Monday, April 10th | Gospel Focused Ministries

Hello, everyone.

Today is Monday, April the 10th. 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 suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right, and you guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you may get your podcasting content from. Excuse me, I had to swallow.

We are going to leave a couple of links in the description of this podcast, so you can do just that. But before we do anything else, I want to start us off right with the verse of the day. Got a little choked up.

Yeah, I did. I was so excited about it, because I was thinking about the good reviews. I was thinking about Revelation we're about to read from. I hate to spoil that, but if you want to read it, let's do it. What a revelation to us.

I know, right? So, the verse of the day today does, as we've said, come from Revelation 5 and verse 9. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. I think when we use that word, worthy, I think that's the most appropriate word we could use. And it's because he is worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our praise and our love and our adoration. Why? Because of who he is.

You know what I mean? He's holy. He's perfect. He's our Heavenly Father. Because he is our Creator and because he is God, he's worthy of that worship. But even if that weren't the case, even if that weren't enough, his work on the cross, providing a way of salvation for us and redeeming us and purchasing our pardon before God, that makes him worthy of our worship. Amen. God has given Jesus, the Father has given the Son, the authority.

So, he's the one, the only one who has the authority to open the scroll, just like Revelation says, like John writes there, and to open its seals because he is the one who has been established by the Father. Mm-hmm. I had a question coming in and I actually got this question yesterday from Trevor R. I thought this was kind of on the more shady side.

I was like, this is a Christian radio show so I don't know how much we can- Trevor, spicy question. Trevor R., what's the worst thing you got in trouble for in school? Oh, I'm going to have a very boring answer.

Really? I didn't really get in trouble in school. What did you do? I can give you one story that was kind of like, most of the time what I got in trouble for was talking. Just talking in class. When we were supposed to be quiet, when the teacher was talking, that's what I got in trouble for the most.

Believe it or not, somebody who talks on a radio show got in trouble for talking. But the one that does stand out was that one of my teachers, every teacher marked attendance separately for their class in high school. So one of my teachers, one day for whatever reason, maybe it was busy, I can't remember exactly what happened, but this teacher did not mark me present in this class. Matter of fact, the first, I think two teachers that day did not mark me present. And the rest of my teachers did. So I was accused of being truant, of skipping classes. Of being truant.

Which did not happen. I did not skip classes. I was there. I was present in both classes. But my parents got called to a conference with the principal. Not the head principal, but one of the principals that was at the school.

And so he sits us down. Never had really any interaction with this principal at all up to this point. And so the principal says, Miss Hill, your son has been skipping classes and we have the proof right here. And my mom says, did he tell you that he's been skipping classes? And he's like, well no.

I mean, we have the proof right here. So she looks at me, she's like, have you been skipping classes? And I was like, no ma'am, I haven't been skipping classes. I was present in those classes.

I don't know what's going on with the records, but I promise I was in those classes. And so my mom, in the most baller mom move ever, looks back at the principal and she goes, my son wasn't skipping classes. And he was like, Miss Hill. Isn't it funny how parents do that? Yeah, they're like, so if my son says it, that's what it is.

And that's the gospel. Like at this case, it was true. That completely shocked me. Like, cause I was expecting to be like, you want to explain this to me?

Why you weren't, why you weren't marked president in these classes? But she looked right at him dead serious. And she was like, my son wasn't skipping classes. And he's like, Miss Hill, teenagers lie all the time. She said, first of all, my son is not teenagers.

This is my son, Ryan. So you will not make generalized statements that include him or you have to deal with me. Second of all, we can go talk to these teachers because my son was in these classes. And long story short, for those of you who have stayed tuned to this point, we did go talk to the teachers. The teachers apologized. There was an issue with the attendance and I was then marked president for those classes. But to see my mom just like unleash that cannon on the principal, I was like, go mom. That's pretty awesome.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. I definitely was truant. I was truant in my senior year, a hundred percent.

Senior year was kind of crazy. They called my mom and was like, Hey, listen, if he, I think I just started doing this thing where I would go to my first and second period at lunch, I would just leave. And then third and fourth, I wasn't there.

So I thought in my brain, I was like, I'm here. I came to school. They counted me absent, but I didn't, you know, I just wasn't thinking. And so like three or four weeks of that went on and then they called my mom and they were like, Hey, I don't know what's going on, but if he misses like another day or so, he's not going to graduate.

