Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1250 | Jase Invites Bill Maher to Talk About Jesus & Fox News Gets the Robertsons Mixed Up

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Al shares how he ended up on Fox News defending his podcast comments about liberal policies in major cities, while the guys laugh about the media repeatedly crediting the wrong Robertson for the same quotes. Bill Maher’s growing distance from woke orthodoxy sparks curiosity and even has Jase joking about inviting him into the studio for a real conversation about Jesus. The guys turn to Jesus’ prayer in John 17, exploring eternal life as active participation with God that reshapes how believers live, suffer, and face death. In this episode: Acts 2, verse 42; 1 Corinthians 1, verses 8–9; 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16–21; 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14–18; 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14; Philippians 1, verses 5–6; Philippians 2, verses 1–2; Philippians 3, verse 10; Galatians 2, verse 9; Philemon, verse 6; Hebrews 13, verses 12–16; Psalm 131, verses 1–3; Romans 6, verses 3–5 Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Chapters: 00:00 Fox News give Jase credit for Zach’s genius 09:38 Jase trades a few ducks for a new boat 16:48 First John in reverse 25:47 Fellowship equals participation, not transaction 36:40 Darkness creates a spiritual death spiral 45:40 Neutrality with evil doesn’t exist 50:05 Death through the lens of resurrection — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Dax's ready. He's yawning already. We didn't even talk it. What time did you get up this morning? Jay's, at least he didn't do it right in the middle of one of your thrilling points. He didn't mind it. I don't do that. I don't know. I said. And I looked over at you and was I just ignored it. Oh, sir. I'm only going to, if I do, if, if, if Jason is talking and I need to yawn, it is a, it is a It is a nostril flare in the nose, out the nose.

Unless you're paying close attention, you don't know what I'm doing it. I'm just glad that it's not. I guess because you're not in the room. They say that yawning is catchy, you know, if someone yawning, you're in the room with you will yawn. But I guess it doesn't work on camera because Zach will be yawning, but it doesn't make me want to yawn. No, it just makes me sad. When did you get up this morning, Zach? I want to know when you got up.

Six a.m. That was my one more. That's two hours after me. Well, that's fine. So welcome to Nus Shane, by the way. Let me tell you what I didn't do, though, Jace. I didn't take a two or three hour nap yesterday afternoon. Yeah.

You probably did. Did you take a nap yesterday? I did. And your way off. I slept for four hours. Okay. There's what we're missing, Zach. There's no naps over here.

Yeah. So what y'all don't know. So Jay's just rolled in from the duck blind. And what y'all don't know is we had just repositioned the whole set here Because I did a hit today on Varney's show Oh, I got asked to be on and I said I couldn't do it I know well they turned to me Jays your backup And so here's what's funny about it

So Zach so Zach sends me you know we were talking the podcast a few podcast ago About I don't remember the exact discussion but but Seattle came up in the discussion and I had a little ran on there about, because I had been to Seattle several years in a row, and it's just, you know, how bad things were going there from my perspective. So you're qualified. You know Seattle because you've been there once. I've been there five years in a row,

Jay, more than just once. But anyway, I just said this whole thing becomes untenable because these people have this, like, cloak compassion for the people that are there. And they think, well, the best thing to do is just let them do drugs on the city streets and just let them be homeless. Like, that's a good thing. And we were talking about it.

I was like, that's not ordering how we were made by God. We were made by God to pursue our dream. Anyway, I did that bit on the podcast. Zach has the response on there. Well, Fox News.com, which is their digital thing, does a piece about it about our podcast, which I was thrilled. I was glad they put it out there. I was wondering where this came from. So, look, here's what's funny, Jay.

So they took Zach's quote and attributed it to you. Oh. So it said, well, that was smart of them. But what, but do I like? So Zach got weeded out of the article. Because I thought, man, Jason was, I didn't realize Jayce was so eloquent in the way he was describing my response to the city. And it was actually Zach. And so Zach and I were laughing about it.

So then today when I do the hit, when Varney's people ask me to come on, I do the bite. And he asked me about it. And they played the clip. Well, I hear in my ear, it's Zach. They were watching. But they think it's me. But it was reported as you. So it was kind of funny.

He didn't ask me anything about that. You know how it is on these shows. Zach, he'll put it later today. He'll be on a road with a sign saying fake news. It was me the whole time. It was me. We talked about this other day. It's the Willie.

