Nov. 11, 2024

The Desert: Exegesis vs Eisegesis

The Desert: Exegesis vs Eisegesis

More discussion about sermons and biblical interpretation

Spreaker podcast player badge
Apple Podcasts podcast player badge
Spotify podcast player badge
PocketCasts podcast player badge
Amazon Music podcast player badge
Overcast podcast player badge
Audible podcast player badge
Castro podcast player badge
iHeartRadio podcast player badge
Castbox podcast player badge
Podchaser podcast player badge
TuneIn podcast player badge
Deezer podcast player badge
Pandora podcast player badge
RadioPublic podcast player badge
Podcast Addict podcast player badge
RSS Feed podcast player badge
YouTube podcast player badge
Fountain podcast player badge
PlayerFM podcast player badge
Goodpods podcast player badge
Podverse podcast player badge
Podyssey podcast player badge
Breaker podcast player badge
Podurama podcast player badge
Audacy podcast player badge
JioSaavn podcast player badge
Spreaker podcast player iconApple Podcasts podcast player iconSpotify podcast player iconPocketCasts podcast player iconAmazon Music podcast player iconOvercast podcast player iconAudible podcast player iconCastro podcast player iconiHeartRadio podcast player iconCastbox podcast player iconPodchaser podcast player iconTuneIn podcast player iconDeezer podcast player iconPandora podcast player iconRadioPublic podcast player iconPodcast Addict podcast player iconRSS Feed podcast player iconYouTube podcast player iconFountain podcast player iconPlayerFM podcast player iconGoodpods podcast player iconPodverse podcast player iconPodyssey podcast player iconBreaker podcast player iconPodurama podcast player iconAudacy podcast player iconJioSaavn podcast player icon

More discussion about sermons and biblical interpretation

WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:06.040
Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is

2
00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:13.000
the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone.

3
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:17.480
It is Monday, November the eleventh, twenty twenty four. It

4
00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:21.320
is currently one twenty two pm Central Time, and I

5
00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:24.600
am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio

6
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:31.559
located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now right here in Abilene, Texas. Today, Well,

7
00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.840
it's a nice, warm day, and that means there's people

8
00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.439
all out in the neighborhood doing all kinds of different things.

9
00:00:38.439 --> 00:00:40.759
And there's probably more people out and about in the

10
00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:43.880
neighborhood because it's Veterans Day, so a lot of people

11
00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:46.719
are off from work, and so I guess they've all

12
00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:50.359
decided to go outside on this warm November day here

13
00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:55.799
in West Texas and do projects. There's sauls going hammering

14
00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.679
a staple gun. I don't know what they're doing, and

15
00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:02.079
it's causing all the dogs in the neighborhood to just

16
00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:04.879
lose their ever living minds. I think the dogs are like, hey, guys,

17
00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:06.840
you're all supposed to be at work. It's supposed to

18
00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:11.560
be a nice, warm, lazy day. Stop disturbing our rest. Okay,

19
00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.159
So the dogs are barking. There's all kinds of noise outside.

20
00:01:15.239 --> 00:01:18.719
So if you hear anything in the background, I apologize.

21
00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:24.480
I know, yeah, I wish it was a soundproof studio.

22
00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:28.239
I wish it was, you know, really made for broadcasting it.

23
00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:30.599
I mean, in some ways this is the perfect place

24
00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:32.920
to broadcast. In other ways, it's not just because I

25
00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.920
have this window right behind me and that's where all

26
00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:39.519
the noise comes from. So with all that said, if

27
00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:42.680
you hear that, I do apologize, But I hope we

28
00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:46.079
can get something accomplished. I hope. So so let me

29
00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:51.719
start with a very important question in your Christian life.

30
00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.959
Looking back over your Christian life, what are some of

31
00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:01.439
the major changes that have happened in your thinking about Christianity,

32
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:06.480
about the Bible. Have you become I don't know, more

33
00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:12.360
almost excited about Christianity? Have you become more jaded? Have

34
00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:16.560
you become more discouraged? Have you become more frustrated? Have

35
00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:19.879
you feel do you feel more negative feelings or more

36
00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:24.319
positive feelings about your faith, about the Church, about Christianity,

37
00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:29.039
what has changed in your overall attitude about it? What

38
00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:34.400
has changed in your feelings about Christianity, the Bible, God,

39
00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:39.280
anything related to your faith, what things have kind of

40
00:02:39.479 --> 00:02:43.280
you've seen a slow, steady transformation. Maybe you went from

41
00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:48.879
excited on fire zill but very little knowledge, and then

42
00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:54.159
maybe the more knowledge you have gained, you've become more jaded,

43
00:02:54.680 --> 00:03:01.479
more irritated, more frustrated, more discouraged. Have you experienced something

44
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:05.560
like that? I think I have. I don't even I

45
00:03:05.639 --> 00:03:07.360
don't even know if it's right to say I think

46
00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:12.080
I know I have. I can look back in my

47
00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.400
early Christian life and how excited I was every time

48
00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:19.840
you know, Oh, oh, oh, Chuck Swindall, Charles Swindall, Chuck's Windall,

49
00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:21.800
what however you like to refer to his first name?

50
00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:24.840
He's coming on the radio. Okay, grab my bible, grab

51
00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:28.120
a notebook. Okay, Oh, Joe MacArthur's coming on. Oh oh

52
00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.080
oh there's Chuck Smith. Well I'm not as excited. Okay, Oh,

53
00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:33.960
there's there's the Lutheran Hour. Oh take notes. Oh there's

54
00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.680
night Sounds. Oh that's good. I had all these different

55
00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:41.560
you know, broadcasting broadcasters and preachers and teachers, and I

56
00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:44.520
was excited for all of it. Right, I didn't really

57
00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.400
have the knowledge to go good or bad, even if

58
00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:50.520
I thought I disagreed. I didn't feel like I had

59
00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.159
the knowledge to really disagree. It would just be more

60
00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.000
like trying to struggle with hmm, I wonder what that means?

61
00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.240
And then I would hear, you know, preacher A then

62
00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:01.919
condemned that kind of teaching and that kind of teaching,

63
00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.719
and it would get a little bit confusing, maybe a

64
00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:06.560
little bit of frustrating. But I was more and just

65
00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:10.680
trying to at that point acquire information. It was like

66
00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.400
I entered into a brand new world and it was more.

67
00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:18.319
It was it was it was bright, it was exciting.

68
00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.959
It was like I I was. I was in a

69
00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.319
brand new world and I didn't have a map, and

70
00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.439
I was just trying to figure it out. And the

71
00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.480
Bible was all, you know, oh wait, what does this mean?

