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When life gets hard, does what we think we believe hold us up, or does it crumble under the weight of doubt? I'm your host, Dr. Lee Warren- I'm a brain surgeon, author, and a person who's seen some stuff and wondered where God is in all this mess. This is The Spiritual Brain Surgery podcast, where we'll take a hard look at what we believe, why we believe it, and the neuroscience behind how our minds and our brains can smash together with faith to help us become healthier, feel better, and be happier so we can find the hope to withstand anything life throws at us. You've got questions, and we're going to do the hard work to find the answers, but you can't change your life until you change your mind, and it's gonna take some spiritual-brain surgery to get it done. So let's get after it.
Good morning, my friend, Dr. Lee Warren here with you, and it is Tuesday.
So we're gonna do a Tuesdays with Tata. Tata's got a stomach virus,
so this is not a brand new episode.
Bringing you one of my favorite classic Tuesdays with Tata episodes today from
back in December about sowing the wind.
Like what happens in your life when you're in a period of time when things are difficult?
What kind of decisions do you make? And what are the results and ramifications of those decisions?
We talk a little bit today about resilience, Resilience about how things work
out when you trust the one who can manage that wind and the whirlwind.
Tata had a great bunch of insight in this conversation, and I think it is worthy
of bringing back to you today.
We've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up for spiritual brain surgery.
We are getting this podcast ready to go as its own standalone show.
We're going to bring you a lot of the archive of Tuesdays with Tata and things
from the past to have in one place where you can find them.
But going forward, Spiritual Brain Surgery is going to be a special and very
unique show. So make sure you're subscribed.
Make sure you leave a comment, share it with your friends. That's how people
are going to find out about it. And Spiritual Brain Surgery is going to have
a life of its own starting very soon.
We're excited about this new show, a place where we understand what we believe,
why we believe it, how to defend it, live it, and share it with others.
And we're going to go deep in Spiritual Brain Surgery. Here's a classic Tuesdays
with Tata, one of my favorites.
Let's get after it. Hey, are you ready to change your life? if the
answer is yes there's only one rule you have
to change your mind first and my friend there's a place where
the neuroscience of how your mind works smashes together
with faith and everything starts to make sense are you ready to change your
life well this is the place self-brain surgery school i'm dr lee warren and
this is where we go deep into how we're wired take control of our thinking and
find real hope this is where we learn to become healthier feel better and be Be happier.
This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.
This is where we start today. Are you ready? This is your podcast.
This is your place. This is your time, my friend. Let's get after it.
Music.
Side of the North Platte River in Nebraska, and it's a super windy day, isn't it, Tata?
Oh, it has been, yes. I walked down to the shop, and I thought I was going to
blow away for a time. It was crazy, and I ran a half marathon this morning.
Nothing much left of us. 29 degrees, my water in my water bottle froze during the race.
Goodness. Well, if it's Sunday afternoon and we're sitting by the river,
it must be Tuesdays with Tata.
I think so. So Tata's been a little under the weather. You feeling better today,
Dad? I am. Just a little slower, that's it. Good.
Well, I don't know if you remember, Dad, but last year I gave you three very
strange Bible verses that I wanted to do episodes around.
We talked about, what all did we talk about?
The children have eaten sour grapes, or the father have eaten sour grapes and
the children's teeth are set on edge.
We talked about the great speckled bird.
Yes. And we talked about what it meant to be saved to the uttermost.
Remember those three? Yes, I do.
And they turned out to be great episodes because I think anytime you get in
the Word, God says the Word doesn't return empty.
That's right. There's value in studying the Word, even the weird parts.
And so I've done it again. I came at you with, what in the world does it mean,
Tata, in Hosea 8-7, when he says, for they sow the wind and they shall reap
the whirlwind. That's what we're going to talk about today.
Well, the first thing we have to do, we have to look at all of the prophets, what they said.
And what they were saying is what God was going to do. God was mad at them.
One, because they were worshiping idols, because they had forsaken him,
and they were not abiding by his commandments.
He was angry with them. And each one of the prophets had a different approach to the situation.
And Hosea is kind of strange when you read it, but when you keep that in mind.
This is based on what God is saying, that the Israelites had forsaken him.
Yeah. And they had gone after.
Yeah. They had gone after other gods, and they had made idols,
and they were worshiping. they were in idolatry.