Every time you're riding a plane with Willie, his old quote is, hey, if this plane goes down, you realize it's Willie Robertson and four others died. You're one of the others. You're one of the others. And so I told Zach Jason was like, Duck Dynasty stars on the Unashamed podcast and one other. Why does it not bother me, though?

I mean, because that's kind of a stereotype in our culture. Because people get our names mixed up all the time. And they'll just say right to my face, we all look the same. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. You know. I read the article, though, Jace, and I was reading it. And I was like, dang, Jase is on fire.

At first, that's what I thought. Man, that is some good stuff. It was your quotes. It was my quotes. That's quotes attributed to you. In your picture and my picture. I thought to myself and I read it, I thought, man, it's weird how much me and Jace sounded like now after doing it.

I guess it's just part of the whole, you know, doing this every day. I took the, I mean, I'm glad it obviously because we just expands our message out, you know, to some more platforms. But I took it as an honor. And I told Varney's producer that, that I said, dad loved going on Varney. Of course, Jason has been on there several times because, you know, I love him. And he loves us.

And she told me, she said, thank you for your kind words. I shared it with Stewart. He loves your family. He loved your dad. And, you know, so it's just a, we've always had a relationship. And it was just weird that he's a Brit and all that. But he's just such a good guy. He's just, I loved when we would go to New York.

Can you imagine sitting three hours a day just reporting the news? And I think, because it's not that we're that lovable. I think it's just we're so different that it makes it not so boring to have to sit there and read off a telepham. And he likes our authenticity. And he asked me specifically about why I said what I said about God, why I see these like this need God. And so I appreciate and giving me that opportunity then to respond to that, you know, on a business show. I love it. It was really good.

Did they ask you about Bill Maher? Didn't he ask you something about it? They had given me that little. So that was the tie-off, and I knew I only had a few seconds. And so I tried to be funny. I don't know if it came across or not, but he asked me about Bill Maher. And they played the clip of Bill Maher griping about he'll never win an Emmy because he's been nominated 33 times. He's never won because he says, I tell the truth about these fake, woke people in Hollywood, which I thought spot on, you know.

And so I told him, so when he asked me a question, I said, well, yeah, I never thought I'd say this about Bill Maher, but he's becoming my favorite left-winger because he tells the truth. I said, therefore it's great. I said, I tell you what he needs to do, quit worrying about the Emmys, don't worry about the Golden Globes. He needs Fox to give him a Patriot Award for telling the truth. I said, that'll be way more valuable to most people in America. That's a good award. That wasn't funny.

That was a good point. Well, I was saying it kind of tongue in cheek, but yeah, and that was the last thing I said. That was the last thing. He's interesting to me because I used to watch him like years ago, back when the show was on HBO, it was politically incorrect. Yeah. and he was I mean he is not

the way he kind of came in this in the conversation in the last several years is kind of bizarre because I always thought he was always a leftist of a very left-leaning I guess he's atheist I mean he's not I think he's atheist yeah yeah so I'd be I'd love

but I think he's one of these guys that I would love to host a conversation with him and a few other people in a room and let's have a really in-depth conversation about Christianity and is this, because I think that, I wonder if guys like Kim are actually,

like they're on this road, I feel like they could be open and, but they don't even know who you're talking about. I've been just playing along here. I'm shocked, Jay's doesn't know who Bill Mark. You didn't know who Dave Ramsey was. That was, yeah. I don't know who Dave Ramsey.

You know, the biggest, by the way, that Dave Ramsey episode did amazing. And the funniest thing that came up in the comments that told me this, Chase, was that you didn't know who he was. It's like, They said, Jay's just putting on an act. I apologize.

You know, to him, I was like, look, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know who you are. But my wife assured me that we would like each other. No, she said, you'll like him. And we do. Some people thought it was a bit, but I have to go to your defense. We were talking about this. And I think John Leak was in the room. He said, oh, no, it's not a bit.

He said, he asked me the night before, hey, you ever heard of this Dave Ramsey guy? So it wasn't, it actually wasn't a... You asked John Lutth at answer. I don't question my authenticity. I was trying to be... No, the fans did, not us. No, we didn't. I mean, we did.

Fans thought you were just making that up to try to be funny. I didn't even know we were still doing radio. And, of course, he explained that to me. Did you know when he came to your house on our Christmas party that who he was, when he came in, he was eating at your table? Yeah, the truth. I thought it was so. bum, somebody had picked up,

which happens a lot. Yeah. It almost happens every year. I saw a guy eating alone at a table, and I thought, we had all finished eating, Zach. And so we're like gathering mom up

to open her presents and all this. And David just got in there from the airport, and he's sitting at the table by himself. He was sitting by himself. And I actually, hell, I didn't tell you this.

