Nov. 17, 2024

Isaiah 40:Comfort Pt 1

Isaiah 40:Comfort Pt 1

We consider false comfort and true comfort

Spreaker Apple Podcasts Spotify PocketCasts Amazon Music Overcast Audible Castro iHeartRadio Castbox Podchaser TuneIn Deezer Pandora RadioPublic Podcast Addict RSS Feed YouTube Fountain PlayerFM Goodpods Podverse Podyssey Breaker Podurama Audacy JioSaavn
Spreaker podcast player icon Spreaker Spreaker Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts Spotify podcast player icon Spotify Spotify PocketCasts podcast player icon PocketCasts PocketCasts Amazon Music podcast player icon Amazon Music Amazon Music Overcast podcast player icon Overcast Overcast Audible podcast player icon Audible Audible Castro podcast player icon Castro Castro iHeartRadio podcast player icon iHeartRadio iHeartRadio Castbox podcast player icon Castbox Castbox Podchaser podcast player icon Podchaser Podchaser TuneIn podcast player icon TuneIn TuneIn Deezer podcast player icon Deezer Deezer Pandora podcast player icon Pandora Pandora RadioPublic podcast player icon RadioPublic RadioPublic Podcast Addict podcast player icon Podcast Addict Podcast Addict RSS Feed podcast player icon RSS Feed RSS Feed YouTube podcast player icon YouTube YouTube Fountain podcast player icon Fountain Fountain PlayerFM podcast player icon PlayerFM PlayerFM Goodpods podcast player icon Goodpods Goodpods Podverse podcast player icon Podverse Podverse Podyssey podcast player icon Podyssey Podyssey Breaker podcast player icon Breaker Breaker Podurama podcast player icon Podurama Podurama Audacy podcast player icon Audacy Audacy JioSaavn podcast player icon JioSaavn JioSaavn

We consider false comfort and true comfort

WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.320
All right this morning, let's start in the Book of Jeremiah.

2
00:00:05.519 --> 00:00:07.879
I know it feels like we're taking a detour, but

3
00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:14.960
we're not. Jeremiah chapter six, Jeremiah chapter six. We're gonna

4
00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:18.359
look at two verses in the Book of Jeremiah that

5
00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:21.559
I think are very relevant for a couple of reasons

6
00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:25.199
to what we're trying to do. Obviously, we've been working

7
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.640
on Isaiah forty through fifty five. We've tried to provide

8
00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:31.519
kind of an overview of Isaiah forty through fifty five.

9
00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:34.840
We've done some outlining, We've tried to do some summarizing.

10
00:00:35.159 --> 00:00:39.719
We've also did some going back and providing context. But

11
00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:42.560
then we got to Isaiah forty verse one, and I

12
00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:45.119
feel like there's something we have to spend some extra

13
00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:50.280
time on. So Jeremiah chapter six, verse fourteen, we read

14
00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:55.320
these words, they have healed also the hurt of the

15
00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:03.039
daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when there

16
00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:07.280
is no peace. They have healed also the hurt of

17
00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:12.519
the daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when

18
00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.560
there is no peace. If you go to Jeremiah chapter eight,

19
00:01:16.680 --> 00:01:21.359
verse eleven, you'll see the exact same words. Jeremiah chapter eight,

20
00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:27.439
verse eleven Jeremiah eighth, chapter eleven. Will read the again

21
00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:31.200
the identical words Jeremiah eight eleven. For they have healed

22
00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:37.879
the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace,

23
00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:42.239
when there is no peace. Now, if you look at

24
00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:47.319
those two verses, this is Jeremiah basically referring to the priests,

25
00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:51.760
the prophets, the religious leaders. And well, they've done something right,

26
00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.319
they have what's the first thing they have? What healed

27
00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:58.959
also the hurt of the daughter of my people? But

28
00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:04.719
how have they healed them? Slightly? Right? Slightly? And what

29
00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:10.759
brought this slight healing to the people by saying what peace? Piece?

30
00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.159
But what's the reality? There is no peace? So what's

31
00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:19.199
the healing that they slightly received? They received some sense

32
00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:23.360
of comfort, maybe some sense of peace, some sense of hope.

33
00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:28.759
But it's always slightly because it's not real. It's false,

34
00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:33.039
it's fraudulent. It's not a real comfort. It is a

35
00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:36.400
false comfort, it is a false hope, it is a

36
00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:41.560
false piece. Now this is very important because we're studying

37
00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.759
Isaiah forty through fifty five, which is often called one

38
00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.479
What is Isaiah forty through fifty five often called the

39
00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:53.360
Book of Comfort or the Book of Consolation. The title

40
00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:56.879
of that the Book of Consolation or the Book of Comfort,

41
00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.800
reflects the opening words of the Isaiah chapter five, verse one,

42
00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:07.159
which reads comfort ye, comfort ye my people, where God

43
00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:13.199
commands comfort for his people. The chapter emphasizes all of

44
00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.120
Isaiah Chapter forty million in some ways Isaiah forty through

45
00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:21.879
fifty five. It emphasizes hope, It emphasizes restoration. It emphasizes

46
00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:28.840
God's faithfulness to his covenant people despite their exile and suffering. Now,

47
00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:31.479
if we remember the Book of Jeremiah. The Book of

48
00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.680
Jeremiah serves both as a warning and as a message

49
00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:38.400
of hope, addressing the spiritual, moral, and social corruption of

50
00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:43.520
Judah during a time during a time of a probably

51
00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:47.039
a critical period in their history, and its primary themes

52
00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:52.319
basically involve a culture repentance, Jeremiah's commissioned by God to

53
00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:55.919
call the people of Judah back to faithfulness. The book

54
00:03:55.960 --> 00:04:01.159
emphasizes Judah's persistent idolatry, They're in justice and the rejection

55
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:05.960
of God's covenant through vivid imagery and prophecies. Jeremiah warns

56
00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.560
that failure to repent will lead to judgment, so he

57
00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:13.080
is trying to tell the people they're in sin. He

58
00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:16.600
tries to warn them of judgment. Yet the religious leaders

59
00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:18.560
of his time are going to the people saying, what,

60
00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:23.879
don't worry about it. Peace, peace, there's no judgment. Everything's

61
00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:28.040
going to be okay. So there's the religious leaders contradicts

62
00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:31.399
Jeremiah's message, or I think it's fair to say the

63
00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:36.120
religious leaders, the prophets, and the priests were actually rejecting

64
00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:40.879
and going contrary not only to reality, but to the

65
00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.959
very word of God. Also, the Book of Jeremiah, not

66
00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.079
only is it a call to repentance, what is central

67
00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:53.040
to Jeremiah's message is the announcement of the coming destruction

68
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:58.319
of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exiles. Somewhere around five eighty

69
00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:02.240
six PC. This judgment is portrayed as the result of

70
00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:09.040
Judah's covenant unfaithfulness, illustrating God's righteousness and justice. Now you

71
00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:12.879
see a correlation, right and Isaiah forty verse one. That

72
00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:19.199
message of comfort is to whom, to those in Babylonian exile,

73
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:26.240
Jeremiah's warning everyone what is coming Babylonian exile and Jeremiah's time.

74
00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:31.279
In fact, throughout the book, the religious leaders, the prophets,

75
00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:36.920
and the priests consistently offered the people a false comfort,

76
00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:43.959
a false peace, and a false hope, which directly contradicted

77
00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:49.800
Jeremiah's warnings from God. This dynamic is significant theme in

78
00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:53.319
the book, and it highlights the corruption of Judas's spiritual

79
00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:58.560
leadership and their role in leading the people astray. Now,

80
00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:00.759
why am I going to talk about that when we're

81
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:03.879
right here in Isaiah forty Because we did all of

82
00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:06.160
the background work right. We did the overview, we did

83
00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:09.279
the survey, and we went to Isaiah thirty nine. Remember

84
00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:12.439
that tells us that Babylonian captivity is coming. Then we

85
00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:16.000
went from Isaiah thirty nine to Deuteronomy twenty eight, and

86
00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:19.480
we showed that everything happening is connected to the Covenant

87
00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.120
and the promises of blessing and the promise of cursing,

88
00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:25.360
that Israel had violated everything that they were supposed to do,

89
00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:27.519
so now they're getting the curse, which is going to

90
00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:30.680
be Babylonian captivity. They're going to suffer. We talked about

91
00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:33.560
the suffering in there. We had it all set up right,

92
00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.519
and then we went to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one,

93
00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:40.399
and what I was about to do last Sunday was

94
00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.680
I was about to go into kind of a mini

95
00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:46.639
word study on the word comfort. I was going to

96
00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:47.959
go in there, and I was going to kind of

97
00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.639
take it apart. But I realized at that point, it's

98
00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:54.079
about twelve oh five, I don't really have time to

99
00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:56.879
do that, so I kind of stepped back and started

100
00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:00.800
talking about comfort in a more general way. All right,

101
00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:07.839
And my perspective on Christianity and comfort obviously is somewhat controversial.

102
00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:09.800
In fact, I could even kind of feel the temperature

103
00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.079
and the building change when I started talking about it.

104
00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:16.759
But if I was to summarize my feelings about Christianity

105
00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:20.040
and comfort, I would probably say something like this, which

106
00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:23.240
is probably offensive to every Christian on the planet. I

107
00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:29.639
would say, Christianity consistently offers nothing more than fraudulent promises,

108
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.639
false comfort, shallow peace. It offers nothing more than an

109
00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:37.040
illusion of hope. It's nothing more than a lie, a sham,

110
00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:40.839
and it leaves people confused and broken. Now. I know

111
00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:42.639
I'm not supposed to say that as a pastor. I

112
00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:44.879
know I'm not supposed to say that as a Christian podcaster,

113
00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.319
But ladies and gentlemen, that's how I feel about it.

114
00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:52.120
The Christianity constantly offers nothing more than fraudulent promises, false comfort,

115
00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:55.319
shallow peace, an illusion of hope. It's a lie, it's

116
00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:59.519
a sham, and it leaves people confused and broken. And

117
00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:03.199
why I say that, because all of our discussion, the

118
00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.199
whole reason we're in Isaiah forty is for what reason?

119
00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:11.959
Because I'm sick and tired of listening to sermons about

120
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.399
Isaiah forty all the way to Isaiah fifty five. Where

121
00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:17.680
pastors come in and what do they do over and

122
00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:21.160
over and over the whole reason for the series. They

123
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.199
open up their bibles, they tell you to turn to

124
00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:26.720
Isaiah forty Isaiah forty three, and they immediately do what

125
00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:34.039
insert us into the text and move out the original recipients.

