Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1272 | How to Introduce Jesus to an Atheist in a Post-Truth Culture

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Young people today are pushing past their skepticism toward religion to reconsider Jesus in a politically charged, post-truth global culture — something Jase witnesses firsthand after a particularly authentic Gospel presentation. Al meets a young man who “loves Jesus but loathes religion,” prompting the guys to consider the very real concerns people have about the ways human sin has affected churches and organized religion. Zach offers insight into what it truly means to be “born again” in an age obsessed with time, trends, and technology. Plus, Jase teaches young husbands how to execute a “pro move” when it comes to giving gifts to their wives. In this episode: Jeremiah 20, verse 9; John 5, verse 39; Luke 19, verses 1–10; John 3, verse 17; John 10, verse 10; 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18–20; 1 John 2, verses 28–29; 1 John 3, verse 2; 1 John 4, verse 4; 2 Kings 6, verses 15–17; 1 Peter 2, verse 25 “Unashamed” Episode 1272 is sponsored by: https://donewithdebt.com — Start building the life you deserve and talk with one of their strategists today. It’s FREE! https://texassuperfood.com — Get 35% off your first order when you use code Unashamed. https://fastgrowingtrees.com — Get 20% your first purchase when using the code UNASHAMED at checkout. 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://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters: 00:00 Valentine’s Day Q & A 04:35 Jase Pulls a Marriage “Pro Move” 09:45 A Bible? On a Plane? 17:40 An Atheist Reconsiders Jesus 23:30 Some People Love Jesus But Loathe Religion 30:40 Presidents’ Day, Calendars & Time Confusion 38:15 Your Spiritual Birthday & Being Born Again 44:30 Young People Are Flocking Back to God 50:00 Why Jesus Came: Life to the Full — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? You are, for some reason, you are making me. Scheduling a fight. Steel cage match. I hadn't had one of those since the bunnies. Oh, that was the best line. Jay said the steel cage match between the bunnies.

The bad bunny and the Easter bunny. Look, I did get pushed back on that by someone. Really? Yeah, they said, well, the Easter bunny's not real. It was like, it was a joke. Yeah, it was a... Using spiritual principles, am I not allowed? We were representing the resurrection.

Come on, man. Work with me. Yeah, but that's not... That's not the resurrection. I was like, okay. It's hard to be funny, Zach. Have you ever noticed that? Because what happens is, you know,

when you say something funny and somebody doesn't get it, then to them is not funny. I had to explain my humor to a group of people this past weekend. Because look, I dared to sign up for a Valens Day event. Valentine Day event. With my wife. Yep.

Q&A. Ooh. Didn't get the questions. That was bold. Until 10 minutes before we stroll out there. Which I like that better. I don't like knowing ahead of time because I'd rather get them off the cuff. You would think, which I did like that.

Yeah. But Missy on about question three, just blanked. She just blanked out. She was like AOC at a foreign affairs event. I watched her to lock up. It's the first time I've been that nervous because I thought, do I jump in and help her? They asked her a question. The question was, what is something the public doesn't know about your husband?

No. And she just, she paused, and I thought, Paul's is good. Yeah. Just embrace that pause. Oh, no, she wasn't embracing the pause. She said, you know, I don't know. Sometimes the best answer is the truth.

Do I jump in there? But I've already made this deal about, you know, about me not letting her talk, which I shared that. And I thought, no, I'm just going to give her a minute. She'll think of something. Just let that breathe. Well, a few seconds goes by, and I thought, are you done, babe? She's like, I've just blanked out.

I can't, I can't think of anything. Which the audience probably laughed when she said that. Yeah, they were chuckling, you know. And so, but then I just, by the time I finally thought, okay, I've just, we've got to move on because the two hosts weren't jumping in there, you know. They were feeling the same thing I was feeling. And as soon as I started to go in, she's like, Oh, I thought of something.

