April 12, 2025

Are Christians Satisfied? Pt 2

Are Christians Satisfied? Pt 2

A discussion about satisfaction in the Christian life.

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A discussion about satisfaction in the Christian life.

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

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

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It is Saturday, April twelfth, twenty twenty five. It is

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currently six thirty eight pm Central Time, and I'm coming

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to you live from the Theology Central studio located right

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here in Abilene, Texas. Now, the goal in this episode

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is pretty simple. We're going to try to advance our

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discussion about Christianity and satisfaction. Right. I kind of asked

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the question in the last broadcast in part one of

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this discussion, are you really satisfied with your life? Are

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you really happy? Content? You have joy? You don't feel

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any that you're something is missing, that you're lacking something,

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that you're wanting something, because you just are completely satisfied

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your Your life is overflowing with satisfaction. Everything just seems

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so wonderful and perfect. Is that the case? And I

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will argue that just looking at the reality of life

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Christian non Christian, the reality is there's a lot of

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people who are not satisfied. No matter I know, Christians

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are gonna claim the opposite, and they're gonna claim, Oh,

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in Jesus, I've got everything I need I have complete

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satisfaction in Jesus, and they're gonna make all of these

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big claims, but the reality is no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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no no, it's not that way. So I'm challenging everything

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that's basically taught in Christianity on this subject, and it

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really fits with a lot of the other things that

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we have been discussing. We talked about fear, well, I

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don't like the way Christians handled that entire subject, So

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we challenge that we utilize a kind of a discussion

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about pornography to once again look at how Christianity handles that,

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and it completely denies some very important realities. So with

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this kind of fits together, everything is kind of all interconnected,

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and hopefully you're seeing that. I don't know if people

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are going to put all of the puzzle pieces of

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the puzzle together, but we're having some very important conversations.

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So let's put this all back together, and then we're

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going to see how far we can advance this all. Right, now, remember,

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to start this, we have to go back to nineteen

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forty three. Nineteen forty three, you have the psychologist Abraham Maslow,

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who proposed a now famous model of human motivation known

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as Maslow's hierarchy of needs. All Right, and this hierarchy

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of needs I think is foundational. If we're going to

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talk about Christians and satisfaction, if we're going to talk

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about a lot of issues in Christianity, we have to

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really understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In fact, I'm going

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to go so far to say I didn't say this

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in part one, but I'm going to put forth the

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hypotheses that I don't know if you can truly understand

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sin without understanding Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I'm going to

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go so far to even put forth that hypothesis. So

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I'll and I'll try to defend that as we go

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through this. All Right, So this model basically says, I'll

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just kind of break it down here that basically that

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there's a hierarchy of needs and the end there's basically

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five levels to these needs. Okay, I think in modern

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times they've added a sixth, but the five are the

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core basic needs every human being has and the desire

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for these needs, these needs are built inside of us.

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You didn't ask for these needs to be there, You

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didn't ask for these desires to be there. You're born

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with these needs and desires. Okay, and then you add

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you're born with these needs and desires and you have

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a sinful nature. You can just see where all of

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the problems begins to our right, and nobody wants to

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talk about it at this level. Christianity, the best he

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can do is stop it. Don't do it, stop it,

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don't do it, stop it, try harder, read more, go

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to church more. It's just very just stop it, stop it,

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stop it. Just don't do drugs. That's basically the Christian mantra.

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Now that we'll try to claim, Oh, but you've got

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the power of God to help you, but I have

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the power of God to help me, then I should

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be able to get to perfection. Basically, everything Christianity says

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is just massively flawed in so many areas because they

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get the fundamentals so very wrong. Right, So, but this

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hierarchy of needs, and we'll we'll we'll work through all

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of this. I'm kind of just giving you some previews

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of where we're going, all right. But Maslow's hierarchy of

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needs are these number one physiological needs. This includes food, water, shelter, rest, food,

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water shelter, rest. Everybody has those needs. And guess what happens.

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You can get a you can get a sense of

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what happens just by taking some of these away. Right,

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go one mill, just skip one meal, no food. What happens.

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Let's say you miss breakfast in lunch by two or

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three in the afternoon. What happens. You're frustrated, you're irritated,

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you're grumpy, you're snapping at people. What happened? What happened?

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What I thought Jesus was enough? And you'll say, well,

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that's just ridiculous because obviously I need food. Well, I

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know you do, but all these other needs are just

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as strong as that in many and many ways, and

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people don't want to admit. So the point is having

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Jesus doesn't fit, doesn't fix your hunger problem for food. Right,

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you have Jesus, but your body still desires food. Guess what,

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You have Jesus, but your body still needs rest. And

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if you don't have rest, there's all the ramifications from it.

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And if you remove food, if you remove water, if

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you remove shelter, and you remove rest, you remove these

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any physiological needs, it will manifest itself. And how you act,

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how you think, and it may even lead you to

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doing that which is in moral and ungodly. All right.

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Number two safety, So first is a physiological Second is safety.

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This is security, stability, protection. You want to feel a

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sense of security. This can be emotional security, mental security.

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This can be this physical security. You want a sense

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of stability. You don't want things ever go like it's

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this way, then it's this way, then it's this way,

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and then it's this way, and then you're going this

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direction and whack you get whacked upside the head and

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pulled this direction. You want stability, you want security, and

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you want protection. And if any of that is missing,

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there is may it's gonna show up in major ways.

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You want love and belonging. You want intimacy. This can

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be mental intimacy, emotional intimacy, physical intimacy. You want friendship,

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you want relationship. You may want some sense of community.

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This love and belonging. And once again, if some of

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this is missing in any way, shape or form, it's

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going to manifest itself in very obvious and clear ways,

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and it's going to have a profound negative impact. You

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want a sense of self esteem. If you're missing that

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self esteem, then guess what uh, you're you're going to

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be longing for it and and this esteem can show up.

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You want to you want to feel a sense of respect,

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that you are respected, that people respect you at least

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about something about something that you that you feel like

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you can be respected for. You want some sense of recognition.

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You want to be recognized. You want some people to

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to respect you and recognize you. You want to feel

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that you have a sense of purpose. There's esteem, and

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then number five is self actualization. You want to feel meaning.

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You want to have a place you can you can

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be creative, you can you can do something that's somewhat creative,

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and you can have some sense of fulfillment. Now anything

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any if you're missing any of those areas, it's going

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to have a profound impact. But here's what Christianity does,

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and this is where things get interesting. Christianity will come

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along and claim to offer a different solution. Many sermons,

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books and worship songs tell us that when we come

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to Christ, we gain a kind of complete soul level

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satisfaction that transcends and even replaces all of those needs.

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So you have these needs, they may be built into you,

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but when you become a Christian dun dun, dun dun.

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You transcend these needs. You have Jesus and that's all

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you need. You set your affections on things above. You

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love God, and you desire the Word of God more

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than food and gold. You don't need anything. That's the

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way we sell it. That's how Christianity handle handles Maslow's hierarchiveneys.

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It's like, well, you have these needs, but if you

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have Jesus, you're never hunger and thirst again. Is the

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way it will be sold. They say Jesus is enough,

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that he fills the void, that if we truly believe

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in him, we won't hunger or thirst anymore, that his

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word and presence are more fulfilling than food, sex, safety,

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or human love. This idea is deeply embedded and modern

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Christian culture. But here's the problem. Most Christians still hunger.

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Most Christians still ache for connection. They wrestle with loneliness,

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They long for intimacy, They fight fear, and they and

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they grieve and they have and they and they get

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bothered and upset if the absence of safety, love, or meaning,

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and when those needs aren't met, the Church tells them

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Jesus should be enough. It doesn't lead to Joit typically

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leads to guilt, It leads to shame, it leads to silence,

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and ultimately it will lead to pretending that you've got

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it all when you really don't. So we are talking

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about this now, and that's kind of just summarizing some

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of the basic premises of this hypothesis because I'm challenging

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the Christian's approach to this. So what we talked about

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last time is we talked about the examples of how

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a lack of fulfillment manifest We talked about what happens

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when your physiological needs are not met, when missing when

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you're missing love and belonging, when you're missing esteem, when

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you're missing self actualization or meaning. And we talked about

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how all when you're missing that it's going to manifest itself.

