Nov. 30, 2024

Isaiah40: Rethinking God

Isaiah40: Rethinking God

Another review of another sermon on Isaiah 40

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Another review of another sermon on Isaiah 40

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone.

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It is Friday, November twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. It

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is currently nine eighteen pm Central Time, and I'm coming

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to you live from the Theology Central studio located right

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here in Abilene, Texas. All Right, I have some some

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reasons for doing this broadcast this evening. I have some

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goals I want to accomplish, all right. Just about an

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hour ago, hour and a half ago, I found out

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that tomorrow things are going to really be different around here,

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so broadcasting not going to happen, all right, So there's

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not going to be any broadcasts tomorrow. So then I

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was like, okay, well then if I'm not going to

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be able to do any broadcasting tomorrow, that means then Sunday,

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if everything goes right at church, then I should be

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able to come home and upload two hours of teaching.

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We will see how that goes. But who knows if

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they're going to be any good. I mean, I never

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know how Sunday is going to go. So I'm like, well,

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all right, then I guess I could try to broadcast

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Sunday afternoon. All right, maybe, but since I can't do

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anything tomorrow, and that's already a guarantee, and you never

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really can predict I mean, obviously we never know what's

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going to happen in the future. Well, then let's get

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something done this evening. So I'm all right, can't broadcast tomorrow,

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let's broadcast now. So that's one of the reasons I'm

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doing this broadcast, right, It's because I can't broadcast tomorrow.

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All right, good, Now what do I do now? There

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was a couple of things I wanted to broadcast on RITE,

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A couple of things I had ready, some audio I

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had saved, I had some antifons for Advent, a discussion

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about those. I thought, well, I could do those famous

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antifons for Advent. That could be an interesting thing to

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talk about, or at least remind everyone of, because I've

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talked about them I think multiple times. I could do that.

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And then there was a podcast episode that dropped on

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I think late last night or early this morning called

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Satan's Satan's Secret Society, and I'm like, oh, what is

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that all about? So I'm like, oh, we could review

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that audio. So but I'm like well, the only problem is,

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not only is tomorrow going to cause me not to

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be able to broadcast, Tomorrow is going to really mess

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up sermon prep. Like sermon prep is probably not going

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to happen. So then I'm like, okay, well, then I

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need to broadcast something related to what I'll be preaching

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on on Sunday. So in a sense, I can try

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to accomplish two things. A little bit of sermon prepper.

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Maybe I've been really sermon prep, but at least getting

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me thinking along that those lines. Because of all the

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other things we've been talking about, I need to get

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focused back on. And you know what, I need to

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get focused back on Isaiah chapter forty.

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Right.

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We took that long detour with James one nineteen through

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twenty seven. We've been talking about hermeneutics and Bible interpretation.

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We talked about reading comprehension AI. I mean those conversations.

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There could be much more or said, but I'm like,

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I've got to get back to Isaiah forty. So you

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know what I did. I grabbed the sermon's two point

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Oh app I hyped in Isaiah forty and I'm like, oh,

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there's a sermon. Wait this one is called rethinking God.

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Rethinking God Isaiah forty. I'm like, well, that sounds interesting.

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Rethinking God Isaiah chapter forty. So is I mean now

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from the title is do I mean? I know this

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is an assumption, but when I hear the title, I

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start thinking, hmm. Is the thinking here is that God

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sent a message to the people who were in Babylonian captivity,

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because you know, Isaiah thirty nine sets up the babylon captivity.

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Isaiah forty through fifty five is the message of comfort

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sent to them. But somehow in this message of comfort

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sent to the people in Babylonian captivity, one of the

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things is guys, you need to rethink God. And I'm like, well,

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I wonder how how does that fit? Hey, I'm sending

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you comfort, but you need to rethink God. What did

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they need to change their thinking in regards to God about?

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I'm like, okay, this could be interesting, right, So I

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haven't listened to it? Well take that back. I hit

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play and immediately realized that whoever recorded this obviously didn't

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know where the volume control was. I literally had to

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go in and increase the volume by like thirty percent.

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It was some crazy number like it was crazy. Finally,

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I think I have it loud enough, so I have

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it ready to go, and we're just gonna jump in now.

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The goal here tonight is not to do an entire

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sermon review, because if we do an entire sermon review

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with a sermon that's forty four minutes and fifty three

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seconds long, you know that's going to take I couldn't

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even do it in one part. I could do an

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hour and a half here. This would probably be three

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four hours of broadcasting to do an entire review. The

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goal here is one They're going to be discussing Isaiah forty.

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That's perfect because well, I need to get my mind

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back on Isaiah forty. Secondly, that's supposed to help you

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because you're supposed to be spending all kinds of time

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in Isaiah forty to fifty five. So then that helps you.

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And so it gets us back in there, So that

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that's the main thing, as long as it gets me

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discussing there, and and then I guess the other thing

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is I just want to hear their basic hypotheses, right,

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So what's their hypothesis and how does it relate to

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Isaiah forty? And you know what we're going to be

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looking out for I guess another thing, how quickly do

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they insert us? But I'm not going to make that

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so much of the issue. And I've got to be

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really careful how I handle this because for church, what

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I what I'm going to do on Sunday is move

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away from all of the controversy. Right, We've we've kind

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of established that over and over, sermon after sermon after

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sermon mishandles Isaiah forty. We've seen that I don't even know,

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I don't even know how many times, and and all

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the times of all the things I've listened to that

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I haven't even reviewed. It's crazy, right, It's just crazy

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how mishandled like. It's like a disease. It's like an epidemic.

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It's all like a pandemic of people miss handling Isaiah

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chapter forty. We've already established that. So when I get

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to church on Sunday, I don't want to go back

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over all of that. I don't want to do that anymore.

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I've already I've mentioned all of that. Right, we even

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kind of got into a little bit of trying to

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fix it. What we're gonna do on Sunday A step

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completely back and say, okay, guys, Isaiah forty is the chapter.

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Let's do an observational outline. So we're going to try

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to do an observational outline on Sunday. It may take

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two hours, but that's what we're going to do. So

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in the meantime, I got to get my mind back

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to Isaiah forty somehow, right, I gotta turn my mind

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away from James and Ai and reading comprehension and all

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the other issues and get back to Isaiah forty. So

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this is my attempt to do that, to do a

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broadcast to make up for no broadcast tomorrow, and since

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I can't do a lot of sermon prep tomorrow, this

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helps me at least get my mind thinking about Isaiah forty,

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which even tomorrow, if I can't get to the microphone

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or do any prep, my brain is already thinking about

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Isaiah forty. So that's what I'm attempting to do. So

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in a roundabout way, I'm doing this broadcast more for

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me than you, So I'm being selfish, right, full transparency.

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But if you can benefit from it, great, So are

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you ready? Here we go rethinking God. Supposedly this is

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a sermon from Isaiah forty. That's at least the text.

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I'm very curious. Let's find out.

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I want us to spend some time together this morning

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and this evening on the same theme. So really it's

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a two part sermon. All right. I want us to

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consider the task that's so so critical for a young church.

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But it's not just critical for a young church. It's

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critical for a young believer.

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Okay, now wait a minute, all right, do you see

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what just happened? Is forty is the text and he

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wants to talk about the task that is critical for

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a young church and the task that's critical for believers. No,

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wait a minute. We're in Isaiah forty. There is no church.

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There is a nation in Babylonian captivity. If we're gonna

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say Isaiah forty is about a church, then it's about

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a church in Babylonian captivity. So but even that, again,

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you're you're just inserting that into the text. So once again,

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how long did that take before we got inserted into

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the passage? How long, ladies and gentlemen, that took maybe

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what ten seconds? Twenty seconds? Look, I'm telling you there's

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no end to that. I don't understand. I really I

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must have missed the memo. Hey, when you read Isaiah forty,

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don't think about the people it's speaking to. They don't matter.

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It's all about us and you. Okay, all right, but

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all right, See that's what I didn't want to get

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back into. So I don't care how much he does

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that I have to mention it, but I'm going to

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try not to mention it anymore. I'm listening to what's

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his basic hypotheses for this sermon, what's his basic thesis,

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what's his hypotheses when it comes to the text, How

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is he handling the text? And what can we learn

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from it?

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Here we go, and some of you may be young believers,

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but it's also critical for the older believer. As I

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was looking at the passage again this week, coming up,

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looking forward to this morning.

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Now, one of the reasons I went ahead and chose

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this one not only because it was Isaiah forty, because

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it had almost thirteen thousand downloads. Okay, that's crazy. I

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think it had like thirteen than twelve thousand something, maybe

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close to thirteen thousand. That means this one is influential, influential, influential, influential, influential.

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So the thing that's influencing the most people. Sometimes that's

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the most interesting to hear because you're like, wait, one

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you try to figure out why are so many people

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drawn to it? And two you're like, what did everyone

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take away from it? So right here we go.

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How much I feel my own soul is needy and

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I've looked at this theme so many times. We're here

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sweeping through up to the New England area to work

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on a project on the attributes of God and filming

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and locations where ministers were used in an extraordinary way,

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particularly in connection with preaching on the Majesty of God.

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So Timothy Dwight and the second grade Awakening at Yale,

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George Whitfield and the first grade Awakening in his last

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place he preached and is buried in America Jonathan Edwards.

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Of course, so men who were gripped by this big

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biblical portrait of God and whose lives then were influential.

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But it doesn't matter how many times we look at

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passage like this, I feel my own need. I want

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to talk about rethinking God and refashioning everything based upon

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what we find of Him in this book.

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Now a right, So rethinking God, refashioning everything based on

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what we find in this book. Right, that's kind of

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the maybe the more the purpose statement. Right now, he

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said this passage, I'm assuming the passage he's referencing is

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Isaiah forty right. So okay, I think I know where

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he's going. I don't think he's gonna deal with the

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first passage. I think he's going to start talking about

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verse twelve. I think he's going to start talking about

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verse twelve to thirty one. That's where I think he's

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going to go. Twelve to thirty one. Now, let's see

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if he puts this in its historical intextual content. Let's

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see what happens.

