How to Grow in Your Faith

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Thursday, June the 29th. 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, or 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. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show, 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. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from Acts 14, 21 and 22. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. We need people who will speak boldness and encouragement and life into us. So many times people like enter into a conversation and you just walk away and you just feel like zapped.

You feel like all the life is sucked out of you. All the wind has been taken out of your sails because people are just so negative. And I get it. Life is hard sometimes, but in this, in this verse, it strikes me so much when it says that the souls of the disciples were strengthened and they were exhorted to continue in the faith. We need people who will come alongside us and say, Hey, I know life's tough right now, but you're going to get through this and you're going to get through it because of God and because of his glory.

And not a, not a ignoring of reality. You know what I mean? Like we must through many tribulations.

That's true. We're going to go through tribulations, but the end result, we must through many tribulations, what are we going to do? Enter the kingdom of God.

There's a hope and there's a, there's an assurance of victory. That's one thing I love about working under Dr. Shah is that I truly, I get hype. Like when there'll be times where we're sitting around at lunch and we'll just be talking about our plans for the future and what God's about to do. And I leave like really thinking, I feel like that guy in a new hope, like I can feel like I could take on the whole empire by myself. I've walked out of lunch meetings thinking that like, I can change the face of modern Christianity through God at Clearview church. And that is the type of shepherd that you need in your life. And I think if you're, if you're listening to this and you, you feel that, thank your pastor for that.

If you don't feel that, maybe, maybe be the one to breathe that culture into your church and it'll catch on because I'm telling you, when you start encouraging the people of God around you, man, stuff starts happening. Stuff starts changing. It absolutely makes a difference. Yeah.

Speaking of making a difference, I have something that I would like to make a difference in, in the culture around us. And it's a gripe that I have. Welcome to the gripe vine. Where we pick your gripes right off the boink, boink. I have a gripe today and it is ripe for the pickin'.

I can't wait. We haven't done a gripe vine in a little bit. I think it's been a couple of weeks. Well, you know, here where we are in North Carolina, the weather's turned a little warmer now. North Carolina is like the crazy unpredictable aunt, like that everyone kind of hopes isn't coming to the, to the, to the family reunion. Yep. Yeah.

And she, and she shows, she shows up and it's like, I don't know what she's going to do. For example, there was one week recently where one day the low was in the low fifties. Now we're in June. The low was in the low fifties.

Two days later, the low was in the upper sixties, low seventies, the low. But I would say, Ryan, you can't gripe about the weather. I'm not grabbing the weather. I have no problem with the weather. My problem is the people experiencing the weather and they feel the need. People feel the need to inform you of what the weather is like. Now let me paint this picture for you.

This usually takes the place, takes place when we are outside in a group, performing some activity. I was going to say, for context, for anybody who has not heard the show before, Ryan primarily works with teenagers. Yes.

Yes. I work with teenagers. We'll also do a lot of work with kids. We have five kids of our own.

So this is coming from the 18 and down demographic. We will be outside engaged in some activity, service project, games, something. And often multiple people, because this is like a contagion, once it starts, it just spreads. Most people come up with me and go, it's hot. As if I am just completely immune to the temperature, like totally oblivious to what the world around me is like. It's hot? I had no idea. Tell me more about this heat. Of course I know it's hot.

I'm out here experiencing it with you. It's raining. It's about to rain.

I know. How about this? Do you know when the rain is going to start? We said we were going bowling, but it's raining. Are you going to do something, or am I just going to be hot?

Can we work on this? What are you going to do? We're outside in June. It's going to be hot. Let's table the heat discussion for now, and maybe we'll get back to the task at hand. I hear you, and I do want to circle back to that, because it is hot. I have started telling people, when it's hot outside, you know one of the ways to not cool yourself down?

Telling me that it's hot. One of the things that I remember from school, and I want to talk to Dr. Shaw about this later, because I know he was a teacher for a long time, is that if kids, especially in North Carolina, even get a hint, a whisper of snowflakes in the air, that's it. Shut it down. Shut the whole thing down.