72
00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:30.759
And what does this mean? And oh wait, I don't

73
00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:33.240
think I remember that. Oh wait what is that? Well?

74
00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:36.519
Oh wait, that is interesting, and and everything was new

75
00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.399
and it was vibrant and it was live, and there

76
00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:43.000
was excitement. And if I walked into a church, every

77
00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:45.879
church felt interesting and exciting because it was a brand

78
00:04:45.879 --> 00:04:48.319
new world and wait, what do they mean by this?

79
00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:51.000
What do they mean by that? And it was it

80
00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:53.399
was a it was just a time of trying to

81
00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:57.120
find meaning and purpose and understanding, and there was just

82
00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:01.199
a lot going on, but it felt so different. Then

83
00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:05.920
the process began of going to this church and this church,

84
00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:08.079
and then you start seeing some of the negativity and

85
00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:12.439
bad things in churches, right church splits and fighting and

86
00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:16.560
arguing and sometimes people saying some of the most ridiculous things,

87
00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:20.399
and then experiencing some tragedy in my life, and hearing

88
00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:23.519
how Christians supposedly provide comfort by saying some of the

89
00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:27.040
most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life. Just

90
00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:30.279
on and on and on, just watching things unfold. And

91
00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.759
in the meantime, I'm going to this Bible college, and

92
00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:35.639
I'm going to go to this Bible college, and I'm

93
00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:37.279
going to go to this seminary, and I'm going to

94
00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:39.319
go to this Bible Institute, and I'm going to get

95
00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:42.040
as much education as I can possibly get. And I

96
00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:44.480
get an associate's degree, and I get a bachelor's degree,

97
00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:46.639
and I get a master's degree, and I want another

98
00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.839
associates and i want another bachelor's and i want another master's.

99
00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:52.480
And I'm going from one degree after another degree gaining.

100
00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:54.560
But it's not about the degrees. I don't care about

101
00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:57.319
the degrees. I don't care about letters, you know, in

102
00:05:57.319 --> 00:05:59.439
front of my name. I don't care about putting up

103
00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:01.560
the degrees you know, on the wall. I don't care

104
00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:03.439
about any of that. I don't even care. I don't

105
00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:05.160
care about any of that. I just want to learn

106
00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.160
about the Bible and theology and church history and all

107
00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.480
of these things. And so there's just like excitement like

108
00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:15.839
trying to figure it out and trying to figure it

109
00:06:15.879 --> 00:06:18.079
out and trying to figure it out, and then little

110
00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:20.759
by little you start, you know, well, I think your

111
00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:25.800
attitude begins to change a little bit, and now I'm

112
00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:28.360
much more jaded. I think it's just fair to say

113
00:06:28.399 --> 00:06:32.879
I am much more jaded now, much more frustrated now,

114
00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:37.079
much more irritated now, much more likely to just be

115
00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:42.639
like whatever, right, like just probably a very negative outlook.

116
00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:45.879
And you can say, well, that shouldn't have happened, Well

117
00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:51.800
it I think I would argue, no, it should have

118
00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:55.600
happened because of the ridiculousness and the craziness and the

119
00:06:55.639 --> 00:07:00.279
insanity that kind of makes up what Christianity is. See,

120
00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.759
what's once you really get into it, you kind of

121
00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:05.399
look around and you go. Christians say some of the

122
00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:09.519
most ridiculous, and in saying things, they they promote something

123
00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:12.439
that's just not wrong. I've been a Christian long enough

124
00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:14.680
to know that a lot of what is preached, and

125
00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:17.759
how it's preached and and the promise is made, they

126
00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:21.920
don't pan out in reality. They don't work the way

127
00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:25.199
Christians act like they work. They don't. The reality is

128
00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.319
is far different. Can I say the reality is far

129
00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:34.800
more depressing and discouraging than all of the supposed hope

130
00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.480
and comfort that we are told that we have, because

131
00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.879
in many cases they're their hope and their comfort. It's

132
00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:47.720
all it's it's it's it's just it's it's not real.

133
00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:54.160
It's not real. It's it's it's it's a mirage. It's

134
00:07:54.199 --> 00:07:58.519
not real. It's it's fraudulent. It's it's it's a face.

135
00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:01.519
It's like a it's like a and a play. It's

136
00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.560
supposed to look this way. But if you go walk

137
00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:05.920
up on the state, well that's not really, that's not really. This,

138
00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:09.720
it's a prop it's cgi it's fake. I don't know

139
00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:13.480
what words you want me to use, and you hear

140
00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:18.439
me express my frustration with Christianity. I think more and

141
00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:19.879
more and more, I think what you hear in the

142
00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:25.160
podcast is it's not so much my disagreeing with Christianity,

143
00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:29.959
it's my frustration that Christianity is putting forth concepts, ideas,

144
00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:34.200
and promises that are just proven to be false. Now,

145
00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:37.360
early on in my Christian life, I did start experiencing

146
00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:40.720
some of this right when the more I begin to

147
00:08:40.840 --> 00:08:45.559
hear and see of charismatics right running around claiming that

148
00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:48.960
by His stripes we are healed. But in the Atonement,

149
00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:53.320
Jesus provides physical healing for the here and now if

150
00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:56.159
you will just simply believe, you will be healed of

151
00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:58.799
this and this and this, and God is raising people

152
00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.840
from the dead, and He's doing all these supposed miracles.

153
00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:04.080
And I heard them say that over and over and

154
00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.200
over and over and over and over again. And then

155
00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:10.360
I became confronted, I don't know, with reality. And then

156
00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:11.960
I was like, you people are out of your ever

157
00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:16.159
living mind. So then, I mean, I never got disillusioned

158
00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:23.200
with charismatic theology. I just quickly realized those people are insane.

159
00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:27.600
That's the insane. They connect themselves with Christianity, but it's

160
00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.759
his insanity. All the things that were supposedly happening, God

161
00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:35.000
supposedly speaking to them, and then this charismatic said God

162
00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.559
told them this. But this charismatic saying God told them this,

163
00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:39.720
and it's like, well that one contradicts that when who

164
00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:44.159
was God actually talking to craziness, just all the insanity.

