Wednesday, September 27th | Gaining Christ

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Wednesday, September the 27th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm Jon Galantis. You're listening to Clear View 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.

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Listen, we're going to leave a couple of links in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from 1 Chronicles 16, 11. Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face evermore. This comes at a time in Israel's history where they were seeking anything but the Lord.

They were seeking any other gods or goddesses that could appease them or meet temporary satisfaction or make them just blend in with nations around them. And these words are such a chilling reminder that we are so prone to seek anything but the Lord. We are so prone to seek anything and everything else to fulfill us, to satisfy us. And it may even bring a temporary sense of satisfaction, but ultimately we're going to be left empty. We're going to be left disappointed. We're going to be left brokenhearted if we are not seeking God first.

That's right. And you have to be intentional about it. You can't wander into God's grace. You can't just accidentally stumble into the party and be like, oh, I guess I'll just kind of chill out here now as a child of God. You have to seek the Lord. It's an active participatory thing where you come in and you're seeking God's grace in your life. Or you're seeking really Christ. It's like Dr. Shaw was talking about that special revelation of God. You're not just going to look up at the sky and come to the conclusion that there's a savior out there and his name was Jesus and he died on a cross for my sins.

You have to actively seek that out. We had actually someone write in for the first time in a little while. Roger M. wants to know, what's the first album that you ever bought? Ooh, like I definitely had I definitely had CDs that I was gifted, but what's the first one I ever bought for myself? The first one I ever bought.

Oh, OK. I think I remember this. The first one I ever bought was at a youth conference concert that we went to. I was probably the same thing I had.

I had CDs given to me, but the first I ever bought with my own money, I think I was about 14. Right. And it was Caidman's Call, which I know there's some people from Caidman's Call that have kind of gone off the deep end now. But back in the day, Caidman's Call, My Calm Your Storm. Tiny little album, 10 songs. But I knew that thing backwards and forwards and upside down. That was one of my favorite CDs.

My Calm Your Storm. OK, OK. That was my jam. Caidman's Call. Do you know Caidman's Call?

I don't know if we talked about it. They're kind of like real vibey, acoustic harmonies, kind of indie type music. Nice. And it was I really liked them. My first album, it was also the first one I ever bought myself was also a worship album. It was or it was a Christian album for sure. It was David Crowder's Church Music. Nice. David Crowder Band, I should say.

Very nice. Back in the good days and the glorious days when David Crowder was David Crowder Band. Now, a lot of people like, oh, I love me some Crowder. That's all right.

It's no it's no remedy. He's not bad. Church music. He's not bad at all. Like, I would never say he's not talented.

He's very talented. He just when he became Crowder as opposed to David Crowder Band, he leaned real heavily into that like that Bluegrass, Bluegrass, Appalachian. And that's just not my jam.

No. And that may be him. But it was not apparent during David Crowder Band.

Right. Like like it was really techno. It was really synthy. It was kind of like on the edge, on like the fringe of like modern worship music where it still was modern, but it didn't sound like regular modern music. And then every now and then they did do like Bluegrass songs.

There was Bluegrass songs on his album, but I never knew that was going to become his entire identity. Right. But yeah, that church music album, the whole thing, the entire album was one uninterrupted song. Oh, wow. Like, oh, yeah. I didn't realize that.

Yeah. All the songs, there were different keys and different tempos, but they had transitions in between every single song that the music never broke. One song never faded out and another ended. That's pretty cool. That's a cool concept. Oh, it was really cool. And then the beginning or the end of the last song transitioned back to the first song. So if you have it on loop, it was literally the whole album was one unending song and it was it was super conceptual and really cool. That's lots of lots of hits came off that album. There was How He Loves was the big one that everybody, of course, knows. But then they had Hallelujah Sing.

They had SMS Shine, which was really good. There were other songs. Church Music was really funky. Just everything on that album was pretty perfect. I don't I don't remember ever skipping a song.

Yeah. And those are always the good albums, too, that you can start at the beginning and just listen. Just listen.

