Unashamed with the Robertson Family - EP 1090 | Jase Cuts His Own Hair & Missy’s Reaction Is Totally on Point

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Jase’s latest DIY haircut draws some cryptic emoji feedback from Missy, and the guys call in Gen Z help to decode it. A laugh-out-loud conversation about online personas turns serious when Jase questions whether online avatars might open us up to the demonic. The guys deep dive into what it truly means to bear the image of Christ—online and in real life. Zach traces the thread of God’s plan for the nations from Genesis to Revelation. In this episode: John 7, verses 37-41; John 6, verses 33-58; Ephesians 1, verses 9-10; Acts 17, verses 23-31 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashame. We've been doing some marriage counseling. Yeah. In between. All the way of counseling. Jace literally asked Maddie, if you really want to know, all you got to do is ask me, but he said a version of that phrase probably 10 times. Yeah, he can't go until he got her to ask the question. So she probably said, okay, what is it?

And then he said, okay, since you asked, I'll tell you. After he's prompted her eight times to get there. Well, you've got to be connected. And whenever young Maddie speaks, it reminds me of my early days in marriage. Because I'm like, oh, yeah. It's just, and she doesn't realize that, but you realize when you're, those first five years of marriage.

And Maddie's like in year two, early year or two, I think. I think I gave a quote that my dad told me, young Maddie's in the jockeying for position stage of marriage. That's what he used to say. For about a five year, you're kind of, who's going to run this show? Which is all embarrassing, like when I think back. But he's right.

That's just the way it is. Well, but you got to keep in mind, Jason. Not everybody has the same dynamic as, like, me and Jill certainly had that dynamic of a very robust. Well, you may still be in denial. No, I'm saying that, I mean, we had, we, our relationship was, how do I say, it was very passionate one way or the other. So we, you know, we had, but not everybody I've learned over the years. Some people don't have, they have a different dynamic. a lot of different dynamics is what I'm saying.

You know what I mean? So that we don't know. I think every couple that gets married, there is a period of wilderness where you're jockeying for a position. Yeah. How is this going to look over the long haul? Yeah. I'm going to stand by that blanket statement. But you may be right.

Maybe some are more passionate. I think you said passionate trying to make a joke, but I would use the word volatile. Volatile. Yeah. We were like the stock market. You know, we would be up and down. And now it's kind of leveled. Our levels are more nowadays.

So until I will say this, we did have a major relapse after your marital intervention. When I came, me and Joe came on the podcast, we had a little relapse after that after y'all's counsel. But I just try to speak truth to power. Well, you may not. Y'all may want to get out of the counseling business because that didn't work out. We've got the biggest fight we've gotten into a long time. Well, I'm leaning on the greatest counselor, the world I've ever known. The Holy Spirit is...

I will tell you this. I read the comments. And, okay, I want to say this about the Unashamed Nation. 90% of you guys are so kind and encouraging. And then there's about 10%, maybe 9% that can be a little stinging. And then there's about 1% that you guys look over the judge. That's 1001% if I do math. By 90, it's 90 are just amazing.

9%, okay, I hear what you're saying. The 1% is like, whoa, you guys are kind of brutal. Oh, I thought you were going to use since you did the 101, because I still can't add, even though I went to pine, Chris, which I love that school. But math was not the specialty. I thought you were going to use the 1% as the celestial powers. demonic forces

uh oh okay non i wasn't going to do that okay well i think your gauge is wrong because when people comment now it's been five or six years since i've read comments on the internet but back when i did

yeah i realized that i think that's an embellished version of humanity i wouldn't i wouldn't you're saying what you're reading on social media is the comments are an embellished

version of it. Yeah, what I mean is you're a real tough guy when you're on the couch and your underwear, eating Cheetos. Yeah. You know, making speeches about what you think about something, you know. Well, it's called, or you may think that's Terry from, you know, Ohio

and it's actually Rita from London. That may be true. Yeah. You get behind the avatar. I get a lot more courageous behind an avatar, too. Then you bring up something I've never heard of. I'm not, what is an, what is he? An avatar?

Like your social media avatar. It's like your online presence. It's a fake or, it's not you. It's a false persona. It's a false persona. Right. In the virtual world. Yeah.