126
00:08:34.279 --> 00:08:37.759
And then they claim that the promises are for whom us,

127
00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:43.080
so they offer some kind of comfort. But that's not

128
00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:48.360
our comfort, that's not our promises, that's not our hope.

129
00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:52.080
So therefore the hope it's nothing. It's no different than

130
00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:55.240
the religious leaders in the days of Jeremiah saying peace

131
00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:58.000
that you can't tell me peace when that piece is

132
00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:00.759
not for me. You can't tell me that I have

133
00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:03.159
some promise when the promise is not for me, and

134
00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:06.200
to make that it matters worse. Most of the promises

135
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.039
to Israel are connected to what we've talked about this

136
00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:12.759
over and over and over. They're connected to the Covenant,

137
00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.720
and within that covenant promises, what kind of promises are

138
00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:23.200
given to Israel. Those promises are material, they're tangible, they're physical.

139
00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:29.039
We can't take tangible, material, physical promises to Israel and

140
00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:32.039
apply them to us. But Christians run around say, oh,

141
00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:34.120
you have a problem, God's gonna fix it. God's gonna

142
00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:36.320
do this, God's gonna do this. And all you're doing

143
00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:40.720
is lying to people. You're slightly why, you're slightly healing

144
00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:43.559
them because you're giving them some sense of what hope.

145
00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:48.799
But what happens sooner or later reality steps in knocks

146
00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:51.960
them across the face. Now, either they can continue to pretend, well,

147
00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.639
God was here and God did this and God did that,

148
00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:59.039
or they're gonna be like hmm. I think Christianity is

149
00:09:59.080 --> 00:10:01.159
a bunch of garbage because it lies to me over

150
00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.159
and over and over and over and over and over

151
00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:05.120
and over and over and over and over, and at

152
00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:07.799
some point you get furious, and I think what happens

153
00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:10.519
is the church is made up of two kinds of people.

154
00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:13.600
You have the one kind. They're more than happy. Using

155
00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:16.440
Plato's allegory of the cave, They're more than happy to

156
00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.440
sit in the cave look at the images on the

157
00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:20.879
cave wall, and they don't care to ask any questions,

158
00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.120
and they're just going to accept whatever it is, and

159
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.639
they're happy to live in their little make believe land.

160
00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:30.200
And there's going to be a small minority that goes, wait,

161
00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:33.480
there's a light back there. I'm going to leave the

162
00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:35.399
cave and go figure out what's out there. And when

163
00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:38.320
they walk out there, they see reality, and they realize

164
00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:40.960
reality does not necessarily correspond to the images on the

165
00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.759
cave wall. Everyone else is happy to sit in church,

166
00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:45.840
look at the images on the cave wall, and walk

167
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.399
around pretending. But some of us are like, that's a

168
00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.039
bunch of it's a bunch of garbage. It doesn't it's

169
00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:54.320
all lies. So that's the reason where in Isaiah forty

170
00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:58.240
through fifty five and Jeremiah is a great example of

171
00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:01.840
what people were saying about the worn of the Babylonia captivity.

172
00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:04.519
So what I want to do is I want to

173
00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:08.440
spend a little time summarizing and kind of discussing the

174
00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:13.440
false piece and comfort in Jeremiah six, fourteen and eight eleven,

175
00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:15.879
and then we're going to connect that to Isaiah forty

176
00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:19.440
verse one. Then we'll finally get to the word comfort

177
00:11:19.960 --> 00:11:25.279
and hopefully what we can get this all taken apart

178
00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.559
now separate from what I'm doing in Isaiah forty I've

179
00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:34.000
also started a series for the podcast on Christianity's false Comfort,

180
00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:38.200
where I talked about all the negative consequences that come

181
00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:40.879
from Christianity's false comfort because it does a lot of

182
00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:43.279
damage to people. And then the next thing I'm going

183
00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.440
to do in that series is go through all the

184
00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:49.000
ways Christianity offers false comfort. But we're seeing a little

185
00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:52.240
bit of it right here. In fact, this last month,

186
00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.080
what I have seen is sermon after sermon after sermon,

187
00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:59.559
take Isaiah forty verse one, or things in Isaiah forty

188
00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:03.879
three make them about us, offering us promises of comfort

189
00:12:03.960 --> 00:12:07.600
or hope, which is not there. On the podcast that

190
00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:12.080
look to Deuteronomy thirty two once again a song of

191
00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:15.600
Moses about Israel and the wilderness making it about us.

192
00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:18.320
And then the other night I listened to a sermon

193
00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:21.879
on Hebrews chapter six once again making it about us

194
00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.159
and completely removing it from its original context. This is like,

195
00:12:27.320 --> 00:12:30.759
this is not like a oh, this is an odd thing.

196
00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.759
This is an exception. It's the rule. Pastors take the Bible.

197
00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:39.480
They could care less about context, They could care less

198
00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:42.320
about being truthful to the text. They make it about us,

199
00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:44.919
us and people in the pew. That's what they want.

200
00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:49.039
And if you come along and challenge that, you offend Christians.

201
00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:51.519
So I'm going to try to build this case by

202
00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:54.080
going to Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven. As

203
00:12:54.120 --> 00:13:00.320
we have already read, okay, in those two verses, is

204
00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:03.399
condemning the leaders of Judah, the prophets, and the priest

205
00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:10.120
who offer superficial assurances of peace while ignoring the true

206
00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:15.080
underlying spiritual crisis of the nation. I'm going to state

207
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:20.440
it this way. The priest, the prophets, the religious leaders

208
00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:27.759
of Judah offered superficial assurance of peace and ignoring reality.

209
00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:35.639
They ignored reality. One of the biggest problems I have

210
00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:45.240
with Christianity is Christianity's inability to recognize reality. Christianity should

211
00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:51.960
not exist as a alternative to reality. Christianity should exist

212
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.320
acknowledging reality. I'll give you an example of how Christianity

213
00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:02.080
denies reality. What almost every church in Abilene, what do

214
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:03.919
they teach you about what happens to you when you

215
00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:08.240
become a Christian? You become a new creation. O things

216
00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:11.600
have passed away, all things have become new. Now what's reality?

217
00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:17.399
It's not that, I mean reality contradicts that, correct, Because

218
00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:19.200
if I'm a new creature, old things have passed away

219
00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:22.159
and all things have become new, then what's the logical conclusion?

220
00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:27.559
I should stop sinning? Okay, that's just one example. Right.

221
00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:31.879
Christians constantly will say things like, oh, God will do this,

222
00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:33.879
and God will do this for you, and God will

223
00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:35.919
take care of this, and God will intervene here and

224
00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.320
God will do this. Just look at the reality of

225
00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:41.519
the world. If God is doing all these things, then

226
00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:44.639
why do we have all the children that's been molested

227
00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:48.559
within churches? Why why do we have all of this

228
00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:51.440
and this disease and this and this and that. You

229
00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:54.320
can't keep saying God is doing and going, God's gonna

230
00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:56.080
take care of and God is going to do all

231
00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:59.879
of this stuff. When reality goes maybe maybe we sh

232
00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:04.480
it's stop making those promises. Maybe we should stop they

233
00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:09.480
were denying reality. Christianity denies reality, and a Christianity that

234
00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:13.159
denies reality is a Christianity that isn't worth being a

235
00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.120
part of. Because why do you want a religion that

236
00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:19.759
takes you out of reality? You should want a religion

237
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:25.159
that can address reality and acknowledge reality. Now, acknowledging reality

238
00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:28.120
makes Christians very uncomfortable, does it? Because I mean, just

239
00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:30.799
think about it. We have an all powerful God who's

240
00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.080
all knowing as present everywhere at all times. I could

241
00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.519
sit right here for the next hour list all the

242
00:15:36.559 --> 00:15:39.360
horrible things that's happened in the last seven days in

243
00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:44.320
the world, and anyone who looks at that there's a problem, right, Well,

244
00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:47.360
if God is all powerful, what's the obvious thought? He

245
00:15:47.399 --> 00:15:51.679
could stop it, he could fix it. If he's all knowing,

246
00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:53.399
he knew it was going to come before it was

247
00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.039
going to happen. And if he's present everywhere at all times,

248
00:15:56.240 --> 00:15:58.279
then he doesn't have to go anywhere to fix it.

249
00:15:58.440 --> 00:16:04.200
He's already there. So then we come up with all

250
00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.480
of our little Christian cliches and well it's the devil,

251
00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:11.679
Well who made the devil? So that doesn't work. Who

252
00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:15.039
knows gonna happen? Well, he's got a plan in it.

253
00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:18.159
What good does that tell someone who's been molested for

254
00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:21.039
ten years? Oh, God's got a plan and you being

255
00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:23.320
molested for What good does that tell a woman who's

256
00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:26.000
laying in a hospital bed on a Friday night at

257
00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:28.480
three am, who's just been raped. What good does that do?

258
00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:31.360
That doesn't do any go stop your nonsense. What good

259
00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:33.360
does it do when a kid is standing there at

260
00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:35.600
the grave of his parents and like, well, God's got

261
00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.240
a plan and all of it that people said that

262
00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:39.559
to me and my mom's grave. God has a plan

263
00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.240
in it. All things work together for good. Just stop

264
00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:45.320
talking to me, like, give me an atheist, They'll give

265
00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:49.000
me words of comfort. Christians just lie to me. Oh

266
00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000
there's a reason for it. There's a reason my mom

267
00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:53.279
is dead. Well, thank you so very much. I can't

268
00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:57.399
wait to discover that reason. I'm now fifty seven. I

269
00:16:57.399 --> 00:16:59.960
shall haven't figured out the reason why she's dead. Nobody,

270
00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:03.360
but all the Christians ensured me there was one. Because

271
00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:08.799
Christians do what they slightly heal the hurt of the

272
00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:14.599
people by giving you lies that deny reality. That's exactly

273
00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:19.400
what these religious leaders do. And every pastor who tells everyone,

274
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.519
did you come to church this morning needing comfort. Well,

275
00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:25.279
go to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one, because we're going

276
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.920
to talk about the comfort that God brings to us

277
00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:31.799
and our times of pain, utilizing what happened to Israel

278
00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:34.079
as a promise of what God's going to do for us.

279
00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:39.279
Do you understand how fraudulent that is. That's like in medicine,

280
00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:43.279
that would be malpracticed. The pastor should be sued because

281
00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:47.799
that's not You cannot do that in any tangible way.