You don't skip any songs. Those are the best. Yeah, those are good. Man, David Crowder Band. That takes me back. David Crowder Band.

Miss you guys. I still remember when I saw them live and he played guitar on a Guitar Hero guitar. I do, too. Yeah. He had reworked it and rewired it. So he was actually playing the song on a Guitar Hero guitar. I was like, that's pretty cool. He had MIDI mapped it. And the thing is, like, it was pretty easy to figure out how to do that.

But it was just that he did it first. Yeah. And it was just like, man, they had really cool gimmicks like that.

Yeah. I remember when I went to see him, he had yellow. He had yellow Chuck Taylors. And someone in the audience had a sign that said, David Crowder, give me your shoes. And he stopped the whole show and passed. He was like, oh, that guy right there passed the show. He took his shoes off, passed them to the guy, and then went home in sock feet.

And I like crazy. I know some people like he probably staged that, but I like to think he didn't. Yeah.

I like to think that if I had had the guts to ask for his shoes, I would have left in those neon yellow like highlighter colored. Yeah. Chuck Taylors. That was really cool. I kind of like that our first albums were both worship music. That's kind of cool.

Yep. If you guys let us know about your first album. What was it for you?

Because I feel like that's like an iconic purchase. What was your first album? Let us know. Text us at 252-582-5028. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan 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 or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clearview Today Show. We want to welcome you and let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a Ph.D. 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 AbbadanShah.com.

That's right. Dr. Shah, we were talking earlier about what was the first album that you ever bought? I feel like that's like an iconic, like a memorable purchase, or like even the first album you were exposed to. What was that first one for you? First album I ever bought? It's hard to remember. But first album that was ever given to me, let's put it that way, would be Beatles.

Oh, yeah. So I really wanted to know more about Western music and kind of acclimated myself to that. So I went to, at the time, maybe a young adult in our church, this young lady, and I asked her, I said, do you have any music that I can listen to, Western music? And she said, yeah, I can give you some.

So I went over to her house and I was like, maybe, I don't know, I would say maybe eight or nine years old. And so she gave me a bunch of Beatles tapes. Oh, nice. So I was going to ask if it was on vinyl or if it was cassette tapes.

Tapes, tapes. Nice. Yeah. And so I got them and I had, I mean, you name it, Hey Jude was there. Nice.

I want to hold your hand on it. She Loves You and A Hard Day's Night was on there. Do you remember which album it was? No, this was several.

Oh, okay. She had a whole collection of tapes. Like the anthology.

Yeah. So these were several tapes that she gave me. And then All You Need Is Love, I Feel Fine, Can't Buy Me Love, Paperback Writer. And then, of course, Eight Days a Week. I love Eight Days a Week.

Eight Days a Week. So a lot of those songs, some of them I was like, huh, eh, it's okay. It didn't really appeal to me. Some were like, okay, cool.

I can get that. Blink-182 actually released a song today at the time of recording this. And I was like, oh, a new Blink. It was so depressing.

I was like, what is this? This is not fun to listen to at all. Well, and you know, we can sit here and talk about like the younger people's music and all of this kind of stuff. But I feel like it's a good descriptor of where culture is and where people's mindsets are. It's so easy to focus on things that are negative. It's so easy to have a negative outlook of the world. Well, some people are like Eeyore, where everything is kind of pessimistic. For those who don't know who Eeyore is, go watch Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

And he is always so pessimistic, so gloomy, kind of the glass half empty kind of person. Thanks for noticing me. I can't even get that.

It's a good learning, which I doubt. And then I think it's Kanga who puts a tail on him. It's not much of a tail, but I'm sort of attached to it or something like that. Oh, Eeyore. You just love to feel bad for him. He's like, oh, buddy. I don't like Eeyore. I'm like, get a clue, man.

Read a rootin'. Everybody's trying to have fun. Everybody's happy and bright and you're just... I was never attached to Eeyore. I always thought Eeyore was kind of like a... I always was just...