I pulled Missy to the side, and I said, you realize there's a strange fan eating at our table, eating? and she went, that's Dave Ramsey. I was like, he's coming to our Christmas slash birthday party? Because he happened to fly in right there.

Well, then I felt bad. And so I was like, look, sorry, I thought you were homeless. Only one Jays. That's funny. You're more like Dad Jays than I've ever thought. The older you get. Well, if we bring Bell Maher in for a duck kind or something and he shows up, we'll have to prep you in advance. That would be quite a bit.

This is different, though, because y'all are describing a left-wing guy. How would I know him? Well, he's kind of made his, he's made his debut. He was kind of a leftist that during the whole kind of craziness of 2020, he was one of the guys. Wait a second. This is a, he's kind of, he's a comedian. He made a diversion from the woke part of the left wingers. He's still a left winger.

I made a diversion from that crew years ago. And that's why I don't know him. But he's getting a lot more play on Fox plays a lot of his stuff now because he's, you know, he's talking common sense. And he does it about liberals, so they love him. So that's kind of why he's on. He was actually,

I saw him on Gutfeld, Zach. He was on there. They traded appearances. Gutfeld was on his show and he was on his. Well, the more important thing

is we actually got 22 ducks this morning. I was going to ask you. We didn't see very many. We were hunting a timber hole. I was back with the boat people. This guy is like, he reminds me of Zach.

he, he's a bit of a hustler. Oh, gosh. He makes, I'm a straight shooter son. He makes boats. But since he makes... And by hustler,

Jace means he works really hard. That's what he means by hustle. He hustles to make his money. He's got a company called Reaper boats, and I guess evidently it's a big deal. Because all these people are these hot holes. I've heard of a Reaper boats. You know, you need boats.

It's local here. And, uh, so they let him hunt. I guess they think, you know, boat or something. And so we went, you know, that hole that you always thought is across the road. Yeah.

If you could ever get it. Well, this is twice now. I've been with this guy, and we've been on that hole. Neither one of us on it. Yeah. And we got to hunt there. And so not a good day for duck hunting. It was supposed to be clear, but it was cloudy.

No wind. Not really foggy, misty rain. We're hunting this, because he likes hunting these green timber, what they call, green timber. And I don't think we fired a shot until 8 o'clock, which is why I said I'm going to be a little late. Yeah. Because all of a sudden, I heard somebody say, cut them. And I looked up and there were 75 till coming out of the decoys. Too late. Yeah.

Really. And I just kind of. Right. Well, they didn't light. They just, but, you know, if we'd have seen them come, we're in a timber hole. Where did they even come from? They dropped from the heavens. And you just look up, and it was way too late.

Oh, yeah. So we messed up on that group. But what's funny is nobody even shot, and they, like, picked up. But about three or four of them just turned back and came in, and we got them. So I thought, well. So my question is, out of the 22, how many were teal? 21. Ooh, that's what I wanted to hear, because that means there's going to be some teal wraps in my future.

Oh, Jay's got them. And so we shot 21, and then. That is Ph.D-friendly. by the way. The only, and this is the Mallard hole. And I was like, we got 21 teal,

which is unusual for these teal to be hitting the timber. Who knows what happened. But it was really fun, and they looked majestic. It was a fun hunt. But at about, we had to leave.

Kind of a reaper like it. We had to, oh, everybody was, I mean, shooting teal, everybody was, we were trading recipes.

Oh, yeah, I mean, they're the best eating duck, if you're wondering, by the way. I mean, Uno, number one.

by far the best but then about we had to leave at 10 so I could get here and uh it's like 949 we heard first mallard we've seen he made about five passes and he disappeared and I was just standing there with my gun up and everybody was looking we could hear him and it's looking and I just looked up and he was coming over the blind about 40 yards but he was flying a little faster than I thought and I had, so I just threw up on him because they said, you know, let me call it, the guy, all that, but I thought, if we do not shoot this duck right now, he's not coming in here.

But my back, you know, he was flying faster, so when I went up, I needed to turn around and just shoot him normal, but it was too late I'd already gone up. And I reached a point where it was like, wait a minute, my body was like, wait a minute. So I just, with my arm pulled out in front. Your body is communicating.

into this youth. Yeah, and shot. It was a lucky shot. And that Joker just folded. I mean, and everybody looked, because nobody saw it. Everybody, he had come from the back of the blind. And boy, they went to hooping and hollering, you know. And so I was like, we got them out.

