Hosanna in the Highest!

Hello, everyone. Today is Friday, March the 31st. 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 find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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We love those five-star reviews. That's right. Do you mind if I take the verse of the day?

Yeah, go for it, man. Verse of the day today comes from Matthew 21, verse 9. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest. That is the appropriate response. It's just pure praise. It's just, listen, I've got all this stuff going on in my life right now, but that doesn't matter because Jesus is here. That's right. You're here, and so all that other stuff, yeah, I'll deal with it.

It'll come up. God will deal with it for me, but you're here, and that's all I care about. Oh, how different would our lives look if that's the attitude we walked in a church with?

Yes. How different would our church services look if we walked in and be like, you know, all that other stuff? I'll deal with it in a minute, but I am right now, not that God is only located in the church building, but there's something special about gathering together. We're coming into God's presence. We are always in God's presence. We are entering into worship with his people. What if we just walked in saying, Hosanna?

That's right. Praise God. Praise God.

I got a praise that I want to lift up to the Lord. Ellie and I have taken the next step in our parenting where we have officially introduced time-out. Oh, no. Oh, time-out. Time-out. Gavin had his first time-out. He's two years old, and he's, let's see, he'll be three in November, so it's March. He's maybe two and a half, closing in on two and a half. That's about time-out. And I will say, up until now, genuinely, he hasn't needed time-out. I don't know if we're late bloomers.

I don't know if we're just kind of late to the game, but we gave him his first time-out. And Ellie set him in the chair and was like, you will not get out of the chair until you hear this. And she had an alarm on her phone, and she said, until you hear that sound, you cannot get up. Until mommy or daddy comes to get you, you cannot get out of this chair. And so I've seen Supernanny.

I've seen all these shows. I was like, if we leave the room, he's getting up. So I was like, I don't know. I don't think this is going to work. He did not get out of that chair. He cried.

That's awesome. He cried, and he was like wailing and crying and screaming. And so Ellie was like, if he's wailing and crying, we're not going to get him. I was like, no, I mean, he's going to cry. But I think you were that way too, where you're like, no, if you're crying and you're screaming.

Yeah, we put the kids in time-out, we put them in the corner and say, hey, you know, you can cry. It's fine to cry, but you're going to cry quietly. We're not going to wail and scream and all that in the corner. You're not going to make a scene. You're allowed to be upset.

You're allowed to cry perfectly fine and understandable, but you're going to cry quietly. Now you mentioned something kind of impassive that I would kind of take you to task about because you said a very triggering word for me, and that is you put your kids where? In the corner?

Yeah. You're not putting your kids in the corner. Cannot put your kids in the corner.

No, no. Where's time-out? Time-out is on like a chair or something. You don't put their nose in the corner.

You can get them a little stool or a step. Time-out is in one or two places in our house. It is either you go sit in your bed until mom and dad can get you, or you go stand in the corner. Standing in the corner is cruel and unusual. I will fight that to the day I die. No, it's not. Yes, it is, because I remember kids having to stand in the corner at school, and that was like the most humiliating, like shameful... Yeah, and did the kids behave better after it? I did. I got sent to the corner once in school, and I never, ever, ever got sent to the corner again.

Because it was effective. But I'm saying the feeling of that stuck with me. I'm 31 years old, and I still feel shame and humiliation from a day in first grade. Is that fine? Sure.

No, that's not fine. I would call that learning your lesson. I'm not going to color on the table anymore, but what I'm saying is you don't put your kids in the corner.

I straight up did. I had a black crayon, and I remember it to this day. I'll never forget as long as I live. I was coloring on the paper, and I accidentally went off onto the table, and I was like, I just colored on the table. It was like a whole level of understanding was unlocked, like, oh, this works outside of the paper.

I'll never forget this. I scooted it away, and I started coloring just on the table. And my teacher came up to me and was like, why are you coloring on the table? And I was like, I'm not. And she was like, and I had the black crayon in my hand.

I remember. She was like, you didn't just color on that table. I was like, it was Ms. Blaylock. I was like, Ms. Blaylock, I didn't. She was like, John, I watched you color on the table. I was like, I promise you I didn't. She was like, go stand in that corner for me.

