Friday, April 14th | Cynical Towards God? (pt. 2)

Today is Friday, April the 14th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. 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 visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. And you guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. But before we do that, I think we need to start this Friday off on the right foot with the verse of the day, dude. Amen.

Hey, bad. It is from 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Yeah, I think that's one of the, at least for me, one of the hardest things to do as a Christian is to let go of some of it and just to accept that some of it is going to be a mystery. You know what I mean? Well, how is he God with us, but he's still God in the human flesh, but he's still a hundred percent God and he's a hundred percent man.

How does mathematically that work? Well, listen, we're never going to fully comprehend God. And we have to be okay with that because we know that he was a hundred percent God.

He was a hundred percent man. And that's part of the mystery. And so, you know, but being God manifested in flesh means that if you want to get closer to understanding him, you have to get closer to Jesus.

Yeah, absolutely. I had a conversation with somebody one time and he was, uh, grew up in church, but kind of moved away in his teenage and young adult years. And he, um, was kind of devout ag agnostic, I guess you could say he like, there's something out there, but I don't know what it is.

And more than that, we can't, we can't know. Um, and so I, you know, he would, he would be, what about this? What about this?

What about this? I'm like, listen, man, we got to a point, this would go, this went on for weeks. He was a coworker of mine and uh, I told him, I said, you know, I'm happy to continue having these conversations with, with you, but it seems like you don't really want answers. You just want to confound me. And you're, you're, you're trying to find answers to all these questions, but at some point you're going to have to be okay with a God that you just don't understand. You're going to have to, you're gonna have to resolve that because God is higher than we are and we're not going to understand everything about him.

It's just, it's impossible. And that kind of shook him from it. He was like, yeah, yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah.

And I mean, think about this, how, like, it's not even just God. Like I can't fully understand my wife. You know, I'll never fully understand.

How many white blood cells does she have? I don't know. Why don't you know that? You're supposed to know everything. You there's, there's things about each other that you can't know every single thing.

Just like you can't know everything about anything. But the part where faith comes in is saying, listen, God, I trust you. I trust that you are who you say you are.

I've seen you work in my life and that's good enough for me. That's right. And I love that. I love that this reference is three 16 because I mean, John three 16, that's the gospel, right? That's the verse that everybody knows it because it's a perfect encapsulation of the gospel. But first Timothy three 16 is also a callback to the gospel because it tells, it tells us God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up in glory. That's another encapsulation of the gospel and it shows how the gospel was spread to the nations. Beautiful. Uh, I had someone write in a kind of interesting question. I almost skipped this one, but I thought it was kind of funny. Michael W wrote in who wants to know who is your most hated fictional character of all time?

Ooh, that's a good question. Yeah. Most hated fictional character of all time. Like I'm thinking you ever see the old, um, the old Willy Wonka with, uh, Gene Wilder. I know exactly grandpa Joe. Grandpa Joe. Okay. That's my answer. That's my grandpa Joe.

Here's this. I'm gonna lay. So dude is sick, right? Lays in a bed for 20 something years. I'm not joking.

20 years. And everybody like worship, not worships, but like their life just revolves around that to feed him. They have to change his bed sheet. This quartet of grandparents that are just invalids every need met of a family that's already struggling. I mean, mom's working like nine jobs.

She's like cabbage water for supper. And then Charlie comes home. The only solace this kid has in life is he can every year on his birthday buy a bar of candy. He wins the golden ticket and the grandpa Joe all of a sudden is dancing around magically. My life could be anything but catastrophe. No kidding grandpa.

None of us did because we thought you were lame about this. It's their foot that I find a bit of good luck for me. Have you been able to walk this entire time? A bit of good luck for you. Cause I've got a golden ticket. It's Charlie's.

It's not yours. I've got a golden twinkle in my eye. I almost had to work 146 hours every week. Get my slippers, Charlie. And then goes in, so signs the document, convinces Charlie, convinces Charlie to break away from the group, steal fizzy lifting drinks, bump into the ceiling, almost gets his grandson killed, right? Almost bump into the fan, like get chopped up by the fan. Oh, Charlie, that was close.

We better join the rest of the group. What an absolute jerk. When Willy Wonka says, you can't win the grand prize.

You broke the rules and you stole from me. Grandpa Joe goes off on Mr. Wonka. I'll fight grandpa Joe right here on the show. Irredeemable. An irredeemable character. Grandpa Joe is my answer. Who's your most hated fictional character? Grandpa Joe.