So then my mom was waiting for me when I got home and that was very unpleasant. And then I told the story of a, I think I told it last week or the week before where I, in first grade I colored on the table and then just straight lied to the teacher's face. It was not me. As the crayon is still in your head. Like I had the black crayon, the mark is there. I was like, I didn't, I really did not color on the table. Like I don't know what's the third degree against me, but I promise you I didn't. And if y'all need to go figure out why you've got a vendetta against me, y'all can.

Except with the crayon company, I don't know. Trevor, we're going to ask Dr. Shaw at the end of the show because I think I have a good idea of what his story is going to be. I have an idea of what his answer is. So Dr. Shaw, we've known Dr. Shaw for several years, a while now, going on a decade. He's got some stories.

He went to a Catholic school. So I mean, you can't really get away with a whole lot there. And if you do get caught, the consequences are pretty severe. I'm excited to because I think I know what story this is going to be. So, but make sure you stay tuned to the end of the episode. We've got a great episode planned for you today. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics or questions you'd like to hear Dr. Shaw answer, maybe you're interested in some of those stories from his childhood, send us a text at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be back after this. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clear View Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, hop off the podcast. I'm just playing.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clear View Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clear View Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadon Shaw, Ph.D. podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clear View app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple Podcast app or on our website at ClearViewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbbadonShaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. 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 new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right. And if you guys are joining us for the first time today, Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show. You can follow all of his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShaw.com. That's right. Dr. Shaw, happy Monday. With Mondays? So people often wonder about what happens behind the scenes and they see what happens on Sundays. Sundays are obviously very busy. Well, for you guys, too. Yes.

Yes. I mean, many times you, me, John, David behind the cameras and the audio back there, I mean, we're not leaving here till like 1030, sometimes even 11 o'clock on Sunday nights. And I know some of our listeners and viewers are like, man, that's not healthy. That is not healthy for you. And you probably are right.

We should be headed home. But sometimes, on Sunday nights, every Sunday night, we have student worship and student Bible studies and all that. And then I have young adult ministry.

So I lead that. And then we sit around and talk. And that's where life happens. That's where you get to know people and people start to build relationships and build trust and build loyalty.

And people just, people like to have your attention and have your time. And they can't do that from the pulpit. Right. Sometimes at the end of Sundays, you know, we've been going all day. Sometimes there will even be a meeting on Sunday afternoon. So it's literally rolling from one thing into the next, into the next. So you need that time at the end of Sunday just to sit down as a team and as friends and as family and just connect and just kind of breathe together.

And take it easy. Yeah. Last Sunday night, we played, we sat and played Catan. We came in and then it was like, Golly, what time was it?

It was like 830 and most everybody was leaving. And Ellie was like, you want to play Settlers at Catan? And I was like, yeah, I'll play. And I was like, just be warned.

This is like at least two hours of gameplay. He was like, yeah, let's do it. And then won. Very nice. He won.

Really truly your wife won. That was like answering emails and doing all that. And I was still paying attention to the game, but I was like, there's no way I can learn this game that quickly. And I can't if I just completely stop everything else and responding to people who are, you know, they have questions on Sundays about the message or a compliment or whatever. So I kind of respond to them. So I was like, Ellie, what about this?

What can I do with these? I have a sheep here. Ellie has won many games of Catan proxy with other people. Oh yeah.

She's funny. Let me just do this for you real quick. Let me just help you out. Well, speaking of helping people, you know, today is sort of the anniversary of something very important. William Booth on today, many years ago, founded the Salvation Army. I thought you mean he did it today. No, no, not on early today. I got a text from William Booth.

He's like, hey, give me a shout out on the show. I founded the Salvation Army today. No, no, no, many years ago.

He was born in 1829. So yeah, I can't do that. A little bit before then. Yeah, that's right. That's right. But you know, with that heart of helping people, that heart of reaching out into the community and meeting needs there, that's something that is very close to, I know your heart, Dr. Shaw, and what we do here at Clearview and really the heart of Christianity, what we believe.

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, William and Catherine Booth founded Salvation Army. And I mean, you can go anywhere in the world and find Salvation Army churches or organizations, and they have made a tremendous impact.

And it's amazing to think back. I mean, this one young man, right, he was known as a prophet of the poor. He was born in relative poverty, didn't have much growing up. And then about 15, 16 years of age is when there was a conversion experience that he had. We don't know for sure exactly what happened, but then through various events in his life or revival meetings and things like that, that he got on fire for God. And he was always frustrated with the established church because, you know, they were not as concerned about the gospel.

