Nov. 17, 2024

Christianity and False Comfort Pt 2

Christianity and False Comfort Pt 2

A discussion about false comfort within Christianity

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A discussion about false comfort within Christianity

WEBVTT

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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. You can be honest,

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Come on, you can be honest. Are you a little

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worried about what I'm going to say? Are you a

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little scared? Are you a little concerned? Are you thinking, well,

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I'll listen one more time and then I'm never listening

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to that podcast again. Are you having some of those thoughts,

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having some of those feelings because of our last live broadcast. Well,

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I can understand why you may feel that way, and

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I can't promise you you're going to feel any different

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when this broadcast is over. But I can say this,

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I think my feelings, my emotions may be a little

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bit different. So maybe maybe this won't be quite as

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startling or shocking or offensive or triggering. I don't know

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the exact words. Maybe this one will come across in

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a much more rational way, maybe not so emotional. Only

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time will tell, and we'll get to that right after

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I do this. Good evening everyone. It is Saturday, November sixteenth,

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twenty twenty four. It is currently seven forty nine pm

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Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the

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Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas, and

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in this studio. I guess I'm kind of having Do

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we call it a crisis of faith? Do we call

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it a not necessarily a nervous breakdown, a spiritual breakdown?

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I don't know, but I definitely have kind of reached

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a breaking point. And I never foresaw myself being here,

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but here I am. Let me try to explain what's

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going on, trying to blame where we are. I put forth,

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if you listen to the last live broadcast, you'll hear

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kind of my emotions and they come out strong. I

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mean at one point. I mean I think people will

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just say you were yelling and you were screaming. I

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probably was because I just don't know what to say

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or do anymore. In fact, the last live broadcast begins

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with kind of a dramatic pause to kind of symbolize

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I don't even know if I should be or should

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be talking, or even what I should say if I

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decide to talk. It's like I was just kind of

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frozen for a second, because it really kind of captures

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what I'm struggling with, and I don't think most people

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are going to understand my struggle. I think to most people,

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they're just not gonna get it. They're gonna think, well,

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he's being overly dramatic, it's not that big a deal,

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who really cares whatever. I think everyone's gonna just be

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very dismissive and just kind of say, well, that's just him.

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He'll get a it and within a couple of weeks

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it'll all be forgotten. Maybe that's true. Maybe that's true.

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I doubt it because I've been struggling with these issues

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in some ways. My entire Christian life is just sometimes

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things reach a breaking point, a tipping point, and so

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here we are. So here is kind of what has happened.

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I'll just briefly review and kind of get us on

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the same page. Since this is Part two. One of

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the reasons I'm doing Part two now, I will go

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ahead and just explain this. It's Saturday evening, right, It's

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Saturday evening. That means it won't be long before I

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will wake up, put on some clothes, take a shower,

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put on some clothes, get ready, drive to Victory Baptist Church,

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and be standing behind the pulpit, ready to preach. Dealing

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with things related to Isaiah Chapter forty, verse one, and

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of course the entire section of Isaiah forty to Isaiah

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fifty five. But our primary focus will be Isaiah chapter forty,

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verse one, if we can actually even get to the

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verse tomorrow. But there's gonna be a lot of things

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going to discuss. So in my mind, if you heard

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the last lie broadcasting, you heard my emotion. The best

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thing I can do is try to bring some of

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that emotion, some of those issues I was discussing to

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somewhat of a conclusion so that tomorrow I can at

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least be, you know, a step beyond it. Right. Maybe,

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I mean some of the things I'm going to be

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saying tomorrow is going to be very I mean, there's

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going to be overlap lap, there's going to be a connection.

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But maybe I can move forward. I'm trying to because

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of this situation I find I feel like I have

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found myself in now. I feel like I just got

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to dig myself out, and it seems like the more

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I look or the more I study, the deeper the

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hole gets, and I'm not getting out of the hole,

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I'm going deeper into the hole. So I feel like

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I need to bring this to some kind of conclusion

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so that I can stand behind the pulpit and be

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somewhat effective, because if you're very emotional about something, then

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it hijacks the entire entire sermon. So that's what I'm

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going to attempt to do. But here's what's been happening.