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Now. That's a common theme today, It's a common activity

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in parts in the last ten years, in particular. Now,

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I'm forty three now, right, and I have lived long

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enough now to see some of the trends in American religion.

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When I was your age, for those of you that

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are in college, rethinking God, rethinking church, rethinking families, it

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was not a very common idea. Brand loyalty was firm.

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I grew up a Southern Baptist, even in Columbus, Ohio,

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Southern Baptist. That meant everybody I knew that was a

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Christian had a West Virginian accent. All right, But all right,

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I went down south. I'm a Southern Baptist. My father's

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a Southern Baptist minister, and so it never occurred to

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me to be anything but Southern Baptist. Everybody else was dodgy,

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you know, and suspicious until I met some wonderful Presbyterians.

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But that's not really the way it is now, is it.

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I mean, it's open now. There is a real opportunity

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to rethink what what is church and what is worship

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and what is evangelism and what is it to live

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a God Word life? And those old categories have faded

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to a certain degree, and it really it frees you up.

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And this church plant here is an expression of that.

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That's interesting. I'd have to look at the year of this.

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I think brand loyalty is still very much in place. Hey,

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this is your theological team. You stay loyal to that team. Now,

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maybe there's been more rethinking about how to do church.

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But if you rethink church too much or immediately, will

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be condemned and criticized. Right, And if you rethink and

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start challenging interpretations and philological ideas, you everyone says they're

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open until you say the thing they don't like, and

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then you get thrown out or they leave.

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So I.

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Don't know. I don't know. I'd have to look at

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the year and what was making him feel this way.

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I think brand, loyalty, philological team, philological stream, stay in it,

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don't rock the boat, do what we I think that's

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still it's always kind of built into Christianity, and it's

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always operated that way to some level. Maybe the people

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in the pew are less committed than they used to be,

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But I'm telling you, you still say the wrong thing,

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They're walking out the door or you're going to be

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losing your job.

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While it's common today to rethink church and family and

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manhood and evangelism, it's also very important that we do

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it correctly. Western evangelicalism, which we're a part of, is

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a wash in a scene of confusion. The United States

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is leading the way through her enormous influence in religion,

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and she is staggering American evangelicals from one empty idea

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to the next empty idea, hoping that that the gimmick

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on the horizon will fix our churches.

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Wait, Christianity is a wash in confusion. Tell me it

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isn't so tell me. I mean, come on, we've got

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the Word of God and we've got the Spirit leading us,

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so we should all have truth and there should not

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be any Oh wait, yeah, okay, it doesn't matter. To

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the decade the church, Spurgeon was upset with the church.

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Everyone is always like the church is in trouble. There's

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all these new ideas, and there's all these conflicting doctrines

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and conflicting theologies, and nobody seems to agree. Everyone is

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always yelling and screaming about how messed up the churches.

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And yeah, no one's yet to figure it out. And

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we can't even We're never gonna figure it out, since

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we can't even agree on which hermeneutical principles apply or

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don't apply. We can't even agree on how to interpret

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simple things. We can't agree on the word repentance, the

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word baptism. I mean, I can go on and on

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and on and on, and it's exhausting. All right, let's

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see if he's got some great solution.

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And bring back some weight and effectiveness, and all the

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world is following us. I spent three years in the

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little country of Wales, working on a PhD in Welsh revivals.

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I was always grieved to hear that an American team

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had arrived in a little Welsh mining village to do ministry,

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because I've been on both ends. I've been at home

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when the team returns and says, do you know we

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had one hundred conversions this week? One hundred children ask

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Jesus into their heart, and you rejoice, and you think

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it's worth all the money of sending the youth puppet

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team overseas. But then I've been in Britain and I've

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talked to the Masters the next year, and I said,

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this town of a thousand, which sees perhaps two or

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three conversions a year, very difficult area to work in.

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They said that one hundred were converted last year. How

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many are even still attending any church in the town?

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Two three. It is imperative that we, as American evangelicals

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who are concerned about more than just US four and

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no more, that when we come to the scripture, that

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we're willing to rethink some of the traditions that we've

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been handed. And generally, I would say that while it's

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very common today to rethink church and to rethink family,

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it's not going in the right direction. As a whole.

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Much of the refashioning of Christianity and the evangelical scene,

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particularly that which is done among you younger people, is

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done in such a way that in ten years we

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will be worse off than we were yesterday. If you

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read church history, you see that this is not new

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to us. There are cycles where God brings his church

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to a position of alarm and she begins to rethink things.

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And usually it is the younger people that have the

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courage to cry out to God and say, what do

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you want from us? But there are times in history

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where the young people have cried out and it's been

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a wise a group of young people led by older,

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wise Christians, and they've really laid hold of the great

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Answer himself. And then there are periods.

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I always find that baffling. So there's always these times

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that people that God tells them what he wants. They

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ask God, what do you want? And then God what

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God tells them directly? I mean God doesn't tell us

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in the scriptures. See that seems to say the script

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I know that this person would not claim this. I

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know they would say the scriptures are sufficient. The scriptures

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are the only authority. But if you have to cry

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out to God, going, God, what do you want? And

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then God tells you, then that means God is not

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telling you in the Bible because you wouldn't have to

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cry out what do you want? God, because it would

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be in the Bible. So then if God tells them

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what he wants, why didn't he tell the older generation

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what he wanted? Or are they not listening? And if

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they're not listening, God can't speak louder So the Bible.

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God's gonna tell us exactly what he wants because we

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can't figure it out from the scriptures. See, this just

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leads to all kinds of just I know, this is

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just normal Christian talk, right, Oh, we cried out, God

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told us what he wanted and we needed people seeking God.

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Well do you mean studying the Bible? Like I don't So,

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I don't know, I don't know. But yeah, this just

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never ends. I wonder why it never ends. I wonder

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the church it's just constantly a wash in confusion and

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problems and difficulties. Well, one, all the talk about us

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being so transformed is proven over and over and over

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not to be true because we're not new creatures. With

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the old things past away, all things have become new. Practically,

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we're still sinners. I don't know when the church is

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ever going to admit that. All every sermon admits how

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messed up everything is. But at the same time we

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still sell this idea that well, we basically are almost perfect.

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And then I wish we would stop this nonsense of

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God talking to us outside of scripture because that's not happening.

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And three, I wish we would be able to acknowledge. Hey,

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I think the big problem is is that Christians can't

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agree on anything in the Bible. So how are we

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ever going to fix anything? But okay, let's see if

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we get an answer here. I still want to know

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what this has to do with Isaiah forty.

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There's a history where young people have cried out and

359
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they've not found the right answer, and they've gone earnestly

360
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in the wrong direction. When you look at the rethinking

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and you read the new books about you know, missional churches,

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et cetera.

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Wait, so there's times when people cry out to God

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and they didn't find the right answer. What why didn't

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they find the right answer?

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Sir?

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They cried out to God and God's like sh nobody

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give them the right answer. Watch this.

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I do?

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And I covered my mouth there, like you know, God

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talking to someone next to him, right, all right, that's

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why the microphone sounded muted. Okay, all right, that visually

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that works better than than a dead audio. All right.

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So the point is so sometimes we cry out to

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God and we get the answer, and sometimes we cry

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out to God and we don't get the answer. Okay,

377
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I got lots of questions.

378
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I'm not particularly encouraged because it's not because it's a

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lack of zel. It's not that we're not being radical

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or extreme. I mean, really, let's face it, the words passionate, extreme,

381
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and radical are so popular today in church planting books

382
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that I think they're going to replace faith, hope, and love.

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It's not that we're not being radical and extreme. It's

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that we're not being nearly radical enough. And whoever you

385
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can think of as the most cutting edge kind of

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radical and extreme church planter is not being nearly extreme enough.

387
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The problem is that we're not going deeply enough. So

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you can rethink things. You can rethink how to reach

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the inner city, and you can rethink how to do church,

390
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and you can rethink how to do family and how

391
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to educate your children. But none of these things is

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deep enough. We're so quick to go to the question how,

393
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and that's the wrong starting place. But the right starting

394
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place is another question who? Who is he? Does he

395
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have the right to define himself in this book? And

396
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will we really rethink him according to what he says? Well,

397
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before we look at our passage this morning, just three

398
00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:11.039
more introductory things and then that you'll find out the

399
00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:13.160
introduction is about half the sermon, right, So if you're

400
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:17.680
getting nervous, don't be too nervous. There are three things

401
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I think we have to set on our minds before

402
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we go any further and look at Isaiah forty because

403
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it's a wonderful passage and I don't want us to

404
00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:26.519
waste our time. The first thing is this that this

405
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is not a job for spiritual cowards. Have you ever

406
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:35.000
considered that the Bible lists spiritual cowardice and spiritual cowards

407
00:23:36.519 --> 00:23:41.960
in those lists that describe who will populate hell. It

408
00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:46.240
is not easy to rethink family. I have three children,

409
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:47.680
all right. I know to some people that's a very

410
00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:49.880
small family. In my church has a small family, and

411
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.519
we're looked at with some suspicion. All right, But I

412
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grew up with just one other sibling, so I thought

413
00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:58.039
we had a massive family, and so does my wife's parents.

414
00:23:58.039 --> 00:24:02.880
All right, So we have three children. We homeschool when

415
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:04.960
my child was when our oldest child was four, and

416
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.279
someone mentioned homeschool, is said, no way, no way, no way,

417
00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:11.720
no way. And now here we are. We homeschool and

418
00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:16.640
I'm on the board of a little cooperative effort. You know,

419
00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:21.119
homeschooling is not easy.