So he was, he was far more gospel focused than a lot of organizations are that started with gospel-centered care for people, but in time they become care for people, maybe gospel, maybe not. Yeah, if we got some time, we'll get around, roll the meat. Yeah.

Maybe even just do away with it. Ooh. Yeah.

You don't want to be characterized as gospel question mark or worse. Yeah. Like, or we used to be gospel focused.

Yeah. But now we really care for people. You know, it's not about saving them. It's just simply about meeting their needs and helping them live a better life.

You know, that's so sad when that happens. But nonetheless, you know, William Booth and his wife, they began this ministry and look where it is today, touching many lives. Yeah.

Tremendous. You know, that's something that I've known that's been on your heart for a number of years, ever since I've known you is that, you know, we have several, several outreach ministries here at Clearview Church, but every one that I've ever been to, which is a lot over the years, none of them, not a single one have I ever seen you go without sharing the gospel. And not only just sharing the gospel, like just finding someone to talk about. I mean, like gathering everyone together. Hey guys, let's gather around for a minute. I know we're all having fun. I know that we're eager to get today started, but let's talk about this for a second.

Not in a formal way, like a preaching sermon, but also not as cavalier as just find a couple of people to talk to. Like this is going to be presented as a time, as a moment. Right. And I'm appreciative of that because it's like you said, if we're just helping people, if we're just doing good things, we're expecting that to lead people to Christ without actually presenting the gospel to them. Is that something you always done, Dr. Shah, with outreach events like that?

Oh yeah. And especially my dad, you know, he was a pastor for almost 60 years when he passed away and we would do a lot of things in our community. Like there was a time, this is in the, I would say late, maybe early eighties when we began to have lunches and meals for the homeless in India. Now keep in mind, I mean, this is really bad. I mean, they haven't had anything to bathe or take care of themselves for years.

I mean, that's what they are. And so sitting next to them, it was, it was tough because you know, we're coming from like nice homes and then we sit next to people who we see on the streets and we walk away from them and then all of a sudden have to sit next to them and eat with them. And it was, it was a, it was an experience to remember in India, outside of the Christian community. Is that common? Is there a lot of outreach to those, to the homeless outside of like Christian? Oh, absolutely zero. Really? Oh wow.

Yeah, there's none. Now don't get me wrong. What I mean by that is there are times they will do things like free meals and things like that, but like expressly going and sitting with them.

Oh yeah. Or just, just like an outreach for the, the homeless population. No, that doesn't happen. Like the Sikhs will have the langar. Langar is where after the temple worship, you can go and get free meal. It's a really good food. I mean, anybody can go, it doesn't matter who you are, you can go and eat for free.

It's a good meal. But it's, it's not expressly for the homeless. Muslims will have things like that.

Hindus may also maybe have some and here and there a homeless man or beggar or a bunch of beggars will show up and they'll say, you wait over there. Okay. All right. Sit down right there and we'll bring somebody who will come to help you. But to say, we're coming for you guys to do all this.

No, that doesn't happen. It's kind of open. It's kind of open for everyone. If you come, that's fine. We kind of hope you don't, but outside of, but like the Christian community will actually say, Hey, we're coming to help you.

We're going to take care of you. That's, that's, that's a Christian concept. And I will argue with anybody day and night over that.

Well, I mean, you grew up seeing, you know, in, in the East that doesn't happen. So you know, all our, our philanthropic organizations were built because of the good Samaritan stories. You know, that's why they were done. Or the law in the old Testament that when you glean your fields, leave some for the poor, don't, don't try to pick up every single fruit. You don't need every single fruit. You don't need every sheaf. You just leave some, just let them fall. Don't go back and pick them up. It's okay.

So let somebody else take it. That idea is a very Judeo-Christian concept. Yeah. You lent me a book one time.

I believe we've talked about it on the show once or twice, but you, you lent me a book by Alvin Schmidt that talked about that. Like how every outreach ministry, every, like you said, kind of philanthropy or, or just outreach humanitarian organization that we have in the West is here because of Christianity, because that's where those principles come from. It's not just the goodness of human beings.

