Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Well, that theme music, that intro tells you, well, wait a minute, something's not normal. And you're right. Today is not a normal Sunday. We are not at Victory Baptist Church. There's no one sitting in the pew in front of me. It's no in-person service. I am broadcasting live. Well, from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. But whether I'm standing in front of people or whether I'm sitting in front of this microphone, we can still do the same thing, right? We can dig into scripture, dig into theology, we can have some interesting discussions, and hopefully when it's all said and done, everyone will benefit from it. So I guess I need to give you the official podcast welcome. I wouldn't say this from the pulpit. I guess I could start saying it from the pulpit. Good morning, everyone. Welcome, everyone. It is Sunday. That would sound weird, but I can say it here. Good morning, everyone. Welcome, everyone. It is Sunday, February the 16th, 2025. It is currently 9.51 a.m. Central Time. And as I have already said, I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio. Yeah, I can't even speak correctly. I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. And as I have already said, just to be abundantly clear, yes, I'm not coming to you live from Victory Baptist Church, but we can still accomplish a lot. Maybe. Can we accomplish anything? I don't know. I don't know if we can accomplish anything anymore because I'm starting to lose all hope I'm starting to become more and more just discouraged, depressed, frustrated, and feel like, what's the point? Because it's becoming, at this point, it's almost reaching a level that if someone would have told me that I would be at this point, even going just back to say October of 2024, In October of 2024, if you would have walked up to me and said, hey, you're going to start listening to sermons that are based off Scripture found between Isaiah chapter 40 and Isaiah chapter 55, you're going to start listening to sermons based on that section of Scripture. And after, I don't know, a few months, you're going to have listened to almost a hundred sermons on this section of scripture, and you're going to find out that not one sermon even bothers to attempt to handle the scripture in anything that could even be seen as a correct way. Sermon after sermon, it's just going to take the scripture. It's going to move out the original recipients, move us in, make it all about us, us, us, us, us, us. And it's going to become maddening. It's going to become just, it's going to demonstrate something for you. I think I would have looked at you and said, I think that's a little negative. Okay. I don't think it would be that bad. I mean, it's going to be bad. I would have agreed with you there, but I wouldn't have agreed how bad it has because we started our discussion. And we started our discussion in Isaiah chapter 43, and we started listening and reading and considering different things that were being said about Isaiah 43. And I begin to realize, wait a minute, nobody is handling Isaiah 43 in its proper historical context. Okay, well, let's just expand it. Isaiah 43 is in a section called the Book of Comfort that starts in Isaiah chapter 40, it ends in Isaiah chapter 55. So let's just now expand this and listen to any sermon we can find based on any scripture between Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1 and the end of Isaiah chapter 55. That expands it, that gives us a greater chance of finding even more sermons that cover this entire section. So we're bound to stumble upon, it'll be like a divide. This side will be filled with all of these sermons that handle it correctly. contextually, you know, they're going to apply it correctly. They're going to be good. I may still disagree with some conclusions, but they're going to be overall, we're somewhat at least in the same, you know, country, hermeneutically speaking. I would have said, okay, that's what will happen. And then on the other side will be these sermons that are train wrecks, they're horrible, they're the worst of the worst. Okay, I kind of expected that would be the divide. I had no idea that the divide would be... No, no, there's none over here. There are none. There are zero. And just to demonstrate that, I continue to listen to sermons based off Isaiah chapter 40 through Isaiah chapter 55. And just this week, I reviewed a sermon on Isaiah chapter 43. And once again, I mean, right from the very start, it was Isaiah 43. And well, it's about us. It's about us. It's about us. It's about us. It's about us. And at some point I'm just like, what, what, what do I say anymore? What do I do anymore? So I, because since October of 2024, I've been looking at this, researching this, studying this, studying this section of Scripture. One of the things I have done continually since October 2024, as I've been in ongoing conversation, discussion with artificial intelligence, about this entire