So we all took pictures with him. I act like it was a buck deer, you know. And then we rode around in the boats, and I got a tutorial of, I got a boat out of this. Yeah, I got a new boat to learn how to use it. I think it's one of the greatest boats I've ever been in. I can't wait. I'm going to practice it tomorrow. Is it at your house?

Well, this was the trade-off. We met here to get the boat going to be at your house? Because I'm going to come look at it. It will be at your house because Jay. Jay has it. I don't even have to go anywhere. Yeah, I'm excited about it. This is the stuff that excites us.

Not as much as Jesus. And look, we've been studying First John for what? A month? We started, yeah. We started around the 1st of January for, for our recording. I feel like last night when I was reading this.

Finally locked in? Something clicked. Uh-oh. The light bulb came on. I've been struggling. So I'm just... Well, we kind of took a diversion Monday from our normal schedule

because I had preached Sunday and so we got into James 1 which I'm glad we did that. That was fun for me. And then we were going to get into this on the second one, which was the last podcast. And I don't know.

We chased some rabbit hole from... Oh, it was the question asked about the age of men. Oh, the age, well, the age, the present age, the age to we're trying to wrap our head around the word eternal life. Right. The quality of life that God offers. And another thing, I thought it was interesting because I finally found a little bit of NT write stuff on First John. He didn't write a bunch about this. He wrote little. But he had an interesting illustration, Jace, that I think is part of the reason we've had some struggle with the sort of literary layout of the letter that John wrote. And I liked his comparison.

He said, you know, when you hear, when you're worshiping and you have a hymn, a lot of the older stuff especially was kind of written as a point, you know, whatever it may be. And he had an illustration of a hymn, but like Amazing Grace Day or some song like that. It's just, it has a point of every verse that you sing, it adds to the point of what the writer of the song was trying to get across. He said, but in more modern contemporary worship is kind of more just a phrase or two, repeated a bunch of times, because it's kind of like trying to get you into this thought of this word, whatever it may be. And that's true. That's, you know, a lot of the newer songs, less, I guess you'd say theology and maybe just a little more of a connection. And so he said,

the reason, he said, when I read First John, I have that feeling. He said, when I read a, one of Paul's writings, it's like an old hymn. everything is the next point to lead up to the big major thought. But when you read John, it's like he keeps repeating himself over and over and over. And he said he's kind of like a contemporary worship song versus an old hymn. And I thought that clicked in my mind. I thought that's part of the reason he's very circular because he keeps kind of going back to the same theme and then he comes back again.

That's true. But by way of review, I think, which is good. The reason this is hard to wrap your head around is because John is giving you a portrait of God becoming a moment. man, and it was hard for him to wrap his head around it, and he was an eyewitness to this. Exactly. Which is why he starts off with this prologue talking about the life of life, the life, the word of life. Right.

Which is a strange phrase, because in the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh. So for me, it's God's communication in that he becomes a human, thinking. Hebrews 1-3, this is the way God is speaking through his son, becoming a human in this life. And he changes kind of the personal pronoun to that and it, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we've touched. So he's making it so personal. It's not just we heard about this. we were with him.

And he's like, this we proclaim the word of life. The life appeared. We have seen it. We testify to it. And I noticed last night, he says this proclaim a couple of times when he says, and we proclaim to you. I mean, think how strong a word that is. The eternal life, which was with the Father, and has appeared.

to us. We proclaim to you. He says it again. I'm proclaiming. I'm shouting from the rooftops. What we have seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and we make this to make your joy complete. So when you go back to read in Jesus' Prayer in John 17, and we brought this up last podcast in verse three when he says now this is eternal life this is the age that i'm offering now and the age to come that they may know you the only true god in jesus christ whom you have sent which is himself and then it says i have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do and now father glorify me in your presence with the glory i had with you before the

the world began. So he's equating this claim of I was with the father before the world began. Now I've become flesh. I mean, that's why this is so heavy. How do you describe something like this? I mean, it's pretty difficult. So then he goes in. And I've said this all along.

