Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1018 | Jase Ignites Missy’s Ire with a Bonehead Move & Phil’s Savage Nickname for Justin Martin

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

Jase gets in hot water during a weird misunderstanding with Missy, and Phil’s brutally honest nickname for Justin Martin proves a point Jase is making about hunting etiquette. Al feels special when Jase upholds his yearly tradition to honor Al’s birthday, and Jase competes with Si in a contest he didn’t even know they were having. The guys explore the ways to have compassion for people while also holding high moral standards for yourself and others. In this episode: Romans 10, verses 9-10 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. We've taken a while to get going this morning. It's like we're just like stuck in the mud. It's new year. We're back from a little Christmas holiday break. It's, you know, we're trying to get ourselves going. It's a new year. Nobody that's listening to this will have noticed the transition, but we actually did a few podcasts. way back when, which is like a few days ago. And now it's a new year. And so there's something psychological that happens every new year, I think, to people.

Yeah, it does. You know what? I'm fixing to do fill in the blank. I mean, that's what people do. Zach, do you have any things you're excited about this 2025? Save them. because my next thing I was going to say is then two weeks later, nothing changes. You see?

Yeah, there's that commercial. I don't know who put it out, but it's, I think they said January 10th is Quitters Day. And everybody who starts in their thing, they quit by January 10th. That's really sad. Well, that's my point. So I don't know when this will air, but hopefully it is post-January 10th. but who knows. But what I was going to say is if you really think about what the problem is there,

it's what you're focused on that I think when you're wanting to start anew, if it's the wrong focus, it doesn't matter. Right. So that's kind of, well, I wanted to begin this with whatever you do, it's got to be filtered through Jesus. That's true. And you've got to remember this, that his mercies, they're new every morning, I'm just at the beginning of the year.

So I lean into that. Well, you just think about anybody has an opportunity to make any kind of change. You don't have to wait around for an end of a year or something else to make, you know, life changes. It happens all the time. We see it happen every week. Oh, I've been there. Every weekend, it seems I keep having the same question, which is, will you baptize me? Yeah.

But then I immediately feel a little. little weird because I'm like, why? Because if you don't understand why you would want to do that, I would hate for somebody to say, well, just because you're, you were on a duck show one time and I think it'd be cool. Right. And let's take some pictures. No, it's got to be more than that. Yeah, look, three weekends in a row.

Same question and same result. Yep. which was this last one was out at Phil's. We met and Phil, and Phil is doing better, I would say. Yeah. Overall, it's still a struggle. He still has his conditions,

but I think he is doing better. He's in, yeah, not in much pain right now, which has been fantastic. So I let a Bible study this past weekend. We talked about Jesus for 45 minutes, pretty much from Genesis to Revelation. And then we got on the question, which is, you know, was about baptism. And, but I just said, look, you can make your confession based on what you just heard in however way you want to do it.

But, and I quoted Romans 10, 9 and 10 where it says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raises them from the dead. I said, so quote that however you want to do it. And, boy, it was fantastic once we got to the water. So he wanted to be baptized in the Washtaw River, and the river's way down because they're working on a lot. And so I had waiters on because it's wintertime. It's go. And we waited down there. And, of course, my dad was there, and this fellow had quite the crew with him.

And so I thought I was good. but the drop-off was so steep that when I lowered him under the water in a moment, he said, you're coming with me. And he's a pretty strong guy. He was early 30s, you know, one of these workout, rah-rah. And so down I went. But, you know, I noticed that he wasn't cold, and after the first 10 seconds, I wasn't either, just because of his demeanor.

And it was really a special moment. Phil was excited. And so it made me think that whatever we do in the new year, I've recently listened to a series called The Jesus Stuff. Yep. And I wanted to talk about that because it's a new year. And this series, which was by, hopefully I think one day a potential guest, a fellow from Australia who now lives in New York,

on Tyson. Jason, I am on an email thread with him right now. Here's the biggest problem. I've listened to a few of his sermons. Yeah. And he, evidently when he came from Australia, he went to some kind of Bible school in Texas. I don't know because the little blurb I heard. But he was kind of making fun of being in the South.