282
00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.119
So let's talk about Let's talk about what they did

283
00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:55.680
and how this all comes into play. All right, Look,

284
00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.079
let's look at go to is or Isaiah, go to

285
00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:01.880
Jeremiah six fourteen. We can go to eight eleven or

286
00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:11.880
six fourteen to see exact same words Jeremiah six fourteen.

287
00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:17.880
And what do you read there? They have healed also

288
00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:22.200
the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. So

289
00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:23.839
I want the first thing I want you to see.

290
00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:26.720
The key points in about Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

291
00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:32.640
eleven is they offered superficial healing. Superficial healing. Listen to

292
00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:38.039
how this translation reads. They dress the wound of my

293
00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:44.880
people as though it were not serious. They dress the

294
00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:50.240
wound of my people as though it were not serious.

295
00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:55.960
When pastors stand behind the pulpit and offer you some

296
00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:01.519
kind of fraudulent comfort, false hope, some kind the trash

297
00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:06.279
encouragement based off the misapplication and misinterpretation of a text.

298
00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.640
You know what they're doing. They're treating you as if

299
00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:13.160
your problem isn't that serious. I hate to say this.

300
00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:15.319
All those Christians who walked up to me at my

301
00:19:15.720 --> 00:19:18.519
mother's grave site, they didn't treat my hurt as if

302
00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:20.559
it was serious, because you know what they did. They

303
00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:23.240
said their little garbage, and then I never saw or

304
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:26.680
heard from them ever again. So who cares about the

305
00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:31.119
little their little Christian comfort. It was fraudulent, It was meaningless.

306
00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:38.920
They offer a meaningless healing. According to one commentary, this

307
00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.119
means they offer shallow remedies rather than addressing root problems.

308
00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.839
Let me rephrase that they offer shallow remedies rather than

309
00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:54.519
addressing reality. Israel's covenant on faithfulness and rebellion against God

310
00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:58.960
was obviously a root problem. Here, they provided a sense

311
00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:02.880
of security, suggesting that everything is fine, when in reality

312
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:06.200
the nation was on the breep of disaster. They offered

313
00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:10.519
offered a superficial healing that did what that was shallow

314
00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:15.599
but a denied reality. As a Christian, we cannot offer

315
00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:20.480
hope to people and deny reality. For example, when as

316
00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:22.960
a Christian, what can we not tell anyone who's going

317
00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:25.079
through a difficult time? What are some things we cannot

318
00:20:25.079 --> 00:20:28.039
tell people who are going through a painful, tragic time?

319
00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:33.079
What are some things we cannot say as Christians? What

320
00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:40.880
are some things we just cannot say? Well, let's definitely

321
00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:42.960
we probably should say we can and we should never

322
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.559
say we understand because most of the time we don't,

323
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:47.680
right because we're not there. Even if you've gone through

324
00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:51.160
the exact same thing, your feelings is going to be

325
00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:54.599
different than their feelings. But we can't say things this.

326
00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:58.799
Can we say God is going to make it better? No,

327
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.640
we cannot say God is in this life. We cannot

328
00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:03.599
say God is going to make it better? Or can

329
00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:06.599
we say God is going to intervene, God is going

330
00:21:06.680 --> 00:21:11.559
to provide, God is gonna We can't say any of that. Okay,

331
00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:14.039
we can't. We can't say any I mean, we may

332
00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:16.119
say God as a plan, but that really does not

333
00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.640
help anyone because we typically when we say God as

334
00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:24.319
a plan, what are we insinuating Okay, that what happened

335
00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:26.920
somehow wasn't his plan and so he's got another plan

336
00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:29.920
or that that was his plan, which that doesn't make

337
00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:34.480
anyone feel better, right, Like I remember when my uh,

338
00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:37.799
when my mother died. Now I wasn't living at home,

339
00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:41.119
so I was only kind of partially connected to it.

340
00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:46.640
But myda, my sister obviously was little right ten years old,

341
00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:51.359
nine ten, I can't remember, and women from a I

342
00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:54.359
think it was First Baptist Church, Buffalo Gap, Texas. They

343
00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:58.680
brought my sister this little book trying to explain to

344
00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:03.079
her why God took her and that God needed her

345
00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.640
mommy for them. What kind of trash is that? Hey,

346
00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:11.200
God needed your mommy more than you did. What God?

347
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.559
First of all, I didn't need my mom Okay, so

348
00:22:13.799 --> 00:22:16.119
that's just and then that just says God killed my mom.

349
00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:18.519
I mean the whole thing was evil, right, And I'm like,

350
00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:20.960
when I saw it, I think I think I actually

351
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:23.279
burned the book and I don't even like burning books,

352
00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:24.920
but I wanted to think so far away from my

353
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.000
sister is that could be because it was like, this

354
00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:30.799
is evil trash and I just wanted Christians to leave

355
00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:33.200
my sister alone and I wanted Christians to leave me

356
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.799
alone because none of it was all trash. There's things

357
00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:42.079
we cannot say. I can't come to church and open

358
00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.759
the Bible and just take a verse and say, God's

359
00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:48.680
gonna help you. God's gonna provide, God's gonna protect, God's

360
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:51.440
gonna do this, God's gonna make it all better, God's

361
00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:55.279
gonna fix it. I can't say any of that. All

362
00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:59.880
I can say is what God has provided salvation in

363
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.079
Jesus Christ. By putting our faith in him, our sins

364
00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:04.960
are removed as far as the ess from the west.

365
00:23:05.079 --> 00:23:07.920
His righteousness is imputed. To my account, I've been adopted

366
00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:10.279
into the family of God. I'm a co heir, joint

367
00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:12.559
heir with Christ. And one day I'll be in heaven

368
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:14.720
and there'll be no more pain, no more suffering, and

369
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:17.880
no more death, and I'll have a new body. That's it.

370
00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:21.480
Anything about what God may or may not do now,

371
00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:26.160
I cannot say. And I think anytime we take passages

372
00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:29.079
of scripture trying to promise what God's going to do,

373
00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:33.680
Number One, most of the time they actually reference back

374
00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:37.079
to Israel. And those promises to Israel are based off

375
00:23:37.079 --> 00:23:40.000
a covenant that God has not made with us. Or two,

376
00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:41.960
I think in many cases, if they take any New

377
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:45.240
Testament passages, we've got to be very careful because I may.

378
00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:47.920
I think in most of those promises, it's promises of

379
00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:53.079
what God is doing for us spiritually, spiritual comfort, spiritual provision,

380
00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:58.640
because in this life we know there's no gear. Christians

381
00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:01.160
go through the same pain, the same suffering as a

382
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:06.079
lost person. So that that's that's just superficial healing. When

383
00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:11.079
you're offering healing, that's not really facing reality. So that's

384
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:14.359
a key point here is they offered superficial healing. Number two,

385
00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:19.279
they were a denial of God's judgment. I'm gonna just say,

386
00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:23.920
a deny denial of reality, all right. Superficial healing is

387
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.200
superficial healing because it denies reality. And number two, it

388
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:29.319
was just a straight denial of reality. I know, if

389
00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:34.480
that's a little redundant. The leaders avoid come they read

390
00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:38.319
this again. The leaders avoid confronting the people with the

391
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:43.680
reality of God's coming judgment. They proclaimed peace, creating the

392
00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:48.000
illusion that no danger was imminent. By ignoring or minimizing

393
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.720
God's warning, they led the people further into complacency. Let

394
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:54.319
me state it this way, I like the way they

395
00:24:54.079 --> 00:25:03.000
stated that they he read it exactly. They You see,

396
00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:06.720
the leaders avoided confronting the people with the reality of

397
00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:09.160
God's coming judgment. I want to just say, the leaders

398
00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:13.720
avoided confronting the people with the reality of the situation.

399
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:20.440
As Christians, we cannot ignore reality. The reality there was

400
00:25:20.599 --> 00:25:23.880
judgment was coming. It was a denial of God's judgment.

401
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:26.960
It was a denial of reality. Christianity is not a

402
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.519
denial of reality. Christianity is supposed to be what an

403
00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:37.119
acknowledgement of reality while maintaining what faith in a God

404
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:40.720
that that reality calls into question. Remember we talked about

405
00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.640
this in Psalm eighty three. We talked about this over

406
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:47.599
and over that as Christians, where do we live in

407
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.119
this life, in the midst of reality? We have faith

408
00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:53.799
in a God in whom we cannot see, and that

409
00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:57.480
reality calls into question the very existence of that God.

410
00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:03.400
We acknowledge that reality calls into question the existence of God.

411
00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:08.839
To deny that, you're out of your mind. And many

412
00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:11.680
Christians are like, oh, but I know God is real

413
00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:13.599
because God did this for me, or God did this

414
00:26:13.640 --> 00:26:15.400
for me, and God did this for me, And I

415
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:17.759
always want to raise my hand. Okay, Well, if you

416
00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:19.960
think God did all of those things for you, what

417
00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:21.839
about all the people He didn't do any of that for.

418
00:26:26.759 --> 00:26:28.640
They now never have an answer for that, right other

419
00:26:28.759 --> 00:26:31.079
than doing what blaming the people that it's because of

420
00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:33.200
their sin or they don't have enough faith, which is

421
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:37.640
just pure evil. All right, So superficial healing a denial

422
00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:43.240
of reality. Number three, It misleads people. The leader's assurance

423
00:26:43.240 --> 00:26:45.480
of peace deceive the people into thinking they do not

424
00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.759
need to repent or change their ways. This false comfort

425
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:52.720
lulls them into a falsenesse of security, making them unprepared

426
00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.920
for the consequences of their rebellion. Well, when pastors take

427
00:26:55.960 --> 00:27:01.799
Isaiah forty verse one, Jeremiah other books and they basically

428
00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:07.799
give a misapplication to it, it misleads the people. Right First,

429
00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:11.880
it misleads them in two ways. It misleads them into

430
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.480
thinking that God has promised them something that he hasn't,

431
00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.440
and sooner or later they're going to be confronted with

432
00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:20.279
the reality. And what else does it mislead them on?

433
00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:29.240
Number two? Misleads them in how to handle scripture. It

434
00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:31.960
misleads them in how to handle scripture. And if you

435
00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:35.680
try to handle scripture correctly, Guess where you find yourself.

436
00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:41.240
You'll find yourself in opposition to Christianity. That's the frustrating part.