So there were several things going on here but one of the things that you,
and also we'll look at Psalm 79 in just a couple of points in Psalm 79.
And an aside to all of that is Patty, when she was very ill,
my wife, she loved the Psalms and I would read them to her at night until she went to sleep.
And so, and I'm back in the Psalms. I don't know how many times I've read them,
but one of the things that I keep asking God is to help me understand.
And what I'm beginning to see is a common theme.
There's a thread through all of the Psalms. Yep.
And part of them are crying out to God because what God had said was going to
happen to them has already happened.
And they feel like they've been, feel like the writers feel like they've been
deserted and that God, his anger, has gone away and he's not even present.
Yeah. But he is because he said he would be with us always.
That's right. But he gave them many opportunities. Now I don't know what the timeline is.
I don't know how many years this went on that God was warning them.
Probably through a couple of generations. Maybe even more than that.
But he kept reminding the prophets kept reminding the Israelites of where they had come from.
They had come out of slavery and God had blessed them and God had led them.
He led them through the Red Sea, brought them out of Egypt.
And still they were rebellious. And even God knew that. And that is so interesting
right there, just that one point.
That God knew that they were stiff-necked and hard-hearted and that they were rebellious.
And that they would rebel against God. And they did that. We talked about that
last time where Moses came down out of the mountains and God was already mad
at him because they built a golden calf.
Excuse me, I'm sorry, we're a little stuffy today. day.
So looking at Hosea, Hosea starts out, God starts out talking to Hosea and he
said set the trumpet to your lips.
One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord.
So evil was already present. The Assyrians are coming. That's right.
Because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.
And then down in verse 3 God, Israel has spurned the good.
That would be hard for us that the enemy shall pursue them.
They made, and then there's other things that I don't believe are mentioned
anywhere else in the prophets, but one of the things here that God is already
upset about is they made kings but not through me.
They did not ask for God's help. That's right. They set up princes, but I knew it not.
God said that. Yeah. With their silver and gold, they made idols for their own destruction.
And down in part of verse 5, my anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
How long can they go? So, and then we get to the verse that we were talking
about, for they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.
So every, in several different occasions in Scripture, and especially in the
Old Testament, but sowing the wind is chasing after evil.
Yeah. Chasing after idols, chasing after your own lust.
Yeah, that's mentioned in Job,
Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, is that type of metaphor, sowing the wind.
And it's applicable to us today because you think about it, and the wind that
blows here on the North Platte River, I have never experienced anything like that in my life.
And I can remember sometimes when I thought the house was just going to blow away. Yeah.
And probably thinking about it, and I know I saw several limbs that were on the ground the next day.
But God was warning them they've already done that they've already been chasing
after idols they've been chasing after idolatry they've been chasing after their
own desires and they've been chasing after idols and now they're going to pay
for it they're going to reap the whirlwind.
And God has already threatened, told them what was going to happen through the prophets.
And down in verse 13, the Lord, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
I've always thought about, and I'm guessing that it's in translation,
but when God remembers something.
So I know he doesn't sit around and think about evil things.
No. Because he's good. Yes.
He's full of love and compassion, mercy and peace.
That's right. But then he remembers that they have been rebelling against him
and that now he's going to punish their sins.
And he did that. And we see that it's already happened when we look at Psalms 79.
Yeah, Psalms 79. And the first verse, Oh God, the nations have come.
Just like he said they would. That's right. And they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
And then it talks about all of the other destruction, but then down in verse
6, How long, O Lord, will you be angry forever? Mm-hmm.
And I know, 70 years, I don't know about to you, but 70 years to me is a long time. Yeah.
Think about that, being in captivity for 70 years.
Yeah. And the Babylonians took them back to Babylon, and they were captives,
and integrated into the culture.
That's right. Both in language, name, and worship, and everything. Yeah.
Except for Daniel. Daniel rebelled against all of that. That's right.
And then we talked about that as well.
And then in verse 8, do not remember against us our former iniquities.
Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
Just as they had been warned.
And help us, O God, of our salvation for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake.
And then down in verse 13, but we your people,
the sheep of your pasture will give thanks to you
forever from generation to generation we
will recount your praise yeah it's kind
of late a little late and I think sometimes the lesson for us is this is that
we think we start too late and we don't think about it that God is and maybe
it's because of the passage of time I don't know,
And we know that some people are, and we're warned about don't be dull of hearing,
don't be dim in vision because I'm coming.
