Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1253 | Here's What WILL Bring Lasting Peace

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

President Trump being given the Nobel Peace Prize by the Venezuelan opposition leader creates the perfect moment to contrast the world’s version of peace with God’s. The guys argue that in moments of chaos—like what’s unfolding in Minnesota—Christians are called to be the eye of the storm, not trapped in an Us vs. Them mindset. They connect true peace to faithfulness in parenting, marriage, and everyday relationships, reminding listeners that humility, responsibility, and forgiveness, not cultural wins, are what actually bring lasting peace. In this episode: 1 John 1, verses 6, 8, 10; 1 John 2, verses 9, 12–17; Ephesians 2, verse 10; Ephesians 2, verse 10; Ephesians 3, verses 14–17; Galatians 5, verse 22; Romans 8, verses 10–13; 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3–4; 1 Peter 3, verse 7 “Unashamed” Episode 1253 is sponsored by: Get firearm security redesigned and save 10% off @‌StopBoxUSA with code Unashamed at https://www.stopboxusa.com/unashamed #stopboxpod https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Schedule your one-on-one consultation today by visiting the website or calling 864-644-1900 and mention "FIX MY WEIGHT LOSS." http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College 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://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters: 00:00 – Finding calm in chaos and storms of the century 05:42 – The reason Louisiana lifespans are shorter  11:06 – Why hardship makes gratitude possible 16:18 – Being the eye of the storm through the Spirit 21:34 – Vulnerability, humility, and apologizing to your kids 27:09 – From entitlement to gratitude in everyday life 33:58 – Parenting, responsibility, and pulling back comfort 40:36 – Faithfulness over achievement in families and marriage 47:28 – Living out forgiveness where it actually hurts — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Jace loves, Jase is loving calamity. I love it. Storm of the century. Stock market volatility. He operates in chaos. Yeah. That's what we're called to do. Let's do a podcast about that, buddy. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. That's it. We just got it right there. That's exactly what we're talking about. We are the call. In the storm. That's what we're talking about.

That'll preach right there. Let's go. We're rolling? Tell you me, I've been rolling there. We're already rolling. It's calm in the storm. Jace picks up the computer. He's got his feet kicked back on the desk there.

And he said, oh, I didn't realize the stock market has taken another tumble, which I thought that was a bad thing. And Jason, I love it. Oh, volatility, Jace. Storms are coming. Look, that's what we're called to be. The eye in the. storm.

Eye in the storm. Jesus is with us. Remember when they were out there and the waves came up? Peter's like, uh-huh. Who? Is it a ghost? And it is I. He's like, come on in here with me.

He saw the waves and what? Splash. Started sinking. Help me, Lord. Don't freak out. That's what we're called to me. That requires courage, which is where we left off. But, I mean, that's God.

is that phrase, the cheesy phrase, everybody says, he didn't take you from the storm, he goes with you through it. This is what life is. I feel confident. Which is why you can be, most people are afraid and warner about their stocks and their stores and everything else is going on. And Jay's is like, let's go shoot some ducks. This is, this is what I'm saying, Al. I mean, look, everybody, I know there's a verse that says, don't put the Lord God to the test. And And we've done that at this, where we hunted this morning, and it was on. It's like old days. Ducks are coming in.

It's great. I've hunted there, and how you've been there, when these storms reach just epic proportions, whether it's thunderstorms, I feel that thunderstruck in the back of my mind. I don't like the song, but I like the first 45 seconds of it. Because I'm like, one of our instructors in the Bible school said, you can't have the thunder. No, he said, you can't bring the thunder until the lightning strike. And I've had those moments where we've shot ducks. And then you immediately put your gun down because it's buzzing. But I'm like, these ducks seem to, what about them?

They have it way worse. They have no shelter. Yeah, they're flying around in it. And I think they're... Thunder and lightning. Yeah, I believe the Lord is sending these ducks to die in Christ, because we're going to take them. That's a dying Christ.

Look, all their regrets, just think about it. All their regrets and they're worried and their stresses, and they become a gift from the almighty to us. That's right. A rather tasty gift. Substance and nourishment. As our dear old dad would say, the greatest protein train in mankind's history,

the passage of ducks from Canada to Mexico. And I feel like if I'm like, well, he died duck hunting in a storm. Okay, I can live with that. You know, it's just I don't mind that being on my case. He raised up and the lightning struck him, the thunder. That's why the, I've said this before. That's why the age of life, what is the phrase I'm looking for? the average age of the lifespan the lifespan it's a lot lower in Louisiana i don't know if you

knew that look it up oh i didn't know it but i've known it in my bones jays because we live in a place not fit for human habitation no it's because the insanity of the cajun and redneck world being combined and this kind of wall of hostility brings about us wanting to do crazy things. And in those crazy things of life, guess what? People die. Well, I'd have to push back. It's not the crazy things.

