Words vs Methods: Isaiah 50:7 Pt 1

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Well, well, well, it seems that my last two broadcasts didn't make everyone happy. In fact, it seems it may have upset a few people who didn't really like what I was attempting to do. I think in some ways they may have missed the point. I stated it over and over and over again that what I was trying to do was build a case study where we have pastors who say one thing. They kind of market the church, sell the church by saying all the right words. They sound spiritual, they sound scriptural, they sound philological. But once you turn away from their words, you turn away from the marketing, and then you look at what the church actually does and practice what it actually is. There's a big disconnect. I stated it over and over this It was not designed to be a hit piece or an expose or attacking personalities. It was like, wait, here's this interview where this pastor says all these things that sound so very good. But when I went and looked up the church, what I found was the complete opposite.

1:31 Why does that keep happening? Why is that happening? How is it happening. I was trying to ask these deeper questions, but it seems that some of you definitely did not like what I was attempting to do. But here we are. Now we're even though people don't like it. I'm going to press forward because I think now we come well to the real issue, and we will do that right after I say good morning everyone. It is Sunday, April sixth, twenty twenty five. It is currently eight thirty one am Central time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Today this morning we arrive I guess what we will call at the moment where the words must meet the reality.

2:30 And our last two episodes we walked through a carefully constructed image. We had a pastor sitting down for an interview, and what I felt he was giving a very carefully constructed image of what his church is supposedly like, what it really is about, and he clearly distinguished himself from other megachurches. He was different. He doesn't like watered down ted talks. He likes to reach the meat of the word, and he doesn't want to starve the people by just giving them chicken nuggets and all of these other things, and it sounded so good. Now even in the interview, things begin to fall apart, and we took that interview apart, and then we went to the church website and found ourselves with all kinds of problems. So I think we walked through what is a carefully constructed image the interview where the pastor said all the right things about God, he said all the right things about the Bible. He even said all the right things about preaching. We explored the church's public face, it's branding, it's website, it's mission statement, and some people I don't think like this. The staggering financial data, which I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the church in question about between nine and twelve thousand people attended every single week. They have an operating budget somewhere around thirty about twenty five to thirty million dollars.

4:02 It's just it's crazy. But you know, now it's Sunday. All of that's over, the interviews, over the going through the website, all of it's over. Now it's Sunday. The doors are opening to the church, the lights are on, the smoke machines are humming, and we're going to church, not hypothetically, not from a press release or a Philosophy of Ministry podcast. We're going to walk into the church itself on a real Sunday morning, and I want you to picture it. We're going to step into a modern, spacious auditorium. The lighting is professionally designed, the screens are alive with motion, and there's a buzz in the air that feels maybe more like a ted talk or a concert than a sacred gathering. The music fades, the stage is cleared. The pastor steps up, Bible in hand, or maybe the Bible is just the scripture is just going to be on the screen, Okay, but just imagine a Bible is in their hand, and he's going to begin his sermon. The text for this morning Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse seven, This we are told will be the foundation.

5:32 This will be the spiritual mill. Because he doesn't give us chicken nuggets. He's going to give us an actual spiritual mill. This, as he says, will be the voice of God through his word, brought to us by a man who says he's committed to expository preaching, to spiritual nourishment and defeating the sheep. So we're going to listen carefully. I'm going to do my very best nut be cynical, but I am going to try to be discerning. I have no personal bias, but I am going to do this. I'm going to open my bibles and open my eyes.

6:13 What does this sermon really say? Is Isaiah chapter fifty verse seven proclaimed or is it repurposed repackaged? Is Christ exalted or is he eclipsed? Is Christ seen or is Christ replaced by you and me? Does the message align with the theology, with the claims and the convictions we've already heard in the interview. So this morning, we're going to church. In fact, we're going to Indianapolis, Indiana, and we're going to pull into the parking lot of Trader's Point Christian Church. Between nine to twelve thousand people attend every single week. Twenty five million dollars. But basically what it takes to make the church work, they bring in over thirty million. They have a four million dollar surplus.

7:20 But we're gonna try to forget about the money. We're gonna forget about the branding. We're gonna forget about the marketing. I am going to remember all the things the pastor said about preaching and how his church is different. So let's take our seats. Come on, be quiet, Come on, everyone, be quiet. All right, we're in church now. Okay, all right, we gotta pay attention. Open our bibles. We may be the only ones carrying them. Okay, I'm joking. That was that was joking. Right, Let's take our seats. Ssh be quiet, open our bibles. It's time for church. Well, good to be everybody today is we get ready to weather the great snowstorm of twenty twenty five. Hey, it wouldn't be January in Indiana without one, So I don't know. It kind of kind of feels like par for the course. But I'm glad you guys are here.

8:12 I want to welcome everybody across all of our locations in online. Today's message is just going to be an extremely, extremely practical message to kick off the brand new year. And at the end of today's message, we're going to take communion together across all of our locations. So just right now, I just want to encourage you to, if you don't have that already, grab a communion cup to be ready to participate with us here in just a few moments, but it's hard to believe that it's twenty twenty five. Can anybody else believe that we are officially a quarter of a way through this century? That's one way to think about it, which makes me feel really old. And I don't know how you're feeling about a new year. I don't know if you're kind of like the bandwagon like new Year's resolutions goal setting, like you're super super excited about it, or if maybe you're a little bit say, and you've got some doubts and you're just totally like not a new Year's resolution person. I can kind of understand that as well. But what I want to invite you into is to do a little bit of evaluation as to what we just came out of the last twelve months and then what we're kind of entering into.

9:17 I typically do that between Christmas and New Year's those five to seven days. I'll just spend a little bit of time reflecting upon the previous year and then getting my heart ready for the year to come. Now, a couple of things, right as we start here, Okay, now we got we got to do our review quietly? Could we don't want to disturb everyone during the sermon. Okay, now, obviously we can do whatever we want. We're going to be allowed. All right, here we go. Now, now I know he hasn't given us the text yet, but just remember this is a sermon supposedly on Isaiah chapter fifty, verse seven, and I just want you to see because it may you may not even catch it. It may may be subtle to you. This is starting with what the focus on us? US, A new year, us US, how we do things us. It's about us. So it's we're already being exalted as the focal point here. Now when he opens the Bible to Isaiah fifty seven, is it gonna switch that the focal point is on something else?