420
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And are you thinking what I'm thinking, ladies and gentlemen.

421
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What is Isaiah forty a message to people in Babylonian captivity,

422
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a nation Judah like Israel?

423
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Like?

424
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Okay, all right, all right, but let's let's let's hear

425
00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:47.680
how this goes.

426
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And rethinking church is not easy, and rethinking what a

427
00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:56.559
Christian man is is not easy, and rethinking evangelism is

428
00:24:56.599 --> 00:25:00.960
not easy, and rethinking Christian finances these not easy things.

429
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:07.559
But their child's play compared to rethinking God's. Because I

430
00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:10.839
can become a homeschooler, and I can have twenty children,

431
00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:13.519
and I can be a church where we have long

432
00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:16.319
prayer meetings and we only sing from the old hymns

433
00:25:16.359 --> 00:25:19.079
or maybe we only sing from the new choruses. And

434
00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:22.039
I can make all those choices, but deep down it

435
00:25:22.119 --> 00:25:26.319
hasn't touched the root that John Snyder is still the ruler.

436
00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:31.359
I think that many of our new church plants that

437
00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:35.079
claim to be reformed have gone into the bedroom and

438
00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.000
found the church in bed with the world, covered over

439
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:46.440
within our big Armenian blanket. And the newly reformed preacher screams, ah, Armenianism,

440
00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.759
and he runs in and he rips the Armenian blanket

441
00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:52.480
all and throws a Calvinistic blanket over him and then leaves.

442
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But the church is still in bed with the world.

443
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We're still intact with our self determination. Rethinking God's is costly.

444
00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:08.480
It's not for cowards. The second thing, rethinking God is

445
00:26:08.519 --> 00:26:11.680
not a boring thing. Now I preach boring sermons at times.

446
00:26:11.720 --> 00:26:16.279
I know I get bored, but rethinking God is not boring.

447
00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:22.119
You if you're a believer, are called into fellowship with Him,

448
00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:27.599
and he opens himself up. He has displayed himself to you,

449
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and he has commanded you to know him and to

450
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embrace him. And it's the beginning. And I don't care

451
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:37.599
how old you are as a Christian you are at

452
00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:42.079
the ABC's of Christianity. One time we did a series

453
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of sermons on the character of God, the attributes of God.

454
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I expected it the last twelve weeks. It lasted three years.

455
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But at the end of three years, not one person,

456
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especially not me, not one of us, had gone in

457
00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:59.200
more than a few inches into this boundless, shoreless ocean

458
00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:03.160
of God. I have been a Christian longer than I

459
00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:05.960
have been a rebel against God. But I feel like

460
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:08.799
I'm a little kid walking up to the seaside and

461
00:27:08.920 --> 00:27:14.200
He is calling me in. It's not boring to know

462
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:17.200
God other than by hearsay. Third thing and then we'll

463
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look at the passage. It is not impossible. He is incomprehensible.

464
00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:25.119
He is infinite. So we're not going to get our

465
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:28.079
little minds wrapped around God and be able to figure

466
00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:32.920
him out. But it is not impossible to know God.

467
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.359
The Bible is not custom designed for a number of

468
00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:40.079
things that we are trying to use it for. The

469
00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:43.640
Bible does not have a book on courtship. The Bible

470
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:46.599
does not have a book on Biblical manhood. The Bible

471
00:27:46.640 --> 00:27:49.079
does not have a book on educating your children or

472
00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:52.759
having a Christian business. Or reaching the inner city. Now,

473
00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:56.039
certainly the principles for all those areas are in the scripture,

474
00:27:57.319 --> 00:27:59.720
but there's no one book that you can go through.

475
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:02.680
People call this the owner man Owner's Manual for life.

476
00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:04.799
I don't know. I don't like that phrase.

477
00:28:07.160 --> 00:28:09.880
There are principles that people take from the text and

478
00:28:09.960 --> 00:28:13.960
try to apply to these situations and these contexts that

479
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:16.640
the Bible was not speaking about. And in many cases

480
00:28:16.759 --> 00:28:21.839
we take passages and principles that probably have nothing to

481
00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:24.319
do with these sich areas that he just mentioned, and

482
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.480
we try to apply it to them. Well, like and

483
00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:34.680
maybe I don't know, like maybe Isaiah forty, Maybe.

484
00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:39.119
What is the Bible? It is only custom design for

485
00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:42.759
one great purpose. Everything else is the byproduct. It is

486
00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:47.680
custom designed to unveil God to people like us.

487
00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:55.759
Is the Bible custom designed to reveal God? Or is

488
00:28:55.799 --> 00:28:59.240
it custom designed to show us? Maybe it is to

489
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:04.400
reveal God actions and specific times, specific situations to specific people.

490
00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:11.240
Maybe in that case, maybe I just we always like

491
00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:14.359
to frame it or it's somehow it's about us. The

492
00:29:14.359 --> 00:29:17.920
Bible's designed to do this for us, But these are

493
00:29:17.960 --> 00:29:24.279
stories and situations for those people. Somehow, the original people

494
00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:28.000
always seem to just they don't matter to us, and

495
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.839
that's where I get so bad. But maybe I mean, look,

496
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.440
he hasn't gotten Isaiah forty yet, so he's getting ready

497
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.240
to get to Isaiah forty. And I know, I look,

498
00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:40.119
at least, at a minimum, he's going to discuss the

499
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:43.319
historical context. At a minimum, we'll just see what he

500
00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:43.880
does with it.

501
00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:51.200
So, even though God is incomprehensibly glorious and transcendent, he

502
00:29:51.400 --> 00:29:55.960
has stooped down to explain himself to us and you

503
00:29:56.039 --> 00:29:59.119
can know him. Well. We're gonna look at two passages

504
00:29:59.160 --> 00:30:02.400
that illustrate that, I hope. The first this morning is

505
00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:08.160
Isaiah forty, when Judah is facing the sunset, Israel is

506
00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:12.440
looking at the beginning of a very dark, deep night.

507
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:16.880
She's going to enter into judgment soon, and we find it.

508
00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:20.680
Wait a minute, Wait a minute, all right, where's he

509
00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:24.240
going to go? Isaiah forty. They are already in it.

510
00:30:24.759 --> 00:30:26.720
This is the comfort given to them while they are

511
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.079
in it. They're not about to go into it. They're

512
00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:32.839
in it. They go into it in Isaiah thirty nine.

513
00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:36.240
This is the message of comfort given like one hundred

514
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:39.240
years before they even get there. Now is he going

515
00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:43.440
to say, well, the comfort was given before they go there. Okay,

516
00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:45.559
now maybe he's going to do that. Maybe he's going

517
00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:47.279
to do it, but the comfort is for when they're

518
00:30:47.319 --> 00:30:50.000
in it, all right. So again, I know that can

519
00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:53.160
get confusing because even when we were looking at it

520
00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.319
all trying to figure out the timeline, because sermons were

521
00:30:55.319 --> 00:30:57.599
saying all kinds of different things. You're like, some sermons

522
00:30:57.640 --> 00:31:00.680
made it sound like Isaiah went and gave the comfort,

523
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.559
and we're like, no, he didn't, because Isaiah had been

524
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:06.359
dat one hundred years. So yeah, so I'm assuming he's

525
00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:08.200
going to clarify this. So just so that you know,

526
00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.279
it can get really confusing listening to sermons and how

527
00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:15.759
they phrase it or how they structure the time timeline.

528
00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:21.119
Here, find that chapter forty is the promise of a

529
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:23.960
dawn after the judgment. Then tonight we're going to look

530
00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:27.440
at a man who was very religious, very respectable in church,

531
00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:31.119
then he met Christ and that got all turned on

532
00:31:31.160 --> 00:31:33.799
its head. Now he's in prison and we want to

533
00:31:33.839 --> 00:31:36.119
ask him, well, now what do you say about the

534
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:38.200
glory of Christ? And we're going to look at Colossians

535
00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:42.799
chapter one tonight. So Isaiah forty right now, Well, what's

536
00:31:42.839 --> 00:31:45.359
the context very quickly, because we have so much to

537
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:50.880
look at. Hezekiah is the king, and I want you

538
00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:54.680
to imagine living at the end of the reign of Hezekiah. Right,

539
00:31:54.720 --> 00:32:00.640
so we're all Jewish people, younger and older. Has been

540
00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:05.720
morally bankrupt for generations. She has added the emptiness of

541
00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:11.759
idolatry to the externals of Jehovah worship. God has withdrawn

542
00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:17.319
his gracious presence. The compromised religious leaders don't mention it.

543
00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:22.599
The periods of national repentance and stirring like Hezekiah's reign,

544
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.200
which if you know your Old Testament, it's a wonderful,

545
00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:30.400
gracious time. But even that is inadequate. Israel has times

546
00:32:30.440 --> 00:32:32.680
where she seems to turn back to God, but then

547
00:32:32.759 --> 00:32:39.240
she goes back on the old course. Proud. Hezekiah is

548
00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:42.720
visited by some delegates from a distant country, the Chaldeans

549
00:32:42.839 --> 00:32:46.359
or the Babylonians. At this time, Babylon is not a

550
00:32:46.440 --> 00:32:51.240
world dominating power. She soon will be. She's not a threat.