So not, I would say that could be demonic. No, it's just, well, not in and of itself. I'm just saying you have it. If you're living a lie, you've now gotten to a camp who's the father of all lies. I think we're getting to that in John 8, are we not? We might. Well, I said that because there was one, I won't even repeat the comment, but there was one really funny comment about the dynamic between me and Jill that was pretty brutal,

but it was kind of funny. I really don't want to repeat it, but it was funny. But I read all that stuff. Well, Jill, the same reason I like to have Jill on the podcast. and Missy as well is because both of them are strong women, strong godly women, but they don't have any qualms and taking both of you on, which I personally love to see that twisting because we spend a lot of time together. And you guys are both self-assured in where you are.

But then when your wives come in, all of a sudden, they're really putting you to the test. Well, look, and you talk about passion. I mean, Zach, it's actually a good word because I've mentioned this before. I think it was Joe Beam talking about marriage when he had these three circles that overlap. And in one circle, you had intimacy, which includes passion, you know, for a married couple. But it overlaps with conflict. So there's this little space where those two circles overlap.

And a lot of times we go there because we don't always agree. And we are trying to, you know, the dude, the jockey, trying to figure out on any particular issue, you know, who's right, who's wrong. you know, and you balance those things. But the third circle you had over here to the farther right, which also overlaps conflict was withdrawal. And when a couple gets there, then they don't care anymore. And that's a terrible place to wind up because when you're in withdrawal, you sometimes will venture into a little bit of conflict,

but you're more comfortable, like not having intimacy. And so he always used to say when you get in withdrawal, to get back to intimacy, you have to go through. through conflict. So I think there's a lot of truth in that. But it also, I mean, we love peace. And as we do grow mature, we get a lot of peace in our marriage because you're not worried just because you disagree with your wife.

It's like you were describing with you and Jill Zay. You may have a disagreement about something, but you're not worried that she's going to walk out the door and leave you over some disagreement. You have a certain confidence in peace and knowing that you two are together for the long haul. There's a difference in that. And then people that don't have that. Fast forward 30-some-odd years and in my marriage, and I have to give Maddie credit.

Now, granted, it took one full podcast, and I've been here for a few hours. We've already done a podcast that will, you know, in your world, we put them out, what, every two or three days, Maddie? Yeah. But we do, too, every time we sit down. And no one noticed that not only did I get a haircut, I cut half my hair off. None of you even noticed.

Did you notice, though? I did not. But I'm looking at you without my classes on a screen. I can just barely make you out. Well, half. I mean, it was over a foot long. It was down to the middle of my back. And probably cut over half, I'd say two-thirds.

I remember you saying on a previous podcast you needed to cut it, but it's gotten so long you couldn't cut it yourself. I didn't remember that. It actually wasn't a true statement. My wife said I needed to cut it. That's why I was getting into the marriage here. I got you. And so when I was coming back to do this podcast, Maddie said,

did you get your haircut? Which was kind of odd because I'd been here two hours already. And I was like, yep, you're the first person who noticed. So actually what I did since my wife has been dropping hints, subtly saying, might order to do something. there above the neck and so i did it so i sent her a picture and uh of course i asked mattie if she could guess who actually cut my hair and uh she said do i know this person i said i think so but i thought i would give you a shot at it ow do you have a guess or is that of who did

the job yeah because of course you know i don't go to barber's crickets a girl named cricket no, she cuts. That was a good, good answer because if I had to, you know, reach out and figure out who's going to cut my hair, I like that name. I would guess Mia, if Mia was in town she might have cut it.

Yeah. Nope. Those are wrong. I was going to say Jill, because the last time you got a, well, you did a viral video that went, it went viral, where you shaved your beard and cut your hair

and Jill did it at my wife. She's not in town, so I know she didn't do it. Yeah. But there was that story. So, boy, this is a riveting cliffhanger. Actually, and the reason I told you, I'm not sure, Maddie, is I actually did it myself. And it was not easy. That's why I said, do you really ever know someone, you know?

But I did want Maddie to guess. When she said, do I know this person? I was like, well, absolutely, I'm standing here talking to you. Yeah. I did it myself, and I thought I did such a good job, and I basically just got in front of a mirror. And it wasn't easy, but I did it. So I sent a picture to my wife saying, what do you think?

And she didn't respond for a couple of hours because she's in Nashville, and I think it took her a while to notice that I had cut my hair, because same problem you all have. So this was her response, Mary. So this is Marriage Council 101. She put nice. And I see, honestly, anything would be good. But you know what?