165
00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:48.159
So I was like, okay, I knew one thing. I

166
00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:51.120
was still learning about Christianity, but I knew almost. I

167
00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:55.080
knew probably I feel like within fifteen seconds. I know

168
00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:59.759
that's an exaggeration, but for illustration purposes, within fifteen seconds,

169
00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.080
realize anything that's associated with charismatic world run from there

170
00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:08.840
out of their ever living mind. They're insane. They don't

171
00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:12.200
need philological help, they need mental health help because they

172
00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:15.360
are living in a complete delusion. They believe that God

173
00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:17.000
is doing this, and God is doing this, Like, look

174
00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:19.039
at the world around you, what are you talking about?

175
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:19.320
Right?

176
00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:23.559
So I knew that was wrong, but I still felt that. Okay,

177
00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:27.879
over here, I was still like, okay, I'll believe this

178
00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.279
and believe this. But then over time I've become much

179
00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.559
more Now, guys, it's just not true. That's just that's

180
00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:38.919
just not what are you doing? So I became kind

181
00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.639
of more disillusioned with it. And then I think probably

182
00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:46.960
the last stage here has become very disillusioned with this whole.

183
00:10:47.679 --> 00:10:51.399
I guess we just call them sermons. Sermons. I used

184
00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:54.879
to like, there was used to almost an enjoyment in sermons.

185
00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:01.120
Now there's almost a apprehension to even hit play, because

186
00:11:01.159 --> 00:11:05.039
I know, inevitably they put a sermon together, right. It

187
00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:10.480
may sound good, it sounds spiritual. It may provide you know, comfort,

188
00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:14.480
it may provide counsel, it may provide advice, it may

189
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:18.759
sound so wonderful. They may be great speakers, and they

190
00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.559
articulate everything, and they don't mispronounce things like I do,

191
00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:25.159
and they read very and I you know, I can

192
00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:27.159
almost look to them and go, man, I wish I

193
00:11:27.159 --> 00:11:29.919
could be a better communicator. I wish I could communicate

194
00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:32.200
like them. But at the same time, I'm like, but

195
00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:37.120
what they are communicating is just totally lies. It's just garbage.

196
00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:41.759
It's trash, it's not true. Because they take scripture and

197
00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:43.759
they make and they do things with it that you're like,

198
00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:50.159
that's not what the scripture is saying. And that has

199
00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:53.039
led us recently. I mean, you've heard my frustration with

200
00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:55.759
all of this develop over time I think if you've

201
00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:57.480
been listening to me for a long time, you can

202
00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:01.320
you tell that I'm much more just. You can almost

203
00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:03.960
hear that I'm just finished with it all. And I

204
00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.879
think at times I feel like I am. I'm just like,

205
00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:07.600
you know what, I don't know what any of this

206
00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:09.440
stuff is. I'm done with it all because it just

207
00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:14.759
it just becomes maddening. But the most recent example is

208
00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:19.159
the sermons that we have reviewed on Isaiah forty forty three.

209
00:12:19.559 --> 00:12:22.879
Any of the sermons I've reviewed between Isaiah forty and

210
00:12:22.919 --> 00:12:27.120
fifty five has just been maddening. They run into Isaiah

211
00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:30.759
forty through fifty five. They just insert us, hijack the text,

212
00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.759
make it all about us, and it's just insanity. Like

213
00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:39.559
there's no even attempt to try to stay even reasonable

214
00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:45.480
with it. And it's so maddening. So we have been

215
00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:49.840
talking about and even the concept of Isaiah chapter forty

216
00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:52.559
verse one. If you've been listening, you know we've been

217
00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:55.039
talking about it over and over and over starts with

218
00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:59.559
comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. And so we were

219
00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:02.480
listening to someone about comfort, Oh, how we could get

220
00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.720
comfort from God? And then it made these statements that

221
00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.200
we should be comforted by this or comforted by this,

222
00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.200
and I'm like, well, any reasonable person would be like,

223
00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:12.519
that's not going to bring comfort, that's going to raise

224
00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:19.000
serious questions. So I even articulated that in the podcast. Well,

225
00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.320
yesterday at Victory Baptist Church, I had kind of make

226
00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:26.879
some on the spot decisions. Do we could just continue

227
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:28.720
with Isaiah forty? What do we do? So I decided

228
00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:32.519
to dedicate two plus hours on Isaiah forty. We really

229
00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:35.919
did a lot of background work Isaiah thirty nine to

230
00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.519
Deuteronomy twenty eight. We provided a very good philological textual

231
00:13:40.600 --> 00:13:42.879
context for Isaiah forty to fifty five. I think we

232
00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:46.120
did pretty good there. I think we were doing we

233
00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:48.000
were doing a little bit of work on Isaiah forty,

234
00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:51.200
the work the Hebrew word for comfort there, all right.

235
00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:52.840
We were doing a little bit of work there. And

236
00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:55.879
then I had to make a decision because we were

237
00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:57.720
gonna go I was gonna look at all the places

238
00:13:57.720 --> 00:14:01.919
the Hebrew word that's translated comfort and Isaiah forty, all

239
00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:06.159
the different places it's used in Isaiah. But then I

240
00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:07.960
felt like, well, I don't really have time to get

241
00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:12.200
into them. So then I kind of made a on

242
00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:14.960
the spot decision that I regret. I regretted it all

243
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:17.240
the way in the drive home. I've regretted it all

244
00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:21.120
day Sunday, all Sunday night, trying to sleep, regretting it

245
00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.759
all the way till today I decided to kind of

246
00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:28.720
get into my frustration again. You're hearing a theme with

247
00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:34.080
how pastors take the concept of comfort and say, hey,

248
00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:36.120
we should be comfort. Like if you go to Isaiah

249
00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:38.320
forty through fifty five and you take the comfort that

250
00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:41.159
was meant for specific people, the people in Babylonian exile,

251
00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:43.279
rip it out of its context, and then to try

252
00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:45.960
to apply it to us, that's a fraudulent comfort. That's

253
00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.919
a fake comfort. And I believe over and over and

254
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.320
over pastors take comfort in the Bible that's meant for

255
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:53.720
someone else and try to apply it to us. Meaning

256
00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.600
you're giving people a fraudulent comfort. You're telling them to

257
00:14:56.639 --> 00:14:59.039
be comforted by something that was never meant to comfort them,

258
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000
all right, So that so I was already irritated by that.

259
00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:05.840
So I kind of started articulating that, and then I

260
00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.759
got into the discussion of, well, some of the pastors

261
00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:11.279
that we've listened to in the Book of Isaiah, they'll

262
00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:14.000
find these passages that speak of God's power and that

263
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:18.000
he's creator and he holds the stars in his hands.