551
00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:56.160
She seems very small, very far away, and Hezekiah, like

552
00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:58.880
many of us, would be as flattered. Oh you've come

553
00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:01.720
to see me, yes, Oh you ought to. I mean

554
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:06.279
I'm a pretty impressive kidding. Look at what's happened. Hezekiah

555
00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:08.680
brings them into the temple and shows them all the

556
00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:12.039
gold and silver. Hezekiah brings them into the palace and

557
00:33:12.039 --> 00:33:17.119
shows them all off his treasure. They leave. God sends

558
00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:19.400
Isaiah the prophet to Hezekiah, and he says to him,

559
00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:23.839
you're a fool. The men that came and flattered you

560
00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:29.119
today their grandchildren will come and carry off your grandchildren

561
00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:34.440
into slavery. And Hezekiah is so self centered that as

562
00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:37.440
long he says, as it doesn't happen in my day,

563
00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:42.200
I won't worry about it. Now. If you're a Jew

564
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.200
and that's your king, that's what you're looking for to

565
00:33:45.319 --> 00:33:47.640
raising children in, and that's what you're looking forward to

566
00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:49.839
in the future. Is there any real hope? Now, let's

567
00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:54.559
be honest, because American optimism is destroying the church. We're

568
00:33:54.599 --> 00:33:57.319
waking up Sunday after Sunday telling us that the next

569
00:33:57.359 --> 00:33:59.599
book that we buy will fix us and a dozen.

570
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:05.039
So, now, that was a good summary of Isaiah thirty nine,

571
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:08.760
basically one through four, or maybe one through eight. I

572
00:34:08.760 --> 00:34:11.599
mean that's pretty I think it's Isaiah thirty nine one

573
00:34:11.639 --> 00:34:13.400
through eight or at least that's pretty that's pretty good.

574
00:34:13.679 --> 00:34:17.840
That's a pretty good summary, well spoken, articulate, clear concise,

575
00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:21.679
much better than I could do. That's great. Now, immediately

576
00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:23.360
he just looked back to the church, which I don't

577
00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:25.880
know how that just happened, But okay, all right, he's

578
00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:27.800
given us some content. I told you he would. I

579
00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.400
was assured. I was assured that he would at least

580
00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:32.960
mention some context. What he's going to do with it,

581
00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:35.079
I don't know, because he immediately went back to the church.

582
00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:37.480
Let's see what's going to happen here.

583
00:34:38.679 --> 00:34:40.639
We want to be very sure that our hope is

584
00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:44.920
built on a solid, substantial foundation, and it is in

585
00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:49.000
verses one through eleven. We moved from the very insignificant

586
00:34:49.079 --> 00:34:52.920
palace of Hezekiah and the secret thoughts of his selfish hearts.

587
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:56.599
Now we're moving to the royal messenger from God to

588
00:34:56.679 --> 00:35:00.440
hear from the heavenly throne. And he speaks in verses

589
00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:04.239
one and two of comforts and the Hebrews, so beautiful,

590
00:35:04.719 --> 00:35:09.480
lay words tenderly alongside the hearts of my people. What

591
00:35:09.800 --> 00:35:14.440
words that the warfares over. It's an amazing grace. Here

592
00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:19.440
israel sins against God for generations. Now Israel's offended, God

593
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:22.920
himself will come to rescue them. In verses three through five,

594
00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:26.800
the messenger has heard, prepare a road for this salvation,

595
00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:32.000
but be very careful while God will bring the Israelites back.

596
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:33.679
And later in Isaiah we have a lot of that

597
00:35:33.800 --> 00:35:37.960
reference to coming back out of Babylon. The road in

598
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:43.519
Isaiah forty is not for exiles returning. It's not for men.

599
00:35:44.679 --> 00:35:46.960
The good news is that there's gonna be a road

600
00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:49.480
open between Babylon and Jerusalem, and you can come back.

601
00:35:49.559 --> 00:35:52.360
The best news is in the big picture of things,

602
00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:56.159
there's going to be a road opened where God will travel,

603
00:35:56.239 --> 00:35:58.559
not us, and He will come to us. It's a

604
00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:03.159
wonderful picture of Christ preparo road for whom for the king.

605
00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:09.039
Another voice is heard. There's no hope Verses six through eight.

606
00:36:09.119 --> 00:36:12.239
No hope at all in mankind. Man is like a flower.

607
00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:16.639
You pick it, it wilts. Man is like grass, you

608
00:36:16.719 --> 00:36:19.519
cut it, it withers. I was out walking around this morning,

609
00:36:19.960 --> 00:36:24.199
picked this little flower. You know already it's kind of disappointing,

610
00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:26.599
all right. If I try to take it back to

611
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:29.920
my wife, She's not gonna be impressed, is she? Because

612
00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:36.480
that's us. The Great preachers the Newest Book, we don't last.

613
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:43.280
There's no hope in us. Then God's coming is described

614
00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:46.599
in verses nine through eleven. He comes. How does God come?

615
00:36:46.679 --> 00:36:48.679
This is a description of God coming in the person

616
00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:52.159
of the sun. This is a picture of Christ. He

617
00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:55.639
will come as a mighty warrior, a hero in battle,

618
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:58.719
with ample strength to do whatever it takes. He will

619
00:36:58.760 --> 00:37:02.880
also come as a shepherd, especially towards the weed and

620
00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:03.320
the young.

621
00:37:05.239 --> 00:37:08.800
Please note he is making a lot of this about Christ.

622
00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:11.880
Now the New Testament writers may use some of this

623
00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:15.840
about Christ. We're gonna be very careful. He's he's quickly.

624
00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.960
We're saying, hey, these I mean comfort, comfort. But then

625
00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:24.519
all of this is not about these people. Hey comfort comfort,

626
00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:27.639
But you're all gonna be dead when when this comfort comes.

627
00:37:27.719 --> 00:37:30.239
This has nothing to do with you. This is about Christ.

628
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:32.159
I mean, you're all gonna be dead. This is not

629
00:37:32.199 --> 00:37:34.960
gonna do you any good. But here is comfort. I

630
00:37:35.079 --> 00:37:39.079
got comfort for you. After you're all dead, good things

631
00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:47.199
are coming. I've got the greatest amount of comfort for you. You're

632
00:37:46.639 --> 00:37:51.800
all going to die. But long after you are dead, well,

633
00:37:52.440 --> 00:38:04.440
Christ is gonna come. Or maybe if we read this

634
00:38:04.599 --> 00:38:07.199
Isaiah forty sins it's in the section known as the

635
00:38:07.199 --> 00:38:09.840
Book of Comfort because Isaiah forty to Isaiah fifty five.

636
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:13.039
And we know that this person is identified as the

637
00:38:13.079 --> 00:38:15.679
one who seems to be very much doing these very

638
00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:18.400
things that are speaking of, and he's identified by name,

639
00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:21.880
and that name as Cyrus. Do we just ignore him?

640
00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:26.159
Do we ignore what literally happened? I don't know. We're

641
00:38:26.159 --> 00:38:29.199
gonna be working on this as we go through this chapter,

642
00:38:29.239 --> 00:38:33.800
but pastors just have a hard time staying here. We

643
00:38:33.880 --> 00:38:36.320
want to immediately jump to something else. And it's like,

644
00:38:36.559 --> 00:38:39.639
what about the original people? I don't understand why the

645
00:38:39.679 --> 00:38:41.320
original people never count?

646
00:38:44.679 --> 00:38:47.559
Now the messenger passes away from the scene in verse eleven,

647
00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:52.440
and now the focus of the prophet turns to the

648
00:38:52.519 --> 00:38:57.960
king himself. The King enters, and this incomprehensibly great God

649
00:38:58.599 --> 00:39:01.960
stoops down to our childlike faith, and he gives us

650
00:39:02.480 --> 00:39:05.079
four very simple pictures of himself.

651
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:13.679
He gives us, or he gives them. Wouldn't we have

652
00:39:13.800 --> 00:39:19.199
to understand why he did this for them before we

653
00:39:19.239 --> 00:39:22.119
say he did this for us?

654
00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:30.239
All right, Let's see what happens here, and this is

655
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:33.800
what we want to look at this morning. We want

656
00:39:33.840 --> 00:39:37.480
to see the incomparable Lord. And at the end of

657
00:39:37.559 --> 00:39:41.440
each of these sections, each of these four pictures, the

658
00:39:41.519 --> 00:39:46.159
message is the same. There is no one but God,

659
00:39:46.519 --> 00:39:52.199
and there is no one like God. The first picture,

660
00:39:52.880 --> 00:39:56.559
we have the contrast between God and Creation in verses

661
00:39:56.559 --> 00:40:01.079
twelve through fourteen. And here is that wonderful phrase, who

662
00:40:01.719 --> 00:40:07.000
has verse thirteen twelve, verse thirteen, Who has? I mean,

663
00:40:07.039 --> 00:40:11.079
that's the wrestling match here in our hearts. Who measured

664
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:16.119
the waters, who marked off the heavens, who calculated the

665
00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:19.119
dust of the earth, who weighed the mountains? Look at

666
00:40:19.119 --> 00:40:24.239
the wonderful pictures here, very poetic, very concrete, to help us.

667
00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:28.760
The oceans of planet Earth fit in the palm of

668
00:40:28.800 --> 00:40:32.840
God's hands. Very simple picture, isn't it. He scoops up

669
00:40:32.840 --> 00:40:35.360
the water. That's enough for the Atlantic, that's enough for

670
00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:39.960
the Pacific, the galaxies. As we look out at night,

671
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:43.400
God does the span of his hands from his thumb

672
00:40:43.480 --> 00:40:48.119
to his finger. That's enough for the Milky Way, the Earth,

673
00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:52.960
all the Earth, all the dust that makes up planet Earth.

674
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:56.320
It's mantle, its core. It seems so big to us.

675
00:40:56.440 --> 00:40:59.800
But the Hebrew uses a special word here that ladies.

676
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:02.440
In Isaiah's they would have understood. If you're in the

677
00:41:02.519 --> 00:41:04.639
kitchen and you have all the measuring cups, you know

678
00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:07.280
ours are all in like the junk drawer, which I

679
00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:09.679
can never find the right measuring cup. But maybe you're

680
00:41:09.800 --> 00:41:11.559
organized and you have him to hang him in the

681
00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:15.000
right order. The word here is go get the the No,

682
00:41:15.079 --> 00:41:17.079
not that measuring cup. No no, no, no, the little one.