I read that about five times, and I thought, is that a compliment? Or is that a criticism? And I do not know to this day. That's called a backhanded compliment. It's what's called. Yeah, maybe. It's like Maddie telling Alex to tell me, I look great, but tell me respectfully.

It's basically saying you look great now, but we didn't want to tell you not so much earlier. Well, and the problem was she put one of those, what do you call the little faces? What do you call it? The emojis? I thought it might have been a valetor or, no, it was the other word you said earlier. Oh, uh. Baralti, what was that?

Avatar. Avatar. Avatar. Boralty. A little yellow face and it has tears coming out of both sides, but it has a smile. Well, that means it was a joke. That means it was a joke. Yeah, that's what she meant.

That she's laughing about. Yep, she's laughing about. Honestly, anything would be good. What was the emoji? It's a little yellow laughing, crying. Yep, she's like saying a joke and like, this is like tongue and cheek. Like, hey, you think it'll look better. No, I think this is shaking.

tongues. I need an interpreter. But no, here's the thing. There's truth in it, though, Jay's. There's just happened last night. So Beth has been trying to get me to go on the duck call room. But I've just been busy and had a lot going on. And so she sends me a note and says, hey, are you in town to go on the duck call room? And I said, no, I'm in Gold Shore.

And she said, and then she sent me one back and said, well, I don't want to be a past, L-O-L. and then I sent her a picture back of a ear with a mosquito right next to the ear. And then I sent her an emoji with me winking like it's a joke. But it's sort of like there's some honesty because you are being a past, but it's okay. I mean, I understand that's what you do. You have to get get. So that's what Missy did as well.

She's telling you she's kidding because she loves you. but, you know, anything is better than what you have. Oh, all right. Well, finally we solved that mystery. See? See? You brought up Mia because the other day she sent, she asked me something. Somebody left her some money and she's like, how much was it?

And I sent her a picture of the, it was a $100 bill. But she sent three of those emojis all different. And I had no idea what that meant. I said, I don't know what this means. I bet Maddie would know. I mean, well, then she defined them. She put shocked, surprised, and, let's see, it means I'm surprised and shocked. But then she sent another one after that sentence.

And I thought, this is just too, it's getting too weird. Why didn't you just say that? Because now we have to have an interpretation. That's right. It's faces I've never seen. I don't even know what. That is interesting, Jay. you brought up an interesting point and I ever thought about the emojis now

and people at mattie's age understand them immediately it takes me a little while to figure them out but it has become its own language look I'm going to send these to Maddie and you try to tell me what these things are I mean I've been on the earth 55 years I had no idea I sent her a picture of how much money she got and she sent me that So there's a world that we're living in that I'm not familiar. I don't speak that language. Well, they also, I'll tell you another thing that happens is there's like letters. People just put out letters and half the time I don't know what that they are.

And sometimes they're not good. When you find out, you're like, oh, I wish I didn't know that. But yeah, there's like they just now, it's like this, what do you call it? Shorthand, I guess language because of texting. I guess it makes sense, though, that every time you get a new, venue to communicate, you're going to have to learn a whole new language. Is that right, Zach? I mean, is that what we're describing here? Well, I really feel like the application of all this, which was not planned, obviously, but is why, you know, Jesus is encountering such

opposition. Yeah. Because he's just speaking in a language, which was their language, but that's a good segue. They just can't, it's, I mean, I felt when I saw that, I'm trying to figure out, what exactly is this? I don't know if this is good, bad, and different. I'm not sure what my next move is here, because this is foreign to me. It just made no sense. And so, you know, I think that is a good segue.

No, because you're exactly right. Truth is still truth spread across whatever different way we find it communicated. And so no matter what you plug into it across time, that's the beautiful thing about the Bible. we were talking about spiritual warfare recently. And the idea is that truth is going to always stand for what's right, because God is always right. I mean, the two inalienable things about God, he never lies, and he always is. And so you can always depend on his faithfulness, which imagine from Jesus's perspective, Jase,

that here he is talking to his people, that he freed from Egypt because he's always been. and yet they have no idea what he's talking about. Exactly. Well, I'm thinking I have to preach this Sunday, and I listen to your sermon from Ephesian 6, which I highly recommend. And we had Chad Wright and Jay on the last podcast. We were talking about spiritual warfare.

But I kind of did something that was crazy. I don't know if you've ever done this out. I had a thought. You know how you start thinking about, what am I going to preach on? You asked me to give an overview of Ephesians. And even though y'all have been studying Ephesians, which kind of came from our podcast that we did on Ephesians.