10:17 Because if we're in Isaiah fifty, just from a historical perspective, the focal point can no longer be us. It has to be the people Isaiah fifty would be written to, and that's the people in Babylonian captivity who needs words of comfort. Because from Isaiah forty to Isaiah fifty five, it is the book of comfort. So it's gonna have to stop being about us in twenty twenty five because Isaiah fifty has nothing to do with you in twenty twenty twenty five, twenty twenty twenty five, twenty twenty five, right, however, the way you correctly say it, right, I don't know how many twenties I'm putting in there twenty twenty five. So already I'm a little I'm a little concerned. And does it not just I know as much as the interview. In his interview, he tried to make it sound like that they are, you know, somehow different than all the other megachurches. To me, it sounds just like every other megachurch.

11:06 It just sounds the same. Has everything just fills the same. It just I mean, it's just the same manufactured copy and paste template for a church. It sounds the same. May but maybe I'm good going to be very very very very wrong. So we're going to find out. So sh he's preaching let's be quiet. And as I was doing that this last week, one of the things that I just really began think through was overall, like twenty twenty four was I would just put that as like a really really good year, like for me personally, but not without some adversity. And one of the things that I just was reflecting upon is that there were some high highs, and there were some low lows maybe for you too. And here's the thing that the two had in common is that I didn't see the highs coming, and I didn't necessarily anticipate the lows or didn't see them coming. In fact, there were many things that happened, and I'm just like, man, those are such blessings. I don't know that I deserve it.

12:08 And then there are some bad things, some really discouraging things that happened that I didn't see coming as well. Now here's what it initially did to me. And I'm just being confessional with you, and I'm trusting that some of you will be able to relate to me. Because of that, I found myself kind of gingerly inching into this year, like, well, you know, if that was true in the past twelve months, and actually that was true in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty two and twenty twenty one, that probably in twenty twenty five there's going to be some unexpected blessing, some high highs, and some unexpected challenges, some low lows. And so I found myself kind of like posturing, like almost like red like trying to like figure out how can I enter into the year to try to maximize the good and minimize the bad so I can net an overall good year at the end of the year. And really what that spelling is control, if I'm being honest, and a lack of trust in the sovereignty of God, because there isn't anything that really like, there's so many circumstances that are outside of our control, both the good and the bad. And really, what I want to do is, I don't want to try to live my life in the absence of adversity.

13:19 I want to try to live my life so that I can face adversity well. And so I want to be like surefooted and recognize that good or bad, whatever may come, I'm going to trust like the sovereignty of God in that. And it's an unfortunate truth, but it is true that when I look back at my life, the times when I've grown the most spiritually and emotionally and even in other ways like physically, has been through adversity, not around it. And so actually adversity, when you're surefooted, can become a blessing. And so what I want to encourage you with is just simply these truths right here. We talked about this and are storms of life. Hey, you go through horrible things, but isn't it great because you always come out better and stronger and it's good and this is the way you grow. Adversity is wonderful.

14:10 Now again that I mean, Christians love to say that, Pastors love to teach that. I always get a little bothered by that because you know, oh, you were molested for fifteen years, Well, goods, what isn't it great? You went through that adversity and it makes you better, and it makes you stronger, it makes you wonderful. Oh you were abused for ten years, Well that's wonderful and that's great. Oh you've got a terminal disease and you're going to die in a year, Well that's wonderful. You're gonna be stronger, you're gonna be better, you're gonna be more spiritual. We always grow through adversity. I mean, like you've got to kinda don't you have to kind of qualify that? And to some level, don't you have to kind of I mean, hey, you're going through a bad year, Well that's good. You're gonna grow. You're gonna grow, You're gonna come out better. Now, I think we always tell ourselves we're gonna come out better.

15:00 I mean, there's a lot we could talk about it. I'm not going to get into that because I'm still waiting, because you know, this is a sermon about Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse seven. And he's not like other pastors. He doesn't like water down ted talks. He likes expositional preaching. He likes to expound scripture. He likes to give people the meat. Okay, So so I mean I could sit there and take all of this apartment, we could get in philosophical discussions. I'm trying to get to where we are going. So let's find out where we're going. Is that God wants you to meditate, Satan wants you to ruminate. So God wants you to meditate on what it is that you've been through and kind of where things are headed, and Satan wants you to ruminate. Well, what's the difference.

15:41 God wants you to meditate on where you've been, what you're going. Does God want you to meditate on where you ban where you're going, or does God want you to meditate on his word? What are you called to meditate on? In scripture? What are you called to meditate on it? Are you called to meditate on? Where you've been and where you're going? Are you? Are you called to meditate on in your life? What you're going? Does scripture and I give you what you're called to meditate on? Are you called to meditate on his word day and night? I think that's in the Bible. I could be wrong. Are we supposed to meditate on? You need to sit back and meditate on where you've been and where you're going and what you've gone through. That seems to be very self focused. So God wants you to meditate on He didn't say meditate on God's word. You're supposed to meditate on these other things, But Satan wants you to ruminate.

16:28 You're supposed to meditate. Satan wants you to ruminate. I don't. Is there a scripture that says Satan wants me to ruminate? I mean he's saying this is as these are dogmatic assertions. Does the Bible say Satan roams about? Is a roaring line trying to get you to ruminate? Is Satan going? Is Satan's strategy? Hey guys, we've got to get these people to ruminate because we don't want them to meditate on where they've been and where they're going. We've got to get them to ruminate. I mean, I didn't even know this was a satanic strategy. I'm going to back that up just a little bit because I want you to hear. That, because there isn't anything that really like, there's so many circumstances that are outside of our control, both the good and the bad. And really, what I want to do is I don't want to try to live my life in the absence of adversity. I want to try to live my life so that I can face adversity well.

17:24 And so I want to be like surefooted and recognize that good or bad, whatever may come, I'm going to trust like the sovereignty of God in that. And it's an unfortunate truth, but it is true that when I look back at my life, the times when I've grown the most spiritually and emotionally and even in other ways like physically, has been through adversity, not around it. And so actually adversity, when you're surefooted, can become a blessing. And so what I want to encourage you with is just simply these truths right here, is that God wants you to meditate. Satan wants you to ruminate. So God wants you to meditate on what it is you've been through and kind of where things are headed, and Satan wants you to ruminate. Well, what's the difference between the two. Well, one keeps you spinning on circumstances you can't change, and the other one gets you reminded of the truths of God's word and an unchanging God.