683
00:41:17.159 --> 00:41:21.519
Note that, No, the little one. God measures out all

684
00:41:21.559 --> 00:41:24.039
the planet Earth in a measuring cup, not the big one.

685
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:30.320
The little one. God weighs the mountains in the small scales.

686
00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:35.320
Now this brings a question, did any one of us

687
00:41:36.039 --> 00:41:37.679
advise God on this?

688
00:41:41.639 --> 00:41:45.199
Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna expedite this a little bit.

689
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:48.159
You see where he's gonna go. But immediately he sees

690
00:41:48.239 --> 00:41:51.719
he starts talking about us, us us us us us.

691
00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:53.519
If you if you want to look at this section

692
00:41:54.079 --> 00:41:57.639
and Isaiah Sa. Forty twelve to seventeen, you'll see that

693
00:41:57.679 --> 00:42:03.159
the text presents some pictures of God's sovereignty, his power,

694
00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:09.440
and his incomparability. There's nothing, there's nothing compares to him.

695
00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:12.599
To borrow from a famous pop song. All right, these

696
00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:18.159
descriptions seems to serve to elevate God's majesty above all

697
00:42:18.280 --> 00:42:24.920
creation and all human comprehension. Now, for the original recipients,

698
00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:27.920
these verses would intend to challenge their view of God,

699
00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:31.920
restore their trust in him, and offer comfort during their

700
00:42:31.960 --> 00:42:36.079
exile and Babylon. Hey, guys, I know you're in babylon captivity.

701
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:40.079
I know, but remember this section is comfort comfort my people,

702
00:42:40.159 --> 00:42:42.440
all right, So what do the people need to be

703
00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:45.800
comforted with? They're in captivity. There's no way to free themselves,

704
00:42:45.880 --> 00:42:48.719
there's no way to deliver themselves. So what can they do?

705
00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:53.719
Remember who God is? Because when you look at your circumstances,

706
00:42:54.559 --> 00:43:00.480
nothing you experience, nothing you see, nothing you feeling that's

707
00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:05.280
happening to you or happening around you changes the truth

708
00:43:05.559 --> 00:43:09.840
of whom God is. God is what he is, and

709
00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:15.320
He is not changed at all by what you see, experience, feel,

710
00:43:15.559 --> 00:43:19.280
or what is happening around you. So the people in

711
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:24.039
Babylonian captivity, they see, they feel, they're experiencing. Well, what

712
00:43:24.079 --> 00:43:26.360
do they need to be reminded of who God is?

713
00:43:26.440 --> 00:43:29.559
Because nothing of him has changed. So what happens in

714
00:43:29.599 --> 00:43:33.400
the section, Well, in verse twelve, God is seen as

715
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:36.519
creator who has measured the waters and the hollow of

716
00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:39.400
his hands, and melted out heaven and meet it out

717
00:43:39.480 --> 00:43:42.400
heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the

718
00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:45.199
earth and a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales

719
00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:49.280
and the hills and a balance. God measures the waters

720
00:43:49.280 --> 00:43:51.599
in the hollow of his hand, marks the heavens with

721
00:43:51.639 --> 00:43:56.000
the span, and weighs the mountains and hills. Why would

722
00:43:56.039 --> 00:43:59.519
he explain this to people in Babylonian captivity Because it's

723
00:43:59.559 --> 00:44:03.199
demonstration God's power and control over creation, showing that he

724
00:44:03.280 --> 00:44:07.639
is far greater than any earthly force. Hey, the Babylonians

725
00:44:07.679 --> 00:44:11.880
look insurmountable. They look like you're never going to get out,

726
00:44:12.039 --> 00:44:15.440
But God is greater than them. Verses thirteen through fourteen.

727
00:44:15.679 --> 00:44:18.440
God has seen as all wise and self sufficient. Who

728
00:44:18.519 --> 00:44:22.119
has directed God's spirit or been his counselor well. This

729
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:26.440
highlights God's incomparable wisdom and independence, emphasizing that he does

730
00:44:26.440 --> 00:44:30.920
not need advice or guidance from anyone Verses fifteen through seventeen.

731
00:44:31.119 --> 00:44:34.639
The insignificant of nations before God. The nations are like

732
00:44:34.639 --> 00:44:37.079
a drop in a bucket. They're like dust on the scales.

733
00:44:37.239 --> 00:44:41.000
This reveals the relative insignificance of human power and nations

734
00:44:41.159 --> 00:44:48.880
compared to God's greatness. So the Israelites in Babylonian exile

735
00:44:49.239 --> 00:44:52.480
needed these imagists to reshape their understanding of God. They

736
00:44:52.519 --> 00:44:55.880
were living as captives under the shadow of a powerful

737
00:44:55.920 --> 00:44:59.199
empire and may have felt abandoned or forgotten by God.

738
00:44:59.519 --> 00:45:03.719
These verse directly address their doubts, fears, and misconceptions. It's

739
00:45:03.760 --> 00:45:07.280
about them. Now, what can we learn from it? Well,

740
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:10.559
in a sense, we are in our own Babylonian captivity, right,

741
00:45:10.639 --> 00:45:13.840
because we're in a fallen world. We still have the flesh,

742
00:45:13.960 --> 00:45:16.559
we still have a sinful nature, we still have a

743
00:45:16.639 --> 00:45:20.239
body that's corruptible. We are still fallible, we still sin.

744
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:24.480
There's pain, suffering, death, disease, There's all these horrible things

745
00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:27.519
around us and our Babylonian captivity. And what do we

746
00:45:27.559 --> 00:45:30.360
need to be reminded? These truths of God are still

747
00:45:30.360 --> 00:45:33.519
true no matter what we experience, no matter what we feel,

748
00:45:33.639 --> 00:45:36.000
no matter what we see, God is still there. And

749
00:45:36.039 --> 00:45:38.840
sometimes it's confusing because of God. If you're all powerful

750
00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:40.840
in your Creator, well you can fix all of this.

751
00:45:41.079 --> 00:45:43.519
But God, well, he chooses to do what he chooses

752
00:45:43.559 --> 00:45:52.360
to do. Now, that's now drawing an application from the text. Now,

753
00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:53.239
let's see what he does.

754
00:45:54.760 --> 00:45:57.400
Did any one of us teach God the right way,

755
00:45:57.480 --> 00:45:59.400
the just way of doing things? Now, I think that's

756
00:45:59.400 --> 00:46:02.480
a stilly question, and not when Babylon is on the horizon.

757
00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:08.000
The Babylonians worshiped an idol named Marduke. Marduke was the

758
00:46:08.079 --> 00:46:14.000
creator god in the empty Babylonian worship system. But Marduke

759
00:46:14.079 --> 00:46:15.639
was not the only god. They had a whole slew

760
00:46:15.679 --> 00:46:20.159
of gods. When Marduke was attributed with creation. Here's how

761
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:23.000
he did it. He called together all the lesser gods,

762
00:46:23.960 --> 00:46:26.920
and he asked their advice, and they all counsel Marduke

763
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:30.440
on the best way to create, and then he created.

764
00:46:30.920 --> 00:46:34.400
And Isaiah's pointing this out. Babylon's on the horizon. She

765
00:46:34.559 --> 00:46:37.440
will come. She'll trample you under her foot because of

766
00:46:37.480 --> 00:46:40.880
your sin against your gods. But don't be mistaken. Do

767
00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:43.679
not mistake Marduke as the creator.

768
00:46:47.360 --> 00:46:51.320
This is interesting. He's emphasizing that these words were to

769
00:46:51.960 --> 00:46:56.119
help the people before they went into captivity, and other

770
00:46:57.039 --> 00:47:00.280
commentaries and sermons have emphasized no, no, no. This was

771
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:03.559
a message given to Isaiah, and then it was ultimately

772
00:47:03.559 --> 00:47:06.320
to be delivered to the people when they are in captivity.

773
00:47:06.559 --> 00:47:09.280
So were the words given to the people before they

774
00:47:09.320 --> 00:47:12.719
went into captivity and then they were reminded of them

775
00:47:13.119 --> 00:47:15.880
in captivity? Or was this like, Hey, I'm going to

776
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:18.679
give you all these words of comfort before you get there.

777
00:47:19.199 --> 00:47:26.960
And that's interesting on how preachers present it different ways.

778
00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:32.079
The real creator, he took counsel from no one. There

779
00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:35.000
is none but God, and there is no one like

780
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:38.480
our God. The second picture, not God in creation, but

781
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:41.320
God in the great nations of the world. Note the

782
00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:46.679
contrast here. The nations are what a drop in the bucket?

783
00:47:46.920 --> 00:47:49.760
God holds oceans in the hollow of Isaad. And do

784
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:54.320
you see the contrast. Do you ever pay attention to drops? Well,

785
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:56.559
and I don't mean like drippy falses. They drive me crazy.

786
00:47:56.960 --> 00:48:00.679
Do you ever go camping and you're the I was

787
00:48:00.679 --> 00:48:02.280
always a little guy, but I was a young guy,

788
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:06.119
and my dad said, John, go get water from the stream.

789
00:48:06.199 --> 00:48:08.280
We need water, you know, for cooking and whatever, you know,

790
00:48:08.360 --> 00:48:11.239
cleaning pots. And so I'd go down. And my father

791
00:48:11.360 --> 00:48:13.400
was a owned a donut shop, so we had these

792
00:48:13.440 --> 00:48:16.880
five gallons big buckets. I couldn't carry a five gallon

793
00:48:16.920 --> 00:48:19.199
bucket of water, so I'd go down the stream and

794
00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:20.360
I'd fill it up. Now, I don't want to make

795
00:48:20.400 --> 00:48:22.239
a lot of trips back up the hill, so I

796
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:24.920
try to take it. But I can't get this five

797
00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:27.440
gallons of water. So I pour a little out and

798
00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:29.000
I go up a little further. I pour a little more.

