Wednesday, April 26th | Trash Talk

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, April the 26th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. We want you to help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, sharing it with your friends and family, and leaving us a good five-star review on iTunes, Spotify. We love to read those reviews.

We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast, so you can do just that. For every star that I get in a review, I like to put a star on my fridge, like a little star sticker. If you leave me a five-star review, that's five-star stickers that get to go up on my fridge. Now, think about this, y'all. Think about what he's saying to y'all.

If y'all don't leave him that, if y'all leave him nasty little one-star reviews, he's got to explain to his wife and children what a failure he is. Do y'all want that? I don't think so. Do y'all want that? I hope not.

I hope you don't want that. Put the camera on, Ryan. Look at him. Leave him a five-star review. Don't cry.

Sorry, I got sad about a one-star review. Read the verse of the day. This is silly. Verse of the day today comes from Psalm 55, verses 16 and 17. As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice.

That's my thing. A lot of times I get stuck in this ritual of one prayer a day when I wake up in the morning and go on about the rest of my day and let that prayer just kind of coast. He's saying, I'll call upon God morning, evening, noon. I'm going to cry aloud. I'm going to do whatever it takes, and he's going to hear my voice. That's the confidence that he has.

Yeah, I love the way that ends. He shall hear my voice. I don't know if you've ever been this way, Jon, but there have been times in my life where I feel like my prayers are just like bouncing off the ceiling, like they're not just making it to their destination. But this verse promises us that if we are God's children, God hears the prayers of his people. He hears when we cry out to him. Even if we feel like we are far off, God is there with us.

He hears our prayers, and he is near to those, especially those who are brokenhearted. I'm taking a class on the Psalms right now. Especially the Psalms of David, they're set up that way very intentionally, where you've got these couplets, these two lines that go together.

Yeah. As for me and my house, I will call upon God, that's what I'm doing, and the Lord's response, and the Lord shall save me. Then right back to the psalmist, evening and morning and noon, I will pray, and God's response, he shall hear my voice. David's setting those Psalms up, and the Psalms are rife with that kind of stuff. It's because that's the promise that God gives to us.

That's the assurance that David wants you to take is that you ask, he responds. That's how it's always meant to be. That's right. Yeah. I had a question come in this morning.

I had another question set up, but I saw this one this morning I thought was kind of fun. Peter M., what are your summer plans? The promise of summer is in the air, my friend. It is.

It's very close, very nearby. Is this for Dr. Sarr, or is this for all of us? He just says, what are your summer plans?

I'll ask Dr. Sarr at the end. For us, there's a couple of trips that we take with the church. My kids are going to summer camp this summer.

It's very exciting up in the mountains. Joanna, our fourth—I had to do that math real quick in my head—she's actually old enough this year to go the week that the kids go. We go one week as the workers, as helpers, and the kids go with us. Then the following couple of weeks, they have camp for kids, and so we send our kids. Our three oldest have gone, but this year, Joanna is old enough to go, so she's very excited about it.

That'll be fun. Then, of course, we've got the sports camp here at the church. Sports camp here at the church, where the kids, up through fifth grade, learn the fundamentals of different sports. They have coaches that come in and teach in things like soccer and basketball and martial arts and all that fun stuff.

They also learn how to implement their faith in athletics, how to let their belief in God, how that should inform sportsmanship and teamwork and things like that. Then, of course, vacation Bible school, and then there's several back-to-school activities. Lots of fun opportunities this summer.

Yeah. Summer, on my end, typically involves production. We do our Christmas night of worship, then we do our Easter night of worship, so that summer isn't this weird lull. We always ramp up productions in the summer. A lot of productions in the pipeline. We have some writing projects happening with Dr. Shah. He's working with a lot of other academics, getting a book published sometime around July. We're trying to get another book published sometime around August or September, somewhere around fall, and we're getting the final stuff going on this summer. Dr. Shah and I are working on that together. Then the worship team is actually recording an album this summer.

Yes. Very excited about that. We got confirmation on the album. The production has already begun. We are well into the process of tracking. All the songs have been written, so we're doing tracking now. We're actually working with a producer, and I can share a little bit more about that maybe at a later time, but very, very good things on the horizon.

First full-length album that we've ever done as a church. That's so awesome. I'm so excited to see that develop.