264
00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:21.559
He's named the stars, these kinds of concepts, and they're like,

265
00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:25.159
we should find great comfort because God is all powerful,

266
00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.720
He's all mighty, and to me, I don't know why

267
00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:30.919
I'm supposed to find comfort and the fact that there's

268
00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:33.440
an all powerful God. When I see all the things

269
00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:36.080
going on, I'm like, well, in all powerful God could

270
00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:37.960
stop that, and could stop that, and could stop that

271
00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.360
and could stop that. How do I find comfort and

272
00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.639
an all powerful God? Unless God's using that power in

273
00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:47.279
my specific situation, then it's just a theoretical comfort. It's

274
00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:51.279
not none's there's no practical comfort in it. So I

275
00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:53.799
started to explain it. I thought I was just going

276
00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:57.279
to be able to mention it quickly and immediately. At least,

277
00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:01.799
I feel that the temperature in the church changed. And

278
00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:05.279
I don't believe everyone was happy with me going into

279
00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:08.159
that point, but it's like it has to be discussed.

280
00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:11.399
So then I was kind of frustrated because I went

281
00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:14.399
much longer in the second hour. I went way too long.

282
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:15.919
I went way too long. That was one of those

283
00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:19.159
cases where I went too long but I'm still getting

284
00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:21.559
used to not having a Sunday night or a Wednesday night,

285
00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:24.159
so I feel this great pressure to try to get

286
00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:26.919
everything fit in in two hours on a Sunday, And

287
00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.679
then it's it's different because the people in the second

288
00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.879
hour are not there for the first hour. So then yeah,

289
00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:36.399
it's really I'm still trying to figure out the logistics

290
00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:38.960
of it, which then still is making my I feel

291
00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:42.559
like it's really hindering how well I'm presenting the material.

292
00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.799
But then i was just kind of discouraged, and I'm like, why,

293
00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:50.000
you know, if I look back at my younger self,

294
00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.480
I would have preached about God's comfort very different than

295
00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:57.799
I did on November. What's today? Today's the eleventh. On

296
00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:01.159
November the tenth, twenty twenty four. Yeah, today is November

297
00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:03.679
Veterans Day. I should know that, right, I already mentioned that. Okay,

298
00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:07.480
it's November the tenth. If if it was November the

299
00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:12.920
tenth five years ago, six years ago, seven years ago,

300
00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:16.039
ten years ago, I would have probably preached very different

301
00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:18.960
than I did in twenty twenty four. But I'm frustrated

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

303
00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:25.079
with a lot of it. So why why have I

304
00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.519
spent seventeen minutes just kind of walking you through that?

305
00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:30.759
Because it really kind of sets up what I want

306
00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:35.440
to do here. So here's what happened. I had to

307
00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:38.799
wake up at what three forty three forty five this morning,

308
00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:42.079
so I've been up for a very long time. And

309
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.400
I saw that there was a new episode from Insight

310
00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:50.839
for Living with Charles Swindall or Chuck Swindall, and it

311
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:54.680
had something It was entitled do I have the file here?

312
00:17:54.839 --> 00:17:55.039
See?

313
00:17:55.079 --> 00:17:56.480
I had the file here. Let me see if I

314
00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:58.640
can find it. There's a PDF file that comes with

315
00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:02.519
the broadcast. Let me see if I can find it.

316
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:07.160
I think I have it here. Yes, I have it

317
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.440
right here. Here is the file. The file is tight

318
00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:17.920
entitled the Desert School of Self Discovery. The Desert School

319
00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:21.759
of Self Discovery. And when I saw that as the

320
00:18:21.799 --> 00:18:23.839
title for the episode, it was on one of my

321
00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:26.200
podcast apps, I get the notification Insight for a Living

322
00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:30.480
new episode, the Desert School of Self Discovery. I was like, Oh,

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

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

325
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:38.880
I know where they're going to go, and then pastor

326
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:44.000
Charles Swindall, he makes this statement, there's nothing like the

327
00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:48.079
desert to strip away all the trappings, pill off all

328
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:52.640
the mask and help you discover the real you. And

329
00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:55.680
I'm like, oh boy, I know what Charles Swindall is

330
00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.519
getting ready to do. Charles Swindall is getting ready to

331
00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:02.200
He's getting ready to go to these.

332
00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.039
Passages in the Bible where it talks about people in

333
00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:09.279
the desert, people in the wilderness, and it's going to

334
00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:13.160
turn into kind of an allegorical thing, an illustrative thing,

335
00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:17.480
and we're gonna be inserted into the desert scene and

336
00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:18.519
it's gonna all.

337
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:23.680
Become about us. I'm like, well, let me listen. So

338
00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:26.480
I started listening, made it I don't know, a minute,

339
00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:31.039
two minutes, and I'm like, well, more discouragement, because this

340
00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:34.039
is exactly where my frustration is with Isaiah forty through

341
00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:37.160
fifty five. I'm like, why does this keep happening? Is

342
00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:41.359
every sermon just an example of pastors just going to

343
00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:45.880
the text spiritualizing it, I'll agorizing it, putting us inside

344
00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:50.799
the text, and I just I just don't know. So

345
00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:52.920
I'm like, well, I'm gonna have to listen to this

346
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:54.480
at some point. So you know what, I'm going to

347
00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:56.720
listen to it with you. We're gonna review this, We're

348
00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.039
going to go through this and here and this. The

349
00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:02.960
reason I started with, how what has changed in your

350
00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:07.119
Christian life? How is your feelings in thinking changed? This

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

352
00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:16.559
Swindall was massively influential in my early Christian life. Again,

353
00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:19.079
I've told the story a million times that really the

354
00:20:19.160 --> 00:20:23.640
two men who discipled me was John MacArthur and Charles Swindall.

355
00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:26.720
I mean, I have notebooks filled with every single day

356
00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:30.839
after school listening to them, taking notes, taking notes. If

357
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:32.839
there was a book by MacArthur, if there was a

358
00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:36.079
book by Swindall, I purchased them. If I had the

359
00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:39.799
ability to buy their cassette series. I know that's dating me.

360
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:42.119
I would buy them and then listen to the sermons

361
00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.079
over and over and over and over and over and

362
00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:45.880
over and over and over and over and over and

363
00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.519
over and over and over again. There was an excitement,

364
00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:51.599
there was a thrill, there was I could not wait.

365
00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:56.279
So now to listen to it, I'm going to hear

366
00:20:57.680 --> 00:20:59.559
something that if I would have heard it, then I'm

367
00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:01.920
probably most luckily I did hear it back then. I

368
00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:03.839
would have heard it back then and I would have

369
00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.599
been like, oh, wow, that's so good, that's so awesome.