437
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:44.240
If you try to handle the scriptures correctly, you will

438
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:49.240
find yourself in opposition to Christianity at large. All of

439
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:52.519
these sermons that led me to this entire kind of

440
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:55.799
conflict were all chosen at random. I didn't like, go

441
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.480
find the sermon and then create the point. I just

442
00:27:59.519 --> 00:28:02.839
started listening the sermons and then realize, in fact, all

443
00:28:02.839 --> 00:28:05.039
of twenty twenty four, because we've been doing the Sermon's

444
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:08.200
two point oh you know, sermon challenge for this entire year,

445
00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.680
and we're fast approaching the end of it, all the

446
00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:19.400
sermons basically are to have fallen into two categories. No, No,

447
00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:22.519
this stuff's been going on forever. I mean we even

448
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:24.720
in this series. We went all the way back to

449
00:28:24.759 --> 00:28:30.079
watch sixteen eighty seven Pilgrim's Progress. He was already allegorizing

450
00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:33.839
and taking Isaiah. He was taking Isaiah forty three. This

451
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:39.400
has been going on forever. Because was it Karl Marx

452
00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:43.960
who said religion is the opiate of the masses. I

453
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.240
think it was Karl Marx, and he's right. People come

454
00:28:47.279 --> 00:28:51.839
to religion for comfort. That don't come to religion for truth.

455
00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:56.519
People come to church to feel better, to be encouraged,

456
00:28:56.759 --> 00:29:00.359
to make friends, to have community, to have a pot luck,

457
00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:04.079
to hold hands and see kumbaya. They don't come for truth.

458
00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:07.400
If you are a church. If you are a church

459
00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.559
and all you care is about giving people truth, you

460
00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:17.200
know what you get look around, okay, because people don't

461
00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:19.480
want that. They don't want to deal with the text.

462
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.000
They don't want to deal with the difficulty. They don't

463
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:24.160
want to deal with the contradictions. They don't want to

464
00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:27.680
deal with the logical fallacies. They just want a little

465
00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:31.400
nice three point sermon. They just wanted to feel like

466
00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:35.240
church because they want their hint of opium. They want

467
00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:37.960
their drug. They just they come to church, they pull

468
00:29:38.039 --> 00:29:40.920
up their sleeve and say I need my fix, make

469
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:43.240
me feel good, and they get their little shot. And

470
00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:45.799
the old church was so wonderful, it was so encouraging,

471
00:29:45.960 --> 00:29:48.240
it was such a blessing. Oh it was so great.

472
00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:51.839
And what did you get? They'll think they got the Bible,

473
00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:56.079
but they don't. They did not get the text. So

474
00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:59.920
when pastors do this, it misleads the people into thinking

475
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.000
they're getting the text and again listening to all these

476
00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:05.799
sermons this year, two things happened over and over and

477
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:08.319
over and over and over and over. Almost all the

478
00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.960
sermons would either fall into the category of basically say, hey,

479
00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:14.319
now that you're a Christian, you basically stop sinning. You

480
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:16.640
can say no to sin, yes to God, and basically

481
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:18.720
you're a new creation and you're good to go. And

482
00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:20.880
if you do continue to sin, you're probably not saved,

483
00:30:21.160 --> 00:30:23.359
all right. That's why most of them fell in. And

484
00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:27.240
then the other ones was a constantly Hey, we're in Nehemiah,

485
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.240
it's about us. Hey, we're in Ezekiel, it's about us.

486
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:33.160
We're in Isaiah, it's about us. We're here, it's about

487
00:30:33.359 --> 00:30:37.920
We're in Exodus. It's about us. And it's just us, us, us, us,

488
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:42.640
and the original people get thrown out of the text.

489
00:30:43.400 --> 00:30:46.039
And that's my concern. That's why we're doing Isaiah forty

490
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:49.200
through fifty five. So number one is superficial healing. Number

491
00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:52.519
two it denies reality. Number three it misleads the people,

492
00:30:52.680 --> 00:30:57.319
and number four it focuses on external issues. The leaders

493
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:01.640
likely address surface level problems are find an optimistic rhetoric,

494
00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:04.440
but they failed to deal with the deeper spiritual and

495
00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:08.720
moral corruption that plagued Judah. Their failure to apply the

496
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:14.079
truth of God's word effectively made their ministry hollow and deceitful.

497
00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:19.240
So focusing on external issues. I don't know if that

498
00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:22.759
really helps us As far as how it works in

499
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:27.039
our time, I think it is simply just. It just

500
00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:30.599
causes us to be not We don't see things clearly.

501
00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:34.480
It blinds us. It gets our focus on the wrong thing.

502
00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:38.559
Itf facts. I will say this, It gets us to

503
00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:47.039
focus on a false reality instead of focusing on reality. See,

504
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:50.799
it got them to focus on Hey, there's peace, everything

505
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:54.000
is good. When pastors do this, it gets us to

506
00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:57.799
focus on this world that you're listen to Christians talk,

507
00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:02.920
they talk the language of a fake reality. Like if

508
00:32:02.920 --> 00:32:05.799
you just listen to Christians talk, you're like, what what

509
00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:10.000
are you talking about? The best example is at my

510
00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:12.680
church in Nebraska. Oh, I cannot believe we had to

511
00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:16.319
do it. It was the Experiencing God book that was so

512
00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:20.039
famous at the time. Everybody was doing Experiencing God. And

513
00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:23.240
if you look read the Experiencing God books. By the time,

514
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:26.119
I mean I got so frustrated, I almost didn't want

515
00:32:26.119 --> 00:32:28.000
to go back to church. I could not handle it

516
00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:32.079
anymore because the Experiencing God books. Every chapter there's this story,

517
00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:35.599
you know, oh we needed this and God provided this,

518
00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:37.880
and then God did this and God did this, and

519
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.240
God did this and God did this, and you read

520
00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:42.160
the book, you're like, well, then why isn't God doing

521
00:32:42.200 --> 00:32:45.000
any of this for me? Why is He not doing

522
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:47.640
any of this for me? And so then you have

523
00:32:47.720 --> 00:32:50.960
to what's your I mean, you're left with very few answers, right,

524
00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:54.039
Let see, well, maybe I'm not spiritual enough. Well, maybe

525
00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:56.880
I'm not saved, maybe I don't have enough faith. Well

526
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:59.960
that just leads you into a like a downward spot

527
00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:03.720
of despair. But the rest of the Christians and the

528
00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:05.880
church were like, hey man, it was so encouraging, and

529
00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:08.319
it's like, what are you talking about? What do you

530
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:13.599
There's nothing encouraging about it. It's a lie, it's trash.

531
00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:18.480
But Christians can live in this fake reality. I don't

532
00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:20.240
know how they do it. I don't know how. I've

533
00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:23.240
never understood how they do it. I don't understand because

534
00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:26.079
I've always heard are Christians talk and I'm always like,

535
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:31.000
do you not watch the news? Do you not look

536
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:33.680
at the world? Like how do you live in this

537
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:36.960
fraudulent world where you act like God is just right

538
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:40.599
there taking care of every little problem, fixing every little thing,

539
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.720
And sometimes they're they're able to convince themselves of that

540
00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:49.920
until well, until reality hits right, until reality. I mean,

541
00:33:49.960 --> 00:33:51.519
I went to church with a lot of people who

542
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:53.839
talk that big game. And then one of the men

543
00:33:53.880 --> 00:33:55.839
of the church. I don't know if he was a deacon,

544
00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:58.559
but he was, you know, very well respected in the church.

545
00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:01.519
His wife, what was she thirty one, thirty three, thirty

546
00:34:01.559 --> 00:34:04.559
four got cancer. They had two small children. She was

547
00:34:04.599 --> 00:34:09.559
dead six months. Hey, God, where's God? I thought? God

548
00:34:09.599 --> 00:34:12.000
protects and promises and he's gonna do this, and he's

549
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.480
gonna do what what were What do you tell these

550
00:34:15.559 --> 00:34:19.800
kids there? I mean they were little, you know, and

551
00:34:19.880 --> 00:34:28.559
their mom's dead and six months diagnosed. God, Yeah, you

552
00:34:28.639 --> 00:34:30.960
can't be acting like God is doing all of these

553
00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:34.519
things when that kind of stuff happens, you know, like

554
00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:37.840
then you have to just say, well, God chose not, Sorry, kid,

555
00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:41.360
God chose not to heal your mommy. Maybe if you

556
00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:43.519
had more faith, maybe if you're maybe if your dad

557
00:34:43.639 --> 00:34:47.079
was more godly. It just it's it's a tragedy. How

558
00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:50.800
that occurs. So we see in Jeremiah that they offered

559
00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:54.480
a superficial healing that denied reality, that misled people, and

560
00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:57.760
it got them to focus on a fraudulent reality. Now

561
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:01.800
why is this problematic? Why is this a problem? Well,

562
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:05.800
false peace and comfort described in these verses are problematic

563
00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:11.480
because number one, it distorts God's truth by proclaiming peace

564
00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:16.360
when there is no peace. The leaders misrepresent God's word

565
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:22.719
purpose showing a disregard for the seriousness of God's word.

566
00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:27.519
They show a disregard for the seriousness of sin and judgment.

567
00:35:27.559 --> 00:35:32.639
It distorts God's truth. When we have pastor after pastor

568
00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:36.000
go to these passages and insert us in it, it's

569
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:41.000
a distortion of God's truth. And every sermon that we

570
00:35:41.239 --> 00:35:44.599
reviewed on the podcast on Isaiah forty, I mean, it

571
00:35:44.639 --> 00:35:47.440
was a running joke on the podcast get your stopwatch out,

572
00:35:47.719 --> 00:35:50.679
how fast do we get inserted into the text? Let's

573
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:56.039
hit play like the one sermon forty seconds forty seconds

574
00:35:56.159 --> 00:35:59.320
at Isaiah forty, he already inserted us into the text.

575
00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:04.519
It took zero seconds because the title already inserted us

576
00:36:04.519 --> 00:36:08.079
into the text. And it's like, but the people in

577
00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:12.039
the pew, what were they all doing during the sermons, Amen, Amen,

578
00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:16.800
what are you ameny? A distortion of God's truth, but

579
00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:20.239
no one really cares if the text is being handled correctly.