That's shut the whole process down. They'll be like, it's snowing. It's snowing outside. It's like two snowflakes fell. Is it going to stick?

Do you think it's going to stick? One snowflake, we're home for a day. Two snowflakes stuck to the ground, shut it down for the week. My mama don't want me driving out in the ice, so I need to go home. It's dangerous.

Can I call my mom to come get me? We're going to talk to Dr. Shaw about that. I want to know if he has any stories like that from his time as an educator. I'm sure. You guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back. Listen. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives.

One of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. 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 Avidan Shaw, Ph.D. podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview 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, AvidanShaw.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 Clearview Today with Dr. Avidan Shaw, 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 or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. If today's your first time ever joining us on the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Avidan 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 on his website.

That's AvidanShaw.com. Dr. Shaw, I have a question for you before we jump into the episode today. What's your favorite way to take your coffee? If you had your ideal cup of coffee, what is the favorite cup of coffee for you? Favorite cup of coffee?

I mean, this is a good one here. I've used John's... The blueberry? No, the cafe mocha. Not mocha. The white mocha.

The white chocolate. It's pretty good. It's good.

I have gotten away from... Years ago, I got away from putting Stevia and Splenda and all that, and now they're coming out and saying it's not good for you. Oh yeah. Thank you.

Thanks for telling me now. Ten years ago, I got away from Splenda, because I was a Splenda man all the way. Really? Splenda, you can put one and it's just super sweet. It's so sweet. It's sickeningly sweet. So, you like the white chocolate mocha?

Yes. And I don't put sugar in it anymore. I want to get to a place where I'm just drinking the black coffee. I want to.

It's not there yet. One thing that I've found that has really been turned onto is the flavored syrups. They don't have a whole lot of sugar in them. They don't?

Really? Not a ton. Not a ton. There are some. Not some do, but the kind that we have here, they don't have a ton of sugar content in them. But two pumps of the hazelnut and a cup of black coffee?

I'm good to go. It's pretty good. It kind of rounds it out with some sweetness. It's not quite as bitter. You were talking about wanting to get towards a place in your life where you could enjoy black coffee.

And I said, you know what? That, to me, is progress. That is progress in a life. It's growth, if I can even say that. It's forward momentum. It's forward motion.

There you go. Development. And that's what we're talking about today in the context of the Christian life. What does progression look like in the Christian life, specifically with regards to this buzzword around church's discipleship? Well, unfortunately, the story of many Christians is that when it comes to growing in the Christian life, the wheels are turning, but they're not going anywhere. So there are Bible studies and there are retreats and there are revival meetings or whatever, but there is not substantial growth. And times there are with certain cliched statements.

And some of them are really powerful truths, but as in radical impact in your life that has reoriented your life towards bringing God glory and building his kingdom and know to self and yes to God. I mean, it's not there. It's like we're just spinning the wheels almost. Yeah. It's like you're having coffee and your little son wants to have coffee with you, so you give him a little cup of milk. Like, here you go.

This is yours. You're not quite ready for the real stuff. But this really is not coffee.

No, it's an ingredient of coffee, but there's no coffee in it. Yeah. I feel that. I feel like there have been times in my life where I want to move forward and I want to get unstuck, but there's just no traction. I'm just spinning my wheels.

Which, by the way, if you're looking for a way to get unstuck, 30 Days to a New Beginning by Dr. Shaw and Nicole Shaw, great devotional for you, how to get unstuck and move forward in your faith. Just a plug for you. Yeah. You made me think about a story. Okay. It's time for a story. Let's do a story time.

This is going back to the seminary days. I'm back in early 2000s. Maybe even 2000. Maybe 2001.

I don't know. I'm trying to think. But anyways, this was wintertime. We had snow. It was thick snow on the ground. The ground was kind of soggy and wet. Our front yard was like a little mushy.

