Thursday, April 27th | Trash Talk (pt. 2)

Today is Thursday, April 27th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayshow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayshow.com. That's right. You guys can help us keep this 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. But before we do that, you know what time it is, my friends. It's time for the verse. For the verse of the day. Hey, Isaiah 53-5, this is a very well-known passage, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

I love this verse. We hear it a lot at Easter, but it reminds us that there's a price for our forgiveness. A lot of times we talk about the forgiveness of God, we talk about the grace and the mercy of God, and all that's great. We should talk about that, but we forget, I think, the weight of the price that Christ paid for us. It's a costly forgiveness. Yeah, and it's easy to say, you know, listen, the best things in life are free.

Yeah, that's true, but they're not really. They're free for me, but they weren't free for Christ. That price had to be paid, and he paid, and he's the only one who could pay it. You know, even if I chose to pay it, it wouldn't be sufficient.

It can only be the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. The flip side of that, too, is that our life now is not our own. That's right. We've been bought at a great price. So naturally, my natural response should be, I don't own my life anymore. It belongs to Christ. He's paid the price.

So I want to give him all of my life. That's right. I was in a restaurant last night, and I thought of this. Well, because there was some stuff going on in the restaurant, and I thought of this.

So, million dollars. You're out with your wife, right? You're out in a restaurant, or just in public, coffee shop, Walmart, grocery store, wherever.

If you ever hear a couple arguing in public, you have to immediately pick sides and get involved. Oh, man. Jerry, that's why I told you to put the gas in there before we left from my mother's house. And you know what, Jerry?

If you had listened, if you valued- Who are you? Hold on just a second. We'll get to that in a minute. Jerry, if you valued your wife, if you valued her input, you would have known that.

Hey, brother, who the heck are you? I- You just got to get right in the middle of it. And you can pick a side. You don't have to pick the girls. I think I would take that. Yeah?

I think I would take it. How often do you hear couples argue in public? Rarely. Most of the time, I feel like it's just kind of like a, that's why I said.

I mean, it's just kind of like an under your breath. I don't really hear arguments too much, but I feel like every now and then, I feel like it would be fun to just kind of like- Just get involved? Insert yourself in someone else's argument. Imagine you and Elizabeth are arguing in public, which I know she is wont to do. Argue in public? I don't know that she would argue in public. No, most of the time, it's just like, okay. And then we're going to fight about that later.

Now I'm just dreading the car ride. But imagine she's giving you attitude in public, and a complete stranger rolls up. But then what if he's like, yeah, lady, you need to respect your husband.

Now you're bad at him. Hey, bud, don't talk to my wife that way. I'm on your side, dude. I'm on your side. Forget her.

He tries to push her, but misses. Yeah. I think I would take that. What about you? Do you think you'd take it?

I would take it. Yeah. I love to hear couples fight in public. I don't like it. I don't like to hear people argue or fight. I like peace. No, I think it's so funny.

I like tranquility. But every now and then, I get a wild hair and I'm like, I think I could stir this pot. I think I would be involved. Have you ever heard couples fighting in public? Like, just arguing just over a little petty stuff in public?

Have I? Yeah. I guess so, yeah. Are you working in fast food or something? You've never heard couples? Well, see, that's a different story.

Yeah. In fast food, you have all kinds of stuff like that happens. Somebody goes up and they order an eight-count nugget, and then they get it, and then they give it to their husband, and they're like, I wanted 12 nuggets.

How am I supposed to eat eight nuggets? Just dumb, petty stuff. Mostly it's parents arguing with kids, but not really couples arguing. But you don't really out and about in the world, and you hear just couples fighting? I try not to listen.

Oh, so you hear it, but then you vacate. I think David and I are a lot alike in that. We're like, I want peace. And if there's not peace, I'm uncomfortable.

I just put my headphones in and I listen to a redeeming love or something. Ew. You know where I notice it a lot? Is Barnes and Noble. I hear couples fighting. Yeah, I hear couples fighting Barnes and Noble. That surprises me.

I know. I would think Barnes and Noble is just kind of chill. No, I hear couples, and they're not fighting. They're not causing a scene.