It's what you eat. The problem is type 2 diabetes. That's what's getting Louisiana. No, I'm going to have to push back. I think it's more than just that. Being a lifelong Louisiana resident, I'm going to say a lot of it's coming from what you drink. That too.

That's part of it. It's what you drink. Hold my fermented wine and watch this. You all watch that old boy. I forgot. His name is Stale Cracker. He's a Louisiana Cajun Cook. That's money, dude.

Put it on a Cracker, dude. Well, let me. Why he's cooking? He goes, while we wait, we hydrate. We hydrate. Well, let me explain this to all our listeners. Here's why there are so many storytellers and movie people that come from Louisiana and why they're always doing movies in Louisiana.

Because people come here and they're like, I can't understand what they're saying. And so there's a rule. I'm on pay the rule and you'll figure it out. If you close your eyes while they're speaking, then it will hit you what they're saying. Because you'll say, oh, they're just drunk. Because all Louisiana people, including my family, and I've never been drunk in my life. I'm proud of that. I've got that from God, not from myself. But you did drink bourbon once. You did drink a bourbon. You did drink a bourbon. You did drink a bourbon recently, so we have to confess that on the park. Not true.

Not true. You have mischaracterized what happened. I took one sip. You drank a bourbon. No, that's, there's a sip and there's a drink. I drank a bourbon. Nope, I took a sip and I put it back down. Oh, legalist Jay is coming out now.

He's getting back to the mold roots. I just don't like being mischaracterized. I was going to drink. He had a little, maybe an inch. Probably two ounces. They call it two fingers. I took one sip, put it down, went, and thought, I don't know how that caught on,

which is a lot of things that lead to sinful behavior. I look at it and think, I don't know how that caught on. There's good future in that. It's terrible. And if you think that that's good, that's delusional. Just call it what is. It's fire water that you're ingesting and somehow have acquainted yourself to get used to it. and like it. But that's not good.

There's nothing good about that. Anyway, you were going somewhere with this. No, you made a good point, though, just because, as you were saying, even if you didn't have the alcohol or the type 2 diabetes, which you have neither, the love for either of those or the pathway that goes there, you're still willing to do crazy things. You're out in a storm with lightning striking literally all around you because you left to hunt. So you're right. Your point is, even if you're, you don't drink and you eat, you know, don't overeat, you're still going to do crazy things in Louisiana.

I just think when Ice Storm said, I get it. Most people, they bundle up and they huddle up and they hunker in their house. Yeah. Well, there's a few people on the planet that say, let's go. grab the gun, grab the chainsaw, put in the four-wheel drive, and we're going to go shoot some ducks today. Grab a couple of honeybonds and a cup of gravy and let's go. I'm like, we're going to provide for our loved ones today, and we're going to go out there. Look, I'm going to have frozen icicles on my beard. Guess what?

Nobody's laughing or looking and saying, why do you have a beard? they get it now. I need this for what's fixed and to happen. And it's going to collect ice ice ice. You push through the sweltering heat of Louisiana for this. This is the moment that you have prepared for. This is it. This is your Super Bowl.

You know why? Because it makes me thankful. Yeah. The things we take for granted like a nice hot shower. You'll never enjoy a hot shower unless you go out there and hunt during an ice storm. That's true. You get back and you're like, ooh, this is living here. You don't want to get out.

So I was thinking, Jason, I was watching the NFL playoffs this last week. And when you watch the guys, usually it's offensive linemen. They'll have a beard, you know, and they'll have long hair. And so they don't even have a, they just got their uniform on.

They're not wearing any kind of long sleeve. And then you'll see like the other guys, like the fast guys and the defensive backs and the running backs. And they're wearing like full body suits and it's covered up to their eyeballs. And so they have to cover everything with some kind of synthetic to be able to stay warm. And I laughed at that because I thought to your point about the beard that when you look at these other old boys, they're like, no, God gave me this.

And they're the toughest people on the football field. There's no doubt about it. I had the privilege of baptizing a right tackle, starting right tackle for the NFL, who's San Francisco 49ers. Yeah, 49. I told that story. I might have shared this story,

but I thought, man, I mean, this guy, talking about a man, he's just a beast of a man. Got a little beard, start a beard. And I'm like, you're out there in the snow because after a game one time, he sent me a pitch, he's out there in the snow, no sleeves on whatsoever. I was like, I cannot believe that you don't wear sleeves.