Snow was still there on the yard. And school was shut down for a couple of days, but then finally they opened up, so I decided to go. And I got in my little Chevy S10 and made my way to seminary for my classes. And when I left, Nicole said, well, I'm going to try to get out too, because I need to go ahead and go get some shopping done before, if you have another snow or whatever, it'll be a mess.

I was like, okay, okay. Well, so she decided to, typically she would have turned, like pulling out of the driveway, she would turn like this and then turn right in the driveway and then go out, face out to the road and then turn right. But this time she decided to kind of turn to the left into the yard instead of going into this open area next to the driveway, she decided to go in the yard. And the reason I think she did that was because there was too much snow next to the driveway. She said, I don't want to go over there, so I'm going to turn into the yard.

It doesn't look like too bad. And so she did. And she got stuck. And so what do you do when you get stuck? You don't just, you know, stop, you spin your wheels as if somewhere is going to catch on to this one little piece of dirt and just propel this car out.

It's just like three ton car forward on that little pebble. It didn't happen. And so then she called up this person in our church and said, hey, can you come and help me? And wonderful gentleman, a blessing to me, blessing to our kids.

I mean, he's a great guy. So he came and he got it further stuck. It is sitting in the middle of our yard. That's not what you want to see. The only thing that has been that far middle in our yard is a lawn mower.

And a blue, silver Chrysler New Yorker sitting in. I walked in the home. I said, Nicole, what is that? What happened? She's inside in the war. She's like, she's just shaking her head. She said, I don't know. I didn't want to tell him. I said, tell who? Tell what?

What are you talking about? She said, well, I called so-and-so to come and help me with that. But he, you know, he's not going to listen to me. Where was he at this point? Did he leave?

Oh yeah. He left. He left. He's like, well, he's like, well, Chuck sister, see you. Unfortunately, that's game over. I'll look at someone. He's gone. Nicole's in the house.

And he's not even the type of guy who would abandon a project. He surely did this one. I was mad, mad, mad. So I mean, I went inside the house. I don't know if I had some snacks or whatever.

I drank some water and I knew this was going to be a long night. Just trying to dig that car out of the yard. I was not going to leave it sitting in the middle of the yard. Yeah, you can't. Yeah, I'm not.

I'm not good. So tomorrow, Nicole, I'm going to be back in the same situation. I got to go back to school and Nicole doesn't have a car. Because it's in the yard. Yeah. It's in the middle of the yard. Mired in the money ground. So I decided to get two planks.

Okay. And it's filthy, wet, nasty. I stuck those planks under the wheels.

And I mean, when I say inch by inch, I mean, inch by inch. I made my way out. And so Nicole is not in there. So guess who is doing all this? Me. So I'm like, doors open, one foot in the mud, slush. Just trying to inch that gigantic car out of the mud.

I mean, it looks, what can happen? Oh, I can run over my foot. Yep. I've been there. I've been there.

I can slip and fall and that car can come over my head. Anyways, long story. I hope the listeners are enjoying that story. So did the car finally get unstuck?

Yes. I did. I was not a nice person. I was very angry. But I bet that was a hard-earned sleep, though.

That was a hard-earned sleep. Nobody talked to me. Nobody looked at me. I don't want to interact with anybody. Yeah.

I used a lot of names. But that's a good indicator of what life is like. You feel like you're putting so much work in and so much effort and you're getting so little in return. Like, you know what I mean? Well, it's a biblical thing. In 2 Timothy 3.7, Paul says, these are people who are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now let that sink in, folks.

Those who are listening by radio, podcasts, watching on YouTube. Are you always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth? Wow. You know, and he even gives us some examples. Two people, Janus and Jambress, resisted Moses. So do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapprove concerning the faith, but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was.

Yeah. These are not the people you want to be compared to in the Bible. Like, you could be compared to a David, or you could be compared to a Solomon being wise, or you could be compared to a Peter.