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You know. December twenty twenty three, I put forth the

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challenge for everyone to download the sermons two point oh

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app and we were going to do the Sermons two

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point oh app sermon challenge right every single day, you

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were going to listen to our random sermon on the

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sermon's two point oh app and then you were going

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to write it down, write down kind of basically a

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summary of what you learned in the sermon, and you

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were going to have one sermon for each day of

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twenty twenty four. That was the goal. And I don't

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know where a lot of you, definitely, I can't say

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a lot some of you I know have been very

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dedicated to following through others. I don't know how many

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people actually participated, but we did that, and the more

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I listened, the more frustrated I became, because sermon after

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sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after

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sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon, even many that

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I reviewed, you heard much. Sometimes my frustration live on

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the air started leading me to say something like this,

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Christianity constantly offers nothing more than fraudulent promises, false comfort,

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shallow peace, and an illusion of hope. It is nothing

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more than a lie, a sham, and leaves people confused

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and broken. Now I know, to hear me say that,

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that comes around immediately people get offended and they're already

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typing another email. I've already got plenty today. It's good,

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you don't need to send another. I understand that nobody

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likes to hear that. Now, I did say in the

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last live broadcast. Probably I shouldn't use the word Christianity

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because people will misunderstand when I say Christianity, there I

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mean Churchianity. I mean the corporate church, the visible church,

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the institution, not the truths of Christianity. I believe the

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true biblical truths of Christianity does not do that. But Christianity,

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this is what we call Christianity, this institutionalized, corporate type

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of thing. It constantly offers nothing more than fraudulent promises,

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false comfort, shallow piece, and it offers an illusion of hope.

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It is nothing more than a lie, a sham, and

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it leaves people confused and broken. Now why would I

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be led to that, because in sermon after sermon after sermon,

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two things occurred. One thing we talked about it over

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and over and over in twenty twenty four is that

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Christianity seems incapable, unable to actually deal with the reality

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of sin within Christianity, the reality of sin within the

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lives of Christians, because we constantly give this fraudulent hope,

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this fraudulent comfort, this illusion that when you became saved,

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dont to done practically, you become a new creature. Whole

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things are passed away, and basically you're with basically without sin,

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you can say no to sin and yes to God,

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and basically you can be perfect. Well, I mean, actually

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you can't be perfect, so we so sell it that way.

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But the reality is sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, sin,

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And if anyone looks at the law of God and

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even remotely honest, you know you're in a perpetual state

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of sin. Because God's law demands perfection, You're never perfect.

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You're in a perpetual state of sin. And then somehow

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we convince ourselves even though we're in a perpetual state

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of sin, we convince ourselves that we're not actually in

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a perpetual state of sin. And then we can look

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at other people and say, but look at the sin

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they commit, even though we're in a perpetual state of sin,

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we deny it. We pick up rocks to throw at

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other people who are in a perpetual state of sin

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because the sin they committed in their perpetual state of

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sin is supposedly worse than the sin that I commit,

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and I a perpetual si date of sin, and it's

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just it's just lunacy. It's ridiculous. It's just so nonsensical, illogical,

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circular reasoning, and it makes you want to scream. And

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we dealt with that, and we're still not done dealing

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with that. But over and over and over and over,

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this moralistic denial of the reality of what we are,

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so sermon after sermon would create this situation where it

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just demonstrate Christianity cannot truly deal with the reality of sin,

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not excusing sin, saying that we have to be able

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to deal with the reality of it, all right. And

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so because that happened over and over and over. I

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believe that Christianity is not really dealing with the issue.

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It's just offering nothing more than a fraudulent promise. It's

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offering nothing more than a false comfort. It's offering nothing

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more than shallow peace. It's offering nothing more than an

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illusion of hope. That's why, because in that area, that's

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what it does. And then the second thing these sermons

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did over and over and over, over and over and

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over and over, is it misapplied scripture that clearly was

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about other people to us. Hijack the scripture and make

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it about us, taking promises that were not for us,

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claiming those promises somehow for us, even though the reality

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would demonstrate these promises and these things are not happening.

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And then this led that the last month or so,

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three passages of scripture has become very well, it kind

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of becomes symbolic of all this that has happened. In

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twenty twenty four Isaiah chapter forty, verse one, where we

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read comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God

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all right, and we saw sermon after sermon where pastors

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go to that comfort. Still it from the original people

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make it all about us, and it's just I mean,

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that's just a hermeneutical train wreck. It's a travesty. It's

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it's spiritual malpractice because you can't take that comfort and

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just apply it to everyone. It has a very specific

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hists historical context, as we have been talking about, not

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to get into it everything there. Then we found ourselves

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in Deuteronomy thirty two to ten. Once again, here are

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promises being made what God has done, but forget the

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original people, forget the original context, make it about what

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God has done for us. And once again I feel like,

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and you're taking things that very much are about Israel

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and promises that were very tangible, material, physical, and then

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we try to apply that to ourselves. And while we

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see all the problems, then Hebrew six thirteen through twenty,

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even though the passage begins with God making promises to Abraham,

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we somehow insert ourselves again and make it all about us.

