Friday, September 15th | Delight Sermon Recap

Happy Friday, everybody. Today is September the 15th. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Elly 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 find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in, suggest we talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. And you can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online. Leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. You know, the verse of the day today is Romans 15, 5. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. That is something that I struggle with all the time is patience. I've actually been talking to people.

I've actually been talking to people this week. And I said if I had to, if I had to, I've got many, many flaws as a Christian and as a man, but if I had to boil it down to one, I think it would be patience. That's the one I struggle with the most. I agree. Yeah.

I love you, but I agree. I think it's common for millennials though to struggle with patience. Read it, read the verse again. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. Yeah.

Being like-minded to one another means that you have to be patient because he's a God of patience. Yeah. Well, not only that, but we typically aren't like-minded. We all have our own thoughts and we all think our thoughts are best.

Our way is best. Yeah. Because I'm the main character of my universe. My story revolves around me and I'm not even saying that to be like funny or haha, look at those silly millennials. Every single person, the universe may not, but your story, your narrative revolves around you as the main character. Everyone else is a side character.

And that's the mindset that's hard to abandon. Being like-minded means you'd be like-minded in Christ. He's the main character.

He's the center and he genuinely is the center of the universe, everything that exists. Yeah. We're called to be unified as a church body. That's right.

Doing his work. That's right. And one day as a human race, we'll be completely unified altogether.

Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. I had a really interesting one today. Okay. This one's kind of funny.

This is from Jackson M right here in North Carolina. Do we know him? We may. Okay. We may. Million dollars.

Anytime you enter a building that you've never been in, you have to scream at the top of your lungs. Hands down, I'm taking the money. What? Yeah.

No way. I'm loud as it is. I already pretty much do that.

I did not see that. So you get invited to go to the White House. Sure.

And you go and get us a tour of the Pentagon and you walk in and just go, ah, ah, ah. You do that? Yes. I might not do this chaotic and crazy, but yes. No way. Yeah.

No way. You scream at the top of your lungs. Do you just scream nonsense or do you scream words? I scream words. What would you scream?

I can't say it. If I'm going to the White House, I can't say what I would scream right now. So how, if you can't do it here on the radio, how are you going to do it in the White House? How are you going to do it?

No, I could, but I don't have a million dollars in front of me right now. What if it's like a funeral home you've never been to? I mean, they're not going to hear me. Who's not going to hear you? The funeral home staff? They're not going to hear me, but that's fine. The grieving family? They're not going to hear you?

I'll give them a little bit of money, help pay for some of the stuff and cover the cost. Have you ever been in a funeral home? Yes.

You know how unnaturally quiet it is in there? Yeah. But you're going to... It'll help relieve some tension.

No. Maybe take a laugh a little bit. It'll create tension. You're going in and you're like, hey, hey everybody, sorry for your loss. Here's some money.

Look, money. It's like covering the floor. What about like a restaurant you've never been in? Everybody's like trying to chat and have fun.

Is there any building? What do I care about a restaurant? Do you see how people show themselves in restaurants? What do you mean? What do you mean? I've never seen nobody show themselves in a restaurant. Yeah. People don't have cooth in restaurants. Really? I worked in fast food.

I definitely know they don't have cooth there. Everybody says that who worked in fast food. But I'm talking about like... Lose their minds over some food. Fried chicken? I'm talking about this, didn't someone call you racist because you didn't put chicken out? Yeah, they called me racist because I wouldn't put more chicken breasts on the buffet because I had just put chicken breasts on the buffet. So was there chicken breasts on the buffet?

Yes. I had just finished putting it there, but they didn't like that. The chicken breasts that had been there for five seconds and I was racist because I wouldn't put more. What did they want? Just more? Yes. Did they put all that on their plate and then want more? No, they just didn't want what I put out there.

They wanted different. So okay, is there any building that you wouldn't walk in and scream at the top of your lungs for a million dollars? You're going to do it in a funeral home. You're going to do it in the White House.