But then it was funny because she's like, well, we are who we are. We live our lives, good, bad, and ugly. Yeah. She pretty much know her either, which I thought was a good save, you know. Yeah. But then she kind of talked about how little man is in our life. And I'm like making up for all the mistakes I made with my own kids because now I'm older. And I appreciate just life so much more.

Because you view it as a grandfather, even though it's not your grandchild, but it's like a grandchild. You do better the second ago, there's no doubt. In terms of your demeanor, I think that's fair. Oh, you know, she sent me a text on the way up to this podcast. and I didn't read it until I stopped because it's dangerous to be on your phone. So I had to have a little repentant moment there. Because there was a person not going anywhere in front of me this morning. And then when I finally passed them, there was a kid in the passenger seat

and there were three kids in the back. And then I thought, okay, you're forgiven because I thought you were on your phone. But I get it. You're just trying to survive today. So if they had asked me that question, being your older brother, because I've actually known you longer than Missy had, I would have said that Jase is naturally shy.

He's a naturally shy person. That's something that public would not know. You've talked about someone here, but I'm saying that's not, they would never assume that, listening to you, watching you on TV, and yet you are. You have been since you were a little kid.

I'm a shy guy. He's a shy guy. But I didn't want to say. Are you still a shy guy? Do you feel like that made a good? Deep down, I'm a shy guy, Zach. But he just knew he had to, get out there because you got it's like Jep.

Jep's afraid of public speaking, but he realized, you know, if you're going to, if you're going to use the platform God gave us, you're going to have to get out there, you know, he's to have to do it. I mean, I will not say this as a cliche. The Lord set me on fire. And when you're on fire for the Lord. That's what John Wesley said. He said, yeah, he said, when I used to, when I go and preach, the Lord sets me on fire

and the people watch me burn. Well, they asked him. They said, everywhere you go, it's actually debatable by the. the way if you actually said that but the story goes i read it oh zach the uh old old christian apologies going to spack check me up there well just that does make for a great story they asked him they said everywhere you go revival breaks out what's your secret and that was his response allegedly that i i catch you on fire and people come to watch me burn yeah that's what i read which is a pretty good response that's a great response but how you just said it that's why y'all both knew that and i've never

heard that is so strange to me. Jay's, we read a lot. That's, you know, we read a lot. Well, I read a lot, but I read the Bible. So I didn't find that. Well, there is a verse that's close to it. That Jeremiah 20 in verse 9. So you spent Valentine's Day with Missy speaking on the road, and it went well, I mean, other than

the vapor lock there, was it? It's hard for me to read how they go. Where were you at? What part of the country? I was in Springfield, Missouri. At the big bass pro. Lisa and I have spoken there before. There's a convention. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A very nice place. It looks like a big lodge. It's nice in there. The people in Missouri are fantastic. Yeah, they were fantastic. All that was good. The event was good. And, you know, we did the Q&A.

And then they were like, in the last question, why don't you just get up and share, you know, the story of Jesus? And I was like, well, I might have to say that I'm going to do that. Because if we're just sitting there asking questions, then all of a sudden I launch into a 10-minute sermon, it's going to look like I've just gone crazy. Trust me, Jay's.

The people who love you would expect that. So that's like a podcast. I got up and shared Jesus. I did find out later. I had a few, you know, there's, we speak Jesus to the masses here in this kind of environment. But along the way, there are these Jesus moments that I'm looking out for. now through the years of just conversations because Jesus has had one last week. Ministry involved a lot of individual conversations.

That's right. So you're not going to believe what happened. When I, we get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and we catch that early flight. Catch the early flight. I mean, it's early. I get on a plane while I get my Bible out. This Bible right here that I'll hold in my hands if you're just listening. I'm holding it up.