He made me sad. You know what I mean? Like, we're all trying to have fun here, dude. It's Rabbit's birthday party.

Can you at least pretend like you're having a good time for your friends? It's Rabbit's birthday party. But then there's, of course, Tigger. Tigger is always bouncing around. You know, he is the optimistic glass half full kind of guy, but he sort of always runs out of energy.

It's just, after a while he's like, Tigger don't like that anymore. I know I gave Eeyore some grief, but I also don't really like that when people are so extremely hyperpositive. Yeah. I'm so happy. So exciting.

Dude, you know, there's some people... When Ellie was having our second son, Holden, a lot of the nurses were that way. They were like, all right, Mommy, here we go. Are we ready to have this baby? I'm like, yo, it's five o'clock in the morning.

You got to go sit. You got to bring that down. Ellie was like, you need to bring that energy down now.

She was like, all right, Mommy, here we go. I was like, yo, this ain't... You know what I mean? Some people think that I'm going to combat all that negativity with the most cannonball fire hydrant positivity you've ever seen. But just like you said, Dr. Shah, that inevitably fizzles.

You can maintain that for a window of time, but it's just going to peter out. Neither extreme is beneficial when it comes to the Christian life. It's not beneficial when you kind of sit there moping by yourself, hoping the world would just dump on you and just end your life.

Or be like Tigger, just bouncing around and just be excited, psyching yourself up. Because sooner or later, what goes up must come down. So what is the middle ground? And that's sort of what I want to focus on and talk about today, because Paul talks about that middle ground where we find true positivity. And the true positivity is more than just being optimistic. I feel like that desire for positivity is something people just try to manufacture in themselves.

They try to just summon it. Like if I just believe harder, or if I just pray harder, or if I just read my Bible harder, I'm going to just kind of overcome this depth of despair, this depression that I find myself in. And then people oftentimes are disillusioned when that doesn't happen.

But if you're trying to do it on your own, you're going to fail. We do that in worship too. Like we try to mean the songs or mean what we say with a certain level of intentionality. Like I'm just going to think on these lyrics and I'm just going to force myself to be spiritual while I'm singing.

But they're still just lyrics. You know what I mean? It's like you told me one time, like when you're standing up to speak and you're trying to sound deep, you can for a while, but if you're pumping from a dry well, if there's not actual truth within you, then just manufactured nothingness is what's going to come out. But today our focus is more on how do we conquer those negative thoughts? How do we overcome, because our minds are naturally drawn to the bad reports. They're naturally drawn to the breakdowns in relationships. So the failures in others are all the doom and gloom in the world.

How do we train our minds to think on higher things? Because I don't want to live doom and gloom. I don't want to focus on only the negative, the painful, the sad. That's not good. But I also know that I cannot just force myself to be positive, try to be a Tigger.

That doesn't work either. So where is the middle ground? I guess that's what we're talking about today. Well, I like the way you put it. It's not I'm going to focus on good things. I'm going to focus on higher things.

I like that. And I think that's where the answer is because you're focusing on things that have to come from God. So the passage I want us to read as we begin this time is Philippians 4, 8. I think many of you have already picked up on it.

That's where we're headed. So Philippians chapter 4, verse 8 says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Think about it. Just spend your time thinking about these things. And that's sort of a simple answer that we don't want to take because it's almost so simple that it can't be true.

You know what I mean? You preached a series a while back, Dr. Shaw, through the book of Philippians where Paul's talking about how to change your mindset, how to teach your mind and train your mind on what to think about and what not to think about. And for so many people, the thought goes to intrusive thoughts or your mind wandering or your mind running the show. And we don't really have control over what our mind thinks about.

It just kind of does what it does, and we follow along afterwards. But this reminds us, and I love that this is kind of Paul's ending to the letter where he says, Finally, brethren, we've talked about all this stuff. We've talked about what it takes to have the mind of Christ. We've talked about what all that looks like.

