Lightning Questions

Hello, everyone.

Today is Friday, January the 13th. I'm Ryan Hill. And I'm David Williamson. And 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 find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have a question for Dr. Shah or suggestion for a future episode, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Oh, am I supposed to say something? I'm sorry. I zoned out. I zoned out. David, you've done so well all week. You tripped on Friday. Oh my gosh. I just, I don't know what happened.

I'm sorry. Let me set you up again. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. And you guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting us and this podcast. See, I'm just tripping all over the place. Just share it online.

Leave us a review and like it. Just, I don't know. I'm done. I'm done. Ryan, what's the verse of the day has been a very disappointing intro. I apologize.

I really, I expected Friday to go much better, but I don't know what just happened. Let's go to God's word because we need something to save this. So the verse of the day comes from Titus chapter two verses 11 through 12 for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. I really like the second half of that verse where it's teaching us denying ungodliness and worldly lusts that we should live soberly. It's like a setting us apart.

Yeah. Oh, it gives us the contrast. I mean, it tells us what we need to deny and then how we ought to live. So it's not just don't do this.

It's replace it with these things. And also, so one thing that I, when I was reading this that I'm focusing on for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It's, it's also Jesus Christ is the grace of God that brings salvation. And he appeared to us. I don't know.

This whole verse is pretty stellar. I mean, it's like it's from the Bible or something. Yeah. Imagine that.

Yeah. Imagine. Imagine. So I had, I had this discussion the other day, David, and I want to pose this question to you because I want to get your feedback.

If you could build your ideal pizza. Hmm. Okay. You can choose the toppings. You can choose, you can control everything about this. Okay.

What would it be? Okay. So Domino's crust. Okay.

I can get behind that. I like Domino's crust. Yeah. Um, Papa John's sauce.

Okay. Light. I don't want a lot. Just don't like the light, a little bit of the sauce.

I'm the same way. Cheese, extra cheese, pepperonis, pineapple. You lost me with that one.

Huh? You lost me with pineapple. You don't like pineapple? I'm not a bit, I'm not a pineapple on pizza guy. And I know, I know that's a polarizing thing. I know that's, I'm going to get a lot of flack for that.

So if you guys let us know, text into two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Tell us, are you pro pineapple on pizza? Or are you anti pineapple on pizza? Here's the thing I've had, I've had Hawaiian pizza, like the pineapple and ham. It's not bad.

Right. It's great. I just don't like fun, warm. I'm good with fun. I enjoy it. You don't like flavor. I don't like warm pineapple. I don't like it. It's fine. No, it's good. I'm not a fan. I can't. If, if it was the only choice, I would eat it.

No problem. It's it. It's the best topping on pizza. Pineapple. Yeah.

And I'm sure that everybody is going to text in and agree with me. It's the best topping on pizza. I disagree. I don't know, man. I mean, you know what? This should be a lightning round question for Dr. Shaw. What is your ideal pizza topping?

Yes. I bet you, he would agree with me. I actually, I know for a fact he would agree with me. I think he does like pineapple.

I think so too. I'm not anti pineapple on pizza. I just personally, for me, I don't like it, but if you want it, enjoy it.

I will. The more pineapple for you, the merrier. I just, please don't make me eat it. One time I put so much pineapple on pizza that the acid like hurt my mouth.

Like you know how pineapple is acidic. I genuinely, I ate like two or three slices. This pizza is good, but it's burning me.

It was burning the inside of my mouth. I'll never forget that. That's a problem. Well guys, it is Friday, so today is our lightning round questions with Dr. Shaw. We're going to take questions that you guys have submitted to that number, which is why we keep telling you to text that number because we get to take your questions, compile them, and we get to read them on air.

So keep an ear out. If you've submitted questions, they may, they may just show up today or they might come in a future Friday lightning round questions, but you haven't, if you haven't done so, make sure you send those texts into two five two five eight two five zero two eight. We'd love to hear your questions. Love to be able to read them on the show and you can also email them at contact at Clearview today show.com.