And all through all the Old Testament, the people were warned.
To follow God. That's all. And that warning, what does the Old Testament say to us?
People have said to me that, well, the Old Testament law is no longer applicable.
But it's there for our learning. That's right. It's a foreshadow of things to come.
That's very applicable because it shows us how God interacts with people.
That's right. And it shows us the result of sin and it shows us the result of repentance.
Absolutely. And we also learn the language of prayer and lament.
And I almost chuckled when I asked you to do this passage because I remember
a very different scale, of course.
But I remember when I was little and my dad would say, don't do that thing or
there will be a consequence.
And sometimes it was even just in fun. Like if I was acting like I was going
to try to wrestle with him when I was a little boy. And he would say,
fool around and find out.
Mess around and see what happens. And that's kind of what God's saying here,
except on a much grander scale. Like he's saying, you people have not been following
my word and you're getting ready to find out what happens when you sow the wind
for a long time. You're going to get the whirlwind.
That's right. You're about to find out. And they did.
And it caused the downfall of their society. It caused them to be falling into slavery.
And it caused all the events that we read about through the whole Old Testament.
It's tragic in retrospect for us to look back and see because it seems so easy
to us. Like all you had to do was obey.
That's right. But then do we have the same problem? Well, but think about the
time that the prophets appeared.
Many times the prophets were considered to be insane. Yeah. Many of them were killed.
Some of them were thrown into wells. That's right. And cisterns.
Like Jeremiah, yeah. And left to die.
Because the people could not, and the people knew because the question always
came, where is the man of God?
What does that mean? The prophets were nothing but mouthpieces for God.
He spoke, he spoke what, the prophets spoke what God told them to say, what he told them to say.
And they spoke truth and they spoke, it was all, it was all relevant to the
time that the people were living in.
But it's hard for me to understand how they could be so rebellious.
But then I look at us today. What are we doing as a society? That's right.
We say, well, this is my truth.
I'm going to do what makes me feel good. That's right. Maybe that's what these people did too.
It is what they did. They followed after their own lusts and their own hearts
and what they thought would make them happy.
The thing I think is beautiful here, though, is like you said,
God used the metaphor of the wind, the whirlwind. And just like this,
we're sitting here on the bank of the river watching the wind blow the cattails,
and it's probably blowing about 40 miles an hour today. It's rough, hard to be outside.
It's hard to withstand that wind, even though it's not a tornado.
It's a wind, but it's not fatal to us.
But God used the metaphor of the whirlwind. And the thing about the wind here
on the prairie is there are calm days. There's a time when the wind passes.
Yes. And he tells Hosea down in 14 to say this.
And of course, the whirlwind came upon Israel and it was what,
722 BC, I'm reading in an article here, when Assyria invaded, as you said.
But in Hosea 14, God promises that he still has grace and love for them.
And he says, I will heal their apostasy.
I will love them freely for my anger has turned from them.
And the point is the whirlwind doesn't last forever, Tartai.
God's judgment is unyielding, but he relents if we repent.
And the other side of it is, down in the latter part of verse 7.
He makes it very, and puts it into his terms that they can understand.
That's right. The standing grain has no heads.
It shall yield no flour. If it were to yield, strangers would devour it. That's right.
So that's very simple to understand. Yeah.
They're not going to have anything to eat, and they did not.
He's saying people are going to come and take your crops, which would have been
devastating. If you make your living growing things and somebody comes along
and raids your barn and takes everything you grew, that's devastating.
Absolutely. He's saying it's the result of their sin. That's why that's going to happen. Yes.
And that's what was happening to the Israelites.
And what got me is this isn't the first time. They keep doing that.
They were doing it to some degree. and in Jesus' days, the Pharisees were holding on to the old law.
That's right. But they were not keeping the law, but they were holding on to it.
That's right. And the Sadducees said there's no spirits, there's no life after death.
Where did they get all of that? That's right. Seems to me that they did too
much thinking and not enough reading.
That's right. They did not get in the Word. They forgot the Word.
Word that's a great time to remind
everyone like you don't have to
wonder where to find the answers in
life you don't have to keep asking where is god and why is god you can go to
the word that's right and you can see all throughout history back to creation
he's been faithful and we're in the middle of this long story we talked yesterday
on the podcast about an article that i read from Richard Foster's group.