I think because he's writing this decades after it happened. for him to be with Jesus and describe it. He's, he's, because there's obviously some credibility problems that have arisen about John, about the witness, and even about Jesus, and we backdropped that with this whole purpose of people saying that he didn't really come in flesh when he really did. And so there's a defense. I think that's one of the reasons why, Jace, that word proclaim is, is so powerfully used,

because he's defending what he knows to be true to people who now are questioning that it ever happened the way that they said it did. So I wanted to read the back end of John 17. I don't think we've done this before, but when he gets to the end of the prayer in verse 22, he says, I have given them the glory. Now he's talking about the believers, that they may be one as we are one. I and them, you and me, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them, even, you. even as you have loved me. And then he says,

I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me, and here it comes again, because you love me before the creation of the world. And then that last verse of the prayer,

he says, I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me, which was before the creation of the world, may be in them, and that I myself may be in them. So I read all that to say one more technical thing I'd like to do that I promised a few podcasts ago

is when he says in verse 3 of 1st John 1, that which we've seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and with his son. He's going to say that two more times in verse six, if we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. And it's mentioned, oh, verse seven.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. So it's all coming from that prayer where he explained this. He's welcoming humans to participate in the most intimate way possible with him in us. And us in each other through that bond of the spirit. And so that word, when you look it up in Greek, it's pronounced Konanilla. Yeah, cornania. So I wanted, it's mentioned 19 times.

Well, four of them is here. Right. Which is why I'm making a big deal. Four out of the 19, I just showed you. So I think it's interesting how it's used. The first time it's used is in Acts 242, which is why I think they translated it in English, fellowship. And I brought this up before. It's deeper than fellowship.

Yeah. Think participation. Thank partnership. Thank communion. Thank contribution. Yeah. And so Acts 242 says, remember when it... This is...

The first Christians, the first people that had been baptized, the 3,000 dripping wet, right off the bat. And then he sums it up, Luke, saying, 42, they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, which centered on Jesus, and to the fellowship. So it's translated fellowship again. This partnership, contribution, participation, communion,

to the breaking of bread and to prayer. So the next time is a contribution usage, which is Romans 1526. I'll read it real quick. It says for Macedonia and Achaia, we're pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. So that's Cornania.

But it's like we're in this together. It's a coming together in Jesus for work and reflection of who God is, and this union that we now have access to, Christ in us, us in Christ, kind of thinking. So the next time is 1st Corinthians 1, 9. Well, look at it in this text. It's about us and Jesus, this union. It says, 1st 8. all start in verse 8.

He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called you into his fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful. So it's a deeper word

is what I'm saying. Whatever that is the description of the word. Next is 1st Corinthians 10, 16. I think you'll like this one, Zach. I know what this one is. Oh, this is good. And we can get Zach's take on this. So, and look what he brings up, verse 14, idolatry, which is the last verse of First John.

He says, keep yourself away from idols. So it says, therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of Thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? There's the word, Cornania. Yeah. So it's like when you take the supper,

you're participating in an intimate way, fellowshiping with the blood of Christ. Yeah. Ooh. And then it goes on to say, and is not the bread that we break, a participation in the body of Christ? Yeah.

How intimate is that? Because there's one loaf and here's this many. We who are many are one body. We're all coming together in Jesus in an intimate way. We all partake of one loaf. And then he gives the opposite of the negative of this. Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? No. But the sacrifice of pagans are offered to deemate. demons, not to God. And I do not want you to participate with demons. Which this is going to make sense as we read because he's like, we want to welcome you under this fellowship. Getting back to First John.

This intimate cohabitation, participation with God himself. He's including you into his eternal love. Well, then he's like, so if you claim to not have sin, well, you're making them out to lie. Be a liar. Or if you claim to be walking in the light and you walk in darkening, this is, this is not fitting. This is not working.

And that's kind of his point on how intimate this is. Which shows you to the point that Paul is making here in this sense of idolatry is there is a coenia. There is this sort of intimacy with evil. And that's what you don't want.

You don't want to have. That was my whole point about the Seattle things that was that I said people didn't make their plans to wind up sleeping on a city street, stoned out of their mind, eaten out of the garbage. Nobody sat out saying, this will be a great way to end my life. What happened was there was a coaneo with evil that got you into something that's now led you to a place where the people you're with and the people you're close to, you're in

a tragic death spiral. Yeah. Well, that's the whole, it's a perfect lead up for what I want to say. the more you read where this word is used and how it's used and what's that got to do with me God's getting closer and closer he's not far away at all no he's so close he knows your thoughts he knows what you did yesterday how many hairs you had on your head and well all of a sudden the reality hits you that hits you 24-7 that God is in you yes he's using you and so that's a perfect lead-up to the next time this is used, which is 2nd Corinthians 614.