But Janus and Jambress, that's not the character model you want. One of the things that you told me early in my time here, Dr. Shaw, was that any true organization, their end goal is not profit. It's growth. That's right.

And that's not just church, secular, sacred. Any organization that knows where it's going, profit is going to come. But the true goal is growth and progression. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's a mark of a great leader to train and empower more leaders to multiply growth.

That's right. It's about growth. It's about making an impact. You know, I respect John Maxwell a lot through the years.

You know, I've learned a lot from him. And he said this, he says, success is how well I've done for myself. Significance is how well I've done for myself and others. But greatness is how well I've done and inspired others to do well for themselves and for others.

I love that. So that is what we want. We're not to be satisfied with success and significance. We should aspire towards greatness. Greatness. Absolutely. And I think people shy away from that because they don't have an accurate understanding of what that looks like or even how to get there.

Like, I'm just content with where I am and I'm just a good old southern whatever, whatever. But, you know, if we truly understood this concept, it's not like greatness so that we can be in the spotlight. It's greatness so that we can magnify other people, greatness so that we can build other people up.

Well, I think the glory of God. Exactly. I think we also tend to put the goal back on ourselves. Like, the goal is just to get people in the doors.

Because ultimately, in our false understanding, our goal is to have a big church. Right. And so it's like, what can we do to get people in the doors? It's like, all right, now we've got a lot of people in the doors. In my mind, that's success. I'm done. We've done it. But that's not what leaders aspire to be because we may be growing, but are we equipping those people for them to keep growing? Yeah.

Let's go one step further. Ultimately, we want those people to reorient their lives towards bringing God glory. Amen. To teach them to turn away from self, which all of us struggle with, and to focus towards Christ, to bring focus to the gospel of Jesus Christ so that people can find God, so they can honor God in their lives. And so they can do what we are doing for them. In the end, we're all trying to bring glory to the gospel of Jesus Christ or to God. There's something I've been chewing on these past few weeks because I'm taking a class right now on Christian theology, and you and I have been looking at some of these discussion questions, just talking through them. And I think one of the things that stuck out to me is the importance of doctrine. I think God has been circling in my mind and in my heart how critical doctrine is.

Not that I ever didn't think it was important, but I don't think I put it in the primary category of relevance that it needed to be until pretty recently. Having true knowledge, or really having false knowledge, is not equipping people to grow and to be the Christians that God has called them to be. Right, right. Well, if you go back to this passage in 2 Timothy 2, in order to make that progress, there are certain things that have to happen. And the certain things are there's a lesson to be learned, there's a truth that is to be affirmed, there is a pitfall that is to be avoided, and then there's an urgency to be maintained. And we're deriving these right from the text. So this is not something I'm superimposing.

And I know every text can be broken down in different outlines. So this could be a different outline, but these are the main principles that I'm seeing in 2 Timothy 2, where it talks about always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. Like Janus and Jambres, you know, they're not making any progress. So what is the lesson to be learned? The lesson to be learned is that hardships are part of the process.

That's right. And Paul tells Timothy in verse three, see context, he says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. So our goal is to please God. Our goal is to please Jesus Christ, his son. And also if anyone competes in the athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

The hardworking farmer must be the first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. So do we have the understanding that we're called to endure hardships like a soldier, like an athlete, like a farmer. So that's the lesson to be learned. But then there's a truth to be affirmed, which is this salvation is through Christ alone.

Amen. Sometimes I think we neglect this truth. We have some big bulky truths about God is good and God's grace and God's plan. No, let's get down to specific because the specific plan of the coming of God's son to give his life as a ransom for us was always there. It was there from the beginning.

It was there before the foundation of the world and will be till the end of time. So the truth to be affirmed is that salvation is through Christ alone. You want to make progress? Not only should you understand that hardships are part of the process, but also that salvation is through Christ alone. So listen to verse eight. This is 2 Timothy 2.8. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead, according to my gospel.