It's big. get on the plane and open my Bible and I'm getting my Bible out you know once right before the ding that you know you can now get it's now safe to move about the cabin so I get my Bible out and the stewardess says excuse me sir and so I look up and thought oh no what have I done you know I have my seatbelt on and she said is that a Bible now in the moment I just thought that was a strange question because I thought, is there something wrong with the public reading of scripture? She thinks to say you had to put that away. You thought you were in trouble.

But just think about that. Excuse me, sir. And I look up and she said, is that a Bible? So what would you think? Well, I don't know. I kind of paused. And she's just looking.

And I said, well, yes, it is. And she said, that's fascinating. So at this point, Missy's like, our head goes up. But you're right, as much fine as I do, I would assume there might be a problem first because they don't usually ask you stuff unless they're from this.

Yeah, I thought it's a strange question. So when she said that's fascinating, well, now you have my attention. And I said, yeah, I said, well, you know what's more fascinating? the one who wrote it. That's a good answer. That's a good answer.

And she went, really? I was like, yeah, supernatural being. That's fascinating. How? I kid you not. I can't remember how this went. But it was 10 minutes of I would say something, and she would say, that's fascinating.

She must have been a big fan of Mr. Spock. That was his line on track. And she said, so you just wake up in a morning and get out your Bible and read it? And I was like, I do. So was she looking at you like a unicorn like there was something wrong with you for doing this? Well, she brought up, she said, my family owns one of the oldest Bibles in the world. I had no idea what that meant because I thought, what does she mean by that? But I thought, well, that's cool.

And I said, but, you know, what's in it is actually where the power is. You were trying to get to the life. No, I got to the God. It was a gospel presentation revolved around. Is that a Bible? So if you're stressed about getting out of debt, it's go time. Seriously, it is. It's go time because this is.

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That's done with debt.com. And she was like, it's so big. I was like, yeah, it's a big one. But she was thinking you were like, jelly roll. Remember he had the little bio. So this is a little. So I wanted to share that because I just think that there's some things you do in life that this person is around people all the time. She talks to thousands of people every week.

And this was odd to her to see someone break out a Bible right into the flight. And, of course, I did my little lines about, I saw it. And you know what's crazy is I'm not a preacher? She's like, you're not. That's fascinating. I was like, yeah, I just believe this to be true. I believe this was a real book put together over thousands of years. So is Missy engaging in the conversation?

She would just look up here and what's why and smile. So she was just letting you do you. She said after it was over. She was like, that was awesome. I was like, it really, what a way to start the morning. You know what it was? It was fascinating. It was fascinating.

I'd love to see that Bible. Well, there it is. It's right here. That's the oldest Bible. That's the one that family owned. Zach, look, if you only pay attention every 60 seconds, you miss bits and parts of the story. No, I know. You said you had a Bible.

She said her family had a Bible that was one of the oldest ones. And I would have been like, I want to see that Bible. Well, true. That would be, I'm interested in things like that, though. What's the name, Zach, of the old. The oldest Bible, it's called something. It's got a name. The oldest privately on Bible is the Gutenberg.

I was just looking it up. The oldest Bible, I think, is the Codex Synacticus, if I'm saying that correct. I think that's the oldest. And it's sold for just a measly $38.1 million. Now, see, and this is priceless. Come on. See, that story was so good until that. I wouldn't so.

I don't know about that. So what I was going to say is after we did the event, we kind of got the report the next morning about how it went. Here's what I found fascinating. And I mean, look, this thing was a roller coaster because it's tough in a Q&A to kind of break the ice. And this, they were, they were, it was a fundraiser for this, this group takes kids in the outdoors and like orphan kids

or troubled kids. And so it was kind of right up my alley because they shared Jesus at the end of the day. And so, but the Q&A was awkward. So they tried to have an icebreaker question. And it was like, what is the funniest get? No, no, no, that was the next question. What's the funniest argument we ever had?

Which that went off the rails. But the first question was, what is the best or worst guess, gift, Valentine's gift that you've got for each other. Well, I'll let her go first, Missy. Yeah. And I told the story why, because they kind of threw it to us. I was like, well, you know, I'm going to let her go first because I've been known to not let her talk or have her say or talk over her.