That's the answer. No redeeming qualities. I'm going to ask Pastor Sha if he's ever seen the movie. Cause I bet Pastor Sha would fight grandpa Joe.

No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Grandpa Joe walks up, Pastor Sha's like, what's up? What's up? Grandpa, what's up? Now I'm hype.

I'm ready to fight grandpa Joe. Speaking of getting hype, we've been going through the series on Malachi and these books, these messages, these shows that we've been recording have been getting me hype. Malachi is a very hype book. Malachi is a good book. And I think it's one that, you know, I'm glad it's kind of been slept on because it feels new.

It's like, it's like watching a new show for the first time. Yep. So we're going to continue our discussion through Malachi today. We're going to get Dr. Sha in just a second. But if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-58-25028 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. Sha'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. And 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, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show? Let's do it.

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're joining us for the very first time today, you've never listened to the show before, we're going to let you know who's talking to you. 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 episode and every episode before, after, in between all of them. And you can find me... Don't look at me like that. What? Don't look at me like that. I got so confused. No, I got tripped up because you were looking at me. And I was like, I got to... I was trying to follow. I got to say something to impress this guy. It worked. I was impressed by your many words.

You can visit all of his work and check it out on his website. That's AbbadonShaw.com. I'll have to redo it just for that. I was trying to follow. No, you were like... I was like, okay. You were like... Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Well, guys, on today's episode, what we want to do, Dr. Shaw, is kind of recap where we were yesterday because we sort of ran short in our time to discuss, but we're diving into this book, Malachi, the book of the end of the Old Testament, one that gets glossed over a lot, kind of gets skipped over one of the minor prophets. But like we said yesterday, that doesn't make it any less important. It's just minor in length, but maybe major in the message that it contains. Well, it is kind of a testament to it.

It's like the very first time we talk about it, we kind of run short on time in the very first thing because it's so deep. There's so much to it. Malachi is one of those books that convicts you, but it doesn't leave you there.

It just convicts you and brings you to a place of repentance and return to your first love. And that's what these people needed. Yeah. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the show yesterday, basically the people of Israel, they'd come back from the Babylonian exile and they were just tired of serving God. There's like an exhaustion. Like as a people, as a nation, they were just like, man, we've been through so much. We've been through so... And it's kind of narratively appropriate because you're coming up to the end of the Old Testament. You think about how huge the Old Testament is and they just are looking back on all this stuff they've gone through and be like, man, I'm tired. We've been through it.

I'll tell you what. And it's funny because exhaustion can do that to people. You're really tired. I feel myself say and think and do things that are not me.

Yeah. Even physical exhaustion can lead you to emotional and spiritual exhaustion. That can be a byproduct of that, an unfortunate reality. And it was not even like they were doing evil things like their ancestors did, like running after false gods or going to the high places or finding every bush and tree to worship. This was not what they were doing. They were actually serving God, but they were tired of serving God.

I mean, how many times do you know of Christians, believers, church staff, they're tired of serving God. Just going through the motions. Yeah. And in the process sin comes in, bad decisions are made, indiscretion happens, testimonies are destroyed. And so this is a book for you. This show is for you folks. Yeah.

I see it. Well, I see it online a lot because my wife and I, we're in forums where other worship pastors or other tech teams and tech crews will post stuff that they're doing. Hey, my church is doing this.

My church is doing this. And it's interesting because you do see a lot of that, like, oh, big weekend, man, y'all pray for us just so much. So stressed out. And people post it like it's a normal thing to post. And I don't think it's like the solution is hide how stressed you are, but man, the attitude comes through and people don't even attempt to hide it.

Like, or don't even attempt to like remedy it. One of the words that you brought up yesterday, Dr. Shaw, that really kind of just stuck out my mind was there was a cynicism to what the Israelites were bringing to the table. And I mean, just like you, John, I've seen that in forums related to youth ministry, kind of like you were talking, John, with worship and tech. These people who are wearing their cynicism almost like a veteran badge. Like, look, I've been hurt by the church and I've been wounded by this person in leadership or these parents that I've had to deal with or this deacon that just kind of really just rates my skin.

Pictures of their pastor holding the mic improperly and they'll be like, that's pastors. You know, it's not cute and it's not, it's not relatable. It's disrespectful and it's, it shows your cynical heart. And it's coming from a place of bitterness. It's coming from a place, maybe even a burnout because you, you're facing difficult times in your life.

You're, you're, you're struggling with health, you're struggling with finances, you're struggling with relationship breakdowns. You're struggling with the unpredictable of people, the injustice of people. You know, people will do people things. Okay. And, and when people get hurt and you know, God's people get hurt, whether they're staff or just regular people.

