Happened, all right, or let me just explain everything as many of you know, and you and this is really the context here to help you understand everything. October of twenty twenty four, we began what has turned into a very lengthy series covering Isaiah chapter forty to Isaiah chapter fifty five, all the way through Isaiah chapter fifty five. The reason we are doing this is because sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon mishandles this section of scripture, misupplies it, and it's just it's it's a mess. And all of the sermons that we have listened to, review and considered on this section of scripture, they've.

5:02 Been a mess. So I have come along to hopefully try to challenge the way it's handled and try to offer a very detailed and very careful exegetical study of Isaiah forty through fifty five. One of the things we did was create an observational outline of Isaiah forty all the way through Isaiah fifty five. So that means in Isaiah forty we broke we broke things down into very specific sections, for example, Isaiah forty one through two, and then we then we put three through I think five together we may have gone three through eight, and then we put nine through eleven, and then we put twelve through seventeen, and then so we broke it down into different and different sections.

5:51 In our outline. I mean it makes perfect sense, right, Okay, this section, this section, this section. Now here's the thing in this teaching series, this stuff of Isaiah forty through fifty five. There are a lot of different things going on. Right one, We're doing sermon reviews, okay, So we may do a sermon review of Isaiah forty three. We may do a sermon review of Isaiah forty five. We may be doing a sermon review of Isaiah forty and a section we've already covered or in a section still weeks away. So while I'm trying to teach through the book, we're also doing that also at the same time, we may do an episode where we just deal with one issue in one verse or a phrase or or something along that line. So we kind of have reviews going on, additional discussions going on, and then the teaching itself.

6:43 And for the most part, the teaching is supposed to happen at Victory Baptist Church in front of a live audience, and if for some reason we cannot be there, I typically replace it with something else. I typically replace the teaching with something else so that I can maintain keeping Isaiah forty at the church. That's typically the way it works. So that's a lot to keep up with, right the reviews, the other additional episodes, and then teaching through it in a straight and consistent way to make even to even complicate matters a little more is in our going through Isaiah chapter forty. I decided at one point, let's do an entire teaching on basically transitioning from one section to the next section. Let's do an entire study on transition.

7:34 And I think the transition was between verses nine through eleven to verses twelve through seventeen. I think that's where I did. I did an entire like I don't know, thirty minutes, forty minutes. Hey, this is how these sections connect. Here's the transition. It may have been somewhere else. I'd have to go back and look at everything. So that means we're going through it. Then we're kind of stopping, and now we're adding something additional. We're adding the study of transition. And the reason I did that is because I was trying to give more people insight into how the sections fit together and being able to identify that transition. Also, when I noticed that as we got further down into Isaiah forty especially when you kind of even when you start looking at verse twelve, but especially when you start looking at verse eighteen and following that a.

8:20 Lot of this. To truly appreciate what's going on, we have to step away from the text and we have to go study the culture and the history of religion and Babylon and their idolatry, because then we'll understand that that's a temptation for Judah in Babylonia captivity, which this is all about. And so we can explain the temptation and what they would have been possibly pulled to this religion or they would want to take part of that religion and mix it with the worship of the True God of Israel. And so I thought, okay, that will be interesting. So that took two weeks or not two hours to do that, well, an entire Sunday at church. So that was kind of an interruption going through it. So we did that, and then today I'm like, okay, now we get back into the text.

9:08 Now we get back into the text. And for some reason in my mind, well we needed to go to twelve through seventeen. We need to go to forty twelve through seventeen. My brain never registered. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? You've already taught that. I don't know how I missed it. It's probably because just the other day, we're in Isaiah forty three. Early this morning, about fifteen minutes or a little before I even went live, I was already looking at another sermon on Isaiah forty five. So you know, all this forty forty one, forty two, forty three, forty four, forty five, forty six, we covered this. Oh, interrupt this, let's cover this. Oh now, let's step away from the text.