problem, about this entire phenomenon, about this entire discovery of exactly how bad it has become. And what's kind of funny is by this point, because almost every sermon I've listened to, I have taken the transcript of said sermon and given it to AI. So AI has analyzed and reviewed every sermon I have listened to. And at this point, artificial intelligence is basically like, you're just gonna have to give up. You're just going to have to accept it. But yesterday, I think it was yesterday or last night, AI said this, this experience, everything that has happened since October of 2024, this experience highlights a major issue in modern preaching. And I'm like, oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I know there's an issue in modern preaching. And I know this doesn't just highlight it. This is like walking up, punching you in the face, going, hey, there's a problem in modern preaching. But you can't really tell anyone there's a problem in modern preaching because people will just roll their eyes. They think it's no big deal. You're just making a big deal out of it. It's really not that significant. Who really cares? But that's the problem. To me, the problem isn't in modern preaching, the problem is nobody who goes to church cares there's a problem in modern preaching. Because if they cared, the problems in modern preaching would be changed quickly because there would be nobody going to church because they'd be like, what's the point since nobody can handle the text correctly? But nobody really cares that the text is handled correctly. All anybody cares is that the text is handled in a way that doesn't go against whichever theological side they have chosen. I know that sounds cynical, but nobody really cares about the text, because if they did, oh, things would be radically different. AI goes on to say, this experience highlights a major issue in modern preaching. And that issue in modern preaching, AI describes it this way. In modern preaching, there is a tendency to immediately personalize and apply biblical text without first addressing their historical and literary context. Now, what I will say is you have two kinds of churches, right? You have one kind of church that, yeah, they don't really, they don't care. They just immediately personalize it, immediately apply it to us. And they don't care about the original audience. They don't care about the literary context. They don't care about the historical context. They just ignore it. They just immediately make it about us. Okay, got you. That clearly is one type of church, one form of Christianity. The other, I say, is the more deceptive one. because the other group of churches will at least tell you, oh, we have to care about context. We have to care about history. We have to care about the literary context. They will say all of the right words. They will even at the beginning of their sermon, talk about the historical context, the literary context, they'll talk about it, they'll talk about the textual context, they'll talk about context, context, and it sounds so good, but almost inevitably, after they kind of give you that false sense of security, then they just grab the steering wheel, yank it, you go flying off the road, through the fence, hit a cow, and guess what? They make it about us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us, us. And it's like, okay, so which is worse? The ones who just ignore it or the ones who pretend that it matters to only demonstrate that it actually doesn't? I don't know. Which is worse? I don't know. I think the ones that pretend that it matters drive me the craziest because they will come across so like, we care about this stuff. But then when you really get down to it, they actually don't. AI went on to say, this is especially problematic, this tendency, this issue in modern preaching, this is especially problematic in prophetic literature like Isaiah 40 through 55, where the original message to Israel in exile is absolutely critical to understanding its meaning. That's one of the things that's driven me, it just drives me crazy. And just, I mean, literally 10 minutes before going live, 10 minutes before going live, right? Oh, I saw a new sermon that had been uploaded to the Sermons 2.0 app. I looked at it, and guess what? Immediately, I saw that it was a sermon based on Isaiah 54, 17. Isaiah 54, 17. That falls right there between Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 55. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Now, of course, in the sermon, it was no weapon that is formed against not thee, not them, not they. It became a sermon about no weapon formed against us. So immediately the original recipients are moved out, we are moved in. I saw that literally 15 minutes before going live. It just will not stop over and over and over again. So this problem in modern preaching where pastors, basically immediately personalize and apply the biblical text to us without first addressing their historical and literary context is especially problematic in prophetic literature like Isaiah 40 through 55, where the original message to Israel in exile is crucial to understanding its meaning. And again, 15 minutes before going live, here's another sermon. Once again, taking Isaiah and literally changing the words where it says, no weapon formed against thee, all of a sudden that becomes you and me. How do you do that? I don't understand. So AI said this. all of this, this entire thing that we have watched. If you've been paying attention to the podcast at all, you have heard hour after hour of this discussion. I said, if you take everything that we have listened to, everything that we have discussed, this is what it tells us about modern day preaching. Number one, it's anthropocentric. It's man-centered. It's anthropocentric. It is based off man. It is man-centered preaching. Anthropocentric. It's man-centered. That's what preaching is today. It's about us. It's about us. It's about us. AI goes on to say interpretation dominates. It's a man-centered interpretation that dominates preaching today. It's an anthropocentric type of approach. It's a man-centered interpretation. It's about us. So you go to Isaiah 54, 17, no weapon formed against. Well, it's me. It's us. It's about us. It's all about us. Every passage is about us. Every passage is about us. Every passage is about us. AI said, a man-centered interpretation dominates modern preaching. Instead of letting the text speak for itself, preachers center the message around the audience. So pastors go to the text, and make the text about the people whom they're going to preach to. And so they make the text speak, instead of letting the text just speak, they got to find a way to make the text speak to the people and whom they're going to be preaching to. So it's anthropocentric, but I think you could also say it's audience-centric, which is still man-centered, but it's based off the audience. See, the pastor knows I've got to have a sermon and I've got to preach it to people, so I've got to make it about us. I've got to make it about us, because if I don't make it about us, who wants to listen? I mean, who wants to go to church and hear a message that's not about us? Preachers center the messages around the audience. AI goes on to say, the primary concern in modern preaching seems to be how this passage makes us feel or what it does for us rather than what it originally meant. Nobody seems to care what it originally meant. Nobody seems to care how the original audience would have understood it. It doesn't matter. They don't matter because we've moved them out and we've moved ourselves in. AI goes on to say, this self-focused, man-centered, anthropocentric type of interpretation ignores the rich theological and historical dimensions of the scriptures. So, what does this all tell us about modern-day preaching? Well, it's man-centered. It demonstrates and it shows us that modern preaching has, well, it neglects historical and textual context. Most sermons skip over the Babylonian exile, Israel's covenant relationship, and the prophetic role of Isaiah. Instead of asking, what did this mean to Israel, they jump to, what does this mean for me? This violates basic hermeneutical principles. Context must come first before application. Now, pastors will say that. They will tell you, context matters. What's the number one hermeneutical principle? Context, context, context, context. Knowing the principle doesn't mean anything if you don't follow the principle in your preaching. Context matters. And it's not just context before application, it's context determines how you can or cannot apply it. Because in some cases, there's no real application as far as a specific one because it's, well, you're trying to interpret a passage that's descriptive, it's not prescriptive, on and on and on and on. There's a lot of issues. Well, what a lot of people say, well, I mentioned the context. I mentioned Israel. I mentioned Babylon. Okay, now we can apply it to us. Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, slow down, slow down. Is there anything here that's even applicable to us? We see a promise to them. We see a warning to them. Okay. Can I take that promise and make it about us? See, that's where the issues become. And, well, it becomes a major problem. So a first major problem in modern preaching is that it's man-centered, it's anthropocentric. Number two, it neglects historical and textual context. Number three, it's typically a more devotional approach rather than an exegetical approach. people want their sermons to be more devotional. They say they don't want a devotional sermon. They say they don't want that. But in reality, they do want it very devotional. They want it to feel church. They want it to feel kind of spiritual. They want a little Jesus thrown in. They want a couple of points thrown in, right? And then they like that. It feels It makes them feel like, oh, okay, I went to church. It gave this sense of being