We, we, we're still in the, in the, in the boat, we're still in the boat, you know, we're still saved. Right. But we have the attitude of kind of just like hanging across, you know, overboard, just kinda like, I'm done with this thing. And I know believers like that right now. I know, I know people like that and it is so tragic for them to act the way they do. Passive aggressiveness comes through.

I've even seen them far more passionate about other things and other anomalies of life or whatever it is rather than the things of God. Yep. Yep. And it's, it's tragic and I see it and I'm like, wow, really?

Really? What happened to you? Yeah. Where did you allow the enemy to so corrupt your heart? Where did you allow yourself to become so prominent in your, in your life that, that God and his goodness and his truth and his mercy and the Holy Spirit is, is no longer making a difference?

Well, I think you use the word yourself, use it twice. It's tragic. It is a, it's a tragedy and it's something that you just don't feel any joy when you see that happen to people. You feel like, man, like you said, what happened? Yeah.

What something happened or, and if nothing happened, like what's going on in you that's causing that because something is not lining up. Right. And when they come across somebody who is either a young believer or somebody in ministry or somebody in the pews who is still excited about Jesus and his word, it bothers them. Yeah.

And they almost have a condescending higher ground attitude towards you. Like you haven't faced the real world. You'll see. You'll see. Yeah.

Let me go ahead and quench that fire for you. That's some service. And I know it's fake. You got to fake. Well, what if it's not fake? What if it's real? What we do have is real.

Right. And it's all by God's grace. It's not me conjuring up my passions to, to, to run the race. What if, what if it is, this is real and my heart is surrendered to God. So, you know, I don't want to be proud or arrogant about this and say I'm better than them because I'm not.

All that I am is by the grace of God. But I just want to tell people, whether they're listening or viewing, please don't let that hardness get into your heart. Yeah.

I mean, I look at what we're doing right now. This is not, you know, talking about the goodness of God and doing this and putting it out there is not something that cynical people are able to do. This, this here, like producing something and sharing something and telling people on the internet and telling people on the radio, like we want you guys to get this.

When God gets, when, when God like, I'm sorry, when cynicism comes in, it's almost like you, you can't even think that way anymore. Everything just becomes, this is now work. Now I have to write these run sheets. Now I got to get everybody in this room. Now I got to get us to talk about something.

Now we got to pretend to laugh. And like, you can't think that way and you can't really put the heart that needs to be in it out there to people. Yeah. It's just rote. It's just, you know, it's just motion. And you start to resent it.

Yeah. And before we dive back into Malachi, I just want to say this. Most of Christian life is lived in the desert. Most of it is lived in the hard sun baked sands of life where there is no way this is in sight and you have to trudge on most of Christian life is lived there. So for, if you want to have this feeling, you know, there's this, this, this thing to psych you up. I don't know. You got a wrong religion.

Yeah, that's true. So here's what God tells them. Here's how I know you're no longer where you need to be. Malachi 1.6, a son honors his father and his servant, his master. If then I am your, the father, where is my honor?

And if I'm a master, where is my reverence as the Lord of hosts? Yeah. Yeah.

He's like, you, you're claiming me with your mouth, but where is it? Yeah. You're not honoring me.

Your heart's not lining up with your thing. That's right. Yeah. And so you're not reverencing me and reverence, by the way, you know, we, we, we believers have the idea of reverence as, as in somberness or some organ music.

I was going to say some dark Oregon, the stained glass windows, somebody with their hands like this. Yeah. The guitar was out here and we were honoring God, but the organs now we're really, now we're really, oh man, that's, that's reverent. Or you know, or just the way you say God, you know, We need a revival and an outpouring of holiness towards God.

Yeah. You know, it's not in that. And God calls them out. Listen to what he says is he starts with the staff, with the pastors, to you priests who despise my name. He's not talking to the people in the pews.

He's talking with those who are up on the stage in the pulpit. You despise my name. Yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? You offer defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled you? By saying the table of the Lord is contemptible. Gosh. It's like no fear at all.

No reverence at all. It's just, I mean, just the audacity to look back to God and be like, what have we done? What do we do? I think of like kids. I think of like my son when he, when he like does something or he knocks it off and I'm like, Hey, no, no. He's like, he looks at me confused. Like what?

I didn't like, you know what you've done, but you're like, no, you got to tell me, it's up to you to tell me what I've done. Right. And so you know, the priests and the Levites, what had happened here when, why were they saying the table of the Lord is contemptible? Because the priests and the Levites had no fear of God. So when the people would bring defiled food, the leftovers, right?