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And we talked all the different ways it can. I'm

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not going to go back through it. It was a very

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important conversation. So here's what happens. I decided considering Maslow's

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hierarchy of needs another thing to spark this was a

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sermon on spiritual satisfaction and just kind of just discussing

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this with myself, kind of talking with myself about it,

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I decided, you know what, let me talk to artificial

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intelligence about it. So I spent probably three hours having

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a conversation with artificial intelligence about this entire subject. And

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I'm going to share with you that back and forth,

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that conversation. And the reason I'm going to do this,

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and I mentioned this at the end of the last broadcast,

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is because I believe by sharing the conversation, instead of

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just taking the conversation turning it into like bullet points

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or just turning it into an outline and teaching it,

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if I share the conversation, I feel it unfolds in

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a natural way. You get to kind of listen to

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me wrestle with these questions in real time. You're gonna

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you're gonna see what I was wrestling with artificial intelligence

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in regards to this subject of satisfaction. In real time.

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I think it's going to You're gonna be able to

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hear an honest exploration rather than me just starting with

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some rigid thesis. You're gonna hear me kind of work through.

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Now you'll hear some of my hypotheses and some of

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my theories, because I've already put forth that I have

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a hypothesis that goes against most of Christianity. But you're

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going to be hearing the conversation, and from the very beginning,

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as I'm developing that hypothesis, over time, I think it's

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going to allow you to listen and follow the progression

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of thought. Instead of being told believe this, You're gonna

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kind of hear me try to figure out well how

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to possibly approach this subject. And I think that the

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conversation offers a good balance of psychology, theology, scripture, and

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my own personal reflection in it. And I think that

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will make it somewhat interesting. So what you're going to

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hear over the next I don't know, thirty minutes, thirty

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five minutes, ever, how long I take this episode, you're

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gonna hear about a conversation. You're gonna hear a conversation

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about how the I struggle with and try to understand

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and somewhat challenge the normal understanding of satisfaction that many

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churches put forth. And I'm going to argue against the

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way Christianity sells itself because I think it's all I

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think it's all a fraud. I think the whole thing's

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a fraud. And nobody wants to admit it. So where

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did the conversation begin, Well, if we start at the

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very beginning, it started because of a sermon on spiritual satisfaction.

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So what I originally did is I'm like, hey, Ai,

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I have a sermon here and that's called spiritual satisfaction.

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How do you think it's going to handle it? Give

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me your prediction, and it basically says, well, it's going

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to handle it like all Christians handle satisfaction, and it

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kind of gave me the basic overview. So then I

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gave it the text, and then we had this long

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conversation about Some one nineteen and how can it be

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used this way? What is a law gospel? I'm going

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to leave all of that out because that went on

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for like an about forty five minutes, and it's going

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to take us way too far from the subject at hand.

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It was some interesting conversation and definitely, and I've ultimately

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gave Ai the sermon itself, and AI was like, well,

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I told you what it was going to be about,

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because they basically did everything I told you they were

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going to do to the very letter. And I'm like, well,

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I don't agree with the way it handled it. And

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AI was like, okay, well I kind of figured that

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since you don't agree with anything that Christians do, Okay,

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but here we go. So then I'm like, all right,

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how then, how do most Christians? How do most pastors

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define spiritual satisfaction? How do they understand it? Ai says

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In the modern evangelical or non denominational context, spiritual satisfaction

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is typically defined experientially, emphasizing feelings of peace, joy fulfillment,

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are closeness to God. It's typically tied to emotional well being.

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I feel full when I worship or pray or read

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the scriptures. See, you can have complete emotional well being.

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But what I always love how Christianity does this? Like

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when you're a Christian, you'll get emotional well being, but

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then you're told no, no, no, no, it's not just as

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simple as becoming a Christian. If you really want emotional wellbeing,

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you got to read your Bible. You've got to go

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to church, you got to pray, you got to join

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a small group, you got to do Bible study, you

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got to do devotionals, you got to have a quiet time.

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And now all of a sudden, it becomes a list

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of thirty seven things you have to do in order

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to get emotional wellbeing. But I thought I got a

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emotional well being because I have Jesus. Well, you do

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have Jesus, but you don't get your emotional wellbeing until

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you do abcd FG. Well, how much of it do

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I do to have emotional well being? Well, the more

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you do, the better your emotional wellbeing will be. Well,

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if I'm doing all of these things, do I have

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emotional wellbeing? What about all the other? Okay, well, then

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you could just it just becomes a vicious cycle. So

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typically they will tie it to emotional well being. They

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will also kind of connect it to a sense of

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purpose or identity. I know who I am in Christ,

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and I feel complete. Hey, your identity is found in Christ. Now, look,

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I'm not rejecting this idea that my identity should be

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found in Christ. But what comes with it is your

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identity is in Christ. So you don't need anything, You're

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not lacking anything. You should be perfect, you should be satisfied,

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you don't need self esteem. You've got Christ's esteem. And

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it all sounds so good, it sounds so good. But yet,

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even though we are in Christ, even though He's our identity,

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come on, two thousand years of church history as my proof.

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Christians have complained, there's been frustration here. They just in

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the biggest details to the smallest details. There's a lack

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of satisfaction because all you have to do to get

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Christians to act a certain way is just remove part

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of the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and you will see

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a completely different side. Even though they talk to big

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game relational connection. See, you can have satisfaction because God

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speaks to me. Is how some will say, I feel

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his presence. So you have a relational connection. You may

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be longing for relational connection, but you don't need relational

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connection because you can have the perfect relational connection because

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you have God. Again, it sounds so good, it preaches

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so good. I won't even get into the issues here,

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but this is how typically Christians will handle this idea.

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You have complete satisfaction. Why because and they will usually

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connect us having perfect satisfaction and contentment and all of

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this because you now have victory over sin. You're now

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living a spiritually victorious life. You don't live in defeat.

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You've been set free. You're a new creature, the oldest

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passed away now and well and everyone says, amen, Amen,

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Amen to it, and then you but nobody wants to

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admit you're perpetually in a state of sin twenty four

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hours a day, seven days a week. So so much

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of how Christianity teaches us it's a lie. You've got

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to be have complete, perfect emotional wellbeing. I have a

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sense of purpose, I have relational connection to my God,

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and I have victory over sin. I'm more than a conqueror.

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And all of this is understood in a practical way.

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And the reality is, no, you're in a perpetual state

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of sin, and you're not. All these things you're claiming.

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Your life demonstrates you don't. You're not even experiencing these things.

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They will also connect this spiritual satisfaction to personal growth

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or spiritual progress. Typically within Christianity, it leans more towards

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a therapeutic language, satisfaction as an inner calm, a fulfillment

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sometimes detached from deeper theological or covenantal realities. It's just basically,

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everything is good in life. Everything's wonderful, everything's great, everything

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is as perfect as it should be because you've got

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Jesus and that's all you need. So I'm like Okay,

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thank you. I think that pretty much agrees with everything

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I hear and see. So I'm like, okay, A, I

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can agree with this. But then I asked Ai a question.

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I said, do you think Christians really, at a true

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and honest level, actually experience this kind of spiritual satisfaction

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as it is defined by most sermons and Christian books?

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Do you I know what all the Christian books say,

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I know what all the sermons say, I know what

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I've been told my entire Christian life, But do you

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think anyone really experiences what Christianity constantly sells? Ai says,

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Christians do not experience spiritual satisfaction in the way it's

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commonly defined in sermons and books, at least not consistently, consistently, sustainably,

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or deeply. And many are quite aware of that reality.

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So AI is like, no, they don't. And most and

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many Christians really know this. They know it deep down.

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They may not admit it, but they do not. They're

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not experienced this in a consistent way, in a sustainable way,

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or in a deep way. It's a facade. It's all pretend,

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and it's it's maddening because I fell into the same

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trap of a lot of this nonsense, buying into this,

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believing this. So I asked Ai, well why not? I mean,

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that's that's a bold statement for Ai to go, No,

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don't think it's happening. I'm like, WHOA, that's that's pretty cold.

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Why not? Ai says? The definition is unrealistic. The definition

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is detached from reality. This is what Ai said. Most

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sermons and Christian books describe spiritual satisfaction as feeling close

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to God, living in peace and victory, overcoming sin on

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a regular and consistent basis, enjoying Bible reading and prayer daily,

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having emotional and spiritual fullness. This is essentially an idealized

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an ideal. Basically, you're kind of giving the the the

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the perfect idea of what almost heaven. Right. It's it's this,

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It's essentially an idealized experiential state, and it's marketed as

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attainable if you just do the right things. It's it's

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the ideal concept, right. It's more, it's like Christianity sells

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this essentially that this is what it should be, and

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it sounds almost like heaven. It almost sounds like glorification,

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and they want to say that this is what you

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can experience. It's something that that basically this is how

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it should be in your everyday life, and Christian's Christianity

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market markets it as an attainable thing. You can have it.

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But here's the thing. Christians play this game with you.

