Out With the Old, In With the New

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, December the 28th. 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 for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or a suggestion for a future episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation alive by supporting this podcast. You can share it online with your friends and family, and you can leave us a good review on iTunes. Absolutely nothing less than five stars. Positive feedback only.

Positive feedback only. We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do that. We want to set you up for success. And then speaking of setting us up for success, do you mind if I read a quick review that I saw yesterday?

Please do. So awesome to have Dr. Shah's wisdom shared on a daily basis. So excited to see what God does next with Clearview. That's from LizJ1001 on iTunes.

Amen. We are excited about that too, Liz. Thank you so much. Liz, coming in clutch with the five star reviews.

Listen, we've been asking for these reviews and y'all are delivering. We love you very much. You want to hit them with the verse of the day?

I would love to. The verse of the day today comes from First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 12. And we urge you brethren to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Lot of Christians got a big problem with that. Lot of Christians got a big problem with that. Recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. I don't like that. But it's my job to expose people and it's my job to point out truth and it's my job to fight for it.

Calm down. Calm down and listen to what this verse says because the people who are over you are over you for a reason. And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.

It means people who are over you, people who end up admonishing you, look at the things that they accomplished. God has put them in your life for a reason. We don't like to think about that because I want to be in control of my own life. I want to be the one calling the shots in my life. I want to be the one making things happen.

I want to be the big alpha dog. That is not how God has designed us. And we're not saying ignore wrong behavior or ignore injustice.

We're not saying that at all. But what we are saying is pray for the people who are over you, especially your pastor or your church leadership team. Pray for them because they have a hard job.

Pray for them and encourage them. And look at what I think Paul sums it up at the very end. Be at peace among yourselves. I have been eating so much steak lately. You've been having care group dinners. Do you want to explain the setup?

Yeah. So we have people here at the church who are kind of responsible for a group of individual, a group of members of the church. That's how we divide up care and make sure everybody is taken care of and close the back door of the church and just make sure all the needs are met. And we call them our care group leaders. So we have dinners periodically to just kind of celebrate them, go over any kind of logistical things or housekeeping things that need to change. But a lot of times it'll be like a steak dinner. We had two.

We had two in two weeks. Then explain what we do with the... So we also have appreciation dinners for our local law enforcement division.

So first responders, the police department, sheriff's department. And those are steak dinners as well. Because a steak dinner says, I appreciate you and I value what you do. Oh, trust me. I love what we're doing.

I love what we're doing. So we did two care group leader dinners and so far we've done three of the lunches. And they're staggered in between weeks. So that's like five steak dinners in a matter of like two months.

Maybe it's like five or six weeks. Maybe it's like a steak dinner a week. The only thing I don't like about steak is eating it with other people who like steak. Because people can turn into snakes snobs. You get a bad rep for being a coffee snob. And I'm not talking about anybody specifically at Clearview. I'm just saying some people really, they really like the gatekeep how you eat your steak.

They can take it too far. How do you like your steak? I want it with mustard. Mustard? No, I'm joking.

I'm joking. I just turned into a steak snob just there. How do you, for real, how do you like your steak? Medium well. No fat.

I like, see that's the thing. I like a good filet. No fat at all.

Filet is very good. I think there's some fat on a sirloin, but not quite as much. But I like it medium well, no fat or as little fat as possible. A1 sauce. That's and cut it into baby bites. Sure. That's how I like my, how you like yours.

No problem with that. I like my medium rare. So I used to eat steak with ketchup. I was bullied hard. Yeah. If you meet people who are steak snobs, I have to really concentrate on how I say that steak snobs. Yeah. They'll, they'll wreck you over the coals.

I was bullied super hard. So I stopped and I started eating with, with Worcestershire or A1. Those are my, my two go-tos. I've never used a Worcestershire as a steak topping. I've used it in cooking, but I've never used it because it's so thin. Yeah, but it's good. It's so good. And it's, it's subtle. It's not like a, um, it's not like something that overpower like A1 when I eat steak with A1, I just taste A1.

Yeah. But the Worcestershire like brings out the flavor of the steak. Cause it is so thin. It's not really, I mean, it kind of seeps into the meat kind of really, really delicious. Um, but then I met, uh, another gentleman in our church.

Who's an avid supporter of the podcast. I actually built this desk for us who eats his steak with ketchup. And he's like, he's a huge dude.