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So those are the three passages. So we're kind of

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working on that. I'm doing a series on Isaiah forty

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through fifty five. First by verse. We've got an entire

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series for that. In this series, I'm going to entitle

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Christianity false comfort, false comfort, and Christianity something along those lines.

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I'm gonna we're gonna be dealing with the whole idea

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of false comfort in a general sense and kind of

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a specific and then we'll do some work on those

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passages of scripture to try to bring all of this

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to some kind of conclusion. Now a later or earlier today,

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I had to laugh because I finished that broadcast and

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you could hear how frustrated I was. Then I started

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getting emails that only made things worse, right, So then

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I was like, okay, well I had to go somewhere.

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So I grabbed the iPad, downloaded some sermons, random sermons

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from the sermon's two point o app, started driving, made

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it about ten minutes down the road, and all of

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a sudden, what do I hear some pastor preaching from

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Nehemiah and making it all about guess who you and me,

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you and me, you and me us us us us us,

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And I'm like, just forget about the original people that

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it was just I just don't get it. I don't

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think think really, I don't think. Look, and that kind

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of preaching is what people want. That gets the numbers,

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the downloads, the streams, the popularity, the fame, They make money,

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They have jobs, they get to speak at conferences. That's

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what people simply want. And anything else, I mean, there's

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got to be room for something else. But it's just

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so maddening. So here's what we did. In the last

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live broadcast. I mentioned two passages in the Book of Jeremiah.

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Two verses Jeremiah six fourteen. They have healed also the

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hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly, saying peace

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peace when there is no peace. Jeremiah has words to

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the false prophets, to the priests, to the religious leaders

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who are running around for wrong motives, offering peace to

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people where there is no peace. Jeremiah was giving them

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a word of judgment, a word of warning, and those

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and the religious leaders were like, Jeremiah is wrong. Everything's

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going to be okay, nothing to worry about. And well,

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then Babylonian captivity came. So we read Jeremiah six fourteen

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and Jeremiah eight to eleven, which says the exact same thing.

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For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of

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my people slightly. They offered they offered some kind of healing,

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but it's a slight healing, saying piece piece when there

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is no peace. They gave them a shallow, fraudulent comfort.

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The healing was only slight because it wouldn't deal with

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the reality. And when a Christianity becomes detached with reality,

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then you begin giving people fraudulent hope and lies, and

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it just it's just an illusion. And most Christians are

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happy to live in the lie. Most Christians are happy

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to live in the illusion and feel like, oh, comfort

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and great. But they it's all just make believe, and

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sooner or later, for at least a minority, the reality

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of life overwhelms the illusion and they just give up

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and they don't know what to do. Others live in

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the illusion. It's kind of like Plato's allegory of the cave.

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Some people are more than happy to sit in the

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cave and look at the images being thrown onto the

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cave wall. They're just they're more than happy to look

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at the images. They don't care where it's coming from.

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They don't care if it's real. They don't care if

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it's true. Just give me nice little images to make

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me feel better. Go to church and just show me

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some images on the screen make me feel better. I

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don't care about truth, I don't care about accuracy. I

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don't care about harmoneutics. But there's always that minority that says,

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wait a minute, where's where's the images coming from? Wait where? Wait,

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there's an where there's light out there, And they get

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up and they walk out of the cave because they

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got to figure out why, where, how? Who? What? Well?

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Guess what that minority when they start they decide they're

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going to look into the face of reality. They get

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slapped and they're like, wait a minute, those images on

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the wall, that that's not the truth, that's just a

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that's an image, that's a shadow, that's not No. What

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we need is outside of the cave. But it's bright

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and it's maybe filled with pain and confusion, but we

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gotta have and to me, we gotta have a Christianity

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that can exist outside of the cave, not tucked away

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in a cave somewhere where we're all make believe in pretending.

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So what happens to Christians? What happens? What are the consequences?

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What are the consequences, maybe the unintended consequences of giving

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people false comfort to day? Well, the last part I

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gave you a number of them. Number one. It leads

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to disillusionment and loss of faith. It leads to disillusionment

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and loss of faith because when promises of guaranteed healing, prosperity, deliverance,

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God's gonna do this. God's gonna do this. God's gonna

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do this. God's gonna do this. God's going to do this.