And he's like, well, they doing my job, they'll grab a hold of that. If you have any kind of material, they'll grab a hold of you and then sling you around like a rag doll. And I was like, I just can't believe you're not cold. And he's like, oh, no, they spray some stuff on us on our body. You don't get cold. I'm like, am I just now hearing about this?

I did not know that. There's something you can spray on your skin, according to this fellow, that you don't get cold. So then I thought, oh, I thought you were tough. But now you're cheating. Somebody came home. But Jace, you might have to look into finding out what that is. That may be a game changer for the hunting cold.

You know, so I hope they're not breaking laws or anything. But that's what he told me. He may be cheating and you just like turning it out. Oh, boy, just threw him under the bus. Sticky fingers or whatever. Well, let me tell you something. If I threw him under the bus, that bus is in trouble. It better bring it.

Okay, you got you got petroleum. jelly, Vaseline, that'll work. There's thick barrier ointments, aqua-four, the creates a wind barrier. Are you looking at this? Are you doing this stuff in real time? Hey, Jayce, we don't use Google anymore. That's the place in the whole. Yeah. Well, to pick up where we left off, if you have the Spirit of God, you got the most powerful thing in heaven and earth combined. And you are, to your point, if you have the Spirit of God, you, you're, you're that temple. That's another whole picture that was happening in Ephesians.

You become the eye of the storm, like you said. I mean, you're like, chaos around you, I mean, which is so true. I mean, I think it's, I'd love for us to even, like, as we think, go through these scriptures and we're going through First John. And what does it mean now for me right now? What does it do in right now? That's what we zeroed in on. And we left off because First John's going to make a transition into your fellow.

with the Lord God through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. But your relationships on earth with other people are not reflecting that. Yeah. That's really the thought for the day and for this podcast, I think, for me. Because, look, even in my own life, I've seen where I've really struggled about it. there's a disconnect because think about it what would you say if i just ask you a question what are the qualities that you have to show do prove however you want to put it to find jesus and have access to god what what what has to happen so here you are living like the devil going through life

and then something happens so what are the qualities that a person has to get in his head to be transformed to become a new creature. What would you say? Just name a few. Well, one is you would have to be, you would have to have a willingness to change where you are to something different. I mean, I think that would be one obvious one. Yep. I would say, I'm going to use a word that I didn't use the first 25 years of my life to my chagrin. You have to be kind of vulnerable. Yeah. You have to be honest. Look, you have to be. You have to, be apologetic. None of these things was I raised, Al, you can address to this. You never say you're sorry or, you know, you never tell somebody you love them. I mean, this is just the way we're raised

because a lot of our life was BJ before Jesus in my parents' life. You should take a moment right now to tell me and Al both that you love us. Just, I think there's be good exercise for you. I'll tell you later. So, What I was going to say is, why do we get up and preach from the pulpit or listen to sermons? You know, you need to apologize and admit you're a sinner and all these things that we do every week. But then you would never do that with your kids. I mean, it took me 20 years. It finally hit me one day, which wasn't because I was reading my Bible, unfortunately.

Now I'm noticing this. But I'm like, you know, it took me. My son was probably, my oldest son was probably 2021. and we were arguing about something. And it just kind of hit me. I thought, you know, he's right. I mean, I'm wrong in this, which my nature was to default into the way I was raised.

And you've never admit that. But I thought, well, I would admit it to God about my own life. Why wouldn't I admit it to my son when I've obviously made a mistake? And so for the very first time, I apologized to my son. you're right. I'm wrong on this.

You're going to have to find your relationship with God in spite of me doing something wrong. Look, I'm telling you, it was very, I didn't realize the consequences of that in a positive way. I mean, that ended that argument. I mean, because all of a sudden, I've made an announcement that he's never heard before in his life. And so fast forward another 10 years now, and I'm starting to notice this. in the Bible in Ephesians in 1 John where he's like, okay, you have this relationship with God. You're claiming this, because what they're claiming in 1st John, there's about four or five claims. He's like, if you claim this and then do this, what are you doing?

If you claim this, do this, what are you doing? We can go through each one of those at some point. But it's going to get to these earthly relationships. You're claiming to love God and he loves you, but you don't love your brother. you don't love your family, you don't love your kids, you don't love, this keeps coming up. And he's like, that won't work. This will not work. That's darkness, not truth.