This is the one, Zach, that I meant, you're going to like. It says, do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Here we go. Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? Well, Paul's using the same illustration that John is used. Exactly. What harmony is there between Christ and a demon?

what does a believer having come with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? Same thing. For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live with them, walk with them, and I'll be their God, and they will be my people. And so for years when I was walking with Christ, I thought this was a future event. Oh, well, God's going to separate us all at some point. But when you tie this in where it's using First John, he's writing them saying,

Yeah. You're that now. And you want to show them away. It's just like, I mean, we got people here in our community that have drug problems, and they get out and commit crimes, and we see it, and you commit a crime here in Westboro, whether you're on drugs or anything else, you're going to jail. The difference is, instead of, for us as the kingdom, as people who are having fellow, ship, Coenia with the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son, is when they get out of jail here,

we're there waiting for them and saying, hey, come on over here. We're working with our local city officials and our judges and say, come on over here to a little thing we call Celebrity Recovery, and we're going to help you get out of this lifestyle of drugs because the last thing we want to see is you out here on the side of Thomas Road, dad on a bicycle, because that's where your life led to you. We want you to know something better. And so then we introduce them to the cohenia of the Holy Spirit, which is what we're all about. That's the difference in how you're trying to be living your life.

If you're what Peter says, he says, and this is kind of in line with you were just talking about, Jase, about that idea of participation, which I love that word, participatory participation, fellowship. Harmony. Well, even contributing, because it's not just money. Right. God's allowing you to contribute to his eternal plan in an intimate way. by your daily life. Yeah, I guess the other side of that would be maybe the word would be like transactional. And maybe we've heard mostly growing up a transactional gospel.

And I think what we're talking about here is much more about participation. So when you read what Peter says, he says that the divine power of God, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So that was the picture you were just painting, the opposite of when you talked about the drug addict in the corner of the street, like literally death spiral. Not that. There's another promise, right?

There's another, God's given us divine power on things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him. There's your John 173 passage, through the knowledge of him to know him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises

so that through them, through the promises that he's granted to us, you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of its sinful desires. And so that's a picture that is a lot more powerful than, hey, there was a, that simply says there was a transaction and you guys are covered now, you're good to go. We're not good to go into our own autonomy.

That's not, Christ didn't save us, from sin so that we could live this autonomous life on our own. That's humanism. And that is not the picture of the gospel. That's utopia. That's the concept of utopia. That never works out, by the way. Never works out.

You're never going to, that's the thing. You're never going to have life if you're disconnected from the source of life. And so the picture of the gospel, yeah, we are saved from our sin. I mean, that is true. But again, we're saved into a participatory life with, with the triune God. And that's something that it's interesting. You'll never kind of get to the bottom of what that well is because God is infinitely,

he's infinite in his nature. And so you're just continuing into that infinite well of life-giving water. All right. And look, I'm going to skip the, there's a couple of references in 2nd Corinthians 913 where another contribution context. What was that one? 2 Corinthians 913, then 2nd Corinthians 13, 14, I'm going to read. Yeah, that's right at the end of the book, right?

The last verse, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, which is where we started with the prayer in John 17, and the fellowship, the Cornania of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Same thing. It's a communion. And like we talked about a couple of podcasts ago, Jay's Ramay was the last one. It's a word I use, it's a portal into the divine nature that Zach just mentioned. And every time I read that verse in 2nd, Corinthians 13, 14, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,

I'm reminded of what Paul said in Romans 826 that when we pray, the Holy Spirit literally communicates divine language for our earthly thoughts that we have a hard time. expressing to such a wise, infinite God, but the Holy Spirit helps us interpret that in our hearts and what we're trying to say to God. And you just think about that. What an intimate fellowship that is. It makes me want to pray way more

knowing that I have the Holy Spirit interpreting my fumbling words to an almighty infinite God. Exactly. Now, Galatians 2 is an interesting use of the passage because it's in a disagreement. And every time I've ever heard this verse used, it was in a joke because Galatius 2.9 says, James, Peter, and John, after they had this disagreement with Paul, those reputed to be pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.

And I've always used a joke because it's like when we disagree, I'm thinking, boy, I'd like to give him the right hand of fellowship. Which was the Smith line. He used to tell us that. Don't give him the right hand. But it made more sense to me when, now. I know what this word, because for the good of how God is using us to come together. And the whole disagreement was over, you know, spending time sharing with the Gentiles. Because they're like, well, let's just stick with the Jews.

And some of them were, you know, maybe had some prejudice tendencies. And a disagreement broke out. And but they gave them the right hand in the fellowship like God wants to win the world here. And they came together and put their disagreements aside all because of this participation that there. So we've joked that it's a negative, but it's very much a positive. It is a positive thing. Right hand, meaning your arm around somebody's shoulder, a handshake, you know, whatever.