He's like a beefy, like strong muscular dude. Ain't nobody bullying him. So I was like, maybe I should start eating my steak with ketchup again. Couldn't do it. Couldn't bring myself to do it. The bullying was so hard and so complete, but he was like, Hey, I'm, I'm the alpha here. I'm going to eat this steak with ketchup.

And I was like, man, I was like, maybe I should bully him. If that's no, don't do that. I didn't do it. If you like your steak that way. I mean, sort of doing anything crazy, like putting ice cream on your steak. Just don't put mustard on.

I was just funning. I guess you can't if you want to, but that is a little, if you eat a steak sandwich, you probably could. That might be good steak sandwich. Maybe now I'm hungry.

I don't know. As we are, you know, moving closer and closer to 2023. Gosh, that's weird to say closer and closer to 2023. We want to make sure that you guys are going into the new year with the right perspective.

If this year has been disappointing or unfulfilling, you can let the Holy Spirit guide your vision for this upcoming year. And we're going to go get Dr. Shaw and talk more about what that looks like in just a minute. But if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, text us at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Hey there, listeners.

My name is Jon and I'm David. And we just want to take a second and talk to you about Dr. Sean Nicole's new book, 30 days to a new beginning daily devotionals to help you move forward. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

You're going to have goals that you just can't seem to reach. And you're going to be looking for some new way to start over. Unfortunately, life does not have a restart button, but here's the good news. God's mercy is new every day, right? And so that means every day is a new chance for you to start over. Now, Dr. Shaw and his wife, Nicole have written a new 30 day devotional in their 30 day series designed to give you practical tools for starting over.

No matter where you are in life's journey or what pitfalls you've encountered, this devotional is going to help you move forward, refocus your mind on God's truth and meditate on his word. And you guys can pick up a copy right this second on amazon.com. Unless you're driving. Yeah, don't shop and drive unless you're driving, in which case, wait till you get home. But we're going to leave a link for you right here in the description of this podcast.

So it'll be waiting for you when you get home. That's 30 days to a new beginning daily devotionals to help you move forward. For the remainder of November and all through December, we'll be sending a free copy to anyone who supports the podcast by visiting us online and donating to the show at clearviewtodayshow.com.

That is a very, very good incentive gang. That's 30 days to a new beginning daily devotions to help you move forward by Abaddon and Nicole Shaw. Thank you guys so much for listening. David, you want to jump back into the show? Let's go. All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com or you can send us a text at 252-582-5028 with any questions or suggestions for future episodes. Dr. Shaw, welcome to the studio today. We're looking forward to the new year.

Absolutely. I mean, it's almost the end and you know, January, when you think about that word, January comes from Janus, the Roman God of transitions. And typically he is depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions and a one to the past, one to the future. So in some ways, you know, when you're closing out this year, look to the past, you know, kind of tip your hat to the past as they say and roll up your sleeves to the present. Good day. Good day past. I did not know that's where January came from.

Yeah, I didn't either. Wow. That's really cool. Well, if you guys didn't know that, if you're also unfamiliar with Dr. Shaw and his work, Dr. Abaddon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. We want you guys to know who's talking to you today and you can follow his work on his website at abaddonshaw.com. While you're there, I know I said it in the last episode or on Monday's episode, make sure you pick up a copy, 30 days to a new beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. I'm almost halfway through it myself and I got to say, it is helping me.

It is fantastic. It's available on Amazon, both as a paperback and an ebook, and will be available as an audio book very soon. Very soon. Very soon.

We're going to let you guys know as soon as it's available on Audible. And it would be a great choice to start your new year with. A new year, new beginning. Very good segue, my friend.

Out with the old, in with the new, as they say. You know, they land every now and then. They land.

They land every now and then. You good, man. You good. Well, we're talking about the new year today.

Yes. We're talking about, you know, the opportunity to look forward toward the future without getting tripped up by the past. Like you said, we can tip our hats to the past, but we want to make sure that we don't, like, have our shoelaces tied together and trip. Stumble right over the finish line.

Headed even from the starting line into the new year. Yeah, roll your sleeves up to the present. Exactly. So, we want to talk today about some ways that we can do that. How can we, you know, acknowledge our past, but not be stuck in our past and still move forward with determination and purpose into the future?

Absolutely. You know, I don't know how 2022 has been for some of you. Maybe it was a great year. Maybe it was a cruddy year. Maybe it was a great cruddy year.

I don't know. It was greatly cruddy peaks and valleys, more valleys. You know, you, maybe you had your wilderness experience, right? But if you look at it through the word of God and look at it through the biblical truth, what you'll find it is that in the wilderness is where you hear God's voice. Amen.