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It's almost like bait and switch, right, because what they

357
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do is they say it's attainable, you can have it,

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and they almost sell out, like if you get Jesus,

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that's all you ever need, you'll be content. But then

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inevitably you don't read the fine print because it'll be

361
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like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. You become

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a Christian, but you've got to do a B, C, D, E, F, G,

363
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h I, J, K, leman O, P q, R S,

364
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t U, v w X, y n Z, and we'll

365
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go to a couple of other alphabets because you've got

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to do those things as well, and you know what

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those things are going to be. You've got to pray,

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you gotta read, you got to go to small group,

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you gotta go to church, you need to tie ten percent,

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you got to do this, you got to do that.

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You got to do this, you got to do that.

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And you're like, well, wait a minute, I thought so

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you've got to do all of these things in order

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to supposedly get this satisfaction. This kind of satisfaction is

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rare if you ever even briefly experience it. It's fleeting,

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and it's largely at least AI is allowing for the

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possibility largely unattainable in this life. I think AI is

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00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.160
being nice. I don't think it's largely unattainable. I think

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it's one hundred percent unattainable. And Christians lie to everyone

380
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when they sell this nonsense and sermon after sermon after

381
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sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. So the first

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problem why Christians don't ever experience this is because the

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definition is detached from reality. It's just it's unrealistic. It's unattainable.

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It's just ridiculous. It's basically trying to say, you know,

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to quote a famous lyric, heaven on earth. We don't

386
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get heaven on earth, ladies and gentlemen. Number two second

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problem sin doubt, losing my voice, Sin doubt and suffering

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are ongoing. I would like to say, AI says, sin

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doubt and suffering or ongoing, I'm going to be like,

390
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this is what I'm going to say, sin, doubt, and

391
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suffering are realities of your life and my life. People

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struggle with spiritual dryness, they struggle with doubt, they struggle

393
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with apathy, they struggle with guilt, and they often do

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this quietly because you're not supposed to do it loudly

395
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and be open and honest with it. Because something's wrong.

396
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Because you've got Jesus, and that's all you ever need.

397
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Have you got Jesus, You'll never hunger and thirst again.

398
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If you've got Jesus, you don't need anything else, because

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that's the way it's always sold. Now you say, well,

400
00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:11.519
there's verses that seem to indicate this, and I think

401
00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:15.160
these verses are radically misunderstood because we take these verses

402
00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:17.480
and I think they refer to something spiritual and we

403
00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:23.119
make it somehow related to our physical, materialistic life. And

404
00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:29.200
I think that's where the problems begin. Ongoing sin and

405
00:25:29.240 --> 00:25:32.759
failure make it hard to feel spiritually satisfied because you're

406
00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:35.480
in a perpetual state of sin. How are you going

407
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:38.400
to feel spiritually satisfied when here's the reality. God says,

408
00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:41.200
be holy. You're not holy. You've never been that for

409
00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.079
one second of one minute of one hour of one day.

410
00:25:45.279 --> 00:25:48.160
You're never going to be that. You're in a perpetual

411
00:25:48.200 --> 00:25:49.920
state of sin. The Bible says to love God with

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all your heart and mind, body and soul. You have

413
00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:53.839
never done that, you never will do that. The Bible

414
00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:57.400
system may meditate on His law day and night. You

415
00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:00.279
have never done that. You never will do that. The

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00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:03.920
Bible says to love His word more than you do gold, silver,

417
00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:06.960
and food. You have never done that, and you never

418
00:26:07.119 --> 00:26:09.400
will do it. I can go on and on and

419
00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:12.839
on and on. Scripture after scripture after scripture. You live

420
00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:15.400
in a perpetual state of failure. But you're supposed to

421
00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:18.599
somehow know. Oh, I'm spiritually satisfied now. It depends now

422
00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:21.480
if you're talking about how you understand this, If we

423
00:26:21.559 --> 00:26:25.200
talk about my positional standing before God, I can have

424
00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:29.079
complete satisfaction, right because in Christ I perfect and obedience.

425
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But in my practical life you're in a perpetual state

426
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:36.480
of failure. Every single time you open the Bible, you're

427
00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:41.680
confronted with God's law that says you are a failure.

428
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:44.880
And if you think otherwise, then you are not reading

429
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:52.799
the scriptures even remotely. Honest, sin, doubt, and suffering or

430
00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:56.839
ongoing and this life, prayers feel unanswered all the time,

431
00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:59.319
as much as you want to pretend otherwise, prayers feel

432
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:04.839
unanswered all the time. The Bible can feel closed. Emotions fluctuate,

433
00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:09.279
that's just a reality. Alive. Emotions fluctuate. Why because emotions

434
00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:11.559
are not so simple as you get Jesus and now

435
00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.839
all of your emotions are right. Because emotions are complicated.

436
00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:18.839
They're they're there's all kinds of things going on inside

437
00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:22.160
of us. There, they're they're influenced by external factors. They're

438
00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.400
influenced by internal factors. There's body chemistry going on, there's

439
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:30.240
a million issues. So therefore, you're never truly going to

440
00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:34.279
have complete satisfaction the way Christians lie to you and

441
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:42.400
tell you you can. All right, If spiritual satisfaction is

442
00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:46.079
measured by how close we feel to God or how

443
00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:49.200
victorious we are, then most Christians will always feel like

444
00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:52.240
a failure or a second class believer. You're always going

445
00:27:52.279 --> 00:27:54.000
to feel like you're a failure. You're always going to

446
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.720
feel like you're a second class believer. You're always going

447
00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:00.319
if you're even remotely honest. So what's the game that is?

448
00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:02.759
You got to pretend the game is you got to

449
00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:06.200
pretend to be that which you know everyone knows you're not,

450
00:28:06.359 --> 00:28:12.960
but you continue to pretend that way. So why do

451
00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:16.440
Christians never going to feel true satisfaction? Is because the

452
00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:20.920
definition is detached from reality. It's unrealistic. And because sin, doubt,

453
00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:22.920
and suffering is a part of this life and it's

454
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:24.559
always going to be a part of this life. For

455
00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:26.720
some people it's more than others, but it's always going

456
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:32.799
to be there. Third, most Christians fake it, not necessarily

457
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:36.279
out of hypocrisy, but out of pressure. The way satisfaction

458
00:28:36.319 --> 00:28:39.519
has talked about makes people feel ashamed if there aren't

459
00:28:39.559 --> 00:28:43.359
experiencing it, pretend they have to. They have it to

460
00:28:43.400 --> 00:28:46.400
fit in at church or small group, buy books, go

461
00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:51.160
to conferences, or seek experiences hoping for that missing feeling.

462
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.720
So instead of honestly saying, I don't I'm not satisfied,

463
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:00.039
I'm not content, I'm unhappy about this. No no, no, no, no, no

464
00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:02.599
no no, I still sin. Oh, you can't say that.

465
00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:07.000
You mask all of the inner emptiness, you mask all

466
00:29:07.079 --> 00:29:10.279
of the needs not being met, and you pretend, and

467
00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:13.960
you pretend, and you pretend and you pretend, and you

468
00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:18.400
may overcompensate because you feel that something is not right.

469
00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:20.480
So what you do you become you get involved in

470
00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:23.480
a performance based religion, and you do do do Do,

471
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:26.920
do do do, and then you become arrogant, judgmental, and

472
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:29.799
condemning to cover up the reality that you know something

473
00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:32.599
still isn't right. Even though I'm a Christian, you start

474
00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:34.960
sounding like you're singing YouTube. I still haven't found what

475
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:43.680
I'm looking for. So obviously, most Christians are never going

476
00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:45.920
to find true satisfaction because many of them are spending

477
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:48.920
most of their life faking it. Number four the laws misused.

478
00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:53.240
When spiritual satisfaction is presented as the result of your

479
00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:57.039
obedience hunger and effort, then it's functionally law and not

480
00:29:57.160 --> 00:29:59.680
gospel a lot of times. And that's this weird thing.

481
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:02.279
If you get Jesus, you've got everything you need. You'll

482
00:30:02.279 --> 00:30:05.599
never hunger and thirst again, but almost inevitably again, bait

483
00:30:05.640 --> 00:30:07.920
and switch, you get Jesus, you get it all, and

484
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:09.559
then all of a sudden switch no no, no, no,

485
00:30:09.559 --> 00:30:12.599
no no, you get Jesus. But now you got to

486
00:30:12.640 --> 00:30:14.759
do this, and you got to do this, and you

487
00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:16.359
got to do this because if you don't do this

488
00:30:16.519 --> 00:30:18.359
and you don't do this, and you don't do this well,

489
00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:20.440
then you won't feel satisfied, you won't feel content, you

490
00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:23.440
won't feel happy. You've got to be basically perfect then

491
00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:25.960
you'll be happy. I'm telling you you can be perfect.