Just to watch you work, that's a privilege for me, to just watch you plan it out. Thank you. We're going to continue our conversation through Malachi today.

We are coming to the end of the book of Malachi. We're going to get Dr. Shah in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Elli Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series, and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. When it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish, even with a bad start, and that's where this book comes in.

No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck. Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times, 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's Word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things. His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below, and if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today is your first time ever tuning in to the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of Today's Show. You can find all of his work online at his website.

That's AbbadanShah.com. Dr. Shah, I have a question for you as we're getting through this today. So those were all good, wonderful, great things that John just said about you.

Wonderful, positive, uplifting things. Has anyone ever trash-talked you? Trash-talked me? Anyone ever said anything like- Just talk junk, man. Yeah, just run and all shade and all stuff.

Yeah, I would say yes. How do you handle that? The thing is when you're in a position of leadership or any kind of authority, you will have people who will trash-talk you. So if you don't want to be in a position of leadership, you don't want to be an influencer, just don't worry about it.

It won't happen. You'd be fine. No trouble. But it comes with the territory. It comes with the territory. And when it first began to happen to me, I didn't like it one bit.

Still don't. I have to admit, after all these years, I haven't found the deep secret on how to handle that. Initially, it bothers me.

Then I have to get into the mode of, okay, all right, I know what to do with this one. If it's real genuine criticism that's going to help me, whatever, okay, I can work with that. Be my coach.

I can listen to that. Even if you're not going to be my coach, but you have a valid point, I'll listen to that and make some changes. But if it's just, you're just a mean person, then at first I'll struggle and then I will work it out and keep going.

I think that's helpful. And I think leaders need to hear that because we tend to hear, I think online and with other pseudo leader, like leadership figures in popular culture that, that stuff's got to roll off your back. You know what I mean? They can say whatever they want about me. It doesn't bother me cause I'm plowing ahead.

Well, either you're lying or you're a sociopath and it's good to hear that, Hey, we're human beings and harsh criticism that's unfounded hurts. Yeah. See, it's, it's like, it's the laws of physics.

Okay. So if you punch somebody, you know, there is going to be a reaction. Either they can, it's going to come back to you or they're going to be pushed back. So what happens is when people go through things like that, they either fight back with that person, but if they're not fighting back, they are fighting with somebody else.

They'll take it on family, friends, whatever. And so you have to say, are you doing that? Then you're not handling this the way you pretend to be like, Oh, it's just rolling off my back.

It's not really, it's the rolling off your back onto someone else. So that's a good point. And that, that leads into what we're talking about today.

We're in this series on Malachi. We're talking about, you know, God's interaction with his people and the ways that God's people have been disobedient and complacent and apathetic and even sarcastic to God. At times through this whole series, we've seen their responses and some of the things that they've said to God. I mean, we've been like, Whoa, maybe you shouldn't talk to God that way. It is odd that, that we read all these accounts in scripture where people do talk to God very flippantly. And I don't know if it's just a lack of fear because they're familiar with him or if it's just because they're God's chosen people. So they feel that there is that security. But I do sometimes wonder if we are blind to those own feelings that we have, and we just don't externalize them. If that's maybe what's happening here, if the author is externalizing them, or if these people are really saying to God's face, like, Hey, you're not treating us right.

You know what I mean? Like, I wonder where some of that boldness comes from. I say boldness kind of in a false sense of boldness. Kids will be bold with their parents. They will say things to their parents. Now there are, there are those from that generation that you don't say a word. I get it. But even then, you know, kids talk back to their parents, go back to the Bible prodigal son, you know, he talked back to his father.

Jesus probably overheard that, or being God, he knew those accounts and he put it in there in his parables. So it, it, in a sense it's wrong, but in the sense as part of that relationship, but in that relationship, the parent has to remind their child, you can't talk to me like that. Okay. All right. That cannot be done. I mean, at some point, have you guys ever said things to your parents that I wish I hadn't?

Yep. I did that one time, you know, I know we're going back to the days of getting whooped. So, but I was grown up enough that I said things and I regret it saying that, but why did it happen? How, why did I feel like I could do that? Is it because of the relationship? You know, you have a relationship with your parents and there's a sense of, I can do this to you and you'll take it.