I mean, this is, this is, this is so indicative of Christianity. Even today, the leftover, the leftover money. So not your tithes and offerings, not, not the above and beyond 10%. People say 10%.

Really? It should be a hundred percent. Yeah. So don't fuss about 10%. Right.

You should be giving much more than that. Exactly. So they were giving, what's left forever. Uh, this week is going to be busy. This is going to be stretched. So, um, go ahead and drop the $20 bill. Yeah. We'll get, we'll pick it up next week. Yeah.

And they would bring the rejected stuff to the altar. So I'm just too tired. I'm not, I'm not going to church today. Well, this week we got a lot going on.

Hmm. I tell you what, next week we'll go, let's just go to the Sunday. I tell you what, yeah, we'll just, we'll just go to Sunday school and leave. Even I even think of like people who like have stuff in their house, like a chair or like nursery stuff and it breaks and it's completely like broken beyond repair, but they're like, I'm going to just take it up to the church.

Can you use this? They'll be thankful for this. And they bring their like stuff that's that obviously you don't want anymore. And it's not a matter of like, I'll do, I'll do you one better. Um, it's like we were cleaning out our kids closet and found this garbage bag full of toys.

I don't know what I was in here, but I think you could use this in the nursery. Yeah. Huh? This is your, this is your responsibility now. Most of them are broken. Right.

When a church begins to talk about, we don't have the money. My question to you is how much are you going above and beyond? That's right. Yeah.

How much are you? The money is there. It's the people. Yeah. So they were bringing what's leftover, you know, all under the guise of it's good enough.

And, um, uh, the priests were not stopping them, whether it was on the altar or the showbread table or the altar of burnt offerings, the priests were like, yeah, that's fine. Go and put it over there. That's all right. That's okay. That's all right. That's all right. Let's go.

Just keep the line moving. That'll work. And so verse eight, and when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil when you offer the layman sick?

Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. Oh, man. Take it to your boss. Take it to your mayor. Take it to the governor of your state. See if he can pull that off.

Take it to your president. But he'll, but you'll, you'll, you'll bring it to the most high God, but you wouldn't offer it to what some mayor or some governor, but you'll bring it to me. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably says the Lord of hosts, but now entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us while this is being done by your hands.

Will he accept you favorably? Hey, I believe Christian life is a life of grace. Everything we do is by God's grace.

It's not a works. We know that, but Hey, how about, you know, living your life in a way that says, God, I'm doing all this because of how good you've been to me not to earn my salvation. You can't do it anyways, but because it is so precious, so awesome, so unworthy, I am, this is all yours. But when people don't do that and give the leftover, I mean, how dishonoring that reverence is missing. You told me something once that's, that's transformed the way that I think. You told me that we tend to give people stuff that doesn't really cost us and we call it mercy or we call it generosity. It doesn't, you know, if it's really your mercy or if it's really your generosity or your compassion, then it has to hurt.

Sometimes, you know, you heard, you hear people in church say that, you know, Hey, we, as a church, we need to be merciful. Okay. Mercy is my spiritual gift. Right. So we, as a church needs to help this family or we need to, I'm like, um, mercy is your gift, but we're going to pay for it.

Right. The church is going to pay for it, but it's my mercy. That's not mercy. It's my mercy. It's my mercy. No, because I had the idea.

No, it was my idea and therefore equals my mercy. It's like, it's like some somebody is, you know, there's a, there's a wreck. Okay. You're, you're driving down the road and you come to this intersection, there's a wreck and all peoples are out and you see this millionaire standing there and you see this average person or whatever, you know, they all, everybody's hanging around. And then there's this family over here that got caught in a wreck and you go, Oh my goodness, my heart goes out.

And you walk over to the millionaire, hand me a wallet, hand me a wallet, hand me a wallet. Here you go. Here you go, guys. I am. My heart goes out to you.

Here you go. Right. They're like, Oh, my heart goes out with someone else's saved my life with someone else's money.

Thank you. That's not mercy. That might be like some kind of savior complex, but that's not mercy.

I think I think that's correct. Exactly what it is. People have a savior complex, but it's not mercy.

They want the, they want the accolades of being a savior without having to sacrifice. That's it. Yep. We see that a lot in churches.

Yes. So now here's verse 10. God says, who is there even among you who was shut the doors so that you would not Kindle fire on my altar in vain means somebody needs to have the guts to get up there and stop all this. I have no pleasure in you says Lord of hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands for from the rising of the sun, even to it's going down.

