Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 117 | How Many Rednecks Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

Episode Date: July 19, 2020

Jase kicks this one off with an embarrassing story about changing a bathroom light bulb for Missy. He also shares his household beverage problem and describes how a gaggle of surprise house guests reacted to his cellphone rules. Phil talks about what it means to live as children of the light and admits he has a cellphone exception. Phil, Al, Jase, and Zach take a deep dive into John 8:12. And Jase gets a kick out of googling "eternal light" and "biophotons." Pre-order Jesus Politics by Phil Robertson: http://jesuspoliticsbook.com See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1   To take a FREE 30 Day Trial of Phil's TV show and the rest of BlazeTV: https://www.BlazeTV.com/Phil - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Well, it happened again. This is an embarrassing thing. I told you all about the dishwasher. I fixed it. That didn't go well. So then there's Missy come out.

She says there's no lights in the shower. So at first I thought, you know, is this some kind of invitation? No. Now, only you would take that as an image. There's no light to the shower. So change the light bulb. Now that I can do. I go in there.

There's no screws. There's just, they're just in the ceiling. I thought, well, how would you get to the light bulb? So I tried to turn around there a little bit. I thought this is embarrassing because I, you know, I've thought of all the jokes. How many whatever does it take to change the light? How many rednecks is it? I am standing here.

It takes more than one. I'm lost. It's going to take more than one because I don't get it. There's nothing. I can't get to the light. So you know how I am? I'm thinking I could just crack this glass because I really don't care if it has a cover on it. So I thought, well, Phil's faithful friend, the Internet.

So I Google how to change a light bulb in a shower with no screws. I know how to do it. I figured it out, but I'll let you go ahead. Well, do you want to tell me? And let's see if I got it right. Well, yeah, because I think it's the same kind of eye. You have to pull off the outer piece and then the whole thing drops down. It's like in a can.

Yep, but you skip one step. That happened on step two. The actual glass, the ceramic glass, unscrues. Oh, well, mine's not like that. So that's different. But look, listen to this. It goes counterclockwise. Oh.

So I had to go back to the Internet three different times. finally realized. So you have to grab the glass with your fingers. You can't grab it because it has the thing that. The little outer ring, yeah. And you slightly push it up and you half turn it and it just then it falls. But you're holding it. I was going to say you got a lot of potential for breakage here.

Well, you'd think, but they knew what they were doing other than. Because it fits flat up against the. How would you figure that out without watching? You would never have guessed that. I would never have guessed that in a thousand years. So then it comes down and I look in there, well, there's two little metal, like you squeeze them and their tension. What do you call those things?

They're like V springs. Right. I don't know what you can. They go in these little holes. Whoever purchase that, they have what they call that comes with it, a manual. And you go and you have to keep your manuals in a certain location. Women are pretty good at it. Well, could you find one manual right now?

at your house. I asked Ms. Kay to go find the manual. She can come up with the dating back to 19. I'm taking that as a no. She knows where the manual place is. She gets it and she says, yeah, you've got to turn that to the right a little bit. She has hoarding tendencies. I guarantee she wouldn't do it in a six-hour period.

Dan, by the way, he is very good at going to that problem and solving that problem of how you take that line. He'd have figured it out or red, either one of them. Red would have gone in there in five minutes. She'd have to above in it. You know what they would have done? No manual. Which you don't realize is they'd have gone and looked at the internet like I did and found a video and they tell you how to do it.

But the problem was my fingers couldn't fit up in there. After about an hour. Sure, you fixed the light. I got the light bulbs in there. But then I couldn't go brag because I couldn't say, hey, guess what I just did? Because it felt like I'd climb Mount Everest. But you don't. You know, you're stuck.

So I just. Yeah, bragging about mastering the light bulbs is not really. Well, I think the practical application is I heard an illustration and a marriage seminar one time that really helped me because he said, you know, men and women are different. Let's face it. You've said that. You know, you taught us this when we were a young, young man, although it was probably a little bit crude with the women are strange creatures or whatever. But you're right. we have differences and we're created like that.

And that's what, no, Phil said when he created a woman, he made a strange creature. But what I heard in the seminar is that men are, the illustration he made is women will do 14 things for the family and the home in a day. And they never say a word.

Because you just take them for granted how much they're doing. Trust me, your wife would qualify. And then we'll do. the men will do one thing and they want everybody to stop and take notice. And I got to think, and I was like, I do that. When I fix something, I'll come in and say, well, Eric. Got that done.