Like a Waffle House brawl or something like that. Just bickering. Just bickering like, that's what I told you, Mark.

We're going to miss the movie. He's like, you didn't say that. I would have heard you if you'd said that.

You didn't say that. I did say stuff like that under the breath of the bookstore, so let's fight quietly. I have not one time ever heard someone argue on a Barnes and Noble. Yeah, I've heard couples fight.

Never have I heard that. Where do y'all fight? That's where I'm interested, because I know y'all be fighting with y'all wives. Where do you try to have quiet public fights? Ooh, quiet public fights.

Yeah, write in and let us know, because I'm very interested. David, so Elizabeth and I will often, we'll have things that we have to discuss and talk about it, but we try to do that in a way that's not intrusive or interrupt people. So we will just be talking in the hallway or something. But we talk kind of close. I mean, she's my wife, so we're talking kind of close together.

And without fail, we will not be talking about anything serious. But David will walk around the corner, and he's like, y'all fighting. Y'all fighting. I'm like, no, we're not fighting.

I've seen y'all look like y'all fighting. The reason y'all look like y'all fighting is because she's so much taller than her. So you're constantly looking down on her, and she's hands on the hips. She's frustrated. Maybe not at you, but she's frustrated about something. So y'all's posture just always looks good. Yeah, I walk in and I see the posture and how close y'all are, and I see the faces being made, and I'm like, please don't break up.

I like you guys together. I can tell when y'all are fighting, because I'll ask if y'all are fighting, and she'll ignore me. She'll act like I didn't speak. And then I'll be like, yeah, they're fighting. She's upset. Well, cool. That's an awkward thing to transition out of.

Speaking of couples fighting, no, I'm just kidding. We're going to continue our conversation on Malachi today. I love this book so much. We've learned so much through talking through each of these chapters with Dr. Shah.

We're going to get him in just a second, but if you have any questions about Malachi or things that we talked about here on the show, send us a text to 252-58-25028, or visit us online at Clearveetodayshow.com. We'll be right back. I'm just playing.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shah 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. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from Scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction, and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadon Shah PhD 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 Podcasts 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. Shah's website, AbbadonShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon 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 or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right. If you've never heard the show before, if today's your first time joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD and New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode.

You can find all of his work on his website, that's AbbadonShah.com. That's right, Dr. Shah. I got to say, I'm liking the purple shirt. You like this? I really like it.

Thank you. Purple is my favorite. Yeah, I've always loved purple. And I think I can't really pull it off, but I got to say it looks good.

It looks very good. We're kind of in a similar color family today. I've got the pink and you've got the purple. I mean, you've even got burgundy. I just stuck with maroon. Yeah, burgundy maroon, I think, is more my color. I wish I could pull off purple, but I don't think it looks good. I do like the purple. Especially, you know who I really admire is men who can pull off light colors.

Like, I usually stick with dark colors because I'm scared to go light colors, but it looks pretty good on you guys. Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you. Well, guys, on today's episode...

This is not a fashion show, by the way. It's not. No, that was free. That was, you know, didn't cost you anything.

That was just free for you, for the listeners. We're continuing our conversation on Malachi today, talking about, you know, God's interaction with his people, how the people have disobeyed God. And even we talked yesterday about how the people are, like, talking back to God, much like a kid or a teenager would start talking back to their parent.

Yeah. I picture that more as a little kid. Let's say he is three to four years of age. You know, he still hasn't learned what it means to respect and honor and have that sense of all of the dad.

And let's say he is out there playing and he trips and he falls. You know, he's not a baby. He's not a toddler.

He's more than that. And so his anger comes out and you didn't pick me up. You didn't stop me or you didn't help me. And okay. So that part is okay.

And dad can say, I'm sorry, I was right here, but I'm sorry, buddy. You okay? Okay. Come here. Come here. Let me see.