And I thought, good luck getting him on as a guess. need some repentance involved on, you know, I think we should confront him on this. Because he's now in New York. Yeah. And he's a, he's a big city type of guy. But you're not. We've had big city guys on before, though. We had Metaxus on and those guys. Those are good fish out of water moments too. They are. And, you know, it's like Metaxus, you can't get any more New York than he is. But we all shared the love of Jesus. So, and he loved Dad so much that, you know, we built a friendship. So I think we did this. Well, what I would quote to him in your email chain is, here there's neither June or Greek,

Cajun nor New York City bopper, male or female. We're all in Christ, gray coats or blue coats. We're in Jesus, and I think that's what makes the kingdom of God interesting. Yeah. And you're like, well, why do you like this guy if he's from New York? because he loves to talk about Jesus. Yep. And this series they did called Jesus stuff, I really liked it.

And there was an illustration that he used. He got this from a book somewhere. And this is kind of where he got the idea. But there was a guy who was like an atheist, just rebel, kind of in the hippie crowd, you know, who had somebody shared Jesus with him. And his response in setting this whole series up is this guy, he's like, wait, God wrote a book? He's like, yeah, yeah, it's called the Bible.

It's like, well, and it's about this guy named Jesus. I mean, God came to earth. It's like everything that religious people take for granted. This guy was like, no, wait a minute, let me get this right. God wrote a book. Not only that, he came and visited the planet. Yeah.

And so he goes throughout this conversation. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. And he's like, but this Jesus, have you read the things he did? They're like, yeah, there's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I mean, this, it pretty well lays it out. And he's like, well, I got a question. Because then it led to a conversation

was like there's churches around. And his question, was, well, when are we going to start doing this Jesus stuff? Which then it was kind of the tone was, because when, in his opinion, he was looking at the churches just from being a non-believer and an atheist. Not seeing a lot of Jesus stuff. Yeah, he's like, I'm not seeing what I'm reading that stuff in this stuff. Yeah. And the church people are like, no, no, no, you just, calm down, buddy.

You're taking it to you literal. That's kind of how we respond. Yeah, which is how that conversation went. I think in his sermon, he said, no, no, we talk about that stuff. He's like, yeah, but when are we going to start doing that stuff? And so the things that listed as parts of the series I thought were really interesting. One of them was about, you know, radical obedience when you think First John, too, because this is kind of a preview of where we're going to launch this year.

Yeah. We want to go back to where we started. That's right. Which is the book of John, because in the last, however many years we've been doing this. Six years now. Six years. I think we've all agreed that we've learned way more about who Jesus is, the kingdom, how this all fits together. And by the way, that's the power of studying the Bible and discussing.

dusting it like we've been doing is over time, the more you look at Jesus, the more your perspective changes. NT Wright, who's one of our favorite guys we read, has a, I've been studying for Ephesian. We're going to do Ephesians this year at our church for the next four months. And it is based off our discussions we had about the book of Ephesians. We just went through it last year. And he talks about the London Eye, which, do you know what the London Eye is at? I don't.

It's, when you see it on television, it's like a big Ferris wheel is what it looks like. And it's a fairly new attraction within the last, I don't know, 25 years or so. And it's been one of their best attractions ever. And he talks about it. It's, you know, I didn't realize this until I read this, what Entie Wright said. So it goes around. It takes an half an hour for this thing to go. It goes real slow.

And you put 20 people in each car to go around. It's about almost 500 feet high. But he was talking about how that people could be in London for their whole. lives and see the city from a certain perspective and all this stuff that's there. But when you get in the London eye and you begin to go around, you see a whole new thing you never saw before because of just the perspective of what they've done there. And he mentioned that with the book of Ephesians, but you could say the same about anything where you get a closer look at Jesus. It changes perspective from your viewpoint. And so that's the beauty of learning more about him.

And the Holy Spirit, since it's his spirit living in you, gives you a different perspective. And you can get so excited about things you never really saw before. Passages come to life. Zach, you mentioned that earlier, how when you read certain things, you're like, man, I read that my whole life. But once I see it from a little different perspective, once I'm on that London eye, all of a sudden, man, it comes to life. One of the best compliments ever got in the teaching series we did on the book of Isaiah was one of the guys at the church. that goes to our church came up to me. The compliment came in the form of he was chastising me,

but I actually received it as a compliment because I was like, yes, you finally, that's exactly what I'm doing. The fact that he got it was encouraging to me. He said, he told me I was interpreting Isaiah out of context because I was interpreting him in the context of the New Testament. And I was like, yes, exactly what I'm doing. But I think that's that Ferris will that you're talking about, that when you get up to the vantage point of knowing what we know now in Christ Jesus, and you'll see this in the book of John. Like when you read through the book of John, there's so much in the book of John and his gospel that will make so much more sense now.