492
00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:28.599
You're still not going to be happy because why Because

493
00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:32.480
you've got these needs inside of you, and the minute

494
00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:35.839
those needs are not being met, I don't care how

495
00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:38.039
godly you are, I don't care how holy you are.

496
00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:40.680
You're going to feel it because it's built inside of

497
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.160
our body, and then we have a sinful nature inside

498
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:50.240
of us. So when spiritual satisfaction is presented as the

499
00:30:50.279 --> 00:30:53.039
result of your obedience, hunger, and effort, then it's functionally

500
00:30:53.119 --> 00:30:55.319
law and it's not gospel, and it becomes a burden.

501
00:30:55.680 --> 00:30:58.920
You're not satisfied because you don't want God enough. You're

502
00:30:58.920 --> 00:31:01.599
not satisfied because you're not seeking your affections on things above.

503
00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:04.799
You're not satisfied because you're not seeking first the kingdom

504
00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:08.759
of God. You're not satisfied because you haven't died to yourself.

505
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:13.599
It becomes a performance metric. If you were spiritual enough,

506
00:31:13.680 --> 00:31:17.480
you would feel full. If you were spiritual enough, you

507
00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:20.720
wouldn't be depressed. You wouldn't be discouraged, you wouldn't be frustrated,

508
00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:23.400
you wouldn't be better. Come on, snap out of it,

509
00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:30.480
act right now. They may say it in a nicer way,

510
00:31:30.599 --> 00:31:33.960
but when you strip away all of the verbiage, it

511
00:31:34.039 --> 00:31:38.480
becomes do more, do more, do more, do more. So

512
00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:42.759
it becomes a cycle of guilt. Try harder, want it more,

513
00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:47.400
Come on, you can do it. This will ultimately crush

514
00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:51.720
people who are honest about their feelings and their emotions

515
00:31:51.720 --> 00:32:01.400
and their desires and their needs and their wants. So

516
00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:04.319
why do most Christians not experience Number one, The definition

517
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:08.440
of satisfaction is completely unrealistic. Number two, Sin doubt and

518
00:32:08.440 --> 00:32:10.039
suffering are going to be a part of life. And

519
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:12.200
guess what, Sin doubt and suffering is always going to

520
00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:15.079
impact Maslow's hierarchy of needs because one of the reasons

521
00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:16.920
you're suffering is because one of those needs are not

522
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:19.920
being met. Number three, most Christians are spending their time

523
00:32:19.960 --> 00:32:22.039
faking it, so they're not going to get anywhere. And

524
00:32:22.079 --> 00:32:25.359
typically this is once again a never ending problem of

525
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:29.400
where everything becomes law based and not gospel based. And

526
00:32:29.480 --> 00:32:32.440
number five, I think this is important. True satisfaction is

527
00:32:32.440 --> 00:32:38.279
found outside of ourselves. The paradox of the Gospel really

528
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:42.559
is this. You're not spiritually satisfied by what you feel

529
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:47.799
or by what you do. You're spiritually satisfied because Christ

530
00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:54.799
is your satisfaction, no matter what you feel, no matter

531
00:32:55.400 --> 00:33:01.319
what is going on Christ in Christ, Christ is my satisfaction.

532
00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:06.079
This leads us back to a positional understanding. In Christ. Positionally,

533
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.319
I will never hunger or thirst. I don't need anything

534
00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:12.240
to be eternally saved. There's nothing I have to do

535
00:33:12.359 --> 00:33:14.720
to keep my salvation, so I never have to hunger

536
00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:18.519
and thirst for righteousness because it's all been fulfilled in

537
00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:23.200
Christ Jesus. He's everything I need spiritually to get me

538
00:33:23.319 --> 00:33:27.240
from salvation to eternal glory, to a new body. No

539
00:33:27.359 --> 00:33:29.920
more pain, no more suffering, no more death I don't have.

540
00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:33.440
I can be perfectly content and what Christ has done

541
00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:36.440
for me now there I can find satisfaction. But that

542
00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:40.400
satisfaction is far different than what it turns out practically,

543
00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:43.920
because practically I may be depressed, I may be discouraged,

544
00:33:44.119 --> 00:33:47.480
I may be frustrated, things may be going horribly wrong.

545
00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:51.519
But in my position, I'm perfectly satisfied because Christ is

546
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:55.799
my satisfaction. He satisfied the wrath of God on my behalf.

547
00:33:55.960 --> 00:34:04.799
He paid for my sins. Jesus kept the law perfectly.

548
00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:09.039
When you could not, and you cannot, he cried out

549
00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:12.239
and abandonment so you could be accepted. He was the

550
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:14.719
Word made flesh. When you can barely read the word,

551
00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:21.159
here's your peace. When your soul feels absolutely chaotic. That's

552
00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:28.199
not emotional, it's not circumstantial. It's positional. It's the objective

553
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:31.519
satisfaction we have in Christ, even while the lot, while

554
00:34:31.719 --> 00:34:37.039
we lack the subjective feeling of it. Positionally perfect satisfaction,

555
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:44.239
perfectly complete, never hunger, never thirst again, never need anything again. Practically,

556
00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:49.400
may never feel this, may never experience it, may live

557
00:34:49.440 --> 00:34:59.039
a life of so many negative things. Most Christians don't

558
00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:02.039
experience spiritual satisfaction the way it's preached or sold, and

559
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:04.039
when they don't, they often feel like something is wrong

560
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.119
with them. They try to hide to fit in. They

561
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:12.079
try to hide it to fit in. They chase after books, worship, experiences, disciplines,

562
00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:14.519
trying to recapture it. They go to this conference, they'll

563
00:35:14.519 --> 00:35:17.239
buy a book on the five spiritual disciplines, and they

564
00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:19.000
do this, and they're gonna do this, and they're gonna

565
00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:20.880
do this, and they're gonna do this, and they're always

566
00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:24.159
chasing this elusive thing where they can truly feel satisfied,

567
00:35:24.320 --> 00:35:28.280
truly feel the blessed life. No, but I am blessed

568
00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:32.320
in Christ Jesus spiritually, not based on anything that's gonna

569
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:34.199
happen in my life. Because my life may be filled

570
00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:37.199
with pain, turmoil, and missing a good portion of the

571
00:35:37.239 --> 00:35:41.760
Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And God doesn't guarantee or promise

572
00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:44.360
that he's gonna make me feel better because these needs

573
00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:48.039
are meeting missing. Because with those needs are missing, there's

574
00:35:48.119 --> 00:35:54.039
going to be issues and what can ultimately happen. Well,

575
00:35:54.159 --> 00:35:56.440
Christians will chase and chase and chase, and sometimes they

576
00:35:56.480 --> 00:35:59.199
just stop chasing, they stop running, and they're like, this

577
00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:03.440
is all this whole system is a lie. It's all garbage.

578
00:36:03.519 --> 00:36:07.000
You Christians are insane. Y'all got mental problems because you're

579
00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:10.159
all pretending. It's like you're still running around and dress

580
00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:12.719
up at Disneyland and you haven't woken up to realize

581
00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:15.360
the real world calls. And it's not this nonsense that

582
00:36:15.400 --> 00:36:22.920
you Christians teach because they never hear the gospel. They

583
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:28.199
hear this law based system, but the Gospel tells us

584
00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:33.800
a completely different story. Satisfaction is not found in your experience.

585
00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:36.800
It's not based on your experience. It's found in Christ,

586
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:40.679
who satisfies God's wrath fulfills God's law, and invite sinners

587
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:43.280
who are still thirsty, who are still broken, who are

588
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:47.199
still weak, who still doubt, who still sin, to rest

589
00:36:47.559 --> 00:36:50.039
not in what they can do, but what He did

590
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:53.480
perfectly in his finished work. This is you do not

591
00:36:53.599 --> 00:36:56.239
trust or rest in your feelings. You don't trust and

592
00:36:56.280 --> 00:36:58.920
rest in your good deeds. You don't trust and rest,

593
00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:01.920
and how good a Christian you can be, you, it's

594
00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:13.360
all finished in Him. Your rest in that. So I

595
00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:16.320
was like, WHOA, that's really good, Ai, that's some really

596
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:18.480
good stuff. And they drave home some really good points,

597
00:37:18.480 --> 00:37:21.079
and of course I added my own thoughts in some

598
00:37:21.119 --> 00:37:24.320
of that, but yeah, it's We had a good conversation.

599
00:37:25.039 --> 00:37:28.119
But I was left with kind of After I had

600
00:37:28.119 --> 00:37:31.159
that conversation, I'm like, hey, so these are my words,

601
00:37:31.280 --> 00:37:34.480
I said Ai. I didn't say Ai, but speaking to Ai,

602
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:39.280
typing to Ai, I said, many Christians who claim to

603
00:37:39.360 --> 00:37:43.719
have this so called spiritual satisfaction, which I don't believe

604
00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:48.519
anybody actually does, but I do find this somewhat irritating

605
00:37:48.519 --> 00:37:52.519
to me. Many who claim to have this spiritual satisfaction

606
00:37:54.239 --> 00:38:01.400
are often at the exact same time surrounded by material stability.