Let me see what you got. Up until that point, that familiarity is fine. The kid even sort of blaming the dad for not picking him up or not catching him like he's supposed to, that still is in the okay zone. Then there is that kid who starts hitting his parents, his dad, you know, almost like throwing fists at him. And now it's like, Hey, hey, stop. You don't do that. The people of Israel or the Jewish people, really the people who just came out of exile are at that point where they've just stopped being, having that child, parent, loving freedom relationship to being outright just in open, you know, you crossing the line, you're crossing the line. And so God is like, that's it.

You can't talk to me like that. Yeah. But at the same time, there are other people nearby while the trash talkers were busy bad mouthing God. There was another group that wanted to please God and give him their best. And they spoke to each other, not to God, they spoke to each other and God listened and heard them. You can almost picture God sort of leaning down and eavesdropping what they're saying.

And what is he hearing? I mean, think about some of the things people are saying, the good people, man, God really spoke to my heart and to today's message. And it really, really touched me. Or, you know, God is so faithful. God is so good. God is so merciful. God has been so good to us and our family.

And these people have been going through difficult time, but they are saying good things, positive things, truthful things about God. And how is God feeling about this? What is his response?

Listen to this. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord. That's a very specific reaction. You know, it's not just he heard and he acknowledged, but a book of remembrance was written. There was a physical action done before the Lord. It was not just that God was like, oh, well, that's nice. He's like recording angel, write it down, write it down in the books that will not be raised throughout eternity.

And these are the people who talk good about me. Yeah. And it's odd. It's not odd, but it's such a small thing on the surface for those who talk good about God.

Well, that should be our default. But in this situation where these people had been through so much, it was almost the opposite of what the others were saying, because they were saying we go through so much and God doesn't acknowledge it. God is saying before heaven, before me, I'm going to write down these good things that people are saying. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It kind of peels back the curtain on the spiritual reality behind our interactions. When we're talking good about God, what is God's perception of that? How does He interact with us when we are not necessarily engaged in active prayer, but just speaking well of who God is and what He's done for us?

Right. And it's more than just saying something positive about God. It's like two groups of people leave church Sunday morning. One group is busy criticizing the church, criticizing the pastor, criticizing the message, criticizing everything.

And I'm not saying that if the church is not going biblical or they've lost their focus and you are discussing that, that's a different issue. But no, you are geared towards just being hateful, mean, bitter. And out of your hatefulness, meanness, and bitterness, you're just speaking.

And it has nothing uplifting, nothing Christ-like, nothing God-honoring. It's just this thing. And we've seen that. We've seen that.

That's what happens here. That's what's happening here when God is saying, hear words against me. So don't think words against me necessarily is always, God, you're bad to us. Most people won't say that. But if you're walking out and you're just like trash talking everything God is doing, that's about the same.

Yeah. And I think we also find some sort of perverse pleasure in trash talking people of God, like pastors that we don't agree with or churches that don't design their services the way that we're used to, or even if people have different ideas about the things of God like baptism or communion or things that don't line up. We're very quick to trash talk people because I think we find a lot of joy in putting others down. Maybe it's because we're feeling insecure about ourselves or our own standing or our own church's standing or whatever. But we tend to find that perverse pleasure in gossiping rather than praising people like, hey, you know what? I don't agree with your theology, but I see you're making an impact in your community.

I don't really love the way that you guys do this, but I'll tell you what, your people really seem to like it and they seem to love it. And then there's another group that's just like you said, they're sitting down and they're just lifting God and His truth and Jesus Christ and the gospel and what He's doing in this world and how He is more powerful than any evil force that is plaguing our country, our world. But God is good and God is strong and God will win and His purposes will be done and His kingdom will keep growing. That kind of a talk is what God loves, right? And so often we gravitate towards that negative or that talk that dishonors the truth of God and who He is. And so, you know, someone said, little people talk about people, bigger people talk about things, but it's the great people who talk about ideas.

So the ideas, what are the ideas? God is good. God is powerful. God's truth will prevail. This world will have to stand before God in judgment. Jesus Christ is the answer, is still the answer for the world today. Those are the things that we call the ideas that make for great people. Those truths about who God is, what He's done, who we are in Him, who He is, who we are in Him, just, it helps you zoom out from this just kind of petty gossipy drama that we often get mired in that people fixate on. But God is so much bigger and more wonderful than that.