18:17 Well, I guess he didn't. He said you will meditate on where you've been and where you're going, But it says one is going to keep you focused on God's unchanging word. Well, that means you're not meditating then on yourself. You're meditating on God's word. So that was kind of weird the way that was spoken. He seems to go back to, well, you're actually focusing on God's word. Now, that's one thing to say. God wants you to meditate on his word. Stop focusing on yourself, Stop focusing on where you've been and where you're going. Stop being self focused, and have a God focused perspective. Lift your eyes up, stop looking your start turning your eyes inwardly, stop looking to your circumstances and look to God. Okay, but it's weird because he that's that's just the way it seems like.

19:00 He said, meditate on where you've been and where you're going. But then he kind of connected meditation with God's word. But however you want to deal with that. But again, all of this is really self focused. All of this is very focused on self, and it sounds very much like just kind of like a life coach giving you practical tips to you know, have your best life now. But that's how it's feeling to me. You can draw your own conclusion. One turns the attention upon you. The other turns the attention upon the only one ultimately powerful and sovereign enough to bring about real change. So at the beginning of a brand new year, let these words of Saint Augustine encourage you. I love how he writes this. He says, trust the past to God's mercy because you can't do anything to change it now. It's in the past. Trust the present to God's love. That the present moment that you are in, be fully present in that moment and recognize the gift that it is, that it's God's mercy and love and great upon you, and then trust the future to God's providence. And when it comes to.

20:06 The oh Man, I want you to think about the words of Saint Augustine. He wrote, trust the past to the mercy of God, the presence, the present to his love, and the future to his providence. Didn't that sound so spiritual and so connected to historical Christianity, didn't it? Well, here's the only problem. Saint Augustine never said that. That's completely fraudulent. So we're off to a great start. We're off to a great start. From what I can tell, this is a widely misattributed quote to Saint Augustine. There is no known source and Augustine's works that seem to contain the exact quote. It's often cited online and devotionals or from Christian speakers as a quote from Augustine, but it does not seem to appear in any verified Latin or English translation of his writings. And so now maybe it's somewhere, But from what I can look find, and I tried to do a little bit of research on this, it's not found in his confessions, it's not found in the City of God, it's not found on Grace and free will. It's not found in his letters and homilies.

21:27 It's definitely not found. I can't remember the book that we were teaching through at Victory Baptist Church on Hermeneutics. We didn't find it there. So there's a I don't know where this comes from. Some say it's possible to quote as a modern summary or paraphrase, maybe inspired by general themes in Augustine's writings, but the wording itself cannot be found right. So I asked artificial intelligence, Hey, you know does this? You know what's going on here? Hey? I said this, and I quote. Augustine did write deeply about time memory in God's Sovereignty and Confessions. He absolutely spoke of God's mercy, love, and providence, but not in this tidy, three part slogan format that this quote presents.

22:15 This quote is often used to bring comfort and clarity, and while it isn't necessarily heretical, it presents a cleaned up version of Augustine's complex theology that lacks nuance, it is also intention It also unintentionally suggests a therapeutic framing of God mercy for your regret, love for your now, and providence for your plans. This is more like a modern devotional sentiment than a patristic theology. So we're starting off great now. Remember he did the same thing in the interview, Remember his story about amazing grace and where the song came from. Completely fraudulent, fraudulent information in the interview.

22:58 Now a completely made up quote by Augusta. And notice how he said it. Oh, I want you to think about this, this statement from Augustine. He wrote as almost as if he had read it, as he had the Book of Augustin right here in front of it, like just the way it stated. He stated it emphatically. He doesn't give a source, does he? No, he does not give a source, doesn't tell him which book he got it from. Now, most likely he got it from a devotional book that was supposedly quoting Augustine. And he didn't verify if the quote came from Augustine because he trusted the devotional book from which he found it. Most likely that is how it happens, because that quote, I've heard it in sermons, and I've seen it in the numerous devotional books. In fact, I could probably find one. I have to look, I may have one of them here around me. If I find it, I'll have to quote it.

23:53 I probably can do some searching and find it, and then and the devotional books that it appears. But so wouldn't it be better to say? Wouldn't it be better to say? Some people say, I mean, you could do it this way, and I think, and sometimes I forget to do this. If I'm reading a book and it gives a quote from someone and I haven't verified it what I tried to and I don't always do this, but I try to do this. Some say Augustine said this, some say Luther said this, and I that's where I'm placing the focus on. Other people say that they said it, but I'm making it clear that I haven't verified it. That's an easy thing to do. That's an easy thing to do. I read this quote from Augustine in this book, but I have not verified it. The quote that I'm reading comes from page seven of this devotional or just something simple you don't have to go into great detail.

24:50 So but again, the quote is trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to his love, and the future to his providence. Sounds so good, sounds so great. But all right, let's continue. Primary things that matter the most in your life and in my life. I would just kind of narrow it down to these four buckets. If you're taking notes, you can jot these things down. Your spiritual growth, like your walk with God. That should be the most important thing. Number two, your relationships and everything that would fit into that category dating, marriage, kids, family, co workers, your community. Number three your physical and emotional health. Those are important things because we are holistic beings. And then number four, your financial health because as scripture says that wherever your treasure is, your heart will follow. Those four things when it comes to spiritual growth, relationships, physical and emotional health, and your finances. Now, I think that for many of us, if we're being honest, in those four categories, we would say that too many times our strategy has been these two little words right here behind me. I hope. I hope I grow closer to God this year. Don't know if I will, but I hope, you know. I hope my marriage gets stronger. I hope I find and meet the right one. I hope my connection to my kids gets better. I hope I'll be in better shape physically, emotionally, financially.

26:18 But what I want to just gently point out is that the words I want and I hope aren't effective strategies. It's a good place to start, but it's not an effective strategy that'll sustain you through the year, especially when adversity comes. So I'm just I'm so interested here. The text is Isaiah fifty, and the entire setup is about you. You you you you you you you. You don't just want change, don't just hope for change. You've got to be the one to do it. This is like a life coach. Come on, it's January twenty twenty five. Guys, get up.