But here's the breakdown. If these check boxes are met, if things are noble, if things are just, if things are pure, you need to think about those things. And not just think about, but meditate on them. Well, it also comes to the fact that you're not just thinking about things that are objectively good. You're thinking about things that are of Christ. That's why you said, I like the way you said you have to have the mind of Christ, not just think about good things. There's plenty of things that are good, but they're not. I mean, I guess they're not because all good things come from Christ.

But you know what I mean? You're transforming your mind. You're not just thinking about good things. Well, Philippians 2, right in the middle of this letter is Philippians 2, which talks about the mind of Christ. And very clearly, Paul says, Let this mind be in you. Which was also in Christ Jesus. So it's not just that positive things that we were focusing on, but we're focusing on the things which reflect the mind of Christ. And what does the mind of Christ look like? Verse 6, Who being in the form of God did not consider equality with God something to grasp or something to hold on to, but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. So the mind of Christ is a humble mind. A mind of Christ seeks to exalt God, not self. The mind of Christ is willing to serve some mind of sacrificial living. The mind of Christ is looking to the Father for his perfect plan because it goes on and says, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So the mind of Christ is a mind that is willing to obey to the very end. And then verse 9, this is Philippians 2, 9.

Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. So the mind of Christ is looking to the Father for his perfect plan because Jesus did not just say, My plan, my will be done. He said, No, I'm going to do what the Father is telling me to do. And it's funny because even though the Father's plan for my life is so much better than anything I can dream up, for some reason, even after all these years, I still have moments where I don't trust it.

Isn't that crazy? I still have moments where I'm like, I know what I want, Father. Just give me it. Just guide my feet the way that I want to go.

It's weird that even after all these years, that still happens. We're so self-centered and we're so short-sighted and we think we know what we want. But the stuff we're asking for, God's like, you really don't want what you're asking for. God's will, I love the way that you put this, Dr. Shaw, God's will is what we would ask for if we had the sense to ask for it. That's true. That's what we would pray for if we had sense enough about us.

That's right. Philippians 2, 10 goes on. This is the same passage about the mind of Christ. That at the name of Jesus, every, wait a minute, verse nine. Therefore God has also highly exalted him, given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So the mind of Christ also is waiting for the inheritance on the other side.

Because Jesus kept on obeying and Hebrews tells us that he was looking into Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was said before him, this joy was said before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the Father. So also with that, as the mind of Christ says, I'm not doing this. I'm not living this way for earthly rewards. I'm doing what I'm doing for an eternal inheritance.

That's right. We kind of talked about that yesterday with heaven here and now, heaven being here on earth. It's not that heaven to come doesn't exist. It's that what we have is a reflection of what's to come. Like if the kingdom of God is giving us such enriching lives now, imagine what's coming.

And live for that and work towards that. And then it says here in verse 11, we just read this. This is Philippians 2 11, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So the mind of Christ is more concerned with the salvation of a person than anything else.

Just like Jesus, he did what he did because he wanted every person to be saved. That's what it means to have the mind of Christ. So now when we go back to Philippians 4 8, meditate on these things. The word for meditate is the Greek word logizomai, which means reason. It means take time to think, to consider, to ponder, to meditate upon. This is not phronema, which is just kind of passing glance or just temporarily thinking about it, but then moving along.

No, you're taking the time to reason this. So when we talk about meditate on these things, whatever is true and noble and good and praiseworthy, meditate. Take the time to think.

So how do we do that? Well, let's look at each of those qualities very quickly. Whatever things are true, aletheis. Don't just think about true things in this world. Think about Jesus, who is truth incarnated.

Think about him. Yeah, we think Jesus just tells the truth. Right, he is the repository of all truth. He holds all truth within himself.

And he said it, too. He said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And then Ephesians 4, 21 says, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

So focus on Jesus. Yeah, and it's one of those things where we're confronted with lies all the time and we either confront them or we fight against them. Or even worse, sometimes we start believing them.