Well, the way, in a way that that correlates is, I mean, you think about this idea of achieving peace. You know, there's a big controversy right now out there about the Nobel Peace Prize. And Trump's mad that he didn't get it, so he's told them, hey, there's back and forth on who gets the Nobel Peace Prize. but the peace prize that we're out after is the one that we talked about in the previous podcast, the one that Christ brings by the tear down that dividing wall of hostility. But the way he does that, like if you're with you or your kids or you or your spouse, or you with your friend or you with whoever, whatever. Your neighbor, yeah, your co-work.

I mean, the list just goes on. You think, how in the world are we going to find our own little Nobel Peace Prize? We can come to peace. because that is what we're after. Phil used to always say, you remember his famous line, he's always say, peace.

It's the rarest of commodities, but it was that peace of mind and what we're looking for. But the way it works, it actually works through what's being presented in 1st John 2, the propitiation of our sin,

which is that Christ absorbs our sin so that he can provide reconciliation. And so now, if me and J.S. We've got an issue going on. If I come to Jay, so I'm mad at him about something he did to me.

Well, all of a sudden, I start to, I mean, the spirit starts to speak to me like, well, hold on. What did you do to Christ? Where did you stand before Christ? And what did he do in return? And when I start surveying the wondrous cross of Calvary, what that produces in me is an incredible thankfulness. It's more than thankfulness. It's an eternal gratitude that I'm like, I have nothing other than. and gratefulness. Now, I look at whatever Jason's infraction against me is, and I'm like,

that's child's play. That's nothing. And if he has that same approach, then now we can enter into a relationship and we can reconcile primarily because we were reconciled to Christ and we survey that. And that gives us the story to live into now with one another. And then we start to actually live in and participate and partake in the divine nature that way. But you know, Zach, you mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize. It was interesting about that whole scenario is because Trump, by his actions, should have won the Nobel Peace Prize, but because of politics involved in that whole process and the group that gives out these prizes. And it's just a group of people in Norway, wherever they're from.

So they give it to this woman. And part of it was because, you know, she was an opposition leader in this, you know, Venezuela. But then part of it was to snub Trump. I mean, let's face it, that was part of the deal. And so this kind of plays out. And then Trump, who's, you know, his ego is huge. And he kind of petty, pridefully, you know, was miffed about not getting it. But the woman, to me, showed the right heart in the whole situation.

And she could have been doing just for political gain. I don't know herself because I don't know this woman. But by her taking that, that which was given to her and saying, I'm just going to pass that alone because you did deserve this. whether, and then they're like, oh, you can't, you can't pass this forward. You know, this can't be, you know, given to someone else. And she said, oh, yeah, it's mine. I can give it to whoever I want to. And she does it.

To me, that was like what we're talking about here with attitudes and how we want to be. Something that's given to us, which is a valuable thing in the world, is really not that valuable at all. And I can just pass that alone to someone else. And so, Jay, to add to your words that you started off with, with vulnerability, you know, and all the words you said, humility is another one of those words that has to be part of that process. You can't ask for forgiveness and admit you're wrong unless you have humility.

And unless you realize, and even if I am not wrong, I'm still willing to mend a relationship because I'm humble and I have empathy for other people. Those are pictures of Christ who went through suffering and he never did anything wrong. I mean, he never had to say he was wrong because he never sinned. And yet he was humble and he was empathetic to people and people loved him no matter what their circumstances and situation. Well, I think that's why, you know, when I went to Ephesians and we saw these hidden gems of what it means that Jesus is at the right hand of God, bringing everything on heaven and earth together. and he's filled human beings with this Holy Spirit, made them a new creation to show people a glimpse of heaven on earth,

of how humans should be. Yeah. And giving us a job to speak this wisdom to these evil powers in the heavenly realms. And we left off in chapter three, but he goes on in that prayer to the Ephesians, and he likens this to the family in 314 and following. He says, for this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

And I pray that he strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart. So, I mean, this is coming off this new humanity, destroying this wall of hostility that exist between us and every other human on the planet and some point. And us and us in the heavenly realm, the fracture that happened at the fall. This is also bringing back together of heaven and earth. Yeah.

And then when he gets into the later chapters, he starts getting into all these relationships, husbands and wives. And he compares, you know, your relationship with your husbands and wives in Jesus and him being our, our husband, and we're, you remember when he gets to the end of chapter 5 and verse 32, and he's like, this is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ in the church.

However, each one also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband. It's like that's, that's the standard by which should naturally evolve being spirit-led people, having this relationship with God and representing him. then we represent him in all our other relationships. And then what does he do? He gets to children and parents. And when you read that, it's like children, obey your parents in the Lord. He's making that same concept carry over to all these relationships.