And wow, that's beautiful. You know, we, we expect to see it while we're on the mountain top or while we're, uh, you know, out there, you know, crushing it and hitting all our goals and, and, you know, making things happen. Everybody's applauding us, but that's not where we hear God. It's too noisy. It's in the wilderness that you hear the voice of one crying, you know, so you are, you are dropping wisdom. I'm like, tell me more.

Gosh, I was not prepared for this today. Isn't that true? It's very true. That's very true. There's, there's so much time. Cause when I'm successful, I'm just thinking about me and how great I am and how, how happy I am.

And I'm focused on the here and now it's only really when I'm kind of desperate that I hear God. Yeah. And just like, I don't know what you believe about disciplining your kids, popping them and spanking them, whatever. Why do we do that? Why do we spank?

Why do we pop? Whatever. Um, is because we want them to feel that memory when they grow older, right?

Became teenager or whatever. Um, and remember, Hey, I shouldn't be doing that because it came with that pain. And that's a reminder after a while the pain is forgotten, but the lesson remains. Yeah. So, so also, you know, when you are tempted to be arrogant or prideful or man, look at what I've done, look at how cool I am, look at I am, I'm the winning, you know, steed. It's a good reminder.

Back off quick. Right. Because maybe you're about to get a spanking. And I love that. And I love that analogy of like when kids are disciplined and cause I think that perfectly encapsulates what we're talking about today. Cause I know for Gavin, at least those, those times where discipline is the hardest is during those transition times where he's really used to something going, but just because of the nature of growth, the nature of growing up, things are transitioning for him. So the behavior starts to change too.

And that's when a lot of that discipline is those times of transition or change in our lives. Right. Right. And the wilderness, you know, it comes back to us and we know, okay, yeah, I need to, wilderness is good. Right.

Right. And it kind of reminds me of John the Baptist. I often say John the baptizer because I don't want anybody to walk away going like, was he Southern Baptist? Wait, my name is John. I'm a Baptist. Am I John the Baptist?

That's kind of cool. So John the baptizer to make him accessible to all denominations. But you know, he is crying out in the wilderness in John, in Luke chapter three, verse four, prepare the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every Valley shall be filled. Every mountain and Hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Beautiful. You know, and, but this is a period of transition in the life of God's people. When he was crying out 400 years, people hadn't heard a word from God. Yeah.

Yeah. I was just thinking that as you were saying that I was like, this, in and of itself is a period of transition. Like God's people have gone through this incredible period of waiting where they're like, Hey, we have this promise, but is God going to fulfill this in our lifetime?

Is it going to be in our kids' lifetime? Is it going to be, is God even still going to fulfill this promise? I mean, think about the shift is so great that it's split into the old Testament and the new Testament. There was a whole nother, I don't want to say half, but a whole nother part of the Bible about to be written. And they were ready. Now I know we hear about a lot of negatives about the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, and all of them.

We'll talk about them in just a minute. But prior to the Babylonian exile, these people could not get their act together. Every time God dealt with them, they came back to God and then they would go right back into idolatry, right back into pagan worship, you know, right back into, in a marrying with, with those who didn't believe in the living true God and raising ungodly offsprings. So after the Babylonian exile, things were different.

They were walking the straight and narrow. They were waiting on God. They were, they were probably the most religious they had ever been. But hearing from God was, was still absent. And so, uh, it was, it was a wilderness where John the baptizer came.

It was in the wilderness that he began to cry out. And what Luke tells us here is very interesting. In Luke chapter three, verse two, just because you're in the wilderness, I know it's tough, but God speaking to you doesn't mean the world is perfect, because the world isn't far from perfect. It says in verse two, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. Now in verse one, if I can back up for a second, it says now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee. Now Luke gave all that information to just ground his account into history, but there's also some theological truths there. There's been a silence for 400 years. Then a voice begins to cry in the wilderness.

This is God's voice through John the baptizer, but the world is not perfect because sometimes we think, okay, there's been silence in my life, but man, I'm going through some tough time, but I can hear God, but it doesn't mean your family is behaving. It doesn't mean politically the world is great. In fact, right now I would say we're upside down in America when it comes to values. I mean, our president signed that same sex bill into law. I mean, what an affront to the righteousness of God. How can we as Americans say that's okay? It's not okay. And again, we emphasize love everybody.

Doesn't matter who they are, where they come from. They have a right to do that, but they don't have a right to redefine marriage. So the world is crazy right now. And the world was crazy back then.