26:59 Don't just want it, don't just hope it. You gotta do it. I sound like I'm gonna cycle class. Right, come on, guys, pedal. Don't just want it, just don't hope for it. You're gonna make this year a great year. Keep peddling, keep peddling, keep running. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. We gotta get another thirty minutes in. Come on, we're gonna do this. This is gonna be a great year. You're gonna look better, You're gonna feel stronger. You can do it. Should I do it? Be one of those cycle coaches? Right? Should I do that. Should I do? I sound like I could do it now, Well, well I'll sit there and talk that way, but I'll probably be kicked back, eating a bag of Doritos and drinking a coke. But I can motivate. You couldn't. I you can do it. Come on, don't just want it, don't just hope for it. You gotta do it. That's not a way to get effective change. Now again, I wanna make this so very clear, I literally don't care what churches do. You can do whatever you want. You can do church any way you want. I don't care.

27:57 The reason we're even reviewing this is because I was simply on YouTube and then here's this video saying churches are starving their people to death. The people are starving and they're just feeding the people chicken nuggets. And this pastor comes along. It's like, hey, no, we don't do that. The focus at our church is the preaching of God's word, the you know, the we do expositional preaching. I don't like water down ted talks. I mean, he's the one who criticized the other churches. He's the one who said, no, we don't do it like the other churches. The other people are starving. We feed our people the meat of God's work kind of mentality. All right. So when I heard that, I was like, well, great, then this I want to hear what this church does. And then when I go look up the church, immediately when I looked at the website, I'm like, the website seems completely contradictory to everything said in the interview. That's the reason we're doing this. I don't care. I'm not you can do church anyway you want. I just think if you're gonna do church so like this, then just say, hey, guys, we don't really care about getting philological and in depth and taking the scriptures apart. That's not what we're there to do, Okay, And that's okay, just state it. My whole point here is the contradiction between the way it's sold and what actually happens. Because this is a common strategy used all over the place. And I have an entire on of four or five pages of notes where I had artificial intelligence break down the strategy used by

29:30 many pastors where oh, you've got to say these things because this is what the people want to hear and believe, but they don't really want these things. You got to give them something different. You got to convince them that they're coming and they're getting scripture and we care about this and this and this, but in reality, they want something completely different. So you got to play this little game that I'm just calling out this game. I don't care what they do, all right, If this is the kind of sermon you want, then by all means, you got a million churches to choose from. I'm just curious how in the world all of this sets up Isyadaya fifty, which has literally nothing to do with any of this. But okay, don't just want it. Don't just hope. That's not a strategy for effective change. You can't want it.

30:11 You can't hope for it. You gotta do it right. Okay, all right, we could get into whole law gospel discussion here, but let's continue. And think about it. For we already know this. I just think about it for a minute. We don't train one time and go out and run a marathon, at least most of us, Like, we don't just save a little bit from one paycheck and expect like to retire after that. We know both of those things require consistent behavior over time. I think This is what Paul's driving at when he's mentoring a young Timothy, and he says this in for Timothy, chapter four, verse eight. He says, physical training is good, but training for Godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come, going into twenty twenty five. That's how I want you to think about your spiritual formation, which is just a fancy term for growing to look more and more like Jesus. Listen, your salvation is not based upon your works. It's based upon the finished.

31:12 Work of Jesus. However, your formation that is based upon your works. So we're saved by grace through faith. But then training for godliness means that we've got to put in some efforts. And Paul is saying that we don't just like automatically become godly. We have to train for it. C. S. Lewis would say it this way in the screw Table Letters. He says, the more often one feels without acting. In other words, I've got the motivation, but I never apply what I know. That's what he's saying. So I got feeling without action, the less one will ever be able to act, and in the long run, the less one will be able to feel you hear what he's saying.

31:53 He say, if you never apply what it is you know, you'll eventually lose the motivation to grow. So you've got to begin to take what you know. This is what I want to encourage you with. But not only today's message, but every message in twenty twenty five. Is that I don't expect that all forty minutes will apply to you equally every single week. That didn't need to you. Just walk away from the message and go, what's the one thing God wants me to know? Do you see how He's doing this? So he wants you and his sermons to focus on you. What does God want you to know about you? About you? About you? This isn't complete, not the way you're supposed to preach. It's not about the people. It's about the text. It's not a taking the text saying what does it say to me? Nobody stinking cares what it means to you.

32:40 Nobody should let me say it that way. Everyone thinks it matters. No, what does it mean to the people? Was written to? What does it say? What does it teach us about? What? What is it saying? What is it teaching we're so secondary do the entire part. We're not even secondary with third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh place. We got to figure out what it means. We got to figure out what it means in its context. What is the historical context, What are the difficulties in the text? What is there any textual issues we get? We get? What are the theological implications are there's so there's a million things we have to do hermoneutically before we even show up on the scene. But it's always about me, me me, me, me, me, me, me, me me. What does God seem to me?

33:22 Me me me? We just you know what we should do. We should we should remove crosses, and we should just in our churches just have the picture of the congregation behind the pulpit and say, it's all about us. Bow before us, the glory of us. It's all about us, exalt ourselves. We come here to worship us. We come to make it about me. It's about me, and Church better go the way I want it, because I don't like it, I'll get mad and go somewhere else. The whole thing is maddening. And somehow this has somehow, this has something to do with Isaiah fifty. I don't get the setup here, all right, and we won't even get into the screw tape letters quote. We could get into that, but okay, So it's all about it's all about application. Application. Basically, application comes first. But he's the one who's set up that.

34:18 Know. It's about expounding the scriptures. It's about reading, explaining the scriptures, and then applying. Even the very system he gave was read, explain, then apply. If the application is jumping the line in a sense. And what's the one thing God wants me to do? And I'm telling you that if you will try to pinpoint what it is that God wants you to know and what it is he wants you to do, and if you would do it that week, then you're training in godliness. Lewis would say this in another book of his, It's Lesser Known God in the Dock. He would say, we all want progress, but progress means getting near to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn and walking back to.