So stop the 18th thing you're doing right now and let me share what I just got through doing to make this place. Liveable. So I said that in saying maybe some of you struggling in that area in your marriage. you know, maybe that would give you some. I've got little, you know, I do little thing. I've got little jobs that just I've taken them on. Nobody, nobody sat down, negotiated it. It's just I was good at it.

I'm pretty good on the garbage. I get it out, get it down to the street down there. Pretty good on the garbage. Pretty good on the garbage. I take the garbage out. I just go do it. I mean, look, I have a few pet peeves because I have a lot of people living in my house and no matter what.

Well, one thing that really bothers me is like we have a little beverage. beverage center, which Jep the other day, you know, because he's coming in now that we're doing on his metal detector. And he's like, boy, when I heard you just say you had a beverage center, I thought, man, old Jay's got it going on here. But what I don't like is I'll put a case of waters in there. So, you know, who doesn't like a cold bottle of water? I guess people in California don't.

They say the plastic something's in it. But anyway, well, what I don't like is when some of the water. Somebody drinks the last one and they'll just leave the rapper in there. Oh, yeah. No. I'll call a meeting right there of the house. Everybody assemble. I tell me to see, everybody assemble.

Because look, nobody admits it. Oh, yeah. I was like, look, I went in there to get a bottle of water this morning. Because they're all looking like, oh, this is over water. We thought something major was going on. We thought you had a disease. I was like, I reach into the empty, what is that? The empty outer edge that used to be a case of water.

And guess what? There's no more water. So somebody took the last one and just said, eh, forget it. That's right. The water ferry will come along and fix this problem. That's what they thought. It happens in my house, too.

That's what you call it what? Teenagers. They have the same problem. Yeah. Well, most of the people I was talking to are teenagers. I was like, that's just what is. You go to get a box. You get something out.

It's empty. It's like, who leaves an empty box? Same thing. Pop-Tarts. Same thing. Oh, yeah. So I do think you should stop everything and say, hey, this is lazy.

You're living for the, literally for the moment. Do you solve the problem though? No. Say that's the problem. No. So then it turns into a withering barrage of Jesus. Hellfire and brimbs. I mean, I'm mad is what it is.

I've heard the story, so we're going to get into John 8 or what? Wow. I thought you would give us some kind of, Phil, it's about relationships. No, so dad's answer to everything we just talked about, because he doesn't know this happens because he has people. He's got the hand. They just magically come in. When I go to Mom's house, there's never an empty anything.

It's always a lot of full things. That is correct. The little water drawer, always full of water. Correct. So what I guess we have to do is we all have to hire a eunuch to live in our house and just fill things. I mean, that's because that's how Dad does. They are very trustworthy. Phil, here's your segue.

into John 8 based on what Jay said. Thank you. About fixing the light. Thank you. Then Jesus spoke and said to them, John 8, 12, and this is what he said, I am the light of the world, and he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Exactly. I knew we were going to talk about John 812, and I said.

So you did that on purpose? I did. Okay. This is one of the few times I actually read. Al said we're going to be in chapter 8. It's the first time you ever read my notes, I sent you. Yeah. But Al will send some notes that we never address.

By the way, that's an excellent point. Oh, is it an excellent point? As far as what worship of Christ here. You're getting your mic, Phil. Getting your mic. Yeah, I mean, it's a very excellent point because most people, they don't realize, you know, that same John said, look, let me make it easy for it. If you love God,

love your brother, you need to walk as Jesus did. Walk, walk. It's always about your lifestyle. That's all the time. That's not going to church for church. Nope. They didn't have structures

at that time. Synagogues were over there, but the church building's not. 250, 300 years. It was the way they walked all the time. Yeah. It's critical. Well, for those who have been listening since we started going through the book of John, there were three, at least three.

There's more. Three things about the nature of God that we singled out that John focuses in on. They happen to all start with Al. But we focused in on life that God, he just, he didn't decide to live. He is life. That's why when Jesus was crucified and buried, Acts in Peter's sermon said, it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. You said, why would you make a statement like that?

Because God is life. It's impossible for him to be dead. Yeah. So he's life. He's love. There's several verses that says that. He is love. A lot of people have difficulty with that because they're like, well, he loves some and some.

No, he is love. And he is light. So when you read this profound statement, just think about the statement. Zach read it. But he said, I am the light of the world. So I immediately, when I read that, I think here's your light bulb moment. When you are introduced to Jesus, when you come to Jesus, when you fall in love with Jesus, however you want to say it. When you accept Jesus, when you research Jesus, you're flipping the switch to the world.