9:52 Let's do this, all of this different content, doing special episodes after and what about forty hours of teaching. I made this horrible mistake this morning. And as soon as I. Started like, okay, this morning, we're gonna look at Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen, it didn't really register. At first. I'm like, Okay, this will be interesting, this will be cool. I'm gonna break this down, okay, And then I'm gonna break it down exegetically. I'm gonna look at the thilological considerations. I'm gonna give us some I'm gonna try to find some things that can. Be applicable to us. All right, this should be good. I'm gonna make sure I keep relaying it back to all the things we learned about Babylonian idolatry. Okay, great, this is good, all right, go. And as I started going through it, I'm like, wait a minute, I covered this, Wait a minute, I covered this. I remember I remember distinctly having the conversation about verse sixteen and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. And all of a sudden, it was like a pure panic, and I was like, what do I do?

11:00 What do I do? What do I do? So all I could do and my brain is number one, make sure you really lean into connecting this to all of that stuff you discussed about Babylon and the idolatry, because when you covered it before, you didn't you didn't lean into that as much because you hadn't covered it yet, all right, So make sure you do that. And then make sure you really. Emphasize the whole worship, what worship really is. Make sure you because at least it'll be something. Different, all right. So I but I just my mind was just reeling. I'm like what am I doing? What am I doing? This is so messed up, And already the day was already kind of a little odd because you know, we were going to have in person services and that all got changed last night around what nine pm? So when I woke up, my my original thought is, oh, I think I can pull this off, and I can do three episodes.

11:56 Right. I can do an episode, just a very quick episode, like a podcast episode dealing with Isaiah forty through fifty five and modern preaching. That'll be interesting. I always good because I had it set up to kind of do it as an intro at church, because then that just kind of reminds everyone at church why I'm spending all of these hours on this, because I got to keep reminding them because many of them are not listening to everything on the podcast. So I'm like, okay, I got that done. Great. Then I was like okay, now on my mind, just like okay, now go to Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen, finish that up, then come back do another hour and then cover eighteen to twenty four, and then this will be an extremely successful Sunday.

12:40 I will do basically three hours. Of teaching Sunday morning that will be successful. But man, I'm doing that second broadcast and I'm realizing I am teaching what everyone has heard everyone everyone. I'm like what, And he's just the further the more every word I say, I'm like, I said that before, I've said that before, I've said that before, and I. Just I'm sorry. But then I start kind of having this internal debate. Well, maybe maybe you just feel like it, maybe you're just having this sense of dejas vu, but really you've not done it before. Maybe in all the mean, you've listened to a hundred sermons on Isaiah forty. Maybe you're confusing it was something you've heard. Maybe you're confusing it with a podcast episode you did. Maybe you haven't actually preached this, maybe you haven't touchd. So then I'm like, okay, okay, go go, And then well maybe I have. And then I'm just having like this massive internal debate inside. Well I'm trying to teach. By the time it's over, I just feel defeated and done. So I finish and I just sit here for a minute.

13:52 And I'm like, oh, what have you done? What have you done? So I open up the church one app I scrolled down February third, I did a message I entitled Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. And guess what I had just labeled the one that I just did from this morning Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. What an absolute embarrassment. I literally taught the same summary. Now, in some ways, I wasn't gonna say a word. I was not gonna say.

14:35 I was just gonna keep this quiet. I knew now it was gonna eat away at me. But but I was I was waiting, who's gonna Who's gonna be the first person from the church to message me going, uh, you just literally preached the same sermon. Now, they may they may have thought you're just being repetitive. Maybe maybe he was, who knows. What they thought. They just may thought, look, we know he's trash anyway, so this is nothing new. He does this. I don't know what they thought. I was waiting and waiting and wait, I've been kind of waiting all day if I was going to hear from anyone going, hey, you know, you messed up, or maybe they were just being nice. But either way, here's what happened. And you can go listen for yourself. You can go to the February third, twenty twenty five episode of Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen, right, and then and then you'll see then the next week we did The Gods of Babylon Part one and part two.

15:30 Right, you can see that. Then you'll see that I did a review of Isaiah forty three on the fifteenth, and then this morning, the sixteenth, I did Isaiah forty through fifty five modern preaching, kind of AI's reaction to reviewing one hundred sermons on Isaiah. Forty through fifty five. And then you'll see Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. I guess what I had to call it. I had to call it Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen worship because I had to try to distinguish it from the other Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. But it's the. Same thing, so they're like part of me, Like I should just delete it. That's what I should just delete it, and then nobody will know. People, most likely the people in the church are not even going to know that the episode was to leave. They're not even gonna catch on.