Yeah. I mean, this is a wilderness time for us. This is a time where America and the American people, especially Christians in America are going through the wilderness. But I mean, it's like you said, it's in the wilderness that God speaks.

So I mean, that's kind of the point of this radio show is we're hoping that through this radio show, God is going to speak to us as Christians, not just to the people of just this church or this County, but the whole world, especially America. Exactly. So this account in Luke, is it fair to say that it's a wilderness experience because John himself is in a physical wilderness, but it's also sort of a spiritual wilderness for the people of Israel.

They are spiritually bankrupt in a sense, albeit they're not going to pagan gods, you know, they're not going to idol worship, but they're still in wilderness. Wow. And the thing about the people ruling, you know, Luke gave us some hints here. Tiberius Caesar, he was a stepson of Augustus, you know, next in line to be the emperor of Rome. You know, what kind of a person was he? He was a great general, but as an individual, he was horrible. He was a cruel man. He was very perverse, of course, homosexual. And, and some of the things he did, I can't even talk about. Wow. I didn't know that.

I didn't know it was homosexual. That was Tiberius. And he's a Caesar who was mentioned in the, in the gospels. Then there is Pontius Pilate, you know, because Tiberius and Roman emperors ruled through prefects and procurators, and they were financial officers in charge of keeping peace and collecting taxes and all of that kind of stuff. But what kind of a person was Pontius Pilate? You know, we only see him at Jesus's trial, but in reality, I mean, he purposely would agitate the Jewish people. He would put up images of the Roman emperor in Jerusalem. You know, he would take money from the temple to build an aqueduct and the Jewish people protested. So he had his soldiers in the crowd, attacked them, killed them. I mean, that's the kind of person he was.

Yeah. It's weird because we typically think of Pilate because he was like, Hey, this guy's done nothing wrong. I'm just going to wash my hands.

And we typically think of him as like the good man who does nothing, not really the agitator, not really the antagonizer. I mean, in America today and at the end of 2022, look around and say, boy, we're surrounded by Caesars and Tiberius and Pontius Pilates. Caesars and Pilates and Herod's oh my. You got to stop. You're doing too much on the podcast.

But now here's the worst part. Who are the high priests? Annas and Caiaphas.

Annas was the father-in-law who was removed from his position as the high priest, but he held onto the title and Caiaphas married his daughter and kept the family business going. I mean, they were corrupt. It was not about holiness. It was not about righteousness. It was about money, politics, and power. Wow.

If he was removed from the office, how was he able to keep the title? I mean, isn't that what people do today? Yeah.

I mean, don't you agree in America right now? There are people who left the office. They're still ruling.

Yeah, man. They just buy the position. They put their people in positions of power and then they just, they don't have to, I mean, that's the thing. They don't have to take any of the flack for it. They just rule behind the scenes. Right. And as long as everybody's happy and their pockets are full, their agenda keeps moving, nobody complains.

And that's the biggest thing, man. When they're puppets, let them take the fall. They're puppets.

I don't care if they get the consequence for my sin or whatever. You're right. So when we talk about wilderness, just keep in mind that this is the world in which John the baptizer came. Yeah.

Wow. It's, it's, it's, it's a crazy thing because it always is one of those things that seems terrible at the time and it seems like there's no hope. It seems like there's something where I've just got to get through this or I just have to see the end of this or even worse, like this is just what life is now and I'm going to assimilate to it. But it's very different when you say this is God's way of beginning something new in my life. This is God's way of bringing me back to him or bringing the country back to him or bringing his people back to them because he's going to heal this land. It's a, it takes a very different mindset of faith to be able to see it like that. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I think I just unlocked something.

Okay. You said earlier that God speaks to us in the wilderness. So the word of God arrives to us in the wilderness. The Jewish people were going through a wilderness in this time. John is speaking in the wilderness. The word of God is coming through John into the wilderness.

And then the word Jesus arrives in the wilderness. You got it. That's right.

You got it. It was like, just like, like the Xbox achievement, just unlocked the Sunday school crown and put it on this dude's head. The Sunday school crown. Oh man.

I mean, so John the Baptist, you know, the word of God, the word is rhema, but then the logos in John one, one is Jesus. Wow. The word is coming, but then also the word is coming. That was so beautiful.

Very good. And so he comes, he goes around the region of Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And, you know, I mean, he is seeing people come to God and now they're beginning to wait on not just God, but specifically the Messiah.

Wow. I think that's one of the things that we just have to face is that as Christians, we cannot lose hope. We can't give up hope and we can't give up because it would've been very easy for them to give up.

It would've been easy for them to just be like, all right, this is Rome. This is who we are. Let's just go for it. But then this voice comes and just changes everything. But we can't wait around for that physical audible voice. His word's already been given to us. That's right.

Yeah. Dr. Sean, has there been a time in your life where you felt that wilderness experience and then, and then the hope of God came to you, the word of God came to you in that time? I mean, every time there has been a call on my life, I don't know the first time, not the first time, but the call to ministry was always there, but I didn't know it.

I didn't understand it. But then when it came, we had just been married for several months. And I was listening to Nicole's dad, who was also my pastor, preach Sunday morning. And I just felt it deep within that this was a call to do what he is doing. And I was like, oh yeah, I mean, that would be great, but I don't know if I can do that. But in time, when I began to ruminate on that, think on it and meditate on it, I realized this was God's call on my life and, and thank God I obeyed.

Thank God I followed that call. And it was sort of a wilderness for me at that time period. And Nicole's dad helped me come out of that wilderness. I remember something I asked you a long time ago. And I don't, I remember the answer, but I don't remember the long explanation, but we tend to look at the wilderness experience as a curse. Was the 400 years of silence, was that a curse? No, it wasn't. That was not a punishment where God is saying, I'm genuinely asking, that wasn't a punishment where God is saying like, you guys have been in sin too long.

I'm out. It wasn't a curse. It was not a curse. Were things perfect?

No, they were not perfect. We know about a lot of ups and downs in Israel. We know that the temple that was rebuilt under Zerubbabel and all that, you know, right before Herod took over and built his temple. They were not walking with the Lord. They were buying the priesthood and things like that. They were trying to, you know, Antiochus Epiphanes, they were trying to keep him happy. And then when the Romans came in power, then they tried to keep him happy. I mean, it was, it was not a, it was not godly necessarily in the sense of like, man, they were perfectly obeying God, but as a whole, they were in a much better place spiritually than they were pre-exile. Because they had, because they had finally given up the idolatry. Idolatry was gone. The Babylonian exile is what killed it for good. Oh yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Sometimes, you know, God sends us in that exile for a reason, you know, going to Babylon, we would say, man, that's horrible. They lost the land. The temple is destroyed.

You know, the walls have been destroyed and now God's people are sitting in somewhere in Babylon and Medo Persian empire. But that was the best thing that happened to them. It helped them realize how special it was back home. It helped them realize how merciful God is to them. And then coming back and rebuilding really, I mean, God raised a whole different kind of people.

And it's crazy because the things that we label as punishment from God typically are what's best for us. Yes. Yes. I can look back on those wilderness times and be like, you know, that was, that was a difficult time in the moment, but just like you said, that's the best thing that ever happened to me. Right. Because it brought me closer to God. It fixed my relationship with God. It brought me back. Yeah. Man. So I would say to people who are listening today, you know, when you look back to your past, don't try to make it too clean and perfect.

It would be messy. You will see God working in deep ways in you, but you will also see your failures and you will also see the messiness in the world. But you will see that God is working through all of that to take you to another place.

That's right. But now look forward, don't stay in the past. Don't try to spend your rest of your life trying to figure out the past. Move forward. Yeah.

Trust God. That's right. So as you're going into 2023, Hey, tip your hat to the past, leave it in the hands of God and let's move forward. Roll up your sleeves to the present and the future.

That's right. If you enjoyed today's topic and you have suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight. You can also visit us online at Clear View today show.com and you can support us financially on that same website. We're grateful for you. We're grateful to have you as partners as family members of the Clear View Today family as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Ryan, I got a question to you coming in from Walter R. Walter R. Walter R. has got a question for you and I really don't even want to ask this on the air. I feel like this is so inappropriate.

Is it too early to start setting up Christmas for 2023? On December 27th, you're going to ask this, Walter? Here's Walter, Mr. Disney, sir. Here's my advice to you, Walter.

Walt, if I may. My Christmas is definitely still up. It's two days out. We've not taken anything down.

Three days. And we have no plans to take anything down in the immediate future. It will be up into January. Today's the 28th, I'm sorry.

That's just how I'm going to live my life. I would say probably don't keep your Christmas decorations up all year long. No, I think he's saying he wants to take them down and then put them right back up early.

That's probably a little bit early. Okay. But I would say, hey, you know, October rolls around and you aren't feeling spooky season.

You're going right into Christmas. Nothing wrong with that, Walter. All right, Walt. You heard him, man. There you go. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Cleave read today.