607
00:38:02.280 --> 00:38:07.360
They have a home, they have a family, they have food,

608
00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:18.320
they have income, they have health, they have security, they

609
00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:26.320
have intimacy, they have relationship, they have all the things.

610
00:38:26.440 --> 00:38:29.480
They basically have pretty much everything on Maslow's hierarchy of

611
00:38:29.519 --> 00:38:32.320
needs pretty much met. They've got most of them there,

612
00:38:38.039 --> 00:38:45.159
and so it's not always clear whether they're satisfaction is

613
00:38:45.199 --> 00:38:50.960
truly spiritual, are just the psychological and emotional comfort that

614
00:38:51.039 --> 00:38:59.280
comes from having a good life. Now you'll see this

615
00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:08.639
a lot sometimes. The Christians were so loud about Oh,

616
00:39:08.679 --> 00:39:11.239
in Jesus, you got everything. In Jesus, you got everything.

617
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:13.239
A lot of times you look and go, but look

618
00:39:13.280 --> 00:39:17.519
at your life. You're claiming Jesus is your all, Jesus

619
00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:20.599
is all you need. Jesus is your satisfaction. You claim

620
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:23.480
all of this stuff in a practical way, But look

621
00:39:23.519 --> 00:39:26.639
at your life. Let's go through Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

622
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:30.199
Name one thing is missing, Name one thing missing. You

623
00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:32.880
got every single one of them. So if you've got

624
00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:35.559
them all, they're for crying out loud? Then how do

625
00:39:35.679 --> 00:39:39.199
you know that's Jesus satisfying you and that you or

626
00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:41.840
it's not? Or is it really Jesus satisfying you? Or

627
00:39:41.920 --> 00:39:45.719
is it just the psychological and emotional comfort that comes

628
00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:49.000
from having a good life. You've got pretty much everything,

629
00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:53.760
so how can you be claiming it's Jesus? You don't

630
00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:56.119
know if it's Jesus. You can say, oh, day, it's Jesus.

631
00:39:56.199 --> 00:39:58.920
You've just added Jesus to your list of everything else

632
00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:03.159
you've got maslow'shierarchy of needs check check, check, check, check,

633
00:40:03.239 --> 00:40:06.159
and then add in Jesus. Oh but Jesus is the

634
00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:15.960
thing satisfying me. Stop your nonsense, so AI said, Let

635
00:40:15.960 --> 00:40:24.000
me be blunt. Material comfort, emotional intimacy, physical intimacy. Add

636
00:40:24.039 --> 00:40:28.440
all of that stuff together gets confused with spiritual satisfaction.

637
00:40:29.800 --> 00:40:33.719
If you ask someone who says they're spiritually satisfied, would

638
00:40:33.719 --> 00:40:37.280
you feel that same satisfaction if you lost your job,

639
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:47.719
you lost your health, you lost your marriage, you lose

640
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:53.039
your kids. Would you still say God is enough? If

641
00:40:53.199 --> 00:41:01.920
everything was stripped away? Would your peace survive the unraveling

642
00:41:02.920 --> 00:41:07.079
of your life? All these things were taken away. Go

643
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:13.079
with Maslow's hierarchy of needs and start removing things. Now,

644
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:15.159
I know what you're supposed to say. Oh, I'll be

645
00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:17.840
satisfied because Jesus is all I need. Well again, it's

646
00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:20.280
big talk. When you got everything. It's big talk to

647
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.559
say that in the sanctuary, or you're sitting next to

648
00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:25.000
your nice little family. And then you all get together

649
00:41:25.119 --> 00:41:27.480
and walk out holding hands, get in the car, stop

650
00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:30.840
by your favorite restaurant, get some food, go home, play outside,

651
00:41:31.079 --> 00:41:35.679
go to the park, walk the dog, give everyone a

652
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:37.760
hug and kiss, and then you and your wife get

653
00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:45.199
in bed together. Oh yeah, you've got everything. But I

654
00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:47.559
know when you start stripping some of those away, people

655
00:41:47.559 --> 00:41:51.760
don't sound like they're all satisfied, do they? Hmm, job,

656
00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:56.079
didn't sound so satisfied. Did he just keep that in mind.

657
00:41:56.079 --> 00:42:03.760
We'll come back to that in greater detail. So this

658
00:42:03.960 --> 00:42:09.000
question exposes something. A lot of what passes for spiritual

659
00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:12.840
satisfaction in the modern church is deeply entangled with material

660
00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:17.800
ease and circumstantial blessing. Now they may say, oh, I

661
00:42:17.880 --> 00:42:20.079
have all of this because God gave it to me. Well,

662
00:42:20.119 --> 00:42:24.039
that a great good. That's good. But the person one

663
00:42:24.079 --> 00:42:26.360
block away who doesn't have all of that. Waight, God

664
00:42:26.360 --> 00:42:28.280
didn't bother to give it to them. Okay, now we

665
00:42:28.320 --> 00:42:40.000
get into a whole different theological discussion. So I think

666
00:42:40.039 --> 00:42:42.800
a lot of what is put forth as satisfaction in

667
00:42:42.800 --> 00:42:48.239
the Christian Church it's fraudulent. It's fake. You claim to

668
00:42:48.280 --> 00:42:51.719
be so satisfied and that Jesus is your everything because

669
00:42:51.719 --> 00:42:54.199
you've got all this stuff. And my question is, if

670
00:42:54.280 --> 00:42:56.079
Jesus is everything, why do you need all of this

671
00:42:56.119 --> 00:43:00.880
other stuff? Why do you need timacy, Why do you

672
00:43:00.920 --> 00:43:04.400
need physical intimacy, Why do you need companionship? Why do

673
00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:06.719
you need this? Why do you keep by? Why do

674
00:43:06.760 --> 00:43:09.760
you have this and this and this? Oh you should

675
00:43:09.800 --> 00:43:18.159
need is Jesus. It should just be you God, the word, prayer, praise, confession,

676
00:43:19.639 --> 00:43:23.719
meditating on it, feeding upon God's word, because man does

677
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:25.480
not live by bread alone, but by every word that

678
00:43:25.519 --> 00:43:29.199
proceeded out of the mouth of God. You hunger and

679
00:43:29.239 --> 00:43:32.599
thirst after righteousness. That's that's what it should all be about.

680
00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:35.800
It's a it's a big game to say all of

681
00:43:35.840 --> 00:43:42.719
that and then you have everything else. Imagine your life

682
00:43:44.519 --> 00:43:55.239
and a monastery or a convent, become a nun become

683
00:43:55.280 --> 00:44:01.079
a monk. That's your life. Just God, just God. Morning prayers,

684
00:44:01.480 --> 00:44:06.679
afternoon prayers, evening prayers, late night prayers, following the Liturgy

685
00:44:06.679 --> 00:44:13.000
of the hours, reading, attending services, hearing homilies, reading from

686
00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.079
spiritual books. That's it. Nothing else. You don't have anything else.

687
00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:26.639
Now that's going to challenge your whole concept of satisfaction

688
00:44:26.960 --> 00:44:43.599
in about three point two seconds, so Ai again says,

689
00:44:43.639 --> 00:44:45.880
a lot of what passes for spiritual satisfaction in the

690
00:44:45.880 --> 00:44:53.880
modern church is deeply entangled with material ease and circumstantial blessings.

691
00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:58.280
We could ask this question, what if job won thirteen

692
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:04.800
through nineteen happened to you Job chapter one, verses thirteen

693
00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:07.440
through nineteen. Just write down job one thirteen through nineteen.

694
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:08.960
What'd you should do to take a piece of paper,

695
00:45:09.400 --> 00:45:12.519
write it out like, just paraphrase it. Just get the

696
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:15.639
basic concept of what happens here. Just write it down

697
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:17.840
and just put it somewhere like on the refrigerator. You

698
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:19.679
could see it every day and just ask what if

699
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:25.119
what if it happened to you? See, the test of

700
00:45:25.159 --> 00:45:27.719
spiritual satisfaction is not when your life is full, it's

701
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:32.320
when your life is empty. Job lost everything his livestock,

702
00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:38.239
his servants, his children, his wealth, his health, his wife

703
00:45:38.320 --> 00:45:42.440
even told him to curse God and die. Now in

704
00:45:42.559 --> 00:45:44.760
all of that, Job did say, though he slay me,

705
00:45:44.840 --> 00:45:52.559
yet I will trust in him. Now did he have satisfaction? Now,

706
00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:55.159
me and Ai had a little back and forth here,

707
00:45:55.239 --> 00:45:57.639
all right, and I'll go to the I'll skip some

708
00:45:57.679 --> 00:45:59.840
of this and go down to the next conversation. Because

709
00:45:59.880 --> 00:46:02.039
we had a conversation about this. Ai is like, well,

710
00:46:02.079 --> 00:46:04.719
most Christians are going to say, well, job was satisfied,

711
00:46:04.719 --> 00:46:08.280
and I'm like, that's complete garbage. I don't believe he was.