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. So I was listening to this sermon. I was looking at it up while y'all were talking about parenting, because I never, you know, parenting is difficult even after they leave your house. Because you're still parenting. Well, you're still parenting. Even though they're adults, right? Well, one of the points they made was the stages of parenting.

It was like the, and these are just generic. titles, but I think there's some truth in it. You know, you have the discipline years one through five, the training years, five to 12, the coaching years 12 through 18, and the friendship years 18 and over. But it just, it really hit me when I was hearing this because I was thinking, that was part of my problem is not realizing as a parent these transitions that our kids go through. and it just happens organically as they come up, and you kind of realizing where we're at in this stage, I think will help you realize,

you know, how can I be Jesus in each part of this transition? But anyway, what I wanted to get to is, and this was all about parenting, this wasn't about what we're talking about, but I'm saying once you realize that our relationship should be a reflection of our relationship with God, and participating in his fellowship.

He had five points that this battle of the worlds. And this was in a context of kids being inundated and influenced in all these worldly ways. And he had five points. And I took a picture of it. So there's one of them that I can't remember the word. And he's got his head in the way. But the first one was from self to others. just think about how the world influence you,

especially in our digital age and social media and all this. It's all about me. It's all about me, all about me. But we know that we're made for something in Christ. And you look at Jesus's life, he was always being open to other people and noticing where they're hurting and what they need. And so that's going to be a major battle in all relationships,

but ultimately it's a reflection of your own battle between, are you going to do it your way or are you going to do it God's way? But that principle has got to go to your kids because they're going to want to be self-absorbed because the world, that's what we do. It's all about you. Forget others, you know, who cares? The second one was from entitlement to gratitude.

Zach, when you brought up that gratitude is what made me think about that. Think about the world. It's all like, filled with envy and where's mine? What, what, I mean, how dare this other person get this, this is, this is what causes all this hostility between people. We can't look at someone else. Yeah, even when it's like obvious, like, obvious things, like, when we were talking about

the Nobel Peace Prize earlier, I, I remember that Yasser Arafat, who was the well-known terrorist, you know, and, I mean, involved in, like, hijackings of airplanes and assassination. I mean, massacres. I mean, they were talking about, like, this guy won the Nobel Peace Prize. And so you think, well, like, why would you even want a prize that that guy won? So you're looking at this, you think, but we think it's like the, we're entitled to the accolades of men, not realizing that those accolades don't actually bring the thing that they say they're going to bring. You think we're going to bestow this peace prize on somebody, and all of a sudden, now they are what we,

we bestow on them and that's just not the case. That didn't, that wasn't true of Yasser Arafat. He was not a beacon of peace. I mean, he just wasn't. But just so you get the virtue signal, but what's being offered through the spirit is actually a real manifestation of peace. And that really does manifest itself in the opposite of entitlement. I mean, entitlement is the thing. I think it's probably one of our default postures. And I think it's why I was mentioned second and what you're talking about because, yes. It's also a picture of what happens when you're only viewing what you feel like you have a right to. We mentioned about the church in Minnesota and previous podcasts.

And, you know, Don Lemon goes in there. And so he's the journalist, you know, but he's really a part of this thing that's going on as much as anybody else. But he, so he tries to do an interview with this pastor who is bewildered in the moment because these people have come in and take over, you know, when they're having their assembly. And he said, you shouldn't be in here. You know, we're trying to gather here and you shouldn't be here. And Lemon says, but we have a right to free speech. So he quotes the Constitution.

And what should have been said by someone is, yeah, but there's also a right of freedom of religion in the same right. And yet the idea was, no, we're going to trample right on your right of that because my right is greater in this moment. My right trumps your right. Yeah, that's a good point. And it's it, these things, these rights, I mean, when you enter in entitlement culture, then all of a sudden it's just a race to the bottom of who can get, I'm going to get mine. You know, I'm going to get what I can get as quick as I can get at. Because if you, if you were thinking with this idea, as Jay said, of gratitude versus entitlement,

you would say, you know what? We're not storm into this place. These people are in there. We'll just, we'll be out there on the sidewalk and we'll have our signs and we'll do our thing. And we can do our interviews when they come out and say, do you really believe the stuff you were talking about. But we would never want to triumph your freedom of religion right by our right of free speech. And so we're going to coexist and figure out a way maybe to have some dialogue. But that wasn't what anybody's thinking at that moment.