580
00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:24.239
So it's a distortion of God's truth. Number two, especially

581
00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:27.760
in the case of Jeremiah's day, it delayed repentance. I mean,

582
00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:31.079
obviously the people are not called a repentance because they're

583
00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:33.800
given a sense of false assurance, leaving them unprepared to

584
00:36:33.800 --> 00:36:38.440
face the consequences of their actions. I think what for

585
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:42.719
us it delays. It delays us coming face to face

586
00:36:42.760 --> 00:36:44.840
with reality. I think, if we wanted to put it

587
00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:48.719
in our context, look, sooner or later, every Christian's going

588
00:36:48.760 --> 00:36:51.679
to have to face reality. Every Christian's going to have

589
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:55.800
to face sooner or later, reality is going to hit, right,

590
00:36:56.039 --> 00:36:58.039
And I think most Christians are not prepared to face

591
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.000
reality because they live in it. They even a reality

592
00:37:01.239 --> 00:37:05.239
that tells them why God's going to do this. God's

593
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:07.800
going to do this, false promise, false promise, And I go, well,

594
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:10.280
wait a minute, you know God's going to do what

595
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:13.039
he did for me for Israel. There's no you can't

596
00:37:13.119 --> 00:37:17.760
take those promises. So it delayed repentance, or it delays

597
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:22.000
us seeing reality. Number three, for them, it promoted complacency

598
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:25.639
with no urgency to change. The people continue in their

599
00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:31.079
rebellion and idolatry, deepening their estrangement from God. It promotes complacency.

600
00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:34.320
I don't know what it promotes in us, but I

601
00:37:34.360 --> 00:37:35.840
know what it does. I guess the one thing that

602
00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:41.719
promotes It promotes us. Ever, actually, it promotes a careless,

603
00:37:43.400 --> 00:37:49.320
mindless approach to scripture. Right, It distorts God's truth, It

604
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:53.880
delays us facing reality, and it promotes a careless handling

605
00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:58.639
of the word of God. And number four, it results

606
00:37:58.639 --> 00:38:02.679
in greater destruction. The false comfort ultimately leads to greater

607
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:05.039
destruction because it blinds the people of the truth of

608
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:08.199
their situation. Well, you know what happens when you give

609
00:38:08.239 --> 00:38:11.760
people false comfort, false comfort, false comfort, and then when

610
00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:15.920
they get hit with reality, you know what happens. It

611
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:19.320
can lead to the actual rejection of the faith, and

612
00:38:19.480 --> 00:38:22.840
it can lead people to completely deconstruct and think Christianity

613
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:27.079
is trash. You know where else. It leads them to

614
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:28.679
walk out the door and never go back to a

615
00:38:28.679 --> 00:38:32.800
corporate church because they see the church is lying to them,

616
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:36.079
and the church did lie to them. Every pastor who

617
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:39.239
stands up and takes passages of scripture and applies it

618
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:43.639
to us when it's not us. That's that's gonna at

619
00:38:43.639 --> 00:38:45.760
some point you're gonna be like, none of this stuff

620
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:50.039
works and you're gonna you're gonna walk out. And I

621
00:38:50.039 --> 00:38:53.000
mean I almost did the same thing. I mean, all

622
00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:56.360
the trash people said about my mom. It led me.

623
00:38:56.440 --> 00:38:59.159
I mean, well, it definitely helped contributed to me trying

624
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:02.239
to kill myself, but it also almost led me to

625
00:39:02.280 --> 00:39:08.440
saying Christianity is a lie, Christianity's fake, Christianity's fraudulent. Because

626
00:39:08.599 --> 00:39:11.599
all I was told is God, you should find comfort

627
00:39:11.639 --> 00:39:15.039
that God is all powerful because God's power he uses

628
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:17.280
that power for you. Well, all I needed was God

629
00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:19.400
to I don't know, I just prayed for something simple,

630
00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:21.559
like wake my mom up so that we could have

631
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:26.239
one conversation before she dies. That's all I wanted. God

632
00:39:26.239 --> 00:39:29.519
wouldn't even grant me that. Well, what good is this

633
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:33.000
power if it's not gonna do that? So the power

634
00:39:33.039 --> 00:39:35.519
brought me no compan So that led me to lots

635
00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:38.039
of issues. So those are some of the reasons this

636
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:42.280
is problematic. It distorts God's truth. In Jeremiah's case, it

637
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:47.079
delays repentance. For us, it delays facing reality. It promotes complacency.

638
00:39:47.320 --> 00:39:50.440
For us, it promotes a careless attitude towards God's word.

639
00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:53.719
It results in a greater destruction, not only for Judah,

640
00:39:53.800 --> 00:39:56.320
but then for us. It results in a greater destruction

641
00:39:56.360 --> 00:39:59.719
because when we're finally confronted with reality, it does not

642
00:39:59.800 --> 00:40:02.679
help help us in any way, shape or form. So

643
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:07.079
how do we apply Jeremiah's warnings? Well? In Jeremiah six

644
00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:10.960
fourteen and eight to eleven, these warnings are relevant for

645
00:40:11.079 --> 00:40:17.440
both ancient Israel and us in our modern context. It

646
00:40:17.599 --> 00:40:22.679
highlights the dangers of leaders who avoid addressing hard truths,

647
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:33.159
who offer shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over faithfulness to

648
00:40:33.639 --> 00:40:39.719
the text, The warning is clear. This speaks and gives

649
00:40:39.800 --> 00:40:43.960
us the dangers of spiritual leaders who avoid addressing hard truths,

650
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:54.639
avoid shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over truth. All right,

651
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:58.679
everybody got that? How is it applicable? This is a

652
00:40:58.719 --> 00:41:03.920
condemnation of spiritually who avoid addressing hard truth avoid addressing reality,

653
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:06.199
and a lot of Church is the last place you

654
00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:08.119
want to come to hear about reality, because it's not

655
00:41:08.159 --> 00:41:11.559
gonna give it to you. It offers shallow solutions. And

656
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:18.480
number three, it prioritizes comfort over truth, and a lot

657
00:41:18.480 --> 00:41:21.519
of people want comfort over truth. We should want truth

658
00:41:21.599 --> 00:41:25.199
over what comfort. In fact, I will argue truth is

659
00:41:25.239 --> 00:41:35.639
what rarely comforting rarely. Right now, with all of that

660
00:41:35.800 --> 00:41:39.719
is the foundation, now we can bring it to Isaiah

661
00:41:39.800 --> 00:41:42.239
forty verse one. Now go to Isaiah forty verse one,

662
00:41:42.719 --> 00:41:46.719
because this is the section. All right, now, we're gonna

663
00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:49.800
bring all of these three things. We're gonna bring Jeremiah

664
00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:53.320
six fourteen, Jeremiah eight eleven, Isaiah forty one. We're gonna

665
00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:59.360
put them all together. Now, Okay, Now here's the problem.

666
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:06.400
Many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah forty verse one, which

667
00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:12.039
is meant for Israel to offer comfort to modern audiences.

668
00:42:12.880 --> 00:42:18.320
This creates a sense of false security and peace detached

669
00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:25.440
from the original context and reality. So let me state

670
00:42:25.480 --> 00:42:30.440
that again. What is the problem. Pastors use misuse texts

671
00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.199
like Isaiah chapter forty verse one, which is meant for

672
00:42:34.280 --> 00:42:40.320
whom Israel or Judah. Right, I mean, Isaiah thirty nine

673
00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:43.679
five through eight sets the context as we talked about

674
00:42:43.760 --> 00:42:47.559
last week, right, So many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah

675
00:42:47.639 --> 00:42:52.000
chapter forty verse one to offer comfort to a modern audience.

676
00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:55.960
What does this create? A false sense of security and

677
00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:59.119
a false sense of peace that is detached from the

678
00:42:59.199 --> 00:43:08.599
original text and detached from reality itself. All right, So,

679
00:43:09.599 --> 00:43:17.519
offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from

680
00:43:17.559 --> 00:43:24.000
scripture results and a superficial peace that ultimately fails when

681
00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:28.320
confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. Let me give

682
00:43:28.360 --> 00:43:30.159
you that's my thesis statement. Let me give it to

683
00:43:30.159 --> 00:43:31.960
you one more time. All right, you ready, here's my

684
00:43:32.039 --> 00:43:39.760
thesis statement, offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises

685
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:42.320
misapplied from scripture. Now you please know what I put

686
00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:46.400
in there, offering comfort based on God's attributes? Remember that

687
00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:47.760
was the thing that kind of I think turned to

688
00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:51.559
temperature last Sunday. What do I mean by that? What

689
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:59.280
are some of God's attributes? All knowing, all powerful, present

690
00:43:59.320 --> 00:44:04.559
everywhere at all time. Right we say omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Right,

691
00:44:04.960 --> 00:44:09.480
using the theological term telling people that I should find

692
00:44:09.519 --> 00:44:16.400
comfort and those attributes is meaningless. What comfort do I

693
00:44:16.519 --> 00:44:23.440
find in God's power unless what happens? Unless that power

694
00:44:23.480 --> 00:44:27.039
is being utilized to fix my situation? In fact, it

695
00:44:27.079 --> 00:44:31.239
could actually make me feel worse, couldn't it? Right? If

696
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:33.639
I'm driving home today, I'm in a car wreck, and

697
00:44:33.679 --> 00:44:36.800
I'm laying in Hendrix and I'm paralyzed, and you come

698
00:44:36.840 --> 00:44:39.880
in and go, well, find great comfort that your God

699
00:44:40.239 --> 00:44:44.280
is all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere at all times.

700
00:44:44.360 --> 00:44:46.960
When you leave the room, I may call security and say,

701
00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:49.519
never let that person back into the hospital again, because

702
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:54.159
that is useless information to me. Now, if God uses

703
00:44:54.199 --> 00:44:58.480
that power to do what well, If you had use

704
00:44:58.559 --> 00:45:00.360
the power to stop the wreck from happening, that would

705
00:45:00.360 --> 00:45:02.760
have been good. If it would use the power to

706
00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:05.320
fix my legs so I could walk again, that would

707
00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:08.400
be good. But God being present, being all knowing, and

708
00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:13.320
being all powerful only makes my suffering worse. It doesn't

709
00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:18.800
make it better. In fact, it's torturous, right. It's like, Hey,

710
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:21.800
right there next to your bed is the eternal God,

711
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:25.199
who's present everywhere, who knows all things, who's all powerful,

712
00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:30.320
but he's just watching you suffer. So I'm not supposed

713
00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:31.960
to say that in church because we don't want to

714
00:45:31.960 --> 00:45:39.280
face reality. But that's reality, is it not? Nobody likes that?

715
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:42.760
So what is my thesis statement offering comfort based on

716
00:45:42.800 --> 00:45:49.039
God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in what

717
00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:54.960
kind of peace? A superficial piece that will ultimately fail

718
00:45:55.280 --> 00:46:01.320
when confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. How long

719
00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:05.559
does that fraudulent comfort last until you get punched in

720
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:12.159
the face? What's the famous saying in boxing? Everyone has

721
00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:16.119
a plan and everyone has a strategy until when until

722
00:46:16.119 --> 00:46:19.039
you get punched in the face. Then all of a sudden,

723
00:46:19.079 --> 00:46:23.239
your planet strategy goes out the window. Right, So we

724
00:46:24.239 --> 00:46:28.400
have to be willing to have a system that faces reality.