Right. He is the light of the world. And so as I thought about this, you know, when you think go back to Genesis 1, what is the first thing that happens? He creates light. light. And then it says he separates the light from darkness. Because, you know, if you have light, darkness can't be there, wherever the light is because it immediately just left.

Well, when you think about the last thing that's going to happen, well, what's the last thing on this earth that's going to happen? There's going to be a separation of light and darkness from a spiritual perspective when it comes to humans. Would you agree? I agree. if heaven and hell is what it is. Right.

So did you want to comment on that film? That's why I told the light bulb, light moment. You're much better at talking about that than changing light bulbs. The same apostle that wrote the Gospel of John, God is love, 1 John 4th. Whoever lives in love, lives in God. So you got living and loving at the same time, which proves your point. That's two of your else.

And God and Him, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world, you've had to model yourself after something or somebody. There's a line between following a guy like Karl Marx. Following the evil one was what John the apostle says in John chapter 8. He said there's two kinds of people on planet earth. The ones that follow God and the ones that follow the evil one. He said, you belong to your father, the devil. It's a relationship they had with him.

He said that twice in John chapter 8. But he ended up over in 1st John. There's no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. the man who fears is not made perfect in love. We love, remember, God is love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother. He is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he's not seen, and he's given us this command, whoever loves God, must love his brother. So everything in the Bible, springing off from John chapter 8, it always goes back. Everything. Love God. Love your neighbor. And third, prove that.

Yeah. Prove it. Prove it by the way you walk. Because they're never going to see God until they see the qualities that God has, which begins with love, faith, hope, and love. faith, hope, and love, the greatest is love. I'm including light in there just because in John 3, you remember when he had the conversation with Nicodemus, and the most famous verse in the Bible, John 316,

but right after that, he said in 19, this is the verdict. Life has come into the world. So since we believe that God is the creator, Not only did he create the actual light that we enjoy, but he also, Jesus is the light of the world, because up until Jesus being revealed, you got to think about God was invisible. He was intangible. He was, what's another eye word, elusive?

There's your, there's your, I think it starts with an eye, I don't know. As a close enough. It's a vowel. Hang on, Jess, let's take a break. I mean,

I'm trying to give you a three-point sermon. But remember, what were your first two? I can, I'm going to look. He's invisible, because I don't do

these cheesy outlines, you know. He was invisible, which is true. I was just trying to think of all the thing. He was intangible. You couldn't get your hands on it.

Immortal. Well, yeah, but I'm saying. He's trying to bring it to the full, like the manifestation of, of Jesus.

That gets my point. I'm saying up until this time, God is elusive. You can't. He was unattainable. He was unattainable. That's why Jesus. The law did not provide a way. That's right.

Because it was, it felt short. Immortal wouldn't fit. But, and now Jesus, that's why he's the light bulb moment. Because now you can actually see him, you get hug his back. Because I think the, the, the, the temptation was to obtain, climb your way to God based on your righteousness. And what the law was put in effect to do was to basically bring you to the realization that you're not climbing to heaven, Tower of Babel, you're not getting there.

That's why the Christ comes down. Jake, that's why when you brought up the kingdom and the podcast of two before us, it's called the kingdom of light in some places. I have that down. You're a chosen people. Philotians 113. Look, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belong to God. would cover that lifestyle that you may declare the praises of him now here's the key who called you

out of darkness people who walk around in the dark they stumble and they run into things and they go down wrong paths they're stumbling around in the dark he called you out of darkness into his wonderful light that's pretty cool that's good there's been several times in my life that I've woke up. Usually I'm at somebody else's house or in a hotel room and it's pitch black and I wake up in the middle of the night and I don't know where I'm at. And I'm like, I mean, it's very scary until you find, I mean, I'm freaking out until you find a light switch or a crease in the window, something where I could give me a sliver of light. I've been so much time in hotel room. I've walked into more closets trying to find a bathroom.

Me too. In the morning. But it's the perfect metaphor for how we are spiritually. if we're in darkness, we're in a lack of awareness, a lack of understanding. We're not seeing reality for what it really is and what Jesus brings in light. I think it's a perfect metaphor for it's an awakening that you see reality for what it really is. Well, it kind of threw a different lens. Yeah.