And you'll go back and read the Old Testament and the prophets and Moses and the law. You're like, oh. And I think this is important. And I think it was probably where when we go through the book of John this year, it's going to be different. I think this time it's going to be a whole lot more of part of a mosaic that is part of a bigger picture that once you kind of step back and you see it, you're like, oh, it all connects and it all makes sense. And God had a redemptive plan from the creation of the world. He had a plan before he created us that he is seeing through and will see through to the very end. Yeah, that's really good.

And really shows you the importance of why you studied the whole scripture as well. So when you read the book of John, so we'll encourage you guys to do that so you get reading with us the whole time. Also, jump over and read first, second, third, John, because, you know, we've been kind of doing those epistle letters that some of these guys wrote in with our study. And so that's what we're going to do this year when we do that. So that's where I was going with that. I wanted to give you a New Year's resolution. So you ready for my New Year's resolution? Let's hear it does.

And we're not going to quit whatever this is on January 10th. Well, right. And, I mean, I have a few things that I always try to do. Like on January 5th, I try to kill a green winged till. In honor of me. Yep, because it seems to be that's when they show up on Al's birthday. That's a childhood memory. I was about a 10-year run.

run back when I was hunting a lot that every January 5th on my birthday I killed a green week it was about a 10 year run and it just became a thing because that's my birthday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

A hondo for your birthday. I want to say something, Jay's, before you go there that's been different about this year already is that something happened about four days ago that's the first time that I remember and my life. lifetime of this happening. And because typically when I, like, I have to invite myself to come hunt with you guys, but you had invited me to go hunting with you when I come in town next week. I actually did. There's a backstory to that, but I'll let you finish first. Well, I mean, I don't know.

Now, I kind of don't, I'm kind of nervous about the back story because I told you, I said, I think me and Jason got to a new place in our relationship. I said, he invited me. I didn't say, hey, I'm coming in town, I want to hunt. He said, hey, I said, I'm coming in town. He said, do you want to hunt? And I said, I think that means we're getting somewhere. I don't know.

Jason, what do you think? I'm going to tell you what it means. This year has been a weird year, sadly, because my dad is not duck hunting. Right. And so, which has been said. However, he keeps telling me the last week of the season, he's going. So we'll see. And he's like, if you have to haul me out there and get me in the blind.

So we're moving towards that. And I think it's a good goal for him. I'm glad he's, because he's really, you know, we've talked about it at length. But this has been rough over a few months for him physically and mentally. But just going now, it's kind of like everybody's looking at me. Like, what's the plan? what are we doing yeah who's going and so i feel that legacy kind of being passed down because even though this is a hobby this is this is a hobby in how we made our living for years and you know

we're still kind of involved and in duck commander and you know the duck calls and i'm kind of like at this point okay you can come film a little bit but i'm not doing anything i don't want to do they're like okay and through the years jays has kind of been And just to describe the audience, it's hard to figure this. But like over the course of the last, now almost 40 years, it's been like different eras of a little different duck crew. You can plug in there. Like, I don't hunt anymore, but there was an era where I hunted all the time.

And we had a little crew. And Dav would always like, who we got in the morning? We got this guy. We got this guy. And now you've got your little crew that you've got. Well, this is what I was going to say. And this will answer your questions. So I thought, well,

I guess I'm kind of in charge of this now. And I thought I need to pass this legacy down to the next generation. One, because you don't realize how much work is involved in duck hunting. And, you know, you take my dad out of the equation. There's a lot of blinds that need to be brushed. So I come up with this idea. We now have a crew. Now, their invitation only, there's a group text, and it's called Duck Boys.

And most of them are either son-in-laws in the family or son-in-law's friends who actually know how to work or do something, which is rare in our culture now. They serve a purpose. Well, right. A lot of them have skill sets outside of hunting that just come in handy. There's medical attention. There's a lot of different things. Well, exactly.