There was a gift right there. And so she went to, she said we woke up at 4 o'clock this morning. to get ready for the flight. So they asked a broad question, but she went to this morning, because it is Valentine's Day. Right. Best or worst.

And she said, you know, I thought about it, and I thought, well, we're not going to be able to do anything for Valentine's Day because we have an event. So I'm not worried about it. We didn't have a discussion,

but she just, this is what she's saying. She said, we didn't discuss this, but she said, we've reached a point in our marriage where we don't have to get each other something to prove our love or... You're not going to be upset if you don't get something. Yeah, which I interrupted her at that point and said,

now, if you ever ask, are we getting each other something? Because I asked that for Christmas one year, and she's like, no, let's not get each other something. Well, now I've learned that that means, of course, you're getting each other something. Yeah, I fell for that one time. Yeah, I did. But anyway, so she went back to the story,

and she said, so I'm getting ready, and she's like, he's been, we had an ice storm, and he's been cutting wood and building a lot of fires. And so she said, I heard the door open to outside and closed. And I thought to myself, why is he getting up at 4.15 and going outside? Oh, he must be checking on the fire that he built last night. What she did know was, because I thought she might think that, is I had her a big, bouquet of flowers that I bought the day before, Al, pro move in our little pool house. I went and got it.

And so I came around while she's getting ready, and I was like, happy Valentine's Day. But it was quite the bouquet. It wasn't like little, no, no. And she was like, wow, I didn't think you would do anything since we're going on the of it. So all of that. And I'm thinking, oh, yeah, pro move here. So she tells that story, well, then it goes to me.

Now, how am I going to top this? She's bragging on me. And I said, because I was trying to have an icebreaker for the audience, I said, well, she told you about this morning. I'm going to tell you about what happened last night. Al, both of our hostesses, faces turn red. One of them said, hey, this is a family. They look like Maddie.

Which was the joke. I was like, you know, it's Valentine's Day. I'm going to talk to you about what happened last night, which I thought was funny. But it didn't get much laughter. Yeah. And I said, she made me a crawfish pie. There you go.

And the reason I knew it was for Valentine's Day, because she didn't announce that, but it had a little heart. A little pastry heart. Yeah, she made a pastry heart. She never said happy Valentine's Day. She didn't have to. She didn't have to. And I thought, because that crawfish pie, my mom's recipe.

What's the old saying? the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. So I said, and then I made the point. The reason we both use current events was to her point. This is not just something we're going through the motions with. These are just things you notice. You're like, ooh, that's a good Valentine's. Yeah, you know.

But if your marriage is not functioning on a day basis. Well, I think the longer your marriage is in a good place, and stays in a good place and gets better. I think the more romance is less manufactured and more natural, just anyway, you know? And so I think that's part of it. What about you, Zad? Do you have a big Valentine's weekend? Yeah, we did go on a date for Valentine's

the morning of. Which in your crazy household, just a date is pretty valuable. Yeah, and then we had a birthday party that night that we went to. So we, just me and Jill went too. but yeah I did the I did the flowers you gotta have the flowers you gotta do the thing I made that mistake of not getting anything she said no we don't have to get any get anything for each other I'm glad I did because I got up and she she got me a card well that's what she did is like everybody has to go through that that means so just if you're young and you're newly and marri when they

said no let's not get each other anything that means leave now and go get something and then don't make a big deal well I told y'all last week we were before Valentine's day that I that I had thought about at Lisa but I didn't we're We're so busy. We're trying to sell a house down in Gulf Shores, and so we were super busy. And so I went to Dollar General in Walmart, which I chuckled at myself because it was like, it's hardly any money. But I was just like finding little things I thought she would like, you know.