712
00:46:08.599 --> 00:46:12.880
I believe he maintained trust in God. That's far different

713
00:46:12.920 --> 00:46:17.360
than being satisfied. And we'll talk about that in a second.

714
00:46:20.079 --> 00:46:22.760
Jesus said this would be the test. A person's life

715
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:26.199
does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Blessed are

716
00:46:26.239 --> 00:46:28.400
the poor in spirit. If anyone would come after me,

717
00:46:28.519 --> 00:46:32.320
let him deny himself. If our so called spiritual satisfaction

718
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:35.639
collapses when life gets hard, then it wasn't really spiritual.

719
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:43.480
It was circumstantial. But see, my thing is, I think

720
00:46:43.480 --> 00:46:49.360
it even goes deeper because if we truly had this satisfaction,

721
00:46:50.119 --> 00:46:53.159
because Christianity basically sells the idea that we can have

722
00:46:53.239 --> 00:46:56.079
this satisfaction that goes you know, we don't need Maslow's

723
00:46:56.119 --> 00:46:58.639
hierarchy of needs because we have Jesus. But the point

724
00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:01.119
is is, if you sell it that way, it's just

725
00:47:01.280 --> 00:47:06.159
a garbage because we wouldn't then be pursuing all of

726
00:47:06.199 --> 00:47:08.199
these things. Why do we pursue all of these things?

727
00:47:08.239 --> 00:47:10.119
Why do we I gotta do this, and I want this,

728
00:47:10.159 --> 00:47:11.719
and I need this, and I desire this, and I

729
00:47:11.760 --> 00:47:14.199
need this and I need this because we're still hungering

730
00:47:14.199 --> 00:47:16.559
and desiring. Because we have all these needs and all

731
00:47:16.599 --> 00:47:19.000
of these desires, why do we get frustrated? Why do

732
00:47:19.119 --> 00:47:21.960
we get irritated? A much of our fighting and frustrating

733
00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:26.079
and bickering and backbiting and gossip and slander and bitterness

734
00:47:26.079 --> 00:47:29.800
and unforgiveness. So much of our sin is because we

735
00:47:29.880 --> 00:47:32.320
still have these needs, and when those needs are not met,

736
00:47:32.519 --> 00:47:36.639
they manifest in very real ways. So our ongoing sin

737
00:47:36.719 --> 00:47:39.880
in some ways prove that we're not truly spiritually satisfied,

738
00:47:39.920 --> 00:47:42.840
because we're truly spiritually satisfied. The way Christians sell it,

739
00:47:42.920 --> 00:47:45.920
you wouldn't want anything, you wouldn't need anything, so you

740
00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:47.800
wouldn't even worry about sin because you would have no

741
00:47:47.880 --> 00:47:50.000
need for it because you're perfectly content and happy with

742
00:47:50.039 --> 00:47:52.119
what you have. But that's not the case, is it.

743
00:48:00.119 --> 00:48:03.840
Christians who talk about peace, joy, contentment, and satisfaction are

744
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:07.360
not facing starvation, they're not facing persecution, they're not facing prison.

745
00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:11.320
They have health care, and in most cases, they're relatively healthy.

746
00:48:11.400 --> 00:48:14.119
They have electricity, they have clean water, they have access

747
00:48:14.239 --> 00:48:17.280
to churches, Bibles, and freedom of worship. They're financially and

748
00:48:17.320 --> 00:48:21.639
relationally stable. Even if life has some challenges, overall, they've

749
00:48:21.639 --> 00:48:24.400
got most of that. So what they call satisfaction is

750
00:48:24.440 --> 00:48:27.639
often basic human comfort paired with religious language, not the

751
00:48:27.760 --> 00:48:32.239
kind of deep, durable, soul level satisfaction that many Christians

752
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:36.280
talk about. So what does all of this do well?

753
00:48:36.280 --> 00:48:40.440
It creates unrealistic expectations for suffering Christians. Why aren't you

754
00:48:40.599 --> 00:48:43.679
joyful in your trial? Why aren't you joyful? What is

755
00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:47.920
your problem? It causes guild and believers who are poor, lonely,

756
00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:50.760
sick or depressed. Maybe I just don't love God enough,

757
00:48:50.920 --> 00:48:53.960
Maybe something's wrong with me. It gives the wrong impression

758
00:48:53.960 --> 00:48:56.360
that Christianity is a pathway to peace in this life,

759
00:48:56.559 --> 00:49:00.480
rather than through crosses pain and deferred hope, because that's

760
00:49:00.519 --> 00:49:04.920
the reality the Christian life. You go through pain, suffering,

761
00:49:05.159 --> 00:49:23.800
deferred hope, sin, guilt, shame. Most Christians who say they're

762
00:49:23.840 --> 00:49:27.800
spiritually satisfied are also well fed, Howe's loved, safe, and employed,

763
00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:31.639
And that raises the question would they still claim spiritual

764
00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:35.000
satisfaction if all of that was gone? If not, maybe

765
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.960
it wasn't spiritual satisfaction to begin with. Now at this point,

766
00:49:39.719 --> 00:49:43.320
I interrupt Ai, and I'm like, hey, hey, I'm not

767
00:49:43.480 --> 00:49:50.199
sure Job confessed to having spiritual satisfaction. To me, he

768
00:49:50.360 --> 00:50:01.639
sounds very unsatisfied practically, emotionally, and mentally. AI says, You're

769
00:50:01.719 --> 00:50:05.320
right to question this. The idea that Job was spiritually

770
00:50:05.360 --> 00:50:09.199
satisfied in the way modern Christianity defines it calm, content,

771
00:50:09.559 --> 00:50:14.039
emotionally emotionally peaceful, is not only inaccurate, it completely misses

772
00:50:14.079 --> 00:50:17.159
the point of the book. All right. So AI's like, Okay,

773
00:50:17.159 --> 00:50:19.639
You're right to question it because the way AI framed

774
00:50:19.679 --> 00:50:21.679
it was a way like many Christians would frame it.

775
00:50:22.159 --> 00:50:23.480
I don't know if a I was trying to say

776
00:50:23.480 --> 00:50:26.920
what most Christians was trying to say how most Christians

777
00:50:26.920 --> 00:50:30.079
would put it. But I'm just like, ah, he's trusting him.

778
00:50:30.119 --> 00:50:34.360
But I don't think that's satisfaction, right. So this is

779
00:50:34.360 --> 00:50:36.960
what AI then goes on to say. Job was not

780
00:50:37.039 --> 00:50:41.039
spiritually satisfied by today's definition. If we define spiritual satisfaction

781
00:50:41.079 --> 00:50:45.239
as feeling close to God, having enter peace, being emotionally fulfilled,

782
00:50:45.519 --> 00:50:49.599
experiencing spiritual victory, feeling content no matter the circumstances, then

783
00:50:49.719 --> 00:50:54.360
Job fails the test absolutely horribly. He felt it miserably.

784
00:50:54.840 --> 00:51:00.159
What Job actually experienced He experienced emotional and mental agony,

785
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:03.840
Job chapter three, verse eleven. Why did I not perish

786
00:51:03.920 --> 00:51:08.039
at birth? Job three twenty four? My groans pour out

787
00:51:08.119 --> 00:51:13.440
like water? Job chapter ten one. I loathe my life.

788
00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:17.400
Job is not just sad. He's in full blown despair.

789
00:51:17.719 --> 00:51:20.400
He curses the day of his birth. That's not spiritual

790
00:51:20.480 --> 00:51:26.079
satisfaction by any modern definition. So when Maslow's hierarchy of

791
00:51:26.159 --> 00:51:29.440
needs are pulled from Job's life, he wishes he was dead,

792
00:51:29.599 --> 00:51:32.280
he wished he was never born, and he loathes his

793
00:51:32.480 --> 00:51:45.760
very existence. That's not satisfied. Job experienced spiritual confusion and accusation.