But a couple of the duck boys realized. because, you know, we had a speech, and I guess the first lieutenant around here is Jay Stone, your son-in-law, and he's military background, and he's Mr. No-Nonsense. He's military background and just general oneriness to go with that. So he lines them all up, and mainly we've been taking some of them, which has been very challenging because there are certain, you know, rules that go with, you know, being a duck hunter. It's a team sport and you're trying to function safely.

And you're also trying to teach them a work ethic that you need to bring something to this blind. Yeah. And so that's been challenging. So I've been more open-minded to taking rookies. What other words do we use for these? Ye-hoo's. Ye-hoo's. I'm going to say.

Rookies, non-hunters. Business-related people that you're- Yupies. Yeah, yuppies. So, Zach, you fall into one of those categories. North Carolinians. We'll say. I'm in what they call a season of my life where I'm more open because.

And so what I like about it is what you guys call a rookie though, like you, I mean, if you don't hunt 60 days a year, you don't take that person serious as a duck hunter. They've got to hit every single day of the year. I think you're trying to be sarcastic. That was the most factual thing you've said. It's a lot of work, but it's fun. But what we've also done is I've created a more spiritual environment because we're taking these young men. And Jay's giving them a safety speech that it's military style. Here's your quadrant.

I mean, he's like, you do not shoot over anybody's head. And all this stuff, people have to learn. One to be safe and just to be a team player. And so look, I'll admit we're halfway through the season. And they're really growing. This is working. I mean, it's been good. But there's been lots of, you know, Bible discussions, Jesus-centered messages.

Well, I knew you guys expanded some because today when I came in to do the podcast, I got to hug the neck of one young Reeves Walker who's a great worship leader. He was there today. We had two duck boys today. Yep. And let me see. One, two. Yeah, we had two duck boys and Martin, which even Martin, you know, you think, well, he's

part of the crew. He was on our duck show. But, you know, yesterday when we went to South Louisiana on an adventure, I mean, they hired a professional photographer and we went, you know, one of the hottest holes in Louisiana. Of course, you know, after we hunted, we killed, I don't know. 10 ducks, which is, I thought it was pretty good. But they were like, oh, you should have been here yesterday. You know, they were like, say, oh, should have been here yesterday.

Yeah, should have been here yesterday. You know, we had Uncle Si, you know, and all that. Well, the problem was Martin, who, he's not small. He's a big man. Big man. Well, the blind only held four or five people, how many people was in there. And four and a half because, sigh, he doesn't take up much space. Yeah, he's little.

You put Martin inside together, you have two regular-sized men. Well, so Martin, who's the biggest member of our party, well, he's sitting outside the blind. So I didn't like that because I thought if the ducks were going to see any human, why put the largest out there? Well, then Martin, for whatever reason, he can't grow as much facial hair as most of us, and he doesn't use face paint. I didn't ask him why. But when I looked over there, I kept thinking it was the moon had dropped, and it was his face. And so finally, I just, because I can't help it, I have this bad habit where I have to say what I'm thinking. And I said, Martin, for a big fella, you're surprising me that you think you're invisible.

But to Martin's credit, today he went with us, and he sat down in the blind. the entire hunt. So I, and I never said a word about yesterday. But I think them duck boys hearing this, because they only worked yesterday. Yeah. They didn't get to hunt. They only worked. And today they got to hunt.

Yeah. So it's kind of a reward thing. But I think they noticed sometimes you've got to have tough conversations. Yep. Because you'll shoot less ducks if you have your largest man saying, hey, we're a bunch of hunters. These decoys are not real. yada yada yada the funniest moment of the hunt was because for some reason uncle sigh gets a little perturbed at me now he's he thinks it's because we're just alike which is a scary thought but or you have the same name

yeah look everybody knows i go crazy when pintails come in and we had a lone pintail which they said this hole that we're going uh is is our best hole one of our best holes the only duck we won't shoot or pintails. We've never shot a pentail there. So I went, well, that's a bummer, you know, because I was hoping I could shoot one. I kid you not. The first duck that I see coming toward us was a pentail Drake.

Had his wings locked, he's coming straight down. And so right when I was fixed to say, I was actually going to raise up and go boom, shoot him. Yeah. But I was right there at that moment. Uncle Si jumps up. And in the moment, I thought, all right, I'll give him the first shot. Because he's, the fact that he's excited at his age.