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When they fail to materialize, people will feel betrayed by

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God or the Church, or by God and the church.

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This leads to cynicism, doubt, or even abandonment of the

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faith completely. So it leads to disillusionment and loss of faith.

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Number two, it leads to spiritual complacency. False comfort lulls

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people into a false sense of security. Hey, everything is

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good everything when reality no, things are not good. Hey guys,

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Jeremiah's time. Hey guys, those false prophets are telling you

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everything's okay. Let me tell you things are not okay.

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Babylonian captivity is coming, judgment, death and destruction is coming.

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You need to wake up. Number three, It leaves people

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unprepared for trials. When people are taught that faith will

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shield them from they're ill equipped to endure hardship, leading

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to confusion and despair when they get punched in the

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face by reality. You're not prepared for trials. Christianity should

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be preparing you by saying, Hey, here is God, here

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is spiritual reality. But guess what in our reality? Guess

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what the reality is in your life, in my life, pain, suffering, death, sin, failure.

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We got to be prepared for reality. Number four. It

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leads to an erosion of biblical understanding. When you have

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pastors misusing scripture to offer false hope, it undermines people's

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ability to understand the Bible correctly. It fosters a shallow,

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selective approach to scripture, where promises are taken out of

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context and harder truths are ignored. And that's what we

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see in Isaiah forty, Deuteronomy thirty two, Hebrew six. Let's

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not deal with the facts. Us I deal with the truth.

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Let's not deal with the text. Number five leads to

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a mistrust of church leadership. When pastors repeatedly offer empty assurance,

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people begin to lose trust in their leadership. This can

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lead to divisions within the church or cause individuals to

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leave organize religion all together. Number six, It perpetuates and

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it spreads false theology. False teaching about God's promises spreads,

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leading to widespread misunderstranding standing of core doctrines like suffering

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and the nature of God. This creates a cycle where

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new preachers and believers adopt and propagate the same old errors.

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It just never stops. See what's this false comfort starts?

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People just keep buying into it, and it just perpetuates

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these fraudulent ideas. And then one person takes it, they

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share it with another person. One pastor shares it, another

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pastor picks it, and it just continues. And that's what

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Christianity has turned into, the never ending perpetualuation of this

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wrong idea about a false comfort, false hope, and all

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of it is just it's just false. It leads to

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a neglect of genuine spiritual needs. And we see this

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when you give this basic idea that basically, when you

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give the basic idea that basically, I know that sounds redundant.

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When you give this idea that, hey, whenever you become

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a Christian, basically your sinful nature is gone. You mean,

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you basically are without sin. Your heart's change, your nature's changed,

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You're now a new creature. Everything all the oldest gone,

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everything is new practically, but you can do it well,

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then it basically what Christianity gets reduced to is now work,

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do work, do good, do good, do good, do good,

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because you've got to do good to prove that you've

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truly been changed. And if you don't do good enough, well,

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then you prove that you're not changed. Therefore you're going

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to go to hell. And guess what gets destroyed? A

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proper understanding of law and gospel, because what you're supposed

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to do constantly compare yourself to the law and realize,

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no matter how much you do, no matter how hard

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you try, you're in a perpetual state of sin, which

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should drive you to the foot of the cross and

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rely on the imputed righteousness and understand that you're not

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being saved, and you were not saved by an infused righteousness,

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see the true spiritual need. It becomes neglected because of

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this fraudulent hope and fraudulent teaching. Number eight, and this

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is the one I got really emotional about, really upset about.

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It leads to harmful emotional and mental issues. It leads

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to emotional and mental issues in people. In some ways,

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I feel like I've been suffering this my entire Christian

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life because I constantly be like, wait a minute, we

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say all of this, but what about this? And what

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about this? And what about this? And what about this?

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And what about this? And what about this? And what

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about this? And what about this? And my questions just

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get me in trouble. When you offer false comfort, you

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leave people emotionally devastated when reality doesn't align with the

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promises that they wrongly give you. You end up having

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feelings of guilt, feelings of inadequacy. They often arise when

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people are told they lack faith or obedience as the

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reason to their unfulfilled hopes. Hey it's your fault that

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things are not working out, or you're told basically, hey,

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you're a new creature ahld, things are pass away, all

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things have become new. Okay, great, but you're gonna you

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keep sinning? Why do you keep sinning? Why? I don't

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know why I keep saying? You said, I'm a brand

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new creature, the oldest gone. There shouldn't be any sin.