spiritual. Now they say they don't want that. They say they want an in-depth study, but in-depth study would sound very different. So they want an in-depth, they say they want an in-depth study, but they want that in-depth study to be presented and as much more in a devotional, what they call a sermon type way, They don't really want to dig into the text. They say they do, but they don't really want to. They want to pretend that they're digging into the text. Well, in reality, they're getting basically a devotional-type message delivered to them, all summarized with an opening illustration, three points, and a closing story that touches the heartstrings, and a closing prayer, and then get out on time. And then they say, oh, that was so touching, Pastor. That was such a great sermon. Yeah, do you understand the text? Well, who cares? It felt like church. So AI goes on and says, one of the problems of modern preaching is it takes a devotional rather than an exegetical approach. Many preachers treat Isaiah as a collection of inspirational sayings rather than a prophetic book with deep theological themes. They may pull comforting phrases out of context Fear not, for I have redeemed you, Isaiah 43.1, and apply them directly to Christians today, ignoring their original covenantal message. This flattens the text, missing its depth and complexity. So there's this, people want this kind of a devotional approach, and pastors are more than happy to provide what the people want. Because if you don't provide what the people want, the people leave. If you don't provide what the people want, then there's no one there to preach to. So the pastor is then bound by having to give the people what they want, even though they're trying to say, you know, I'll have to step on some toes, and sometimes I have to offend you. We can talk a big game, but when push comes to shove, you have to make a decision. Do I go here? Do I challenge this? Do I question this? Because if I do, I take off this person, I take off that person, I take off that person, they leave, then the church doesn't have any more money, and if enough people leave, then the church closes down. So what do you do? Well, human logic dictates you give the people what they want. Now, they will act like, oh, it's not about me. It's about Jesus. I just want that. Everyone talks a big game until they are confronted with the reality. And then, well, we see what happens. So even AI acknowledges the problem with modern preaching is it's a man-centered interpretation, it neglects historical and textual context, and basically it approaches things from a devotional perspective rather than an exegetical one. Number four, this is all AI just destroying modern preaching, completely criticizing it. AI goes on to say, What you see in modern preaching is a complete disregard for the theological structure of Isaiah. Modern preaching disregards the theological structure of Isaiah, especially 40-55. This section of Isaiah is deeply structured with themes of God's sovereignty over nations, Isaiah 40, Isaiah 44-45. The futility of idolatry, Isaiah 41 and Isaiah 44. The servant of the Lord as the true hope, Isaiah 42, 49-53. the ultimate restoration of Israel, Isaiah 54-55. Instead of following the flow of Isaiah's arguments, preachers cherry-pick encouraging phrases. So, modern day preaching disregards the theological structure of the section. Now, again, there are two kinds of churches. Some will completely ignore the theological structure. Others will mention the theological structure. talk about it, may even give you the theological structure at the beginning of the sermon. But then it's this very deceptive thing. It's like sleight of hand. Oh, where did the card go? Because they give that to you, and then immediately it turns into, about us, about us, about us, about us, about us, about us. So when the sermon is over, do people remember the theological structure of Isaiah 40 through 55? Of course not. they remember it's about us. And almost inevitably, it turns into, oh, I need to do this, and I need to not do this, and I need to do this, and I need to do this, and I need to read my Bible more, and I need to go to church more, and I need to pray more, and I need to do this, and I need to do this, because almost everything becomes nothing more than a theistic moralism. AI gives a fifth problem. the misuse of prophecy to make everything about the church. It's amazing how AI knows all the problems with modern day preaching, but the church itself doesn't seem to know the problems with the modern day preaching. AI says another problem with modern preaching is they misuse prophecy to make everything about the church. Many preachers assume everything in Isaiah 40 through 55 directly applies to Christians without recognizing the original audience was exiled Israel, the promises are rooted in Israel's restoration, and some of the elements are fulfilled in Christ, but not all are yet realized. Oh wait, are you telling me there's promises