And I was like, it was like that movie Jaws where it just zooms in. I was like, no, no, I'm not going to the corner. And I went and stood in the corner, and I've never forgotten that all these years.

Yeah, Ms. Blaylock knew what she was doing. When I see your kids in the corner, my heart is destroyed. It's humiliating. Here's the thing.

Here's the thing. My youngest, my oldest two are 10. We have twins, for those of you who were tuning in for the very first time. My oldest two are 10.

My youngest is four. We don't really sit in the corner anymore because it works. It's effective. I think the corner has to stop. Like for parents everywhere, I think the corner has to stop. We didn't sit in the corner with a dunce cap and like boo him and throw a rotten vegetable. It's like, you stink kid.

Everybody mock your brother. There was none of that going on, but it was like, hey, you hear your kids, your siblings playing in the background, you're in the corner. We have a timeout.

Drinking that feeling. We have a timeout chair, which I think is pretty effective. Ellie, I think is in favor of the corner. I do not like the corner at all. If she puts Gavin in the corner, I won't intervene, but I won't be.

I got to split. I would rather whoop him than put him in the corner. I don't know.

There's not, there's not like a, there's not like an in a built in shame. What do you think, Dave? What do you think? You, would you put a kid in the corner? Yeah. You would put, Oh gosh.

Yeah. You would put a kid in the corner. I was put in the corner. I was, yeah, I was put in the corner. I was whooped. I had, were you whooped in the corner? I was whooped in the corner.

Yeah. Um, I 100% advocate the corner. I 100%. I'm telling you, the corner works, man. Text in, text in. Cause I, I really, I got a big problem with the corner.

I got a big problem with putting kids in the corner. I want to hear, I want to hear. Yeah. Y'all send that in.

I'm actually, I'm actually interested in hearing what, what y'all think about that. Let us know, do you put your kids in the corner? It's timeout. Does that equate to the corner for you?

Two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Let us know what you think. On today's episode, we are actually starting a brand new mini series. On a Friday, which is a little weird. We don't start a series on a Friday, but it's going to make sense when we jump into it because we're setting up passion week, which is what we're going into with the Easter season right around the corner. We're going to grab Dr. Sean in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, or if you're going to answer that question about timeout in the corner, send us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back.

Hey there listeners. I'm John Galantis and I'm Ellie 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. I know that's right. 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 two five two five eight two five zero two eight. 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 Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right.

You have to be joining us for the first time. We want to let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work and follow it on his website at AbbadonShaw.com. That's right. We're leading into Passion Week. It feels weird to be... It's already Easter. It's already going into Easter. I mean, I know that that's how the calendar works, but I feel like it sneaks up on you every time. I know.

Same day as like we do it one day at a time, but it still surprises us. Yep. You know where it's coming.

You see it on your calendar. That's right. Wow. Suddenly we're here.

Yeah. So with it being with us heading into Passion Week, with us heading into Easter week, we want to dive into this series that you preached on a while ago. This series titled Hosanna, where it talks about God's desire is to save us. It's not something that we have to strive toward. It's not something that we have to work for. That's God's desire for us. We think it's like God's up in heaven and He's like, all right, I'll pull you out of the fire again.

But you said it yourself that He like delights in saving us. That's crazy to think about. That's right.

That's right. And when you go back 2000 years ago, you know, when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on the donkey, this is Palm Sunday. You know, this is where the crowd came shouting Hosanna. Hosanna comes from a combination of Hosiah and Anna, which is... Hosiah means save us and Anna means now, please save us. And in Psalm 18 verse 25, it says, save now I pray O Lord, O Lord I pray, send now prosperity. So they were in a sense begging God to go into action and save them. And what I want us to remember that is that God wants to save us.

That's right. He's not reluctant. He's not like, well, I'll see what I can do. Now He is willing and desirous that everyone be saved. That's such a powerful truth because a lot of times for me, especially like in the past, I'll think about the times that I've messed up or fallen short and often in my head, God is like looking at me going just kind of like this heavy sound like, okay, all right, I'll pick you up again. Because I mean, if I were in His shoes, we kind of map our shortcomings onto God.

Sometimes if I were in His shoes, I'd be exasperated with somebody continue to mess up over and over and over again. Right. But that's not the case.