It did. I haven't studied Ephesians. I mean, that was, what, a few months ago. Yeah, we've been in John for a while, yeah. Yeah. And so I was like, well, to give an overview, wow. But I thought of this illustration where, kind of like what we're talking about,

where I feel like we kind of have in our religious work, and I mean in America, we kind of have this grid that it's kind of like you punch your ticket to get off this planet and be saved. And that's really the main focus. And when I read Ephesians, it gives this vision of what God accomplished in Jesus, which that's the main phrase in the book of Ephesia in Christ. It's like the happy place of heaven and earth from the history of the world to the present world to the future world. In Christ is where every human needs to be.

And where is he now? He's at the right hand of God. And it's more about what's happening now. That's why there's so much of it about the church. And so I feel like, you know, that what Ephesians reveals, and then our kind of American, narrative of just punch your ticket and we're just waiting. We're just, you know, waiting. And so I wanted to do an illustration that prove my theory on where we're kind of missing

what God is doing now, what Jesus is doing at the right hand of God. And the verse I was kind of getting all this from was in Ephesians 110 where it says, you know, God goes through that from the beginning, he had this plan for people to be in Christ. Jews and Gentiles, which means the whole world, to be under this umbrella of in Christ. And here's what that's going to look like of all these people from all these different countries and different nations. This is what it's going to be like. And in Ephesians 110, it says, and this all, the whole plan was to culminate with, I'll read it.

I'll start reading in verse 9. He made known to us the mystery of his will. You know, what does God want for humanity? He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his pleasure, which he purposed, there's a phrase, in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment. I mean, drum roll. Everything through time was leading to this one declaration to bring all things in heaven and, on earth together under one head even Christ. Yeah.

So I'm like, man, what a, what a statement. So I think we have two narratives. You have the one of Ephesians where all things in heaven and on earth are brought together. Now. Yeah. And this is, he wrote that to the Ephesians, what, almost 2,000 years ago? Correct. So we're still living that.

but it doesn't feel that way in our religious establishments. It's kind of like, well, we're just waiting on this to happen. And so I did an illustration last weekend. I spoke out at camp. Did I tell you all about that? No. They had like a sportsman's day at Camp Chioca, where we've all been. I mean, I think I first went to camp as just a little kid,

which is why I did that. And Willie and Corey met at camp like on the Moonlight hike. So this was the way about. My parents met out of camp. And my mom took you to that camp. She did when I was nine years old. I didn't meet my wife there.

I met her at the church that sponsors camp. But I saw her out there. And that was part of the process. You know, I was like, boy, because they always used to ask, who are you going to take on a moonlight hike? And I was thinking, and I'd like to take that girl, but she probably wouldn't go,

which was eventually going to be my wife. So I didn't even ask. But so what I did, now they had, you know, people from all over came, and it was kind of a, I mean, I think it was a fundraiser for camp. I didn't really know what it was. They asked me to, you know, they said it's a sportsman day, you know, people who appreciate the outdoors, and they had like, you shot bows and through hatchets, and they had all kind of fun things for the kids.

and there were probably a couple hundred people there. Yeah, including my four grandchildren were there and loved it, dude. Yeah, I missed all the festivities. I just came in for the, I was the last speech there. And so I guess they figured I'm a guy who kind of discovered God in the outdoors and the life change of our parents, Al. But, you know, it led me to the Bible, which led me to Jesus, which led me to my surrender.

but it all started me just looking at the creation thinking I think somebody created this and so I gave my little speech but I did this illustration to prove my point and so I asked three questions I did this right at the first I said well let's do some audience participation here let me let's get to know each other so and I've been famous for asking three questions that I got from Act 17 which by by the way echoed Ephesians 1. Yeah. And maybe this will be a good test for you all to say whether I should do this illustration.

So here's what I'm doing. I'm doing an experiment to see if my thought process is right, that we kind of missed the big picture of Ephesians. And so I'll read this Act 17, which I quoted without planning on doing it in my speech. but when Paul was got up and shared to a group of people who are bowing down to an altar this one inscription on this altar in Acts 1723 got his attention because he looked carefully at the objects of worship from the people here in Athens in which I've been to this place modern day it's still there yeah and he says they had an inscription that

said to an unknown God. He said, I'm going to proclaim this unknown God. And so he starts this sermon. He said, the God who made the world and everything in it. Now, watch what he first says right off the bat, is the Lord of heaven and earth. He says the same thing he wrote in Ephesians that was saying, this is the culmination of God's will and plant. He said, he's Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in buildings built by hands. And then you remember the rest of it. He's not served by human hands. He gives all men life, breath, everything else.