And as I predicted to y'all on the podcast, she loved it. She loved that more than if I had got her something expensive. Because it was like I took the time to go to two places that I really don't care to go to, to find her something because I was in a hurry. And so she loved it. But for me, she got a, it was such a shock because we just went to do a event in St. Louis. And we stayed at one of these Airbnb, like, little house. And they had a record player in the house.

And they had this old record collection, like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzger, stuff I love from the 40s and 50s. And so I played these records. There's no TV. So, like, in our downtime from the event, I listened these records. and just, I loved it. It was just soothing and relaxing. Well, she bought me a record player. I mean, I hadn't had a record player

since we were kids, you know? And then she bought me like three or four of these old records and Simon and Garfunkel and stuff I like. And so that's what we did was listen to this music, which was really neat. So we did all this the night four. We get up, Valentine's Day, we get a phone call at 6.30 in the morning

because we have a house that we're trying to sell down there and a house we're in. and my neighbor, his wife is out jogging past the other house that we have up for sale, and they said there's water pouring out of the middle of your house because it's up off the ground, which is not what you want to hear on any day, but it's on Valentine's Day. So I'm like sleepy, grue, Lisa, we've got to go. You know, she's panic. And we get over there and literally there's water.

A commode has busted just, you know, randomly right in the middle of the house. And it's just shooting out water that has now pooled and is going down through the walls and coming out of the ceiling and just a complete fiasco mess. It's really difficult to know who to trust when it comes to your health. And there's a lot of gurus out there pushing different miracle supplements on social media. And the influencers are telling you what's best. Well, for us, you know, I wanted to go with something that we actually knew. And that's why we love Texas superfood. Our friend, Dr. Dennis Black, invented Texas Super Bowl.

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We're ripping out the ceilings, taking the fiberglass out, talking to the insurance company. So we spent the whole day dealing with this house and this flood situation. So we're exhausted back and forth to the... whole situation and we had reservations at a nice restaurant that night and Lisa said I don't even know if I want to go and I said no let's go let's get ready and go you spend a terrible day so we get in the car we got to drive over to Orange Beach it's about a normally a 20 minute drive over there to this restaurant we love and we get about a mile away from the restaurant and they've got the roadblock because there's a martigrault parade so we're like you can just see it down there just like blocked

by the police you can't go so And the way it is down there, you know, there's probably one way in, one way out. It would have taken us an hour to drive around to get to the restaurant. So we wound up at an Irish pub because it's a Valentine's night. You know, we don't have reservations here. Everybody's packed. So we went up at an Irish pub slash restaurant, and that's where we ate dinner. But then my next door neighbor happened to be there.

And we wound up having the best conversation with them. We told them about everything that had happened that day. And it turned out great. And we just got them that night as though, you know, nothing today was. plan. Everything was not what we planned. And yet at the end of the day, you get through it. You know, it's just, I mean, that was kind of a similar to our trip.

I didn't tell you any of the negative things because every time, you know, you're on a trip, things go wrong. And every time something would go wrong because it was Miss N. I and our assistant Bonnie, which is just as in. Plus, y'all are bold anyway because y'all do same day event travel and that would drive me crazy. Well, things happen. and but every time something negative would happen, one of the three people in our party would say,

Happy Valentine's Day. So then it became funny. That's kind of the way it was with it. Happy Valentine's Day. And so it made it. But I wanted to tell you one other story. So when we got the report after it was over, there was a woman who responded.

Of course, I don't do an altar call them a little 10 minute Jesus sermon. And we were just sharing a life through the Q&A. There was a woman who came up to the couple that asked us the questions and just said, I want you to know two things. I'm pretty sure I'm the only atheist at this event, which shocked him that she said that. She said, I'm married to a Christian. But the second thing is, for the first time in my life, after what I just heard, I'm considering believing in this Jesus that was just discussed.