35:13 The right road. I think it was Albert Einstein, who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That's essentially what Lewis is saying there. He's like, listen, man, if you're not getting to the place where you want to be in your relationship with Jesus, you got to ask yourself, Okay, maybe I don't need to keep going down the same road. I actually need to do an about turn and take a different path. And that's literally, Oh man, I just looked it up. Okay, I just asked Ai. Hey, the C. S. Lewis quotes. AI says, let's verify the C. S. Lewis quotes used in the January fifth, twenty twenty five sermon to determine if the pastor quoted them accurately and in context. Quote one seems to be you can't go back can change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. The quote is often attributed to C. S. Lewis, but there is no documented, documented source in Lewis's published works or letters that contains the exact line. It does not appear in Mere Christianity. The Four Loves the Problem of Pain Surprised by Joy letters to Malcolm or any of the Narnia books. The phrasing is modern and therapeutic, not consistent with C. S. Lewis's writing style. It's widely considered a missed attribution, similar to other quotes floating online that get falsely tied to C. S. Lewis, like You're never too old to set another goal. So it's not verified. The other very often, the only way to get quality time is to get quantity time. This quote is not from C. S. Lewis,

36:47 so it seems. And I think he gave a different quote, so at least so far, and maybe I so according to AI, and I'd have to go through and work. I said, I wasn't even going to get into Uh. Oh, I know what he did. He he Okay, I'm gonna ask. He gave a quote supposedly from the screwtape letters. Okay, hang on, okay, yeah, the uh okay, here we go.

37:34 He the screw tape letter. Once it sounds to be exact. The more the more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able to ever act, and the long run, the less he will be able to feel. Uh, this is a legitimate quote, all right? So yes, the quote was accurate, The source was correct, all right. The Jerman, however, did not explain the context that the quote comes from a demon trying to destroy a believer spiritual life. The context matters because Lewis is showing how the enemy exploits are in action. So AI says, now, to his credit, the pastor quoted C. S. Lewis correctly, this one really is from the Screwtape letters. But that wasn't But what wasn't mentioned is the voice behind the quote screwtape, a senior demon coaching his nephew on how to spiritually sabotage a believer. The whole point that if someone keeps feeling spiritual conviction it never acts, though eventually stop feeling anything at all is a powerful insight but also a warning. Okay, So he didn't offer explain that, So that screwtape letter one is correct. That one is correct. So he's not off to a good start because in the interview his story about amazing Grace is fraudulent. The Augustine quote is fraudulent, and it appears there's two other quotes. I guess somewhere the sermon that is attributed to Cus list unless Ai

39:04 just miss didn't get the transcript right. I did give it the transcript, but I didn't give it to it again. I'm making it refer back to what it's already reviewed, so I could I could possibly provide it. Well, hang on, I know what I'll do. I know what i'll do. We'll take a little bit of time. That's okay. We want to get everything accurate. I want to get everything accurate here. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this. I'm going to give it the transcript again. Review this transcript and find all the quotes. That are.

39:45 Misattributed. Miss attribute if I can spell right and false, here we go. Okay, so all right, here we go. Here's a detailed analysis and critique of the quoted material and the sermon transcript from January the fifth, with attention to factual, hermeneutical, philological, and logical errors. The focus is particularly on misattributed or false quotes. We've got the first one, uh true. Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, and the future to God's providence. This this quote is widely circulated and often attributed to Augustine.

40:32 It is not, but it's it's not uh, it's it's he says that best you could say attribution disputed or unverified paraphrase. All right, the quote quotes of to attributed to C. S. Lewis. The more often one feels Okay, that's the one we just looked at. That one is accurate another one, uh the quote God in the doc we all want progress, but progress means means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. If you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about turn. This is a faithful paraphrase of something Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, where he wrote, progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be, and if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. Misattribution to the Wrong Book is minor, but demonstrates a lack of careful carefulness. All right.

41:29 So okay, okay, wait a minute. So he says that that God's that C. S. Lewis said this and God in the doc. This is a faithful paraphrase of something Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity. All right, not God in the dock. So he it's he gives a faithful paraphrase of what Lewis says, but he gives he attributes it to the wrong book. So AI says, this is a misattribution to the wrong book. It maybe be considered minor, but it demonstrates a lack of carefulness, particularly when diferencing a respected theological thinker and a sermon meant to ground believers in truth. Ironically, the quote is used to advocate for realignment with biblical faithfulness, while the misattribution itself reflects sloppiness and intellectual discipline. Right, okay, And then of course it goes back to the two things said in the interview, that we're incorrect about the the thing about amazing Christ.

42:25 So there, and then of course earlier AI says, he says some other things about C. S. Lewis, So we'll see if he says that. So so far he's not of he's got the screw tape letters right God on the dock. He's got the wrong book. And then the Augustine quote is completely fraudulent. Now isn't it ridiculous that in a sermon I got to spend all this time fact checking quotes. Now this is just a question. If you remember he put forth his churches being so different right that they they're not like these water down ted talks. Well, and a water down Ted talk. Do you have to sit there and fact check everything, Well, you probably do, but this is just crazy that now this entire sermon review, we're not even gotten to Isaiah fifty yet, we haven't even gotten to Isaiah fifty. We're still not even there.

43:12 And what's driving me crazy is we can't get there because we're spending all of this time having the fact check quotes that clearly it's not he's not even accurat in quotes. So just from a practical standpoint, if the pastor can't get quotes right, can't get quotes right either, fraudulent quotes, misattributed quotes, wrong books, all the things that he's doing here not even giving you the context of the quote, like, well, this is what the demon was saying, this is what the demon was not even giving you context. Do you trust them to handle the text?

43:52 Really, what this eight week series is about that we're kicking off a brand new year, is that I don't want this to be a people that are trying to insulate ourselves from adversity, because adversity is going to come. I want us to be the kind of people that develop a godly resilience in the face of adversity, that we would develop kind of this kind of coin, this term like a spiritual grit, that I'm going to be surefooted even in the face of adversity and whatever may come. And so our message series that we're kicking off today, it's gonna be an a week series. It's based off a single verse in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah where the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says these really powerful words.