And to be honest, you thought he would miss. The Pentail was coming down. You thought he'd miss what to make your shot. No, I just thought he's coming down at such velocity. This is a tough shot. Yeah. So I'd rather, you know, because look, there were camera people. There were people everywhere behind us.

not just Martin. And so, but he raised up, boom, miss. And I mean, within two seconds, boom, old Jace did not miss. Well, he looked around there and said, yeah, I can't believe that. He's looking at his gun. Like someone's wrong with the gun. Yeah. So, you know, you think, okay, that was a little bit embarrassing for him.

And so we're sitting there, you know, I'm excited. We're fixing to look at the pintail and all. And all of a sudden, Sae jumps up with his gun. Well, I looked out there and I see nothing. And he, boom. And when he shoots, the reason I didn't see anything,

because I didn't count black crows. We're on one of the greatest duck holes in the world. The sun hasn't even come up. And look, he folded that crow, which is legal to shoot, which is why I'm telling this story. everybody erupted. I mean, because somebody said, is that a black mallard?

Is he thinking he's shooting the duck? Well, I didn't know what happened, but it was funny. And he hit him, not only did he hit him, I mean. Deadfold. Dead fold. And he said, I just wanted to do that to show you that what just happened was an abnormality. He didn't say abnormality. It was like some form of that word.

It was like a cross. Amber, Amber Milit. It was a cross between anonymily and abner. But you knew what he meant. Whatever he said. I knew what he meant, which made it even more funny. And he's like, hey, I got my lead right now.

So like, okay. So then that launched a 20-minute discussion in how you can best prepare a crow for eating. Because we were with a bunch of cadence. And they seemed to have it figured out. Well, I know what their secret is to everything, garlic. So I said all that to. but it was fun. We're having a lot of fun,

but I also realized that at this stage of my life, duck hunting is classified as a hobby now. And I thought in this Jesus stuff mindset, you know, I want to turn that blind into a place where Jesus is discussed, embrace, surrendered to, and transforms lives. And so to do that,

you got to get out of your comfort zone. and invite people who's not in your normal little circle. Because when you think about it, some of the lessons that I listened to in that series, you know, one of the things I didn't really realize, but he asked a question, what is the most controversial thing Jesus did

while here on the earth? And I'll open that up to y'all. What would you, what's the first thing that pops in your mind? The most controversial thing he did? Yeah. What pops in my mind is probably the turning over the, tables in the temple. All right. He listed that. That was one of the things, but he, he was saying,

no, it's his opinion. So I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying that was one he listed, but he said, he said in his opinion and he said something else, but what would you think, Al? Well, I would think probably the most controversial thing is to claim to be the son of God. Yep. He mentioned that. Yeah. So, but he said, but if you read all, all the Gospels. He said, you know, from the culture of the Jews, what seemed to get everybody the most riled up, and I actually went and looked at this and they were riled up, is who he chose to eat with. And I thought, you know, that's a really good point.

And when you start talking about doing Jesus stuff, I would think that is one to go back to the initial illustration about this fella, he's like, when are we going to start doing this Jesus stuff? Even the Pharisees, you know, that one story where it's like he went to the Pharisees house and they were eating them ill together.

He was eating with the tax collectors and the sinners. He was even, you know, eating or drinking with the Samaritan woman, you know, what are you doing? Yeah. I mean,

so I thought it was an interesting point. But, or the non-rebuke of Luke 7 when the woman was at his feet in a situation where they're eating. It was a meal they were eating. It's like, well, surely he would know. Why would he be letting her, this is scandalous. Why would he be allowing her to do this? Same principle.

Look at them all up and, uh, and even the controversy over food in general, remember when he broke out in John 6 talking about the eating his flesh. Yeah, it's like, well, what's, what's, what's, what's, but you. think about it, that's who's at your table and why. And, you know, he made a pretty good point of we tend to, you know, get a feel for the Bible and say, well, there's two divisions of, on this planet, you know, good and evil. That's the way we look at it. And he's like, but you look at it through Jesus and you see good and the potential to being redeemed. And because he didn't turn anyone away from the demonic to the, you know, people steeped in sin.