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Everything is brand new. You're doing something wrong. You're probably

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not even saying well again, it just leads you to

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what I gotta do, what I got to do to

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prove that I'm safing? Okay? Why are these problems happening?

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Is that my fault and he just It just leads

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to all kinds of mental issues and then you try

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to try to figure out, well, wait a minute, you

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said that God promised this, this, this, this, and this, Well,

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how come this is happening and this is happening and

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this is happening that seems to go against his promises?

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Is God wrong? Did I do something wrong? Who is

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the whole thing not true? Now this leads to the

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rest number nine. It encourages a self centered faith, This

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fraudulent comfort, These false promises lead to a self centered faith.

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Preaching false hope often centers on personal benefit rather than

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God's glory or his broader purpose. This fosters a very like,

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almost like a consumer transaction view of faith where people

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where we fall hell of God only for what they

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think he can get he will do for us. It

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becomes this very self centered faith. And let me just

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expand on it. It becomes self centered because now you

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go to the Bible and you just immediately see you

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you you, you you you you, you see yourself. You

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move the other people out and you insert yourself. That's

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become self centered and then it's all about, well, God

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is going to do this for me, and God's going

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to do this for me. And God's going to do

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this for me, and so it's almost like, Okay, well,

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if I have faith, God's going to do all of

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these things for me, and I get all of these things,

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even though those promises are not even really for you,

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and you don't even show up in the text, but

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you've inserted yourself into the text. So this then turns

403
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into guess what, it all becomes about you? You, you,

404
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you you. He becomes this this never ending, self serving,

405
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self promoting, self seeing, selfish, self centered. It becomes we

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become narcissistic, t actual hijackers. As I have said, it

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becomes self centered. It's a faith based preoccupied with self.

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It's about go to the Bible, find me, Go to

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the Bible, find me, and put myself there even if

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I'm not there. That's number nine. It encourages a self

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centered faith. Number ten creates division among believers. When some

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people have unmet expectations. It can create division between those

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who cling to the false promises and those who challenge them.

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See those who cling to the false promises, those who

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cling to the false hope, those who cling to the

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illusion they get very upset when someone challenges all of that.

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When someone says no, no, not for us, no, noh,

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stop claiming that No, they get very upset and it

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creates division. And I witnessed that division today in my

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emails because people don't like me to challenge this. People

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don't know No, no, how dare you? How dare you

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say that past? How dare you do that? Well, I'm

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just trying to help you stop with the fraudulent hope

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and the false comfort that do you want comfort based

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off lies or do you want comfort rooted in truth?

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Criticism of false hope may be dismissed as a lack

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of faith. See, if you criticize the false hope, you

428
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criticize the fraudulent promises, you criticize the illusion of hope

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offered by Churchianity, you're going to be dismissed as you

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don't have faith. I know that because I got it

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in my email. It creates tension within the church. Christians

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don't want it, They don't like it. They don't because

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they want to stay inside the cave looking at the

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images on the wall. That's what they that's what they

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don't want to go outside the cave. Into the bright

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sunlight and be confronted with reality. We want to live

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in this little, fraudulent, made up world and nobody wants

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to deal with Wait a minute, okay, Sue, So how

439
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do I understand that there is a God. He's omniscient,

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he's omnipresent, he's omnipotent. Yet this many people die a

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year from this, And people did this, and children get

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molested and women get sexually assaulted it and people starve

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to death, and people die here, and people this and

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this and that, and this sin happens, and this hit happens,

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and this and go on to all and you're like, well,

446
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wait a minute, I have a hard time reconciling reality

447
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with these things. I will join the club. But it's

448
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better than going hide inside your cave and pretending that, oh,

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God's going to do this for us, and go Odd's

450
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going to do that. Yeah, Borrowing passages of scripture in

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many cases that are for Israel, and what God is

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doing for them is based off a covenant promise that

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he would do those things, where we don't have those

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same promises. Next, it dilutes the gospel when you emphasize

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temporal promises health, wealth, comfort, it overshadows the eternal hope

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of salvation in Christ. See for us our promises. We're

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blessed with all spiritual blessings in high places. Our promises

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are spiritual now, the tangible, material, physical promises are for eternity.