44:38 He says, and I think he was doing a little bit of meditation of his own. He goes, because the sovereign Lord, that word sovereign just means he is in control. He helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have here it is set my face like flint. Flint is another word for stone. It means that I'm fixed. I'm not gonna be like blown around by the waves of change. My eyes are fixed upon becoming more and more like Christ. And I know that all that effort, I will not be put to shame. And that's what these this eight week series is all about. And actually, what I want you to know is I've laid out all the message series for twenty twenty five, and the way I lay out a message series is kind of like a menu, like what does our church body need to what nutrients do we need to kind of carry us through and really kind of the mega theme for twenty twenty five is preparing us to follow God wherever he may lead.

45:42 Okay, I've got I'm having complete I'm having comply melt down here, ladies and gentlemen. This just went got weird. Okay. So he quotes Isaiah fifty seven. He says entire series is going to base based off a single verse in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse seven, where Isaiah may have been doing some meditating himself for the Lord God will help me. Is he saying that Isaiah is saying that about himself, that God will help me? Therefore shall I not be confounded? Therefore have I set my face like flint? And I know that I shall not be ashamed? Is he saying that Isaiah was meditating and Isaiah is saying this about himself?

46:31 Right? I So he seems to refer to Isaiah fifty seven as possibly Isaiah meditating or Isaiah speaking about himself. He then applies the verse directly to modern believers, using it as a model for personal consistency, determination, and spiritual resolve. Right. So, but at first the way he read, if Isaiah was doing some meditating himself, then you first read it as this is Isaiah speaking of himself. But this seems to be a clearly serious hermeneutical error. So I had AI do some am I, am I missing something here? Because I was like, wait a minute, am I hearing this right? I mean just literally when he said it, I immediately started typing to Ai, am I, am I out of my mind? Here? You know, here's the here's the transcript. Am I missing something?

47:16 This is? This seems to be what's happening. Number one, he's misidentifying the speaker, Isaiah forty Isaiah fifty four through nine is not Isaiah speaking about himself. It's the voice of the servant of the Lord, a distinct figure in Isaiah's prophetic writing. Go back to Isaiah chapter fifty, verse four. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learn that I should know how to speak a word in season is So what we have to do is identify who is who's being spoken, who is the one being spoken of here, or who's the one that this is speaking of. Okay, man, okay, all right, Oh they's so see, this is what happens when you go to a church like this. We almost need to stop and do an entire we need to do in an exegedical study of Isaiah fifty one through eleven is what we need to do. But Ai says that this is the voice of the servant of the Lord.

48:16 Now we've been talking about the servant of the Lord or the servant songs in Isaiah forty through fifty five, and we've been working and working, working and working hermoneutically trying to to identify who are the servants, right, because sometimes Israel's refer to the servant. Sometimes Cyrus, we believe is being referenced as a servant. Sometimes it may point to Jesus being the reference of the servant. So you've got to identify the servants. The servant here speaks in the first person, describing his divine calling obedient, suffering, and unwavering resolve. I gave my back to those who strike me. The servant is not the prophet Isaiah it doesn't appear to be Israel as a nation. It would be possibly if you're going to apply it is the messionic figure ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. But the way he just did that was he made Isaiah may have been meditating, and he's going to apply it to us what is going on. It ignores the servant's song structure. Isaiah fifty is the third of the servant songs, Isaiah forty two, which is what we're going to be working on here in about forty minutes. Isaiah forty two, Isaiah forty nine, Isaiah fifty, and Isaiah fifty two through Isaiah fifty three.

49:32 These are cohesive philological units carefully crafted to describe the identity, mission, and suffering of God's chosen servant. The Servant speaks as one distinct from Isaiah, with a role far greater than a prophet. He is the redeemer who suffers for others. By treating verse seven as Isaiah's personal resolution and then applying it directly to the congregation, the sermon collapses the crystalllogical framework of Isaiah fifty and to a motivational called action that turns the messianic prophecy into a self help slogan, robbing the passage of its gospel depth and redemptive clarity. This is this is insane. I remember, he's in the world like we do expositional preaching. This is not expositional preaching.

50:19 This is insanity. What you are hearing, you are hearing maybe one of the world. I cannot believe what is happening. I'm gonna have to back this up, lady. But see this literally brings me to the point of saying, it doesn't matter. Just quit. It doesn't matter. It's you. It's a waste of time. This kind of preaching brings in between nine to twelve thousand people a week in Indiana, and they give thirty million dollars to support this kind of preaching. There's no point in going to Bible college.

51:05 There's no point in going to seminary. It's a waste of time. There's no point in learning hermeneutics, there's no point in doing exegetical studies. It's nobody wants that. The people in America don't want. You say, oh, we want that. No use stinking don't, because if people in America did, these churches wouldn't even exist. What is happening here to Isaiah fifty This is criminal, this is insanity. I'm just looking down at my study bible Isaiah chapter fifty, verse four, given give, given me the tongue of the learn. The third servant song consists of a reflection by the servant and the prophets addressed to the believing and unbelo leaving Israel, and verses ten through eleven. So even my study Bible just says, no, this is a servant song. This is the servant. He just made the servant Isaiah. This is what what is okay? I gotta back this up, ladies.

52:17 I could play this on a loop for the next fifty years. And this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna stand out in front of seminaries when the young people are no, no, no, no no, you're getting ready to go to seminary, Go go withdraw and get a refund. Why this is the kind of preaching people want. Listen, that church right there, nine to twelve thousand people a week, thirty million dollars. There's no point in going into that seminary paying money because this is you can preach this way right now. Just open your Bible find a verse and just make it say whatever you want it to say. Oh, but don't criticize this, because then you'll get email of people criticizing you. Oh, I'm sorry. I can't criticize when a pastor takes a passage that's possibly specifically a prophetic message about Christ and makes it about us. I'm sorry.

53:05 I'm not supposed to criticize that because I'm the bad guy if I do that. Oh, man, I gotta back this up. I gotta back I'm everyone needs to flee the state of Indiana. That's the only thing I can say. Get out of Indiana. Here we go. That I'm gonna be surefooted even in the face of adversity and whatever may come. And So our message series that we're kicking off today, it's gonna be an a week series. It's based off a single verse in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah where the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says these really powerful words. He says, and I think he was doing a little bit of meditation of his own.