370
00:21:06.599 --> 00:21:09.920
I may have felt encouragement, I may have felt oh, excitement,

371
00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:12.160
But now I'm going to hear it and I'm going

372
00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:16.799
to be like, no, I'm going to the liquor store

373
00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:18.680
and I give up. And it's like I, in some

374
00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:21.960
ways I long to go back to where, Oh I

375
00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:24.839
love it. It was so encouraging, it was so amazing, it

376
00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:27.799
was so awesome. So do I want? And I think

377
00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:30.839
this is kind of a where I am Sometimes in

378
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.000
some ways I want to recapture that more. I guess

379
00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:39.799
you can call it innocent, naive, passion and zeal, not

380
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:46.480
the jaded, give up, discouraged. I want to go back

381
00:21:46.519 --> 00:21:49.160
to that, but you can't. I can't go back to that.

382
00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:53.960
The more knowledge I this is almost the way it worked,

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

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

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

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

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

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

389
00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:20.880
listen to Christian radio and the announcer would say something like, oh,

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

391
00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.759
and everything was like everything felt like it was just

392
00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:30.960
one truth after another, truth after another truth after another truth.

393
00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.799
I would never even thinking about true or not. Everything

394
00:22:33.880 --> 00:22:37.119
was just true. Everything was just right. Like I had

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

396
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.599
everything seemed like truth. But the more I learned, the

397
00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:47.640
more I learned, and the more I learned and the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

418
00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:01.400
and truth. But now you're jade discouraged, and you know,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

925
00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:41.039
the heat. It came upon me as I stood there,

926
00:55:41.079 --> 00:55:45.800
and I sensed there is an awesomeness in the desert.

927
00:55:47.119 --> 00:55:53.840
It was uncomfortable. It bit into my skin. It was barren.

928
00:55:54.880 --> 00:56:02.079
No fruit, no shrubbery, no lush, beautiful verdant trees or valleys,

929
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:02.960
no oasis.

930
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:04.519
It was a desert.

931
00:56:05.800 --> 00:56:10.280
And God finds the howling desert that you need. And

932
00:56:10.400 --> 00:56:13.960
once he finds it, he puts you into it. And

933
00:56:14.039 --> 00:56:20.360
the instant feeling that you get is God's gone. Where

934
00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:24.480
is he in the midst of this painful experience. You're

935
00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:27.119
no longer able to do things you once were able

936
00:56:27.159 --> 00:56:30.280
to do. And there's the fear I'm gonna lose my talent,

937
00:56:31.480 --> 00:56:35.440
or I'm no longer going to be useful, or I'm forgotten.

938
00:56:39.079 --> 00:56:40.039
He's left me.

939
00:56:41.920 --> 00:56:44.199
Now, That's why I wanted you to look at this verse.

940
00:56:44.360 --> 00:56:45.159
Look at verse ten.

941
00:56:45.480 --> 00:56:49.199
In the howling waste of a wilderness, God does four

942
00:56:49.280 --> 00:56:57.559
things circle him, will you. First of all, he encircles us. Second,

943
00:56:58.360 --> 00:57:05.920
he cares for us us. Third, he guards us as

944
00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:10.599
the pupil of his eye. Isn't that beautiful?

945
00:57:12.239 --> 00:57:12.480
You know?

946
00:57:12.559 --> 00:57:15.679
The most protected part of your body is that pupil

947
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:20.719
of the eye. You won't let anything touch it. You

948
00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:27.280
guard it with great care. You protect it constantly. The

949
00:57:27.320 --> 00:57:30.760
tiniest speck you keep from getting into it if you can.

950
00:57:32.440 --> 00:57:37.760
In the desert, you are the pupil of God's eye.

951
00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:43.079
And to your amazement this evening you discover in fact,

952
00:57:43.159 --> 00:57:46.280
God has not left you. He has cared for you

953
00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:49.559
now more than at any other time. I want that

954
00:57:49.639 --> 00:57:50.400
to encourage you.

955
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:56.519
Now. See when I was young, I got great encouragement. Okay, God,

956
00:57:56.840 --> 00:57:59.119
God knows where I am. He placed me here. But

957
00:57:59.239 --> 00:58:03.880
what is hopp to this text is literally criminal? This

958
00:58:03.920 --> 00:58:07.719
is literally criminal? What is happening to this text? Deuteronomy

959
00:58:07.760 --> 00:58:10.800
thirty two thirty two ten is about Israel and is

960
00:58:10.840 --> 00:58:14.480
based on God's covenant with his people. This verse is

961
00:58:14.519 --> 00:58:17.960
part of the Song of Moses, a poetic reflection Moses

962
00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:20.400
shares with the Israelites near the end of his life.

963
00:58:20.480 --> 00:58:24.320
In it, Moses recounts God's faithful care and guidance over Israel,

964
00:58:24.519 --> 00:58:32.679
specifically his covenantal relationship with them. Deuteronomy thirty two ten

965
00:58:32.760 --> 00:58:35.119
states he found him in a desert land, and in

966
00:58:35.119 --> 00:58:38.280
the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him, he

967
00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:41.519
cared for him, He kept him as the apple of

968
00:58:41.599 --> 00:58:44.320
his eye. He found him in the desert. This refers

969
00:58:44.360 --> 00:58:47.719
to God finding Israel in a figurative desert or wilderness state,

970
00:58:47.880 --> 00:58:51.000
representing the nation's vulnerable condition. When God led them out

971
00:58:51.000 --> 00:58:54.719
of Egypt, they were a people without land, identity, or independence,

972
00:58:55.280 --> 00:59:00.000
entirely reliant on God. The language reflects God's covenantal lofe

973
00:59:00.440 --> 00:59:04.159
and commitment to Israel. By encircling, caring for, and keeping

974
00:59:04.239 --> 00:59:06.679
Israel is the apple of his eye, God demonstrated his

975
00:59:06.800 --> 00:59:12.400
unique protection and affection for his chosen people. The entire

976
00:59:12.480 --> 00:59:15.199
passage is grounded and the covenant God made with Abraham,

977
00:59:15.280 --> 00:59:18.119
Isaac and Jacob, promising to make Israel a great nation

978
00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:22.800
and to be their God. This covenantal relationship undergirds God's

979
00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:30.519
guidance and care for Israel throughout their wilderness. But he

980
00:59:30.599 --> 00:59:34.920
just immediately removed them and inserted you that this is

981
00:59:34.960 --> 00:59:39.880
what God will do for you in your desert. Ladies

982
00:59:39.920 --> 00:59:43.039
and gentlemen, if you circle that, write that down, put

983
00:59:43.039 --> 00:59:45.159
it on your refrigerator, and say, I'm going through this

984
00:59:45.199 --> 00:59:47.760
horrible time, but God is going to do these things

985
00:59:47.800 --> 00:59:51.760
for me. Ladies and gentlemen. The preacher's lying to you.