Yeah. I guess, and I guess when there is that familiarity, that familiarity can sometimes work against you in the fact that you, you start to see yourself on a level playing field because we're so familiar. And so now when I, because I see us as equals rather than a parent-child relationship, if I see us as equals, now I can start leveraging all the things that I do and I'm not getting, and I'm not getting appreciated and I'm not getting what I think I deserve. So now that's, that's my leverage that gives me almost a moral superiority over that parent figure, or in this case against God. In some ways it's okay to have the freedom to talk to your parents, but in many ways it's not. Like for God's people over here, they were complaining about God, about how much they were serving him and getting nothing for it.

And when God heard them trash talking his name, he confronted them. And that's what parents do, especially in this relationship. You know, you don't want a relationship with your parent where you don't say a word. It's almost like a fear-based relationship.

So it's fine that there is some, you know, well, wait, I mean, I don't understand why you would be upset with, okay, there's some healthy relationship, freedom there. It's a good thing, but it definitely crossed the line and God confronted them. So he says in Malachi 3.13, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, in what way have we spoken against you? You have said it is useless to serve God. It's like every chapter just gets worse and worse. It's like, it's like when someone hands you, it's like when someone's like screenshots your text messages and then circles what you said, and then you see it and you're like, yep, I said that.

I sure did. What profit is it that we have kept as ordinance and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? That means instead of repentance and instead of a sense of holiness, they're like, we're just a bunch of grievers. We just walk around crying and it makes them happy. So now we call the proud blessed. For those who do wickedness are raised up.

They even tempt God and go free. This is like that. When your kid like snaps right back at you and just like, they're starting out like, what about this? What about this?

And you don't even do this. And you're like, oh, that's how you're going to tell us that you can even talk back to your parents. So I do want to recognize that and in a sense, even compliment that, that God allowed them to talk back to him. That's his grace. That's his mercy. That's how he wants to have a relationship with us, but not a disrespectful relationship. That's when he said, Hey, I know you're calling me out. Why don't you? Okay.

I'm going to deal with you for that. That you crossed the line there. And while this is going on in verse 16, then those who fear the Lord spoke to one another, they didn't speak to God. They spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them.

So a book of was of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. So it's, it's, I think interesting to see this dynamic coming out and being played out in real time where these people have said all these things and now they're hearing it spoken back to them. And I wonder what's going through their heads. And I can, I think it kind of says it here where it says those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. I guess it's that subset where they're like, yeah, we really ought not to have said that.

And it's also funny because I also see it as them as a people. So you know, there's some in the crowd that's like, ah, Lord, I never said that. Lord, I never said that.

You know what I mean? Like, like I know the majority of them might've said that Lord, but not me. I didn't say what they said.

But you're, but you are being held accountable as a people. Right. Yeah.

I can see that. It's like the little siblings who were like, I was in my room the whole time. I didn't, I was watching TV. I didn't see it happen. So, you know, like little ungrateful children, they restated their grievances against God to his face. You know, so in chapter one, verse two, we already covered this. I have loved you says the Lord.

Yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Verse seven, this is chapter one still. You offer defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled you?

Chapter three, verse eight. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you? So these people had become so used to God that they were not afraid to talk back to him. It's okay to talk back in the sense of God, I'm hurting.

And I don't understand what you're doing or God, I'm, I feel like I'm righteous in this, but I don't understand what you're trying to say. But here in this situation, they just are just, what's he going to do? Hurt us?

Hasn't he done enough of that? That's the tone that they're taking. It's almost gone from just being, I'm hurt and you're my dad and I'm asking you, why didn't you catch me? When I was, you know, kids have done that, right? You know, when they fall, you wouldn't help me or something. You were supposed to catch me, you know, and God's like, I was, I was trying, you were over there.

I told you not to go there. Those things God can overlook, but here it is a sin of excessive familiarity. They have lost sight of the fact that yes, he is your father, but he's also the powerful God of the universe. That's right. How about remembering that?

When your father is a king, then you realize that he's got sovereign responsibilities and even responsibilities doesn't hold up to God's nature, but when he is the creator, he's the omnipotent everything, then his attributes do go beyond just what I need in this moment. That's right. Or what I need for my life. Yeah. You didn't do this for me and the things that I need. So now I'm going to hold you responsible. Okay. Well, I mean, it's, it's okay to have a dialogue with God.

It's okay to speak to God and figure out your, you know, your hurts, but remember that he is God. Like he is the creator of the universe. There needs to be a level of respect there. He is another, like the president of the United States, right? If you were his son.