53:46 So Isaiah was just doing a little bit of meditation on his own, and then he came up and then Isaiah said this for the glory God will help me Isaiah. Therefore, shall I me Isaiah, not be confounded? Therefore, have I me Isaiah said my face like flint? And I me Isaiah know that I shall not be ashamed. So he takes the words of the servant and makes him about himself. Now, if you're going to make that argument that this is Isaiah speaking of himself, If that's the argument, okay, well then he's not offering up. Well, then I guess he's saying, Hey, when you guys could remember, Isaiah wrote these words about one hundred years before the people go into to Babylonian captivity.

54:30 So I guess what he's saying. He's guys, look, you're going into captivity, and here's how I'm gonna comfort you. Remember how I God helped me. I guess he's saying, I'm the example. I'm just I'm baffled here. So, okay, I gotta is there is there any textual and hermeneutical justification if I can typewrite for saying Isaiah is speaking of himself in Isaiah fifty seven, I want to look for I'm gonna I'm gonna do everything I can to help this pastor out, because if there is textual or hermoneutical justification for doing this. Then listen, ladies and gentlemen.

55:41 Then I got no problem coming up with a completely new and unique way of interpreting Isaiah fifty verse seven. I got no way. I got no problem doing that. Okay, hang on, I've gotta look here, all right. Ay, I did not play No hey, I gave me no exclamation mark. No, there is no valid textual or hermoneutical justification for saying that Isaiah is speaking of himself and Isaiah fifty seven. That interpretation is inconsistent with the structure, the flow, and the theology of the passage. It misunderstands both the literary voice and the context of Isaiah fifty four through eleven.

56:27 These verses Isaiah fifty four through eleven are part of the Third Servants Song in Isaiah. The passage is structured as a first person monologue of the servant of the Lord. Let's observe some key features Isaiah fifty four. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. That is the beginning of a distinct speaker, clearly someone taught and commissioned by the Lord. Isaiah fifty five to six. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those to strike. The person is obedient and suffering, submitting willing to physical abuse and humiliation Isaiah fifty seven. But the Lord God helps me. Therefore I have not been disgraced all right. This verse shows the servant's unwavering obedience in the face of rejection and shame. This continues through verses eight through nine, and the unit ends in verse eleven, where God speaks again. Why this is not Isaiah speaking about himself too exalted and sinless. The speaker never resists, God never rebels, and utterly faithful even to the death Isaiah, the prophet never claims sinlessness. In fact, in Isaiah six, he says, woe is me, for I'm lost.

57:30 I'm a man of unclean lips. The servant here is betrayed, his perfect obedient. Not even Moses or Isaiah meets this description. The servant's role is uniquely messianic. The servant's mission, especially in Isaiah forty nine and fifty three, includes bringing Jacob back to God bearing the sins of many, being exalted after the suffering. These are Messianic redemptive tasks. No prophet in Israel's history fulfills them, except for Christ. Early Jewish and Christian interpretation ancient Jewish tech recognize the servant as an individual, not just a metaphor for the prophet or for Israel as a whole. The New Testament repeatedly identifies Jesus the fulfillment of the servant's songs. Matthew twelve quotes Isaiah forty two, Acts eight interprets Isaiah fifty three. Luke nine shows Jesus setting his face towards Jerusalem and echo of Isaiah chapter fifty, verse seven. All right, So Isaiah fifty seven therefore, is not about you. It's not about Isaiah.

58:30 It's not about our resolve. All right, let me try this. Let's let me try a different way of asking, let me try a different way. What proof? What textual? What textual and hermeneutical proof that Isaiah fifty four four through eleven is a servant song? Is the speaker ever identified as the servant of the Lord? I'm being now, I'm playing Devil's advocate with Ai. All right, okay, all right, so Ai says, excellent and careful question and one that deserves a clear text driven response. You're asking, is their solid textual and hermeneutical proof that Isaiah fifty four is a servant song and specifically, is the speaker ever explicitly called the servant of the Lord. Are the words servant of the Lord in Isaiah fifty four through eleven? No, the phrase servant of the Lord is not explicitly used in Isaiah fifty four through eleven. However, this is also true of Isaiah fifty three one through twelve, the most famous servant song, where the servant is only called that in Isaiah fifty two thirteen, Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

1:00:04 This shows that servant songs are not always marked by the repeated use of the word servant. It said, they are identified by contextual continuity, voice and content, structural unity, thematic alignment with other servant passages. Why do scholars call Isaiah fifty four through eleven a servant song? The passage is identified as a servant's song because of textual, structural, and thematic markers that directly align it with the previous servant's songs Isaiah forty two to forty nine and the final one fifty two through fifty three, So textual and hermoneutical evidence continuity with Isaiah forty nine. Isaiah forty nine one through six, the servant speaks in the first person, describing his calling, weariness, and trust in the Lord's vindication.

1:00:46 Isaiah fifty four through nine the same pattern, first person speech, same tone, same themes of suffering, obedience, weariness, and divine vindication. This suggests literary continuity, not a new speaker, but a continued serve discourse, unique first person monologue. The speaker in Isaiah fifty four through nine. The Lord says, the Lord has given me verse four, he wakens my ear. Verse four, I was not rebellious. Verse five. I gave my back to those who strike. Verse six. The Lord helps me verse seven through nine. This mirror is the servant's first person language and Chapter forty nine, which opens with the Lord called me from the womb, that same prophetic eye continues.

1:01:28 Clearly not Isaiah, but one call taught, beaten, and vindicated, themes that consistently belong to the servant figure in Isaiah. All right, So then it goes on and offers a number of other things to justify it. So even trying to plays the devil's advocate, even challenging even Ai is like, there's just no way to do what he's just done here. In fact, he's destroying the entire philological meaning of the Servant's song. And if the servant's song is Christ, just literally what he has done, just think about this, literally just replaced Christ ultimately with you. He's taking a scripture that is possibly about Christ and made it about you.

1:02:11 And I'm just gonna say possibly, because we have to do a lot of deep, deep, deep deep work on this. But hey, this is a church where you go to get expository preaching. He gives you the meat. He doesn't give you chicken nuggets. And yet we just heard what we just heard. He goes because the sovereign Lord, that word sovereign just means he is in control. He helps me. I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have here. It is set my face like flint. Flint is another word for stone. It means that I'm fixed. I'm not gonna be like blown around by the waves of change. My eyes are fixed upon becoming more and more like Christ. And I know that all that effort, I will not be put to shame and that's what these this eight week series is all about. And actually, what I want you to know is I've laid out all the message series for twenty twenty five. And the way I lay out a message series is kind of like a menu, like what does our church body need to what nutrients do we need to kind of carry us through?