No, that entitlement culture is corrupt. And it's actually a powerful thing to the point the advertisers have picked up on this now. And over the last several years, I mean, in our lifetime, you know most of the advertisements that we've seen are geared towards reinforcing that that entitlement. that when you go get a hamburger, guess which way you should have it? Have it your way. You have it your way. If you are thirsty, what Sprite says, hey, obey your thirst. This is about you.

You go to do your thing. You start to look at all the advertisements. They're out there. They're gearing towards getting to that basement of who you are and saying, you deserve, you deserve, you deserve this. And then they reinforced that. There was a commercial in Monroe. And I used to live there.

I don't know if you guys remember it. It was like an attorney, like one of these. injury attorneys, I think. And it was like, I just remember the line was it was all these different people and they'd say, it's my money and I want it now. It's my money and I want it now. It's my money and I want it now. I'm like, whoa, we're just getting right on the nose of this thing right here.

No, that's funny. I remember that. I wanted to give credit where I heard this. Missy heard this in Nashville this past Sunday. It was called the intentional parent by Darren Whitehead. So these are the points I'm giving you. So it was from self to others, from entitlement to gratitude. The third one was from impulse to self-control.

So these are the two words. What you think about, these are reflections of the Holy Spirit. This is a result of your fellowship and what God. Self-control is a, look, it is the most underrated fruit of the spirit in that list. Yes. Galatians 522, the fruit of the spirit. You know, love, joy, peace, patience, all these things are all. Which patience may be a tough one.

But gentleness, which that was a tough one for me, faithfulness and self-control. It's a fruit of the spirit. But what are our kids do, especially when the teenage years, think back to your teenage years. Whatever the impulse is, go try it out. I mean, it's, I thought these were really good points. But do you see, that flows from the one before.

I deserve this. It's my money and I want it now. See, there's the impulse. It's my money entitlement. I want it now. There's the impulse. Zach, I was thinking about this, this protest culture we have now, which is, and we've always had protests in our culture, but this latest crop, I mean, it seems insane because

it literally goes from event to event and the same people. So remember, it was no kings. I talked about this one. No kings, no rallies. We're cut together. There was a group down here. And there wasn't anybody out there in that group that I saw that was under 75. You know, these are old hippies and old yuppies.

What do we call them yippies? And so they're out there and no kings. And then they go. So Trump goes in and he arrests a king, a dictator because he was a drug dealer and he's, hurting our country and people are dying. So he goes in and takes him out in the middle of the night and brings him to America for justice. Okay, there's one king down. And then the same people put the signs down with the no king and picked up a sign

and says, free Maduro, free Maduro. And I said, what happened to know? That took one day for us to cast aside our no kings to go right into, because that was about Trump, to cast it into the, but we'd like to have Maduro out because that's a king we like. And so it's so impulse driven that it makes no sense. I mean, it can conflict with itself. And it's just such a ridiculous thing to watch.

But I see it every single day. Exactly. So the fourth one is from comfort to respect. responsibility. Now, we were not very comfortable as kids. This is one my parents got right. But when you think about big picture and following Jesus, he's called us to get back to where we started here about going through storms to be uncomfortable, to have uncomfortable conversations. Very difficult conversation. If you're out there out loud and proud that Jesus is your king, and you're willing to have conversations with people,

there's just going to be a lot of uncomfortable moments. But when you think responsibility. What was it? It was uncomfortable. Comfort to what was it? Comfort to responsibility. So the world is all about comfort. This is the, we got two worlds.

God made a new humanity within an old one. You know, we were kind of following the trail of Adam and Eve. And then here comes Jesus, the ultimate human who got it all. right and then loved his enemies, including us, and died and bled on the cross and was raised and goes to the right hand of God on our behalf. Well, he's on the second world here. Be more focused on others than yourself.

Gratitude than entitlement, self-control, then impulse, responsibility, than comfort. And that's where I'm bringing up, you know, when we went through Ephesians, when he talked about the grace that saved us and he seated us in the heavenly realms, he got us out from under the evil one who had taken us captive. And for what? Ephesians 2.10. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So not only did he make us in him, he recreated us in him and he made us for him, which is the responsibility. And I like, Jay's, that you remember at 2nd Corinthians one, Paul starts out with this idea of the God of all comfort who comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others with what we've received from God. And then you get into the rest of 2nd Corinthians and about us being ministers of reconciliation. You get the idea that the responsible thing for us, us to do as we endure and as we overcome, we have a responsibility to then help other people overcome what they're going through as well. So that is the part that allows us to be through.