Right. It's funny because people when they first come to church here at Clearview Church, I think a lot of people aren't used to hearing that type of vernacular that God wants to save us. And I mean, I guess if you grew up Baptist, you hear it a lot, but a lot of people didn't. And so they come and they hear it and they say, I didn't know we would talk so much about being saved. And I remember even being here, like after a year or two in, I started noticing that all of the messages, not most of them, but all of them end with the cross or have the cross in them or being saved. There's a call, a response to come and be saved.

And I remember thinking like, that was really cool. It's not most because most churches would do it most of the time, but every year that I've been here, every week since for the past 10 years that I've been here, every single message has this invitation to come and be saved. You know, we think it's something that a primitive denomination uses, save. Now, if you talk about becoming a Christian or if you talk about entering into the family of God or being redeemed, those are like more bona fide words, but save, I mean, who says that?

Well, the Bible says it again and again and again. That's the language it uses that humanity, human beings are fallen. They are beyond help.

They can't save themselves from their predicament. And then God reaches down and saves them. Go to the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, right? Job chapter five, verse 11. He says, he sets on high those who are lowly and those who mourn are lifted to safety. Job 40 verse 14, then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you. Now here's sort of, God is being sarcastic to Job. He's asking Job if he can do all the mighty things that God does. And if so, then you can save yourself, Job.

But the fact of the matter is you can't. And I am eager and willing to save you. Right. And it implies danger. It implies that there is something serious that you need to be saved from. Right.

And I mean, I was going to take that one step further, John. It implies that God is the one who does the saving. Exactly.

If you are, if you in and of yourself, Job, cannot save, I am the one who does. That's right. When God's people were in slavery in Egypt, he sent Moses to rescue them, to save them.

Right? Exodus 14, 13. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace, which means you stand still, you have faith and you don't be disheveled. God's going to take care of you.

He's going to rescue you. You're seeing this pattern all throughout history, all of through God's. He's saving his people all throughout history.

Even when they are, how do I say this? Not worthy of being saved. You know, go to the book of Judges. That's what I'm reading right now in my devotions.

Me too. And it's pretty amazing how it talks about how Joshua and the elders, as long as they were there, people did what they were supposed to do. But when that generation died, Joshua 2, 10, a new generation came that did not believe in God, did not know the works that God had done through the ancestors.

And they went back to their old ways. It's always made me think of putting like blinders on an animal. If you, if the judge or the spiritual leader is there in charge of the people of Israel, it's like they have blinders on and they can see exactly where they're supposed to go. But as soon as they're gone, those blinders are taken off and they're like, Oh, look at all these other fun things that are happening around me. And it's almost like they have blinders on to where they're supposed to go. Like he's sending these judges to save his people because they can't see the destruction they're heading towards. Even though they've seen it in their ancestors and they've seen it in these patterns throughout history, it's like they're headed right for a cliff and they just can't see it. And the Bible says repeatedly that God was hot with anger, you know, my heart, my heart legitimately kind of skipped a beat, right?

He was hot with anger because it kept going back to the false gods. They kept going back to their old ways. They kept compromising with the people they should have driven out, you know, and it's not, don't, don't, don't we quit that in today's language? Like, Oh, what do you mean driving our people?

I mean, how terrible is that? No, these were people who are bent on, on taking God's people astray. They were bent on compromising and I would say sabotaging the coming of Jesus Christ. That's what these people wanted to do. That's the reason behind God saying, Hey, clear the land, clear the land, clear the land so that the one would come.

And they're like, ah, no, that's okay. My neighbor is a good guy. We're all good people. Ultimately we all go to heaven. No, wrong answer.

I'll do it like the Grinch. Wrong. Oh, there you go. So in Judges seven, two, it says, and the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me saying, my own hand has saved me. So God had to, in a sense, whittle down the numbers from 32,000 to 22,000 to 10,000 to 300. And then God said, okay, that's the number I want. Yeah. Now I can work with this.

Man, that's so, that's uncomfortable to read. Cause you hear, I mean, they're already outnumbered and you see those numbers dwindling further and further and further. And Gideon's like, Lord, that's all my fighting men. Like, what are we doing? Yeah. It happens like in your own life. Like you see these things getting removed and you're like, Lord, please, I need that. I need that. When he's like, no, you need me.