And so I thought that was a really good point. And I think it's something you have to do on purpose. It will be uncomfortable. But just think about, you know, how many meals you have. I mean, pretty much three a day. Yeah. Who you eating with? And we're in a culture now where everybody kind of goes their own separate.

spot and you know they eat so we i was talking about this with missy and she heard a doctor talking on some podcasts and uh he's kind of a family counselor type guy and he made a point he's like the most important thing you can do you know as a parent is eating with your kids and the person doing the podcast said well how often would you would you should you would you you say is is required there and he was like seven days a week every male it was like wait what but he's like you know who you eat with this guy this wasn't even into jesus context but uh so that kind of that that kind of goes back yeah i i mean i thought it was just here's a guy you know supposedly in the world saying you know how to be a good how to be a good parent you know i think

back on our on our lives uh that's one thing we got right in parenting i mean we always ate with our kids every meal and then when they got old enough to you know have friends over what we ate with their friends and of course then we it long when they became teenagers it was a two-minute sermon before we had the meal you know along with the prayer but i think this is the kind of jesus stuff and and what I was going to read about that from 1 John, and this is my New Year's resolution, 1 John 2.6 says, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. And then in 1st John 4, so I have two verses that go together for the New Year's resolution.

1 John 2 6, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. And then in verse 16 and 17 of chapter 4, 1 John. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God and Him. In verse 17, in this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like Him. And so you see the Jesus stuff here.

We become Jesus on the earth through our surrendering to him and the spirit that he gives us upon said surrender. I like it. Mine is because I've been studying Ephesians and now John, and first thing in third John, is Ephesians 117-18 Jays. I keep asking, and so I'm applying this to me. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that I may know Christ better. I pray the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which is called me the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people.

So that's been my resolution. I just happened to be preaching that text Sunday. But I've thought about that. Any sermon you preach, you internalize it first. So like, do I have that spirit of the way he puts it is wisdom and revelation? Do I want to know him better? Am I striving for that, you know, which is the idea of my spirit in relationship to his spirit, which kind of goes in with exactly what you were done.

Well, that's what I was saying. When you start talking about doing this, the Jesus stuff, you know, on the planet. I mean, he had a lot of things. There was one point talking about, you know, if you read the sermon on the mount, you're thinking, man, this guy is, this is conviction that is scary.

Remember all the things he said, he was like, well, you heard that it was written, and he would quote it. But then he would take that and say, you know, just take the, you know, commit an adultery, don't commit a, adultery. You've heard it's written, but he's like, but if you even think lustfully toward another woman, you've committed adultery in your heart. And all of those principles are like that.

And you're like, man, this guy, I mean, there's no way we can keep all this. So you see that his conviction, his moral standard was very high. And yet, when he got out with people he had a compassion and uh that that mix which you know i'm categorizing as jesus stuff you you rarely see that operating at the same time in human beings life they're either one way or the other it's like compassion with no conviction to any kind of moral standard or it's conviction and no compassion right it there's no it's like let me be cut off you know, from anybody out in the world. Well, how are you ever going to...

That's not what Jesus did. That's why he was eating with the tax collectors and the sinners. I mean, so it's those kinds of points that I thought were really profound. One of the series topics was the secret place because you don't realize how many times Jesus himself withdrew and had this personal dependence on God. Think about all the passage in John when he's like, I can't do anything on my own.

I only do what the father tells me. And over and over, he would go off by himself. And these secret moments with God and his reliance on the father, I mean, those times are just way more than the average person, if you took a poll. I mean, it's just not happening. And so I think it was a good way to really look at this. And I think part of the problem is that came out from that series in trying to be a Christian is we tend to think God is a million miles away.

And it's like I'm going to do, even like New Year's resolution, you know, I'm going to do some good things this year. And you list a few things. But when you start talking about being Jesus in the world and, you know, watch a few episodes of The Chosen and read the Book of John, well, you go out in the world, this is fixed in the world. this is fixing to call some resistance. Yeah. Just like it did with Jesus. And I just thought it was a really, a really good way to think. And it's all about perspective of witness.

That's one of the things we get into John. I love how he starts his book. And he mentions this several times and also in first, second, third John, is the idea about being a witness. Because he witnessed that he was there with Jesus. He saw him. But when he starts his book, he talks about Christ being a witness of the father. In other words, that idea of oneness.