Wow. Wow. Which I thought, yeah, that is powerful. So, of course, he made the move right then. He's like, well, look, we can take care of this right now. And she's like, nope, I just wanted to share that with someone because I felt compelled to respond. And, you know, I want you to pray for me. Of course, what I did is I said, we're not going to do an alter call,

but I would recommend that you go home, read the Book of John. I do this every time. And see who Jesus is. Check him out for yourself. And she said, I'm going to go read the book of John. And I just wanted to let someone know. So I thought, you know, it's a pretty good day when you start off. Someone is fascinated that you're reading a Bible in public.

And it ends with a person who is adamanty. about not believing in God saying, I'm willing to consider this for the first time. So that was kind of the book-in of that, not to mention just the overall people, but these conversations are powerful, I think, of individuals considering Christ. Yeah, you gave the, what I call the John 5. Is it John 539 answer where it says, Jesus told him, he said, you diligently search the scriptures. but you missed the one who it's written about. Oh, yeah.

That was your answer. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Does she tell you why she, what, what you said that piqued her interest? Well, he asked her a bunch of questions and sounded like she just viewed the Bible, like a lot of religious people, like a rule book, you know, and the idea that there's so many different groups. This can't be true. They can't even get along. And which is, look, all the things she said are true.

I mean, she's like, you know, and all the improprieties of church leaders. It just, that was the same typical arguments on why you not look at this for yourself. You just kind of look at the humans who have responded and then kind of throw rocks at them because you're like, well, they can't figure. They're not going to figure out. But he said the main thing is she just, thought that it was authentic, sincere, and transparent. The presentation. It's like, because, you know, we are who we are.

Yeah, right. And so, yeah, I just, I found that fascinating and really inspiring. I thought, sometimes you just forget how powerful the simple story of Jesus is. I was telling you all about the, so they're filming the movie about Lisa and I, which I guess is still being called, at least, I don't know if this is what it'll be, when it's all of a sudden done, but they're calling it Desperate Forgiveness, which is one of our books. But I was talking to the actor that's playing me. He's about 30 years old. And we were talking about his background, and he said something interesting, Jay's that, and I think a lot of people have

this experience. And it made me sad to hear him say it, but it's so true. He said, because I was asking about, was he a believer? And he said, well, I love God and I love Jesus, but I loathe religion and the church. That's the way he put it. And when you say you loat something, it's worse than just I had a bad experience. And, you know, he grew up in a Christian environment. His family were Christian singers and

musicians. And so I just makes me sad because like most of my experiences, even though I had some bad ones, I still love the church. I love what people are trying to do, you know, to help people and to rally people and all that because I spent many

years doing it myself. So I hate it when people have that experience, but I understand it. I get it. I understand it. You know, so you got it right. At least you love Jesus and God. That's the main thing. You got to make sure you got that relationship right. I said, I hate you had bad experiences. And we talked a little bit about it. Well, you think about, most of the atheists that I've interacted with are, once you kind of get through the veneer of the intellectual descent, then you do see they had a bad experience at some point in the past or there's other issues that are contributing to it. But I think that's, I just find it so interesting anytime you hear about an atheist being

moved to Jesus. And I, that's why I ask that question, Jason. I love the answer. The answer actually is the answer. Like, well, they moved to Jesus because of Jesus. Like the story of Jesus. And like, you think you've got to have all these arguments. And I love apologetics.

I love that world. And it's been very encouraging for me and rich, it has enriched my faith. Zach, what was the line that C.S. Lewis's J.R. Token and the other guy, what was the question they asked him that kind of sparked him to finally start? Do you remember what? Oh, yeah. We talked about in the Hillsdale episode that we do on Fridays. It was something real simple, but it was so profound. Well, I think that, yeah, they were looking.

So he was obviously an intellect. And so he's, and I got to, apparently I pronounced this word wrong because I've had like tons of people text me. Contemplate, not contemplate, contemplate. So he had, he would try to reason through everything. And he was trying to work through, you know, the claims of the Christian faith through reason alone. And he had to have this like rational argument for everything and Tolkien. And who was the other guy? I don't know.