And He Himself said it, right? When Jesus, fully God, fully man, in Matthew 12, 36, He said, But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. We don't think about that. We don't think about having to answer for our words. We always think about having to answer for our sins and our actions and our secrets, but never like the things that I said. Well, I just wasn't thinking.

Okay, that's fine. You will have to answer for it one day. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. Yeah. One of the most, I think, glossed over of all of Jesus' statements. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. And then two verses earlier, Jesus said to the Pharisees, brute of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Means what you're saying is really coming from the inside.

Yeah. And I think that's, I think that's kind of where we get that, that truth from or the core, the core of that, why is it so easy to gossip? Well, because it's fun. That's who I am. That's who I am.

And it's ugly to think about that, but that's who I am. You see that when someone gets jostled too. It's almost like a container of liquid. Whatever's inside, if you jostle it, that's going to spill out.

So if you, if somebody is stressed or they're going through a difficult time or maybe they have gone through a really wonderful time and they're trying to let their, let them, you know, let themselves relax in a negative way, whatever's inside is going to come out. That's right. You told me that one time, Dr. Shah, I think it was an Adrian Rogers quote, but you told it to me. You said, if you, if a man is full of anger and you jostle him, anger's going to come out. But if he's full of Jesus and you jostle him, Jesus is going to come out.

That's right. You know, so the question really for us is when the Lord leans over you, what does he hear? As you sitting in that restaurant, as you're sitting, you know, in church or in the doctor's office or at home or in the neighborhood or some church function, or you happen to run into somebody at the grocery store or the supermarket, you know, or at the playground as you're watching your kids play and you're there, or you're watching some ball game and you're there, what is it that God hears you?

As you're going to a movie, and, you know, at the movie theaters, what are you talking about? And does the recording angel kind of walk away going, ah, nothing here? I love that picture that you bring up about the recording angel, because, I mean, how tragic is it to think about we're sitting here and having interactions and the recording angel is sent over and kind of listens and takes stock of what's being said and just walks away, reports back to God, and God's like, where's the report?

And the recording angel's like, there wasn't really anything worth writing down. Yeah, they're gossiping. They're just grumbling. They're saying some dishonoring things to you, God. Now, God already knows, right? He's everywhere.

But imagine the recording angel saying, ah, nothing there. Yeah. We tend to think that who we are and what we say are two different things. We tend to think that that's just something that's—the things I say, they don't carry any weight because I can't be present-minded, spiritually speaking, 100 percent of the time. Well, we even joke like that, too. We tell people, do as I say, not as I do.

Right, right. Like, as if that's two totally separate beings. Yeah, it's easy to ignore or gloss over the fact that who I am inside is coming out as I speak.

And not most of the time, 100 percent of the time. If I let out a really dirty joke, I can't just be like, oh, that just kind of slipped out. That's not me.

It's me. I just let it come through. I just let that barrier up for a little bit. But whatever you meditate on is what's going to come through, right?

Yeah. So the statement goes on, so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. So it's not just that they were talking about God or talking about how God has been faithful and how God is in control and how God will come through and how God—no, it's also meditate on his name means thinking about who he is.

You know, our devotional time is so vital because that's when you are filling your heart with the truth of God. And that gives you a sense of discernment. That gives you a sense of understanding.

You're able to decipher things better. Your wisdom is sharp. Your discernment is sharp. Your responses and situation is how they need to be. Grace, yes, grace is applied. Truth, truth is applied.

Justice, justice is applied. You know, calling something out, that is applied. So when you're truly meditating on Christ, on the name of God, then what comes through is God-like behavior.

You know, Donald Gray Barnhouse, one of my favorite preachers, right? He said it this way. He said, God is perfection.

And perfection is always glad when imperfection is interested in perfection. I mean, that's just natural. Yeah.

That's natural. Yeah. I wish there was a song about ways that we can meditate on the Lord. I wish there was like a worship song. I know one.

You're in luck, my friend. Yeah? Yeah. You want to tell us a little bit about it? So there is a song. It's a Clearview worship original.