And so when he comes here and talks to people because he walked on the planet, he's given a reflection of who God is. And then he talks about John the Baptist being a witness. I mean, being, I mean, in his literal DNA that he would be one who would point to Jesus and try to show us. And so when you're trying to create and tell a narrative of what's happened, you need witnesses. It's interesting because you were telling the story earlier and I thought about it. We have a sister slash brother podcast, the duck call room. Cy and Martin will tell that same story, but they'll give some different perspective than the way you told it. And probably you'll be the bad guy.

I mean, I've just watched their podcast enough to know. On the pentail? Yeah, any of it. Yeah. When they tell a story about us, we're the bad guy, just so you know, Jay. I mean, I've watched a few times on the podcast. So that's what it'll be a whole. different perspective. You're the bad guy on the Martin, Martin at the end of the blind story

that you told earlier. His version of that story. Probably same end of the blind story. You said he was standing at the end of the blind. You said the biggest guy that, no, he was outside the blind. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. I don't know. Face paint. Well, the idea for people who don't duck hunt, get this in your mind. I'm just telling you, am I not right, Zay? They'll tell that story. And they'll have a completely different. Let me just give you a little more ammo on that. You know what my dad who's famous for for nicknaming everyone and good, bad, or ugly, he will look at you and then come up with a nickname, which has made a lot of people uncomfortable. Sometimes it's a flaw.

Sometimes it's a... Sometimes, let's be honest, it was just downright offensive. One of the nicknames he had for Martin, do you remember what it... I remember, yeah. Horse head. So here's a guy... And feels like, I mean, Martin was looking around when he called him horse head. And he's like, talking to me.

And it feels like your head is three times the size of anyone else's. So, yeah, horse head, come on. I mean, but he's doing it like affectionately. Right. So my point is, if you're outside the blind and you have a nickname called horsehead and you have nothing over your head, it's probably, if you were ever going to flare a duck, that would be the prime candidate. I just pointed that out.

You can do with it what you want, so I'm sure he's going to come up with something. But the reason you build a blind is so that you can conceal humans. Yeah. So the biggest human should be the most concealed. Okay, I just wanted to lay that out there for you. Jay's is doubling down. I'm not debating on that.

I'm just saying that I think, and I know Martin, and I think Martin would have an articulate. way to tell the same story from a different perspective. Yeah, it's called denial, rationalization. But I can. So my point is, the reason I brought it up was because when you tell about some situation, you hear all sides, then you have to decide, okay, what do I take out of this that applies?

What's the truth of the matter? We just had a terrible incident that happened in New Orleans where people were killed and, you know, by some person that drove in, you know, and killed these people. And immediately law enforcement has to try to figure out what happened. And to do that, you have to call on people, witnesses, cameras. We've got to find so we got to figure out what happened here so we can first figure out, can we do something about it? Can we catch it? Are there more bad guys? Or this or this or that? And it's the same with this idea of Christ coming here to earth. that's why the idea of the witnesses of who saw him and who heard him and now what we're reading back and applying this to our lives is so important

because it gives us that perspective we talked about that london eye you have to be able to take all those and look at him and say okay this is the truth this is what this man did this is why he did it this is why he came here i was going to say i mean part of the theme that you're going to see in the book of john is jesus bringing not only god and humans back together. But you also see this idea of heaven and earth coming back together under one head, which is really what the book of Ephesians, it's littered with that kind of language, that everyone could be brought under one head on heaven and earth in Christ. And so, you know,

when you start thinking about these themes and the idea of the kingdom coming, because you read in the first chapter of Mark, And I think this, you know, speaking in this idea of this Jesus stuff, you know, when he called his first disciples, well, they were looking for the Messiah. And so I think this weird idea of humans thinking they're going to find Jesus. And when they find him, they then realize, well, he was looking for me. Yeah. I mean, there's something about that that goes throughout generations. that to get back to the original illustration here,

the sky's like, I mean, he didn't believe in God. Right. So, oh, it's because he's looking at the church, which churches are messy because they're filled with messy people that Jesus chooses to dine with and transform. And so, and a lot of that, you know, another thought that hit me in that discussion was this idea that, you know,

we're kind of all formed by our, surroundings and our world and however we're raised and but it always leads to us you know becoming independent in our own people and making selfish decisions and and in that we have our own little kingdoms and so when Jesus starts in Mark chapter one he's like the first thing he says they're recorded is the time has come you know my kingdom is at hand right it's here and so really you think about bringing heaven to earth together i mean what what kind of kingdoms was he battling you immediately think well worldly kingdoms but it was the spiritual kingdom as well there's there's there's an evil world out there and we it makes people uncomfortable to talk about evil and

satan and the entourage because most people are like no come on you know but he came here to yeah to defeat and you know it's funny about that that mark passage you pulled out is that in Mark one that he in the entire Old Testament I found that I find this fascinating in the entire Old Testament do you know how many times there is a a story of someone casting out a demon in the Old Testament none none and the first time that the that a demon is cast out is in Mark that for I think it's the first chapter and he says basically let me pull that up so I don't butcher that well while you're pulling that up uh I mean that that goes back to this Jesus stuff idea.