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When we get a new body, new heaven, new earth,

460
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:46.920
no more pain, and we're suffering, no more death, no

461
00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.480
more tears. But we want to constantly rip down and

462
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:51.480
bring it. We want to take the promises of the

463
00:28:51.480 --> 00:28:55.559
Old Testament that's made to Israel about provision, protection and

464
00:28:55.559 --> 00:28:57.359
all that. We want to bring that and apply it

465
00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:59.799
to us. Now. It doesn't really work, and it makes

466
00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.480
us overshadow, overshadow, and it dilutes our focus on the

467
00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:09.960
spiritual promises. This begins to distort the Gospel, reducing it

468
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.680
to a tool for personal gain rather than a message

469
00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:19.640
of redemption and reconciliation with God. That's number eleven, number twelve.

470
00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:24.839
It can lead to endjustice towards the vulnerable. False promises

471
00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:29.680
often exploit those who are already vulnerable, such as the sick, grieving,

472
00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:34.559
or financially struggling, by offering them solutions that never come.

473
00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:37.599
This can lead to further despair and financial loss. When

474
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:41.200
people invest time, money or resources and to false assurances.

475
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:44.960
It's unjust. It takes people who are vulnerable, people who

476
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:48.200
are fragile, and you promise them all kinds of stuff

477
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:51.000
and then it doesn't ever truly come about, and they're

478
00:29:51.079 --> 00:29:54.599
left broken and disillusioned and they don't know what to do,

479
00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:59.680
or they just find themselves dead. Now, this is why

480
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:03.519
I oh the charismatic world right promising healing and problem

481
00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:05.519
all that doesn't come to pass. I could tell all

482
00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:07.559
the stories I've told a million times. I'm not going

483
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:12.680
to do that tonight. But the same thing, when someone

484
00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:16.680
has broken over their sin, they're vulnerable, they feel guilt,

485
00:30:16.839 --> 00:30:21.240
they'll feel shame, they feel humiliated, whatever the case may be,

486
00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:23.720
and they're longing for hope and forgiveness, and you give

487
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:26.519
them the forgiveness. But then the hope you tell them is, hey,

488
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:28.880
now that you're a Christian, dun dun da done, You're

489
00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:30.279
never going to do this again. You're never going to

490
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:31.799
do this again because you're a new creature. Old things

491
00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:34.160
are passed away, everything's being new. You've been set free. Yeah,

492
00:30:34.200 --> 00:30:35.680
and then then when that go will wait a minute,

493
00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:38.200
I keep sinning saying, sinning, Well, you'll probably not saved.

494
00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:46.480
You destroy them. You pray on their vulnerability and their weakness,

495
00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:59.400
only to toss them out later. Number thirteen. It encourages

496
00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:06.960
pride and self righteousness. Those who seemingly experience the so

497
00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:11.880
called fulfillment of these false promises may feel superior to

498
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:15.640
those who do not, fostering pride and a judgmental spirit.

499
00:31:17.039 --> 00:31:21.400
This creates a toxic environment where struggles or failure is

500
00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:28.319
viewed as an evidence of a lack of faith. Become prideful, well,

501
00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:33.039
because you think every scriptures about you. It becomes self righteous, thinking, well,

502
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:37.319
God's doing this for me. Yeah, because you're convincing yourself

503
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:40.720
in many cases of the fulfillment of promises that are

504
00:31:40.759 --> 00:31:43.480
false and fraudulent, but then you think you're better than

505
00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:57.680
other people. Number fourteen. It weakens evangelism. It weakens our

506
00:31:57.720 --> 00:32:06.759
evangelistic efforts. Non believers often see through the false promises,

507
00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:16.599
and they view the church as insincere and manipulative. See

508
00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:19.000
people in the church can't see through the false promises,

509
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.480
they're blinded by it, but many on the outside look

510
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:26.519
at and go false promise, lie, lie, lie lie. People

511
00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:35.000
are being manipulated, They're being used. This undermines the credibility

512
00:32:35.599 --> 00:32:42.440
of the church and the gospel message. You hurt evangelism

513
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:45.119
because the world sees through it. They hear all the

514
00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:49.640
promises that we claim and are like, whatever, whatever, it's

515
00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:56.480
just garbage. How many times young people go off to

516
00:32:56.559 --> 00:32:58.559
church camp. I never when I was a teenager, I

517
00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:00.319
refused to go to church camp. I saw all the

518
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:05.039
game that was played. Kids go, they're manipulated, sold all

519
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:07.720
kinds of things. They come back thinking everything, and then

520
00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:10.599
sooner or later they crash, they burn, and I'm just like, look,

521
00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:13.240
how oft how how long you're gonna play this game?