There was another good. They were buddies. Yeah, they would go walking with him. And Tolkien was basically like, can you just like stop trying to analyze this for a minute? Like, that's great. It's not, this isn't incoherent, but you don't access this story in that way.

Can you just enjoy and rest in the beauty of the gospel of Christ? See, I had this same thought about this over, because today we're actually filming and it's present. Day. Have you ever researched that? President's Day? Yeah. Or slash George Washington's birthday. Right. It morphed into President's Day. Do you know why? Why? I assume it's because they just wanted to combine Lincoln and Washington, but I didn't know. So if you're wondering, what is any of this has to do with First John? I'm going to, I'm going to set up. Look, I'm going to set up something, and then I'm going to give you a little history lesson if I can do this off the top of my head.

Because y'all have triggered me here now. So we're going to talk about what it means when he appears that we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. That's 1st John 2. 28. Yeah, 28, 29. So, Jason, we just went through this huge ice storm. And what would you say is the greatest enemy to trees? When they fall?

When they fall. Now, when a tree falls, you hear it. You do. I would point you to a little place called fast-growing trees. It's America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands, literally thousands of trees and plants and over 2 million happy customers. We've used this service in the past. I've got some privacy trees. I've got fruit trees, and I'm about to be in the market for just some landscaping trees around my house. Fast growing trees has it for 6,000 plants to choose from, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and house plants. So whatever you're looking for, fast green trees helps you find options that actually work for your climate, your space, and your lifestyle. Super easy. All you got to do is click, order, grow, and with their alive and thrive guarantee, your plants will arrive happy and healthy. Plus, there's no green thumb required because their plant experts can help you plan your landscape projects. And they can help you choose the right plants and teach you how to care for them.

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Now's the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. are used unashamed to save today, offer is valid for a limited time, terms and conditions may apply. And then it says, now listen to this. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. So you said, what does that got to do with George Washington's birthday? That is now a holiday. That's a couple days after Valentine's day. I'll go down a rabbit hole. Because I thought, is it President's Day?

Because somebody called it George Washington's birthday. I was like, we're celebrating George Washington's birthday? It used to have its own separate holiday just for that. Oh, no. Here's what's crazy. When you go down this rabbit hole, you realize that he has two birthdays. Because in, I think it was 1582, if that's right, this Pope says, look, We're going by this Julian calendar, which came from Julius Caesar, I think, in like 46 or something.

And they weren't accounting for the leap years and all this. And so we started drifting. It was a drift. So this Pope says, we need to fix that. And so in 1582, this is what's crazy. There was a moment when they said, we're going to go. to the Gregorian calendar, which is the name of this Pope,

to make up for this drift, which was 11 days. It had drifted. And so they just, there was a day in 1582 where they said it was October 4th, and then the next day, it was October 15th.

So, 11 days. Yeah, October 4th, just think about this. Like, you woke up, you think, here's the day. What about all those 11 days? days where people's birthdays and all that just, it never happened. You got a bonus year.

Look it up. It's true. It's like our uncle Jimmy Frank, who has crossed over. His birthday was February 29th. So we only got to celebrate it once every four years. Think about that. Yeah. Well, what's crazy is 150 years later,

George Washington didn't get the memo that we're no longer going by the Julian calendar. he was giving his birthday under that calendar, and they're like, well, no, your birthday is really 11 days later. Yeah. But the whole rabbit hole made me think how silly it is about, and even arguments about, well, you know, is Christmas Day really Jesus's birthday? We can't even, I'm 11 days younger just after doing this research, you know, or older, depending.

Yeah, not bad. Not a bad. Not a bad. You don't look a day over 11 days ago. And look, that was 1582. I'm sure there'd have been a couple more days than that. Oh, yeah. It's probably two weeks now.