Well, his sermon, which goes on to say, he did this so that men would reach out for him and seek him and find him and where he's offspring, but he's not far from us. And then he goes on to end it by saying he said a day when he'll judge the world. And he has given proof of this. to all men by raising him from the dead.

Well, out of that, I came up with three questions out of that sermon. So I asked them the three questions without reading that first. I just said, let's get to know each other. I said, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to ask you all a question, and I want everybody at the same time to answer it. I was like, it'll sound weird, but it'll be fun. And we'll see if a common theme comes out.

So the first question I asked, I said, where are y'all from? And when I said that, 200 people simultaneously told me the state where they were born. And really, there was no one state. You would have thought it was Louisiana, but actually I didn't hear anybody say Louisiana. I heard some Arkansas's, you know, it was like I was organized. some speaking in tongues here when the spirit poured out. Yeah. Some Texas, you know, Oklahoma.

I actually heard of Hawaii because there was a couple that I met later that were from Hawaii that came all the way to this. That was a frequent flyer award. So then I asked the second question. I said, what do y'all do for a living? I kind of gave a redneck question. Well, then I heard everything from... you know, barbecue to plumber to outdoor guide.

I mean, it was just all these, you know, things that people do to make money. Of course, if you think about the question, I said, what do you do for a living? These were carefully orchestrated questions. Well, then the third question I asked is I said, where are you all headed? and to my surprise, I only heard one thing from 200 people. You know what it was? Heaven. They all said heaven.

Now, for my illustration purposes, I actually thought that I was 0 for 3. Because then I read Act 17. Now, remember what I'm saying here. I'm prefaces and saying, well, they got the third one right. but my whole point for doing the illustration is that while we're here we tend to think when I say where you're from I was surprised that no one said I'm I was made in the image of God that's technically where I'm from but we just tend to think oh I was born I said you know I would have felt better if you'd have said well I was born in Alabama but where I'm from I was made

the image of God. Number two, what do you do for a living? And they said all that. And I would have said, I would have felt better if you had said, I'm a disciple of Jesus. Because in him is life. You want to live. The whole book of John has been about that.

But I use as a platform my plumbing skills. But, you know, so, and then third, you know, where you're headed, heaven, said, I would have felt better. better because, and I said this, I said, look, I don't want to offend you, because I don't think that's technically wrong. But the Bible says way more about being with the Lord than it does the place. And actually, you can make an argument of a new heaven and a new earth, which is usually how I frame it, you know, based on Revelation 21 or 22. My whole point in that was to show what I

think the point of Ephesians is, which is understanding the fullness of God, which he says we have many times, which is God, the father, who's forced, God, the son, who's with us, came to be with us, and is with us now at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit, which is in us. And that's really what Ephesians is stressing. And I think the disconnect is that. We're here to do worldly things. We're born in states. We do things to make money. Oh, and one day we're going to go to heaven. And I think that's the disconnect. And it proved my point. That was not our, you know, our answer to be ready to go immediately into those spiritual aspects of the Godhead. There's an interesting thing that you just said there that if you indulge me for just a minute, I think it'll make a

great point. When someone ask where you're from, if you go back to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 2, so if you read Genesis 1, it's like it's the creation account, but then he kind of starts over in chapter 2 and gets a little bit more detail

after he says that God rested on the 7th day. And then in verse 4 of chapter 2, listen to this what it says right before he talks about the creation of Adam and Eve. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created and the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. And then he gets into when man was formed. And so when you were talking about that Ephesians passage of the coming together of heaven and earth, that is the ultimate goal, right? The heaven's going to come to earth. But if you think back at the beginning,

of creation, Adam and Eve really came out of, they were the generations of heaven and earth. So when you read the command in Genesis chapter one, and just listen to this language, you think about generations, heaven and earth coming together, all the nations, every tribe, that whole thought process. He says in Genesis 128, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds, of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So when you get that picture, it's not that man is out of heaven at the creation.

He's not has, no, he's actually ruling over all these things. It's in conjunction with. So then when you skip forward to chapter nine, it says, this is the, I mentioned this in a previous podcast.