522
00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:16.599
You go, you get emotionally manipulated, You come back thinking

523
00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:20.000
you're gonna you know, you're gonna rush hell with a

524
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:24.200
water gun, and six weeks later you're broken and just

525
00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:27.160
just right back to the same place you were last time.

526
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:30.160
And then next summer you get all go to chairs champ,

527
00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:34.240
get all emotional again. Get you're getting manipulated, you're getting used,

528
00:33:34.279 --> 00:33:48.680
You're getting played. Number fifteen. So, not only is it

529
00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:58.480
leads to weakening or hurting evangelistic efforts, it fails to

530
00:33:58.519 --> 00:34:05.680
provide true comfort. False comfort ultimately fails because it is

531
00:34:05.680 --> 00:34:08.360
not grounded in the truth of God's word or his

532
00:34:08.440 --> 00:34:17.360
eternal promises, or in reality. True comfort, which acknowledges suffering

533
00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:21.159
while pointing to God's sovereignty and eternal plan, is neglected

534
00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:27.559
in favor of temporary, shallow assurance based off the misapplication, misinterpretation,

535
00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:35.039
and hijacking of the text of scripture. You can't get

536
00:34:35.079 --> 00:34:42.320
true comfort if you're stealing others comfort, you're misusing the text.

537
00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:49.480
I'm going to go through all of these again. False comfort,

538
00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:54.280
false hope, false all these things that we've referenced leads

539
00:34:54.320 --> 00:35:01.239
to disillusionment, disillusionment and a loss of faith. It can

540
00:35:01.320 --> 00:35:06.519
lead to spiritual complacency. It can lead to being unprepared

541
00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:11.280
for trials. It can lead to an erosion of biblical understanding.

542
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:16.119
It can lead to mistrust of church leadership. It can

543
00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:19.880
perpetuate false theology. It can lead to neglect of genuine

544
00:35:19.920 --> 00:35:23.840
spiritual needs. It can be harmful. It can lead to harm.

545
00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:26.280
It can lead to emotional and mental harm. Let's stay

546
00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:30.079
it that way. It can lead to emotional and mental harm.

547
00:35:30.679 --> 00:35:35.159
Number nine, It encourages a self centered faith. Number ten.

548
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:39.800
It leads to division among believers. Number eleven. It dilutes

549
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:44.159
the gospel number twelve. It leads to injustice towards the vulnerable.

550
00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:48.719
Number thirteen. It encourages pride and self righteousness. Number fourteen.

551
00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:53.440
It weakens evangelistic efforts. Number fifteen. It fails to provide

552
00:35:53.639 --> 00:36:00.800
true comfort, false hope, false peace. False comfort offered by

553
00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:05.079
preachers may seem appealing in the short term, but it

554
00:36:05.159 --> 00:36:12.199
results in significant spiritual, emotional, and relational harm. The long

555
00:36:12.280 --> 00:36:16.119
term consequences damage individual faith, the credibility of the church,

556
00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:19.480
the integrity of the Gospel. True hope and comfort must

557
00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:22.199
be rooted in the full counsel of God's Word, including

558
00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:26.679
both the hard truths and the eternal promises found in Christ,

559
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:31.440
and the reality that you live every single day. You

560
00:36:31.639 --> 00:36:54.960
don't create a fraudulent reality to escape the harsh reality.

561
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:59.599
This falses. All of this false stuff has got to

562
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:10.119
stop now. I want to go and do some work

563
00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:12.920
in Jeremiah, just to show you how prevalent this false

564
00:37:12.960 --> 00:37:16.880
assurance and false promises were in the Book of Jeremiah.

565
00:37:16.920 --> 00:37:18.719
But I'm not because I just all I really wanted

566
00:37:18.719 --> 00:37:21.559
to do tonight was just at least finish all of

567
00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:28.199
the negative consequences intended or unintended of false hope, false peace,

568
00:37:28.679 --> 00:37:32.000
false comfort that's being provided by pastors and sermon after

569
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:34.599
sermon after sermon, because they just seem to think that

570
00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:48.400
they can do whatever they want with the word of God.

