Proverbs 20:27

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Did someone say chart? Did someone say biblical charting? Well, if you did, you're never allowed to use those terms. You're never allowed to use the word chart charting or the phrase biblical charting. Ever. Again, you can't. You can't ever, you can't do that. You can't use those terms. You can't use those words because those words are outlawed. Those words are banned because of what well, the disaster that happened in our I think it was our last live broadcast. Wow, what a mess.

0:48 We are hoping to avoid a repeat of such a disaster. We don't know if that's well, well, we don't really know what's going to happen, but we are about to find out. Right after I say welcome everyone. It is Saturday, December the fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven twenty am Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. And after the last live broadcast where we talked about biblical charting, you know, I almost decided maybe we just stopped calling this the Theology Central Studios, the Theology Central Headquarters.

1:34 Maybe I just stop calling, just stop even referring to the podcast, to the studio, to the headquarters, and just give up and just retire, because man, you talk about things going so wrong. I mean that that was a disaster. But at the same time, it really captures what I've been trying to do this whole year with the sermon review right, I mean, the sermon reviews are about me sitting in front of a microphone say all right, guys, we're going to listen to a sermon. And it's it's as real as it can be, right, I mean, I haven't listened to it beforehand. There's no prep. It's just me saying I'm going to listen to a sermon. I'm inviting you along, and whatever happens happens. And to be fair, I think the last one it captures the essence of that, and it captured that in my mind. When I saw Biblical charting, I thought it was going to be a sermon on how to create charts in your Bible study.

2:34 I had no idea that it was going to be like forty minutes of someone just talking about their military career, okay, and sometimes trying to draw some correlation to something spiritual. So it was more about that, more about naval navigation. It was, it was. It was bizarre. I don't even really know what the sermon was about, to be honest with you, and then it tried to use some things in Acts twenty sex. It was just it was. It was such a disaster, and probably people listening, hopefully they list at least found it humorous. Right, here's someone like, Oh, I'm gonna listen to this podcast, and this guy's going to review a sermon. He thinks it's all about how to make charts in your Bible study, and well we found out that the sermon had nothing to do with that.

3:20 It was hilarious. Maybe someone thought it was funny. It was man. Well, like as soon as I realize I got as soon as I started hearing all of his stories, I was like, wait a minute, I don't think this is going the direction I think this is going. And then I started getting nervous. But you're already in it, so you have to see it to some kind of conclusion. So I say all of that to say, well, once again, here I said in the studio, and I'm going to review another sermon, and as I I don't know where it's going to go. I know the name of the sermon. The name of the sermon is the Spirit of Man. What happened is that I was looking I was just going through my feed now. Actually I think I was under the Newest Sermons tab. I think that's where I was, and I saw a message that was a part of a series called Spiritual Warfare, and so I clicked on the series Spiritual Warfare and I realized it's like one hundred and twenty seven sermons. But I was looking at the titles, I was like, what has this got to do with spiritual Warfare? So I don't really know how they created the series. They created a series, they turned the series into a podcast is available on Apple podcasting app and Spotify. So I thought that was interesting. They turned it into an actual podcast because many of the broadcasters don't do that. So I thought that was interesting.

4:41 But I was going through, I'm like, there's like a one hundred and twenty seven sermons here, but some of these things don't seem to have anything to do with spiritual Warfare. So is this just like a miscellaneous I don't know how they created. It was very interesting looking at it. But then I noticed that some of these messages have like four hundred, five hundred and eight hundred downloads and streams, and I'm like, whoa, Obviously this is very popular. Okay, so it's popular. It's a big series. They've actually turned it into a podcast. Okay, that's interesting. So I'm like, well, let me just go through these. So I was going through all one hundred and I think twenty seven messages and I saw one called the Spirit of Man and that kind of caught my attention. I'm like, I wonder, I wonder what they're gonna do with that. Then I noticed that it was the text was Proverbs, chapter twenty, verse twenty seven. I'm like, well, that's okay. We've been talking about Proverbs off and on throughout twenty twenty four, so here or there, and we did so we've been a few years back. We kind of have a we have a series on Proverbs. So okay, I'm like, all right, so that kind of fits with some things we've talked about.

5:50 I wonder how he's going to handle Proverbs twenty twenty seven. And then I noticed he did like the Spirit of Man and then I think the very next sermon dealt with the spirit of man. I'm like, well, there was something he he thought that this is important. How does this connect to spiritual warfare? It just left me with all kinds of questions. So that's what we're gonna do. I don't know. Now. I'm gonna try to be very careful and not tell you my prediction of where it's going to go, since I was so horribly wrong. When I see a sermon entitled Biblical charting, I think about actually making charts for Bible study. I got that completely wrong. So the spirit of man, this could be about, I don't know. David and Goliath, I don't know. Could it be about Noah and Art, Could it be about Could it be about Joseph? I don't know anymore. I don't know, Like the titles of sermons don't mean anything to me anymore.

6:43 I give up trying to predict. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna jump into this again. It's December the fourteenth. You know what that means. We're almost done with twenty twenty four and the one series that I am definitely going to ensure that I stay working on is our series the Sermon's two point oh app Sermon Challenge, and all I can do to really bring it to a conclusion is just keep reviewing sermons, the good, the bad, the ugly, and whatever happens happens. So in some ways, when it goes horribly wrong, people may mock it, people may laugh at it, people may even claim it's a waste of time, but it stays true to what it was supposed to be.

7:31 Right. It wasn't supposed to be me going out there finding bad sermons simply so that I could criticize them and tear them apart. It was supposed to be, Hey, here's this wonderful resource that's available to everyone. It's called the Sermons two point oh app. Everyone should download it. There are millions of sermons available. Thousands are being added every single week between five, six seven eight thousand per week are being added. We can't just ignore this resource. We should be utilizing it. So I'm going to be utilizing it. I'm going to challenge you to utilize it, and I'm going to be utilizing it by just grabbing and pulling random sermons from it. And I'm going to challenge you to pull random sermons from it and we're just going to listen. And so the whole goal of this was when I review a sermon, is it captures that I'm just going to pull a random sermon without any prep and whatever happens happens. And sometimes it's gone really really really bad. Sometimes it's gone really really good. But in that your experience when you choose a random sermon and you have no idea who they are, sometimes you are like, Wow, that was a good sermon, and sometimes you're like, I just lost forty five minutes of my life and I'm never going to get it back. And I'm not saying that to be mean or rude about any sermons, but that's that's I think everyone can acknowledge. Sometimes Now I always try to say I try to find something in a sermon, no matter how bad it is, so that I feel like I didn't waste my time. But let's just be honest. There have been some that we're like, I mean that one on biblical charting, I mean, I

9:03 don't even know. I mean, if you look at all the stuff we reviewed, it was more military stories than it really had anything to do with anything. I mean, it was really difficult to say, oh, now, it could lead to me doing some more discussion about biblical charting. So I'm still going to try to find a way to do something with it. But I mean, come on, that was hard. So sometimes it's not about being mean, it's just about Look, we listen to sermons and everyone draws some kind of conclusion about them, So let's just jump in. I don't know how far we're going to get. The spirit of man. I don't know how this connects to spiritual warfare. I don't know what's getting ready to happen, but we're gonna find out together. So Bible's open notebook, open pencil in hand, Proverbs chapter twenty verse twenty seven.

9:58 I'll let him read it. We'll see what what's going to occur. Let's do so. Now, all right, let's go to Proverbs tonight first, and let's look in Proverbs twenty verse twenty seven. We're gonna talk about this thing tonight again some more. I want to talk to you tonight about the spirit of man. And we mentioned some things about all this, but it's just such a big subject that you have to just kind of narrow it down a little at a time. Focus on this tonight. It's you know, the whole object of all of this is to help us in our Christian walk to understand what I sang a while ago.

10:50 We sang that song about hole the fort. Now, how many people even know what is spiritual battle? What are we talk about being soldiers in battling? What does that mean? We're at? What do we do? I mean, how we fight? Where's the battle? What is it? Well? Yeah, it's right in here. Yes, that's right, and this is what it's about. Okay, So he is connecting this to spiritual warfare. That's good. So that means that maybe the entire series is connected to it. It may be a unique approach to the subject. Clearly, he seems to think this idea of the spirit of man is super important, and he feels it's a big subject. It sounds like he probably has a small group of people.

11:32 It sounds like a small group of people. May be larger, but it sounds like a small group of people. They seem very invested. You can hear them saying amen, that's right, and they're they're responding all right. So for for a preacher, that's always good to have people responding and engage. That's good, So he's got it. Sounds like a small group of people. They seem to be engaged. He's obviously he does like one hundred and twenty seven messages so far on this idea of spiritual warfare, and he seems to indicate that the subject the spirit of man is a very broad subject, a very big subject. He's gonna try to narrow in, but it's really it's really going on now it's sat now I can't see because this is audio, but he says that the spiritual warfare, you know what, he asked some of those rhetorical questions, and he says, it's right here. Now.

12:23 I think he pointed in like to his chest in other words, that now. I hope he did, because I agree spiritual warfare is an internal thing more than it's external. I think it's internal. I think we always like, you know, oh, we're gonna curse demons, that we're gonna be binding demons, and it's like this, we're fighting these external, external forces. I think the real issue is internally personally, right, So I think that's where he pointed, And it sounded like the people there were like, hey man, that's right. So if he goes with more. And because this is entitled the spirit of man, that would put it inside of us. Okay, so we may have some agreement here, We may have some at least what appears to be agreement. Now we'll see.

13:13 I don't know what his ultimate thesis is. I don't know what his ultimate you know, hypotheses is. What is he going to put forth? There's a spiritual war it's inside of us, and the spirit of man is involved. Okay, how does this all work? Let's see, spiritual warfare is spiritual warfare. It's not an intellectual warfare. It's not carnal warfare. It's not pride or any It ain't got none to doing anything else. It's spiritual warfare Proverbs twenty verse twenty seven. The spirit. Oh no, I don't know. It's not intellectual. It's spiritual.

13:57 Now have a hard time with this, okay. And here's the reason why is because you have to have your intellect to even do what we're doing, right, like you have. It's spiritual warfare. But isn't the mind a part of your internal makeup? See this is where we're gonna get back. Oh boy, I hope we don't get back to that. Remember we had that entire discussion this year trying to Yeah, my next four neighbors car. Okay, that's not good, all right, soone turn off your car. We're gonna give it a second. Here.

14:38 There's no way I can keep broadcasting with that going on. Okay, there we go. All right, Well that was I'm sorry about that. There's nothing I could do about that. But we had this long discussion in twenty twenty four about Okay, so it's the heart, it's the spirit, it's the mind. It's the spirit and the mind the same, is it different? Is the heart? Is the heart the same as the mind? Like? And we got it and tried to and remember it just got all convoluted and confusing and discombobulated and it made no sense. And and people sometimes would speak of things as being the same sometimes being different. So what role does the intellect have in spiritual warfare?

15:24 Right? I'm I'm I'm gonna I'm going to ask uh Ai. I'm gonna ask Ai here because I am curious, all right, what is the role of the intellect in spiritual spiritual warfare? Because I'm curious of what AI will say here. This this is this gets us into an end because the reason I'm I I, the reason I'm having an issue here is well, because he's getting ready to say, open up your bibles and go to Proverbs twenty twenty seven. Well, how are you going to read that with the intellect?

16:12 How are you going to understand it with the intellect? How are you going to interpret it with the intellect? How are you going to decide how this applies to spiritual warfare? With the all of it is the intellect now, Ai says, the intellect plays a vital role in spiritual warfare as it is the faculty through which truth is understood. Say that, okay Ai said it better than me. Okay let me read that again. The intellect plays a vital role in spiritual warfare as it is the faculty through which truth is understood, lies are discerned, and decisions are made. So the intellect plays a vital role in spiritual warfare because number one, it's the faculty through which truth is understood.

16:53 Number two where lies are discerned, and number three decisions are made. Spiritual war often takes place in the realm of ideas, beliefs, and thought patterns. The intellect becomes a key battleground below is a detailed explanation of its role. Spiritual warfare is a battle of the mind. The Bible emphasizes that spiritual warfare involves confronting false ideas, philosophies, and temptations that challenge God's truth. Tewod Corinthians ten four through five, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroying strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. The battle is against arguments, opinions, and thoughts that are opposed to God's truth. The intellect is essential for identifying and dismantling these false ideas and bringing thoughts into alignment with Christ.

17:53 The armor of God includes the belt of Truth and the helmet of Salvation, both of which engage the intellect. The belt of trith truth equips the believer with accurate understanding of God's word, and the helmet of Salvation protects the mind by grounding it in the assurance of God's saving work. The intellect is a tool for discernment. The intellect Okay, well, I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. AI has how many three, four, five, six, six different reasons why the intellect is vital in spiritual warfare. So maybe we'll have to come back and break that down at some point so our So now I'm already having a little I'm having a little difficulty here. He just separated the intellect from spiritual warfare. That makes literally no sense.

18:47 It takes my intellect to even listen to this, to listen to the sermon. How are the people they're supposed to be listening to the sermon? They're giving acknowledgment. They're saying amen, meaning they're saying that this is true. The intellect is how they're doing that. They're hearing something and then they're discerning whether they believe it to be true, and then saying amen is an affirmation that what they're hearing is true. All of that requires the intellect. If you remove the intellect, I don't understand. All right, I gotta back that up. Maybe I'm making more out of that than he would make out of it. But I'm just having a hard time following. Let's play this again. Doing anything else, it's spiritual warfare. Proverbs twenty verse twenty seven the spirit of man.

19:33 Right, let me back that up a little further. Let's see here we go. All right, let's go to Proverbs tonight first, and let's look in Proverbs twenty verse twenty seven. We're gonna talk about this thing tonight again some more to you, not about the spirit of man. And we mentioned some things about all this, but it's just such a big subject that you have to just kind of narrow it down a little at a time. Focus on this tonight. It's you know, the whole object of all of this is to help us in our Christian walk to understand what I sang a while ago.

20:27 We sang that song about. Do you hear what he said? To understand? The goal of all of this is to help us to understand. Understanding is a function of intellect. All right, So I don't know how you separate intellect from spiritual warfare. This is very confusing to me. I'm very confused. But let me see if I misheard him. All right, let's listen to it again. All the fort Now, how many people even know what what is spiritual battle? What are we talk about being soldiers in battle? And what does that mean we're at? What do we do. I mean, how we fight. Where's the battle? What is it? Well, yeah, it's right in here. Yes, And this is what it's about.

21:15 Spiritual warfare is spiritual warfare. It's not an intellectual warfare. It's not carnal warfare. It's not pride or any It ain't got none to doing anything else. It's spiritual warfare. I don't know, he asked rhetorical questions. The intellect is the only way to answer those questions, he said, it's about understanding. That's the intellect. I understand what he's saying. It's spiritual warfare. It's not intellectual warfare, but the intellect, the intellect is a part of spiritual war I don't know how you separate that. I know that's not how he meant it. But I'm just like, oh, that makes me nervous. But let's just see where he goes. I know, I'm I'm you. You may say, well, there's not a bit, that's not a big deal. It's a big deal to me, right, because it takes my intellect to listen and process this anyone sitting there, So the intellect has to be involved.

22:13 That's where we process knowledge, that's how we that's how we discern I mean, I mean, even AI acknowledge it's a vital role. So let's see. Let's see where he takes. This Harbs twenty, verse twenty seven. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly. That's just one verse. There are four verses in the Bible that mention the spirit of man. Another one is Ecclesy as Hees chapter three, in verse twenty one says, who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth. Well, there's some things to think about there, but I don't want to get sidetracked there. Another time is in First Corinthing, chapter two, verse eleven. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man, which is in him.

23:08 Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. I've got a lot of other verses to read, Deny, but I just want to delve into this and try to get through it, and I hope that it'll help you and me to understand. That's what I've been struggling with, is. Trying to express you know what, I understand. It's just funny. He's used the word understand now three four times now. He's quoted some of these verses where the spirit of man is mentioned. Okay, all right, well, just we're just gonna let this. We're gonna let this play out and see where it goes. So I know he when he meant it's a spiritual war, it's not an intellectual war. I understand he was trying to draw a distinct. I think he was just trying to make sure it's a unique battle. It's a spiritual battle, but you should not make it a spiritual battle and separate it from the intellect, because the intellect is vital in the spiritual battle. Without the intellect, well you can't understand.

24:12 In fact, you don't even understand that it's a spiritual war without intellect. To tell people it's a spiritual war, it's not an intellectual war. Requires the intellect to be able to determine. Okay, all right, the whole thing becomes a little just crazy. But all right, let's see where he's going to go here. He obviously you can hear that, he's obviously been really dealing with this, and he seems you know. I like when you hear a pastor, you can tell, like, man, they're really this is really speaking to them. There's something going on here and they really want to try to convey this. So we definitely want to understand how he's going to approach this and exactly what he's going to do with this, all right, because well, yeah, there's a lot I have questions about. But we'll let him see he set of me start asking questions. We'll let him start. I'll just ask questions as necessary, or here we go.

25:07 It's hard when you're talking about something you can't see and you can't get people. We're so carnally minded. Actually that's a rough word to you use. But we have to be able to see it. We have to be able to put it here. Now, here's the spirit, here, here's the soul, and here's a body. And body is about all we can figure out because we can see it. Spirit is hard to understand. So you've got to just keep looking at it and looking at it, and you've got to keep thinking about it. And you've got to look at the scriptures all through the Bible. Four hundred and some scriptures talk about spirit. There's a lot of different things about it too. I noticed today in a New Testament, every time the word spirit is used, it's the same word except for two times.

25:58 And those two times are in the Gospels where they saw Jesus walking on the water, and they said, it's a spirit. Not the same it's not the same word. It's a phantom. It's a ghost. They said, that's not the same spirit as we're talking about always when we're talking about spiritual warfare. That is superstition. Yes, they know that's the thing as a ghost. So what is our spirit? What is the spirit of man? All right? I just got to say a bunch of stuff. It is what others sense about us when they're in our prisons. It's what they read to get a take on our disposition or what kind of person that they're dealing with.

26:47 Oh wait, okay wa wa whoa, whoa whoa. Okay, So the spirit of man, it's what people sense. It's how people read us. Okay, now out now, okay, I'm oh boy, all right. So the spirit of man is what people's sense. It's how people read us when they're in our presence. Now this becomes very subjective here, all right, This is making it very that there's nothing tangible here, right, because people can read and perceive and sense and be so wrong. I mean, people love to act like that. They can be around a person and I sense this about you.

27:31 Just stop. You don't know what you're talking about, right, So I'm not I'm not so down with this. I'm not. Let's see where he's I was thinking he was gonna give us something more tangible about what the spirit of man is. I thought he was gonna maybe go to the Hebrew for the Hebrew here in Proverbs twenty twenty seven. I I this is this is very interesting. This is very subjective, Like I under I can understand what would be difficult to explain this because he's explained it in very subjective terms. Let's see if he if he moves from the subjective to something more concrete, more tangible. Now, I know it's very tangible, and it's very difficult to be tangible about a phrase the spirit of man. But let's let's see here. Let's see here.

28:17 I told you the spirit is the receiver. When you meet somebody anywhere, stranger, friend, you start assessing them. You know people do that to you too. You know that, don't you're they're sizing the thing up, sizing the situation up, see what kind of mood you'ry in, seeing what kind of person you They're sizing you up to see if you are receptive or you're rejecting. What is that? Why? I don't size anybody up. I don't care what. Who am I to sit there and try to size someone up and figure some one out. I just let you just be you. I don't need to understand. I don't need to know. I don't need to figure out, like, why do I need to size someone up and figure out?

29:12 Are you receiving? Are you rejecting? I don't really care. You just be you and I'll just be me. Okay. Now, maybe as you get close to someone and you start trying, you're developing some form of a relationship. Right now, you may want to start trying to understand. That's that's intimacy. Right If I just meet a person, just be you. I I don't really draw. I'm not one to go, well, what did you think of that person? Well? I didn't. I didn't have two thoughts about that person. Okay, I listened to what they said. I mean I have thoughts about what they said. But I wasn't trying to read them, understand them, figure them out, size them up?

29:55 What is if people do that? Just hey, then just do me a favor. Don't talk to me, okay? What like? Just let me be me and you just be you and we don't need to figure anything out, right, we don't, I mean, unless there's a reason to. Just sounds like you're getting into some level of intimacy, isn't it. I don't know. Okay, is this what the spirit of man is? Okay, I'm trying to figure this out. Let's let's see where he takes this. This is interesting. Then that spiritual thing that that's just that's your spirit working. Your spirit. You know, there's I just started thinking of all these words and there's no end to it. The spirit is, like we've talked about, everybody has this fragrance around him, this atmosphere around you. You're either a cloud or your sunshine, yes, or many other things. You know, when you think of spirit, you think I'm happy? Will they're happy?

31:02 The spirit is like a fragrance. An't you just talking about your mood? Your attitude? Is? Is that? Now gonna say that that's your spirit? See, now we're getting into So spirit is your mood and your attitude. Typically, when if I was to give a definition of the spirit of man, typically it would it would read something like this. The spirit of man refers to the immaterial part of humanity, often associated with life, conscience, and rationality. You see why I was having such an issue with him saying spiritual warfare is separating it from the intellect because when it comes and then I knew he was reading Proverbs twenty twenty seven, which is the spirit of man. The spirit of man is that immaterial part of us as humans. It's a social with life, conscience, conscience, our consciousness, our conscience, rationality. You see the spirit of man.

32:11 Some would say within a thilological framework, it is the God given life force, our breath that distinguishes humans as living beings. That's what makes us humans. It's our rationality, it's our conscience, it's our self awareness. There's something that distinguishes us from the rest of animals. Right that God breathe into us and we became a living soul, a living spirit. That the spirit of man is something immateial, it is it's what makes us human. It's it's our it's it's it's our life, it's our conscience, it's our rationality.

32:52 That's that's something a little bit more tangible. He's describing it in the most non fil logical way that maybe I've ever heard. I don't think I've ever heard pastors describe it in such a non philological way. He's doing it in a very almost mystical, metaphysical kind of way. Right, it sounds like you're listening to someone who's into like almost some new wage. I'm not saying now, by no means am I saying this person is new age. I'm not saying that in any way, shape or form. Okay, I'm saying it's being described in something that sounds something that you would hear in new age. Oh, I can pick up your aura? I can? I can I see this about you? I can sense this? What are you talking about?

33:43 I don't. Okay, let's see if he he's got to move to something more theological, something more tangible. He has to. He has to, at least I'm going to hold. Out hope happy spirit. That has to do with their spirit. If you if you assess somebody is being happy, that's you can account that to their spirit, nothing else. Their spirit it is the spirit of man connected. Two are outward expressions. Hang on, h I gotta, I gotta fix this. Our outward expressions having major problems. There are outward expressions of let's say, emotions, okay, okay, so okay, maybe okay, all right, so maybe maybe there is a

35:15 biblical idea here. So I'm asking Ai AI because and it doesn't mean I have to agree with AI is not our authority, but AI says the spirit of man is indeed connected to outward expressions of emotions, though the relationship between the spirit and emotions is nuanced. Yeah, I think it's yeah more so and biblical thought. The spirit represents the immaterial part of a person that connects to God, while emotions are part of the soul and often express what is happening internally. In the spirit, the spirit of Man is the core of a person's being, and it is responsible for their connection to God, moral reasoning, and inner vitality. If I can find where this went here, my page refreshed here. While the spirit is not synonymous with emotions, it influences them. The spirit reflects a person's emotional state. Proverbs fifteen thirteen. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. This verse shows that sorrow enjoying the heart affect the spirit, which can in turn be outwardly visible on the face. But see that seems to show that sorrow and joy affect the spirit. That would be separating the emotion from the spirit. The spirit is impacted by our emotions, so the spirit. See that seems to be separating them, right, I mean read that again. A merry

36:46 heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken. AI's interpretation. The verse shows that sorrow enjoying the heart affect the spirit, which can in turn outwardly can be outwardly visible on the face. That would be the emotions impacting the spirit. The spirit is not the source of the emotion. Proverbs eighteen fourteen. The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit? A healthy, strong spirit can sustain a person, while a broken spirit often manifest and despair and physical weariness. So that would say a spirit can be broken, but it's not showing that it's the source of the emotions. It seems it seems that something can break the spirit Job seven eleven, Job Chapter seven, Verse eleven. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.

37:39 I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job's emotions anguish and bitterness are expressions are expressed through his spirit and soul, showing a deep connection between the spirit and outward emotional expression. I think it seems to say that I think Job is expressing how deep his anguish and sorrow is. It goes deep in side him. It's not just surface level, don't I don't know if that necessarily proves anything. My spirit rejoices in God, my savior. Well, this just shows that the spirit can feel emotion, right, I don't know. I don't know here. Okay, I still feel that this is very mystical approach to it. Okay, let's just see where.

38:27 He goes than be happy when her body's a hurt. Thing, be melancholy thing, be sad, depressed, the obsessed, deceived, oppressed, burdened. You realize this. You pick up on these things from people, don't you? You? Somebody why the long face? I thought about uh Neamiah, the King's cup bear, when he went into the presence of the King and you remember what the king said. Why is your count? And sad? You know he picked up See the king picked up on something wrong here?

39:08 He picked up he picked up his facial expression, almost knocked the microphone halfway across the room. He picked up his facial expression. And I don't think he read the spirit like I am not. This sounds very ah, I'm having some major issues here. I'm having major issues here. Now that again, this is real time reaction. After further thought and consideration, I may change my opinion here, but I I'm not so sure about this. Let let's let's see where this goes. How how do you do that? Spirits?

39:50 Yes, it's your spirit. Your spirit tells on you. Your spirit communicates to other people what's going on in here. Your spirit communicates to other people what's going on That is not I that is not true. How many times has someone committed suicide? And never like I had no idea, I didn't see it. I wish I would have. Well were the signs? I didn't see it? Because people are great at externally showing one thing where internally something else is completely going on, completely separate. He making alection like your spirit will just tell on you. Your spirit will be like, hey, hey, hey, things are not right on the inside. So now is it the spirit is this?

40:47 I don't even This is getting into something way different than biblical theology. So I'm supposed to be looking at a person and then you're going to assume that you can read someone's spirit because spirit is talking to you. This is sounding like something like that out of the Force be with you. This is sounding like something from Star Wars. I can sense you. Oh they are the Force is telling me they have a right. I know that's not what he's saying, but I'm like, this sounds like something so contrary to biblical theology. Your spirit communicates to other people what's going on inside of you. People make wrong assumptions about people all the time, and so is are you going to say, well, you've got to learn how to read someone else's spirit? So how do I read someone else's spirit? Do I get a sense?

41:42 Do I get a feeling? Do I look for an aura? H Okay, now this is getting okay. I don't know where this is going, Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know where this is going. But even AI tried to draw a correlation, it's still distinguished. Them, and even some of the verses Ai was providing me, it seemed to say, my emotions can impact my spirit, or my emotions can be felt within my spirit. Doesn't seem to say the spirit is the thing that's giving the emotions, which would separate emotion from spirit, which would say they're separate things. So I'm I there is nothing so far that I have seen that is convincing me that this is going anywhere. Well, this is going in a direction I never would have even a million years predicted. So I got But we've got to let him. He's got to make it more biblical and philological. He has to write he I mean, he's got a text right here, so you know he's going to go to this text. Is he going to take all of these assumptions that he's presenting and read it into the text. Then this could get really weird.

42:44 Let's find out. And you can really read people better than you think. You can't. Always reading about ways, reading about Jesus, and you know how different times in the Gospels he knew their thoughts, reading their spirit. That's what it is. Okay, Now wait a minute, wait a minute. You can read people's spirits better than you think you can because we have Jesus who read their thoughts, meaning he read their spirits. We're not Jesus. Okay, wait a minute, Wait a minute. You cannot read someone's spirit. Don't try. You can't do it. You can't judge it, you can't read it.

43:30 If you think you can, you are an arrogant, conceited person. You have you cannot. Your ability to understand someone is greatly limited, greatly limited. And if you go around thinking you're reading and seeing into other people, you're gonna become judging. You're gonna become judgmental. You're gonna think you know them, you're gonna speak about them as if you know Stop it. You don't know people. You can't read inside of people. You cannot do that. You can't judge the inside of a person. You don't know the inside of a person. You are limited by the external expressions that they give you and they can complete. And it's not your job to try to determine if they're deceiving you or fooling you.

44:17 That is not your job. You can read someone's spirit, That is ridiculous. No, you cannot. Oh man, Okay, he was keen on spiritually he was God. He did this many times. What I'm telling you tonight and trying to get across to you tonight, if you just watch Jesus and what he did, he wasn't a supernatural mind reader. He was sensitive to the spirits.

44:59 Jesus was not a supernatural mind reader. He just was sensitive to the spirit. So Jesus discerning their thoughts was not a supernatural act. He just was keen to reading their spirit. It was a. Natural thing he did that I can do. Are you saying that what Jesus did was not supernatural? It wasn't divine act. It's just something you and I can do. What is happening right now? What is even the and just this is like almost five hundred downloads. I think what I have to start doing to get more downloads is I need to just start saying things that are completely like I don't even know what that is. He literally just said what Jesus did, he wasn't a supernatural mind was It wasn't a divine act. He was just keen keen. Is that even that's a very data Okay, He's just very good. Maybe it's still used in certain geographical locations, but I just know Keen as a radio station here in Abilene Keen. What is one five. I don't know. It was the big country radio station that was so popular back in the day. I think it still exists. But okay, I mean, all right, wait, I'm getting all distracted. The point is he basically just said that we can read people's spirits better than we think we can. Just look to Jesus, because what Jesus did

46:30 is he was reading spirits. He was not utilizing. He was just sensitive. He wasn't utilizing any supernatural or divine. It wasn't demonstrating divine or supernatural ability. That is whoa, whoa. Okay, all right, he's got to explain that. I bet you he's gonna he's gonna walk this back a little bit. He's gonna have to walk this. He had to just hear what he said. He was aware of them. He worked in that realm, he lived in that realm. He thought in that realm. He dealt with people in that realm, and we don't. We deal with them in the intellectual realm. We deal with them in the earthly realm. In the carnal realm.

47:16 We look at people as trees walking. That's what we do. We don't even count this as nothing. We don't even think about it. We don't even enter into this realm in our thoughts. It's all just you know, we're fighting, but it ain't no spiritual fight. We just fight with each other. That's why there's strife and envy and all that. And people who don't walk after the spirit. You can only walk after the flesh or after the spirit. It's the only way you can walk. And I'm just saying to you, the people who call themselves God's people walk after the flesh way more than you ever see anybody ain't walking after the spirit to have the whole this is it's just a cliche. It's a meaningless phrase to most people.

48:07 They don't even know what it means, don't understand what it means. A people can be. You pick up on him, be in trouble, being proud. There's a proud spirit, haughty spirit, humble spirit, kind spirit, deceitful spirit, you know, deceived, depressed, hot, burdened, free. Well, he never backtracked from it. So I don't know how else you interpret that, Like, I'm left with a million questions. But it's all about and he seems to be saying that walking in the spirit means not walking in accordance to the spirit, but walking in the spirit of walking and looking and seeing and understanding and reading everyone else's spirit. Ah man, this is getting really confusing.

49:05 I'm trying to understand. But I've got to give him the opportunity to clarify it. I got to give him the opportunity. I don't want to speak for him, So let's let this continue. Caring, sympathetic, cruel, uncaring, cold, warm, respectful, hateful. You pick up on those they're just how we just go on? No, can't we what we pick up on other people, what we assess when we're in somebody else's presence. So you can pick up those things by their outward expressions. But that doesn't mean you're reading their spirit. This is crazy.

49:47 He's like, basically, I can see beyond your Hey, I walk in the spirit, so I can see even though you're telling me this, I can see what's really going on inside of you. This is mysticism. This, in fact, it sounds very charismatic to me. Sounds very charismatic to me. Now there are those who've been a part of the charismatic world. You can correct me. But this sounds very charismatic, very very charismatic, and.

50:27 We discount it to moods. All they're in a bad mood. Ah, they're just in a sad mood. Oh, they're just in a melancholy mood. Oh, they're in a happy mood. That's what we call it, and that's not what's causing it at all. When we speak of the soul, we're referring to that immortal part of an individual person that is the essence of his being, and it's part of us that that it is the part of us that enables us to think, our soul and to reason. And therefore, because we are a living soul that God breathed life into, put a spirit in, and gave life to, we're subject to moral government because we're a living soul, because we can think, because we can reason, because we are aware of the universe around us and other people around us.

51:33 We are accountable. Whether you want to be, whether you think you are. Whether you want to reject God completely, you are going to give account. Okay, So I don't know what's going on, because he still hasn't even gotten into the verse. I'm having a hard time following this. So I wanted to ask Ai, hey, is it possible for us to be able to read the spirit of another person? AI said, it is impossible for us to perfectly read and understand the spirit of another person. The human spirit represents the deepest, immaterial part of a person, and only God has the ability to truly know and judge the spirit with complete accuracy. God can through because it's supernatural, didy, not because he's just keen or sensitive. I mean, okay. The Bible consistently teaches that God alone has the ability to search and know the spirit of the inner being. Proverbs twenty twenty seven.

52:34 The very verse that this sermon is supposed to be about the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly. This verse shows that it is God, not humans, who use the spirit of man as his lamp to search the inner depths. Humans lack this capacity. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind. The human heart and spirit are so complex and corrupted by sin that even we cannot fully understand ourselves, let alone others. Let me say that again. Let me read this again. The human heart and spirit are so complex and so completely corrupted by sin that we cannot fully understand ourselves, let alone others. He's calling for sinful human beings to read the spirit of other sinful human beings and draw some conclusion. That is ridiculous, that is unbiblical, That is theological malpractice. That will lead to people drawing wrong assumptions, wrong conclusions, judging people, and assuming things that are fraudulent and wrong. You worry about reading yourself before you worry about anybody else. Judge yourself. Look at the look at you, look at the mirror, Stop looking out the window, Stop looking at other people. Stop trying to

54:04 read other people, start trying to make judgments about other people. One Corinthians two eleven. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God accept the spirit of God. Paul explicitly states that no one can know another person's inner life, their thoughts, motives, or spirit apart from God's revelation. God is the only one who knows it. You can't know it. You can't know another person's thoughts. You can't know another person's motivations. You can't know that. And I don't know what Proverbs twenty twenty seven has to do with any of this. First Samuel sixteen seven. Man looks on the outward appearance. The Lord looks on the heart. Humans are limited to judging external actions, expressions, and words. Well, these can give clues about a person's spirit. They do not provide full or accurate insights.

55:20 For everything you do and every idle word you speak. Yes, because you have a soul. The soul and the spirit are different, They're distinct. We speak of the spirit, we're referring to that part of us which influences others and also allows our soul to be influenced by others, both spiritually and earthly. The spirit of man is that which perceives both that which is earthly and natural and that. Which is supernatural. Now we talked about this spirit is your receiver, and that's what makes you able to perceive.

56:03 That's the part of you that looks and sees. Just so you know, soul and spirit same are different. If you've been if you're a student of theology, you know there is not necessarily agreement on this. One of the schools I went to. We spent I think an entire semester trying to determine is soul and spirit always used separately in the Bible or are they used synonymously? Are they different or they just interchangeably? Right? I mean I had to spend an entire semester working on this, Okay, so the I asked AI while this was going on, the question of whether the soul and spirit are distinct or synonymous is one of one of philological nuance. Scripture used these terms in overlapping ways at times, but they also have distinctions depending on the context. Several passages suggest that the soul and spirit are distinct but interconnected components of the human person. Hebrews four to twelve. For the Word of God is living in active sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.

57:17 All right, so there seems to be. The verse implies that soul and spirit can be distinguished though they are closely related. The imagery suggests their separation requires divine insight. One Thessalonians five twenty three. Now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless. Paul lists spirit, soul, and body as distinct. All right, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices. Mary uses soul and spirit and parallel, but the distinction could suggest nuanced expressions of praise. Biblical evidence for the overlap, and many passages, soul and spirit appear interchangeably or at least closely linked, leading some to argue they're essentially synonymous. Genesis two seven. Then the Lord formed in deman of the dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. The soul here become seems to encompass the whole person animated by God's breath. Job seven to eleven.

58:22 I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain the bitterness of my soul. Job uses spirit and soul and parallel to describe the inner anguish, suggesting that the terms can overlap. Matthew ten twenty eight. Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy soul, and both soul and body and hell. Here soul seems to encompass the spiritual immaterial aspects of a person, which could also describe the spirit and other context. All right, so I could go through all of this, but just note there's is it, which one is it? Which is it? Is it synonymous? Then some will say man is made up of three parts body, soul, spirit. Others will argue man is made up of only two parts body, soul and spirit are synonymous. Trichotomy of man, the dichotomy. I mean, we could get into all of them. I mean, these are deep theiological issues here, but he's not. This is the This is where this is, once again why I complain about the church, the church versus podcasts. This is where I complain about it like the church. Okay, let's just we're almost at an hour. Let's let's let's just see if this goes anywhere. We haven't even gotten to the text. Let's see if we get anywhere here, and we'll try to wrap it up.

59:43 There's so many other things we want to say here. But the spirit is light. The candle, the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. What is candle for light? It's so you can see the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. He put it in you, and he put light in you. He's the light to light of every man that comes into the world. Our spirit is that part of us that sees and hears. We receive information and knowledge through our spirit. He just said, we receive information and knowledge to this spirit. Okay, man, I am having and he just kind of referenced Proverbs twenty twenty seven. He's not taking it apart. I am having a hard time following this. I've got to let him go just a little further and try to find a good stopping point. But yeah, this opens up a door of discussion that could take months. It could take a year, and you think I'm exaggerating. This could take forever to try to unpack.

1:00:52 And so where my phone go? Here? I had to look up this verse because it didn't write it DOWNBS sixteen thirty two. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city supposed to rule your spirit. You got a rule of your spirit. If you just let her run free wheeling, you're going to be moody and you're gonna be subject to every devil that comes along and wants to sit on your shoulder and talk to you. Our spirit is that part of us, its season heres and it's that part of us that is aware.

1:01:35 Of the universe around us. Spirit. You think a dog is aware that there's stars in the heavens that the moon wrote goes around to Earth. You think a dog is aware of what's going on in Washington or over the over the pond as they used to say. Now is the dogs? Does the dog lack the ability to understand because he doesn't have the spirit like the spirit of man? Or is it because the dog does not have the intellectual capacity to understand? Do we understand the stars Washington orbits of planets because of our spirit?

1:02:28 Or do we understand it because of our intellect? And is the intellect and spirit hote? Now we're getting into this. Oh boy, okay, all right, let's just see where. This goes across the Poland think a dog or any kind of what other kind of creature on this art has any consciousness of the universe like that? Does he think about the future? Does he look at he look squirrelsbabe like right up. Nuts all summer? No, they just do that like the birds and flies out. They can't help it. They don't know what they don't know. Consciously what they're doing. They just do it because God hard wired it into them to do it. Man, the spirit of man goes upwards, the spirit of the beast goes downward. That's why they all look at the ground all the time. I learned that when we was trapping hogs. You know you if he won't look up, if that gate on that trap is above his head, he ain't gonna say it. He's looking this way.

1:03:36 He don't look up. Tell me a cat's the same way. And I fooled with him enough to see it' stright. They don't look up. Man looks up to the heavens and wonders. He's aware that there's more to everything then he can see. He knows it. Because he's got a spirit in him that God I'm put there a light, a divine light in his soul that is aware. Your spirit is what makes you aware that you're alive. Right now sitting here listening to me, you look around, You ever just marvel that you're alive? Do you ever do that? Do you just look around saying you know what?

1:04:21 In the world. I'm alive, I see all these things. What am I doing here? What kind of creature am I? That's your spirit? Okay, we'll have to stop there. And we're sixty four minutes. When it says that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, this is a metaphor. It's using the metaphor of a candle or lamp, suggesting light, guidance, and revelation. In ancient context, a lamp was used to search dark play, symbolizing illumination or discernment. All right, So the verse seems to imply that the human spirit was created and sustained by God as act as a divinely ordained instrument of introspection and moral discernment. It functions like a lamp that searches the depths of a person's being, exposing hidden thoughts and motives. So this seems to be going more with the idea the spirit of man is kind of connected here to the conscience. That we have a conscience that we sense things. So I think in a sense that the way this works is that we have the external word, we have the external law of God, and we have the law written on our hearts. So we have the law written on our hearts. We have an internal law of God. There we have an external law.

1:05:49 If the more we see of the external law, the more our conscience inside of us serves as a lamp right searching all the inward parts. And we're and it's going to tell us we're guilty. We're guilty, We're guilty. We're guilty. We're guilty, We're guilty, we're guilty. And then that internal conscience, the spirit of man, I think this is. I think this is more of a reference to kind of our conscience. We could say, is the conscience and the spirit of man the same? It's nuanced, We could separate them a little bit, But this is the way I think it works. We have the external law right, and we read it and we writen. Now there's an intellectual part. Our mind reads it, We comprehend it. God says, don't do this. God doesn't do this. Our inner conscience, the spirit of man, I think is tied here to our conscience here in Proverbs twenty twenty seven, serves as a lamp and it shows us we're guilty. We're guilty, and we sense that guilt, we feel that guilt, we know that guilt we also have the internal law inside of us, and that conscience that that this the spirit of man, this candle inside of us shows us we're guilty.

1:06:50 We're guilty, We're guilty. The conscience, the spirit of man, constantly testifies to us of our of our sinfulness, of our corruption and our guilt. And the more and formed our mind becomes, our conscience becomes, the more the spirit of man inside of us, because it's the only thing that it's inside of me. It's only me who can know me. So if me is informed by the word of God, I'm going to see my failure, which then drives me to Christ. In a sense, the conscience, informed by divine truth, well kind is now betrayed as an internal guide. God uses the human spirit to bring awareness of moral failure and sin. The conscience is the lamp. See, the word is the lamp right that lightens the conscience so that we then see and acknowledge what's there. I this seems to have more to do maybe with conscience here, but we're sixty eight minutes. I'm going to have to stop.

1:08:04 I am perplexed by this, but his at least I'm not saying it's I don't know if he ever gave us a thesis statement. So I don't know if there's even a thesis statement in this sermon, but one of the major points, I won't call it a the major thesis. The major point seems to be that Jesus was able to read people's spirit, not because of supernatural ability or even divinity, just because he was sensitive to it, and that we can do the same thing, that we can read other people's spirits. I man, I don't even know what to say and anything else he said, I don't really know what to do with because I don't know.

1:08:45 But we definitely will come back to this at some point, but you can let me know what you think in regards to all of this. But in the meantime, I'll stop there. There's another sermon in our sermon's two point oh ap sermon challenge. We didn't review the whole thing. We may come back to it. I don't know. I got, yeah, I got other things, So I gotta worry about Isaiah chapter forty, verse one through two tomorrow. That's what I got, and then verses three through what five, So that's my focus. But for now we'll leave that there. We'll put a kind of a kind of a possible bookmark on this. We'll come back to it and we'll have possibly more conversations about it soon. Thanks for listening. Everyone, have a great Saturday. God bless