This is after the fall, after the world got so wicked, and God saves Noah and eight. He says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So same language that you saw, at the creation. Then Genesis 12, the calling of Abram, and you, all the families of Earth shall be blessed. Skip forward to Genesis 18, just a few chapters later. He says, seeing that Abraham surely will

become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of earth shall be blessed because of him. Skip forward to Genesis 25, and it says two nations are in your womb, two peoples are in your the older will serve the younger. Chapter 26, I will multiply your offspring as stars in the heaven, and I will give your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring, here's the promise, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abram obeyed my voice and kept my charge. Then you skip over to chapter 27, let the people serve you and the nations bowed down before you. Then you skip over to Psalm 22, which is. interesting because Psalms 22 is what Jesus quoted when he was on the cross. And what does he say in

Psalm 22, verse 27? This is the one where it says, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And at the end of that Psalm, it says the end of it is verse 27. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Then you skip to Isaiah chapter 2, verse 2. And you see that all the nations will flow up the hill, verse 2, to worship the one true God. Then you go to Isaiah chapter 49, and you see that I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation will reach the ends of the earth. Then you skip over to Josea chapter 2.

I'm just going through the Old Testament here, Josea 2.3, which says, actually 2,23. says, and I will sow for her myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my people that you are my people, and he shall go to you and say, you are my God. Then you get to the very last prophet, Malachi, and you read in the book of Malachi, right at the end of the Old Testament, verse 11, for from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among, guess what? The nations. And every, place incense will be offered to my name and a pure offering for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Then you enter the New Testament, you get to Acts chapter 2.

All the nations are together. They're all speaking in different tongues, but they're all hearing each other. The coming of the kingdom comes in Jesus. And then at the end of Revelation 22, what do you see surrounding the throne of God? The nations. And so I, I, I, I just can't, I mean, when you read it this way and you go back to that Ephesians passage, like you see that what's happening here is God is calling all the people, all the tribes, all the tongues, all the nations to himself to rule in dominion again where heaven and earth are now united once again. That's our future hope and consummation of the kingdom at the second coming of Christ. No, that's really good, Zach.

And that's, you know, speaking of overview, Chase, Zach just. Just did the whole Bible. I've only asked you to do Ephesians. He just did the whole Bible. But, you know, it's funny, Jay's because when you laid out those three questions, immediately I was thinking about my big outline for the book of Ephesians when we were preaching through it. And it so goes in line with those three questions you were asking about audience. And I love the tie-in to Act 17.

And my outline was declared intentions was the first one. In other words, that whole thing you read earlier of Jesus declaring, Paul making these declarations that he was who he said he was, it's the same thing we do. And that's how we get the Holy Spirit, because we declare our intentions. We're all in on Jesus. And that's the first couple of books,

I mean a couple of chapters in Ephesians. And then you get to those middle chapters, and that's our determined integrity. That's the second role in this. And that is what we do with that and how we live. And so you see all these passages, in Ephesians about how we live, how we act, how we react to other people. What does it look like in our marriage?

What does it look like in our family? What does it look like in our work environment? All those are reflections, right? Because that's the integrity that comes about by having the Holy Spirit. And then you get into the last bit of Ephesion 6. And that's the third point, which is to your question about, you know, is that where are we headed? is displaying the image of Christ. In other words, we should look like,

and that's what we just be imitators of Christ. The more we live for Him, the more we've declared that this is who we are, the more we should be image-bearers of Jesus. And people see that in us. That should be natural. It should be natural because it's the flow out of the Holy Spirit. That's why he calls it fruit.

Which I think to image Christ, because that's a big question, mean to image Christ. And typically what I think we want to do when we try to explain that. So we want to go to Galatians 5 and we want to say basically do the works of the spirit. But I don't think that's the right answer because those fruit of that fruit of the spirit, it's the fruit of the spirit. So the fruit actually comes as a byproduct of whatever, the tealing of the soil, the planting, all that, like the gardening part, right? So we think about fruit comes out of a garden.

So if I'm going to if I want to have sunflowers because I'm going to have a big dove hunt in September, and I want to, what am I going to do? I'm going to plant sunflower seeds. I'm going to cultivate the ground. I'm going to till it up. I'm going to plant a garden. I'm going to work a garden. I never make the fruit grow.

I never make the flower bloom. That never, I never, I never done that. Because you couldn't. If I say, go out there and make a strawberry. Like, okay, let me get all the materials. Let me analyze what's in a strawberry. and I'm going to get these elements and I'm going to put it all. No, you don't do that.