725
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:31.760
So let me read the thesis statement again. Offering comfort

726
00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:36.599
based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results

727
00:46:36.639 --> 00:46:40.400
in a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with

728
00:46:40.519 --> 00:46:44.679
real world suffering and tragedy. We have to offer comfort

729
00:46:44.960 --> 00:46:50.840
that acknowledges reality, doesn't create a fraudulent reality. Sure, I

730
00:46:50.920 --> 00:46:54.639
hate to say it. You know, in a lot of ways,

731
00:46:54.639 --> 00:46:58.320
you know what church is. It's no different than going

732
00:46:58.360 --> 00:47:05.000
to a movie. Why do people go to movies to

733
00:47:05.239 --> 00:47:10.840
escape reality? Why do people go to church? Come on,

734
00:47:10.920 --> 00:47:13.639
let's just acknowledge it to escape reality. Church is no

735
00:47:13.639 --> 00:47:16.559
different than a movie, theater, movie, theaters give you a

736
00:47:16.599 --> 00:47:21.159
false world, right, and what a church give you false world?

737
00:47:21.719 --> 00:47:29.039
Fraudulent world, a made up world as set of facing reality.

738
00:47:29.679 --> 00:47:32.960
So let's look at Isaiah forty verse one and context. Now,

739
00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:36.079
all right, So what is my thesis? Offering comfort based

740
00:47:36.079 --> 00:47:38.880
on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in

741
00:47:38.920 --> 00:47:42.199
a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with a

742
00:47:42.199 --> 00:47:45.800
real world suffering and tragedy. So look at Isaiah chapter forty,

743
00:47:45.880 --> 00:47:48.800
verse one in some kind of context. How does the

744
00:47:48.840 --> 00:47:54.760
text begin? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people? All right,

745
00:47:55.320 --> 00:48:00.960
says your God? Who is the original audience? We can

746
00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:05.679
say Israel? Or go to Isaiah thirty nine five through eight.

747
00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:10.360
What does that refer to? Especially those in Babylonian exile,

748
00:48:10.719 --> 00:48:13.760
who's assured of God's coming deliverance? So let's me make

749
00:48:13.800 --> 00:48:19.000
sure any promises and found in Isaiah forty to fifty

750
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:25.880
five then primarily is addressed to whom those in Babylonian captivity.

751
00:48:26.320 --> 00:48:30.360
Can I take those promises and assurances and make them mine?

752
00:48:30.440 --> 00:48:34.639
If I do? What am I doing misapplying scripture? What

753
00:48:34.719 --> 00:48:37.599
kind of comfort did I get? Well? Let me read

754
00:48:37.639 --> 00:48:41.159
it this way. There's the text. There's a little bit

755
00:48:41.199 --> 00:48:45.440
of the context. Help listen to this. The comfort in

756
00:48:45.599 --> 00:48:48.599
this passage is rooted in a specific promise of the

757
00:48:48.639 --> 00:48:52.320
restoration for Israel. This message is tied to the covenant

758
00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:55.679
relationship between God and Israel. Cannot stress that enough. Any

759
00:48:56.039 --> 00:49:00.320
promise of deliverance, any promises to protect, to preserve, is

760
00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:03.880
based on God's covenant promises that go back to Deuteronomy

761
00:49:03.920 --> 00:49:07.679
twenty eight, go all the way back to the Abrahamic Covenant.

762
00:49:09.599 --> 00:49:16.320
Not to us. Pastors extract this verse to suggest that

763
00:49:16.360 --> 00:49:22.480
God's attributes creator powerful should comfort us in any situation.

764
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:30.000
It ignores the specific historical and thiological context of Israel's restoration.

765
00:49:31.320 --> 00:49:35.400
So Isaiah chapter forty verse one is the text that

766
00:49:35.519 --> 00:49:38.920
gets misupplied, ripped out of context. And then what do

767
00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:41.320
they do with it? They do the same thing that

768
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:44.480
the religious leaders were doing in Jeremiah six fourteen and

769
00:49:44.639 --> 00:49:48.480
Jeremiah chapter eight, which is offering comfort and peace where

770
00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:53.760
there is no comfort or peace. Right. So there's Isaiah

771
00:49:53.840 --> 00:49:57.000
chapter forty verse one. Now let's go to Jeremiah six fourteen.

772
00:49:57.039 --> 00:49:58.599
If you want to look at Jeremiah six fourteen, I

773
00:49:58.599 --> 00:50:01.760
know we've already looked at it times and Jeremiah eight eleven.

774
00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:04.559
They say the exact same words. They have healed the

775
00:50:04.599 --> 00:50:07.920
wound of my people lightly or slightly saying peace piece

776
00:50:08.119 --> 00:50:11.159
where there is no peace. Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

777
00:50:11.159 --> 00:50:15.880
to eleven say the exact same words. Jeremiah condemns leaders

778
00:50:15.920 --> 00:50:20.719
who offer superficial peace rather than addressing reality or addressing

779
00:50:20.719 --> 00:50:30.159
the root causes of Israel's problems. This false comfort, downplayed reality.

780
00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:34.320
I cannot stress that enough. They're false comfort, downplayed reality.

781
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:38.159
So what is the parallel? Modern pastors using verses like

782
00:50:38.199 --> 00:50:41.760
Isaiah forty one to provide comfort without addressing the real

783
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:46.400
cause of pain or to address reality, are the exact

784
00:50:46.519 --> 00:50:49.679
same way. They're doing the exact same thing the prophets

785
00:50:49.719 --> 00:50:52.880
and priests were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight eleven.

786
00:50:53.159 --> 00:50:57.119
That's how it all fits together. Every time you listen

787
00:50:57.159 --> 00:50:59.760
to a sermon where a pastor takes a text and

788
00:51:00.079 --> 00:51:02.760
hurts us into a text where we don't belong, takes

789
00:51:02.760 --> 00:51:06.880
those promises, that comfort, that provision, and says it belongs

790
00:51:06.920 --> 00:51:10.000
to you, they are doing the exact same thing the

791
00:51:10.039 --> 00:51:13.280
religious leaders were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight

792
00:51:13.440 --> 00:51:16.480
eleven and it's a fraudulent hope and it's a fraudulent comfort.

793
00:51:20.199 --> 00:51:22.559
Right does everyone see how Isaiah forty verse one and

794
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:25.639
Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven all fit together.

795
00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:35.119
It's a perfect parallel God's attributes and false assurance. Pastors

796
00:51:35.199 --> 00:51:43.480
often appeal to God's omnipotence omniscience to reassure believers. Now

797
00:51:43.519 --> 00:51:49.880
this is not my words. This assurance feels hollow when

798
00:51:49.960 --> 00:51:57.800
God's attributes do not manifest and tangible interventions. Did everybody

799
00:51:57.800 --> 00:52:03.159
hear that God's attributes do not provide comfort? Or if

800
00:52:03.199 --> 00:52:07.360
it does, that comfort will feel hollow, will feel empty

801
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:12.280
when those attributes do not manifest in a tangible intervention.

802
00:52:13.119 --> 00:52:17.599
Unless the attribute turns into a tangible intervention, then the

803
00:52:17.679 --> 00:52:22.000
comfort offered by those attributes is empty, hollow, and vain

804
00:52:22.480 --> 00:52:26.480
at best. Yet, that's exactly what you're taught if you

805
00:52:26.559 --> 00:52:28.920
go to anything. If in fact, I don't have the

806
00:52:28.920 --> 00:52:30.599
book here, I think it's back in the library. I'll

807
00:52:30.639 --> 00:52:33.039
get it. I have this huge book on God's attributes.

808
00:52:33.039 --> 00:52:35.400
I had to use it in multiple schools. It's probably

809
00:52:35.400 --> 00:52:38.599
like eight hundred pages, maybe seven hundred pages, And in

810
00:52:38.639 --> 00:52:40.760
almost every chapter, what does it tell you to do

811
00:52:41.440 --> 00:52:45.039
when you're preaching, take God's attribute and then offer comfort

812
00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:48.519
to the people from said attribute. But that's not a comfort.

813
00:52:50.599 --> 00:52:54.039
That's just stating what it's a fact about God. It

814
00:52:54.039 --> 00:52:58.519
doesn't provide comfort unless the attribute is activated in a

815
00:52:58.559 --> 00:53:04.159
way that does what something specific for me? So even

816
00:53:04.639 --> 00:53:06.840
I mean, I think anyone being willing to be honest

817
00:53:06.880 --> 00:53:12.199
will realize the how hollow and empty these that comfort

818
00:53:12.239 --> 00:53:17.679
would come it disconnect. There's a disconnect between philological claims

819
00:53:18.079 --> 00:53:20.800
and observable reality. I want you to hear that again.

820
00:53:21.039 --> 00:53:24.800
There can be a disconnect between a philological claim and

821
00:53:24.960 --> 00:53:34.320
observable reality. Everybody hear that observable reality philological claim. Sometimes

822
00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:39.280
there's a disconnect. Lots of times there's a disconnect. What

823
00:53:39.320 --> 00:53:43.440
does that lead to? Whenever you make a philological claim

824
00:53:43.639 --> 00:53:49.440
and it's disconnected from reality, what does that lead to? Anybody?

825
00:53:49.519 --> 00:53:54.840
What does that lead to? Philological claim reality disconnect? What

826
00:53:54.840 --> 00:54:05.920
does that lead to? Disillusionment, doubt, disbelief, abandonment of the faith, deconstruction,

827
00:54:06.840 --> 00:54:10.159
all of that because you're constantly told things that are

828
00:54:10.239 --> 00:54:12.920
just not true. That's the reason I've been talking about

829
00:54:12.920 --> 00:54:15.239
this false comfort so much over the last few weeks.

830
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:19.639
Because it's mine again. Just take any idea. You become

831
00:54:19.639 --> 00:54:21.880
a Christian and what are you told? You're a new creation?

832
00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:24.039
All things have passed away, all things have become new.

833
00:54:24.119 --> 00:54:26.400
You can now say notice in and say yes to God.

834
00:54:27.280 --> 00:54:31.599
Now what happens when reality fits in? Hits in you?