And you're right. That's uncomfortable. I mean, it's hard to walk alongside. And it's hard to have conversations. You've mentioned many times on this podcast about some of your uncomfortable moments as a parent with your children because they were raised at the beginning of this digital era that's there now and how uncomfortable it was to have to then go after that with the friends of your teenagers, you know, in the devices and the phones and the snaps chats and everything that goes on in these situations. And a lot of parents just don't want to deal with it because it's uncomfortable. But the response. Well, I remember there was a moment when you all did pull the, y'all pulled the purse string bag on one of your kids and you're like,

Was there a moment? Those were multiple moments. We didn't. do not reward illegal or immoral behavior. Especially when you're a teenage. When you do that, what you're saying is I'm pulling back the comfort and I'm going to allow you an opportunity to develop responsibility. My parents did that for me as well. And that was the moment, honestly, whenever I came to Christ, was my parents and the

harder part was getting Kate to cut the purse that, you know, the purse strings that Kay was given us money because she was, she was funneling money into me and Jeff's apartment, and we were getting some stuff from K. But once that stopped and the money train stopped and the comfort stopped, then all of a sudden the responsibility emerged. And I told this from my kid the other day because he was like, hey, we got enough money to do this. I'm like, no, no, no, no, we don't have enough money to do anything.

I've got enough money to do what you want. You sound like, you sound like Shaq. You sound like Shaq. Shack said, my kids said, we're rich. He said, we ain't rich. I'm rich. Yeah, that's right. But grab that.

Pull that comfort back and let that responsibility rise up in you because that responsibility, your ability to experience comfort and freedom is going to be correlated to the level of responsibility that you have. And so as I've grown in my career, I've gotten more money. So Jill and I are about to take a 25th year anniversary this year. and I'm looking at different places we're going to go. And I'm like, man, what we're about to do this year is a whole lot nicer than what we did on our honeymoon.

Well, how can you do that? Well, I have more. I got more now that I can spend on a vacate well, but also can't just take off and be like, I'm going to be gone for six months. Because I got more responsibility. So it teeters it out and it holds it and balance. And I think kids need that.

We need that. So I want to give you a practical example of this. I mean, just on this, how our relationship to God reflects our relationship with God in our other relationships. Let's take husbands and wives. So we spent three podcasts talking about we have gained access to the Father. Wonderful. We can pray and guess what? All things are possible, right?

Let me give you a little hidden gym. here. This is 1 Peter 3, verse 7. Husbands in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life. It's wonderful, right? You got a responsibility to be Jesus, a Jesus husband. Well, Then there's a comma, and it says, so that nothing will hinder your prayers, hint, hint. What's he saying? Well, let's just, is he making this kind of conditional? And I think that's what John is going to, he's going to have that same thrust about what you claim.

And then how that looks in your relationships. when he says in 1 John 1, after we have this father, we have this one speaking in our defense, Jesus Christ's the righteous one, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only ours, but for also the sins of the world. Then he goes on to say, verse 6 of chapter 2, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

And then in verse 9, he says, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there's nothing in him to make him stumble. Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. He does not know where he is going

because the darkness has blinded him. And then he gets into all these relationships. I write to you, dear children. This is what made me think of that sermon, because all of a sudden it gets down to we're the children of God. He created us. He saved us for him to be the children of God,

and then that reflect in our other relationships. Because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. He goes back to, I created you for a purpose, and I created you for Jesus, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the father.

I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God lives in you. You have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For everything in the world. And now we're getting personal because we're getting personal, because we're getting into husbands and wives.

We're getting into when you're single, what you're looking at on the internet, who you're looking at, what you're doing with somebody that's not your wife. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does,

which are all these points that you're trying to pass on to your kids, comes not from the father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. And that's why I think he'd had that passage in 1st Peter 3. It's like, it's not that we're married. We're to be a godly husband.

We're to have a godly wife. We're to function as a reflection of this new humanity that God has created on the earth. And think about how it wouldn't jays to hinder the prayer. How would that happen? Well, to me it takes us back to that Romans 8 passage where the Spirit helps us in our weakness and we're trying to figure out what to pray. If you're not in tune with the Spirit of God that is living in you and you're living a lifestyle

opposite of that Spirit of God, how can you possibly have that communion and union with the Almighty and with Jesus and with the Holy Spirit? Of course it would hinder that communication. You're not living. You're not who you say you are. And I like the picture that he paints there that you read. And it's almost like a song. And he gives you two verses.