Okay. You can talk back to him and he's your dad. So there's that relationship, but at the same time, he's also the president. That authority doesn't go away.

Just because you are right. Yeah. Remember that or like Habakkuk 2.20, but the Lord is in his holy temple that all the earth keeps silence before him.

Zechariah 2.13, be silent all flesh before the Lord for he is aroused from his holy habitation. Wow. Would you say that this excessive familiarity is something that people still struggle with? Oh yeah. I like, I like how you said it earlier. You said it was a sin of excessive familiarity. And I remember back during Easter when we were prepping for Good Friday and for Easter sunrise service, about a month ago, I've, I started to feel like I'm getting all these logistical things ready. And I have not become excessively familiar, but I just kind of forgot for a day or so who it was that we were worshiping, you know, in all the logistics and the planning and the making sure that everything for this event, the sunrise service and this Easter service goes right.

It's very easy to forget. Like there's a holy God that we're doing all this for, let alone everything going right. What are we doing it for?

And I feel like a lot of churches, especially around that time of year can fall into that where it's like, oh yes, of course he's holy and we're worshiping him. That's why we want to make it go right. Yes, that's true, but don't forget the order that those come in. Yeah. Yeah. And if we want to dive in a little deeper in this Malachi 3.13, it's actually, your words have been harsh against me.

The Hebrew word for harsh is kazakh, which actually means stout or heavy. So you can say your words have been too heavy, too much against me. Remember that little girl who said that too much? Yeah.

Yeah. I was messing around with a girl in the church. I was going, and she was laughing. And then I did it again. She was like, oh, too much. Okay. It's too much.

It means that the people of Israel were not only speaking against God and to his face, but they were also trying to force their words, their theology and their false ideas about God upon him. It's kind of like when you're trading blows or you're like in a debate or whatever, and it starts to get personal and it feels like an actual blow. It's like, okay, stop. That one hurt. Yeah. That was too much. That crossed the line. Yeah.

Yeah. And so God confronted them and they replied as expected. Their response is, what have we spoken against you?

What do you mean? What do you tell? We didn't do, we literally did nothing. I literally didn't. If you can tell me what I did, I literally didn't. And he's like, that's what you did.

He's like, okay, yeah, I did that one, but. So God says, you have said it is useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance or that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts. So now we call the proud blessed or the, for those who do wickedness are raised up. They even tempt God and go free. So basically they're saying there's no benefit from serving God.

You can do all you can to please him, but it doesn't matter. You can even walk around in all black. That's what it means. Mourners means kedar. The Hebrew word is kedar means they're wearing these black robes. That's what people used to wear when they were mourning for the dead. So literally the word is, the statement is you can even walk around in all black to show your grief, but it doesn't matter to him. In fact, they were being sarcastic and saying, say hello to Mr.

Proud, but blessed and Mrs. Wicked are successful. They can even tempt God and nothing will happen to them. But all we have to do is one tiny thing against him and he'll send us off into exile. That's a very human, I love, I love the way that you specifically create these, these very human moments from characters in the Bible.

Cause when you just read the text as it is like in our translations, it's, it is very cut and dry. But then when we start talking about it, that's a very human reaction. Like, like there are people out there you know, murdering people and, and you know, stealing from stores and ripping off billions of dollars and extorting people. And all I did was all I did was literally lust after my neighbor one time and now God is punishing me. Yeah. I mean, you also hear like, I can't believe that God would bless so and so when he doesn't even go to church, he doesn't even do this.

He's out gallivanting every single weekend. I'm here faithfully serving it. I'm the one that's struggling. That doesn't make any sense. I would say a lot of people in church have that mindset.

They may not admit it, but that's the mindset they have. I'm doing all this and not good enough. Frankly, you're not even answering my prayers. Look at where my kids are or look at what my money is.

Look at what my health is. You should be happy with what I'm doing for you, God. Yeah. Like as if you're doing God a favor and if I'm in, if I step one single toe out of line, I know that things are going to get even worse.

And it's hard to watch people succeed when their, their, their input as you perceive it is not where yours is. Right. And then in verse 16 it says, and those who fear the Lord spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them. Something, something has changed. Previously.

God would have argued with the task, trash talkers and point, you know, pointed out their fault and told them to make some changes. Not anymore. God is done with this group. Okay. He has decided to leave them to their own demise. Make no mistake.