835
00:54:31.719 --> 00:54:34.760
Either maybe I'm not really a Christian, Maybe there's something

836
00:54:34.800 --> 00:54:38.000
wrong with me, maybe I'm demon possessed. Who knows? You go?

837
00:54:38.199 --> 00:54:42.239
You start looking for anything because there's a disconnect. Now,

838
00:54:42.239 --> 00:54:44.320
what do you do when there's a disconnect between the

839
00:54:44.320 --> 00:54:47.519
philological claim and reality? What should you do when there's

840
00:54:47.519 --> 00:54:53.440
a disconnect? Well, first you've gotta go see if the

841
00:54:53.440 --> 00:54:58.639
philological claim was fraudulent, because if it's so disconnected from reality,

842
00:54:58.760 --> 00:55:04.519
there's a possible problem. Right when charismatics walk around saying

843
00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:09.800
healing is guaranteed in the atonement, for now, that's a

844
00:55:09.800 --> 00:55:15.360
theological claim. What is reality? Show? There's a disconnect? So

845
00:55:15.400 --> 00:55:19.639
what do we do? We throw that out because we're

846
00:55:19.679 --> 00:55:24.400
not charismatics, but we do the exact same thing the

847
00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:28.239
charismatics do. We make all kinds of claims that are

848
00:55:28.239 --> 00:55:31.559
disconnected from reality. But if I confront that, then all

849
00:55:31.599 --> 00:55:34.599
of a sudden, oh no, you're an anthea, and all

850
00:55:34.639 --> 00:55:36.880
of a sudden, everybody gets mad at me. But I'm

851
00:55:36.880 --> 00:55:40.119
gonna if anyone's in crisis a new creation, old things

852
00:55:40.119 --> 00:55:42.239
have passed away, all things have come new that is

853
00:55:42.280 --> 00:55:46.000
not connected to reality. So that claim has to be

854
00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:50.079
looked at. Now, So then what do well that is true? Positionally? Okay?

855
00:55:50.079 --> 00:55:52.599
Now see now I can make sense when a charismatic

856
00:55:52.639 --> 00:55:55.880
says healing is guaranteed in the atonement. I can say amen,

857
00:55:56.199 --> 00:55:59.480
because it is ultimately guaranteed in heaven, where I get

858
00:55:59.480 --> 00:56:02.079
a new body and there'll be no more painsickness than death.

859
00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:06.840
So sometimes we have to understand. Maybe we get we're

860
00:56:06.880 --> 00:56:11.599
misunderstanding the theological claim or we're misupplying the philological claim.

861
00:56:12.599 --> 00:56:17.880
But you've got to be able to acknowledge the disconnect, right,

862
00:56:17.960 --> 00:56:22.079
you gotta be able to understand the disconnect. We talked

863
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:26.639
about this with prayer. Okay, So we're gonna pray to God,

864
00:56:26.760 --> 00:56:28.880
all right, now, let meet. We're gonna typically when we

865
00:56:28.920 --> 00:56:31.159
pray to God, we're asking for God to intervene, for

866
00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:33.119
God to do this, or for God to do that,

867
00:56:33.320 --> 00:56:35.039
or for God to do this. Now wait a minute, alright,

868
00:56:35.079 --> 00:56:37.760
So all right, there's a bad situation. Now I'm gonna

869
00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:40.320
pray to God. Now who am I praying to? Remember

870
00:56:40.320 --> 00:56:42.400
we talked about this. I'm praying to a God who,

871
00:56:42.400 --> 00:56:48.480
at the very minimum allowed it to happen. Well, that's hard.

872
00:56:48.679 --> 00:56:50.320
So if he allowed it to happen, why am I

873
00:56:50.360 --> 00:56:52.400
gonna ask him to change what he allowed to happen.

874
00:56:53.199 --> 00:56:58.000
That's confusing. At the very most, he decrete it to happen,

875
00:56:58.239 --> 00:57:00.719
So why am I going to pray? Okay, now this

876
00:57:00.800 --> 00:57:04.719
gets really confusing? Right, So there's a disconnect between not

877
00:57:04.760 --> 00:57:07.760
only would we say theologically, but with reality. So we

878
00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:10.159
have a difficult time. And what did we discover? Well,

879
00:57:10.159 --> 00:57:13.639
most of the time we borrow our ideas from prayer,

880
00:57:13.840 --> 00:57:16.840
a lot of times from the Old Testament. Well, their

881
00:57:16.920 --> 00:57:21.639
prayers are different than our prayers because their prayers are

882
00:57:21.679 --> 00:57:25.400
given by Jews who are praying in connection to what

883
00:57:26.679 --> 00:57:28.840
the Covenant made to them. And then that covenant, what

884
00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:37.159
did God promise them? Physical provision, physical protection, physical promises?

885
00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:42.079
All right, so they are staying true to God. We

886
00:57:42.119 --> 00:57:45.000
can't come in and pray the exact same way. So

887
00:57:45.079 --> 00:57:47.039
if we're going to be true to our theology, our

888
00:57:47.039 --> 00:57:51.440
prayers are more like God, I accept what is happening.

889
00:57:52.320 --> 00:57:55.119
I don't like this. I would like for you to

890
00:57:55.239 --> 00:57:58.199
change it, but I understand you at the very minimum

891
00:57:58.280 --> 00:58:01.639
allowed it, or at the very motion you decrete it.

892
00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:04.840
And I don't understand it, and I'm confused by it.

893
00:58:05.079 --> 00:58:07.679
But I'm going to trust you, even though this situation

894
00:58:07.840 --> 00:58:10.400
makes me question your existence. Like I know, you're not

895
00:58:10.400 --> 00:58:12.599
supposed to say that in church, but that would be

896
00:58:12.639 --> 00:58:15.280
more honest, and that would bring a connection between the

897
00:58:15.280 --> 00:58:22.360
theology and reality. When there's a disconnect, there's a problem.

898
00:58:22.599 --> 00:58:26.320
There's a disconnect. So in many cases, pastors make these

899
00:58:26.320 --> 00:58:31.679
theological claims that are completely disconnected from an observable reality.

900
00:58:31.880 --> 00:58:34.440
So this leads to doubt and disillusionment. I'll give you.

901
00:58:34.519 --> 00:58:36.639
I've given you a bunch of examples. Here's an example.

902
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:43.280
God is in control. Now, on one hand, that's a

903
00:58:43.280 --> 00:58:46.360
theological statement, right, but if it's offered in the face

904
00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:53.639
of disaster, yet the disaster remains that because we see,

905
00:58:53.840 --> 00:58:55.920
wait a minute, if God is in control yet this

906
00:58:56.039 --> 00:58:59.719
is happening, there can be a disconnect. What do we

907
00:58:59.760 --> 00:59:04.360
do that? Well, that raises problems. Now in church, we

908
00:59:04.480 --> 00:59:06.599
just are it's almost thrown out as God is in

909
00:59:06.599 --> 00:59:11.440
control with the implication wide he's gonna fix it, He's

910
00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:15.360
gonna make it better. That's a disconnect. Does everybody understand

911
00:59:15.719 --> 00:59:18.119
we have to be in the church willing to say, well,

912
00:59:18.159 --> 00:59:22.199
God is in control because that's a theological truth. How

913
00:59:22.199 --> 00:59:25.280
does that connect to reality that can be disturbing and

914
00:59:25.280 --> 00:59:27.760
nobody likes to necessarily admit it. We have to be

915
00:59:27.800 --> 00:59:32.800
willing to face that or for those who just came

916
00:59:32.840 --> 00:59:35.400
in for the first hour, we've been looking at Jeremiah

917
00:59:35.440 --> 00:59:38.679
six fourteen and Jeremia eight to eleven, where Jeremiah is

918
00:59:38.719 --> 00:59:43.039
condemning the prophets for offering false hope, false peace, false comfort.

919
00:59:43.840 --> 00:59:46.800
And so that's and we're connecting that to Isaiah chapter

920
00:59:46.840 --> 00:59:54.760
forty verse one. Right, So I'm gonna at least finish well, well,

921
00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:57.440
all finish this part, okay, and then we'll make the

922
00:59:57.480 --> 00:59:59.480
next hour a little shorter. All right, here we go

923
00:59:59.559 --> 01:00:03.679
maybe in theory, all right, okay, So what do we need?

924
01:00:03.719 --> 01:00:06.719
We need a philologically grounded comfort. If we're going to

925
01:00:06.760 --> 01:00:10.199
offer comfort to people, we need one that's theologically grounded.

926
01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:15.679
All right, So true comfort for Israel. The promise of

927
01:00:15.719 --> 01:00:18.320
comfort in Isaiah forty verse one was tied to their

928
01:00:18.320 --> 01:00:23.880
specific covenant and God's plan of deliverance from exile. Can

929
01:00:23.920 --> 01:00:27.360
we be on is that fair? The comfort offered to

930
01:00:27.400 --> 01:00:31.559
them in Isaiah forty one is connected to God's covenant

931
01:00:32.320 --> 01:00:37.320
and his plan for their deliverance from exile. For the Church,

932
01:00:38.039 --> 01:00:44.079
comfort must be grounded and promises explicitly made to us,

933
01:00:44.599 --> 01:00:48.519
not made to them. And what are some of those

934
01:00:48.559 --> 01:00:55.239
promises explicitly made to believers? Salvation through Christ, forgiveness of sins,

935
01:00:55.760 --> 01:00:58.199
the hope of eternal life. Immediately we know most of

936
01:00:58.239 --> 01:01:02.840
our promises are not material or tangible or physical. They

937
01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:08.679
are primarily what spiritual. And if there's any tangible physical promise,

938
01:01:09.039 --> 01:01:13.880
they have to be placed where in heaven Where then

939
01:01:13.960 --> 01:01:19.079
those tangible things will be made real? Does that make sense?