It's called Meditate. This came out of our mission trip with our students last summer. We had different track times that students could take, different things that interested them, courses that they could take that were taught by our leaders. And one of them was a songwriting track that David led. And of course, our Catalyst Band was involved in that and some other students as well who aren't necessarily musical, but were very interested in the idea of writing an original song.

And through, you know, sitting down, Dr. Shaw, David, John, you guys coming together, bringing those ideas in, it lined up with the content that we were talking about in the mission trip about how to take your thoughts captive and meditate on God's Word. And so that song is called Meditate, and it's available anywhere digital music can be found. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify. Those are a big two, but it's also on Amazon Music. It's on Raps.

It's on wherever you get digital music. But Meditate by Clearview Worship. And it's so encouraging to be seated in a room with men like you who invest in students. Because I mean, that's my heart.

That's what I'm passionate about. But to be surrounded by brothers who feel the same way is just a blessing for me personally. And it's a blessing for our students to know that the leadership of their church is like, hey, we want to resource you and give you the tools that you need to be able to develop an original song. David, do you want to tell us a little bit about that? How this Meditate song came about and how you're the lead singer on that song? Well, it was actually pretty funny because when we started doing the song, it was just coming out of the Philippian scripture from your sermon on how to meditate and how to think about Christ and how to make sure your mind is set on the right things. And it came together so naturally in a way that was pretty amazing. And I know that sitting down with you and with John really helped form that thought process so that when we sat down, it was me and some of the youth.

And like you said, some of them weren't musical, some of them were musical. We had the entire song entire song written in about probably two days or so. All that is because of the background work that was put into it, sitting down and meeting and talking about it. But then when we came back, we were able to actually come back with a fully fledged song that needed a few tweaks. So I brought it to y'all.

And then we went over it and changed some things that needed to be changed. And for the most part, I mean, it's incredible. It's quickly become one of our favorites. Oh, it's a fantastic song.

One of the best I think we've ever produced. And it goes along with this Malachi chapter, because that's what God is pleased when people meditate. And then it says, God says in verse 17, they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on that day that I make them my jewels. Jewels, the word is segula, which means prized possession. Wow. So God will be like a king displaying his jewels and saying, did you see this one?

This one came from the heart of Africa, or this one right here is from India, or check this jewel out. This is European gold or whatever, you know, and it goes on to say, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

Yeah. So when you, when you do that, talk about God, God shows his favor on you and your sense of discernment becomes sharper because now you have, you know, meditating on God. Godly wisdom is coming through and you're not easily blown about. And a lot of people just get blown about.

One day they're here, another day they're there, and one day they're on this bandwagon, another day they are with this caravan. It's like, where do you go? What, what is your direction? There is no direction.

They're just blown about. So when you truly do this, there's so many benefits, but the major benefit is that God grounds you and helps you understand. To recognize things, you don't have to be told, Hey, you just went down the wrong path.

You just follow the wrong people. You just went about somebody's devilish agenda. Here, you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked.

Yeah. And I love the way you put that because we, it's easy to come out of a book like Malachi and think, okay, if I do right, I won't be punished because there's so much focused on these, these, I want to say negative, these like negative nancies, these like people who were doing wrong and talking against God and they're going to be punished or they're going to be dealt with. So I do good.

That won't happen to me. But I love the way you put that because our perspective changes to God's going to be proud of you. He's going to show you off.

You're going to be his masterpiece and his jewel. Yeah. Hearing about us being described as a precious jewel of God. I mean, that's a beautiful picture. That's comforting. Amen.

I love that discussion so much. If you guys enjoyed today's topic or you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website.

Click that donate button there on that website, mark in that comment field that it is for Clearview today, and we'd love to reach out to you and send you something special if you do. Amen. I want to end this episode on a quote.

This is from E.M. Balance. The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away their early morning, its opportunity and freshness in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway, seeking him the rest of the day.

If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will be in the last place the remainder of the day. Isn't that true? Wow.

Isn't that the truth? Wow. Amen. I love, I love that. Starting your day off with God, starting your day off with building your relationship with him. That goes back to what we were talking about meditating. Exactly. Yeah. Starting the day meditating on him. Beautiful. So important. Love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.