You need me. That's a great point. And the pattern continues from the judges. It goes on to the King. And you know, when David went to fight Goliath, it was not with a sword and shield. He went, or a sword, spear and a javelin. I mean, he, he went with nothing.

Right. You know, he went with just a few smooth stones and a sling. And he even says in first Samuel 17 47, then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. That battle. I mean, that battle is for something greater than this war.

You know what I mean? It's like this, this war, this conflict, that's all that David and I think the people of Israel, even the Philistines could see was that one conflict. But David even said, the battle is the Lord's. It's not that he's fighting and winning this battle for us because that's all that matters. We're fighting his battle and his battle is much greater.

I think, I think David, David could see it, but like you were saying, the people of Israel certainly could not see it. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, people read the Old Testament and they think, they think the book of Proverbs, that's a practical book.

That's, that's where I like. But if you really study them carefully, even they are proclaiming that only God can save. It's not the wisdom or the, the, the knowledge of human beings.

It's God. So here's a couple of verses, Proverbs 20, 22, do not say I will recompense evil, wait for the Lord and he will save you. That's salvation language. Yeah. Proverbs 21, 31, the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord.

Wow. Proverbs 28, 18, whoever walks blamelessly will be saved, but he who is perverse in his, in his ways will suddenly fall. So even though it's talking about life, you know, yet the point is very clear. God is the one who does the saving. Right. And that, that word is used for a reason because life is, life is dangerous and it's hard and it's difficult and it can drag you down. Like you, like you said in that first one, don't say I'll recompense evil. You start taking things into your own hands and you need saving from that.

Yeah. It almost to me carries the idea of like quicksand, like life, you'll start to sink into the mire maybe even before you realize how sunk you are and you need that salvation. You can't get out of quicksand on your own. There's no way. You have to have somebody pull you out and that's where the salvation comes from.

That's right. All the prophets had the same message to God's people. Look to God and he will save you. Look to God, keep turning to God. Isaiah said that, Jeremiah said that, Hosea said that, Jonah said that, you know, in Jonah 2, 9 it says, but I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. Yeah. I love the book of Jonah. And it's funny because you never, at least I never think of Jonah as one of the prophets. I always think of him as like the children's book that, or the children's story that I always used to love growing up. But yeah, I mean, he was sent for salvation, the salvation of the Ninevites.

Yeah. And his, his message, albeit maybe he delivered it with a lackluster attitude, was, I mean, it accomplished the purpose that God set out for it. I mean, the people of Nineveh were saved. That was always interesting to me. Like he didn't want them to be saved.

That was crazy. It's like you have a, you have a prophet that's, I don't know if I'd say he's actively working against what God has said, but he definitely doesn't want it to happen. And they still get saved. They still, because God is the one that did it and not Jonah. Which there, I mean, there's such a great point in there that none of us are powerful enough to throw off God's plan.

Well, the problem is, you know, Israel, right. They were thinking, why them? I mean, they are enemies. They're the people who try to destroy and sabotage God, your plan, your, your, your, your purpose. Why would you want to save them? Right. But what they don't realize is that God's plan was to save them. The plan of bringing someone to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was to save the world.

That's right. And we, we typically don't, I think we're kind of that way too in times where it's like these Ninevites, it goes to great care to tell us how terrible they were and then to turn around and say, but God loves to save them. He delights in saving the Ninevites. It's like, man, that doesn't, that don't feel right.

It doesn't sit right in us. And I think Jonah was feeling that too. And do you feel like the rest of Israel felt kind of the same way as Jonah?

I would think so. Yeah. You see, they, they confused God's protection of his plan with God's plan. Interesting.

Okay. God is protecting the plan because the enemy has, was always against the plan because the plan is not only to take people away from him, but also his doom. So God always protected the plan because it was always under attack.

So he had to at times swat people because they were coming against the plan. Having said that, the plan was ultimately to save those people. And those who throughout the ages knew that and responded to that and submitted to that plan were saved, but many didn't. So somewhere God's people almost had the attitude that the plan, not only the plan is protected, but everybody's evil.