940
01:01:19.360 --> 01:01:21.159
Or if not, you're gonna end up with what a

941
01:01:21.239 --> 01:01:25.159
fraudulent false comfort. So we have to ground it in

942
01:01:25.239 --> 01:01:29.360
a theological truth. We have to avoid false peace. We

943
01:01:29.440 --> 01:01:32.639
have to address reality. We have to call for repentance,

944
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:35.400
acknowledge the brokenness of the world, and point to the

945
01:01:35.480 --> 01:01:38.119
ultimate hope in Christ. If we're gonna have a thiologically

946
01:01:38.159 --> 01:01:42.559
grounded comfort, we have to face reality. Church is not

947
01:01:42.679 --> 01:01:45.599
the place to give you a fraudulent reality. But it's

948
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:52.639
to make you face reality, all right. The famous Unshackled

949
01:01:52.719 --> 01:01:57.599
radio program Right unshackled, the program that forces you to

950
01:01:57.599 --> 01:02:03.000
face yourself and think. Right. It's about making you say yourself,

951
01:02:03.960 --> 01:02:08.320
that's what it's about. Christianity is about facing reality. Christianity

952
01:02:08.360 --> 01:02:11.199
is not about pulling the curtains and we all close

953
01:02:11.320 --> 01:02:13.960
the door and then we talk about a world that

954
01:02:14.039 --> 01:02:17.199
doesn't exist. It's about going no, the world exists, and

955
01:02:17.239 --> 01:02:19.599
we've got to be honest with it instead of making

956
01:02:19.639 --> 01:02:24.400
these psyllological claims that are disconnected from it. The church

957
01:02:24.679 --> 01:02:30.000
has to stop its superficial platitudes. We need to focus

958
01:02:30.039 --> 01:02:33.719
on the long term promises of scripture that are universally

959
01:02:33.760 --> 01:02:38.440
applicable and stop taking passages and ripping them out of context.

960
01:02:38.559 --> 01:02:43.639
We have to stop that. So what should a pastor

961
01:02:43.719 --> 01:02:47.639
do and preaching? We should rightly divide the word of truth.

962
01:02:49.199 --> 01:02:52.199
We should ensure the text like Isaiah forty verse one

963
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:56.239
are used in their proper context. We have to avoid

964
01:02:56.559 --> 01:03:00.760
appropriating promises made to Israel and applying them. To hold

965
01:03:00.920 --> 01:03:05.440
to the modern church, you cannot do that. We have

966
01:03:05.519 --> 01:03:09.039
to offer realistic comfort, acknowledge the reality of pain and

967
01:03:09.079 --> 01:03:13.719
suffering without pretending God will intervene in a way that

968
01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:16.719
we desire. There is no promise God is going to intervene.

969
01:03:16.760 --> 01:03:19.800
There's no promise God is gonna help. There's no until

970
01:03:19.840 --> 01:03:25.280
when eternity. Until then, I can't make any promises. Where

971
01:03:25.280 --> 01:03:29.480
should I then point people to find hope? And in

972
01:03:29.800 --> 01:03:33.639
scripture and the spiritual promises, I cannot give people hope

973
01:03:33.679 --> 01:03:38.519
in their circumstance. I know when people, when the wills

974
01:03:38.559 --> 01:03:41.079
come off and life falls apart, and they come to

975
01:03:41.119 --> 01:03:43.639
a pastor, they want to hear that God's gonna do

976
01:03:43.719 --> 01:03:46.280
this or this, or that. I can't offer you any hope.

977
01:03:46.679 --> 01:03:48.800
I can't offer you any I can't tell you your

978
01:03:48.800 --> 01:03:52.199
situation is gonna get better. It may actually get worse.

979
01:03:52.559 --> 01:03:54.880
I can't tell you anything. All I can tell you

980
01:03:55.039 --> 01:03:59.800
is eternity. But guess what, that can seem pretty meaningless

981
01:03:59.840 --> 01:04:04.159
and the face of reality. So sometimes it's better to

982
01:04:04.159 --> 01:04:11.840
do what lie, shut up, be quiet, all right? But

983
01:04:12.159 --> 01:04:15.320
I mean, well, in some cases I understand that, and

984
01:04:15.360 --> 01:04:20.079
we have to warn against what false peace, using Jeremiah

985
01:04:20.119 --> 01:04:22.639
six fourteen and eight to eleven as a warning against

986
01:04:22.719 --> 01:04:26.280
superficial or misleading assurance we cannot do that. We have

987
01:04:26.360 --> 01:04:28.639
to remind the people in the congregation as a pastor

988
01:04:28.840 --> 01:04:34.199
of the importance of looking at the text correctly. And

989
01:04:34.239 --> 01:04:37.159
I know, looking at the text correctly is it doesn't

990
01:04:37.199 --> 01:04:42.760
feel like church because a sermon, a sermon is designed

991
01:04:42.760 --> 01:04:46.519
to be a speech. It's to be a presentation, it's

992
01:04:46.559 --> 01:04:50.519
to be a form of almost entertainment. It's not designed

993
01:04:50.559 --> 01:04:52.639
to say, hey, guys, we're here to look at this,

994
01:04:53.559 --> 01:04:56.280
because if you start breaking this down, all of a sudden,

995
01:04:56.679 --> 01:04:59.760
well nobody comes to church because nobody really wants it,

996
01:05:00.119 --> 01:05:03.559
say they do. So pastors have to give the sermon,

997
01:05:04.320 --> 01:05:07.599
but they have to do enough manipulation to make everyone

998
01:05:07.599 --> 01:05:09.920
feel like they're actually getting the text. But if they

999
01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:12.159
were actually getting the text, it wouldn't feel like a

1000
01:05:12.159 --> 01:05:15.840
sermon because sermons are not designed to really break yet

1001
01:05:15.880 --> 01:05:18.639
down the text. And that's why I hate the entire

1002
01:05:18.719 --> 01:05:23.119
sermon structure. So how can we how can we conclude

1003
01:05:23.119 --> 01:05:28.360
this false comfort is rooted in misapplied scripture, and it

1004
01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:31.679
is dangerous and it ultimately fails to address the deeper

1005
01:05:31.719 --> 01:05:34.760
issues and reality of life. When we hear that again,

1006
01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:38.079
false comfort is rooted in the misupply and misapplying scripture.

1007
01:05:38.320 --> 01:05:42.159
It is dangerous, and it ultimately fails to address reality.

1008
01:05:43.039 --> 01:05:45.760
True comfort must be grounded in the Gospel of Christ

1009
01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:50.519
and the eternal promises of God, not in superficial assurance

1010
01:05:50.719 --> 01:05:56.639
of peace and security in this life. Pastors must preach

1011
01:05:56.760 --> 01:06:02.800
the truth even when it's uncomfortable. Do not heal the

1012
01:06:02.880 --> 01:06:07.320
wounds of God's people lightly, but direct them to the

1013
01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:13.360
true bomb found in Christ alone. That last paragraph, that's AI.

1014
01:06:16.360 --> 01:06:21.320
AI can figure it out. Preach the truth even when

1015
01:06:21.320 --> 01:06:25.760
it's uncomfortable. Do not. This is the AI's exact words.

1016
01:06:25.880 --> 01:06:32.199
Do not heal the wounds of God's people lightly, but

1017
01:06:32.320 --> 01:06:36.320
direct them to the true bomb found in Christ alone.

1018
01:06:36.360 --> 01:06:41.039
How can AI get that right? But we can't. You

1019
01:06:41.079 --> 01:06:45.239
know why AI can get it right. It's not bound

1020
01:06:45.599 --> 01:06:49.000
by who if I take. If I take, why it

1021
01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:51.519
doesn't have a heart right, Hey, if I take everyone off,

1022
01:06:51.559 --> 01:06:54.159
everyone's gonna leave my church. AI doesn't care if everyone

1023
01:06:54.239 --> 01:07:01.800
leaves my church. AI doesn't care. AI is not committed

1024
01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:07.199
to a team. AI is just like. Look, these passages

1025
01:07:07.320 --> 01:07:11.000
are being misused by pastors. If they care about the text,

1026
01:07:11.199 --> 01:07:18.719
they should stop doing it. Are they gonna stop? No?

1027
01:07:20.119 --> 01:07:24.079
Because when people walk into that door. They're expecting a

1028
01:07:24.159 --> 01:07:29.440
movie that helps them escape reality because the truth is

1029
01:07:29.559 --> 01:07:33.880
not so good. There's there's Jeremiah six fourteen eight to eleven,

1030
01:07:34.079 --> 01:07:38.079
Isaiah chapter forty verse one. Now this sets us up

1031
01:07:39.679 --> 01:07:42.239
for Isaiah chapter forty verse one, and we'll start that

1032
01:07:42.599 --> 01:07:44.719
in a couple of minutes, and now we can get

1033
01:07:44.719 --> 01:07:46.480
to the text. But we had to do all of that.

1034
01:07:47.840 --> 01:07:52.800
Hopefully that was beneficial. And because when I was working

1035
01:07:52.840 --> 01:07:56.559
on all of this, the Jeremiah passages just kept coming

1036
01:07:56.559 --> 01:07:59.159
to my mind, like peace where there's no peace. Peace,

1037
01:07:59.159 --> 01:08:03.880
there's no that's what people do. So yeah, I'm really

1038
01:08:03.920 --> 01:08:07.679
bothered by the false comfort. And we'll get started here

1039
01:08:07.719 --> 01:08:09.960
in a minute, in the next hour, and then we'll

1040
01:08:09.960 --> 01:08:11.760
put this all together. Let's pray, Lord, God, we come

1041
01:08:11.800 --> 01:08:16.720
before you. Lord, forgive me, as a pastor and teacher,

1042
01:08:17.079 --> 01:08:21.600
if I've ever offered false comfort, false hope, false peace,

1043
01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:27.119
forgive me forever misapplying scripture and taking texts that were

1044
01:08:27.119 --> 01:08:30.000
not meant for us and applying them to us. And

1045
01:08:30.039 --> 01:08:32.960
forgive anyone else in this room who've done the same thing,

1046
01:08:33.520 --> 01:08:35.560
or have offered the same kind of false comfort to

1047
01:08:35.600 --> 01:08:39.399
anyone else. Lord. The Church has mishandled your word over

1048
01:08:39.439 --> 01:08:43.239
and over and over in history, and we just want

1049
01:08:43.239 --> 01:08:45.159
to make it about us, and we want you to

1050
01:08:45.199 --> 01:08:48.680
do things for us, and we almost recreate you in

1051
01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:52.199
an image that's more like us than who you truly are.

1052
01:08:52.279 --> 01:08:54.920
Forgive us for that, and help us as we study

1053
01:08:54.920 --> 01:08:57.880
Isaiah forty through fifty five, that we somehow try to

1054
01:08:57.920 --> 01:09:00.560
stay true to the text wherever that it takes us,

1055
01:09:00.600 --> 01:09:03.840
no matter how comfortable uncomfortable that may be, because that's

1056
01:09:03.880 --> 01:09:06.119
what we're called to do. And we ask for forgiveness,

1057
01:09:06.159 --> 01:09:08.319
and we are thankful that we find that forgiveness in

1058
01:09:08.359 --> 01:09:10.239
your son Jesus Christ. And it's his name we pray.

1059
01:09:10.279 --> 01:09:11.119
And God's people said