1:03:17 And you don't lay out a sermon series based on what the people need. You lay out a sermon series based on what text you're going to cover, and what does the text say? Not worried about the people's needs. You're worried about the text because the text is the Inerran inspired Word of God. And guess what the people need the inerran inspired word of God. You don't start to meet people's perceived needs. You give them the word of God because that's what they need, whether they understand it or not. But I digress, because what do I know about church? Okay? Because he obviously knows. I mean, look from a human perspective, he knows a million times more than I do. He's got a church with a four million dollars surplus and twelve thousand people.

1:04:02 Really kind of the mega theme for twenty twenty five is preparing us to follow God wherever he may lead. Just say, he's take turning this into that. This is about preparing us to follow God wherever he may lead. Oh man, So the people in Babylonian captivity, they don't matter. Jesus obviously he doesn't matter because we just replaced him with us. And if you've been in our church over the last year, you've heard me talk about this a lot, about like the Great Awakenings and the fifth grade Awakening. You know it could happen this year because every fifty years is when God has sparked one, and that would be twenty twenty five. And we don't, like you know, speculate that God might do that. We do anticipate it, and we anticipate God, would you please bring revie and would you please bring awakening? And it could happen. It seems like things are kind of getting set up where that could happen.

1:05:07 What I want you to know is that if that does happen, we can expect resistance because the enemy isn't just gonna roll over. And so if God is going to bring revival and if he is gonna bring awakening, then that means like right now, you need to get your feet set right right now. You need to recognize that there's going to be resistance, there's going to be battle, and I want to prepare you for the man. Okay, what is this? Every fit home? This sermon? We're gonna have to stop. But I don't even know what to say anymore. Then, oh my goodness, gracious, okay, all right, So the pastor claims that every fifth year God brings a great awakening. So I had to ask Ai, because I mean, this is the quickest way for me to be able to review this in real time. God. Ay, I says, this does not appear to be historically accurate, It does not appear to be biblically supported, and it doesn't appear to be philologically grounded. In this message, the pastor states something like, it seems that every five years, or every fifth year, God does something significant. Every fifth year it brings some kind of great awakening. This is offered without citation or explanation, just as a casual spiritual observation, with stated with authority. There is no historical pattern, biblically or within church history that supports the idea that God sends a great awakening every five years the three sometimes

1:06:37 four recognized great awakenings in American history, first Great Awakening seventeen thirty to seventeen forty, the next one second seventeen ninety to th eighteen thirty, the third eighteen fifty seven to eighteen fifty nine. The fourth disputed, sometimes associated with the nineteen sixties to the nineteen seventies Jesus movement, but each was separated by decades, not five year intervals. In scripture, there's no indication of God working on a five year cycle of spiritual renewal. A scripture speaks of long periods of silence and waiting four hundred years between Malachi and John. The Baptist revival happening in times of great crisis or repentance, not regular intervals. Awakening tied to God's sovereign purpose, not human calendars. This kind of statement suggests a predictable pattern of divine behavior and almost numerological approach to revival, the idea that we can anticipate or time moves of God.

1:07:33 These ideas are dangerously closely are close to superstition, and they trivialize true revival, which is sovereign, disruptive, and unpredictable, true spiritual awakenings are often unplanned and are preceded by desperation, not scheduling. It says, given the pastor's repeated claims about commitment to expository preaching centering on God's unchanging word, avoiding hype, emotionalism and entertainment, this statement undercuts every single thing the pastor said in the interview. It sounds more like vague prophecy or spiritual cliche than sober biblical preaching. You can't say you're building on God's word and then sprinkle in a historical, unverifiable revival math as a part of your appeal.

1:08:21 That's what AI said. AI gets frustrated. AI starts getting very frustrated with this sermon at this point. Every time I keep giving it the transcript, AI just is like, you know, what more do you want me to say? Basically, this thing's a mess. I don't even know what to say. What he's done with Isaiah fifty seven is utterly frightening. The misattributed citations are quotes citing A. C. S. Lewis from the wrong book. All the just everything here is sloppy. It's a mess. It's basically a life coach by who doesn't seem to understand Isaiah fifty and what it's actually about.

1:09:03 And we're gonna have to stop right there because we're at sixty nine minutes and I'm supposed to be ready to teach again in about twenty minutes, so I I. So what do we get? We get a massive disconnect from everything the pastor said to what the people actually get. But all you got to do is convince the people that your church is about the preaching and teaching of God's word and we're not about entertainment. And then yet you can give them entertainment. You can give them fun food, activities, fellowship potlucks, and you can give them what you try to. You convince them that what they're getting is actual, in depth teaching, when in reality they're not getting in depth teaching. All you got to do is convince the people, and if the people buy into it, then you can give them something completely different. So it sounds like what you have to do in church. You've got to talk a big game, so you con the people this is what we're getting, But then you really got to kind of sneak in and give them the entertainment, the activities, and you've got to give them the water down Ted talks, because that's what the people really want. They don't ever want to claim that's what they want, but that's what they really want.

1:10:15 And that's how you build church. You say it's about this, it sounds good, but then you give them this, and this is what the people really want. You gotta give the people what they really want, which is an absolute abhorred I don't even know what you call it. It's almost theoretical what he's doing to Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse seven. And then you just throw in misattributed quotes, historical and accurate things like they did in the interview. This nonsense about the every fifth year, What is that even about. I don't even know what that is even talking about. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. I guess we'll we'll do some more review of the sermon later, I guess do it. I guess we I don't even know. I don't even know if I want to do any more reviewing of the sermon.

1:11:11 I'll have to really give that some serious thought. I really have to give this some serious thought, because basically the rest of the sermon is just going to be about. Us. Maybe maybe we'll finish. I think we'll finish it, just to be fair. I don't want to, but we'll finish it. I'm gonna. Yeah, I got to say, we'll back it up and we'll start with the Isaiah fifty stuff and then we'll do it that. Now, well, yeah, I don't even know what to say. All Right, I gotta get ready for the next teaching. All right, I give up, I quit. I'm done. I really. I just that that that brings in twenty five or thirty million dollars. God bless you.