Right, right. It's done because of that. Like Red Cross. I mean, the idea for cross is because of Christ and hence it was started, but in time, you know, things become secular or liberal or progressive or just socially gospel oriented. But initially they all started with the fact that Jesus came to die for us. Now we've got to take the gospel to people. Wait, they're hungry or they're hurting or they're sick or they're in need. Let's meet the needs so we can give them the gospel. That, that was the motivation behind it. Not, not to bribe them, but to meet their immediate needs so they will have peace enough and strength enough to receive the true gospel. You know William Booth would often say something to the, to the effect that if it had been possible, his desire was to dangle his evangelism trainees over hell for 24 hours. Right.

That way they could see the reality that awaits those who do not know Jesus Christ. Yeah. Cause when you're, cause when you're out there and you're like feeding people or you're helping or you're volunteering at these events, it's easy.

It's very, very easy cause I've done it. It's very easy to kind of meld into the background and just pour soup into a bowl and I feel good because I'm doing a good thing and I do my time and then I, I leave and I'm saying, Hey, I volunteered and I help people. And people often say things like, you know, it feels good to help people. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the reward about that. That's the reward people are going for is they want to feel good. They want to, they want to say that they contributed, they helped so that if anyone ever says anything against me, I've got that shield where I went and I volunteered.

It's not really about sharing the gospel for a lot of people. Yeah. Right.

That feel good picture is, I mean, it's an incomplete goal. Yes. You can feel good helping people.

I mean, you, you should want to help other people, but for a much deeper and more profound truth than just, yeah, I want to feel good. Yeah. Yeah. It's weird because I've, I guess I just see it all the time, you know, cause we, we do this kind of thing.

We do outreach a lot at Clearview, but I have never seen it here where the gospel isn't presented. You know what I mean? It's all, and it's always intentional. And so sometimes I wonder how organizations can get away from it. I wonder how they, I guess if, if it's just not a core value of theirs, or if it's just something that we forget, oops, we didn't share the gospel.

I just don't know how it happens where. Yeah. It's I think it's deeper than that. I think it's coming from a place of, I hate to use the word humanism, you know, just a humanity or the brotherhood of man or something like that.

You know, it's, it's on the surface. It feels good that we are all in this together. I'm lifting up my brother or my sister, but man, how long are you going to lift them up? You know, you're gonna lift them up for eternity because without Christ, that's where they're going. So you got to truly believe the gospel.

And if you truly do, then it's more than just feeding them. Now you've got to give them the gospel, you know, feed their soul, give them hope, eternal. And then when Christ comes into a person's life, it doesn't mean all their problems are solved or all of a sudden they have a huge mansion or something, but, but their perspective on life changes, their work ethic changes, their confidence changes, their hope, their faith, everything begins to change. They have a new vision for life.

And that's what we want. That's what has made Western culture what it is today because people, when they found Christ, they also found hope and they found purpose and meaning, right? And direction in life. And they were able to do great things. Well, you said it before on the show, but everywhere that Christianity has gone, it has elevated people. You can tell the places where the gospel has gone and Christianity has touched peoples and cultures and has made a profound and lasting impact because, I mean, you hold them side by side. You can see the clear difference that's been made.

That's right. And Salvation Army, you know, they've been talking about this today, you know, William Booth was very passionate on that because he grew up in a very poverty stricken environment, didn't have much. And so it bothered him. Number one, it bothered him that the high church, you know, the established church didn't care about the gospel.

They were very faint when it came to revival and awakenings. But then he also saw that they didn't care about people who are struggling. And so, you know, he worked in the Methodist church and whatnot and tried to get them activated until finally he realized, like, I don't think this is working out. I'm going to go do my own thing. He made a statement like this. He said, while women weep, as they do now, I'll fight. While little children go hungry, I'll fight. While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight.

While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end. And that was his motto, you know. Wow. I think that's very interesting. And I think kind of what you said up top is that, you know, he felt that compassion.

He saw that the high church didn't have compassion for people. And it brings me to a memory of traveling with you, Dr. Sha, when we went to Israel in 2020 and we filmed at the Church of the Multiplication. I remember we filmed everywhere we went, but that was one that I was super excited. I don't know. Was that your first time or was that your second time going to the Church of the Multiplication in 2020? Probably the third time.

Third time. Okay. So we went and we were filming and you were talking about that. You said Jesus looked out at these people and he didn't feed 5,000 people just so they'd leave him alone. It's because he looked out at them and he felt compassion for them. But his compassion is not the compassion that we take. Because our compassion is, man, I feel sorry for those people. Someone should do something. Or our compassion is, here, let me just help you.