986
00:59:52.079 --> 00:59:54.559
There's no guarantee God's going to do any of that

987
00:59:54.679 --> 00:59:59.480
for you in a tangible, material way. And the point

988
00:59:59.559 --> 01:00:05.079
is this passage is not promising you anything nothing. This

989
01:00:05.159 --> 01:00:07.719
is demonstrating God made a covenant with Israel, and he

990
01:00:07.840 --> 01:00:18.440
keeps his covenant promises this whole thing, this whole thing

991
01:00:18.679 --> 01:00:22.639
is a mess. See when we look at this entire

992
01:00:22.719 --> 01:00:26.119
idea of the Desert School of self discovery from Chuckswindall.

993
01:00:27.480 --> 01:00:31.239
He presents this study as focusing on the idea of

994
01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:36.920
desert experiences or metaphorical periods of trial or isolation. This

995
01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:40.599
is supposedly intended for spiritual growth and self discovery. This

996
01:00:41.360 --> 01:00:45.320
may be relatable to many people. Some people may find

997
01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:50.000
it insightful, but I believe it relies significantly on an

998
01:00:50.079 --> 01:00:56.440
allegorical application. Rather than drawing directly from the scriptural content.

999
01:00:57.199 --> 01:01:01.760
This study interprets literal experiences of Moses and the Israelites

1000
01:01:01.760 --> 01:01:06.280
and the wilderness as something symbolic or personal, or an

1001
01:01:06.320 --> 01:01:10.960
emotional desert that modern believers might face, such as illness

1002
01:01:11.039 --> 01:01:15.559
or loneliness. This method risk imposing meaning on the text

1003
01:01:15.639 --> 01:01:20.159
rather than extracting meaning from it. For example, Moses's time

1004
01:01:20.199 --> 01:01:23.599
and Midian and Israel's wilderness journeys are described in this

1005
01:01:23.719 --> 01:01:26.840
study as if they were templates for any kind of

1006
01:01:26.880 --> 01:01:30.880
personal hardship believer's face, rather than a specific historical and

1007
01:01:30.920 --> 01:01:34.800
philological event. Basically, much of the study that you're listening

1008
01:01:34.880 --> 01:01:36.480
to and if you were to look at the PDF file,

1009
01:01:36.760 --> 01:01:41.360
encourages readers to see themselves directly in Moses' experience, focusing

1010
01:01:41.440 --> 01:01:44.880
on self discovery and personal growth. While there may be

1011
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.360
lessons to learn from biblical figures, the intense personalization here

1012
01:01:49.840 --> 01:01:55.239
detracts from understanding the covenantal and redemptive purpose behind Israel's experience.

1013
01:01:56.360 --> 01:01:59.079
By interpreting wilderness as a place for God to reveal

1014
01:01:59.119 --> 01:02:02.119
aspects about your life, self and himself, the study leans

1015
01:02:02.159 --> 01:02:04.960
heavily into a mystical reading of the text, which not

1016
01:02:05.360 --> 01:02:09.960
does not honor the historical and redemptive focus of the passage.

1017
01:02:11.440 --> 01:02:14.599
For example, Deuteronomy A two speaks of God's testing and

1018
01:02:14.679 --> 01:02:17.920
humbling of Israel to know their heart and reliance on Him,

1019
01:02:18.360 --> 01:02:21.840
a lesson linked to their specific covenant relationship rather than

1020
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:25.480
a universal personal desert. In other words, everything happening there

1021
01:02:25.800 --> 01:02:32.920
was God's purpose and plan for Israel. The whole thing

1022
01:02:33.119 --> 01:02:35.840
is is just completely messed up. And I got far

1023
01:02:35.920 --> 01:02:40.519
more notes here that I could look at to take

1024
01:02:40.559 --> 01:02:43.800
this apart. But I want us to understand this. I

1025
01:02:43.800 --> 01:02:45.920
want us to understand this. I got all kinds of

1026
01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:47.719
other things I wanted to say here, other things I

1027
01:02:47.719 --> 01:02:52.119
wanted to say, but I will say this right. This

1028
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:56.320
entire study is an example of isa Jesus rather than

1029
01:02:56.320 --> 01:02:59.000
exe Jesus, and I'm going to break these down. ISA

1030
01:02:59.119 --> 01:03:05.599
Jesus involves reading personal ideas, modern concepts, or desired meaning

1031
01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:09.360
into the text, often without a clear connection to the

1032
01:03:09.400 --> 01:03:13.199
author's original intent or the historical and cultural context of

1033
01:03:13.239 --> 01:03:16.800
the passage, and not only the document the PDF file,

1034
01:03:17.079 --> 01:03:20.519
but also the audio that we're listening to. The desert

1035
01:03:20.559 --> 01:03:24.199
experience of Moses and Israel are used as symbolic representations

1036
01:03:24.199 --> 01:03:28.320
of common human struggle, such as loneliness or hardship, and

1037
01:03:28.559 --> 01:03:32.000
are then applied to modern believers' lives This approach reads

1038
01:03:32.039 --> 01:03:37.239
contemporary themes self discovery, personal desert into the text, which

1039
01:03:37.480 --> 01:03:43.920
was not the intended meaning of the original author. Now

1040
01:03:44.039 --> 01:03:47.679
Exit Jesus, by contrast, seeks to draw out the meaning

1041
01:03:48.039 --> 01:03:52.599
inherent in the text by analyzing its original context, purpose,

1042
01:03:52.679 --> 01:03:56.000
and message. If Exit Jesus were applied here, the study

1043
01:03:56.039 --> 01:03:59.199
would focus more on understanding the specific reason why Moses

1044
01:03:59.239 --> 01:04:01.960
and Israel were left into the wilderness within the context

1045
01:04:02.039 --> 01:04:05.920
of God's covenant with Israel. Exegetical interpretation would explore the

1046
01:04:06.079 --> 01:04:10.400
historical and philological reason behind these events, rather than generalizing

1047
01:04:10.480 --> 01:04:16.119
them as personal lessons are metaphors for self discovery. The

1048
01:04:16.159 --> 01:04:20.880
whole thing is is of Jesus. But yet that's the

1049
01:04:20.960 --> 01:04:25.440
kind of preaching people want, but it destroys the text.