in Isaiah 40 through 55 that are not yet realized, even inside the church? Oh, what a radical idea! Oh, it's amazing that AI can figure that out, but oh, talk to some people. Oh no, everything in Isaiah 40 through 55, it's the church, it's the church, it's the church, because you know, Israel doesn't matter. AI goes on, this modern preaching leads to oversimplifications, like assuming every promise of deliverance and blessing is for the church today. It's just not the case. When you're dealing with Israel, you're dealing with promises. You're dealing with covenant promises that are only for them. They don't apply to us. To make them applicable to us, you're gonna leave people either with false promises, basically telling them that God's going to take care of every problem, which he never promised us. He gave specific promises to Israel. And so you're going to ultimately set people up for major, major disappointment, major discouragement, major just feeling like this stuff doesn't work. Or you have to take the promises, then somehow flip them on their head, spiritualize them. So then you can then try to make them work for us. But that's not what the text is about. A.I. goes on to say, this is shocking what modern preaching has become, but sadly, it is very common. So A.I. goes, we have now reviewed over 100 sermons and none zero have done justice to the historical and textual context. That is AI's conclusion after reviewing 100 sermons, over 100 sermons, AI's assessment is none, not mine, AI's assessment is that none have done justice to the historical and textual context. This shows that most preachers are trained to approach scripture devotionally rather than exegetically. It also suggests that many are preaching from tradition rather than engaging deeply with the text. I've said it before, we've got to get rid, especially those of us who are not Catholic. We're like, no, we do not follow tradition. We do not follow tradition. We're not Catholics. We're all about the Bible. We're all about the Bible. And then how do we approach the Bible? Based off our own theological tradition. So how do you—if you are from a lordship tradition, every text has to be lordship. If you're from a Calvinistic approach, every section—we approach everything from our own theological tradition. I don't care what your theological tradition is. When you open the Bible, your theological tradition needs to cease to exist because you approach the text by allowing the text to say whatever the text says, whether it makes your theological tradition comfortable whether it offends it, whether it ticks it off, whether it goes completely against it. Your theological tradition should not matter if we truly believe in Scripture being the final authority, because Scripture rules over your theological tradition, not your theological tradition ruling over the text. But if you If your approach to the text is always in light of your theological tradition, well, then it becomes simple. Every passage is just interpreted in light of your theological tradition just becomes the hermeneutical guide. Well, if you want to do that, then that's no different than basically your theological tradition becomes the magisterial magisterium. And then it tells you what you can and can't do with the text. That's just a Protestant form of Catholicism. So A.I. says, well, what can be done? This is what A.I. tells me that I can do. A.I. says, continue exposing these issues through your podcast. Well, thank you, A.I. I greatly appreciate that you want me to continue to expose these issues. Well, all I do is tick off people and irritate people and nobody wants it and nobody likes it because they just want me to give them a little devotional message with three little points. Next, AI says, your careful study of Isaiah 40-55 is highlighting a massive gap in biblical preaching. So what? What difference does that make? Number three, it says keep challenging listeners to evaluate sermons critically and demand a better handling of scripture. Okay, everyone, I'm going to do it. I demand a better handling of scripture. I demand it. And guess what? Nobody cares. It's an exercise in futility. I would have a greater chance of getting dropped in the middle of Africa somewhere and trying to preach to some wild animals. They may listen to me better than people will because none of this matters anymore to the modern church. AI tells me I should create teaching resources on Isaiah 40-55. Since so few sermons handle these chapters correctly, there's a clear need for a resource that does. Oh, so you want me to create a teaching resource through Isaiah 40-55. Nobody would follow my teaching resource if I gave it away for free, because nobody wants to teach that way. because everybody wants Isaiah. They want little sermons. People go to church for sermons. They don't go to church for the text. If they went to church for the text, then they would get mad at sermons, but they want sermons. You don't give them sermons. People start