794
00:51:46.360 --> 00:51:49.039
Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the

795
00:51:49.079 --> 00:51:52.599
work of your hands? Job ten three, Though I cry violence,

796
00:51:52.639 --> 00:51:57.159
I get no response. Job nineteen seven, Job nineteen six. Basically, God,

797
00:51:57.199 --> 00:52:01.800
you've wronged me. Basically, Job is accusing God. He feels abandoned, betrayed,

798
00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:05.719
and unjustly treated. This is not spiritual peace, it's spiritual torment.

799
00:52:08.239 --> 00:52:10.960
There's no sense of closeness with God. There are long

800
00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:13.039
stretches of the book where Job pleads with God and

801
00:52:13.079 --> 00:52:16.079
hears nothing in return. He feels like God is hidden, silent,

802
00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:19.519
and distant. He does not know the end of the story.

803
00:52:19.639 --> 00:52:22.519
We read Job with hindsight, knowing God will restore him,

804
00:52:22.639 --> 00:52:25.960
but Job didn't. He lived most of the book in darkness, confusion,

805
00:52:26.039 --> 00:52:28.920
raw pain, still holding onto some faith, but not feeling

806
00:52:28.960 --> 00:52:33.159
satisfied at all. So what was Job actually doing. He

807
00:52:33.320 --> 00:52:36.719
wasn't showing satisfaction. He was showing faith in the middle

808
00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:42.039
of dissatisfaction. Job never pretends to be okay. He doesn't

809
00:52:42.119 --> 00:52:45.360
mask his sorrow with cliches. He doesn't call his suffering

810
00:52:45.360 --> 00:52:49.199
a blessing in disguise. He doesn't feel peace. He protests it,

811
00:52:49.440 --> 00:52:54.880
he mourns it, he argues, but he refuses to curse God.

812
00:52:55.400 --> 00:53:02.719
That's faith, not satisfaction. Faith and satisfaction are two different

813
00:53:02.760 --> 00:53:07.880
things Job had faith and his dissatisfaction he did. That's

814
00:53:08.360 --> 00:53:16.760
the reality. The Bible never commands emotional emotional satisfaction. It

815
00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:19.159
shows us to be honest, to lament, to protest, and

816
00:53:19.199 --> 00:53:22.280
to grief. It doesn't. Everyone thinks it will gives you this,

817
00:53:22.519 --> 00:53:26.119
Hey be emotionally satisfied. No, no, no. The Bible basically says,

818
00:53:26.159 --> 00:53:29.760
be honest, scream out and a lament, which is a

819
00:53:29.840 --> 00:53:39.159
spiritual scream of pain, agony, and dissatisfaction. Protests grieve. Faith

820
00:53:39.239 --> 00:53:44.079
doesn't mean feeling good. That means clinging to God when

821
00:53:44.119 --> 00:53:47.920
you don't feel good, everything is wrong and you're ticked

822
00:53:47.960 --> 00:53:56.360
off about it. Spiritual satisfaction, as it's preached by most churches.

823
00:53:56.559 --> 00:53:59.280
They would condemn Job to the fifteenth level of hell.

824
00:53:59.719 --> 00:54:02.239
He kicked out of Sunday School. If Joe come walking

825
00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:04.480
into Sunday School has said some of the things he said,

826
00:54:04.599 --> 00:54:09.039
he would be kicked out, excommunicated, done. He's a sinner,

827
00:54:09.199 --> 00:54:11.920
he doesn't love God, he doesn't trust God. He would

828
00:54:12.039 --> 00:54:15.039
all basically, ever, we would treat him like his friends did.

829
00:54:16.440 --> 00:54:18.400
I don't act like we wouldn't. Oh, give me a

830
00:54:18.440 --> 00:54:21.320
stinking break, because we also self righteous. We would think

831
00:54:21.320 --> 00:54:27.800
what is wrong with him? We would condemn Job. We

832
00:54:27.800 --> 00:54:31.039
would condemn many of we we condemn the psawmist, We

833
00:54:31.119 --> 00:54:33.920
would condemn many of the prophets. We probably would even

834
00:54:34.480 --> 00:54:43.880
condemn Christ. Come on, trust in him. Why are you grieving?

835
00:54:43.920 --> 00:54:46.440
Why are you, you know, sweating as if great drops

836
00:54:46.440 --> 00:54:48.760
of blood? Why are you why are you so worried?

837
00:54:48.760 --> 00:54:51.400
Why are you filled with so much anxiety? Why are

838
00:54:51.480 --> 00:54:53.679
you screaming out on the cross? My God, my God?

839
00:54:53.719 --> 00:54:56.599
Why has self forsaking me? Have a little faith, Jesus?

840
00:54:56.639 --> 00:55:03.519
What's your problem? We can't say anything like because we

841
00:55:03.840 --> 00:55:08.159
if we express strong feelings, we make the We got

842
00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:10.719
to make the little church uncomfortable. We can't make the

843
00:55:10.760 --> 00:55:15.639
little Christians uncomfortable now because Christianity is nothing more than

844
00:55:15.639 --> 00:55:18.239
a Hallmark movie or a Disney movie. Oh, it can't

845
00:55:18.239 --> 00:55:21.679
be a Disney movie because that's satanic, all right. It's it's, it's, it's,

846
00:55:21.719 --> 00:55:32.360
it's it's. An episode of Veggie tells a real picture

847
00:55:32.360 --> 00:55:34.760
of righteous suffering Jesus. You can think of Jesus on

848
00:55:34.800 --> 00:55:37.199
the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

849
00:55:43.599 --> 00:55:46.599
Job did not feel satisfied practically, emotionally, mentally, or even

850
00:55:46.639 --> 00:55:50.519
spiritually by modern definitions. And that's the point. The deepest

851
00:55:50.559 --> 00:55:55.559
spiritual maturity isn't calm satisfaction. It's raw, relentless faith when

852
00:55:55.599 --> 00:56:08.119
all satisfaction is gone. Now, I'll stop right there. We

853
00:56:08.199 --> 00:56:12.599
still didn't get anywhere near where I went to go. Well,

854
00:56:12.639 --> 00:56:16.239
I mean we got a lot further. There's still much

855
00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:20.320
to this conversation. Because I said it went on for

856
00:56:20.360 --> 00:56:26.760
three hours. There's a disconnect with the way Christianity sells

857
00:56:27.079 --> 00:56:34.360
itself well, it sells the satisfaction. And again, I think,

858
00:56:34.400 --> 00:56:38.320
if you want to understand sin. Now, I didn't get

859
00:56:38.320 --> 00:56:43.480
to defend this much, but we will get there. I'll

860
00:56:43.480 --> 00:56:46.320
put forth some of my ideas here. I think when

861
00:56:46.320 --> 00:56:48.519
we look at Masslow's hierarchy of needs, when those needs

862
00:56:48.559 --> 00:56:55.800
are not met, it manifests itself in very clear ways emotionally, physically, behaviorally, mentally,

863
00:56:56.239 --> 00:56:59.599
and spiritually. And a lot of sin is directly connected

864
00:56:59.639 --> 00:57:02.599
to these these needs. Not being mad or satisfied. I'm

865
00:57:02.639 --> 00:57:05.719
not justifying the sin. I'm saying there's a deeper reason

866
00:57:05.800 --> 00:57:12.719
for it. And a lot of times you see this

867
00:57:12.800 --> 00:57:19.480
game gets get played. Right. As people get older, older,

868
00:57:19.519 --> 00:57:23.039
teen years, going into the single years, they have some needs.

869
00:57:24.039 --> 00:57:29.320
They have some desires, right, oh, come on, now do

870
00:57:29.400 --> 00:57:33.039
we do? I'll try to be you know, careful how

871
00:57:33.079 --> 00:57:35.519
I say this. But they have some needs and desires

872
00:57:35.559 --> 00:57:40.480
for intimacy, for love, for relationship. They desire it. Now

873
00:57:40.599 --> 00:57:43.159
the church will say, hey, hey, hey, find it as fast

874
00:57:43.199 --> 00:57:46.159
as you can and get married as quickly as you can,

875
00:57:46.440 --> 00:57:49.519
because you can't meet these needs other than you meet

876
00:57:49.519 --> 00:57:51.719
the needs this way. So a lot of people then run,

877
00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:54.480
they get married very very early. Sometimes that works out.

878
00:57:54.639 --> 00:57:57.239
Sometimes it's a complete and total and utter disaster. But

879
00:57:57.599 --> 00:57:59.719
Christianity is even aware that these desires are there, but

880
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:02.119
we got get these met as fast as possible. But

881
00:58:02.159 --> 00:58:05.719
for many things don't work out so smoothly. So in

882
00:58:05.760 --> 00:58:08.800
many cases they kind of withdraw from the church, maybe

883
00:58:08.880 --> 00:58:11.239
kind of walk away from the church, don't get so

884
00:58:11.320 --> 00:58:13.599
close to the church because they got these needs, these

885
00:58:13.599 --> 00:58:16.159
wants and these desires, and they kind of walk away.