Y'all see that? And then Paul goes on to says, for which I suffered trouble as an evil doer. So when you go through troubles in your life, it's not just because man, you know, my boss is just overbearing. Oh, my family.

They're just so ungrateful. My church, you know, they don't care. No, no, no. This is about Jesus Christ. The hardships are happening because you're standing firm on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So Paul says, therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So if my progress does not have Jesus Christ somewhere in there, the gospel somewhere in there, I don't know. I'm on the wrong train.

I'm in a wrong program. Yeah. But I think the exclusivity of the gospel here actually strengthens us because that seems to be a sticking point with people. Like, well, if Jesus is the only way, then there's, you know, there's so many people getting left out, or there's so many people who don't get to hear and all this stuff. And it just, people throw up excuses, but I feel like it actually strengthens our salvation because if he's truly the only way, then nothing can stop it. You know what I mean?

There's nothing, if you are with him, no amount of persecution can ever take you from it. That's right. You are part of the plan. There are no other plans. Everything else is a sub plan. The ultimate plan is to redeem human beings.

So true progress is about being on that plan. You may be a carpenter. You may be a law enforcement person. You may be a NASA scientist. You may be a plumber. I don't know what, what do you do?

Teacher, doctor, whatever. Ultimately you are a soul winner. Ultimately you are cooperating with God to bring many into his kingdom, into his family. That's right. But then there is a pitfall to avoid, okay, in this progress, right?

Everybody's good with that? Hardships? Gospel? But the pitfall is godless, empty talk. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.14. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I didn't know that very I didn't know that verse. That's Awana. That's right. That's where Awana comes from. By the way, it's not Awanas. I hear Awanas every week. There's only one. It's not multiple.

It's not possessive. It's just Awana. It's Awana.

An approved worker is not ashamed, silly. But it says in verse 16, but shun, what does the word shun mean? Just do away with it.

Keep it on the way. Profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. So mind curving to people is avoid godless, empty talk.

That's right. If you want to make progress, just stop. Let's focus on Jesus Christ. Let's focus on truth. Let's not get involved in wasteful time. Making progress, hardships, gospel, avoid godless, empty talk. But here's the fourth thing. There's an urgency to maintain. You want to make progress?

Here's the urgency. Last days are upon us and last days will bring false teachers. Listen to 2 Timothy 3.1.

This is all in the context. I'm not going here or there. I'm not running to Proverbs. I'm not running to Romans. I'm not going to, you know, Revelation. I'm sticking with 2 Timothy 2. So listen to chapter 3, verse 1. But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. Bro, look around at the world. I was just about to say that.

I was like, that sounds familiar. Like, just go on TikTok. Read that. Listen to that.

Pause the podcast and just go on TikTok for like five minutes and then come back. You'll be like, check, check, check. See all of those. For of this sort are those who creep into household and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts. Now comes the verse we begin with, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth. Bro, man, Paul is bringing it full. He is so full of the Holy Spirit. He is just bringing that fire. And how relevant is that?

It definitely, 100% is. Is there any wonder that we're not making progress in our spiritual lives? Because we don't want hardships. We want to talk about everything but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's right. We get into all kinds of godless, empty talk. Last days is still way out. Who knows? I got a little bit of time.

You know, every generation, we all got our struggles. No. It may be another thousand years from now, but the way it looks like, it could be tonight. That's right.

That's right. We need to make sure that we are ready. That's one of the most important things about this podcast is that we are here to have fun. We're here to resource you, but we're here to get the gospel of Jesus out to the nations. And you can help us do that by visiting cleerviewtodayshow.com.

Partner with us financially on that same website. Click that donate button and be part of what God is doing through this radio show. I hope you guys enjoyed today's content. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Love hearing from you guys. Keep those texts coming. Make sure you stop by and pick up the new single by Clearview Worship, Power and Mercy, available starting July 2nd, and it's available anywhere digital music is sold. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today. Thank you.