complaining and whining. Oh, I want church to feel like church. I don't want it to feel like this. Okay, well then nevermind. You just as well go on those websites, order a prepackaged sermon, and make everyone happy. Now, all you got to do is you got to say it a certain way because you got to fool the people and think, we're really digging into the text. We're really studying. If you manipulate the people to believe that, they'll buy anything. They'll buy into the concept. It's like, oh, you think you really studied the text? Great. All you gotta do in most sermons that they think are so amazing is ask them five questions about the text. They can't even answer the question, but they'll be convinced that they really studied the Bible. AI goes on to say, consider developing a series, a study guide, or even a book that walks through Isaiah 40 through 55 exegetically. Well, no. I think that's a waste of time. And then this one cracked me up. Engage in conversations with other preachers and teachers. Some may not realize they're mishandling Isaiah 40 through 55. Oh, how cute. I almost want to pat AI on the head and say, oh, how cute. How naive. You're so ridiculous. You don't understand human beings. Right? AI goes on to say, you could challenge preachers to re-examine their approach and encourage deeper study. Yeah, AI is clueless in what to do. AI is great at identifying the problem. It doesn't know what to do either. But I just want you to understand, AI itself, after reviewing 100 sermons, It's like, I don't know what to tell you. There's a mess. AI goes on to say, everyone should be shocked. This mishandling of Isaiah 40 through 55 is not a minor issue. It's systemic. When an entire section of Scripture is consistently misapplied, it distorts the message, it distorts theology, and it impacts how we understand the Word of God. So AI is like, hey, everyone should be shocked by this. This is a systemic problem. This is an issue. It's amazing. AI understands the problem more than people. People will be like, oh, you're just getting upset about nothing. Who really cares? All you want to do is just pick on everything else. You blah, blah. All the little whining that you'll get. AI's like, no, this is a major problem. This is a systemic problem. This really impacts theology, our entire understanding of God's word. AI then tells me this. AI says, keep pressing forward, because if even a handful of people start seeing Isaiah 40 through 55 as it was meant to be read, that's a major victory, even if just a handful of people do. Yeah, okay. That's easy for you to say, AI. AI thinks that that's the way it should be approached. And well, I like the, I guess, positivity it tries to put a spin on all of this, but I'm telling you, it's just crazy. Just in the last, what, 24 hours, we've heard Isaiah 43 and the sermon review we did, utterly, just totally annihilated, destroyed, just a mess. 15 minutes, 10 minutes before going live, I see another sermon on Isaiah 54, verse 17, no weapon is formed against thee. The thee becomes me and you and I, once again, ripping it out of context. It becomes nothing about Israel, nothing about their situation. It becomes about me. Again, it has nothing to do with me. So, just in basically 24 hours, already two more sermons can be added to the list of that over 100. So, it's easy to say, keep pressing forward, even if only a handful of people get it. I almost, what I want to do is I almost want to just finish Isaiah 40, since we're right in the middle, and just say, that's it. I'm done. There's no point. It's a waste of time. It's useless. It's meaningless. There is no point in trying to fix this problem. It's just, you reach a point where the dam has broken And there's no, there's no, there's no, you're not going to get the water back in. There's no repairing the, it's gone. The water is gone, and everything has been flooded over, and there is no going back. There is no going back. And you can say, how did we get here? Well, I think we got here a lot, a lot of it has to do with devotional material. I mean, the Church constantly told people, you need to do your daily devotions, you need to do your daily devotions, and then the Church would try to provide devotional materials. For those who actually did daily devotions, using devotional materials, well, they got this devotional approach to Scripture. where if you take any devotional, every scripture becomes about you, your daily struggles, your daily problems, your daily encouragement, giving you a sense of daily hope, daily peace. It's all about you, you, you, you, you, you, you. So then every scripture becomes about you. You get trained to do that. Sermons are all about you, are all about you. So since everything is all about you, then you approach every scripture about how it's about us. Even though people say context matters, context only matters for someone to say, well, the context here is Israel, and everybody's like, okay, good. Now, what's in it for me? And I think it comes