But it's because you think about most kids between three and six probably go through that normal scared of the dark. Yeah. All my kids did it. I remember doing it. Even when we were down here, if I'd go from Phil's house to my grandparents' house, it wasn't, what, 30 yards? Yeah. But in the pitch black dark, back then we didn't have all these fancy lights that we had.

It's like a long trail. I mean, I'm like, bear, you know. We would always run between the house. Yeah, that's me. So I'd open that door and I look around. I'd hear some weird noise. You could see the light down there, but it felt like such a long. way back and I would just run and about once out of 10 trips because we had all kind of

gardens and bricks that were turned over the roots were all the sidewalks so you had a lot of obstacles see a trip and fall get skin up you walk in they're like what happened to you and you're like oh nothing nothing but you're like I'm scared of the dark and I tripped over your stupid flower bed remember they had those jagged bricks they were up at an angle it was just like it was a danger zone Oh, it was like some kind of medieval torture. Going back to your light. But I ran every time. Going back to your light and darkness, Ephesans 2, Feasin 5.

Well, Phil, oh. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. And what Jesus is referring to while it was on the earth. This is 30 years after Jesus went back to sit down with the right hand of the Father. So you have one of the apostles writing this. Aposal. Live as children of light. My point's going to be, if you live that way, it's way beyond showing up at a church building. No one knows how you're living right there. You're walking into a structure. You sit down and a hour and a half or two hours later.

The singing was good. That's cool. You walk back out the door. When you go back out that door, when you walk out that door, live as children of light. Live that way for the fruit of the light. People who watch you, especially what you say as far as, is it wholesome or is it filth? You're like, hmm, they watch what you do. So the fruit of the light consists of all goodness. Just get up and do good for crying a lot. Righteousness, do what's right, and truth.

Find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, because that's where we all were, but rather expose them. So there's interplay between the children of light and the children of darkness. He said, expose them. It's shameful even to mention what the disobeyed, do, and seek it. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible. your body, your life, the way you live,

will be known by everyone that's around you. And when they say, what's the word on old Zach Dasher, they'll know it by the way he lives. They'll listen to what he says, and they'll watch what he does, and they say, good man, man of God. You prove it or you disprove it that you're in the light or the darkness.

Well, I think everybody agrees with that. The problem is, when you get into the details of how this is going to happen, that's where it gets a little more tricky. I'll give you an illustration. Last night, I have like a dozen high school girls staying at my house because they're trying to do camp again.

It's been every time they're going to do it, it gets counseled. Somebody gets coronavirus. Your behavior in front of those girls is critical. Well, I'll tell you, my behavior. My life's open book because of what we're reading. I try to live in the light. So they, because Missy coming there, she said, okay, I just want, you know, I don't want you to panic.

I'm sitting on the couch, you know. Study my Bible. You're not in panic mode. No. He's in his, that's the J-Zones, what we call it. We call it. The lair. The little man layer.

He's got a little doggy pets that sits next to it. That's a pretty hard dog, Al. Yeah, I know. That dog is ferocious. It's fit in that cup. Yeah. And so she said there's a dozen girls going to be staying here tonight. And, of course, I said, wow.

And she said, well, they're going to camp and they don't, they can't spend them. They're trying to get around the coronavirus. They have a protocol that they're going to have count during the day, but they're all going to go to houses at night. Somehow another, I guess that's going to keep. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. The coronavirus from spreading, but that was the protocol. Oh, it was the edict from the governor.

She said, ask the governor. I said, okay. So I said, well, look, when they all get here, gather them up. And she said, why? I said, because I'm going to talk to them. I'm going to lay down because how long is it how long are they going to be here? She said, they're all they're going to be here for over a week. I said, gather them all up.

So she did. So I walked in. You can imagine the look on these girls faces because they're from all of the country. They ain't been watching Duck Dynasty. All right. They were like, you know, seven when that was all. And yeah, from Washington, from Texas, everywhere. So I did my typical speech when teenagers are there.

I said, here's a deal. we love Jesus here. This is a safe place. We try to represent heaven. So what that means is for you, because I don't know who you are. Now, I know you're going to camp, and some of you're going to be counselors,

that's a good thing. So you're definitely, I'm already having a favorable impression, but do I really know you? No. I'm just letting you know. We love Jesus here. So if you have any ideas

in this house, of doing anything illegal or immoral, that is frowned upon. There's your two eyes right there. I said, if you don't know what those two words mean, I want you to look them up. Illegal or immoral. Not going to happen here under this what. We love Jesus here. That's number one.