Let me just get you up on your feet and rub you on the back and make you feel good. Jesus' compassion was, let me feed you and then tell you the truth. William Booth's compassion is, hey, I'm going to fight to make sure that you have what you have.

You know, it's more than just feeling sorry for someone and then maybe pitching in my bare minimum amount. There's a presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a hope for a better future. Right.

And, you know, we're focused more on William Booth's Salvation Army and, you know, gospel and taking care of people. But he had other ideas as well. For example, when it came to music, he said, secular music, do you say, belongs to the devil?

Does it? Well, if it did, I would plunder him for it, where he has no right to a single note of the whole seven. Every note and every strain and every harmony is divine and belongs to us.

So consecrate your voice and your instruments, offer them to God, use them to make all the hearts about you marry before the Lord. Wow. I like the guy. He's got his head on. I like the guy. I like that, man. You know, so he cared about Christianity enough to capture the culture.

I like people who capture the culture. I think that's kind of what it's about. And that's kind of what we're doing here as well is that saying, you know, the culture is losing the war right now. It's losing the war to secularism and just worldliness. And I feel like the church is just content to watch it go. Right.

Well, that's what I was going to say. That brings us back to what William Booth said is that it's worth the fight. It may be a fight at times, but it is worth the fight because there are souls in the balance.

People's eternities are on the line. So it's up to us to hold that ground. And you're holding that ground with us as part of our listening audience. We appreciate you so much for being a partner with us in this journey as we seek to impact people with the hope of Jesus Christ. You can do that through several ways. Pray for us. Continue to recommend this podcast to recommend this radio show to your friends and family. You can partner with us financially as well on our website, clearviewtodayshow.com. You'll find a button to give there. Pray about how God would have you give.

Stand with us and fight the good fight to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus. That's right. Dr. Shell, we had a question this morning come in from Trevor R. Trevor kind of wants to see the darker side of life. He asked, what's the, what side, I'm sorry, I ripped myself up.

What's the worst thing you got in trouble for in school? Oh, all right. So this is a quick story and I'll make it quick.

Okay. So this was kind of like a half day sort of thing. I think a teacher work days type that you go in the morning and then halfway through, you know, Hey, it's time to go home.

It's an early release because teachers are going to do some work grading, whatnot. So bunch of these guys in high school decided to go to the countryside and go to this sugar cane field and just get some sugar cane. This is the story that I thought would happen.

Yes. I'm excited. And so I'm like, I didn't know it in the beginning. This is what was going to happen. And I didn't know like y'all are actually going to steal sugar cane. So I thought it was just like, Hey, so these sugar canes are here.

So you just like come in, eat a couple of things. Was this during school hours? School hours, but it was early release. So it was not like we were skipping school. Gotcha. So I'm like, okay. So a bunch of us on our motorcycles, you know, we, we kind of pair it up and we're headed out out of town and usually don't do that. I mean, you know, this is not normal, but it was early release.

It's only like 10, 10 30. So now, Oh yeah, we're having fun. And then we pull over by this field and they're like, all right guys, let's go before the guy sees us. I'm like, Oh no. So we're like invading somebody's field and we're going to morph into something different. It's like, you realize I'm in over my head here, grabbing this, grabbing that laughing kernel. All of a sudden they're like, Oh no, he's coming. And I'm like, are we going to now run like thieves? Sure enough.

We're running like thieves out of this, this the farmers coming farmers coming. So it reminded me of like that movie. Was it cars were that big, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. The, like the combine is chasing after what is it?

Lightning McQueen, Lightning McQueen and, and Mater. Yeah. Yeah.

That's how it felt like. I'm like running out of this place and the guy like gets on his motorcycle, the farmer with his whatever. And, and I'm like, this is not fun. So we're like, Hey, split up, split up. Y'all go this, that or that. Everybody scatter. Yeah. Cheese it. And sure enough, we're like in white shirt, gray pants and ties.

So they know exactly. It's a school uniform. So all he has to do is see these gray pants running, but he comes to the school. Oh no. And so, yeah, it was not my proudest moment, but that's what happens guys and girls. Don't go with your friends, stealing shoes or you might end up accidentally in a field stealing.

I think Proverbs has some words on that. Oh yeah. They got in trouble. They, they, they got some big trouble for that.

But here, here's the thing. They protected me. They didn't rat you out. They didn't rat me out. They, yeah, that's good friends.

It doesn't fall. I was the head of the student body for a while. I was a head boy. They're like, man, that's too funny. I love that story. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.