What you do is you cultivate a garden and then it produces the fruit. And that's the picture of what, well, how do we, well, that's, that's Edenic language, right? Yeah. So to image Christ, what does it mean to image Christ? To image Christ is to have dominion over the earth, to subdue it, to take the Garden of Eden and expand it. It's to cultivate a garden. and then the fruit comes as a result of the cultivation, not the other way around. That's what it means to image Christ.

And instead, what we do is we take our God delegated dominion and authority, and N.T. Wright talks about this in a very eloquent way, and we hand over that God delegated dominion and authority, which we're supposed to exercise over the world. and instead we hand that over to the idols to have dominion over us. And this seems to be the very nature of what sin is. Sin is to take your God-given dominion and authority and to hand it over to idols and give it to them instead. It's to not image Christ.

And instead, it's to let the creation have rule over you. Romans chapter 1. It's to worship the creature or the creator rather than, sorry, it's to worship the creature or the creation rather than worshiping the creator. That's the difference. And isn't that exactly what Jace was describing was happening in Act 17 by the people they were living there and nothing? That's what they were, they had all these other gods and they thought that was the pathway and all their philosophies and all their wisdoms

and all the things they had. When he said right in the midst of it all, you've got the answer, the unknown God. And then he described to him who he was. Well, what I was. Go ahead, Jay. Well, where I was going with that is the last time we did the podcast out of John, you know, he has this beautiful passage in chapter 7 that says, if anyone is thirsty in verse 37, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me is the scriptures said streams of living water will flow from within him. By this, he meant the spirit.

So he came down here, you know, and it's like, never thirst, I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, and it's going to flow out. And we talked about that. You were asking the question, what is imaging God? What does that look like? Well, it looks like Jesus being on the earth, and we have his spirit. We're doing this again. We're just, Jesus has been multiplied by the millions, and now we go out.

And that's why I said those answers to those first two questions, I think you should get in the habit of making it be, what it really should be about. Where are we from? But it came from, you know, in John 6th, I mean, it just had a profound impact on me when here comes Jesus, you know, after he does the miracle,

which you would think that would do it, but it didn't. Because it became the question, well, wait a minute, where are you from? Because you're just a man, you're a carpenter. And they were having trouble, just like we have the same trouble today, and you trying to say, oh, I have the Holy Spirit from heaven in my body right now. And I just want to reiterate this because I think right after he says that profound statement,

you're going to see my point. But if you go back to John 6 where he said over 10 times you use this phrase, but I just want to read them just to make the point kind of like what Zach did. In 633, he says, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then in 38 he says, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my will,

but to do the will of him who sent me. So is he not answering this question on where you're from? Look, in 41, he says, I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am the bread that came from heaven. Then 42, they say, well, wait a minute, I thought this was Jesus, the son of Joseph,

his father and mother, how can he now say, I came down from heaven? They're making a point of this statement. Verse 50, but here is the bread that came down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. And they're not even focusing on that. Did he just say that we won't die? They're like, he's not, he won't drop it.

51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. if anyone that eats of this bread he'll live forever look 58 this is the bread that came down from heaven your forefathers ate manna and died but he who feeds on this will live forever so then you go to john seven and look he just says this about the holy spirit and in verse 41 40 and 41 it says on hearing these words some of the people said this is john 7 40 and 41 surely this man is a person prophets, others said he's the Christ, still others ask, how can the Christ come down from Galilee?

Wait a minute. How many times does he have to say? Does not the scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem? And I know we hit on this point, but we didn't focus on it. Look, he could have said he was from Bethlehem because that would have been true.

That's true. Wrong answer. That's not why he came. That's why I came up with that idea about that illustration. Don't tell me where you were born. Tell me what you're about, which is what Jesus did. I came from heaven. Forget where I was born.

And basically, their problem with him is he had the wrong zip coat. And I'm not sure what the zip coat of heaven is, but he tried to say in the moment, it's B-R-E-A-D from heaven so we're out of time but here's the deal Jays when somebody says where are you born you said oh that's not important let me tell you right when I was born again I think it's a great

conversation starter to what we should be doing and I think we have the wrong narrative in our church buildings that's why we're not going out and declaring that I think that's so good and next time we'll get back into late part of John 7, John 8. We'll pick it up from there. So we'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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