799
00:48:29.400 --> 00:48:31.760
By the time I get up, it's not very impressive. Now,

800
00:48:31.800 --> 00:48:34.400
if my dad would have said to me, oh, John,

801
00:48:35.079 --> 00:48:37.000
there's a drop on the side of the bucket, it's

802
00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:40.199
running down the edge. Catch it, well, I wouldn't have

803
00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:45.519
cared about a drop. Nobody cares about drops. The picture

804
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:51.440
here is insignificance. The world dominating empires are a drift

805
00:48:51.880 --> 00:48:53.840
on the edge of a bucket. Nobody pays attention. They

806
00:48:53.840 --> 00:48:57.000
are a speck of dust on the scales. Now, some

807
00:48:57.079 --> 00:49:00.559
of us are worried about our weight, And I found

808
00:49:00.599 --> 00:49:02.159
out when I tried to lose weight, that you can

809
00:49:02.199 --> 00:49:04.199
weigh a lot different from one time of the day

810
00:49:04.199 --> 00:49:07.480
to another, before the meals, after the meals, before a run,

811
00:49:07.519 --> 00:49:10.800
after a run. But none of us, no matter how

812
00:49:10.920 --> 00:49:14.119
narcisstic we are, no matter how many times we stand

813
00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:16.480
on the scales in front of a mirror and think

814
00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:22.360
light thoughts nobody gets down with the brush and gets

815
00:49:22.360 --> 00:49:26.400
the speck of dust off the scale. But the world

816
00:49:27.079 --> 00:49:31.519
ruling empires there are a speck of dust. Babylon is

817
00:49:31.559 --> 00:49:35.159
a speck of dust. Rome is a speck of dust,

818
00:49:36.519 --> 00:49:39.199
the uss R is a speck of dust. America is

819
00:49:39.239 --> 00:49:41.960
a speck of dust. And the next great power is

820
00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:46.199
a speck of dust. So let's contrast the real God

821
00:49:46.280 --> 00:49:52.519
and the world's nations and the greats. They're nothing. He

822
00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:56.639
describes them as worthless and empty. And the word there

823
00:49:56.719 --> 00:50:02.920
is for vanity. It's just emptiness. There's just nothing there. Now,

824
00:50:03.199 --> 00:50:07.559
be careful, don't forget that that applies to the religious

825
00:50:07.559 --> 00:50:11.079
significance of the great world powers, the great world religions.

826
00:50:11.360 --> 00:50:14.159
He talks about levinon here that if.

827
00:50:15.800 --> 00:50:18.840
This is great, that he's breaking these pictures down. But

828
00:50:20.360 --> 00:50:22.800
he mentions Babylon here or there. But he's not really

829
00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:25.960
driving the message home for the original recipients. But he's

830
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:29.239
not really explaining how it applies to us. Again, let

831
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:33.039
me let me make it very clear. In our life,

832
00:50:33.440 --> 00:50:36.159
no matter what we're going through, no matter what we're suffering,

833
00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:38.119
no more the pain, because life is going to be

834
00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:42.039
a feel with pain, suffering confusion, doubt, It's just gonna

835
00:50:42.039 --> 00:50:44.639
be confused, It's gonna be filled with so many negative

836
00:50:44.639 --> 00:50:48.000
things because just that's just the way life is going

837
00:50:48.039 --> 00:50:49.920
to be. Oh, your life may be better than others,

838
00:50:49.920 --> 00:50:52.480
but it's gonna have a lot of negativity in it, right,

839
00:50:52.679 --> 00:50:54.679
And so what do you do? Well, you can focus

840
00:50:54.719 --> 00:50:57.079
on all the situation, all the pain, all the suffering,

841
00:50:57.119 --> 00:51:00.039
which will only create doubt, anxiety, and it will, and

842
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:02.960
it's okay to acknowledge when it does. It's perfectly okay.

843
00:51:03.239 --> 00:51:09.079
But philologically, none of that impacts who God is. God

844
00:51:09.239 --> 00:51:12.199
is still sovereign, He is still all powerful, He is

845
00:51:12.239 --> 00:51:16.000
still all wise, he is still sovereign. That remains true

846
00:51:16.400 --> 00:51:20.960
no matter what we encounter or what we experience. Israel

847
00:51:21.039 --> 00:51:23.760
Judah needed to be reminded of this because they would

848
00:51:23.760 --> 00:51:26.920
feel like, well, wait a minute, where how is this?

849
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:29.559
How is all this going to happen? Well? Because God

850
00:51:29.639 --> 00:51:31.400
is still God, even though it doesn't look like it.

851
00:51:31.440 --> 00:51:33.199
And you may think God has abandoned you, or God

852
00:51:33.199 --> 00:51:37.480
has taken a vacation, or God has died. God is

853
00:51:37.519 --> 00:51:42.159
still God. These attributes have been true of God for eternity,

854
00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:45.119
and they are still true of God even if you're

855
00:51:45.159 --> 00:51:49.800
in Babylonian captivity no matter whatever. But again this is

856
00:51:49.920 --> 00:51:53.920
very important. You can't just assume then, and you cannot

857
00:51:54.039 --> 00:51:58.280
just teach then. Well, because God acted on Judah's behalf

858
00:51:58.519 --> 00:52:01.239
to remove them from Babylonia captivity, that he's going to

859
00:52:01.360 --> 00:52:05.280
engage in your situation and fix your situation. Ultimately, we'll

860
00:52:05.320 --> 00:52:09.159
be delivered from Babylonian captivity. That's when we are in heaven.

861
00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:12.760
But right now, in this life, we have no idea

862
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:14.679
God's ever going to do anything to help us or

863
00:52:14.719 --> 00:52:17.920
to assist us, and to teach otherwise as well as

864
00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:20.880
well malpractice theologically. All right, let's see where he goes.

865
00:52:20.920 --> 00:52:23.440
And I wanted to end at ten or about ten

866
00:52:23.559 --> 00:52:25.719
after so let's try to wrap this up in the

867
00:52:25.719 --> 00:52:26.599
next couple of minutes.

868
00:52:28.840 --> 00:52:31.119
If you read your Old Testament, Lebanon's the place with

869
00:52:31.159 --> 00:52:34.960
all the big trees and the great forests. And so

870
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:37.480
what he says is this, all the nations are nothing

871
00:52:37.519 --> 00:52:41.559
before God. They're dust and drips Lebanon. If you went

872
00:52:41.639 --> 00:52:43.800
and cut down all the great forests of Lebanon, and

873
00:52:43.840 --> 00:52:46.679
all those old growth forests were thrown into a great pile,

874
00:52:46.840 --> 00:52:49.280
then you took all the animals that lived in those forests,

875
00:52:49.320 --> 00:52:51.599
and you pile them up as a great burnt offering,

876
00:52:51.800 --> 00:52:55.320
and you lit this enormous pile, this hundreds of acres

877
00:52:55.639 --> 00:52:58.960
of bonfire, and it rows up in this mighty bonfire.

878
00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:01.960
To God, it wouldn't be enough to get his attention.

879
00:53:05.960 --> 00:53:08.480
We're impressed by numbers, aren't we, especially when it comes

880
00:53:08.519 --> 00:53:11.960
to religion. And we have people that say, how can

881
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:15.280
a church of twenty thousand be wrong? Well, that's easy.

882
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:19.440
It happens all the time. Churches of seventy five can

883
00:53:19.480 --> 00:53:27.639
be wrong too. Our largest religious endeavors in human history

884
00:53:27.800 --> 00:53:35.760
are nothing to God if they're not his. A million

885
00:53:35.960 --> 00:53:42.320
Mormons are a drop that God doesn't notice. A billion

886
00:53:42.559 --> 00:53:46.400
Hindus are a speck of dust, and three hundred million

887
00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:52.079
Americans who reinvent Jesus to fit our western lifestyles, our emptiness.

888
00:53:54.400 --> 00:53:59.079
There is none but God. There's nobody like God. The

889
00:53:59.119 --> 00:54:01.840
third pictures that picture of idolatry in verse eighteen through

890
00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:06.039
twenty Look at a look over a page chapter forty one,

891
00:54:06.119 --> 00:54:09.880
verse twenty four, and then verse twenty nine. In verse

892
00:54:09.880 --> 00:54:12.639
twenty four, we have a description of idols. In verse

893
00:54:12.679 --> 00:54:15.360
twenty nine, we have a description a description of people

894
00:54:15.400 --> 00:54:18.039
who hope in idols and talk on behalf of idols.

895
00:54:18.800 --> 00:54:22.360
Verse twenty four. God says to idols, behold you are

896
00:54:22.559 --> 00:54:27.480
of no account, and your work amounts to nothing. He

897
00:54:27.559 --> 00:54:30.840
who chooses you is an abomination. Now verse twenty nine

898
00:54:31.199 --> 00:54:35.239
of Isaiah forty one, behold all of them. That's the

899
00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:40.719
people that talk for idols. They're falls, Their works are worthless.

900
00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:45.360
Their molten images are wind and emptinesses it's the same

901
00:54:45.400 --> 00:54:54.679
word here, They're empty. Allah does not exist as the

902
00:54:54.719 --> 00:54:59.960
deity that Muslims claim he is so bizarre.

903
00:55:00.039 --> 00:55:03.639
Are like, You've got all of these passages and he's

904
00:55:03.719 --> 00:55:08.719
just Again, I don't understand. Why can't we speak the

905
00:55:08.840 --> 00:55:12.159
message and the context in which it's found. Now we're

906
00:55:12.199 --> 00:55:15.079
talking about Allah, what.