I don't think so. A grocery store you're going in. Yeah, you rearranged my grocery store. I'm going there right away. I'm going to do it right now. I would also... You'd do it for free. I'd do it for free. I would also take the money, but I'm surprised that you would. Why? I really...

I just didn't see you doing that. I'm not like Ryan. I take money easily. Ryan will turn down money in a heartbeat. It's got to be really something pretty bad for me to not take the money. Yeah, a million dollars is a lot of money. That's a lot. What about you guys?

Would you walk into any building that if you... Once you've walked into that building, you never have to do it again, but if you ever enter a building you've never been in, you have to scream at the top of your lungs. Let us know. Send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. We'll be right back right after this. Hey, everyone.

My name's Elli. And I'm David. And we want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview Today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

1 John 5.15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today Show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at ClearviewBC.org, or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play. On that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening.

Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodaysShow.com, or if you have any questions for us or anything for Dr. Shaw, anything you'd like to write in, suggest we talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodaysShow.com. Ellie, good to see you again. Hey, how are you?

I'm doing okay. I was not happy that you screamed in the post office earlier when we went, during the break, we went to the post office and Ellie just screamed at the top of her lungs. I mean, I had to prove I was committed. It's crazy, because someone actually came up to us and gave us a check for a million dollars.

Like, we're rich now because she did that. Yeah, okay. Well, as you guys know, Dr. Shaw and the rest of the staff are traveling through Greece. Make sure you continue to have them in your prayers. And as you know, we've been going through a list of sermons that Dr. Shaw has preached. These are sermons that really spoke to you. This is something that I posed to Ellie, I said, hey, since you're going to be on the show this week, why don't you pick out four sermons that really have spoken to you and have sort of impacted you as a Christian and as a person, and today's is called Delight.

Yeah. It was actually a sermon that he preached this past Mother's Day. And it wasn't just to mothers, obviously, it was just to parents in general.

But it was one that was really convicting and definitely spoke to me. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those, and we'll get into the sermon and you guys can hear Dr. Shaw's take on this, but it's one of those that reminds us like how many reasons life gives us to despise our family, to resent our kids, our parents, our family, our children, our grandchildren. But God has called us to delight in them, you know, why don't we go ahead and dive in. But here's the next question. What we're doing is we're looking at this verse, Proverbs 3, 12, for whom the Lord loves, he corrects, just as a father, the son in whom he delights, we're looking at it from all different angles. It's like holding up a diamond and just turning it or going around it from different angles. What is the meaning of the word delight? Just as a father, the son in whom he delights, how do you delight in someone? You know, when I first came to America, came to the south, I heard a lot of phrases and one of them was tickled pink.

Never heard that, never used it. I said, how do you do that? How do you get tickled pink? Sometimes people think the word delight means you just tickled pink, you're just like all giddy over your kids. Is that what that word delight really means?

So how do you figure out, how do you delight in your children? What you have to do is you have to go into the Bible and find the word delight and figure out how it was used and you cannot do that just in English. What many times people do in the study of the Bible is they go, oh, there's a word here. There's a word love or there's a word hope or there's a word delight. I'm going to go to the concordance and find every time the word delight is used.

Here's one problem. When people translated the Bible, they do it by committee. Committee meaning there's a group of scholars will come together and they'll say, we want these three guys to translate the book of Genesis. We want these three scholars to translate Exodus or Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy or in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, these three, these four, these five will do these sections. So what they do is they come to the Hebrew or they come to the Greek and they translate those words to the best of their ability. And many times they use the word delight, but there's a different Hebrew word behind it.

Here's what I did. If I want to know what Proverbs 3 12 means when it says the word delight, I'm going to go back to the Hebrew and find every time the Hebrew word behind it is used and then see the context. And the Hebrew word is ratsa, R-A-T-S-A-H as transliteration is the word ratsa. So I went to see what does it mean?