And he talked about the two kinds of rescue that God's involved in.
He's involved in the immediate and the long rescue. That's right.
Sometimes he comes into the middle of the story, right? He shuts up the mouth
of the lion or he makes the furnace not burn you up.
But the real deliverance is the long rescue that we're in the middle of.
Yes, at the end of times. That's right. And that's why we have hope.
Absolutely. And I'm convinced too that there's some evil that God punishes now. He does.
And it's by his hand. That's right. I believe that. That's scriptural.
Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 8, I think. That's right.
And maybe those are the police officers and maybe those are soldiers.
I don't know. But I think, I believe that they work for the government.
But anyway, the whole point here is they were warned.
Repeatedly over and over again, over and over again, the same message,
maybe different venues, but it was the same message.
You keep doing what you're doing, you're going to pay for it.
That's right. And that's what Hosea is saying in verse 7.
You've sown the wind, now you're going to reap the whirlwind.
Because you've been chasing after idols.
You've rejected God. God, you don't want him, you don't talk to him anymore.
And now he's going to wake you up. That's right. And that's what he did. That's what he did.
Can I give you a metaphor that I thought of in this? Yes, yes.
So we live in Nebraska in the United States.
And if you're not familiar with Nebraska, the economy here is heavily based around agriculture.
And so there's farmers. Jerry Deaver, my friend Jerry Deaver that farms the
hay fields outside our house here, is probably listening to this podcast.
So, Jerry, I'm going to give you some principles of agriculture.
You're free to use in your business if you didn't already know them. I bet he does.
But there's two principles of agriculture that we see here at play in Hosea.
And one is the principle of duplication.
You reap what you sow, right? You put corn in the ground, you don't get apples. No, you get corn.
And so God's telling them, you've been sinning. You've been following idols.
You've been worshiping false gods. You've been abusing my temple.
And you're getting ready to find out what's going to grow up out of that crop that you planted.
And it's not going to be good for you. No. So you're going to get what you sow.
The second principle is multiplication.
When Jerry plants one seed of corn or one seed of alfalfa, he doesn't just get one back.
He gets a whole bunch of it back, right? And you plant a whole field of alfalfa,
you get a crop that will feed the cattle in this state during the hard winter
months and take care of them.
You get much more back. God's magic in the soil, God's grace is that when we
plant, we get a bountiful crop many times, most of the time.
So he's telling these guys, you sowed the wind, you're about to get the whirlwind.
It's gonna duplicate and multiply, and you're gonna get a lot of it.
But I'm just telling you, God did a neat thing, in my opinion,
I've been thinking about it a lot.
The only time in agriculture that those two laws are violated is when Christ comes into the picture.
Because Jesus said, and here's the scripture I thought of is in 2 Corinthians 5.17.
If any man is in Christ, if anybody's in Christ, they are a new creature.
Old things have passed away and all things have become new. And what happens
is if we die to ourselves and we let Jesus raise us up into a new life,
we plant something, but we get something different on the back end.
And the new thing we get is a life that's resilient and able to have hope in
hard situations and able to reap what we did not sow.
We get grace instead of justice.
That's right. Right? Isn't that beautiful? It is. That's very, very good.
And I know that there's probably some people that are listening to this podcast
today and I think often the people that are in the Middle East,
those children, the Israelites are there and they're battling for their own
homeland, they're battling for their own people and we know that God told Abraham
I'll curse the ones that curse you and I'll bless the ones that bless you.
That's right. And we're part of that lineage.
That's right, we are. And so they're living in times that, and I know the question
is asked often, how can God allow such a thing?
God doesn't allow it to happen.
We do it to ourselves. It's self-inflicted. We turn from him.
Now, I'm not saying that there aren't instances where when people are not rebellious
against God, they suffer as well. That's right.
Because that's true. In this life, in this world, we will have trouble.
Jesus told us that. Yeah. Because this world is broken.
It was violated in the garden. That's right.
And so evil that is present today is not from God. That's right.
It was brought to us by the devil himself.
And so the people that are living in hard places and suffering in unmeasurably
ways, I can't even comprehend how badly some of the people are suffering.
I think often the people in Syria and people in Turkey, you don't even see that
in the news anymore, more, but
those people are suffering from earthquakes that happened some time ago.
And people, like the people in Ukraine, think about the children and the people that are defenseless.
But anyway, being part of God's family, we have Him to talk to.