907
00:55:16.760 --> 00:55:22.480
Ey and he will not intercede for the Muslim soul

908
00:55:22.679 --> 00:55:26.159
on the judgment day and the Hindus who have two

909
00:55:26.239 --> 00:55:32.119
hundred and fifty million options for deities. The two hundred

910
00:55:32.159 --> 00:55:34.960
and fifty million gods of the Hindus do not exist.

911
00:55:37.119 --> 00:55:42.559
The Mormon Jesus does not exist, and again the Americanized Baptist, Presbyterian,

912
00:55:42.559 --> 00:55:47.440
and Methodist Jesus does not exist. We want to be

913
00:55:47.559 --> 00:55:50.599
very careful. We can make our We can fashion God

914
00:55:50.599 --> 00:55:52.320
in our image, and it can be a gold one,

915
00:55:54.119 --> 00:55:55.719
or we may not be good enough at that, so

916
00:55:55.760 --> 00:55:57.800
we make a silver one. We may not be good

917
00:55:57.880 --> 00:55:59.920
enough at that. We may just hope to have a

918
00:56:00.079 --> 00:56:02.719
God in our imagination that's made out of wood, that

919
00:56:02.760 --> 00:56:06.440
doesn't rot, and he won't tip over and embarrass us.

920
00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:12.239
But whatever you choose, whatever image you fashion God in,

921
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:19.840
it's not God. The thing we so desperately need to

922
00:56:19.880 --> 00:56:23.360
do is constantly bring ourselves back again and again to

923
00:56:23.480 --> 00:56:27.519
this book and allow God to really rattle the dust

924
00:56:27.599 --> 00:56:31.599
off of our ideas of him.

925
00:56:31.800 --> 00:56:34.559
Do you see it's us us us us us us

926
00:56:34.639 --> 00:56:39.639
us us us us us us us. There's a way

927
00:56:39.679 --> 00:56:42.000
to get to us, But you got to get to

928
00:56:42.079 --> 00:56:45.679
us and the context of how this meant to them,

929
00:56:46.159 --> 00:56:49.559
and then see how we relate to that context.

930
00:56:51.679 --> 00:56:56.639
Look at the fourth picture, the Great Rulers and Judges

931
00:56:56.679 --> 00:56:59.440
of the Earth in verse twenty one and following, do

932
00:56:59.639 --> 00:57:04.239
you not know have you not heard the prophets amazed?

933
00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:07.079
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

934
00:57:07.079 --> 00:57:09.480
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth,

935
00:57:09.719 --> 00:57:12.280
it is he who sits above the vaults of the earth,

936
00:57:12.320 --> 00:57:15.360
and it's inhabits, it's they're grasshoppers. It's he who stretches

937
00:57:15.400 --> 00:57:19.239
out the heavens like a curtain. He reduces the rulers

938
00:57:19.239 --> 00:57:24.639
to nothing. He makes judges meaningless. Now the contrast between

939
00:57:24.679 --> 00:57:28.920
God and the great world rulers is seen in the

940
00:57:28.920 --> 00:57:32.960
frailty of the world rulers. There is always a succession.

941
00:57:33.360 --> 00:57:37.000
That's why we have boring history classes, right, because if

942
00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:40.679
there were no succession of world rulers, we'd have a

943
00:57:40.719 --> 00:57:43.719
handful of world rulers from the beginning. We'd only have

944
00:57:43.760 --> 00:57:46.039
five or six the memorize. But you don't get that.

945
00:57:46.119 --> 00:57:49.199
So you have Western sieve and I like history, and

946
00:57:49.239 --> 00:57:54.480
you study all these names. But to us, they're just

947
00:57:54.639 --> 00:58:00.119
names for a test. They once were names that hell

948
00:58:00.320 --> 00:58:04.280
men and women and children in fear, and they ruled

949
00:58:04.320 --> 00:58:10.000
the lives of thousands and millions. But now they're dead

950
00:58:11.000 --> 00:58:13.840
and nobody remembers them except scholars who bend over their

951
00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:18.000
books with their bipocals trying to figure out tomorrow's lessons.

952
00:58:19.119 --> 00:58:22.039
Not too long ago, I heard on public radio. That's

953
00:58:22.079 --> 00:58:24.079
my confession for today, all right, So I heard on

954
00:58:24.079 --> 00:58:30.599
public radio that Germany was in an uproar because there

955
00:58:30.639 --> 00:58:34.840
was a movie that had come out that painted Hitler

956
00:58:35.079 --> 00:58:37.360
in a comical way. Now, not that Hitler was funny,

957
00:58:38.199 --> 00:58:41.840
but it painted him as a comic figure, an idiot

958
00:58:41.960 --> 00:58:45.360
to laugh at. And so half the country was okay

959
00:58:45.400 --> 00:58:47.480
with that, let's make fun of Hitler. The other half

960
00:58:47.519 --> 00:58:49.519
of the country said, Hitler's not a thing to laugh

961
00:58:49.559 --> 00:58:52.800
at all. Right, whatever you think of the movie and

962
00:58:52.880 --> 00:58:55.599
how to respond to the memory of Hitler, there was

963
00:58:55.639 --> 00:59:01.159
a day when that man was not laughed at, hated

964
00:59:01.239 --> 00:59:09.559
him and feared him. But now he's dying, and we

965
00:59:09.559 --> 00:59:17.679
we're next. And man, dad and mom, kids, you're.

966
00:59:17.519 --> 00:59:27.719
Getting the idea. It's Isaiah forty. These are great pictures.

967
00:59:27.719 --> 00:59:30.760
He's doing a great job pulling out these beautiful pictures

968
00:59:30.800 --> 00:59:33.840
in the text and explaining them to some level. And

969
00:59:33.880 --> 00:59:35.599
I know his job here is not to do any

970
00:59:35.639 --> 00:59:39.719
full exegesis here at exegetical study here, but it just

971
00:59:40.039 --> 00:59:43.239
we just reach in, grab and then it becomes about us.

972
00:59:43.320 --> 00:59:44.760
Let's see if he can wrap us up, and then

973
00:59:44.760 --> 00:59:46.400
we'll be done.

974
00:59:46.599 --> 00:59:51.280
King and Queen, friends and family, children, they go the

975
00:59:51.320 --> 00:59:54.519
way that everyone else is gone. And there's this march

976
00:59:54.639 --> 00:59:57.599
of time in front of our face and we die.

977
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:01.679
And at first people are ruffled, and then after a

978
01:00:01.719 --> 01:00:07.760
while nobody remembers what the fuss was about us. No

979
01:00:07.960 --> 01:00:11.159
mortal can be compared to God, no matter how influential,

980
01:00:11.360 --> 01:00:14.599
There is none like God. Now these are the four pictures?

981
01:00:14.639 --> 01:00:17.079
How are we gonna live on these pictures? Well, there

982
01:00:17.119 --> 01:00:20.039
is a wrong application in this passage that God has

983
01:00:20.079 --> 01:00:22.599
to straighten out in verse twenty seven to the end.

984
01:00:22.639 --> 01:00:24.960
And for the sake of time. This is basically what

985
01:00:25.039 --> 01:00:29.320
it is. If God is so big, Isaiah, he must

986
01:00:29.320 --> 01:00:34.400
have forgotten us, because here we are in trouble. You've

987
01:00:34.440 --> 01:00:37.480
told us that terrible things are coming. We look around

988
01:00:37.519 --> 01:00:40.679
and all around us there's idolatry. And so the genuine

989
01:00:40.679 --> 01:00:43.559
believer in the day of Isaiah could say, I believe

990
01:00:43.639 --> 01:00:45.199
that God is big, but I don't believe that he

991
01:00:45.239 --> 01:00:47.639
cares much about us any longer. Look at the predicament

992
01:00:47.719 --> 01:00:52.280
we're in. If you are determined to rethink God biblically

993
01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:55.559
and to gain the highest and clearest views of God,

994
01:00:55.880 --> 01:00:57.880
and in your prayer meanings and in the songs that

995
01:00:57.960 --> 01:00:59.960
you sing, in the books you study, in your small groups,

996
01:01:00.360 --> 01:01:02.199
and the things you read in your free time, if

997
01:01:02.239 --> 01:01:06.840
you want to pursue that noble ends. You must be

998
01:01:07.119 --> 01:01:11.239
ready right for what I would call the enemy's plan B.

999
01:01:11.599 --> 01:01:14.440
Plan A is God's no big deal, you can take

1000
01:01:14.480 --> 01:01:17.079
him or leave him. Plan B is this Okay, Well,

1001
01:01:17.079 --> 01:01:20.119
now you're at this church, and now you're hearing about

1002
01:01:20.119 --> 01:01:22.400
all this big God's stuff, and you're reading these big

1003
01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:24.639
God books, and you're trying to return to the biblical

1004
01:01:24.719 --> 01:01:27.639
view of God. And well it is very noble. But

1005
01:01:27.760 --> 01:01:31.800
you know that a God that big, I don't think

1006
01:01:31.800 --> 01:01:33.320
he has time for people as little as you.

1007
01:01:35.519 --> 01:01:39.119
Oh okay, I completely disagree with this approach.

1008
01:01:39.159 --> 01:01:39.320
Here.

1009
01:01:39.679 --> 01:01:43.000
Let me make it clear. I think the more you

1010
01:01:43.199 --> 01:01:47.559
learn about God, the more you learn of his attributes,

1011
01:01:47.800 --> 01:01:53.159
the more you learn of his power, his sovereignty, his knowledge,

1012
01:01:53.440 --> 01:01:58.239
his wisdom, his presence. The more you learn about it,

1013
01:01:58.760 --> 01:02:04.360
the more away you may become of the contradiction and

1014
01:02:04.440 --> 01:02:08.840
the conflict between the truth of God and the reality

1015
01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:11.960
you experience. I don't think that's satan. I don't think

1016
01:02:11.960 --> 01:02:14.719
that's a plan B. I don't think I don't know.