Number two. It's at this stage in the speech, they're like, Oh, look, they literally are motionless. And three or four of them had their mouths of them. And I said, number two. They were aghast, a gap. I said, all your cell phones will be turned over now. Now they're panicking, not you.

Whoa. The look on the, one girl she looked around, like, snapped her head around like, oh, no, he just said, turned into my cell phone. Oh, no, he didn't. And so when she did that, I said, I see you're going to have a problem with that. I said, so look, let me tell you, the first 24 hours. are difficult because you're so used to that you're going to have the first 24 are the hardest yeah so i said but here's what we're going to do i said no look so jace your past statement i don't know how it's squaring up with it but you said the way i was raised the only rule we had was there is not there are no

rules i'm glad you brought this up all hang on hang on jess we got to work that in jason hang on we got take a break so i've introduced jesus because this is we love jesus here there's no rules because look, I'm not saying that you can't have your cell phone. It's kind of like that. I'm not saying you can't have a gun. You just can't have one in town. I'm saying, I'm not saying you can't have a cell phone. You can't have it in secret.

I said, we have what's called the beverage center. Come on. And I said, that is where now will be the cell phone slash beverage center. So that's the cell phone. zone. It's in the middle of the house. Can they use the phone at the beverage center? I said, you can use this phone

at all hours of the night. I said, now I'm going to tell you something right now. I'm a light sleeper. I said, I am. So if you think, oh, I'm going to wait him out, wait until he goes to sleep. You're going to lose that. You're telling in this.

Yeah. I said, I'm, I said, I'm going to have me to you're coming back tonight. Let's see what happens tonight. I wonder and having him. You're coming back. Well, can I finish? All right. It's a long.

story, but it's awesome. So I said, look, so if you and I have a conversation on your phone, I said, we use cell phones in public here only. We have no private conversations. If you say, well, I need to come. And you're the guy who tells your dad, I'm the ball peen hammer. That's a good point. That is true. This is not a rule. This is not a rule. I'm like, if you wouldn't say this in front of Jesus, you probably shouldn't say it. If you're not going to have this conversation in front of us, then you probably shouldn't have that conversation. We are open policy. So look, they all turn in their phones.

At the beverage center. At the beverage center. Everyone was compliant. No screaming in hollered. The one girl I could tell her ham was shaking. And I thought, she's been up to no good on the phone. If you had known what was going through her mind, it would have scared you, Jay. Because she was afraid you were going to launch an investigation into her phone.

Here's what happened. Look, so they all turned the phone. in. Well, I go in there back to my layer. I thought mission accomplished, you know. I'm waiting for them now to come use it, you know. A couple of them came up there and just looked at it and went back. Just to make sure they were still there. I did think that was fun. That just shows you how addicted they are. They went up there because I just wanted to make sure. I stuck my head around the corner. They looked at it. They didn't see me. And they walked back. I thought, yeah, I like this. Yeah. So then a couple hours later, Missy comes in there and she's like,

I feel like I'm a counselor. And I was like, what do you mean? She was like, one of those girls. She just, she said she wanted to talk to me. I mean, we just met these people. She said five seconds into it. She just burst out bawling. She's up to no good.

Yeah. Yeah. So she had a spiritual conversation, you know, and it was awesome. Yeah. And that's what you got to remember is, I'm not against these girls. I just said, we love Jesus and we are into, what's the point about light. So we live in the light. Everything we do here is out in the open.

can use your cell phone, but we're going to do it in the light. We ain't doing it in the dark behind the, you know, the guest house. And you're looking at this, looking around, saying, because that was the whole point about God is light. If you believe that he's around, well, what is he asleep while you're looking at all this trash on the phone? Well, by the way, just to prove that your point was valid and you did the right thing, at camp when you get there, you turn your cell phone. There's no cell phones at camp, like the same deal, because what they're trying to do is we're going to take a week. And we're going to break away from the normal input from the world for teenagers.

Well, if it's such a coveted device, I mean, why is it when I ask, I'll tell them I don't have a cell phone. I say, and every to the person, when I say, what am I missing? Every one of them say, Robinson, nothing. But when you're 74 and you're not missing. Why is it such a coveted thing? But when you say you don't have it. You have to have it for business. I mean, it is difficult.

And even in our, when a young people, you need it for communication. And it's like, it's just, all that's done is replace when I was a teenager. So what's wrong with the landline hanging on the wall? But here's the deal. But here's the deal. It's not just the device is just the latest thing. When I was a teenager, there were no cell phones. But trust me, we found ways to get together and do bad things.