571
00:37:49.320 --> 00:37:51.519
I don't know what else to say other than you

572
00:37:51.559 --> 00:37:59.599
should consider all fifteen of those points, and whenever you

573
00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:03.679
hear a you should ask yourself, is this false hope,

574
00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:08.840
false peace, false comfort? Is this stealing promises? Is this

575
00:38:08.920 --> 00:38:15.199
hijacking scripture? Now? I know it's almost impossible to see it,

576
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:18.239
because you've been so in it the language use. You

577
00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:20.920
just accept it. You never go wait, what exactly does

578
00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:33.719
that mean? Now? I did that much calmer. I don't know.

579
00:38:35.679 --> 00:38:39.360
I don't know if that's helpful. Maybe I should have

580
00:38:39.400 --> 00:38:44.880
maintained the same emotional temperature, the emotional level. But I

581
00:38:44.920 --> 00:38:49.960
think that hearing it two different ways, maybe maybe that

582
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:52.039
will make some kind of a difference. I don't know,

583
00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:00.039
But just think of all the sermons we heard in

584
00:39:00.159 --> 00:39:03.440
Isaiah forty verse one, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.

585
00:39:03.480 --> 00:39:07.480
And guess what who got thrown out my people? In

586
00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:11.840
their context Babylonian captivity. Isaiah thirty nine sets up the

587
00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:15.800
context they everyone got thrown out and we inserted ourselves

588
00:39:15.800 --> 00:39:19.920
inserted ourselves Deuteronomy thirty two. We inserted ourselves Hebrew six.

589
00:39:20.159 --> 00:39:23.440
Remember I did a message on whose anchor their anchor?

590
00:39:23.559 --> 00:39:29.280
Or our anchor, our anchor, their anchor. Well, we completely

591
00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:33.039
eliminate the people That Hebrews was written to people facing

592
00:39:33.519 --> 00:39:37.280
the siege, capture, and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple

593
00:39:37.320 --> 00:39:39.519
in seventy a d. Was written to them somewhere between

594
00:39:39.559 --> 00:39:42.679
sixty five sixty seven sixty eight a d. They were

595
00:39:42.719 --> 00:39:45.039
about to face one of the most horrific thing. Look

596
00:39:45.079 --> 00:39:47.840
at the history. Over a million people died, some reverted

597
00:39:47.840 --> 00:39:52.360
to cannibalism, Horrible things occurred. They needed an anchor, They

598
00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:54.800
needed hope, they needed promise, and many of that that

599
00:39:54.920 --> 00:39:57.239
much of that hope and promise was very much rooted.

600
00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:00.679
And the fact that Israel was given specific promises that

601
00:40:01.400 --> 00:40:05.039
well give gives them hope even today that sooner or

602
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:07.440
later they will be regathered to the land will be restored.

603
00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:09.639
We'll be saying all of those things that we've discussed.

604
00:40:10.440 --> 00:40:13.639
But of course, why why worry about the original recipients,

605
00:40:13.679 --> 00:40:17.079
Why we don't care about them? Now? Am I saying

606
00:40:17.119 --> 00:40:20.360
none of these passages have application to us? It's it's

607
00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:24.760
application without inserting ourselves into it's making sure that the

608
00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:28.159
application is consistent with what the text actually says and

609
00:40:28.199 --> 00:40:36.000
not what we're just reading into the text. But those

610
00:40:36.039 --> 00:40:39.400
are the consequences of false hope, Those are the consequensequences

611
00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:43.519
of false promises. Those are the consequences, and those consequences

612
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:46.159
are horrific. That means what that This is just not

613
00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:49.320
me just having you know, my little pet peeve ranting

614
00:40:49.400 --> 00:40:52.280
and raving. This is me saying real people are being

615
00:40:52.360 --> 00:40:56.880
really hurt by it, and I don't know if the

616
00:40:56.960 --> 00:40:59.159
church will ever admit the hurt that it's been. That's

617
00:40:59.199 --> 00:41:09.679
been done. All right, I'll stop there. Thanks for listening, everyone,

618
00:41:09.800 --> 00:41:14.719
have a great night. Hopefully tomorrow you'll have a great

619
00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:21.239
day at church. Hopefully church will be positive for you. Hopefully,

620
00:41:21.960 --> 00:41:26.039
hopefully the Word of God will be handled carefully accurately,

621
00:41:26.199 --> 00:41:31.000
without hijacking it, misapplying it, and inserting us where we

622
00:41:31.119 --> 00:41:38.159
don't belong and offering you false comfort, false peace, false hope,

623
00:41:38.360 --> 00:41:42.679
because that only leads to negative consequences. Thanks for listening,

624
00:41:43.320 --> 00:41:43.880
God bless