We're going to get Dr. Shaw and be right back. Hey everyone, my name's Ellie and I'm David. We want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview church is to lead all people into a life changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, first John five 15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer request. But the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at Clearview BC dot org, or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play.

You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages...

I'm so sorry. It engages what? I was excited about the lightning round questions, so it engages lightning round questions. That's where my mind went. It just skipped an entire paragraph.

Let me try that again from the top. Okay. Engaging mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the tagline for the show.

You can visit us online at Clearview today show dot com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You're going to find out why that's important today because it is Friday, so we have lightning round questions today. Dr. Shah, are you ready for lightning round questions?

I think I'm ready. They're not lighting, but lightning. Yes, it's not lighting round questions.

I will go ahead and say, in the very beginning, if you've been listening for a little while, I upload the podcasts. I make sure that everything gets up. For the first three or four Fridays, I was like, oh, these lightning round questions are going to be so cool. Then somebody texted me and was like, hey, this says lighting round questions. Like lights. Like fluorescent or... Yeah, should we go with this bulb or that?

What number of kelvins do you use? Like warm light or cool light? I quickly corrected that. You'll see the episode where I corrected that is titled lighting-ing-ing question mark question. It was just like a joke, but you'll have to just go and see. That was funny. But yeah. All right, so we're going to jump right in. These questions are coming from you guys, coming from the listeners. But before we ask the questions... Oh, I'm so sorry. I skipped your intro.

Go for it, eh? Because we have to know who we're asking about, who we're asking to. My bad. I'm so sorry.

This is your first time joining us today. Dr. Abbadon Shah, also known as Dr. Questions, is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can follow all of his work on his website at abbadonshah.com. Good job. Well done. It's finally Friday and I'm getting the hang of it, and I'm going to be gone. Not gone. Just gone from the table. We're just going to move four feet away. We're working on another camera, so see if we can bring the guys in the back.

That'll be cool. Nick is still back there. Nick has been extremely helpful this week, seeing that I can't sit back there. Good job, Nick.

Long distance, Knuckles. Boom. Great job. All right, so we're going to jump right in.

These questions are coming from you, the listeners and viewers. If you hear a question and you realize that, hey, maybe I have a question that I haven't gotten asked, or maybe I haven't sent it in, go and text that number. We've been giving you that number. That's what it's for.

252-582-5028. We read every single message. Do our best to reply to you in a timely manner, and we want to feature those questions on lightning round questions here on the show. So question number one today comes from Taylor S. Taylor S. asks, is joining a church necessary?

Prasoon Joshi Mmm. Wow. What a great question. Here's what I would say to that. Yes.

Yes. Compare that to families. When God made human beings, he put them in families. He didn't just say, all right, you humanity, just find somewhere to sleep tonight. Just move about, do your thing, find somewhere where you are, that's where you belong.

No. We were created to live in families. So Adam and Eve had a family. And then, of course, the children multiplied, one killed the other.

We know that. Kind of a sad situation. Jones- Not a great start for families.

Prakash Jhaonar Not a great start. And hope for all of us who have family troubles, the first family, the family that saw God face to face had trouble. So anyways, but then from there on, if you read the book of Genesis, the toledoth, the toledoth means the generations, they were always in families, in groups.

Why? Because you need people that you connect with closer than anybody else. Not that the world is not your family. Not that people are not related to you somehow, somewhere. We're all related to folks. We're all coming, you know, either from Adam and Eve or from Noah and his three sons.

We're coming from somewhere there. So we are connected, but yet we need a sense of belonging. So also it comes to church. Yes, you're a believer. Yes, you love the Lord and you try to serve him and obey him and reach the lost for him.

All that is great. But you need a family. Some group that you connect with and not loosely connected. So you bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, like Tigger going from one group to another, you know, no find you a family that you connect with. Will you agree with everything in that family? Do you agree with everything in your own family? You know, sometimes you find so much fault in our own families. Like, well, this is a person like that. That's a person like that. This happened and that happened.

Okay. There's still your family. So also with the church family, there will be times that you will not agree with them. Feelings may get hurt. The only place I would say don't compromise is the truth of God's word. You know, don't compromise there. But other than that, you need to have a family. You need to, which means you need to be a member. Right.