My name shall be great among the Gentiles means y'all not going to do me right. I'm going to go somewhere else. Right. And they will.

Yep. This again tells us if God is saying that means the truth, the gospel about the truth about the coming of this one was not just relegated to the Jewish people. It was, it was, the news was out there that to the Jewish people is coming the one who will be our savior. And that's what God is saying here to them.

And they're amazing. We tend to think that only the Jewish people had the knowledge. Everybody else was in their own world doing their own thing.

That's not true. Yes. The world was pagan.

Yes. The world was going after false God and worshiping false gods, but they were always aware of the fact that these people have the truth and it's coming through them. And what God is saying to his people is I'm going to go to the Gentiles in every place in sense shall be offered to my name and a pure offering means they will do things right. That's right. For my name shall be great among the nations, nations says the Lord of hosts, but you profane it in that you say the table of the Lord is defiled and it's fruit is food is contemptible. You also say, Oh, what a weariness. Oh, I'm so tired, baby. So, so we have to go to church again. Oh my word. We were just there. I know we ain't got to be there every time the door is open.

That's what some people love to say that I've heard it. You want me to go to church and you want me to, you want me to volunteer somewhere in the church? You know how much I do during the week? Hey look, I put my time in. Okay. When my kids were young, I put my time. How much stuff is the church going to do?

How many events are they going to have? Oh my goodness. Hey, y'all need a break. Y'all y'all really y'all work so I'm going to burn yourself out. You don't care about me burning myself out. You want things to be shut down so that you can sit back and have a guilt-free time on the lake, on the beach, in the mountains, in front of your television, in your backyard. You want a guilt-free time.

Okay, well then go and do it. Right. We're still going to serve God. Yeah.

We can't be responsible for your conviction or for erasing your conviction. Right. I love the way you put that. Go ahead and do it. Go ahead and have your time on the lake.

Go ahead and have your retreat with your family. Go ahead and do whatever you're doing to do, but we're still going to serve God. That's right. We're still going to do what we've been called to do. Don't try to get us to slow down.

That's right. Your guilt is not our prerogative. It's not up to us to make you feel better for doing less. It's not that you're like, Hey, you're required to do this as a Christian. Do what you're convinced, but it's not up to us.

We're not ramping down. That's right. So God says, you bring the stolen, the lame and the sick. Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hand?

Of course the answer is no. So then comes verse 14, but cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock, a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord. What is blemished? Oh my goodness. I mean, they're in the land, they're worshiping God.

They're not going after false idols. But when it came time to give, it's like, Oh yeah, that one has that weird growth. Yeah. Give it to the Lord. Give that one to God. And God says, how sad God has to say this for I am a great King. And that's sad. That's like breaks your heart. God has to say that.

Yeah, that's bad. My name is to be feared among the nations. Such a, such an important thing for us to discuss on today's episode. If you enjoyed today's episode or you have questions or suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight, or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

You can also partner with us on that same website. We pray that you would give obediently to what God has called you to do, and you would join with us as partners as we seek to impact people with the hope of Jesus Christ. Today's been a fiery episode. We roasted grandpa Joe. Yeah, we roasted grandpa Joe. And then I feel like deservedly, deservedly.

And then the Lord's doing all this. So I want to know, or really, I should say Michael W wants to know who is your most despised fictional character of all time. Oh my word. That's a, that's a tough one. That's a tough one.

Yeah. Grandpa Joe really got it. There's some up there, but grandpa Joe is just, Ooh, he's, he's up there. Who's grandpa Joe? Grandpa Joe from a Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. He laid in the bed for 20 years.

Grandparents are all bedridden. And as soon as Charlie comes home with a golden ticket, suddenly he can walk and dance and sing. And he's ready to go to the candy factory.

Where were you sitting in the bed for the past 20 years, making mom work 168 hours a week. That's grandpa Joe. To me, it's like, it's from the, it's a wonderful life. Mr. Potter.

Mr. Potter. He just, I don't know what to do with him. Yeah. It's like, I want to, I want to slap him around a little bit, but he's in a wheelchair.

What can I like? Oh, he deserves to be. Yeah.

I don't feel too bad for him. Lying about a man and looking out the door and saying like, Oh God, roll me over there. Yeah. I think about it. Roll me over there.

Calls up the bank against poor Jimmy Stewart. Yeah. Oh yeah. Mr. Potter's pretty bad. He's he's a pretty bad one. Yeah. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview today.