There's always going to be something. There's always going to be something. As long as they're seeing. And there's darkness. But I want to add this to the conversation because I don't think it's just that. It's not just about operating in the light in the open. There's also a big component of this that is about God's revelation of himself when he says, I'm the light of life.

I think that because I've had a hard time when we talk about doing better or doing good, it can very quickly turn into some kind of legalistic do better deal. It's not just that I'm, the whole book of Romans is about obedience, but it's not just obedience. He says it's the obedience of faith. So it's God revealing to us that this is, this is where fulfillment is in me. It's right. True life is in me.

I'm the light. So the light coming on is, it's a revelation of who God is because when you, and particularly in this way, all sins can be linked back to a worship of things other than God. That's what sin is. So I'm worshiping something else besides God. It's the Romans one passage that you quoted a lot, Thiel, and it talks about their foolish hearts became darkened because they were worshipping the things of God rather than the God of the things.

And I think his revelation, the light being switched on, and particularly in the context of John 8, is you guys have been worshipping the law, you've been worshipping the temple, you've been worshipping all these things that are my things. But even the Bible, John, what's the verse? You worship the scriptures. You study them diligently by them to think your say. They said, you're trying to. And they said, he said, you're trying to kill me because you belong to your father, the devil, who was sending from the beginning.

I mean, he tells them who they belong to. And what the devil is doing every time is he's pointing them to something that God made and say, that's where it's at. And Jesus is like, no, no, I'm the one everything points to. I'm like, I'm right here in front of you. Like, it's me. His claim here, what's he claiming? I'm God. I'm everything that you have been looking.

like I'm here in the flesh. You're trying to ascend to me, and Jesus is telling them, but I've came to you. And that's what they missed, the personification, the person of God in Jesus Christ. That's right. And I think that's the part that's so. So I want people to have cell phones so that they can listen to us, discuss Jesus. So I want them to have one. So I know it's a good thing.

to hear about Jesus from this podcast, you say, that's a good thing. Although I don't have one. I'm glad they do. But my point is, how do you make the balance, Al, on what they're fed through a little device. Trying to tell you, when they come into your house, you say, we love Jesus. Put your cell phone over there. At the beverage center. And all of a sudden, people start responding.

Because you don't have to say what you've been doing on it. It was pretty evident what just happened. All I did was say, we love Jesus. we're going to be on our cell phones in public. Guess what? Well, you created space for conversation. Yeah. We had a conversation.

Yeah. You shine light on. Let's take another break. That's the deal, though. The cell phone or a computer or anything, an inanimate object that is a gateway to whatever is not, can be good, can be bad. It's always the person in what you decide to do. But it's a human creation.

Letter after letter after letter after letter after letter after letter. letter says my children all flew the coop, they can't get off the cell phone. I mean, they're saying the cell phone is the devil. Yeah, but it's not. But the problem is if you don't know Christ, I mean, Zach's right. One of the things I love about this text that we only got into two verses is that Jesus is first. See, we get letters all the time and emails from our audience and they say, you know,

I'm trying to do better. I'm trying to become a man of God. And it's always about them. And when I respond, I'm like, look, until you get, until you get into Christ, you don't know, you can't do enough. You can't be better. It's not going to work that way. You may, your behavior may change for a little while. But if you don't get in the light first.

The motivation. Over and over and over. We raise them right. And then they say, but then they talk about the heartache that they caused because they flew the coop and they're out there on drugs. It's over and over. This is why the world doesn't like religion. And they have a point. it's like most people in the conservative world,

if someone is shot, what do they say? What's the heart of a person? It's not the gun. But then these same people say, but it is the cell phone. Well, wait a minute, what happened to this heart stuff? And then I've had people even in the church say, well, you can't have a musical instrument.

I'm like, do you believe in gun control? They're like, do what? Well, it's not the gun, it's the heart of a man. But in the church, that's that, dangone piano. That thing's of the devil. That's only in the church. That's very small. Well, I've just said, I've heard people use that argument.

And I'm like, well, they're like, well, wait a minute now, you know, if God breaks into my house, that's just bad move. But you know what's funny. In small Baptist churches, they may get mad if you move the piano. That's right. That's my point. It's all in your context. And so, like, when you say, oh, the cell phone's out, let's go around and destroy them all. No, it's an opportunity of self-control.

just like to me drinking or anything else that, I mean, do we, you know, dump all that in the harbor, you know, have our Boston beer party or whatever. But what I'm saying is in all these issues, there's an opportunity of self-control is probably the most underrated fruit of the spirit because you have opportunity. But you will admit, before the cell phone came along. Well, I know this argument is close to your heart. It did open up a whole new... It's always going to be something, though.