Well, right. And so then Philippians uses it three times, which is awesome, because it gives you a different view of this. Philippians 1.5 says, I'll read verse 4. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your, now here it's translated, partnership in the gospel. the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work and you will carry it on to completion, which is, that's come up two or three times. Make your joy complete.

Make your love complete, yeah. I mean, God is partnering with human beings that he's redeemed to get the gospel out. I thought I think it's incredible. Chapter 2, verse 1. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship, Cornelia, with the spirit, there it is again, just like 2nd Corinthians 13. I mean, you're communing with the Holy Spirit of God as you're holding out the message of Jesus. Then he says, make my joy complete, verse 2, by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

There it is. Again, come together in this. And there's that idea of complete joy again that John keeps mentioning. Yeah. Yeah. And then it says, and what is the mantra there, verse 5, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, which he's going to do that in First John when he says, whoever claims in him to live in him must walk as Jesus did. Yeah. And Jay's just, we were doing, we're on our Hillsdale podcast.

We're doing what, C.S. Lewis talked about a V-shaped, you know, path to conversion to Jesus. In other words, there's a descent, and then there's an utter descent, and then there's a utter descent, and then there's a. rise or an ascent. It's kind of a V-shaped the way people's lives are. And that's exactly what you get in the rest of that text with Jesus. He came here, but not only did he come

here, he came here to give himself and to die for us. And then he takes off and ascends and sends the Holy Spirit back. But one of the things that hit me last night is when I read Philippians 310, which is the third time he uses this word. I had an epiphany here, and I want to share this.

Verse 10 says, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. And here's our word. And the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings. The intimate communion with suffering like Christ, because of this mission that we get to participate in through the Holy Spirit, becoming like him in his death. And so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead, the epiphany I had was he starts off this prologue saying, let me remind you about this life that we've seen.

Because we always think as followers of Jesus, well, he tells us how to live. I think what we missed in Philippians 310 speaks this. He also shares how you die in Christ, which is a beautiful thing. And look, we see this all over the place. Monday, after our podcast, we had quite the crew here who were family members of a son, their son who we prayed for before and has a brain tumor. We sent a prayer for them to play for him in the hospital because he was undergoing all these surgeries.

But he's done well enough that they actually made a trip here. Yeah. And I think they were on their way to have another surgery. And look, it was heavy. It was a lot of tears and a lot of praying even while we were here. But, you know, I know. noticed with him, he just seemed so confident in his faith. He was the most confident, the actual kid, and I say kids, a teenager,

looked like, was so confident. And he was quoting verses. Somebody asked him what his favorite verse was, and he said Psalm 131, which I thought, well, that's a Psalm. He's like, it's three verses, which I read it later. And I brought tears to my eyes because it's real common. about trusting in the Lord. But it echoes what I'm talking about here, and I think there was a reason you went through your James study,

is that it does show us that there's a way to die in Christ, and there's a way to face death. And it made me think even about the term fear in God. You know, when you fear God, you don't fear anything else. When you don't fear God, you fear everything. And we're either we have this communion with the eternal life. source or we don't either that's a reality in our life and i think you see that reflection when people are right at death's door right or in this case you're suffering for christ and so i i think uh it's a it's a noble point to think not only does he teach us how to live he teaches us how to die and and

one thing is reenacting jesus's death burial resurrection you know in baptism it's a it's a death You remember when he said Romans 6th. We died and our life is now hidden in Christ. But it's also this physical death that we have that's going to happen. That's inevitable. That's just a glitch for people who are in Christ. Yeah. No, and I think that's such a valid point.

I think it's the tagline for Braveheart, but I'm not sure where I saw this. But it's always stuck with me. It says every man dies, but not every man lives. and that was a tagline for a movie that was a good line because a guy gave his life for something he believed in for his freedom in that particular context

but I think about Charlie Kirk the reason why it was such a stir was because a young man believed in a call so much and then literally gave his life for it and that impacts people when you see that. Well, that's exactly what Christ did

for us by him giving his life now we have something to I love your point is to die in to then live in I mean, and that's the beauty of this whole thing. You know, that's the course we're doing on CSU, which I really have been enjoying that, by the way. It's been fun. I don't know when it comes out, but it'll, we've, Al and I've been going through it.