16:15 And then I could just come in the next week start with versus and start and. Go eighteen to twenty four. Now, what I should have done is as soon as I realized I made the mistake, what I should have done is just deleted it and then just did another live episode covering eighteen to twenty four, then post that nobody would have ever known the difference, and I would have just talked about it for an hour for my health. But I try my best. I try my best. Whatever mistakes are made, I just leave it there. I don't try them to I don't try to do anything. Now there are times that, yeah, if my stomach is growling because I haven't eaten, or I'm swallowing, or do something weird with my voice, there's times I will go in and try to edit that out if I can, And sometimes I leave it.

17:05 But again, that's pride, that's ego, right, And. So if preaching becomes now the source of pride and ego, the preaching is not even helping me much less because it's preaching and teaching it's supposed to what break and crush our ego. And and and and and you know, humble us. Humility is the thing Christianity should lead to, not arrogance and pride, it should lead to humility. So by leaving it there, you know some will trust me. So it won't be along. I haven't checked YouTube today, but it'll be YouTube or somewhere. You idiot, what are you doing? Or I'll get an email you are a complete moron? Did you not? Really?

17:46 And and they they're gonna let me know. So someone's already gonna let me know, and and and and they're right. I how did it happen? I've been trying to figure out for hours. How did I don't really know how it happened. I can make a million excuses. I mean, look at all the content I've produced on this, Look at all the sermons I've listened to at some point at all kinds of start just merging together. My own foolishness is the way I have my notes. See, I originally had all of my notes ready for Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen, before I created all of my notes on the Gods of Babylon. So what I did is I put all of my notes of the Gods of Babylon for some reason before Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. So when I got done to that, I could just flow right into twelve through seventeen. I don't know why I put it that way. I don't know why.

18:33 For some reason, I'd convinced myself that we're gonna go We're gonna go back and look at the gods of Babylon. Then we're gonna return to Isaiah forty twelve through seventeen. But if I was going to do that, then I needed to not use those notes. I needed to recreate a whole different way of approaching twelve through seventeen, more than just saying, Okay, we've looked at the gods of Babylon. Now let's connect everything to that study. But in a roundabout way, when we studied the gods of Babylon, we already did that, so there was no real rit. I just needed to go straight to eighteen to twenty four, And really I just needed to go, yeah, eighteen twenty four. I still think we need to do twenty five to thirty one.

19:15 Separately because we have their famous verses and thirty and thirty one that everyone rips out of context. So I think we still need, we almost need to do a separate message on thirty to thirty one. So I just want to let everyone know. I'm aware I messed up. I hate it. I went back and started listening to the February third message, and it was like, look. What an idiot. I'm a complete idiot. I'm literally saying the same words. I'm literally saying the same phrases. I'm literally saying it with the same emphasis. This is ridiculous. But there's nothing I can do now. Well, actually there is something I could have done. I could have just gotten over it and do another hour and stop not and and even right now. They shouldn't have gotten into my head as soon as I started the intro, already feeling inadequate and stupid and embarrassed. I shouldn't have I shouldn't even have let it impact this. That's my own that self, that's that's the enemy of self. We talked about it in our kind of philosophical study about a dog's life. We have this self consciousness which can be our greatest enemy. Right, we are self aware. I'm aware that I did this, and it makes me look stupid.

20:33 I did this. It makes me look foolish, So why so? And so then it's it's it's self pity, right, It's like, oh poor me, while I'm sitting here doing absolutely nothing Sunday afternoon, when I could be behind the microphone. I could have been covering this. I could have been covering that. We need to do that work on First John about perfect love. We could have done that. Oh, I need to look and see the testimony of God that's mentioned, and what Second Corinthians. I need to see if that met we were gonna do that. Oh, I've got other things we could have been. I could have already produced three four five hours more of content. I should have just said forget food, just doubled down, and I'll do so much additional content that it will make up for the mistake. But I allowed the mistake because I'm self conscious to become aware of it.