1017
01:02:15.559 --> 01:02:19.719
I think it's the logical. I mean, if you're if

1018
01:02:19.760 --> 01:02:23.679
you go, if you are experiencing all kinds of horrible

1019
01:02:23.719 --> 01:02:26.639
things and everybody's like, well, right, here has the power

1020
01:02:26.840 --> 01:02:29.880
to fix all of your problems. You just need it,

1021
01:02:29.960 --> 01:02:31.760
And you're like, okay, I got it. Well how come

1022
01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:34.199
my problems aren't getting any better? Well, then you're either

1023
01:02:34.239 --> 01:02:36.239
going to be to begin to question do I really

1024
01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:39.079
got the power? Is it my fault? What's the problem?

1025
01:02:39.199 --> 01:02:43.719
Why isn't God doing anything? Those that I think. The

1026
01:02:43.719 --> 01:02:47.800
more you understand the theology proper, which would be the

1027
01:02:47.800 --> 01:02:52.440
study of the attributes of God, The more you understand

1028
01:02:52.719 --> 01:02:56.880
the theology proper, the more likely you are going to

1029
01:02:56.960 --> 01:03:01.800
be conflicted with questions about out well, then why doesn't

1030
01:03:01.800 --> 01:03:07.079
God do anything? The more you understand God's power, the

1031
01:03:07.079 --> 01:03:10.920
more your situation around you is going to become even

1032
01:03:11.039 --> 01:03:19.639
more apparent. Every pain, suffering, cancer, disease, plague, starvation, murder, rape,

1033
01:03:19.920 --> 01:03:23.320
children being sexually abused in churches, et cetera, et cetera,

1034
01:03:23.360 --> 01:03:26.199
et cetera. Excel, it's going to be more glaring to you.

1035
01:03:26.639 --> 01:03:31.719
The more glorious God becomes, the more glaring all of

1036
01:03:31.760 --> 01:03:36.239
the other stuff is. Therefore, that leads to spiritual screams

1037
01:03:36.239 --> 01:03:43.800
of pain and confusion, which is a lament. The more

1038
01:03:43.880 --> 01:03:47.079
you understand it, the more bothered you become by it.

1039
01:03:47.360 --> 01:03:51.719
If you truly understand the greatness of God, the things

1040
01:03:51.719 --> 01:03:54.000
around you are it's going to be like a slop

1041
01:03:54.000 --> 01:03:57.000
in the face. Oh I just spent an hour studying

1042
01:03:57.039 --> 01:03:59.119
the attributes of God and then you walked out and

1043
01:03:59.159 --> 01:04:01.199
you saw the world, and it's a slap in the face.

1044
01:04:01.400 --> 01:04:07.360
This great, powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God. Yet boom, this

1045
01:04:07.480 --> 01:04:10.800
just happened. This just happened. All these kids are being

1046
01:04:10.840 --> 01:04:15.000
sex trafficked. In twenty twenty four, these kids have been kidnapped, abuse,

1047
01:04:15.480 --> 01:04:20.599
sexual abuse, This this pain, disease, suffering, starvation, this this

1048
01:04:20.599 --> 01:04:29.239
this war, war, death, genocide. I don't think that's the enemy.

1049
01:04:30.960 --> 01:04:35.440
I think that's reality. You are going to be confronted

1050
01:04:35.599 --> 01:04:39.039
with two realities. The reality of who God is, and

1051
01:04:39.079 --> 01:04:42.840
that reality is not impacted by this other reality. But

1052
01:04:42.920 --> 01:04:45.760
you can't see the glory of God and not the

1053
01:04:45.800 --> 01:04:50.079
same time pretend this other reality doesn't exist. A true

1054
01:04:50.199 --> 01:04:52.920
theological growth is to see the truth of God and

1055
01:04:53.000 --> 01:04:55.440
at the same time admit the truth of the world

1056
01:04:55.719 --> 01:05:02.320
in which you live. If you're blinded to one of those,

1057
01:05:02.360 --> 01:05:06.039
that's not spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is seeing the truth

1058
01:05:06.079 --> 01:05:09.400
of God at the same time acknowledging the pain around us,

1059
01:05:09.440 --> 01:05:11.280
which causes you to go, I don't get it. I

1060
01:05:11.280 --> 01:05:13.840
don't understand. I don't think that's the work of the enemy.

1061
01:05:14.639 --> 01:05:17.000
I think that's the work of the way it's supposed

1062
01:05:17.039 --> 01:05:19.760
to work. You're supposed to be confronted with that, You're

1063
01:05:19.800 --> 01:05:21.320
supposed to be challenged by that.

1064
01:05:23.079 --> 01:05:29.039
There is the temptation to believe that transcendent majesty is

1065
01:05:29.079 --> 01:05:34.039
equal to aloofness, that God doesn't really care. That's a lie.

1066
01:05:35.920 --> 01:05:40.000
I don't believe transcendence leads to the belief and transcendent aloofness.

1067
01:05:40.039 --> 01:05:42.199
I think the idea is, once you see the transcendent

1068
01:05:42.280 --> 01:05:45.599
greatness of God, you question where God is because that

1069
01:05:45.719 --> 01:05:50.400
greatness is not being demonstrated in the resolving and fixing

1070
01:05:50.559 --> 01:05:53.519
of the pain and suffering which you see and encounter

1071
01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:55.519
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

1072
01:05:57.880 --> 01:06:03.639
And that you're insignificance is equal to being unknown and unloved.

1073
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:07.320
It's a lie, but it is a lie that every

1074
01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:10.840
believer will face unless you give time to the cure.

1075
01:06:11.719 --> 01:06:15.239
Let's just be very practical. Most Americans, and mister Richard

1076
01:06:15.280 --> 01:06:16.920
and Roberts will be here next week may use this

1077
01:06:16.960 --> 01:06:20.159
illustration because I stole it from him. Most Americans have

1078
01:06:20.199 --> 01:06:23.519
a God that's about three quarters of an inch taller

1079
01:06:23.559 --> 01:06:27.360
than them. So how big of a cross, how big

1080
01:06:27.400 --> 01:06:30.039
a redemption do you need? With a God that big?

1081
01:06:30.480 --> 01:06:33.360
About a three quarters of an inch Jesus right?

1082
01:06:35.639 --> 01:06:38.000
But I think the issue is if you truly get

1083
01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:41.000
a God that's more than three and a half inches taller,

1084
01:06:41.159 --> 01:06:44.320
you get a God in full glory, full power, a

1085
01:06:44.400 --> 01:06:48.599
full majesty, full transcendence, You're going to be then confronted

1086
01:06:48.639 --> 01:06:57.719
with this other reality. Now, I love the fact that

1087
01:06:57.760 --> 01:07:00.480
he just led us to this conversation, and I'm going

1088
01:07:00.519 --> 01:07:02.840
to leave you with it. How do you what do

1089
01:07:02.920 --> 01:07:06.480
you do? The more you understand God's greatness, does not

1090
01:07:06.679 --> 01:07:09.679
the things around you become more glaring, don't they be?

1091
01:07:10.039 --> 01:07:13.079
They kind of stab at you, right, They kind of

1092
01:07:13.119 --> 01:07:15.159
stab at you. Like it's one thing to say there's

1093
01:07:15.199 --> 01:07:17.400
no God, okay, well, then there's pain suffering in the world,

1094
01:07:17.400 --> 01:07:19.079
all right. But if all of a sudden you say,

1095
01:07:19.079 --> 01:07:20.840
well there's all this pain and suffering in the world,

1096
01:07:20.840 --> 01:07:24.239
and you're like, yeah, but there's this God who's all powerful,

1097
01:07:24.480 --> 01:07:30.400
all knowing, omniscient, omni present, he's all of these things. Yeah,

1098
01:07:30.440 --> 01:07:34.679
and the pain and suffering. It's like, oh oh, it's

1099
01:07:34.679 --> 01:07:37.360
like I'm being just a knife between my rib cage

1100
01:07:37.599 --> 01:07:40.559
stabbing into my heart. Right, it's just like oh oh,

1101
01:07:40.880 --> 01:07:43.400
over and over and over, and you're like, I don't

1102
01:07:43.440 --> 01:07:54.719
get it. The more you grow in your knowledge of God,

1103
01:07:55.360 --> 01:07:58.639
the more you're going to grow in your awareness of

1104
01:07:58.760 --> 01:08:03.000
all the things around you that seems so contrary to

1105
01:08:03.159 --> 01:08:10.480
that God existing. And with that, I'll stop because I've

1106
01:08:10.519 --> 01:08:13.920
gone twenty six minutes over the time that I allotted

1107
01:08:14.039 --> 01:08:18.359
for this. But that's good stuff right there. I Look,

1108
01:08:18.399 --> 01:08:20.680
I'm so glad. Look, I may not have been. I've

1109
01:08:20.680 --> 01:08:22.720
been a little frustrated with this is one of those

1110
01:08:22.760 --> 01:08:25.279
times where, yeah, he could have done more with the context,

1111
01:08:25.359 --> 01:08:27.479
but he just got us to a very very, very

1112
01:08:27.600 --> 01:08:29.640
very very important point. I hope someone will write this

1113
01:08:29.680 --> 01:08:32.000
point down in case I forget this. And this is

1114
01:08:32.039 --> 01:08:39.359
the idea that the greatness of God amplifies. It turns

1115
01:08:39.439 --> 01:08:43.119
the spotlight on all the things around us that seems

1116
01:08:43.159 --> 01:08:50.039
so contrary to that God existing. And I don't think

1117
01:08:50.079 --> 01:08:52.640
that's the work of Satan. I think that's just the

1118
01:08:52.640 --> 01:08:56.119
way it's going to work. Thanks for listening. Everyone, have

1119
01:08:56.159 --> 01:08:57.840
a great night. God bless

1120
01:09:00.039 --> 01:09:00.079
You.