And it's not tickled pink, okay? Here are some examples very quickly. The first one in our relationship with God in Deuteronomy 33 11, it says bless his substance Lord and accept. Here's the word ratsa in Hebrew.

Bless his substance Lord and ratsa the work of his hands. In the context it is referring to the Levites, the Levi family. Remember Jacob had 12 sons, one of them was Levi, but why is this saying bless him and accept him? Because he had done a lot of things and his descendants had done a lot of things to disappoint God. They were the ones who tested God in the wilderness. They were the ones who failed to acknowledge their own parents, siblings, and children. Nonetheless God still accepted them.

Don't miss this. A delightful home is a place where you will not approve someone's behavior nonetheless you still accept them. The action, the behavior is contrary to our values, biblical values. We don't approve that, but you are still accepted. You are still our child and that's all there is to it. A delightful home is a place where we are accepted. Let me just stop there for a moment.

Don't raise your hands. But did you grow up in a delightful home? Your parents did not approve, but they accepted?

You as a person? Here's another example, Isaiah 60 verse 10. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor, the word is Radza, in my favor I have had mercy on you.

In the context it's about God's unfailing commitment towards his people even though when he had to discipline them. A delightful home is not a place where whatever you want to do, you just have the freedom. No, there are times when you'll be corrected. You will be disciplined appropriately.

A delightful home is a home where there is discipline. No you can't do that. No there are consequences to that. Now since you did that, these privileges are gone. You see how our idea of delight is, oh well, you know, whatever, it's okay.

Well when I was young I made mistakes too, it's all fine. There is discipline in delight. Here's another example, Psalm 103 verse 21. Bless the Lord all you his host, you ministers of his who do his pleasure. In this context the whole psalm is about God's mercies in our lives. If you read the psalm it'll tell you how delight is a sense of mercy. Oh I can get you, oh I got you, I know what you did and I'm about to nail you to the wall.

Nonetheless I'm going to deal with that situation but still show mercy. That's a delightful home. I remember when I was maybe nine, ten years of age, I can't exactly remember the age, but dad was at home in the afternoon. He would come home, take a nap, and then he would go back to work and he would be, you know, he was very hardworking. And I remember him coming home this one day and he hung his pants on top of the door and got into his pajamas and was taking a nap. As I was walking past that door I noticed his wallet.

And what's more is I noticed some money in the wallet and one rupee bill was kind of sticking out. So I was like, well, I mean, I love candy, still do. Maybe I can take one, it's just one because I see some other ones in there, not a big deal if I just take one, he's not going to miss it, it's not a big deal, it's all good. So I took it, went and got some candy, got back home. That evening, as we sat down at the dinner table, I remember dad asking that question. He said, so how was your day? That's not how dad spoke. In our home we didn't say, how was your day, we don't talk like that. It was just like, hey, did you do this, did you do your homework, let's make sure we could take care of this, whatever.

How was your day? And in that moment I knew, oh great, he knows. And here it comes, I'm going to get a whooping, it's because I stole from his wallet.

You know, it's like a really extreme form of thievery, you know, I stole from his wallet. Here's what happened, nothing. He didn't say a single other word. He changed the subject, started talking about this, that, and the whole time I'm thinking, when is it going to be that he's going to say, I need to talk to you?

Nothing. You know, in his wisdom he already knew that I knew and that I was very embarrassed and the lesson had been learned. Now, I'll be first to confess to you, as a father I didn't always follow that principle. But he did. And to this day I knew the lesson, which is, don't do that. Why did he do that? Because through wisdom he understood the value of mercy, that now I'm going to nail you now, now you're going to find out, buddy, for doing that.

No, none of that, okay? Moved on. But I got the message, you see, a home that is delightful is a home where there is mercy that is offered, not condoning, but mercy is offered, and lessons are learned. The same word, rasa, is often found in examples where human beings are mentioned in Proverbs 16, 13, righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him who speaks what is right.