21:19 Right, And I am aware. Of it, and then it just You're an idiot, You're stupid, You're moron, You're an idiot. Now, I may be an idiot and stupid and moro. That may be true, but. There's nothing I can do to change that. Right, There's nothing I can do. Right. What's the my science teacher used to say in high school? I think she used to say, ignorance can be fixed, but stupidity is for life or something along she had it hanging up in the classroom. Ignorance can be fixed, but stupidity is for life or it's forever, okay, And I'm like, well, I don't want to be the stupid one, right, Ignorance I can fix, right, Well, sometimes I don't even fix my ignorance. In this particular case, I don't know what. I I don't know what I was thinking.

22:04 I mean, it's right there in the church went out. Can I say, are. Forty twelve or seventeen? Now? I should have known as soon as I started teaching, I mean I did pretty quick. I was like, I don't even I almost have this memorized. Why do I have this almost memorized? Well, I wonder why you almost have it memorized. You've already taught it. That's why you have it memorized, you idiot. That's why you have it memorized. Okay, the reason you don't need your notice because you've already taught it. Okay, maybe even more than once. So there we go. If so, if you have listened to the message on February the third, by all means, go listen to the one from February sixteenth, and you yourself can determine that was way too I may if I already get accused of being redundant. I already get accused of that, So I mean, go ahead. But you can say, well, it's no more redundant than you typically are. Or you can say well, because you took that week break, you took that week break and did those two hours on the Gods of Babylon, it was good to go back and then.

23:15 Put that all together. So now you can flow right into verses eighteen to twenty. Four, and it actually, it actually will turn out. Maybe someone will say it actually going back and listening, it's actually pretty brilliant. Good. Maybe someone will just lie. I'll pay the first person who will just lie to me one hundred dollars. No, I won't. I'm not gonna. I don't have one hundred dollars to give you. Okay, but it's worth that much. Okay. But yeah, that's what happened, and there's no there's nothing I can. Do about it. But it's a good lesson. It's a good lesson on how when things go wrong, we have to determine how we're going to handle it. Right, do you do you let it derail it? Derailed my entire Sunday afternoon. I've gotten absolutely nothing accomplished. Look what I'm doing. I'm doing this. I could have gotten something else done. There was no re see now, and now I'm gonna be mad at myself for a lot of exap because now I'm convicting myself. See, you're it's self pity, self centeredness. It's human pride, you human arrogance that's actually hurting and derailing. Not just it not only does it hurt you spiritually, it hurts you in just getting something done.

24:25 You're gonna have a pity party. So maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere for someone I don't know, But I'm not gonna go any longer because it's already twenty four minutes. And now we spent twenty four minutes doing this, and twenty four minutes doing this, I could have spent twenty four minutes teaching on Isaiah forty Okay, yeah you see how see now it just it just and so this just sets up a really bad week. It already does. So I could try to make a hundred excuses, there's no real excuse. I just some for for some reason, looking at my notes, I'm like, oh, Isaiah, forty twelve through seventeen is next. There's nothing else. I don't need to check anything. It's good to go. I already have it typed up, right, I know. I wonder why or daughter, it's already typed up and ready to go because you've already preached it.

25:15 Now. Of course I am. I am much further ahead and having things ready to go. But I should have just had it organized and I didn't. All right, that's what happened. That's my mistake. I apologize for anyone who took the time to listen this morning. Please don't hold that against me. There's plenty of ye If you need some things to hold against me, I can send you. I can send you a list, you know, I can send you a PDF file. But for this, hopefully you'll you'll just say, well, that was kind of redundant, that was kind of boring. I've heard all that before. Maybe next week he'll do a better job, and I hopefully next week I'll do a better job. Can't guarantee it, all right, but thank you for listening. Everyone, have a great Sunday. And yeah, I don't know if I'm going to do anything else. Today as far as broadcasting, so yeah, it's already four thirty eight. Yeah, said the day is gone.

26:13 So all right, thanks for listening, God bless