And so when you look back at Psalms 79,
that first verse, crying out to God,
that's what we do that's right we cry
out to him for help that's right now is he going
to help us yes if we if we're part of
his family he's going to help us that's right now and i know that that's contrary
to some popular belief because people wonder why people that are evil are so
prosperous sometimes that's right and i have no answer for that but that that
it occurs but i know that god God is faithful,
and I know that his covenants and his gifts are irrevocable. That's right.
Well, we just constantly have to surveil for any place in our theology or our thinking,
that makes us think that suffering has anything to do with God's favor in our
lives or whether we're saved or how much he loves us or any of that.
Suffering has nothing to do with any of that.
That's right. But suffering is because he suffered, and it's because we are in a fallen world.
And he's promised us that that long rescue is coming.
It's already established, and we know we are going to be rescued from this. I think about Psalm 103.
I say it. In fact, I pray it every morning. I look at that big picture of Jesus in the office.
I love that painting Lisa hung up there. It's Jesus walking away,
and you can see his hand hanging at his side, and the nail hole is visible.
It's just a beautiful painting. but I tell them every morning,
I say Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, let all that is within me bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
There's five things that He says are benefits of knowing Him.
He forgives all our sins.
He heals all our diseases.
He redeems our life from the pit. He crowns us with love and compassion and
satisfies our desires with good things so that our youth is restored like the eagles.
That does not mean that He heals all our diseases in the way and in the time
at which we think that He should.
But there's going to come a time, Bible says it plain. I'm going to wipe away
all your tears. That's right. I'm going to give you a new body.
I'm going to give you one that does not corrode. Give you a new name.
That's right. Give you a name and a place and a family and a hope and all that. It's already happened.
We just have to wait for it to get here. So suffering has to be in the context
of knowing that we're in the middle of a long story that ends with our redemption
and ends with all those promises coming true.
And you're right. Sometimes he brings judgment immediately in the present.
Sometimes he brings relief and redemption in the present and immediate.
Sometimes he does not. And we
know that suffering produces character and character produces hope. Right?
Yes. That's why we suffer. That's right.
And I don't know what has happened in the people's mind and in their heart to
reject God and worship idols.
The only thing that comes to mind because they said it because when they first wanted a king,
they said we want to have kings just like everybody else around us has they
have kings so we want to have a king and God said you want a king you're going to get a king.
And the prophet at that time told them very clearly what was going to happen
to them if they get a king he would take the best of the best and the king would
take the young men and put them in his service.
That's right. He would take their animals.
So everything has consequences. That's right.
So when we choose to sin, when we choose to rebel against God,
then we're going to suffer for it. That's right.
It may not be immediate. It may not be right now. It may be when we die,
when we take our last breath.
That's right. When we close our eyes here and open our eyes there.
Where we will be. That's right. That's a hard thing to think about. It is.
What an encouraging word from Hosea. I love studying the Bible because there's
always something you can grab that'll give you hope and give you peace and help
you clarify your thinking.
And I guess today we've covered a lot of ground. We've covered that agricultural
principle of duplication and multiplication.
And what we really want is the spiritual principle of transformation.
That's it. Instead of reaping what we sow, we want to reap what we sow.
That's right. We want to reform our mind and reform our thinking.
That's right. That's Romans 12 too. And that's a good place to land today.
Don't be conformed anymore to the way the world wants you to be or think or feel.
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's right.
That's right. And so will you be alone?
No. That's right. God will be with you. So I guess the question for our listener,
for our friend today then, is do you want to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
or do you want to let God let you reap a crop that you didn't plant?
He planted one that's for your benefit. That's right.
I guess if we're going to quit sowing the wind and hopefully quit reaping the
whirlwind, when should we start? We start today. We start today.
Music.
Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast is brought to you by my
brand new book, Hope is the First Dose. It's a treatment plan for recovering
from trauma, tragedy, and other massive things. It's available everywhere books are sold.
And I narrated the audio books. Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up
by my friend Tommy Walker, available for free at TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship the Most High God.
And if you're interested in learning more, check out TommyWalkerMinistries.org.
If you need prayer, go to the prayer wall at wleewarrenmd.com slash prayer,
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Self-Brain Surgery, every Sunday since 2014,
helping people in all 50 states and 60-plus countries around the world. I'm Dr.
Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your
life until you change your mind, and the good news is you can start today.
Music.