You know, we all have our own world, and we kind of all have that Adam and Eve moment when we want to be our own gods. And so when Jesus is like, my kingdom is here, and he proved he had all authority, not only over evil, but just the way to be recreated, to have new life, to be born again. to have your proper view of people as potentially redeemed. I mean, this is the kind of stuff I think that we should be focused on in our new year. I think most of the time religious people are just focused on sin maintenance, just not doing wrong. You know, I need to stop this and do more of this. And I think that's good, but it's the wrong vision. We need to be Jesus in this world.

And it's way bigger than just sin maintenance is what I'm getting at. Yeah, he cast out the demon in Mark chapter 1, which is the first time I think a demon was ever cast out. And if you read in Luke 11, it says if I cast out the demon, but if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. I think there's this idea with the coming of Jesus. It's not just that he's, you know, saving us from our sin. He is doing that, but he's also establishing the kingdom and establishing his dominion and domination over the demonic realm as well. I mean, there's a lot of significance of what he's doing in that Mark chapter one passage.

No, that's pretty good because I hadn't thought about it before, but you think about David, who was sort of a, you know, the idea of this kingdom process, you know, God had been working through all these people. And David, there had these great feats that the Holy Spirit would come upon him. He could do these amazing things throughout his tenure as a king. But one of the things he couldn't do, Zach was cast the spirit. He said that Saul, King Saul had an evil spirit that would come upon him. And then all he could do is play some music to make him feel better. He never did cast that spirit out.

So that was saved for the idea of Jesus coming for the realm. I never really linked that together to you said that. But even David, who could do amazing things on behalf of God, he couldn't do that or he didn't do that. Well, it's like I told Miss, you know, we were watching an episode of The Chosen, and she's a faster on the new year. And she fast, reads her Bible, and watches the Chosen. She does it every, she's done it like the last three or four years. Yeah, I read her little thing. she put on a quote lately.

Yeah, and so you'd think, look, she's in a really good spiritual place at the beginning of the year. And so, you know, yesterday, now we've been married 34 years, but yesterday, all of a sudden it hit me because I had gotten up at 3 o'clock. I'd come back. Now it's like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And I had eaten, and I immediately was just like almost in a coma. I was so sleepy. And so I leaned over We all of a sudden to hear this racket

Loud racket Because she's packing up Christmas stuff But it's bang I mean it's So I reached and grabbed the remote control That was a football game on And I turned it Like 10 times

The volume Of what it should be on Well I heard her say Why is that so loud And I said Because I'm sleepy and went to sleep.

Well, when I woke up a couple hours later, I said something and she didn't respond. And I was like, because the first thing I did was turning the TV way back down. She was like, well, I don't know why you're mad at me. I was like, mad. I wasn't mad. But she got her feelings hurt.

She's like, well, you were yelling at me. I was like, well, I was yelling at you because I turned the TV up 20 decibels louder. And so somewhere in there, it occurred to me, we have a miscommunication here. And I thought when I got married in year one, that we were going to, you know, ride off and just storybooked.

But I realize this, there's two kingdoms trying to cohabit together. And that's really the difficulty of life. We have our world, miscommunications happen. And my whole point about the Jesus stuff is that in that moment I was like, yeah, that did look like I was, you know, I was sleepy, I was tired.

Grumpy. She didn't know I was asleep, you know, I'm yelling. I mean, it just got weird, you know. So I was like, babe, I apologize. You know, it was a moment because I thought, we're supposed to be doing Jesus stuff here. Next thing you know, we're yelling across the room with the TV. It just got weird.

So I think it's a good thought to start the new year and to start a new series. I've got such a good application with that, but we're out of time on this podcast, so I'm going to save it for next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube,

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