1050
01:04:25.480 --> 01:04:27.840
Now we're already over an hour. Let's just listen to

1051
01:04:27.880 --> 01:04:28.519
a little bit.

1052
01:04:28.360 --> 01:04:34.400
More, especially you who are in the desert. And the

1053
01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:38.800
fourth thing he does verse twelve, he alone guides you.

1054
01:04:40.360 --> 01:04:43.360
He hasn't taken his hand off of you. He is

1055
01:04:43.480 --> 01:04:47.239
guiding you. And I like that word alone. There's no

1056
01:04:47.320 --> 01:04:51.360
one else to guide when you're in the desert. There's

1057
01:04:51.360 --> 01:04:55.440
no neat little place to find shade or relief, and

1058
01:04:55.519 --> 01:04:58.960
so you are naked, you are shut up to God.

1059
01:05:00.639 --> 01:05:02.599
For some of you, it may be a past of

1060
01:05:02.679 --> 01:05:06.559
great success and good training, and suddenly you find yourself

1061
01:05:06.599 --> 01:05:13.159
surrounded by a house full of little children, and you

1062
01:05:13.280 --> 01:05:17.920
wonder how long? How long? Others of you may have

1063
01:05:18.079 --> 01:05:20.760
enjoyed good health and strength through most of your life,

1064
01:05:20.800 --> 01:05:25.400
And suddenly the doctor tells you, you know, I noticed

1065
01:05:25.440 --> 01:05:29.400
there's a spot on your lung or I've discovered as

1066
01:05:29.440 --> 01:05:35.159
a result of surgery in this biopsy. Uh, there's a

1067
01:05:35.239 --> 01:05:40.840
malignancy here. And the feeling is as you reel with

1068
01:05:40.960 --> 01:05:43.519
that information, where is God?

1069
01:05:46.360 --> 01:05:49.199
Hey, when you're reeling from that information, let me, as

1070
01:05:49.239 --> 01:05:51.920
a preacher, say, but hey, God chose this desert for you.

1071
01:05:53.079 --> 01:05:56.960
He chose the right dath you needed, the cancer you needed,

1072
01:05:56.960 --> 01:06:00.760
the disease you needed, the injury you need, the tragedy

1073
01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:04.079
you because that was the desert. Because God can't prepare

1074
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:06.760
you for your purpose, well, I mean, there's no other

1075
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:09.199
way God could prepare you for your purpose other than

1076
01:06:09.280 --> 01:06:13.519
utterly and absolutely annihilating and destroying everything in your life.

1077
01:06:14.679 --> 01:06:18.599
But hey, hey, hey, hey, don't get down, don't look down,

1078
01:06:18.840 --> 01:06:23.880
don't be sad. Turn that that frown upside down, be happy.

1079
01:06:24.280 --> 01:06:26.960
Tomorrow the sun will come out to everything's gonna be

1080
01:06:26.960 --> 01:06:28.840
better because He's just doing all this to prepare you

1081
01:06:28.880 --> 01:06:30.360
for the purpose. I mean, I mean, if you die

1082
01:06:30.400 --> 01:06:32.519
of the cancer. I mean, I I don't know. I

1083
01:06:32.559 --> 01:06:34.119
mean if you if you never walk it. I mean,

1084
01:06:34.159 --> 01:06:36.480
I mean, I mean, yeah, you see, yeah, you hear

1085
01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:41.000
my jadedness. See that's what happens when you're young and

1086
01:06:41.039 --> 01:06:44.840
you hear this, You're like, yeah, prepare me. Come on. Yeah,

1087
01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:47.000
It's like going to the gym. I'm gonna work out,

1088
01:06:47.039 --> 01:06:49.360
and I'm gonna look at my abs now, woo, look

1089
01:06:49.360 --> 01:06:51.519
at my Look at my legs, look at look at that,

1090
01:06:51.639 --> 01:06:52.639
Look at my biceps.

1091
01:06:52.679 --> 01:06:53.039
Whoo.

1092
01:06:53.199 --> 01:06:55.480
I've been working out in the gym. God's gonna put

1093
01:06:55.519 --> 01:06:57.960
me in the in the desert. He's gonna prepare me,

1094
01:06:58.159 --> 01:06:59.840
and I'm gonna come out, and then God's gonna use

1095
01:06:59.880 --> 01:07:05.000
me do something tremendous, great, like lead an entire nation

1096
01:07:05.320 --> 01:07:08.039
out of captivity. And then you kind of find out

1097
01:07:08.079 --> 01:07:10.679
when maybe I'm just applying all of this in a

1098
01:07:10.679 --> 01:07:13.519
way that has a zero to do with me.

1099
01:07:16.400 --> 01:07:17.440
How can I cope?

1100
01:07:19.519 --> 01:07:22.880
How can I handle this? For others?

1101
01:07:22.920 --> 01:07:28.559
It's being benched because an underclassman can play better than

1102
01:07:28.599 --> 01:07:34.800
you on the team. It's as simple as that. There

1103
01:07:34.800 --> 01:07:38.440
are a number of you here who are single. I

1104
01:07:38.519 --> 01:07:42.000
came across a piece in Eternity that was a part

1105
01:07:42.039 --> 01:07:49.800
of an article on rejection. The writer Natalie Ray says this.

1106
01:07:50.599 --> 01:07:55.039
She calls it no lover. No lover makes my kiss

1107
01:07:55.079 --> 01:07:59.400
his daily quest. No hand across the table reaches mind.

1108
01:08:01.480 --> 01:08:05.079
No precious baby nestles at my breast, No one to

1109
01:08:05.199 --> 01:08:10.199
need my love. Where is the sign that God, my

1110
01:08:10.320 --> 01:08:15.679
Father loves me? Surely he creates this wealth of love

1111
01:08:15.800 --> 01:08:19.800
to overflow. How could it be that none who wanted

1112
01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:25.039
me has become mine? Why did I tell them? No?

1113
01:08:26.840 --> 01:08:27.920
But do they really matter?

1114
01:08:28.159 --> 01:08:28.840
All the wise?

1115
01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:34.000
Could all the answers take away the pain? Or all

1116
01:08:34.039 --> 01:08:36.000
the reasons really dry my eyes?

1117
01:08:38.399 --> 01:08:38.600
Though?