At some church. Absolutely. That's pretty cool. That's a great way to put it. That whole family illustration, because you know, we get frustrated with our family. We get aggravated with our family. Our family knows how to push our buttons sometimes and we push buttons back sometimes. But at the end of the day, you're absolutely right. They're still your family.

Yeah. I mean, and I think that comes just from, from being family. Like the closer you are to people, the more you're going to be able to see their flaws. So even in church context, the closer you are to those people, you have that spiritual relationship then they might do something or say something, but it's just because you're close to them that you notice that if you, but that's also where grace comes in. So that's pretty awesome. So this next question is from John K and it is, how do you decide what to preach from week to week?

Oh, wow. So I believe in preaching expository messages. So taking passages of the Bible, not just a word or phrase, but taking passages of the Bible and then exegeting them and then putting them in a way that people can understand and apply to their lives. And the whole process is super intended and guided and enabled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not keep you, keep me from errors. The Holy Spirit is not going to keep me from misinterpreting a passage. Sometimes people think that, Oh, the Holy Spirit showed me this. Well, you may still be exegetically wrong if your knowledge is not correct or if your interpretation is false or you're, you're, you're not grammatically inaccurate. So the Holy Spirit does guide you. He may not protect you from those errors because you need to learn and, you know, be a worker approved, not ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

You still have to do that work. Having said that, the Holy Spirit is guiding you and he guides me in knowing which direction I need to go next. So right now there are two open series at Clearview. One is a series on the gospels. I began this back in 2012. That's pretty amazing to think about that.

Actually 2013. And this is a series on all four gospels, taking every account, the common ones and the uncommon ones, and then preaching every single one. We were about to start a series on the seven I am statements from the Gospel of John.

The other open series is First Peter. And we came to the passage where Peter says, you know, do not be afraid to give a reason for the hope that is within you with meekness and fear. Always be ready to give a defense of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear. And from there we launched into an apologetic series, which is still ongoing, which is still open. So I, of course, expository, but at the same time, I pray and seek the Lord to know between those two open series, which one should I go to next?

Where are the people? And the Lord guides me. And I share that with our team at Clearview. And then I seek their guidance.

And then I also listen to our leadership at Clearview. Where are they at? And then talking to people in the church, spending time with them, knowing about their struggles. Where, where is everybody at? Also seeing where is our church right now? Who, you know, what, what stage are we at?

What season are we in? Based on that, the Holy Spirit guides me. So he doesn't just like drop a thought in my head and I'm like ready to go with it. No, it's through circumstances.

It's through planning, through vision. And then of course, through his guidance, which is like a still small voice or this little impulse on my heart that says, I think you need to go this direction. So last weekend, right, we finished this, we began the first Sunday of the year with Jesus's statement, you know, sufficient for the day is his own troubles.

And I added a statement to that in my main point. And Jesus is sufficient for today. Don't worry about tomorrow.

Don't dwell on yesterday. Sufficient for the day is his own trouble. And Jesus is sufficient for today. So this week on Monday, when I was just sitting down praying over, and we were actually going to go into the apologetic series, I felt like God's saying to me, work on that.

Stick with the sufficient theme. Why not the seven I am statements? Because in my series on the Gospels, I haven't covered them yet.

I preached on those before, but I haven't covered them in the past 10 years. And I'm like, yes, I can do that. I can do that. And that's when I put in a group text and talk to you guys. Hey, how about this? Instead of the apologetics, we're going to catch up on that later on.

Let's do the seven I am saying. So I know I gave a lengthy answer, but this is how God leads me. His Holy Spirit guides me, but there's a plan and purpose. My team, the people in the church, the leadership, their struggles, their seasons, what's happening in our world today.

You know, in this series, seven I am statements, I'm also going to talk to people about how to win the lost because each of the things that Jesus says is what the world needs. I am the bread of life. People are hungry. They're hungry for something. They're hungry for truth. They're hungry for whatever.