But Phil, they just put it in a box, made it easy. The same stuff was out there. It was out there before you. But you can't. But I think that as believers and as ambassadors of Christ, I do think it's very dangerous for us to teach or preach or endorse a do-better gospel. Because at the end of the day, if we're being honest, nobody's doing better. Even as a believer, even in Jesus. And so we are desiring beings.

And so the real change is going to have to, they're going to have to desire God more than they desire the sin. Correct. And that's real change. I can't will myself to not lust. I've tried that. Don't lust that. I'm going to will it away. But I have to desire something else more than I desire the sin.

Come out of darkness. Be very careful then how you live, not as a life. not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish. This is Jason's speech to the girls. But understand what the Lord's will is. Don't get drunk, which lead you debauchery. Instead, be filled with the spirit.

Speak to one another with Psalms, Him, Spirit, make music in your heart. Give thanks to God in the name of the Lord Jesus. So he's talking. He's saying, look, just be careful. I guess that This morning when they woke up I woke up first Nobody was awake

But I knew it was about time For them to wake up You were basically telling them To be careful What you do with these things But I want to tell you this This is funny Their phones were all there

Because I checked them And I turned on You know Elevation worship music Loud as it would go Because I knew it was time To get up And so they're all

They started getting up But I got that playing Wide open Because now we've already set the tone. You're setting the mood. I'm setting the mood. The ambiance is changing. And look, here's what's funny. Here's what's funny. They all leave. They all tear out, you know,

because they're all going to count. So Missy came in, you know, she looked exhausted. She's been up five minutes. And she said, you're not going to believe this. She said, they all left their cell phones. I looked over. I was like, woo-hoo. I mean, I literally think they just forgot them. You know, they came in. We're talking about. They didn't forget them. They're all there. Which means they're all coming back. Well, hold on.

Let me add to that because I think that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. So when you told them that originally, their initial thought was that's not going to be fun or fulfilling. Exactly. I saw it in their face. But they obeyed and they put their cell phones up and then what happens? They're like, this was much more fulfilling. We actually had face-to-face interactions. And so it's the same thing with the Lord that when he tells us these things.

I think our initial reaction is to say, like Adam and Eve did that. They're like, you're holding out on me. I'm not sure. That fruit's going to be delicious. I mean, that's what Satan told them. Don't eat this. God knows. I noticed that all the people in the streets, 100%.

I mean, it's walking miles. It's sweating, running people running, knocking people down. They're burning over there. They're looting. Every single one of them had one of these in their hand. Every one of them. they all had this. Well, everybody owns a cell phone.

And they did do like that. Then they do like that. Well, they're video and it. Yeah, they're video. Well, my point is. I'm trying to figure out how to have a better youth coming underneath us coming up. I think they have to meet Jesus. I admire what you did right there.

I commend you to say, okay, put your cell phones over here. I mean, I think if America does. did that, we would be better off if there were some parameters. We need the cell phone autonomous zone. All right, let's take one last break. So, you know, here was a verse that I was going to read from First John 1, which John is basically retelling what Jesus said in 1st John. This is the message we heard from him and declared to you.

God is light, just what he had heard Jesus say. In him there is no darkness at all. if we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie. We do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus' son purifies us from all sin. Light riding on your walk. Exactly.

But then verse 8, because a lot of people stop there and they say, see, you got to do better. But you got to read verse 8. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in it. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. So the idea is that as we're in life, we're in life. light as long as we're being honest and saying, look, we're not perfect. We make mistakes. We sin.

That's why we're in the light. So again, it's back to all the folks that you guys that are writing in to us. You've got to get Jesus on first. And then, though, you're going to find the walk gets easier as you go to me, not harder. I hope people will listen to this and you look at light differently because you have many opportunities during a day time. I typically, when we're going to talk about something, I'll Google, like in this case, I googled eternal light because I was curious what would come up.

Number one, wasn't Jesus, unfortunately. Was it some band or something? No, I'm going to tell you. It was a, there was an opera house in Fort Worth, Texas, built in 1908, and it was demolished in 1977, but they took some of the artifacts out of there and moved it to a museum because it was famous or whatever. Well, there was a light bulb that had. come from that house that was from 1908.