886
00:58:16.400 --> 00:58:19.079
In many cases there or even if they stay in

887
00:58:19.119 --> 00:58:22.800
the church, they're involved in sin. They're struggling in sin,

888
00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:24.840
but a lot of cases they keep it hidden and

889
00:58:24.880 --> 00:58:28.360
nobody knows they're struggling and they're doing these sins, but

890
00:58:28.599 --> 00:58:31.320
sh keep it, keep it down. Low, and then what happens,

891
00:58:31.480 --> 00:58:33.880
Then they can finally get married. They get married and

892
00:58:33.920 --> 00:58:37.800
now they have a family and then done. Dun dum,

893
00:58:37.920 --> 00:58:41.599
God gives me power over my sin. I'm completely satisfied.

894
00:58:41.800 --> 00:58:44.159
Look at me, and it's like yeah, because now you're

895
00:58:44.199 --> 00:58:46.840
able to fulfill the very thing that you were struggling with.

896
00:58:47.079 --> 00:58:49.199
Now you have a way to fulfill it. Now you

897
00:58:49.199 --> 00:58:51.519
have a way to meet that desire. You have that need,

898
00:58:51.639 --> 00:58:54.800
you have the relationship, you have physical intimacy and physical

899
00:58:54.880 --> 00:58:58.440
satisfaction on a pretty consistent basis. You've got this, You've

900
00:58:58.440 --> 00:59:01.239
got that. Now you talk a bit game, and sometimes

901
00:59:01.239 --> 00:59:05.760
it's those young Christian couples who are loud condemning and

902
00:59:05.880 --> 00:59:09.039
think that they've got it all figured out because they're

903
00:59:09.159 --> 00:59:13.920
Christians and they're got it. Fifteen minutes ago, before you

904
00:59:14.280 --> 00:59:16.719
had all of this, you were struggling and sinning and

905
00:59:17.599 --> 00:59:21.320
frustrated and depressed and because some needs weren't being mad.

906
00:59:21.480 --> 00:59:24.360
So it's not that all of a sudden Jesus satisfied you.

907
00:59:24.559 --> 00:59:26.199
Now you have a way to get the very needs

908
00:59:26.239 --> 00:59:27.920
mat And now that you've got the needs met all

909
00:59:27.960 --> 00:59:31.039
of a sudden, now it's zip bitty dude. Uh zip

910
00:59:31.039 --> 00:59:33.679
bitty dah. All of a sudden, the rainbow is in

911
00:59:33.760 --> 00:59:37.559
the sky, Skittles are falling, unicorns are running by. Everything

912
00:59:37.639 --> 00:59:41.000
is wonderful, everything's happy. You're in the honeymoon stage. Life

913
00:59:41.039 --> 00:59:44.599
is good. You're pursuing your career. You may be starting

914
00:59:44.639 --> 00:59:47.039
to make a little bit more money. You've got freedom now,

915
00:59:47.119 --> 00:59:50.119
you're you're not living under your parents. Things are going good.

916
00:59:50.239 --> 00:59:52.079
You've got you want to do this. You're thinking about

917
00:59:52.079 --> 00:59:53.639
all the things you want to do in life. You've

918
00:59:53.639 --> 00:59:56.239
got all of that going. So, all of those emotional

919
00:59:56.280 --> 01:00:00.360
needs that is on the Mazzole hierarchy is being matt

920
01:00:00.440 --> 01:00:04.639
and you're saying, it's Jesus, It's Jesus, stop it. You

921
01:00:04.800 --> 01:00:11.199
just got all the needs mad, And so you become

922
01:00:11.239 --> 01:00:18.360
this arrogant, condemning, self righteous jerk. And many times the

923
01:00:18.440 --> 01:00:23.519
facade begins to crack, and then you realize, huh, not

924
01:00:23.639 --> 01:00:27.960
as perfect as you pretended to be? Are you? Not

925
01:00:28.199 --> 01:00:32.719
so righteous? Are you? Because sooner or later, the other

926
01:00:32.880 --> 01:00:36.880
needs will begin to emerge, other desired things won't be

927
01:00:36.960 --> 01:00:40.199
going out perfectly, and then guess where you're going to be?

928
01:00:44.079 --> 01:00:47.719
And so what happens, Well, some cases of what over

929
01:00:47.800 --> 01:00:49.960
forty percent. I depend I don't know the latest number,

930
01:00:49.960 --> 01:00:53.480
somewhere between forty and fifty percent. Sometimes it's been listed

931
01:00:53.519 --> 01:00:56.039
as fifty. Sometimes it's been around forty two, forty three.

932
01:00:56.280 --> 01:01:05.000
But a good number of those Christian marriages. Wait, I

933
01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:10.199
thought everything was perfect. Now or this happens, or this happens,

934
01:01:10.360 --> 01:01:13.760
or this happens, and there's grumbling and there's fighting, and

935
01:01:13.800 --> 01:01:22.559
there's bickering and there's unhappiness. But I thought Jesus took

936
01:01:22.599 --> 01:01:28.039
care of it all, made everything perfect, complete satisfaction in him.

937
01:01:28.400 --> 01:01:30.760
I should never hunger and thirst again. I should be

938
01:01:30.800 --> 01:01:42.159
completely content. I shouldn't need anything. Sometimes we can't see

939
01:01:42.159 --> 01:01:46.280
that we're fooling our own selves. Now, I know some

940
01:01:46.320 --> 01:01:49.199
of your quoting scriptures, right, you're quoting, but Jesus says this,

941
01:01:49.320 --> 01:01:52.559
and I understand again. I believe many of those passages

942
01:01:52.880 --> 01:02:00.559
have to be understood from a positional perspective, because in

943
01:02:00.559 --> 01:02:03.880
a practical sense, come on now, or we have to

944
01:02:03.920 --> 01:02:06.440
understand them as law calling for something that we never

945
01:02:06.519 --> 01:02:09.639
can do, which drives us to Christ, who is our satisfaction.

946
01:02:11.679 --> 01:02:16.400
Christ does fulfills all of that perfectly for us. That's it.

947
01:02:17.440 --> 01:02:18.960
It's going to all fall apart. We will get to

948
01:02:18.960 --> 01:02:21.440
some of those scriptures further on in this, but now

949
01:02:21.480 --> 01:02:25.880
we're over an hour, and I think we did pretty good.

950
01:02:29.519 --> 01:02:33.760
I think we took that apart pretty good, and we

951
01:02:33.880 --> 01:02:37.360
took apart job, and I think I think we did

952
01:02:37.360 --> 01:02:43.360
pretty good. All right, we'll stop right there. Thanks for listening.

953
01:02:43.760 --> 01:02:45.920
We'll continue this. I don't know if we'll get to

954
01:02:46.039 --> 01:02:50.400
anymore tomorrow, maybe tomorrow May. I would like to try

955
01:02:50.400 --> 01:02:53.519
to do this. Maybe so tomorrow we'll be live streaming

956
01:02:53.559 --> 01:02:56.599
everything for church. So a lot of times I like

957
01:02:56.639 --> 01:02:59.719
to start one like at around not eight forty five,

958
01:03:00.239 --> 01:03:02.719
try to be done about nine fifty, then go ten

959
01:03:03.199 --> 01:03:06.280
to eleven, then start, but it always gets really rushed,

960
01:03:06.320 --> 01:03:08.760
and so I may not do that tomorrow and just

961
01:03:08.840 --> 01:03:12.360
try to just do ten and broadcast at ten, broadcast

962
01:03:12.360 --> 01:03:17.159
at eleven, and then yeah, and then maybe just wait

963
01:03:17.199 --> 01:03:20.000
till Monday to do more on this. And we got

964
01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:21.519
to get back to our study on Salem. We still

965
01:03:21.519 --> 01:03:24.239
got to do the storms of life stuff, so and

966
01:03:24.400 --> 01:03:26.400
Acts twenty seven we need to work on that. We

967
01:03:26.480 --> 01:03:28.679
still got a lot of things to do. But yeah,

968
01:03:28.760 --> 01:03:30.880
all right, thanks for listening. In other words, I'm not

969
01:03:30.960 --> 01:03:34.079
satisfied with where I'm currently at and some of these

970
01:03:34.079 --> 01:03:36.159
series and I'm not really satisfied and how tomorrow is

971
01:03:36.159 --> 01:03:37.960
going to go because I don't really know, and probably

972
01:03:37.960 --> 01:03:41.039
when I'm done, I won't be satisfied about that, and okay,

973
01:03:41.119 --> 01:03:45.159
well all right, thanks for listening. God bless