What if Jesus is the answer? So I'm going to ask people to think about five people in their lives who are hungry. Wow. You know, write those names down and let's pray for them. One huge testament to the fact that I think that you're doing it the right way. The way that you compile your sermons and you choose, this is what we're preaching this weekend at Clearview. Personally for me is every time you're like, Hey, this week we're teaching this. There's never been a week where I'm like, yeah, that doesn't really seem to make sense. It's always like, this is like the perfect message for the time that we're fixing to do. I've never once been like, I think that'll be a good message, but I think there could be something better. And you're not alone in that.

I mean, we hear that like that. That's true for me as well. And it's true for, you know, the people here at Clearview who are saying that that was exactly what I needed to hear. Right.

I mean, there are a lot of people who are coming to Clearview. Those of you who are here, you know, that those of you who are not here, just let you know, God is blessing in tremendous ways and we're seeing big growths here. And so I, as a shepherd, right, along with you guys, your shepherds to ask that question, you know, what is it that the sheep need and the Holy Spirit through his word and the power of Jesus Christ answers those questions and, Hey, go this way for the next seven weeks, show people how Jesus is sufficient.

And I'm like, wow, I didn't think about that. Okay. That's what we're going to do. That's awesome. I love it. Next question comes from Amy R and Amy wants to know what is your favorite sermon you've ever preached? I know it sounds kind of a cop out, but the last one, always the last one. I love it. So it's just whatever, whatever, when you've just gone through or whatever, when you're, you're headed into that's Yeah.

Yeah. Or whatever, when I'm headed into, it's very hard at times that it used to be, I used to be like, Hey, I remember that one sermon, man, that was my, you know, that is a sugar stick sermon, but more I spend time on each passage and I dig into it and I pray over it. And I want to get as close as possible.

True is to do as true intended meaning in the whole scheme of things. And it's application that cuts to the heart. That becomes my favorite sermon until the next one. And again, I never penalize people at Clearview for not remembering what I'm here to preach on last week. Oh, come on people.

They don't even remember. Honestly, I don't even remember what I preached last week. That's such a healthy outlook though. I feel like it's, you're focused on whatever is current.

You're focused on whatever you're digging into, whatever, whatever is getting the most amount of your time at that, at that moment. That's great. That's my favorite sermon.

Wow. That that's pretty cool to think of. Next question we got, let's see, it's Hank S and he wants to know Hank.

That's a, that's a strong name, Hank Williams. He's wondering is the Monday, like pastor blues, like a real thing. Like after Sunday, like the lowest point is like the day after. I mean, it can be, it can get like that. Yeah, it can get like that. If I let it, there can be situations that I'm dealing with or personal situations or somebody in the church body who's hurting or somebody who is struggling or somebody who's not happy or whatever, you know, that can happen. It can really take a toll on me and not toll less. That's a little too much.

It can really impact me. But I have, and Nicole and I have said this aside, every Monday is our date day. And so she goes to work in the morning for a couple of hours.

I do my workout with David, of course, David helps me. And then once that is finished, I'll get ready and she and I will slip away at 1230 or one o'clock and go to Raleigh or Durham or somewhere, go out to eat, maybe go by the mall, maybe go run some errands if we need to, or see some people, if you have to make some visitation calls, we can go and do that. And it's our day just to connect with each other. And sometimes it's a lot of conversations. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it is tough situations we're dealing with. Sometimes it is funny things, but it's still our way of dealing with the Mondays and it's worked great.

So that's an interesting point. The Monday pastor blues, is it talking about like an emotional low or like an energy level low? I think what the people are talking about is the emotional low where because of a bad sermon or a bad remark or a comment somebody made, or not as many people being there, pastors usually face those emotional blues. But that seems to fly like completely in the face of the sermon you just preached today, where it's like, you don't dwell on the past. You can't think about, did it really go this well or that way? You just have to live in the present. Yeah, you have to.

That's pretty cool. And it's a constant battle, right? Living in the present. I'm kind of deviating from the question, but it's a constant battle. It's a constant battle. It's a 24-7 battle that you have to refocus, readjust. And if you say, would you ever get to a place or is there a book or is there some truth or is there some trick?