And when somebody screwed it in, it was still functional. And so now it's in the museum to this day. And it was 100 and whatever it was, 118 years or whatever. 112 years. 112 years. And so they nicknamed it, the eternal life. Now, unfortunately, two things happened. Somebody got wind of this and it was a firehouse in California.

and said, well, we got one that's been plugged in and screwed in since 1901. So now the Guinness Book of World Records, they, whatever happened to this eternal light stuff, they got beat, number one. And it was interesting in both stories when I read them, they gave their secret to success of the lightbulb, which one, they say they don't make light bulbs like it anymore, because it puts you out of business. You know, you got one light bulb going for 100 years. your business will go bankrupt. Number two, they said they never turn it.

What makes them go out is you're constantly flicking them on and off. So they just leave it on. But I just thought that was, I thought that was, you know, to me, fascinating on how in the world, that's as far as we go. And when people who are believers look at Jesus as something that's actually real. I mean, that's kind of cool. But you know what? One day it's going to burn out.

So is everything else here, including you. And here comes Jesus saying, you want to know what God's like? Here it is out in the open for everyone to see. And that one life that he led, it spanned over 2,000 years. Bible's the number one selling book for how many years. And you said, what did he do? I think he did what he said he was going to do. He brought God into a way you could grab a hold of him and look at him.

You're right. You think about a hundred-year-old light bulb and you're like, man, that's something. But one of Zach's sons could go in that room and that light will be broken within five minutes. I mean, oh, so much for the eternal light. Yep. I'd love just to walk in there and just, pp. There's a dark side to you. Wow.

What's so? You're going to call it eternal light. You may fit it in the autonomous song, Jay. You know why I'm doing that? Because when you called it eternal light, you insulted Jesus. You insulted, you know, who I'm surrendered to. Here's something funny because we're about our time. So the Jace had this whole, the beverage center cell phone talk.

So mom has a rule at her house that you can't have a cell phone at the table. Because like we get to the table, like don't look at your cell phones. We've got to talk and eat. That's been a rule for years. So she tells another day that Jay's comes in. He went down to eat lunch or something. He was down there. And he's got his phone.

and she looks at him and he's like, now I know about all your rules and all that, but I got some stocks here, I'm working on, so just back off. I was like, the market's down a thousand points. I'm fixing to look at the cell phone. Get over. So I like that. The Jay says the cell phone, a ton of a cell phone,

but he went to stocks, you know. Practice what you preach, guys. That's exactly right. Now we know. I mean, the kids are looking up for you. I'm trying to provide here. That's pretty good. So I guess to wrap it up,

because we literally got one verse into our text, which means... I mean, Hal, that's a really good verse. It's a great verse. If you read that 100 times a day, you'll be a lot better person tomorrow. Which, by the way, that's why it's great to study. Somebody asked me, you're kind of coming along. There's a guy, I can't remember where he's from. I answered his email this morning.

And he's new to the Bible, you know? So I gave him some pointers and ideas about what to do to get started. But that's why we started with John. Because there's so many statements in here that give him. that clear picture of who Jesus is. I want to say one other thing, if you want to have some fun, you need to Google bio photons, which bio is life and photons is light.

Because now all these people that we have in our body, we have bio photons. And now they're energy transmitting radiant particles of light that come out. Well, all the science, they're like, oh crap this is evidence that you know had that well yeah so every time you read an article about it they're like we're unsure of the nature of these particles of light working in the body with DNA somehow another but now we're not saying it came from an intelligent source or if it's

actually healing our bodies not sure how we evolved to that's what there's that if you want to just have some fun read that because they're trying to they're trying to figure out where Where did this light come from and why is it emitting out of human bodies and what does it mean? And so that's like a big new thing. I think it's evidence that there might be a God, a creator who lives in unapproachable light. But he happened to become human so we could, you know, approach him. And it all makes sense once you look at it. Next time I come on, let's talk about Stephen Hawkins' book, Brief History of Time.

There's some interesting observations that he makes about some of the... See, that's why we like having Zach on the Unashamed podcast. He'll drop a hawkins in there. He's, you know, he's a brain. He's really the brain trust of our whole operation. Way of nice to us. Oh, yeah. He's the A plus man.

Well, I appreciate that. Stop. So we're so glad you guys were with us today. You can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube or Facebook. And be sure and rate us on iTunes so that other people can know about the podcast.