And that's not correct. That's such a great distinction. I'm glad you brought that out because that nuance is there where these people are trying to come against the plan and God swats them away, but that doesn't mean that they're not still the object of the plan. Like just because they were swatted away, just because they came against God's plan, just because they were a temporary threat doesn't mean that they weren't still like, hey, I'm trying to save these people and they're getting in their own way. Yeah. They're getting in their own way. That's a good way to say that. Yeah. That's a good way to put it because how many times did the people of Israel get in their own way to save them? Yeah.

Got to deal with them too. So it's beautiful. You know, Psalms, by the way, are one of my favorites because they have so much of that salvific imagery or language. Psalm 28, the Lord is their strength and he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Save your people and bless your inheritance.

Yeah. There's definitely that understanding of Lord. We need you, especially in the Psalms, just like constantly crying out to God, crying out for rescue.

Right? Psalm 80 verse three, restore us. Oh God, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.

Right? Psalm 119, 94. I am yours. Save me for I have sought your precepts.

And then someone 44 we can, we can list many more, but here's one more. I will sing a new song to you. Oh God, on a harp of 10 strings, I will sing praises to you. The one who gives salvation to Kings, who delivers David his servant from the deadly sword.

Wow. So, you know, once again, God wants to save us. In fact, he delights in saving us. He wants to save us. There are times that he's had to discipline people in the world, sometimes individuals, sometimes Kings, sometimes an entire culture and civilization because they came against his plan. Sometimes he even had to discipline his own people and even scatter them because they were compromising the plan. But ultimately his plan was always to save us, save his people and the world, you know? And so being saved by God is not a sign of weakness.

It is our prerogative as his children. That's beautiful. That makes you think of a little kid with like arms outstretched, just looking up to daddy, like save me, save me. And I think about like the cross. I think about the culmination of all this, like going through all of this history and going through this saga of God constantly saving his people, finding ways to bring his people back to himself, knowing all the while that there is coming one who's going to be that culmination, who's going to be that final authoritative nail in the coffin, so to speak.

This is it. This is how salvation is going to come to all the people of the world through the blood of Christ. And it just gives the cross a new meaning for me. I mean, it gives the cross, I mean, there's always, you know, mercies are new every day, always find something, but there's a new side of the cross now for me. There's a understanding that, I mean, this is a beautiful, not only fulfillment of promise, but just a hope, you know, that's, that's the best way I can put it. There's a hope, not a hope that I go to heaven because of this, but an assurance.

Yeah. Well, that is, that is actually what was promised when Jesus came in Matthew 1 21, and she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. I mean, that is Jesus's very name, that he is a savior. And then Romans 10 nine tells us that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You'll be saved.

Beautiful. I think it's, I think it's also crazy that there's so many people probably listening to this radio show who don't know how to be saved. And that's it right there.

You just read it. If you confess and believe, if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, you'll be saved. And I mean, that really is the recipe. Is the gospel. That's it. It is the gospel.

That's it. That's beautiful. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, or you have suggestions for future topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. And like we mentioned at the end of this episode, if you have questions about salvation, if you have questions about what it means to ask Jesus to be your savior or what that relationship looks like, you can text those into that number as well. We'd love to, love to respond to you.

We'd love to help you take those next steps to be obedient to God. That's right. David actually sent me this quote yesterday, day before yesterday, maybe a week ago, but he sent me this quote then I thought it was, I thought it was pretty good. This is from Theodore Roosevelt.

It's kind of long. It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how strong, how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without effort.

I'm sorry, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be without those cold and timid souls who neither know the victory nor defeat. Wow. Wow. I've heard that before.

Not the whole quote, but much of it. Yeah. You know, I'm not out in the arena just fighting just because I'm powerful. It's because number one, I've got someone worth living for. There's a vision worth living for. And also because this is what God has let us do. Absolutely. That makes me think, I mean, John and I and the rest of the team, we're thankful for you, Dr. Shah, for being a visionary for us, who's out in front leading the charge and someone that we can follow behind as we pursue the vision together.

Absolutely. And ultimately, we're pursuing Christ. It's about Him. And as long as we keep our eyes on Him and know that He is with us and He will never leave us nor forsake us, our job is to push through whatever's happening, good, bad, and ugly. Just don't wait for the feelings to come, but delight in doing His will. That's right.

You know, choose to do His will. We'll be okay. Amen. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear Read Today.