1118
01:08:38.640 --> 01:08:45.239
From Heaven's court, No I would weep again. My God,

1119
01:08:45.800 --> 01:08:50.560
you saved me from Hell's black abyss, Oh, save me

1120
01:08:50.600 --> 01:08:53.479
from the tyranny of bitterness.

1121
01:08:55.800 --> 01:08:56.319
You see, the.

1122
01:08:56.279 --> 01:09:01.600
Desert can be that response of one that you love

1123
01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:08.199
and he's gone or she's gone, and there's no promise

1124
01:09:08.239 --> 01:09:12.439
that that one will ever return. It may be the

1125
01:09:12.520 --> 01:09:14.520
day that you come in from work and your wife

1126
01:09:14.560 --> 01:09:19.760
has left you the note she's gone. Then the desert starts,

1127
01:09:22.079 --> 01:09:24.319
or you discover through a chain of events that your

1128
01:09:24.399 --> 01:09:30.840
husband has been in fact unfaithful. That's a desert. And

1129
01:09:30.840 --> 01:09:34.640
the most disillusioning time, the greatest time of building resentment

1130
01:09:34.760 --> 01:09:39.880
and bitterness, as this has said, is at those moments.

1131
01:09:39.920 --> 01:09:42.800
But I want you to see, for the purpose of encouragement,

1132
01:09:42.840 --> 01:09:45.680
that God does four things. When you are in the desert.

1133
01:09:46.079 --> 01:09:51.479
He encircles you, he cares for you, He guards you

1134
01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:55.359
like the pupil of his eye, and in fact he

1135
01:09:55.479 --> 01:10:01.359
guides you. You haven't left him, nor has he left you.

1136
01:10:03.439 --> 01:10:06.920
Perhaps more than ever before. He is closer to you

1137
01:10:08.640 --> 01:10:09.600
now en route too.

1138
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:15.399
Unbelievable. First, you have the whole philosophical problem. All these

1139
01:10:15.439 --> 01:10:17.760
horrible things happened to you, but God, God picked the

1140
01:10:17.760 --> 01:10:21.960
desert for you. So like, did God just pick the

1141
01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:23.520
desert because he knew it was going to happen? But

1142
01:10:23.560 --> 01:10:25.520
he doesn't control what happened. Why wouldn't he didn't just

1143
01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:27.800
stop it from happening? All right, there's all kinds of

1144
01:10:27.840 --> 01:10:30.399
issues there. But then the second thing, he keeps saying

1145
01:10:30.600 --> 01:10:36.399
that God does these things for us. See, when I

1146
01:10:36.439 --> 01:10:38.000
was young, I would have I have written this in

1147
01:10:38.039 --> 01:10:40.479
a notebook, and I could have been driving my car

1148
01:10:40.840 --> 01:10:42.560
doing something and I would have heard swind On. I'd

1149
01:10:42.560 --> 01:10:44.399
been like, oh, this is good. I would have pulled

1150
01:10:44.399 --> 01:10:46.159
the car over, grabbed a notebook, and I would have

1151
01:10:46.159 --> 01:10:50.920
written that down. Deuteronomy thirty two ten. All right, So

1152
01:10:51.319 --> 01:10:55.399
he he led him about, he instructed him, he kept

1153
01:10:55.479 --> 01:10:58.279
him as the apple of his eye. All right, all right.

1154
01:10:58.399 --> 01:11:00.760
Would I would have written these things down. I think

1155
01:11:00.760 --> 01:11:02.399
he said four things. I'd have to break that down

1156
01:11:02.479 --> 01:11:05.199
in the King James. That's for I got another translation,

1157
01:11:05.359 --> 01:11:06.680
but you get the Yeah. I would have written those

1158
01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:08.399
things down, and I'd been like, That's what God is

1159
01:11:08.399 --> 01:11:10.439
gonna do for me. God's gonna do these things for me.

1160
01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:12.520
God's gonna do things for me. And I would have

1161
01:11:12.520 --> 01:11:15.479
been encouraged and I would have been fired up, and

1162
01:11:15.520 --> 01:11:18.319
I'd have been ready to go. But after all these years,

1163
01:11:18.399 --> 01:11:24.680
now I know what are you doing? That's not that's

1164
01:11:24.760 --> 01:11:27.680
for them. That's what God did for Israel based off

1165
01:11:27.720 --> 01:11:32.039
a covenant relationship. This is how God took care of

1166
01:11:32.159 --> 01:11:38.560
them through the actual physical wilderness. God literally led them.

1167
01:11:38.720 --> 01:11:43.239
God literally provided for literal there's nothing figurative or allegorical,

1168
01:11:43.279 --> 01:11:45.680
and what God did He did these things literally for them.

1169
01:11:45.840 --> 01:11:48.720
This is Moses talking about what God had done for

1170
01:11:48.800 --> 01:11:54.640
them literally materially, physically, not some allegorical metaphorical. Look, God's

1171
01:11:54.680 --> 01:11:56.560
gonna do this, and God's gonna do this for me? Well,

1172
01:11:56.600 --> 01:12:03.199
how does that even work? What does it even do? All? Me? See,

1173
01:12:03.359 --> 01:12:07.279
after all this time, when I go back to listen

1174
01:12:07.319 --> 01:12:09.439
to this, that would have brought me great joy at

1175
01:12:09.479 --> 01:12:11.319
one time in my Christian life. I would have been

1176
01:12:11.399 --> 01:12:14.000
so encouraged. I would have been so like, this is

1177
01:12:14.000 --> 01:12:15.640
a man, and I would have been telling everyone about

1178
01:12:15.680 --> 01:12:19.960
what I learned. I may even have had an opportunity

1179
01:12:20.039 --> 01:12:22.159
to teach it. I would have taken those four points

1180
01:12:22.199 --> 01:12:26.640
and broke them into an outline and taught them. Guess

1181
01:12:26.640 --> 01:12:28.760
what I would have been doing is said Jesus, not

1182
01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:31.800
exo Jesus, completely mishandling the word of God and in

1183
01:12:31.920 --> 01:12:35.399
giving people a complete and totally fraudulent comfort. And that's

1184
01:12:35.560 --> 01:12:37.880
what the church does. And that's why so many Christians

1185
01:12:37.960 --> 01:12:42.439
wake up one day disillusioned, discouraged, bitter, depressed and saying,

1186
01:12:42.479 --> 01:12:53.520
you know what, forget this trash, it doesn't work. Love

1187
01:12:53.560 --> 01:12:58.159
to get your thoughts. Thank you for listening, everyone, have

1188
01:12:58.199 --> 01:13:05.479
a great day. So frustrating. God bless