And he kind of repeats himself. He's given you every. level of maturity, whether you're a child, whether you're a youth, you know, or whether you're the father or the mother, at every step of the way, these things apply to us. And I think that's the beauty of that passage. It's like a song that you can sing again and again. That's why I wanted to read that. There's a responsibility here. You're in the fellowship of God. Show it. Because look, think about, I made this whole thing about being parents. You know why? Because you know what the most number one thing,

you can do for your kids is show them. Yeah. You know, I spent most of my years just telling them what to do. But I finally realized they're not paying attention to what you're saying, but they're paying attention to what you're doing. Well, because you know what they, I think the pushback people have when you say something like what you just said is like, well, hold on. I thought Christ did it all.

What I'm saved by grace? What are you talking about? Do something. Works, workspace salvation. What are they? That's the pushback, but that's not what we're talking about here. I mean, look at the Romans 8 passage that Al brought up. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. And he says it is by the spirit that we actually put to death the misdeeds of the body. body. So we are supposed to do something. And what we're doing is not to earn it. That's the thing you've got to realize we talk about like grace. And this is not, this is not opposed to grace. This is because of grace. Because of grace, we put to death the message of the right. Well, why? Because the answer to that question will tell you what your motivation is. If the answer is because I need to earn my way in, okay, yeah, that's wrong. But if the answer is what I want to participate in Christ in the inner life of

God, I want to actually participate in what he's done for me. That's the motivation, but you can't just sit around and be like, I'm just going to just let it just happen. It's a participatory thing. I mean, God is saying. That leads us to the fifth point, which is on cue, and you didn't know the fifth point, because I'm literally getting this off my phone, which is with our kids, from achievements to faithfulness.

And I'm glad you brought this up. because I think that's why First John is hard for disciples of Jesus to wrap their head around because they're viewing everything in the Bible as a one-ticket punch to salvation and then wait and then everything will be okay instead of realizing what God has called us to be, to be this new humanity, to use us to show who he is through spirit-filled lives. And that is. That is, the contrast that he's going through in 1st John. I'm 100% convinced of that. He's like, your fellowship with him, it's awesome, you're participating in the life of all life, and then all of a sudden, here's a problem. And we need to get these claims in. Just look at the

claims. Verse 6 of chapter 1 is the first one. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, well, you're lying and not live by the truth. Verse 8, if you claim to be without sin? Well, you deceive yourselves and the truth's not in us. Verse 10. If we claim we've not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. Chapter 2, verse 9. Anyone who claims to be in the

light, but hates his, you could put fellow man, brother, sister, wife, neighbor, worker, you're still in darkness. That's the pattern that he's going to go throughout the rest of the letter.

And it's so true, days. I mean, I love the idea. Faithfulness and this idea of responsibility go together. It's like we're talking about in our country. We're free, right? We have a free society. But we also have a responsibility to our fellow citizens, to the people that we don't agree with, to the people that we live next to, and all the responsibilities and relationships as believers, we have to realize that, even if they don't. Well, yeah. I mean, I think the analogy of the kids is great, because think about it when they go through play sports or they're part of a team, when you're in that coaching phase or whatever of your kids,

doesn't matter how many trophies they have. Were they a good team member? Were they a good member? Were they faithful to godly principles? That faithfulness is the key. I love that. That was so good because I was going to say this before you even said that as another just analogy to bring it home.

It's actually a real story that happened that I'm aware of. So I think about, and I think about us all the time when we deal with couples who are on the brink of divorce and they'll say, well, we're staying together, you know, because it's the right thing to do. And but if you look at their marriage, they're not faithful. They may not be cheating on each other, but they're not faithful in the sense that we're talking about. And I remember this couple that was at a church. They were an older couple of church in Florida that we used to go to. And they knew the Bible condemned divorce except for marital unfaithfulness. so they couldn't stand each other

and they wanted to get a divorce but they knew that was sinful. So they literally built a wall down the middle of their trailer and the husband lived on one side and the wife lived on the other. Literally a dividing wall of hostility in their trailer, but they were,

and I got air quotes if you were not watching. They were staying together because it was the right thing to do. And I'm like, that's not faithfulness. Whatever that is, that is not faithfulness. That sounds like a living hell. Faithfulness is submitting yourself, sacrificing yourself, working, like living in the reality that Christ has tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

So this isn't just us and them in Minnesota. Man, this is us and me and my wife. This is me and my kid. This is me and my daughter, my son. This is me and my neighbor. Man, this hits home right where we live at. You know what I'm saying? And the only thing that tears down that wall in the middle of that trailer is forgiveness

and then love as a response. which we'll get into later in first time as well we're out of time we'll we'll hit this next time on unashamed thanks for listening to the unashamed podcast help us out by leaving a rating and review on apple podcast and don't miss an episode by subscribing on youtube and be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode