Nov. 11, 2024

The Desert: Exegesis vs Eisegesis

The Desert: Exegesis vs Eisegesis

More discussion about sermons and biblical interpretation

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More discussion about sermons and biblical interpretation

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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 afternoon everyone.

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It is Monday, November the eleventh, twenty twenty four. It

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is currently one twenty two pm Central Time, and I

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am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio

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located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now right here in Abilene, Texas. Today, Well,

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it's a nice, warm day, and that means there's people

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all out in the neighborhood doing all kinds of different things.

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And there's probably more people out and about in the

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neighborhood because it's Veterans Day, so a lot of people

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are off from work, and so I guess they've all

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decided to go outside on this warm November day here

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in West Texas and do projects. There's sauls going hammering

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a staple gun. I don't know what they're doing, and

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it's causing all the dogs in the neighborhood to just

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lose their ever living minds. I think the dogs are like, hey, guys,

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you're all supposed to be at work. It's supposed to

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be a nice, warm, lazy day. Stop disturbing our rest. Okay,

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So the dogs are barking. There's all kinds of noise outside.

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So if you hear anything in the background, I apologize.

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I know, yeah, I wish it was a soundproof studio.

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I wish it was, you know, really made for broadcasting it.

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I mean, in some ways this is the perfect place

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to broadcast. In other ways, it's not just because I

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have this window right behind me and that's where all

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the noise comes from. So with all that said, if

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you hear that, I do apologize, But I hope we

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can get something accomplished. I hope. So so let me

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start with a very important question in your Christian life.

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Looking back over your Christian life, what are some of

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the major changes that have happened in your thinking about Christianity,

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about the Bible. Have you become I don't know, more

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almost excited about Christianity? Have you become more jaded? Have

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you become more discouraged? Have you become more frustrated? Have

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you feel do you feel more negative feelings or more

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positive feelings about your faith, about the Church, about Christianity,

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what has changed in your overall attitude about it? What

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has changed in your feelings about Christianity, the Bible, God,

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anything related to your faith, what things have kind of

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you've seen a slow, steady transformation. Maybe you went from

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excited on fire zill but very little knowledge, and then

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maybe the more knowledge you have gained, you've become more jaded,

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more irritated, more frustrated, more discouraged. Have you experienced something

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like that? I think I have. I don't even I

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don't even know if it's right to say I think

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I know I have. I can look back in my

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early Christian life and how excited I was every time

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you know, Oh, oh, oh, Chuck Swindall, Charles Swindall, Chuck's Windall,

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what however you like to refer to his first name?

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He's coming on the radio. Okay, grab my bible, grab

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a notebook. Okay, Oh, Joe MacArthur's coming on. Oh oh

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oh there's Chuck Smith. Well I'm not as excited. Okay, Oh,

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there's there's the Lutheran Hour. Oh take notes. Oh there's

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night Sounds. Oh that's good. I had all these different

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you know, broadcasting broadcasters and preachers and teachers, and I

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was excited for all of it. Right, I didn't really

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have the knowledge to go good or bad, even if

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I thought I disagreed. I didn't feel like I had

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the knowledge to really disagree. It would just be more

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like trying to struggle with hmm, I wonder what that means?

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And then I would hear, you know, preacher A then

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condemned that kind of teaching and that kind of teaching,

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and it would get a little bit confusing, maybe a

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little bit of frustrating. But I was more and just

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trying to at that point acquire information. It was like

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I entered into a brand new world and it was more.

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It was it was it was bright, it was exciting.

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It was like I I was. I was in a

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brand new world and I didn't have a map, and

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I was just trying to figure it out. And the

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Bible was all, you know, oh wait, what does this mean?

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And what does this mean? And oh wait, I don't

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think I remember that. Oh wait what is that? Well?

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Oh wait, that is interesting, and and everything was new

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and it was vibrant and it was live, and there

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was excitement. And if I walked into a church, every

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church felt interesting and exciting because it was a brand

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new world and wait, what do they mean by this?

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What do they mean by that? And it was it

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was a it was just a time of trying to

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find meaning and purpose and understanding, and there was just

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a lot going on, but it felt so different. Then

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the process began of going to this church and this church,

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and then you start seeing some of the negativity and

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bad things in churches, right church splits and fighting and

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arguing and sometimes people saying some of the most ridiculous things,

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and then experiencing some tragedy in my life, and hearing

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how Christians supposedly provide comfort by saying some of the

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most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life. Just

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on and on and on, just watching things unfold. And

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in the meantime, I'm going to this Bible college, and

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I'm going to go to this Bible college, and I'm

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going to go to this seminary, and I'm going to

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go to this Bible Institute, and I'm going to get

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as much education as I can possibly get. And I

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get an associate's degree, and I get a bachelor's degree,

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and I get a master's degree, and I want another

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associates and i want another bachelor's and i want another master's.

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And I'm going from one degree after another degree gaining.

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But it's not about the degrees. I don't care about

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the degrees. I don't care about letters, you know, in

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front of my name. I don't care about putting up

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the degrees you know, on the wall. I don't care

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about any of that. I don't even care. I don't

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care about any of that. I just want to learn

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about the Bible and theology and church history and all

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of these things. And so there's just like excitement like

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trying to figure it out and trying to figure it

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out and trying to figure it out, and then little

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by little you start, you know, well, I think your

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attitude begins to change a little bit, and now I'm

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much more jaded. I think it's just fair to say

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I am much more jaded now, much more frustrated now,

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much more irritated now, much more likely to just be

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like whatever, right, like just probably a very negative outlook.

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And you can say, well, that shouldn't have happened, Well

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it I think I would argue, no, it should have

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happened because of the ridiculousness and the craziness and the

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insanity that kind of makes up what Christianity is. See,

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what's once you really get into it, you kind of

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look around and you go. Christians say some of the

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most ridiculous, and in saying things, they they promote something

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that's just not wrong. I've been a Christian long enough

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to know that a lot of what is preached, and

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how it's preached and and the promise is made, they

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don't pan out in reality. They don't work the way

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Christians act like they work. They don't. The reality is

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is far different. Can I say the reality is far

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more depressing and discouraging than all of the supposed hope

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and comfort that we are told that we have, because

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in many cases they're their hope and their comfort. It's

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all it's it's it's it's just it's it's not real.

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It's not real. It's it's it's it's a mirage. It's

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not real. It's it's fraudulent. It's it's it's a face.

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It's like a it's like a and a play. It's

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supposed to look this way. But if you go walk

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up on the state, well that's not really, that's not really. This,

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it's a prop it's cgi it's fake. I don't know

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what words you want me to use, and you hear

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me express my frustration with Christianity. I think more and

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more and more, I think what you hear in the

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podcast is it's not so much my disagreeing with Christianity,

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it's my frustration that Christianity is putting forth concepts, ideas,

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and promises that are just proven to be false. Now,

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early on in my Christian life, I did start experiencing

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some of this right when the more I begin to

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hear and see of charismatics right running around claiming that

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by His stripes we are healed. But in the Atonement,

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Jesus provides physical healing for the here and now if

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you will just simply believe, you will be healed of

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this and this and this, and God is raising people

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from the dead, and He's doing all these supposed miracles.

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And I heard them say that over and over and

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over and over and over and over again. And then

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I became confronted, I don't know, with reality. And then

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I was like, you people are out of your ever

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living mind. So then, I mean, I never got disillusioned

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with charismatic theology. I just quickly realized those people are insane.

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That's the insane. They connect themselves with Christianity, but it's

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his insanity. All the things that were supposedly happening, God

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supposedly speaking to them, and then this charismatic said God

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told them this. But this charismatic saying God told them this,

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and it's like, well that one contradicts that when who

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was God actually talking to craziness, just all the insanity.

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So I was like, okay, I knew one thing. I

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was still learning about Christianity, but I knew almost. I

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knew probably I feel like within fifteen seconds. I know

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that's an exaggeration, but for illustration purposes, within fifteen seconds,

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realize anything that's associated with charismatic world run from there

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out of their ever living mind. They're insane. They don't

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need philological help, they need mental health help because they

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are living in a complete delusion. They believe that God

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is doing this, and God is doing this, Like, look

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at the world around you, what are you talking about?

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Right?

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So I knew that was wrong, but I still felt that. Okay,

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over here, I was still like, okay, I'll believe this

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and believe this. But then over time I've become much

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more Now, guys, it's just not true. That's just that's

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just not what are you doing? So I became kind

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of more disillusioned with it. And then I think probably

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the last stage here has become very disillusioned with this whole.

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I guess we just call them sermons. Sermons. I used

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to like, there was used to almost an enjoyment in sermons.

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Now there's almost a apprehension to even hit play, because

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I know, inevitably they put a sermon together, right. It

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may sound good, it sounds spiritual. It may provide you know, comfort,

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it may provide counsel, it may provide advice, it may

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sound so wonderful. They may be great speakers, and they

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articulate everything, and they don't mispronounce things like I do,

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and they read very and I you know, I can

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almost look to them and go, man, I wish I

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could be a better communicator. I wish I could communicate

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like them. But at the same time, I'm like, but

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what they are communicating is just totally lies. It's just garbage.

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It's trash, it's not true. Because they take scripture and

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they make and they do things with it that you're like,

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that's not what the scripture is saying. And that has

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led us recently. I mean, you've heard my frustration with

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all of this develop over time I think if you've

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been listening to me for a long time, you can

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you tell that I'm much more just. You can almost

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hear that I'm just finished with it all. And I

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think at times I feel like I am. I'm just like,

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you know what, I don't know what any of this

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stuff is. I'm done with it all because it just

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it just becomes maddening. But the most recent example is

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the sermons that we have reviewed on Isaiah forty forty three.

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Any of the sermons I've reviewed between Isaiah forty and

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fifty five has just been maddening. They run into Isaiah

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forty through fifty five. They just insert us, hijack the text,

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make it all about us, and it's just insanity. Like

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there's no even attempt to try to stay even reasonable

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with it. And it's so maddening. So we have been

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talking about and even the concept of Isaiah chapter forty

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verse one. If you've been listening, you know we've been

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talking about it over and over and over starts with

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comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. And so we were

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listening to someone about comfort, Oh, how we could get

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comfort from God? And then it made these statements that

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we should be comforted by this or comforted by this,

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and I'm like, well, any reasonable person would be like,

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that's not going to bring comfort, that's going to raise

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serious questions. So I even articulated that in the podcast. Well,

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yesterday at Victory Baptist Church, I had kind of make

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some on the spot decisions. Do we could just continue

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with Isaiah forty? What do we do? So I decided

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to dedicate two plus hours on Isaiah forty. We really

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did a lot of background work Isaiah thirty nine to

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Deuteronomy twenty eight. We provided a very good philological textual

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context for Isaiah forty to fifty five. I think we

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did pretty good there. I think we were doing we

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were doing a little bit of work on Isaiah forty,

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the work the Hebrew word for comfort there, all right.

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We were doing a little bit of work there. And

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then I had to make a decision because we were

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gonna go I was gonna look at all the places

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the Hebrew word that's translated comfort and Isaiah forty, all

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the different places it's used in Isaiah. But then I

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felt like, well, I don't really have time to get

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into them. So then I kind of made a on

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the spot decision that I regret. I regretted it all

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the way in the drive home. I've regretted it all

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day Sunday, all Sunday night, trying to sleep, regretting it

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all the way till today I decided to kind of

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get into my frustration again. You're hearing a theme with

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how pastors take the concept of comfort and say, hey,

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we should be comfort. Like if you go to Isaiah

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forty through fifty five and you take the comfort that

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was meant for specific people, the people in Babylonian exile,

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rip it out of its context, and then to try

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to apply it to us, that's a fraudulent comfort. That's

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a fake comfort. And I believe over and over and

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over pastors take comfort in the Bible that's meant for

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someone else and try to apply it to us. Meaning

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you're giving people a fraudulent comfort. You're telling them to

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be comforted by something that was never meant to comfort them,

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all right, So that so I was already irritated by that.

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So I kind of started articulating that, and then I

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got into the discussion of, well, some of the pastors

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that we've listened to in the Book of Isaiah, they'll

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find these passages that speak of God's power and that

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he's creator and he holds the stars in his hands.

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He's named the stars, these kinds of concepts, and they're like,

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we should find great comfort because God is all powerful,

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He's all mighty, and to me, I don't know why

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I'm supposed to find comfort and the fact that there's

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an all powerful God. When I see all the things

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going on, I'm like, well, in all powerful God could

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stop that, and could stop that, and could stop that

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and could stop that. How do I find comfort and

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an all powerful God? Unless God's using that power in

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my specific situation, then it's just a theoretical comfort. It's

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not none's there's no practical comfort in it. So I

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started to explain it. I thought I was just going

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to be able to mention it quickly and immediately. At least,

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I feel that the temperature in the church changed. And

278
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I don't believe everyone was happy with me going into

279
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that point, but it's like it has to be discussed.

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So then I was kind of frustrated because I went

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much longer in the second hour. I went way too long.

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I went way too long. That was one of those

283
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cases where I went too long but I'm still getting

284
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used to not having a Sunday night or a Wednesday night,

285
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so I feel this great pressure to try to get

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everything fit in in two hours on a Sunday, And

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then it's it's different because the people in the second

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hour are not there for the first hour. So then yeah,

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it's really I'm still trying to figure out the logistics

290
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of it, which then still is making my I feel

291
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like it's really hindering how well I'm presenting the material.

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But then i was just kind of discouraged, and I'm like, why,

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you know, if I look back at my younger self,

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I would have preached about God's comfort very different than

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I did on November. What's today? Today's the eleventh. On

296
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November the tenth, twenty twenty four. Yeah, today is November

297
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Veterans Day. I should know that, right, I already mentioned that. Okay,

298
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it's November the tenth. If if it was November the

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tenth five years ago, six years ago, seven years ago,

300
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ten years ago, I would have probably preached very different

301
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than I did in twenty twenty four. But I'm frustrated

302
00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.759
with the way sermons are done. I'm fresh, I'm frustrated

303
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with a lot of it. So why why have I

304
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spent seventeen minutes just kind of walking you through that?

305
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Because it really kind of sets up what I want

306
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to do here. So here's what happened. I had to

307
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wake up at what three forty three forty five this morning,

308
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so I've been up for a very long time. And

309
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I saw that there was a new episode from Insight

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00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:50.839
for Living with Charles Swindall or Chuck Swindall, and it

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had something It was entitled do I have the file here?

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See?

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I had the file here. Let me see if I

314
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can find it. There's a PDF file that comes with

315
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the broadcast. Let me see if I can find it.

316
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I think I have it here. Yes, I have it

317
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right here. Here is the file. The file is tight

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entitled the Desert School of Self Discovery. The Desert School

319
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of Self Discovery. And when I saw that as the

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title for the episode, it was on one of my

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podcast apps, I get the notification Insight for a Living

322
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new episode, the Desert School of Self Discovery. I was like, Oh,

323
00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:33.240
that's an interesting title. I bet you I know where

324
00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:36.079
they're going to go, right, I said, I'm pretty sure

325
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I know where they're going to go, and then pastor

326
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Charles Swindall, he makes this statement, there's nothing like the

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desert to strip away all the trappings, pill off all

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the mask and help you discover the real you. And

329
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I'm like, oh boy, I know what Charles Swindall is

330
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getting ready to do. Charles Swindall is getting ready to

331
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He's getting ready to go to these.

332
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Passages in the Bible where it talks about people in

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the desert, people in the wilderness, and it's going to

334
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turn into kind of an allegorical thing, an illustrative thing,

335
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and we're gonna be inserted into the desert scene and

336
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it's gonna all.

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Become about us. I'm like, well, let me listen. So

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I started listening, made it I don't know, a minute,

339
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two minutes, and I'm like, well, more discouragement, because this

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is exactly where my frustration is with Isaiah forty through

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fifty five. I'm like, why does this keep happening? Is

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every sermon just an example of pastors just going to

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the text spiritualizing it, I'll agorizing it, putting us inside

344
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the text, and I just I just don't know. So

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I'm like, well, I'm gonna have to listen to this

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at some point. So you know what, I'm going to

347
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listen to it with you. We're gonna review this, We're

348
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going to go through this and here and this. The

349
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reason I started with, how what has changed in your

350
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Christian life? How is your feelings in thinking changed? This

351
00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:11.480
is going to be very depressing for me because Charles

352
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Swindall was massively influential in my early Christian life. Again,

353
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I've told the story a million times that really the

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two men who discipled me was John MacArthur and Charles Swindall.

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I mean, I have notebooks filled with every single day

356
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after school listening to them, taking notes, taking notes. If

357
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there was a book by MacArthur, if there was a

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book by Swindall, I purchased them. If I had the

359
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ability to buy their cassette series. I know that's dating me.

360
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I would buy them and then listen to the sermons

361
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over and over and over and over and over and

362
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over and over and over and over and over and

363
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over and over and over again. There was an excitement,

364
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there was a thrill, there was I could not wait.

365
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So now to listen to it, I'm going to hear

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something that if I would have heard it, then I'm

367
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probably most luckily I did hear it back then. I

368
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would have heard it back then and I would have

369
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been like, oh, wow, that's so good, that's so awesome.

370
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I may have felt encouragement, I may have felt oh, excitement,

371
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But now I'm going to hear it and I'm going

372
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to be like, no, I'm going to the liquor store

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and I give up. And it's like I, in some

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ways I long to go back to where, Oh I

375
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love it. It was so encouraging, it was so amazing, it

376
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was so awesome. So do I want? And I think

377
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this is kind of a where I am Sometimes in

378
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some ways I want to recapture that more. I guess

379
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you can call it innocent, naive, passion and zeal, not

380
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the jaded, give up, discouraged. I want to go back

381
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to that, but you can't. I can't go back to that.

382
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The more knowledge I this is almost the way it worked,

383
00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:59.559
the less knowledge I had, the least, the less I knew,

384
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:03.920
the more ignorance that was inside of me. The more

385
00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:07.440
I could be encouraged, the more I could find comfort,

386
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:10.640
I could find excitement about these story. The more I

387
00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:14.839
loved the sermons, I loved it. Right, I loved everything

388
00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:18.000
about it. It was great, it was wonderful. I could

389
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listen to Christian radio and the announcer would say something like, oh,

390
00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:24.079
let me write that down. Oh that's so good, so encouraging,

391
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and everything was like everything felt like it was just

392
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one truth after another, truth after another truth after another truth.

393
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I would never even thinking about true or not. Everything

394
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was just true. Everything was just right. Like I had

395
00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:40.400
some disagreements maybe, but I didn't know enough, so just

396
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everything seemed like truth. But the more I learned, the

397
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more I learned, and the more I learned and the

398
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:51.160
more I saw and the more I experienced, that illusion

399
00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:54.599
came crashing down. So it's like, which is best? Is

400
00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:58.000
it better just to be naive and just be excited

401
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:05.880
and maybe more joy, passion, comfort, happiness, But it's all

402
00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:08.160
it's all based off an illusion. It's all a lie.

403
00:23:09.640 --> 00:23:12.319
Or is it better to be gain all the knowledge?

404
00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.920
And then you're like, oh for crying out loud, No,

405
00:23:15.319 --> 00:23:19.039
Isaiah forty know that passage in Jeremiah about knowing the

406
00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:21.359
plants for me, None of that is about me, and

407
00:23:21.480 --> 00:23:24.079
just get and then just get frustrated with and what

408
00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:25.920
are you doing with that text? And no that's not

409
00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:29.599
what are you doing? Is it better to know the

410
00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:34.039
difference between Exejesus and Isa Jesus when a lot of

411
00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.720
sermons are nothing more than is to Jesus isid Jesus.

412
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:38.920
But isn't it better just know Isa Jesus and just

413
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:41.599
not know the difference between ex Jesus and Isa Jesus

414
00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:48.640
and just love the sermon. What's better to live almost

415
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.920
in ignorance but find all of the benefits that come

416
00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.920
from it, or have all of those benefits of ignorance

417
00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:58.400
stripped away, but you're left with some concept of knowledge

418
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and truth. But now you're jade discouraged, and you know,

419
00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:07.079
hanging out at the liquor store. I know someone's gonna

420
00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:10.240
say those are wild extremes there. There's gotta be a

421
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:14.240
happy balance. There should be. I just don't know what

422
00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:18.960
it is. But let's listen to a little of this.

423
00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:21.480
This is an insight for living. You can look up

424
00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:24.160
the podcast on any podcasting app. I would tell you

425
00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:27.279
to subscribe to it. The only ones I don't like anytime.

426
00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:31.160
I just this is just again because I've been listening

427
00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:33.240
to Charles Windall. I think we used to call him

428
00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.880
Chuck Swindall, but all right, Charles Windall moment, maybe they

429
00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:41.440
maybe they used to announce miss Chuckwindall, but okay, but Charleswindall.

430
00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:46.480
That's aways his name is listed. But when now, when

431
00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:48.640
I listen to their program, when they pull from the

432
00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:51.880
old files from the archive from their library, I love

433
00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:54.799
it because it's like kind of recapturing a major part

434
00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:58.519
of my Christian life. When they play anything that's relatively new,

435
00:24:59.200 --> 00:25:03.799
I hate it because he sounds so different. You can

436
00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:06.680
hear his voice, I mean, because he's like, what eighties,

437
00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:08.519
he's getting ready to retire, he's got to be in

438
00:25:08.519 --> 00:25:11.279
his eighties now, and it just sounds so like what

439
00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.920
happened too, Because I'm so there's like an image captured

440
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:19.319
in my mind the sound of it. So this one

441
00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:21.920
is an older one. So I definitely was in, Oh,

442
00:25:22.359 --> 00:25:25.000
I like this, and then to see then guess what happened?

443
00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:27.640
I went from oh, I probably listened to this and

444
00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:30.200
this year or this year and trying to remember when

445
00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:32.319
I first heard it, and then all of a sudden going,

446
00:25:32.440 --> 00:25:37.440
oh no, it's not bringing the same joy and excitement.

447
00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:42.599
It's bringing more of that jaded discourage that almost just

448
00:25:42.759 --> 00:25:49.039
feeling defeated. So now maybe maybe, just maybe I'm gonna

449
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:50.599
be able to go, oh, well, you know what, this

450
00:25:50.680 --> 00:25:53.599
actually is good because remember I didn't listen to everything.

451
00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:55.400
But let's find out are you ready or ready to

452
00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:57.480
do this? That's twenty five minutes of just trying to

453
00:25:57.519 --> 00:25:59.720
talk about it. But I think some of you can relate.

454
00:26:00.039 --> 00:26:01.720
I think some of you. Have you been a Christian

455
00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:04.880
for a long time, You've gone through this journey. Dare

456
00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:09.880
I say you've gone through this evolution? I think the

457
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.279
evolution is inevitable. I get more worried about the Christians

458
00:26:13.319 --> 00:26:15.680
who don't ever seem to go through this. They're just

459
00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:20.160
still back at like stage one. I'm like, what happened?

460
00:26:20.559 --> 00:26:23.319
And I noticed this dealing with a lot of previous

461
00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:25.880
Christian friends is after so many years. I would talk

462
00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.440
to them and it'd be like, dude, you're still talking

463
00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.720
like we did ten years ago. Your Christianity hasn't moved

464
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:34.680
in any way, shape or form. I mean to me,

465
00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:38.039
it's you've got to move forward, right, I don't. I

466
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.599
don't know how you can just live. I don't know.

467
00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:43.599
Maybe that's what's wrong. Maybe people say you went to

468
00:26:43.599 --> 00:26:48.480
too many schools. Maybe education is a bad thing, right.

469
00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:55.559
Maybe Christianity can only survive in a certain way, or

470
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:58.359
at least in a certain kind of Christianity can only

471
00:26:58.359 --> 00:27:02.920
be experienced and proceed a certain way in the context

472
00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:08.880
a little knowledge, but more knowledge destroys or explodes that

473
00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:13.680
that perception. That's almost an interesting concept right there. But

474
00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:15.160
are you ready to go back with me? I don't

475
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.839
even know what year this was originally preached, so I

476
00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:21.519
can't pinpoint exactly when I would have heard it. But

477
00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:26.519
it's the Desert School of Self Discovery, Part one, and

478
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:29.680
this is a part of a broader series on Moses

479
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:33.799
and well you, I think you're going to get an

480
00:27:33.839 --> 00:27:37.279
idea of it's really all about us. But here we go?

481
00:27:37.400 --> 00:27:38.480
Are you ready? Here we go?

482
00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:49.640
In the journey of life, sometimes we feel like we're

483
00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:52.880
trekking alone through the desert with sand in our shoes

484
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:57.000
and the sun bearing down. It's lonely, it's quiet, and

485
00:27:57.079 --> 00:28:00.880
it feels like we're getting nowhere. Well today, on Insight

486
00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:05.359
for Living, Chuck Swyndahl continues his biographical study of Moses

487
00:28:05.880 --> 00:28:09.440
in the Book of Exodus. We'll observe his decades of anonymity,

488
00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:12.880
shepherding his father in Law's Sheep and the Land of Midian.

489
00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:16.680
Moses's time in the desert teaches us profound lessons about

490
00:28:16.680 --> 00:28:20.559
our own walk with God. Chuck titled his message the

491
00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:23.000
Desert School of Self Discovery.

492
00:28:25.559 --> 00:28:28.279
Now see when I would have heard that as a

493
00:28:28.319 --> 00:28:33.440
younger Christianity be like, ooh, this is good. In fact,

494
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:35.960
I do remember how this influenced me, And I'll talk

495
00:28:36.079 --> 00:28:39.079
more about how I applied it to my life, because

496
00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:42.079
this did have a profound impact on me. But did

497
00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:45.640
you see how quickly it was all about us? Did

498
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:49.119
you see how it became about us right out of

499
00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:53.640
the gate boom? It's about you, even though it's a

500
00:28:53.640 --> 00:28:56.920
biographical study about Moses. No, no, no, no, it's about your

501
00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:58.960
journey in life and how we can end up in

502
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.680
a desert and now the desert is loneliness? Or wait,

503
00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:05.839
what just happened? What just happened? And now how we

504
00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:10.480
can take Moses's time in the desert and now it

505
00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:14.559
can teach me something? Wait a minute, is the experience

506
00:29:14.680 --> 00:29:19.160
Moses had now transferable to me? Are the principles transferable

507
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:22.200
to me? And do now I create this idea that well,

508
00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:25.599
in life we go through deserts and now Our desert

509
00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:30.200
can be loneliness. Our desert could be difficulty. Now I

510
00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:33.799
can take the lessons supposedly that was taught to Moses

511
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:36.359
and they just somehow transferred to me. Am I supposed

512
00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:40.200
to find comfort? Are they actually applicable? Or am I

513
00:29:40.279 --> 00:29:46.039
just giving myself some sense of comfort? Hope meaning purpose, insight?

514
00:29:46.640 --> 00:29:51.519
All based off a complete fraudulent use of scripture. See

515
00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.880
that's see to me, it's serious. It's not just an

516
00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:59.759
issue of disagreeing that leads people. It makes everyone feel

517
00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:02.000
great for a period of time. But sooner or later

518
00:30:02.039 --> 00:30:04.720
the facade begins to fall apart. Sooner or later the

519
00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:08.319
stage prop falls over and you see reality. Sooner or later,

520
00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:10.640
the curtain is pulled back and you see the Wizard

521
00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:12.880
of Oz is just some guy like you get the

522
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:15.200
I don't know how many different illustrations I can give you.

523
00:30:15.240 --> 00:30:17.640
Sooner or later you realize, wait a minute, I've been had,

524
00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:23.480
I've been played. So we'll play that again and then

525
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:25.400
we'll go into this. Here we go.

526
00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:36.400
In the journey of life. Sometimes we feel like we're

527
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:39.640
trekking alone through the desert with sand in our shoes

528
00:30:39.720 --> 00:30:43.799
and the sun bearing down. It's lonely it's quiet, and

529
00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:47.640
it feels like we're getting nowhere. Well. Today, on Insight

530
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:52.119
for a Living, Chuckswyndall continues his biographical study of Moses

531
00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.480
in the Book of Exodus. We'll observe his decades of

532
00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:59.039
anonymity shepherding his father in law's sheep in the land

533
00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:02.640
of Midian. Moses's time in the desert teaches us profound

534
00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:06.279
lessons about our own walk with God. Chuck titled his

535
00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:14.519
message the Desert School of Self Discovery.

536
00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:20.759
Well, tonight, I want to talk about something that is painful,

537
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:26.240
but it is essential in our walk with the Lord.

538
00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:33.680
I am referring to how the Lord handles some of

539
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:37.920
his children. It seems the longer I live, the more

540
00:31:37.960 --> 00:31:42.039
I realize most of his children in preparing them for

541
00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:44.279
his purpose.

542
00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:49.920
Okay, so the hypothesis is being set up. God does

543
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:57.039
certain things for most Christians to prepare them for his purpose.

544
00:31:57.079 --> 00:31:59.359
So God has a purpose, and He's like, okay, the

545
00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:02.319
only way I can get you to that purpose is

546
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:04.839
I've got to prepare you. And now what we're getting

547
00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:07.920
ready to find out is he prepares us by putting

548
00:32:07.960 --> 00:32:11.519
us in the desert. So now you see how this

549
00:32:11.559 --> 00:32:14.799
begins to shape an entire narrative, and for a Christian

550
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:18.160
when we go through a difficult time, see, hey, hey guys,

551
00:32:18.200 --> 00:32:20.440
it's not just a difficult time like your neighbor across

552
00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:22.960
the street who's lost. He's going through a difficult time.

553
00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:25.200
But that's different. He just goes through a difficult time.

554
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:27.240
But for us, no, no, no, no, no no. My

555
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:31.799
difficult time is God putting me in a desert to

556
00:32:31.880 --> 00:32:36.160
prepare me for a purpose, for a purpose. Now is

557
00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:38.240
that purpose laid out in scripture? Is there just a

558
00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:42.039
purpose I make up? Like you know, I just make

559
00:32:42.079 --> 00:32:45.599
it up. Hey, God's purpose for me is this? Okay?

560
00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:47.680
I guess you can give yourself some sense, But so

561
00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:50.240
what God has to do. He can't He can't just

562
00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:53.000
prepare you, you know, just make you the way he

563
00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:55.279
wants you. He's got to make you for some reason.

564
00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:57.279
He's got to put you in a desert and you've

565
00:32:57.319 --> 00:33:00.359
got to suffer, and if you suffer, then that's how

566
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:02.880
he prepares you. So you see your desert time as

567
00:33:02.920 --> 00:33:12.480
all this is wonderful. He's preparing me. Okay, I what

568
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:16.880
what is that purpose he's preparing you for? And why

569
00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:21.079
is it that one person's preparing is they're in a

570
00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:25.319
desert and I don't know they when they were young.

571
00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:29.319
Now does the preparing start even before you're saved? Like

572
00:33:29.359 --> 00:33:32.119
maybe you're young and I don't know you're tied up

573
00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:34.480
in a closet and beat with a baseball bat, or

574
00:33:34.839 --> 00:33:37.400
tied up and burn with a curling iron, or whipped

575
00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:41.400
with an electric cord? Is that is that preparing? Is

576
00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:43.640
that God putting me in the desert to prepare me?

577
00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:48.759
What if you are a woman and you're raped, is

578
00:33:48.759 --> 00:33:51.599
that God prepared? Is that the desert where he's preparing you?

579
00:33:55.160 --> 00:33:58.319
Or no, no, No, that's that's that's just that's just

580
00:33:58.400 --> 00:34:02.799
bad things happening. Okay, okay, see already philosophical question. See

581
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:05.359
I wouldn't have any of those philosophical questions when I

582
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:07.839
was young. I would have been like, oh, okay, so

583
00:34:07.960 --> 00:34:11.679
all the bad things happening to me, is he prepared me? Hey?

584
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:15.880
What was preparing me for a purpose? Okay? Great? See

585
00:34:16.440 --> 00:34:18.719
it would have given me some sense of comfort. But

586
00:34:18.840 --> 00:34:21.440
now after all this time, I'm like, wait a minute,

587
00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:24.239
how do exactly does this work? So you can see

588
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:27.400
kind of the hypotheses he's putting forth, and he's building

589
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:33.320
this entire hypothesis though on a story about Moses, and

590
00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:38.199
I immediately note this is all us centered. Now, even

591
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:41.679
though Moses is going to be utilized, it's not about Moses.

592
00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:44.119
It's really about you and I. Let's see what he

593
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:45.559
says here. Let's see what he says here.

594
00:34:47.519 --> 00:34:52.440
Specifically, I'm talking about times in the desert. I am

595
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:58.559
referring to the school in which God places his children

596
00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:05.159
to prepare them for a particular task. Now, there's no

597
00:35:05.239 --> 00:35:12.920
way that I can paint this attractive or colorful, glamorous, beautiful.

598
00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:17.880
It was never designed to be. I'm talking about the desert,

599
00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:22.960
not in February. I'm talking about the desert in July.

600
00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:30.400
I am not talking about palm springs kind of desert, Okay,

601
00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:34.960
I'm talking about the kind of desert in the midst

602
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:40.079
of the Mahave or the Sahara, the place of heat,

603
00:35:41.079 --> 00:35:48.719
the place of barrenness, the place where you are not productive.

604
00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:53.440
As we get into the subject, it helps me, as

605
00:35:53.480 --> 00:35:56.199
it may help you, to know that the Hebrew word

606
00:35:56.400 --> 00:36:02.400
for desert is mid bar. It's from a verb d'auvaire,

607
00:36:02.719 --> 00:36:06.280
meaning to speak. I find that significant.

608
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:10.960
The desert is the place where God.

609
00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:18.119
Speaks, communicates, to us a message we could not otherwise

610
00:36:18.239 --> 00:36:20.400
hear what he has to say if it were not

611
00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:24.159
for the desert, Because the desert is a place that

612
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:28.880
strips from you all the things that you hang on

613
00:36:28.960 --> 00:36:34.519
to for comfort, all the things that you have felt

614
00:36:34.559 --> 00:36:39.360
you needed through life, but you didn't need because they

615
00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:43.519
were the things that kept you from hearing God.

616
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:49.480
Okay, Now this raises all kinds of questions here. So

617
00:36:49.719 --> 00:36:53.679
the idea is that the Hebrew word for desert has

618
00:36:53.719 --> 00:36:59.679
this idea of speaking, of speaking, right, Okay, So if

619
00:36:59.719 --> 00:37:03.440
it came there is this idea of speaking, then what

620
00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:06.159
he's saying we are put into the desert, so we

621
00:37:06.199 --> 00:37:09.039
are stripped from all the things that keeps us from

622
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:13.039
hearing God. We cannot hear God unless we are stripped

623
00:37:13.079 --> 00:37:16.559
from all of these things. Now this becomes obviously, I've

624
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:18.639
got all kinds of theological questions. Are you saying God

625
00:37:18.679 --> 00:37:23.199
speaking outside of his word? Okay? Now, now, well, then

626
00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:26.039
obviously I reject that completely. God only speaks to us

627
00:37:26.079 --> 00:37:28.960
through his word. Are you saying I cannot hear God

628
00:37:29.039 --> 00:37:32.920
speak in his word unless I put in the desert

629
00:37:33.239 --> 00:37:36.159
and stripped of everything. Well, then if someone comes to

630
00:37:36.199 --> 00:37:39.519
me arguing so then now just look at the logical progression. Okay,

631
00:37:39.519 --> 00:37:42.519
if that's true, then if someone starts arguing with me

632
00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:46.199
about biblical interpretation, I just say stop time out before

633
00:37:46.199 --> 00:37:49.280
we continue. How much time did you spend in the desert?

634
00:37:49.639 --> 00:37:52.960
How many things were stripped from you? Because if things

635
00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.280
weren't stripped from you, you can't hear God because it's

636
00:37:56.320 --> 00:37:58.599
only in the desert that you learn to hear from God.

637
00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:01.719
So unless you've suffered as much as I've suffered, then

638
00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:04.079
you can't argue with me because I can hear God

639
00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:06.639
better than you because I've been in the desert. I

640
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:09.239
mean like literally, that's what it would lead to. Logically.

641
00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:14.320
Now again, as young bro, I would be I was like, oh, okay,

642
00:38:14.360 --> 00:38:16.280
so I need to go to the desert so I

643
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:18.320
can be stripped so I can hear from God. And

644
00:38:18.360 --> 00:38:21.199
immediately that gave me some sense of hope, right, I mean,

645
00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:23.280
if you go back, I mean, if you go through

646
00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:26.400
my life. I mean I've gone through some pretty crazy, difficult,

647
00:38:26.519 --> 00:38:30.039
painful things and probably many of you have. So when

648
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:32.800
I was young, it would be like, now I know

649
00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:35.320
why I went through all of those things, so now

650
00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:39.519
I can hear from God. God was stripping me away

651
00:38:39.559 --> 00:38:43.800
of everything. Ah, this is good. So it gave me

652
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.320
a sense of understanding why I suffered. But then you go,

653
00:38:46.360 --> 00:38:49.119
wait a minute, do I so now I can hear

654
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:53.079
now see you looking back, I'm like, So that means

655
00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:56.480
I could hear God better. So then your ability to

656
00:38:56.559 --> 00:39:02.480
hear God, Your ability to hear God is completely connected

657
00:39:02.519 --> 00:39:08.320
to and dependent upon everything being stripped that keeps you

658
00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:15.039
from hearing from God. Well, that raises lots of questions. Here,

659
00:39:15.239 --> 00:39:18.280
let's and and well, we could get into the idea

660
00:39:18.440 --> 00:39:21.559
of I think mid bar is the Hebrew word. I

661
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:23.679
wanted to do a little bit of work here on

662
00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:25.840
mid bar. If he gets into a text that uses

663
00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:28.400
the word mid bar, if I find it, I'm going

664
00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.639
to be if it's if it carries all the meanings

665
00:39:30.679 --> 00:39:33.039
he assigned to it. Well, we'll see. But let's let's

666
00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:36.880
let's continue speak.

667
00:39:38.559 --> 00:39:42.199
To begin with, let us look at Deuteronomy thirty two.

668
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:47.119
As we observe a couple of verses here and another

669
00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:51.599
in Deuteronomy before we turn back to the man who

670
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:57.519
incarnates all of these principles, Moses. And now, as you

671
00:39:57.559 --> 00:40:00.639
find Deuteronomy, let me say to you that you're desert

672
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:06.519
probably will not be literally a desert. God does not

673
00:40:06.719 --> 00:40:10.880
call many of his children to live in the midst

674
00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:16.519
of the Mahave or the Sahara. But your desert might

675
00:40:16.599 --> 00:40:21.760
be caring for the aged over an extended period of

676
00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:28.360
time without relief. It might be confinement in some capacity.

677
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:32.440
It might be ill health that suddenly overtakes you and

678
00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:36.440
stays with you for an undetermined, undisclosed period of time.

679
00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:44.719
It is that which brings personal pain or hardship or heartache,

680
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:46.199
that's the desert.

681
00:40:48.360 --> 00:40:53.039
So the desert is anything that brings pain, heartache and suffering,

682
00:40:53.159 --> 00:40:55.880
and that's a desert. And God put you there to

683
00:40:55.960 --> 00:41:00.599
prepare you for a purpose. In fact, the PDFI he

684
00:41:00.679 --> 00:41:03.639
states it this way. For many, the feeling of being

685
00:41:03.679 --> 00:41:07.599
stranded in a desert is a daily reality, stranded not

686
00:41:07.719 --> 00:41:11.599
in a literal desert, but in circumstances that seem like

687
00:41:11.679 --> 00:41:16.000
a desert. In his book Moses, a man of selfless dedication,

688
00:41:16.199 --> 00:41:20.880
pastor Chuck swind All. See why I see so his

689
00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:23.440
name is Charles Wendall. They call him Chuck Windall. You see,

690
00:41:23.599 --> 00:41:25.960
That's why I was going back and forth between the two.

691
00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:29.519
He describes what may be your wilderness this way, you're ready.

692
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:34.559
Here's his description of what your wilderness may be. Your wilderness,

693
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:40.519
your desert experience might involve caring for an ailing family

694
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:44.719
member or an elderly person over an extended time. Now

695
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:47.320
this is weird. So your desert could be caring for

696
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:50.440
the person who's suffering. And I'm assuming the person suffering

697
00:41:50.719 --> 00:41:53.440
their desert is the suffering. All right, But okay, so

698
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:58.159
that now, just remember people of all walks of life.

699
00:41:58.599 --> 00:42:01.679
People who are Muslim people or atheist people are agnostic

700
00:42:01.719 --> 00:42:06.000
people are Satanists, people who have every religion they go through.

701
00:42:06.320 --> 00:42:09.559
It's very common through human history to care for someone

702
00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:13.519
who's ailing, someone who's suffering, someone who's been injured, someone

703
00:42:13.519 --> 00:42:16.679
who has a disease. That's a pretty common experience. But

704
00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:20.360
so the narrative is, but hey, hey, but Christian your

705
00:42:20.559 --> 00:42:23.800
going through it is different. That person is suffering and

706
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:27.639
you've got to care for them. But hey, hey, hey,

707
00:42:30.039 --> 00:42:33.199
it's your desert. God is preparing you for a purpose.

708
00:42:36.440 --> 00:42:38.719
He goes on to say. He goes on to say,

709
00:42:39.880 --> 00:42:42.920
so you're caring for an ailing family member or an

710
00:42:42.920 --> 00:42:45.360
elderly person over an extended time, with no help at

711
00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:48.639
hand and no relief in sight. Your sojourn in the

712
00:42:48.679 --> 00:42:52.039
dry lands might be a stubborn physical condition that keeps

713
00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:54.880
you confined. It could be that deep soul ache that

714
00:42:54.960 --> 00:42:58.800
comes with an unfaithful spouse or a rebellious teenager. And

715
00:42:58.880 --> 00:43:01.599
maybe moving from an air where you had numerous friends

716
00:43:01.719 --> 00:43:04.079
and deep family ties to a place that seems strange

717
00:43:04.079 --> 00:43:06.840
and alien, where you don't know anyone at all. You

718
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:10.320
feel displaced, shelved. It may be a failure at school

719
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.760
and estrangement from an old friend, a boring, thinkless job.

720
00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:17.119
The desert wears many faces. Basically, the desert is anything

721
00:43:17.159 --> 00:43:18.679
you don't like. I mean, let's just be on. The

722
00:43:18.719 --> 00:43:21.239
desert is anything you don't like. Hey, you don't like it,

723
00:43:21.280 --> 00:43:25.800
But God put you there. God put you there. God

724
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:27.960
put you there. And if God put you there because

725
00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:31.800
of an unfaithful spouse, so then all right, all right,

726
00:43:31.840 --> 00:43:34.280
Now we get into God's control versus man's free will.

727
00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:36.360
Now we get into all of these great I see again,

728
00:43:36.599 --> 00:43:39.440
before I would have had the knowledge, I would have

729
00:43:39.480 --> 00:43:42.440
been like, oh yeah, okay, so everything that's bad in

730
00:43:42.440 --> 00:43:45.599
my life it's a desert. Now. See when I was young,

731
00:43:46.199 --> 00:43:48.599
When I was young, this worked good, right, because see

732
00:43:48.599 --> 00:43:50.920
this is the way I did it. This is the

733
00:43:50.960 --> 00:43:53.320
impact this had on me. Right, So this is what

734
00:43:53.400 --> 00:43:56.239
I did. Ooh, man, I've gone through a lot. Man,

735
00:43:56.320 --> 00:43:58.639
I have gone through a lot. All the abuse and

736
00:43:58.679 --> 00:44:02.559
craziness that happened growing up, then my mom's death, okay,

737
00:44:02.760 --> 00:44:07.320
then then my attempted suicide eight weeks in a psychiatric hospital.

738
00:44:07.559 --> 00:44:11.199
All these horrible things have happened to me, all the craziness,

739
00:44:11.639 --> 00:44:16.159
everything that's went down. But it was all desert. God

740
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:19.920
put me in the desert to prepare me, to prepare me.

741
00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:23.199
And then I thought I was gonna get into ministry,

742
00:44:23.239 --> 00:44:25.159
and then that all fell apart, and so then I

743
00:44:25.239 --> 00:44:28.639
joined the military, and then okay, well now I'm in

744
00:44:28.679 --> 00:44:30.360
the military. I don't know if I'm ever gonna get

745
00:44:30.360 --> 00:44:32.920
to ministry, but hey, don't worry about it. Just this

746
00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:35.440
is my time of preparing. This is all God. He's

747
00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:38.559
gonna prepare me for something amazing, something great. Because I

748
00:44:38.639 --> 00:44:42.119
was young, and you feel like, oh, the whole world,

749
00:44:42.239 --> 00:44:44.440
but my whole life is in front of me, and

750
00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:47.440
it's preparing me. Now. It's one thing to be Moses

751
00:44:47.480 --> 00:44:49.840
and prepared for I don't know. One of the most

752
00:44:49.880 --> 00:44:54.559
amazing stories ever literally leading a nation out of captivity. Okay,

753
00:44:54.599 --> 00:44:57.400
all right, there you have something, but so what do

754
00:44:57.400 --> 00:44:59.719
you have? So when you're young, you can see everything

755
00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:02.559
as preparing you for something, some purpose, and maybe you

756
00:45:02.639 --> 00:45:04.880
find that purpose and maybe you like, oh this was it.

757
00:45:05.199 --> 00:45:08.599
God prepared me for this job or God prepared me

758
00:45:08.679 --> 00:45:12.960
for whatever. You can try to find something, but at

759
00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:15.199
that time you're not really worried about what the purpose is.

760
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:17.360
You just like, you know, okay, all this bad stuff

761
00:45:17.440 --> 00:45:20.559
is it's for a reason, so you feel it gives

762
00:45:20.559 --> 00:45:23.639
you comfort. Right, But what happens when I don't know,

763
00:45:24.440 --> 00:45:28.480
Now you're forty, now you're forty five, you're fifty, and

764
00:45:28.519 --> 00:45:30.920
you just your life look like to everybody else's life.

765
00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:32.880
I mean, you got a job, I mean you're doing this.

766
00:45:33.320 --> 00:45:36.199
What did he prepare you for? What was the great task?

767
00:45:36.599 --> 00:45:41.559
What was the great task? What was the great task?

768
00:45:41.800 --> 00:45:44.400
And what happens when the suffering comes later in life? Right?

769
00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:49.480
What if you're you're in your fifties and you're caring

770
00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:52.760
for someone who's whose health is getting worse and worse

771
00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:55.079
and worse, and it's terminal, and you just watch them,

772
00:45:55.119 --> 00:45:57.639
and you may watch them to your fifties and to

773
00:45:57.719 --> 00:46:00.559
your sixties and to your seventies and they die. What

774
00:46:00.639 --> 00:46:04.480
was God preparing you for your death? Hey, I watched

775
00:46:04.519 --> 00:46:07.519
this person suffer for twenty years and now I die.

776
00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:10.079
Thank you for preparing me to die. I needed to

777
00:46:10.119 --> 00:46:12.159
watch suffering so I could be prepared for him. Like

778
00:46:12.199 --> 00:46:19.440
that doesn't even make any sense, but just know. So

779
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:22.360
now the desert, So he takes desert in the Bible,

780
00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:26.480
and now the desert is just this nebulous thing that

781
00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:29.599
anything that you don't like is just a desert. But hey,

782
00:46:29.679 --> 00:46:32.320
don't get mad about it. God puts you in that school.

783
00:46:32.440 --> 00:46:35.440
Now you want to graduate with honors. So this is

784
00:46:35.480 --> 00:46:37.199
the way you act in the desert, and then you're

785
00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:40.920
gonna be You're gonna be the next Moses. You're gonna

786
00:46:40.920 --> 00:46:50.119
be the next David. It sounds encouraging. Just don't know.

787
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:53.360
I think at some point the facade it falls apart.

788
00:46:53.440 --> 00:46:56.159
Let's see what else he has to say.

789
00:46:56.920 --> 00:46:58.840
It may be a loss of a loved one by

790
00:46:58.960 --> 00:47:04.840
death or by another lover. It may be a broken romance.

791
00:47:05.880 --> 00:47:10.519
It may be a divorce. It may be moving from

792
00:47:10.559 --> 00:47:14.360
an area that you're very familiar with to an area

793
00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:16.679
that you know no one and you are away from

794
00:47:16.719 --> 00:47:19.920
all of the ones that you love and long to

795
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:22.000
hear and to see to be with.

796
00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:28.920
You do see, you do see the philosophical problem here.

797
00:47:29.519 --> 00:47:31.639
God puts you in the school. But wait a minute,

798
00:47:31.679 --> 00:47:34.199
So that means God's controlling the situation. Why wouldn't God

799
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:36.119
instead of putting me in the school, Why wouldn't he

800
00:47:36.159 --> 00:47:39.199
intervene to keep my loved one from dying. Why wouldn't

801
00:47:39.239 --> 00:47:42.480
he intervene to keep that horrible thing from happening. Why

802
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:47.159
wouldn't he intervene to save the marriage? Why wouldn't he intervene? Hey,

803
00:47:47.239 --> 00:47:50.360
I mean, if he's going to intervene to use this

804
00:47:50.679 --> 00:47:53.559
to get me ready for my purpose, then why wouldn't

805
00:47:53.559 --> 00:47:57.320
he then intervene to stop this stuff from happening? Right?

806
00:47:57.360 --> 00:47:59.920
I mean, like you see where he gets kind of confusing. Hey,

807
00:48:00.159 --> 00:48:03.719
I know it's horrible, but hey, it's just know that

808
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:06.840
the God who could have stopped it didn't stop it

809
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:12.280
because he's going to use it for some nebulous purpose

810
00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:15.039
that you can and you guess what, you probably can

811
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:18.400
assign what the purpose is. If you want. This becomes

812
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:22.119
very much like you get to kind of create your

813
00:48:22.159 --> 00:48:22.800
own narrative.

814
00:48:22.840 --> 00:48:28.159
Here the desert wears many clothes. May be a failure

815
00:48:28.239 --> 00:48:32.360
at school or at work. It may be a boring,

816
00:48:33.719 --> 00:48:40.320
thankless job, but that's your calling. That's the desert now.

817
00:48:40.920 --> 00:48:45.480
In Deuteronomy thirty two, we have a direct reference to

818
00:48:45.559 --> 00:48:49.679
the nation Israel, but I want to apply it immediately

819
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:55.360
to your life and mine.

820
00:48:56.480 --> 00:48:59.039
Hey, hey, guys, this is a reference to Israel, but

821
00:48:59.159 --> 00:49:03.559
I want to immediately apply it to your life and mind. Hey,

822
00:49:03.559 --> 00:49:06.000
I guys, I know this is about Israel, but hey,

823
00:49:06.159 --> 00:49:08.639
we gotta get them out of the way. We gotta

824
00:49:08.719 --> 00:49:10.760
move them on out. We got to move them on.

825
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:13.119
I think that's I think that's what we do. We're

826
00:49:13.199 --> 00:49:16.800
just the movers, right, we just walk in. I called us,

827
00:49:16.840 --> 00:49:21.559
you know, narcissistic textual hijackers. I think we're also narcissistic movers.

828
00:49:21.599 --> 00:49:23.719
We just move in. We just move in, and we

829
00:49:23.800 --> 00:49:26.599
just we just take over. Hey, hey, Israel, I know

830
00:49:26.639 --> 00:49:29.280
you're here, but we're packing up your bags. You got

831
00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:31.559
to go, You got to get out. You gotta get

832
00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:35.440
moving because we're moving in. Baby, We're moving in. And

833
00:49:35.480 --> 00:49:38.519
even though this passage is about you, it's really about me.

834
00:49:39.480 --> 00:49:43.119
It's all about me. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's yeah.

835
00:49:43.159 --> 00:49:45.039
I know your dog just started howling and your kids

836
00:49:45.039 --> 00:49:47.559
started crying. Okay, you get the idea. Let let's see

837
00:49:47.599 --> 00:49:50.639
what happens here. What passage I think you said, Deuteronomy

838
00:49:50.679 --> 00:49:52.639
thirty two. I think he said Deuteronomy thirty two. I

839
00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:54.840
have my Bible open to Deuteronomy thirty two. We're about

840
00:49:54.840 --> 00:49:57.519
to find out what and Deuteronomy thirty two that it

841
00:49:57.679 --> 00:50:00.960
was originally about Israel is about you and me? Are

842
00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:03.679
you ready? Are you ready? Let's see how this gets applied.

843
00:50:05.760 --> 00:50:11.280
Deuteronomy thirty two ten. He found him in a desert land.

844
00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:16.639
Technically the hymn is a reference to the Jews, but

845
00:50:16.719 --> 00:50:20.960
by application, let's place your name in place of him.

846
00:50:22.480 --> 00:50:28.639
God found you in a desert.

847
00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:36.880
Now he's one of the most famous preachers. He's spoken everywhere, conferences,

848
00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:40.440
he's got books, he's the man. And what did he

849
00:50:40.639 --> 00:50:44.519
just do? Hey? Deuteronomy thirty two ten, He found him

850
00:50:44.719 --> 00:50:47.719
and a desert. Hey, hey, just put your name there.

851
00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:50.480
Just put your name. What in the world is that

852
00:50:50.559 --> 00:50:53.639
not adding to God's word? Is that not? Isaid Jesus?

853
00:50:53.679 --> 00:50:57.079
You're reading into the text. Now there's the word desert. Okay,

854
00:50:57.360 --> 00:51:01.079
thirty two ten. I'm gonna look this up. Deuteronomy thirty

855
00:51:01.079 --> 00:51:04.199
two ten. There's the first use of the word thirty

856
00:51:04.239 --> 00:51:06.719
two ten. All right, here we go found him in

857
00:51:06.760 --> 00:51:13.639
a desert, into linear desert mid bar. Okay, okay, he

858
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:17.760
was right here. It is translated speech, well, one time

859
00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:23.079
mid bar a drive a sense of driving a pasture,

860
00:51:23.320 --> 00:51:28.039
open field, whether cattle are driven, where cattle are driven

861
00:51:28.840 --> 00:51:33.159
a desert also speech. So it is fair to say

862
00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:36.920
that speech. I don't know if you can then derive

863
00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:39.559
from that the desert is the place where God speaks.

864
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:41.840
I don't know if you can necessarily. I think maybe

865
00:51:41.960 --> 00:51:45.519
that's a little inserting a little bit there, but speech

866
00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:48.559
is connected with midbar. Okay, so that's at least interesting. Okay,

867
00:51:48.639 --> 00:51:50.920
all right, but just know what he did thirty two ten.

868
00:51:51.039 --> 00:51:55.639
Deuteronomy thirty two ten. He found him. That hem just

869
00:51:55.639 --> 00:51:58.840
gets kicked out. You gots to go boom. Now put

870
00:51:58.880 --> 00:52:01.800
your name there, all right, we're gonna put our name here.

871
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:06.519
We're gonna put our name here. Does that not bother

872
00:52:06.599 --> 00:52:09.280
you a little bit? Does that not bother you just

873
00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:11.440
a little bit? Let's see what happens.

874
00:52:13.239 --> 00:52:17.519
Please notice God found you in a desert.

875
00:52:18.880 --> 00:52:19.599
Notice that.

876
00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:24.920
God is spending his time finding his children in a desert,

877
00:52:25.679 --> 00:52:27.760
and he is finding.

878
00:52:27.440 --> 00:52:32.280
The right desert for his children. There's a difference.

879
00:52:34.039 --> 00:52:38.559
Some of you would respond beautifully to one situation, whereas

880
00:52:38.599 --> 00:52:41.079
to someone else it would be a desert experience.

881
00:52:43.199 --> 00:52:44.559
Some of you would long for.

882
00:52:44.559 --> 00:52:48.320
A time of aloneness where you can be quiet, But

883
00:52:48.440 --> 00:52:52.519
for others of you, it would be a backbreaking hardship

884
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:57.679
to spend time alone. And so what applies to one

885
00:52:57.800 --> 00:53:01.280
does not apply to another. Your desert will not be

886
00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:06.039
someone else's desert. But God is finding the desert you need.

887
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:19.199
So that God is finding the desert I need. So

888
00:53:19.639 --> 00:53:23.519
if you get divorced, that's the desert you needed. Well

889
00:53:23.519 --> 00:53:24.920
wait a minute, wait, wait wait wait wait wait, just

890
00:53:25.159 --> 00:53:27.719
wait wait how did that have Wait? If you get abused,

891
00:53:27.840 --> 00:53:31.280
that's the desert you need it like like, well you

892
00:53:31.320 --> 00:53:34.239
see that again. When I was young, I would not

893
00:53:34.320 --> 00:53:38.239
have had the knowledge to ask these philosophical questions. I

894
00:53:38.280 --> 00:53:41.119
would have just been that's right. So God, not only

895
00:53:41.199 --> 00:53:44.000
is this desert bad, and not only is this desert

896
00:53:44.039 --> 00:53:46.880
preparing me. God picked the right desert for me. He

897
00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:49.400
knew this is what I needed. Oh, I don't understand

898
00:53:49.400 --> 00:53:51.360
why my mom had to die. I don't know why

899
00:53:51.400 --> 00:53:54.000
I was beaten. I don't know why I almost killed myself.

900
00:53:54.039 --> 00:53:55.639
I don't know why I ended up in a psychiatric

901
00:53:55.639 --> 00:53:57.679
hospital for eight weeks. I don't know why. Oh, but

902
00:53:57.840 --> 00:53:59.559
that was the desert I needed.

903
00:54:05.280 --> 00:54:08.760
Okay, let's see where he goes.

904
00:54:10.199 --> 00:54:15.360
But he might strip you of the crutches and build

905
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:21.079
into your life through the process of a painstaking education,

906
00:54:22.360 --> 00:54:28.239
qualities of character you would not otherwise gain. Now he

907
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.800
found him in a desert land. This word is mid bar,

908
00:54:33.639 --> 00:54:38.119
A place to talk to you in the howling waste

909
00:54:38.280 --> 00:54:42.679
of a wilderness. Wow, that is descriptive, isn't it. The

910
00:54:42.719 --> 00:54:46.039
howling of the desert comes from the animals as well

911
00:54:46.079 --> 00:54:50.159
as from the wind. I was in a desert yesterday afternoon.

912
00:54:50.960 --> 00:54:52.719
I was asked to be a part of a group

913
00:54:52.760 --> 00:54:55.639
of men who met with their pastor to talk about

914
00:54:55.679 --> 00:54:59.840
their church. They were appraising the situation they're discouraged in

915
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:03.079
that area. And it took me across a desert to

916
00:55:03.079 --> 00:55:06.199
get to that place of rendezvous where we might meet

917
00:55:06.280 --> 00:55:09.079
together with these men. And in the midst of the drive,

918
00:55:09.519 --> 00:55:11.960
I just pulled off the road and took a little

919
00:55:12.039 --> 00:55:15.800
side road away from the highway and turned the motor off,

920
00:55:17.400 --> 00:55:19.760
and I got out of the car and I took

921
00:55:19.760 --> 00:55:23.639
a walk several feet, perhaps one hundred two hundred three

922
00:55:23.679 --> 00:55:26.079
hundred feet away from the car, and it was all

923
00:55:26.239 --> 00:55:30.599
I was all alone, and I just stood there, and

924
00:55:30.639 --> 00:55:36.000
there was a howling in the desert, the biting sand,

925
00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:41.039
the heat. It came upon me as I stood there,

926
00:55:41.079 --> 00:55:45.800
and I sensed there is an awesomeness in the desert.

927
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:53.840
It was uncomfortable. It bit into my skin. It was barren.

928
00:55:54.880 --> 00:56:02.079
No fruit, no shrubbery, no lush, beautiful verdant trees or valleys,

929
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:02.960
no oasis.

930
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:04.519
It was a desert.

931
00:56:05.800 --> 00:56:10.280
And God finds the howling desert that you need. And

932
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:13.960
once he finds it, he puts you into it. And

933
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:20.360
the instant feeling that you get is God's gone. Where

934
00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:24.480
is he in the midst of this painful experience. You're

935
00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:27.119
no longer able to do things you once were able

936
00:56:27.159 --> 00:56:30.280
to do. And there's the fear I'm gonna lose my talent,

937
00:56:31.480 --> 00:56:35.440
or I'm no longer going to be useful, or I'm forgotten.

938
00:56:39.079 --> 00:56:40.039
He's left me.

939
00:56:41.920 --> 00:56:44.199
Now, That's why I wanted you to look at this verse.

940
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:45.159
Look at verse ten.

941
00:56:45.480 --> 00:56:49.199
In the howling waste of a wilderness, God does four

942
00:56:49.280 --> 00:56:57.559
things circle him, will you. First of all, he encircles us. Second,

943
00:56:58.360 --> 00:57:05.920
he cares for us us. Third, he guards us as

944
00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:10.599
the pupil of his eye. Isn't that beautiful?

945
00:57:12.239 --> 00:57:12.480
You know?

946
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:15.679
The most protected part of your body is that pupil

947
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:20.719
of the eye. You won't let anything touch it. You

948
00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:27.280
guard it with great care. You protect it constantly. The

949
00:57:27.320 --> 00:57:30.760
tiniest speck you keep from getting into it if you can.

950
00:57:32.440 --> 00:57:37.760
In the desert, you are the pupil of God's eye.

951
00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:43.079
And to your amazement this evening you discover in fact,

952
00:57:43.159 --> 00:57:46.280
God has not left you. He has cared for you

953
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:49.559
now more than at any other time. I want that

954
00:57:49.639 --> 00:57:50.400
to encourage you.

955
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:56.519
Now. See when I was young, I got great encouragement. Okay, God,

956
00:57:56.840 --> 00:57:59.119
God knows where I am. He placed me here. But

957
00:57:59.239 --> 00:58:03.880
what is hopp to this text is literally criminal? This

958
00:58:03.920 --> 00:58:07.719
is literally criminal? What is happening to this text? Deuteronomy

959
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:10.800
thirty two thirty two ten is about Israel and is

960
00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:14.480
based on God's covenant with his people. This verse is

961
00:58:14.519 --> 00:58:17.960
part of the Song of Moses, a poetic reflection Moses

962
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:20.400
shares with the Israelites near the end of his life.

963
00:58:20.480 --> 00:58:24.320
In it, Moses recounts God's faithful care and guidance over Israel,

964
00:58:24.519 --> 00:58:32.679
specifically his covenantal relationship with them. Deuteronomy thirty two ten

965
00:58:32.760 --> 00:58:35.119
states he found him in a desert land, and in

966
00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:38.280
the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him, he

967
00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:41.519
cared for him, He kept him as the apple of

968
00:58:41.599 --> 00:58:44.320
his eye. He found him in the desert. This refers

969
00:58:44.360 --> 00:58:47.719
to God finding Israel in a figurative desert or wilderness state,

970
00:58:47.880 --> 00:58:51.000
representing the nation's vulnerable condition. When God led them out

971
00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:54.719
of Egypt, they were a people without land, identity, or independence,

972
00:58:55.280 --> 00:59:00.000
entirely reliant on God. The language reflects God's covenantal lofe

973
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:04.159
and commitment to Israel. By encircling, caring for, and keeping

974
00:59:04.239 --> 00:59:06.679
Israel is the apple of his eye, God demonstrated his

975
00:59:06.800 --> 00:59:12.400
unique protection and affection for his chosen people. The entire

976
00:59:12.480 --> 00:59:15.199
passage is grounded and the covenant God made with Abraham,

977
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:18.119
Isaac and Jacob, promising to make Israel a great nation

978
00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:22.800
and to be their God. This covenantal relationship undergirds God's

979
00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:30.519
guidance and care for Israel throughout their wilderness. But he

980
00:59:30.599 --> 00:59:34.920
just immediately removed them and inserted you that this is

981
00:59:34.960 --> 00:59:39.880
what God will do for you in your desert. Ladies

982
00:59:39.920 --> 00:59:43.039
and gentlemen, if you circle that, write that down, put

983
00:59:43.039 --> 00:59:45.159
it on your refrigerator, and say, I'm going through this

984
00:59:45.199 --> 00:59:47.760
horrible time, but God is going to do these things

985
00:59:47.800 --> 00:59:51.760
for me. Ladies and gentlemen. The preacher's lying to you.

986
00:59:52.079 --> 00:59:54.559
There's no guarantee God's going to do any of that

987
00:59:54.679 --> 00:59:59.480
for you in a tangible, material way. And the point

988
00:59:59.559 --> 01:00:05.079
is this passage is not promising you anything nothing. This

989
01:00:05.159 --> 01:00:07.719
is demonstrating God made a covenant with Israel, and he

990
01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:18.440
keeps his covenant promises this whole thing, this whole thing

991
01:00:18.679 --> 01:00:22.639
is a mess. See when we look at this entire

992
01:00:22.719 --> 01:00:26.119
idea of the Desert School of self discovery from Chuckswindall.

993
01:00:27.480 --> 01:00:31.239
He presents this study as focusing on the idea of

994
01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:36.920
desert experiences or metaphorical periods of trial or isolation. This

995
01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:40.599
is supposedly intended for spiritual growth and self discovery. This

996
01:00:41.360 --> 01:00:45.320
may be relatable to many people. Some people may find

997
01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:50.000
it insightful, but I believe it relies significantly on an

998
01:00:50.079 --> 01:00:56.440
allegorical application. Rather than drawing directly from the scriptural content.

999
01:00:57.199 --> 01:01:01.760
This study interprets literal experiences of Moses and the Israelites

1000
01:01:01.760 --> 01:01:06.280
and the wilderness as something symbolic or personal, or an

1001
01:01:06.320 --> 01:01:10.960
emotional desert that modern believers might face, such as illness

1002
01:01:11.039 --> 01:01:15.559
or loneliness. This method risk imposing meaning on the text

1003
01:01:15.639 --> 01:01:20.159
rather than extracting meaning from it. For example, Moses's time

1004
01:01:20.199 --> 01:01:23.599
and Midian and Israel's wilderness journeys are described in this

1005
01:01:23.719 --> 01:01:26.840
study as if they were templates for any kind of

1006
01:01:26.880 --> 01:01:30.880
personal hardship believer's face, rather than a specific historical and

1007
01:01:30.920 --> 01:01:34.800
philological event. Basically, much of the study that you're listening

1008
01:01:34.880 --> 01:01:36.480
to and if you were to look at the PDF file,

1009
01:01:36.760 --> 01:01:41.360
encourages readers to see themselves directly in Moses' experience, focusing

1010
01:01:41.440 --> 01:01:44.880
on self discovery and personal growth. While there may be

1011
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.360
lessons to learn from biblical figures, the intense personalization here

1012
01:01:49.840 --> 01:01:55.239
detracts from understanding the covenantal and redemptive purpose behind Israel's experience.

1013
01:01:56.360 --> 01:01:59.079
By interpreting wilderness as a place for God to reveal

1014
01:01:59.119 --> 01:02:02.119
aspects about your life, self and himself, the study leans

1015
01:02:02.159 --> 01:02:04.960
heavily into a mystical reading of the text, which not

1016
01:02:05.360 --> 01:02:09.960
does not honor the historical and redemptive focus of the passage.

1017
01:02:11.440 --> 01:02:14.599
For example, Deuteronomy A two speaks of God's testing and

1018
01:02:14.679 --> 01:02:17.920
humbling of Israel to know their heart and reliance on Him,

1019
01:02:18.360 --> 01:02:21.840
a lesson linked to their specific covenant relationship rather than

1020
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:25.480
a universal personal desert. In other words, everything happening there

1021
01:02:25.800 --> 01:02:32.920
was God's purpose and plan for Israel. The whole thing

1022
01:02:33.119 --> 01:02:35.840
is is just completely messed up. And I got far

1023
01:02:35.920 --> 01:02:40.519
more notes here that I could look at to take

1024
01:02:40.559 --> 01:02:43.800
this apart. But I want us to understand this. I

1025
01:02:43.800 --> 01:02:45.920
want us to understand this. I got all kinds of

1026
01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:47.719
other things I wanted to say here, other things I

1027
01:02:47.719 --> 01:02:52.119
wanted to say, but I will say this right. This

1028
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:56.320
entire study is an example of isa Jesus rather than

1029
01:02:56.320 --> 01:02:59.000
exe Jesus, and I'm going to break these down. ISA

1030
01:02:59.119 --> 01:03:05.599
Jesus involves reading personal ideas, modern concepts, or desired meaning

1031
01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:09.360
into the text, often without a clear connection to the

1032
01:03:09.400 --> 01:03:13.199
author's original intent or the historical and cultural context of

1033
01:03:13.239 --> 01:03:16.800
the passage, and not only the document the PDF file,

1034
01:03:17.079 --> 01:03:20.519
but also the audio that we're listening to. The desert

1035
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:24.199
experience of Moses and Israel are used as symbolic representations

1036
01:03:24.199 --> 01:03:28.320
of common human struggle, such as loneliness or hardship, and

1037
01:03:28.559 --> 01:03:32.000
are then applied to modern believers' lives This approach reads

1038
01:03:32.039 --> 01:03:37.239
contemporary themes self discovery, personal desert into the text, which

1039
01:03:37.480 --> 01:03:43.920
was not the intended meaning of the original author. Now

1040
01:03:44.039 --> 01:03:47.679
Exit Jesus, by contrast, seeks to draw out the meaning

1041
01:03:48.039 --> 01:03:52.599
inherent in the text by analyzing its original context, purpose,

1042
01:03:52.679 --> 01:03:56.000
and message. If Exit Jesus were applied here, the study

1043
01:03:56.039 --> 01:03:59.199
would focus more on understanding the specific reason why Moses

1044
01:03:59.239 --> 01:04:01.960
and Israel were left into the wilderness within the context

1045
01:04:02.039 --> 01:04:05.920
of God's covenant with Israel. Exegetical interpretation would explore the

1046
01:04:06.079 --> 01:04:10.400
historical and philological reason behind these events, rather than generalizing

1047
01:04:10.480 --> 01:04:16.119
them as personal lessons are metaphors for self discovery. The

1048
01:04:16.159 --> 01:04:20.880
whole thing is is of Jesus. But yet that's the

1049
01:04:20.960 --> 01:04:25.440
kind of preaching people want, but it destroys the text.

1050
01:04:25.480 --> 01:04:27.840
Now we're already over an hour. Let's just listen to

1051
01:04:27.880 --> 01:04:28.519
a little bit.

1052
01:04:28.360 --> 01:04:34.400
More, especially you who are in the desert. And the

1053
01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:38.800
fourth thing he does verse twelve, he alone guides you.

1054
01:04:40.360 --> 01:04:43.360
He hasn't taken his hand off of you. He is

1055
01:04:43.480 --> 01:04:47.239
guiding you. And I like that word alone. There's no

1056
01:04:47.320 --> 01:04:51.360
one else to guide when you're in the desert. There's

1057
01:04:51.360 --> 01:04:55.440
no neat little place to find shade or relief, and

1058
01:04:55.519 --> 01:04:58.960
so you are naked, you are shut up to God.

1059
01:05:00.639 --> 01:05:02.599
For some of you, it may be a past of

1060
01:05:02.679 --> 01:05:06.559
great success and good training, and suddenly you find yourself

1061
01:05:06.599 --> 01:05:13.159
surrounded by a house full of little children, and you

1062
01:05:13.280 --> 01:05:17.920
wonder how long? How long? Others of you may have

1063
01:05:18.079 --> 01:05:20.760
enjoyed good health and strength through most of your life,

1064
01:05:20.800 --> 01:05:25.400
And suddenly the doctor tells you, you know, I noticed

1065
01:05:25.440 --> 01:05:29.400
there's a spot on your lung or I've discovered as

1066
01:05:29.440 --> 01:05:35.159
a result of surgery in this biopsy. Uh, there's a

1067
01:05:35.239 --> 01:05:40.840
malignancy here. And the feeling is as you reel with

1068
01:05:40.960 --> 01:05:43.519
that information, where is God?

1069
01:05:46.360 --> 01:05:49.199
Hey, when you're reeling from that information, let me, as

1070
01:05:49.239 --> 01:05:51.920
a preacher, say, but hey, God chose this desert for you.

1071
01:05:53.079 --> 01:05:56.960
He chose the right dath you needed, the cancer you needed,

1072
01:05:56.960 --> 01:06:00.760
the disease you needed, the injury you need, the tragedy

1073
01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:04.079
you because that was the desert. Because God can't prepare

1074
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:06.760
you for your purpose, well, I mean, there's no other

1075
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:09.199
way God could prepare you for your purpose other than

1076
01:06:09.280 --> 01:06:13.519
utterly and absolutely annihilating and destroying everything in your life.

1077
01:06:14.679 --> 01:06:18.599
But hey, hey, hey, hey, don't get down, don't look down,

1078
01:06:18.840 --> 01:06:23.880
don't be sad. Turn that that frown upside down, be happy.

1079
01:06:24.280 --> 01:06:26.960
Tomorrow the sun will come out to everything's gonna be

1080
01:06:26.960 --> 01:06:28.840
better because He's just doing all this to prepare you

1081
01:06:28.880 --> 01:06:30.360
for the purpose. I mean, I mean, if you die

1082
01:06:30.400 --> 01:06:32.519
of the cancer. I mean, I I don't know. I

1083
01:06:32.559 --> 01:06:34.119
mean if you if you never walk it. I mean,

1084
01:06:34.159 --> 01:06:36.480
I mean, I mean, yeah, you see, yeah, you hear

1085
01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:41.000
my jadedness. See that's what happens when you're young and

1086
01:06:41.039 --> 01:06:44.840
you hear this, You're like, yeah, prepare me. Come on. Yeah,

1087
01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:47.000
It's like going to the gym. I'm gonna work out,

1088
01:06:47.039 --> 01:06:49.360
and I'm gonna look at my abs now, woo, look

1089
01:06:49.360 --> 01:06:51.519
at my Look at my legs, look at look at that,

1090
01:06:51.639 --> 01:06:52.639
Look at my biceps.

1091
01:06:52.679 --> 01:06:53.039
Whoo.

1092
01:06:53.199 --> 01:06:55.480
I've been working out in the gym. God's gonna put

1093
01:06:55.519 --> 01:06:57.960
me in the in the desert. He's gonna prepare me,

1094
01:06:58.159 --> 01:06:59.840
and I'm gonna come out, and then God's gonna use

1095
01:06:59.880 --> 01:07:05.000
me do something tremendous, great, like lead an entire nation

1096
01:07:05.320 --> 01:07:08.039
out of captivity. And then you kind of find out

1097
01:07:08.079 --> 01:07:10.679
when maybe I'm just applying all of this in a

1098
01:07:10.679 --> 01:07:13.519
way that has a zero to do with me.

1099
01:07:16.400 --> 01:07:17.440
How can I cope?

1100
01:07:19.519 --> 01:07:22.880
How can I handle this? For others?

1101
01:07:22.920 --> 01:07:28.559
It's being benched because an underclassman can play better than

1102
01:07:28.599 --> 01:07:34.800
you on the team. It's as simple as that. There

1103
01:07:34.800 --> 01:07:38.440
are a number of you here who are single. I

1104
01:07:38.519 --> 01:07:42.000
came across a piece in Eternity that was a part

1105
01:07:42.039 --> 01:07:49.800
of an article on rejection. The writer Natalie Ray says this.

1106
01:07:50.599 --> 01:07:55.039
She calls it no lover. No lover makes my kiss

1107
01:07:55.079 --> 01:07:59.400
his daily quest. No hand across the table reaches mind.

1108
01:08:01.480 --> 01:08:05.079
No precious baby nestles at my breast, No one to

1109
01:08:05.199 --> 01:08:10.199
need my love. Where is the sign that God, my

1110
01:08:10.320 --> 01:08:15.679
Father loves me? Surely he creates this wealth of love

1111
01:08:15.800 --> 01:08:19.800
to overflow. How could it be that none who wanted

1112
01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:25.039
me has become mine? Why did I tell them? No?

1113
01:08:26.840 --> 01:08:27.920
But do they really matter?

1114
01:08:28.159 --> 01:08:28.840
All the wise?

1115
01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:34.000
Could all the answers take away the pain? Or all

1116
01:08:34.039 --> 01:08:36.000
the reasons really dry my eyes?

1117
01:08:38.399 --> 01:08:38.600
Though?

1118
01:08:38.640 --> 01:08:45.239
From Heaven's court, No I would weep again. My God,

1119
01:08:45.800 --> 01:08:50.560
you saved me from Hell's black abyss, Oh, save me

1120
01:08:50.600 --> 01:08:53.479
from the tyranny of bitterness.

1121
01:08:55.800 --> 01:08:56.319
You see, the.

1122
01:08:56.279 --> 01:09:01.600
Desert can be that response of one that you love

1123
01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:08.199
and he's gone or she's gone, and there's no promise

1124
01:09:08.239 --> 01:09:12.439
that that one will ever return. It may be the

1125
01:09:12.520 --> 01:09:14.520
day that you come in from work and your wife

1126
01:09:14.560 --> 01:09:19.760
has left you the note she's gone. Then the desert starts,

1127
01:09:22.079 --> 01:09:24.319
or you discover through a chain of events that your

1128
01:09:24.399 --> 01:09:30.840
husband has been in fact unfaithful. That's a desert. And

1129
01:09:30.840 --> 01:09:34.640
the most disillusioning time, the greatest time of building resentment

1130
01:09:34.760 --> 01:09:39.880
and bitterness, as this has said, is at those moments.

1131
01:09:39.920 --> 01:09:42.800
But I want you to see, for the purpose of encouragement,

1132
01:09:42.840 --> 01:09:45.680
that God does four things. When you are in the desert.

1133
01:09:46.079 --> 01:09:51.479
He encircles you, he cares for you, He guards you

1134
01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:55.359
like the pupil of his eye, and in fact he

1135
01:09:55.479 --> 01:10:01.359
guides you. You haven't left him, nor has he left you.

1136
01:10:03.439 --> 01:10:06.920
Perhaps more than ever before. He is closer to you

1137
01:10:08.640 --> 01:10:09.600
now en route too.

1138
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:15.399
Unbelievable. First, you have the whole philosophical problem. All these

1139
01:10:15.439 --> 01:10:17.760
horrible things happened to you, but God, God picked the

1140
01:10:17.760 --> 01:10:21.960
desert for you. So like, did God just pick the

1141
01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:23.520
desert because he knew it was going to happen? But

1142
01:10:23.560 --> 01:10:25.520
he doesn't control what happened. Why wouldn't he didn't just

1143
01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:27.800
stop it from happening? All right, there's all kinds of

1144
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.399
issues there. But then the second thing, he keeps saying

1145
01:10:30.600 --> 01:10:36.399
that God does these things for us. See, when I

1146
01:10:36.439 --> 01:10:38.000
was young, I would have I have written this in

1147
01:10:38.039 --> 01:10:40.479
a notebook, and I could have been driving my car

1148
01:10:40.840 --> 01:10:42.560
doing something and I would have heard swind On. I'd

1149
01:10:42.560 --> 01:10:44.399
been like, oh, this is good. I would have pulled

1150
01:10:44.399 --> 01:10:46.159
the car over, grabbed a notebook, and I would have

1151
01:10:46.159 --> 01:10:50.920
written that down. Deuteronomy thirty two ten. All right, So

1152
01:10:51.319 --> 01:10:55.399
he he led him about, he instructed him, he kept

1153
01:10:55.479 --> 01:10:58.279
him as the apple of his eye. All right, all right.

1154
01:10:58.399 --> 01:11:00.760
Would I would have written these things down. I think

1155
01:11:00.760 --> 01:11:02.399
he said four things. I'd have to break that down

1156
01:11:02.479 --> 01:11:05.199
in the King James. That's for I got another translation,

1157
01:11:05.359 --> 01:11:06.680
but you get the Yeah. I would have written those

1158
01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:08.399
things down, and I'd been like, That's what God is

1159
01:11:08.399 --> 01:11:10.439
gonna do for me. God's gonna do these things for me.

1160
01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:12.520
God's gonna do things for me. And I would have

1161
01:11:12.520 --> 01:11:15.479
been encouraged and I would have been fired up, and

1162
01:11:15.520 --> 01:11:18.319
I'd have been ready to go. But after all these years,

1163
01:11:18.399 --> 01:11:24.680
now I know what are you doing? That's not that's

1164
01:11:24.760 --> 01:11:27.680
for them. That's what God did for Israel based off

1165
01:11:27.720 --> 01:11:32.039
a covenant relationship. This is how God took care of

1166
01:11:32.159 --> 01:11:38.560
them through the actual physical wilderness. God literally led them.

1167
01:11:38.720 --> 01:11:43.239
God literally provided for literal there's nothing figurative or allegorical,

1168
01:11:43.279 --> 01:11:45.680
and what God did He did these things literally for them.

1169
01:11:45.840 --> 01:11:48.720
This is Moses talking about what God had done for

1170
01:11:48.800 --> 01:11:54.640
them literally materially, physically, not some allegorical metaphorical. Look, God's

1171
01:11:54.680 --> 01:11:56.560
gonna do this, and God's gonna do this for me? Well,

1172
01:11:56.600 --> 01:12:03.199
how does that even work? What does it even do? All? Me? See,

1173
01:12:03.359 --> 01:12:07.279
after all this time, when I go back to listen

1174
01:12:07.319 --> 01:12:09.439
to this, that would have brought me great joy at

1175
01:12:09.479 --> 01:12:11.319
one time in my Christian life. I would have been

1176
01:12:11.399 --> 01:12:14.000
so encouraged. I would have been so like, this is

1177
01:12:14.000 --> 01:12:15.640
a man, and I would have been telling everyone about

1178
01:12:15.680 --> 01:12:19.960
what I learned. I may even have had an opportunity

1179
01:12:20.039 --> 01:12:22.159
to teach it. I would have taken those four points

1180
01:12:22.199 --> 01:12:26.640
and broke them into an outline and taught them. Guess

1181
01:12:26.640 --> 01:12:28.760
what I would have been doing is said Jesus, not

1182
01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:31.800
exo Jesus, completely mishandling the word of God and in

1183
01:12:31.920 --> 01:12:35.399
giving people a complete and totally fraudulent comfort. And that's

1184
01:12:35.560 --> 01:12:37.880
what the church does. And that's why so many Christians

1185
01:12:37.960 --> 01:12:42.439
wake up one day disillusioned, discouraged, bitter, depressed and saying,

1186
01:12:42.479 --> 01:12:53.520
you know what, forget this trash, it doesn't work. Love

1187
01:12:53.560 --> 01:12:58.159
to get your thoughts. Thank you for listening, everyone, have

1188
01:12:58.199 --> 01:13:05.479
a great day. So frustrating. God bless