It means a king loves to hear and pay attention to words of truth and righteousness, a delightful home is a place where people are attentive. You know, there was a time in my life that I felt like nobody cared. All kids do that at some point in time.

They think they were adopted or something, you know, they're just found on the side of the road or something, and mom and dad don't love me as much as they love everybody else. Then when you grow up you realize, when you have your own family, man, mom and dad really paid attention. In spite of how busy they were, they still had time to do this, that, and the other.

How did they do that? It is so fashionable in our culture to sit back and say, my mom and dad, man, they didn't care. It was all right. Until you have your own and you go, wow, they worked so hard, they had none of the opportunities I have, and yet they did this and this and this and this, how in the world did they pull that off? Are you all getting this message? So a delightful home is a place where there is a tension given to even those details. And here's one more, the word, and I can go on and on, but I'm just picking some few. Genesis 33 verse 10, the word ratzah shows up again, and this time is in the interaction between Jacob and Esau. Remember Jacob and Esau didn't get along, and Esau was angry with Jacob, and later on Jacob had a lot of wealth, and he tried to give that to his brother Esau, and Esau said, man, look, I forgive you, I don't need all that money, I don't need all the animals, you keep it. Listen to what Jacob says, he said, no, please, if I have found favor in your sight and then receive my present from my hand, and as much as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were ratzah, you were pleased with me. The idea behind that is this, a delightful home is a place where there is reconciliation, there is acceptance, there is forgiveness. That word ratzah, one more, is found in the context of worship in Psalm 51 verse 16 where David is confessing his sin, he says to God, for you do not desire sacrifice or I will give it to you, you do not delight, you do not ratzah in burnt offerings.

What do you ratzah in? Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, means what delights God is an environment where there is humility, there is a repentance, there is reconciliation. Is that the kind of home that you have for your children?

You all don't get along, you go over there and you go over there, no, no, we're going to come back together and make it right. You see the word delight can have a range of meanings, it has the idea of being fond of someone, being pleased with someone, accepting someone favorably, being satisfied with someone, showing mercy when you can heal them, no, I'm going to show you mercy, even disciplining someone that's all part of being delighted. Question for parents who have children at home, can your children tell that you delight in them? Again, not tickle tank or all giddy over them, can they tell that you delight in them, you accept them, you show mercy to them, you discipline them, but you teach them how to reconcile? Is your home a place where mercy is freely given?

Is your home a place where unconditional love is constantly shown, even with little actions? One of the family traditions in our home was, you know, summertime, mom and dad would take us for ice cream and we would get these bowls of ice cream, come back home, and the tradition was we would quickly finish our bowl and then wait for mom and dad to give us something out of their bowl. I don't know why I wouldn't do that to my kids. I had a dad tax, which means I'm going to eat mine and then I get a spoon out of yours. My mom and dad were different, they were like, you know, after our bowl was empty, it's like, okay, here you go, here's some more, I mean, they never finished their ice cream, we always got their stuff.

But that's just a little way of saying we love you. Can your adult children tell that you delight in them? That's tough because sometimes adult children will make decisions and do things that will hurt you, that will disappoint you. Have you forgiven them? Have you parents, have you accepted your new roles in their lives?

Well, I would, but I mean, they're doing things, I can't agree with that, but they're different. And they will make decisions and they will make choices that mom and dads, if you raise them right, they will be free thinkers. By the way, do you know that's one of the signs that you raised well? Because kids will do something very different. Mom and dad have to go, hmm, I'm not talking about sin, but I'm talking about hijab or something else.

You go, well, I don't know, that's the wisest decision, but okay, I still delight in my children. That's a tough, tough sermon. Very convicting.

Yeah. I mean, anything that has to do with the home is ultimately going to be convicting. You know, it's easy, I won't say easy, but it's tempting to only stick with doctrine and theological, philosophical concepts to talk about on a show like this, because then you don't have to really do any inward reflection of, am I living up to the standard of God's expectations for my family and my home?