We start to hear it so often that we even repeat them. Well, and those lies, people wrap them in different language. Like now it's the language of live your truth and truth is subjective and truth is relative. No, truth is Christ. He's truth.

Look to him as the author and the source of all truth. That's right. Whatever things are noble, people will shame you or act shamefully towards you. But shame is the opposite of glory. Think about the glory that is in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to think about what is noble.

That's right. That's glory. Dikaios, whatever things are just. People want to fight for justice and I truly believe there's a place for that. Having said that, think about Jesus who took God's justice and gave us his mercy. We've talked about this on the intro segments in some of the verses of the day, is that we define justice ourselves and then we compare God.

So then we see things, like in the Old Testament, we see things that we say, okay, but that's not just. But he is justice. What justice is is who he is. It's not that I define justice and then I have to see if God fits that description.

It's completely the opposite. Next is prosphiles, which is whatever things are lovely. And this is not like a little baby or lilies in the field or the beautiful, lovely picture of a brook just kind of flowing in the countryside. No, true loveliness is Jesus Christ. And that loveliness, as Isaiah tells us, was he has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid it as it were our faces from him. So Jesus was just the opposite of something beautiful. And yet in that ugliness, there was loveliness.

That's right. There was glory. There was glory. There was love. There was kindness.

There was mercy. I love that. People are of good report. They gravitate to the bad reports.

Get on social media. Anything bad, man, the news will travel like crazy. We want that bad news.

Immediately. We are looking for it. But Jesus came to bring us a good report of salvation. If there is any virtue, arete means godly virtue. Jesus was full of godly virtues. Apainos, if there's anything praiseworthy, Jesus is worthy. Worthy is the lamb. That's right. Revelation 5, 12, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

He is worthy. So the whole point is this. We have to choose to focus our minds and our hearts on Jesus Christ. That's right, man.

These are not just things and attributes and principles and values. This is the person, the complete person of Jesus. That's what Philippians 4, 8 is all about. Focus on Jesus.

That's right. And I hope today, if you're struggling and if you're down, yeah, get help. Please get help. If you have chemical imbalance, go get help. Talk to people who may be able to help you with proper medication and proper counseling.

You need both. Having said that, in whatever state you are, turn your eyes upon Jesus. That's right. And we started this whole episode talking about music and the power that it has over our lives to influence our moods. And I love that one of the things at Clearview that we're very, very intentional about is making sure that the worship does that. It chooses to focus on the person of Christ, who he is, what his values are, and how we as a church and as Christians are responding to them. And I think for any worship leaders out there who are listening to this, that's your focus. Not playing fire songs or playing songs that are fun to play or even songs that your congregation responds to, but songs that choose to focus on those heavenly citizenship values.

That's right. And even if you're not out there leading worship, pay attention to the music that you're listening to, that you are inputting into your mind and into your heart because it's gonna affect you. It's gonna affect how your perspective is. It's gonna affect your worldview. So make sure you have music and media in your life that is gonna help feed into this perspective viewing the person of Jesus Christ. There's no separation in your mind where it's like, okay, when I'm at church, I can enjoy my Christian music, but then when I get out of here, I can listen to my really aggressive, depressing, angry music and it's not going to affect one or the other.

There's no barrier that you can put up in your mind to separate those. Remember how effective smoking sections in restaurants were? They didn't work because smoke doesn't obey restaurant seating.

So the same is true with your mind at church versus your mind at home. I used to be in restaurants with my dad and my dad would be wanting to be over in the smoking section and I could still smell the smoke. I'm like, this is pointless. Yeah, it doesn't work. The smoke's like, oh, this isn't my section. It doesn't work that way. Dude, isn't that crazy? Little kids just be sitting in the restaurant smelling smoke and it's like, that's okay. We're not in that section.

I'm glad that era is in the past. Yeah, that's a good illustration. I didn't think about that. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text, 252-582-5028 or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same website. Scroll down, click that donate button and join the Clear View Today show family. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today. Bye.