I think right now we're still in David in turn to release them, but this, if you guys that are listening, if you hadn't tried the Hillsdale one yet, you need to give it a shot because this is some really good stuff, both what we're doing now and also the next time. Yeah, you can sign up at, it's free. It's unashamed for Hillsdale.com, but what I, I love about what that story of Lewis that he talked about, the way that he said in all of his stories that he's written, which are a lot.

You know, there's, I mean, you've got, I mean, there's a ton of stuff. The great divorce. Yeah, there's a lot of good words. A lot of good books. So he, the, the, I guess, architecture of the whole structure of his stories are there's a downward descent. So it's, it's descend, descend lower, and then rise up and rise up and rise up higher, which is really the story of the gospel.

I mean, it's like that picture of Romans 6, you know, the way that talks about our own coming to Christ in conversion is that we're buried with Christ. We go down, right? We die with Christ in baptism. Then we're resurrected. That's the up, to live a new life. And that's the other part of the up. And so where I think this intersection with Jason is talking about is that this is the pain part

is unavoidable, and it's part of actually the blessing is that we participate in the suffering of Christ. And when Lewis, Jace, when he read a letter to somebody who had become a Christian recently, and I'm probably going to butcher this, but the letter basically said, congratulations and my condolences. And he was hitting both sides of it. Like, yeah, this is great. You're in a new life now, but there's going to be part of you that's going down. He talks about, Jase.

He framed it just what we're talking about today. He framed it as a bittersweet. It's always a bittersweet moment to come to Christ because something has to die for something to live. And that's the whole concept that Jesus is trying to teach us, you know. But look, that's a bittersweet moment, right? Because death is not our friend. I mean, and when we went through what we went through a couple days ago with a family, it's hard for us because we know it's hard for them because everybody around that young man is having that pain as well.

It's just like we talked about in James 1. you have pain that hurts, but also pain alters. It changes us. Oh, exactly. It helps us endure. Well, even the last Bible study I had with a new brother, and I mean, he called me and drove hours, you know, and we got to see a new birth happen,

and you're like, well, this is great. Right on man's life has completely transformed, and he's really growing in the Lord. But the last time he was here, and I talked to him about a week ago, But he started giving me the details of his conversion. And I wasn't aware. He was like just a couple of nights before he made that trip to put on Jesus. He was thinking about suicide.

And, you know, his whole world was crashing through him. And, you know, randomly, randomly, I'm putting that in quotations. He was sitting in his car, you know, alone, had his gun. And, you know, his daughter sends him a text. and then his son sent him a text, which is what made him think, what am I doing? And so then he's just like searching for an answer,

and we had already kind of made contact in a way, and it's like, maybe I just need to listen to what they have to say. But the whole reason for him telling me those details is because he said I realized at some point, once I heard the story of Jesus in a real way at the bottom of my barrel, I thought, well, I was looking for a way to die and I found it in Jesus.

It's like... Instead of there being grief, deep sorrow, no way to explain how this happened, all his family. Instead, they can now rejoice because they see like a phoenix rise up, Zach, to your point of the V. Now you get to see something above him,

beyond and someone that you can't even hardly recognize because of what God can do. And even though they found out they got a terrible disease, they rise even above that. It's really incredible. It's amazing. Yeah. Well, I want to do these last two because we're almost out of time. So Philemon verse 6, which my translation says, you know, I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith.

But the verse, I think, should be translated. What is your Philemon 6? says so that the fellowship of the faith of you may be effective and might result in you understanding every good thing we have in Christ. So you see what he's saying? Yeah. It's like if you realize what you're a part of, you'll understand every good thing you have in Christ, which I think is great. And then the last one before we get to where it's used four times in 1st John is Hebrews 13, 16. And I want to read that one because it's a good one.

Is that the outside the camp thing? Yep, it's outside the camp. It says verse 12 says, oh, and so Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us then go to him, which is a lot like the Philippians 310. We go to him to suffer outside the camp, out in the world. Baring the disgrace he bore, for here we did not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice

of praise the fruit of lips that confess his name. And then here's where the Cornania comes in. And do not forget to do good and to share. Cornania with others for which such sacrifices God is pleased. And now we're right back to where we started in Jesus' prayer. He's like, I want to share with humans this love we had from the beginning with them. Me and them, them and me, and them being our spokespeople and mouthpieces. And I love it.

That's why we don't retreat to a mountaintop somewhere and stay there and just keep it to ourselves. but we go outside the city walls to tell anybody because we want them to have an understanding of this, which is a beautiful site. All right, we're out of time. We will coin Ea and get back with you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast.

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