He will deal with them for their trash talking, but he's no longer going to work with them. So something is changing here. And I would add that that's a very scary place to be when God just says, you know what, I'll let you do your thing. Yeah. That's horrible.

Yeah. That's horrifying. Romans one 24. Therefore God also gave them over to their uncleanness. You know, that's, that's a bad place where God says, okay, go ahead and do what you want to do. That's not, that's not where you want to be.

When God just sort of gives, gives you over and removes his hand, removes his direction on your life. He's like, do what you want to do. Fine. You know, you know, so you know what needs to happen so well.

You go ahead and do what you need. That's right. I think that's the natural consequence of you keep pushing that line and you keep overstepping and you keep overstepping and God's never going to move that line of holiness, but his grace extends far beyond it. You keep pushing back and you keep pushing back. And when you finally do cross that line, his, his reaction, that's scary. That's very scary where he's like, okay, now I'm completely removed from the situation.

I'm done. Yeah, that's right. And God turns his attention to another group that's actually talking among themselves and they fear the Lord. Now keep in mind the word is not fright.

They were not afraid. The Hebrew word is your era, which means reverence, honor and respect. So you know, it's a sense of like, I want to, I don't want to do anything to displease God. He is so good. And I hope all of us will always remember that God is so good to us much more than we deserve. And when we get the idea that we deserve this or we earned this and I have to remind myself that especially on good days nothing, nothing, but a single thing I can say, ultimately I've done it in my own strength and power. It's all because of God. Amen. And so the fright, it's not fright, it's more of a, I just want to make God happy.

I want to make him happy. That's right. So these people here who kind of speak, talk amongst themselves and God listens to them, these are people who are doing what's right. They want to please God. They want to please God. They want to give him their best and they're talking to each other.

And what did God do? He leaned over and he began to listen to them. But the other group, he's like arguing back and forth like a rebellious kid, you know, initially started out with dad, but you, you, you always like this or the daughter who, you know, who's become sort of familiar with her parent and now she is standing up and she's arguing.

Yeah. But you know, why is that a big deal? I mean, you think they're fine, but, but you talk like this to me, you know, those kinds of, that kind of diatribe happening. But then, you know, it kind of becomes very disrespectful, crosses the line and, you know, God is now reacting to what they're saying and, and, and just unhappy with them. But then the other group over here who is talking among themselves of how good God is, God doesn't interject and says, let me, let me talk to you guys. Let me, let me just, you know, he just sits and listens. It's like, like a good parent. You know, when you feel you've heard a lot of negative against you, but then when you do hear something positive, you stop, you don't want to react, interact at all. You just want to listen. Cause if they're talking good about you, one of the siblings or children are talking good about you, you go, hmm, thank you for saying that.

And you just listen. That's what God is doing. And that like a genuine parent. It's a beautiful picture, such a great picture of God as a parent throughout the whole book of Malachi.

You could see him in that, in that heavy parental role. We're going to continue this conversation on tomorrow's episode, but if you guys enjoyed today's topic, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We ask that you would consider giving, partner with us, stand arm in arm as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus.

That's right. We had a question come in this morning from Peter M. Dr. Shah. What are your summer plans? Summer plans? Ooh, you know, the family and I will probably end up going to the beach maybe here and there once, maybe twice. I don't know.

We'll see. Maybe a day trip. Very cool. And then I teach at a summer camp, a Christian camp. We've been going there for years and years, and they keep inviting me back. And I talk to little kids. That's the funniest thing. Cause I'm like not gifted in that direction, but I go and I teach little kids. It is funny. They just sit there and listen to me.

And at the week, like 10, 15 getting baptized. Nice. And I'm like, I have no idea how that's happening. Cause I'm always like deep and I talk about deep, spiritual things and archeology and apologetics.

They're like writing stuff down and drawing flowers. And at the end of the day, end of the week at camp fire at the campfire, they're like, and Jesus spoke to my heart. And when Pastor Shah was talking and I was like, so sad for my sins. Wow. You were listening.

How did that happen? My kids, my kids go to that camp and they love it. They came back and showed me their notes from this year. They're like going to come again next summer.

So they're excited. So we're looking forward to that. Very good. And some writing projects coming. Nice. Very nice. Love it. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear Read Today.