There isn't. You have to bring your mind and your heart back to live in the present. How can I please God right now and trust Him right now? Of course, I have to reflect on the past. I have to build on the past. I have to be grateful for the past. There may be some regrets. I have to plan for the future. I have to visualize what's coming in the future, strategize for the future. Having said that, the only place I can live is in the present.

And so, Monday Blues again, that's a good point. I have to live now and say, God, today right now, what do I need to do? Well, I need to work on the new sermon series coming up.

Okay. These are the resources I need. This is what I need to do. I need to read this, this, this, this, these articles or this chapter in a book or this book. I need to glance at it or which commentaries will I really use? Okay, I got it. This commentary and this commentary. Okay, great.

I'm ready to roll. That's how I work. Now, I know y'all normally ping pong back and forth, but I do want to steal this question because this seems to come from an insider and the name is actually David W. So I don't know who that could be. Oh, that's great. Mysterious.

Yes, mysterious. But how do you do four services a weekend and not get tired? The Lord is my strength, right? Well, I don't know what to say. We're working on fixing that problem because for those of you who may not know, we're building a new sanctuary and in some ways the work is beginning even this week.

So a lot of the planning stuff has already been done, but kind of the official beginning could be this week. I always start to think of myself, I put myself in the shoes of other people in the church who are hardworking. Some of them work in law enforcement. Some of them work in hospitals, late night shifts. Some of them are working in car dealerships. Some of them are working in gas companies. Some of them are working in restaurant business. How hard they work. I mean, they work very, very hard and they have to push themselves to keep going and get things done and then deal with their families and then work at their homes and fix things and have health issues and financial problems and spiritual struggles. So I always ask myself this question, if they are willing to work that hard, what right do I have to sit back and say, Oh, that's too much for services.

Oh my goodness. No, that's not how I should think. So I know people who are professors in our congregation and I think of them getting up every week, you know, at least three to four times, three to four days a week, they get up in front of their classrooms and speak for four hours. I know teachers who are teaching in public school system, Christian school systems, private school system. We have people from all walks here and they're believers. They're born again believers. I think God has put them in these various places for a reason. But how do they do that?

How in the world? You know, teaching is tough. Teaching is tough. I was a teacher, I was a principal and man, they, they have to, you know, do lesson plans and they have to you know, be there early in the morning and get things done in this day after school and parent teacher meetings and staff meetings and extracurricular activities. How do they keep going?

One planning period, I have to do it six times, six hours a day. So for me to fuss about my four sermons, no, no, it's, it comes with a different weight and passion. They're not teaching like I preach, but still what right do I have to say? Oh, it's too much. No, that's not allowed. Maybe I'll die early.

I don't know. Maybe I'll wear out, but I refuse to, to, to, to work less than our own people do in their various jobs. I love that. And, and it's your, it's your example that inspires us to push and strive for excellence in the various things that we're responsible for. So thank you for setting that example for us. Thank you.

And you guys are doing it. You guys are doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. If you guys enjoyed today's questions, if you have questions for future episodes of lightning round questions on Fridays, make sure you send those into 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. And don't forget that you can support us financially on that same website. Every gift, every contribution does not go unnoticed.

It goes not only to benefiting this radio show, but countless other ministries here at Clearview and beyond for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have one more question. It was the ending question.

So not exactly lightning round, but this question comes from Robert D and he wants to know what is your favorite worship song that we do here at Clearview? Oh, wow. You know, I wish I could tell you one.

There's, there's so many good ones and there's so many, we don't sing anymore because music styles change and what people are singing changes. So I don't know. I don't know. It's a hard one for me. Yeah.

And I mean, John and the Praise team, David. Phenomenal. Do an unbelievable job. So it's hard. It's hard to zero in on one song.

You know, I don't have one. Like last Sunday's worship was pretty amazing, you know, or Saturday night when John was there, but Sunday morning David was filled in. And then all that. I mean, it's just hard to say which one, but they were all pretty awesome. I love it. That's right. Well, we love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.