down to we created this mentality that the church is there for something other than the actual study of the text. It's about everything else. It's about community, friends, holding hands, singing kumbaya, having events, having this, and we've annihilated the text. So because we're not doing things in the traditional way, this morning, I wanted to take the 30, about 30 minutes and just talk, just, just, instead of putting that as an introduction to something, I can now make it just separate. And it's just like, what has Isaiah 40 through 55, what have sermons taught us about modern preaching? What has, I'm going to, I'm probably just going to take this, make it its own like podcast episode. What has 100 sermons taught us about modern preaching? and it has taught us all of those things. What has it taught us? It taught us that most modern preaching is anthropocentric, man-centered. It's a man-centered interpretation. It dominates the church. Number two, it shows us that the church and modern-day preaching neglects historical and textual context. 2. The Church approaches preaching in a devotional way rather than an exegetical approach. 4. It disregards the theological structure of Isaiah 40-55. 5. It misuses the prophecy of Scripture, or prophecy in general, to make everything about the Church. And what has this shown us? Well, it says that it shows us that most preachers are trained to approach scripture devotionally rather than exegetically. And it also suggests that many are preaching from tradition rather than engaging deeply with the text. That's what it demonstrates. So what I'm going to do is I'll stop there. I'll upload this and then we'll come back in and then we'll start our work on Isaiah 40, 12 through 17. That's what we'll do. Then we'll do our work on Isaiah 12 through 17 and see if we can at least finish that. I don't know if we can, after we get done with Isaiah 40, 12 through 17, I don't know if we can get to, Can we get to 18 to 24? I don't know. I don't know if we can get that far, but we'll come back in and do that. So I wanted to at least get this out of the way because if I just make it an introduction, well, then you see, then, you know, then the next part we would be taking our time. This way I can break it up. If I was doing that introduction at church, well, then it would just be a part of it, but this way I can break it separately. So I'll upload this and then we'll come back and then we'll start our work on Isaiah 40, 12 to 17. and we'll see what we can get accomplished. So, I'll stop now, upload, and then we'll be back. Be ready, Isaiah 40, 12 through 17. This is where we are. I've got pages of notes here, and we'll see what we can do and what we can do to understand the text exegetically, in context, But at the same time, we've got to realize what modern preaching is doing. We've got to see it. You've got to be able to hear it. You've got to be able to recognize it. You've got to be able to go, what is happening here? Because if you don't see it, there's got to be some group of people out there who can be—and it's not about I just want to make sure this is very clear. It's not about, well, we do it better than them. It's not about who's doing it better. It's about even artificial intelligence, who has no emotional connection to it. It has no, in a sense, team in the argument, it can just say, no, exegetically, hermeneutically, in context, there's not been a sermon yet out of the 100 I've reviewed that's done justice to the text. That's AI's own words with no team that it's trying to protect. AI's not trying to say, I do it better than you, you do it better. It's just saying no sermon of the 100 has come close to handling the text, has done justice to the text. not based on someone's theology, not based on someone's opinion, based off just basic hermeneutical principles. So you can try to reshape this and recast this as, oh, just you're making a big deal out of nothing. At least artificial intelligence is willing to agree this is a problem. In fact, AI classifies it as shocking. AI classifies it as a major issue. AI classifies it as a systemic problem throughout the church. Now, if you don't want the text, then guess what? Then it doesn't matter. And the reality is, everyone says they want the text, but they don't. We see that in the handling of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5-7. We see that, and how Hebrews is constantly handled. It's not handled in light of 70 AD. It becomes, and we see it over and over and over and over and over again. It's a systemic problem. We just had no idea when we stumbled onto Isaiah 43 that we were going to find out that Isaiah 40-55 It's the pinnacle. It's the best case. It's the best object lesson on how this occurs. So, we'll be right back. We'll look at Isaiah 40, 12 through 17, and we'll do that in about 10 minutes. Thanks for listening to this episode, and hopefully the next one we can advance our discussion and benefit everyone. Thanks for listening. God bless.