Extremely, extremely convicting. And it's one of those things where we always can make justifications for why we do the things we do or why we think the way we think. But I love what Dr. Shaw said is, you don't ever have to approve of anybody's behavior. You don't have to approve of their presence, even in your life, but you have to accept it. You know what I'm saying? And I don't mean accept it as in you approve it or you think it's good.

It's just that, hey, you are who you are. Yeah. It was very convicting to me because he asked several times in that sermon, can your children tell you delight in them? And it just made me think about all the times that I've lost my temper or been impatient or frustrated with Gavin or Holden.

Holden not quite as much because he can't really talk or do anything right now, but with Gavin, just because I've had a long day. How many times have I just lost my patience? You always do it. Not you, but just as parents. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've gotten frustrated and not really done those things, not really delighted.

And not, like Pastor Charles said, it's not being tickled pink, but just showing mercy or I don't know. I know what you're saying. I know.

No, no. I know what you're saying. It's one of those things that you look back on. You never think about this stuff in the moment. You always think about it in hindsight, reflecting, and it often comes with this tag of regret, but it's something to look forward to. It's something to take with you in your future interactions. And even if you didn't have a good start, this is something that Dr. Shaw says in his book, in Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning.

There's a chapter in there on having a false start, basically. If you grew up in a dysfunctional home, you're not done for. You can still live a great godly life, even if you come from a dysfunctional home. Lookit Solomon was the wisest person who ever lived. He came from a father who was a murderer, a father who was an adulterer, a father who manipulated people. In his younger days, he joined the enemy army against Israel.

He was a traitor. All those things he came to do, and yet that same man wrote Psalm 23. That same man raised the man who had become the wisest man who ever lived, because he asked God for that wisdom. So I think one thing I got from this sermon was that you may have a false start, or you may have a bad start, or you may have come from a dysfunctional family.

That doesn't mean that you are doomed to dysfunction forever, because God can work all those things together for good. Dr. Sarah Lichtenberger Yes. And one of the things, this is kind of shifting a little bit, but one of the things I appreciate is just how all the work that Dr. Shaw puts into researching all this. He went in and looked up all the different times delight was used in Hebrew, and then translated it back and everything just to see the different meanings and put all this together so that you end up where he comes out, and he points out these things of acceptance and favor and pleasure and delight and being pleased and showing us that delighting our children isn't just one way, like he said, of thinking of being tickled pink. It's disciplining your kids. It's also assuring mercy to your kids. It's accepting them.

All those things. Pray for your kids. I actually have a book that I was going to plug here that I've been reading. I don't know if you can see it, but it's called The One Year Praying Through the Bible for Your Kids by Nancy Guthrie. This is something I just recently picked up and I've been reading, and it's really great.

It goes through and it takes you each day. It has a little devotional in it, and then it also takes you through a book in the Old Testament, a book in the New Testament, and then a psalm and a proverb simultaneously. And then you go through and pray for your kids over different things. It actually has a spot where you can go in and write your kid's name and specifically pray for them. That's amazing.

It's something I've been trying to be more intentional about, just praying for our kids and their future and just how we interact with them and raise them. Powerful, powerful sermon. Thank you for picking these, Ellie. These were really good. Definitely. If anyone ever wants to sit out and if I'm doing it mostly, it's been pretty convicting to be here sitting because I've...

Listen, if they've convicted you and they've touched your life, there's a good chance they're going to touch someone else's life as well. That's our prayer for this radio show. We want you guys to get a lot out of these sermons.

If you enjoyed today's topic or you have any suggestions for future topics, be sure to let us know. Send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, and don't forget, you can support us financially on that same website. That's ClearViewTodayShow.com. Every single time you give, you are making an impact for God's kingdom. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on ClearView Today.