Oh, yeah. That we, I'm not sure how old I am now or when my birthday is. We're still drifting. Next year on August 5th, I'm like, according to Julian, we should be celebrating and you make up for the time. But here's why I said all that. It made me think, because later on the government, they just, they couldn't figure it out either. So they said, well, let's just make a president's day. Forget the specific birthday.

Okay. We don't know exactly what it was. Because we used to celebrate Lincoln's birthday and Washington's, and now they've combined it. So this happened in like 1970. They passed a law. But here's what they did. We'll just make it the third Monday or second Monday, whatever Monday it is. It's the same Monday every year in February.

I think it's the third after Valentine's Day. You can look it up. I looked it up. But you know why? Because the government wanted to have a long weekend. They wanted to plan a little ski trip down to wherever. And I'm like, really? Really?

This is how... The only thing about it that's annoying... I mean, I love Washington and Lincoln and all that, but in all the presidents, but the thing that annoys me is the banks are closed. It's like, you can't get any business there. So, as members of the kingdom, followers of Jesus, I have a proposal

that will take care of all that confusion. Okay. We should highlight our birthday. And I'm not talking about when we came out of our mother's wing. I'm talking about this birthday. The new birthday. Everyone who is righteous... Who is that?

Is that me? That's somebody calling to wish you happy birthday. Hey, look, you know who that is? Who is that? Dan the butler. Why would he be calling me? Why would that be ringing so loud? Just your computer is picking up your phone.

I don't even have it. My computer's in my bag. Yeah, that's what was right. ringing. It's the technology. It's got your ringer on. Okay, well, I turned it off. But if you wonder where Dan the butler is, he's calling me.

Leave all that in, Matt, is going to have a podcast. Yeah, he's calling Jace. It's up to you whether you want to leave that in or not. What was I even saying? Oh, I was saying our spiritual birthday. But it is your birthday. Why are we not doing this? When you're, when you were born a new?

Why are we not doing what? When you're born again, why are we not celebrating that? Because when you try to trace down your exact birthday, who knows? Well, who can remember that exact? Well, you got to be careful, though, because when we were in Louisiana, there was a girl who came to Christ, got baptized, and she wanted to honor that date, and so she got it tattooed on her wrist, the date of her baptism. And then after that she did that, she was showing the college, all the students in the student ministry. And everyone kind of looked around collectively, like awkwardly.

And they were like, but that wasn't the date you got baptized. And so she had actually missed, or I guess she didn't remember the actual date. They're wrong. She had the wrong birthday. That's like one of my tattoos is an old girlfriend, Zach. Oh, man. Oops. Yep.

Well, I'm going to use it as a conversation starter when somebody says, when's your birthday? I'm going to say, you know what? Due to the lunar and solar phases of the moon and the confusion with it not being exactly 365 days of the year. And you have this guy named Julian started a calendar. He didn't factor in the leap years. and then you had Gregorian come in and say, all right, let's catch up. But it's so confusing. I do think it shows a valid point you're making about the general nature of time.

Because, I mean, I can remember, I know the year and the general time frame of when I crossed over to the faith and was born anew. I know it was 18. I know it was that summer when I came home. And I know generally the same with Dad. But I can't give you the exact day. I mean, I remember the year. I don't either. I remember the time of year.

But all my point is, is time stands still in that moment. Because you're now in a relationship, what this has to do with First John, in a fellowship, in a participation with an eternal God. Yeah. And even though you die, there's no calendar anymore. Right. This is, you know, my dad famously would always say, we count time by Jesus, we count time by Jesus. But we also, in Jesus, there is no time. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I think, so when any confusion comes up about birthdays or of anybody, it's a good conversation starter to talk about the new birth. So I'll tell you what. I'm not sure the exact day I was born because of the confusion of the calendar. But I know when I was born again into an arena where time. is no longer a problem or a factor in my existence. Yeah, that's the, that's the testimony that anybody can tell, too, so you think about that atheist that came in to talk to you,

she was moved by the authenticity of the story of Jesus, and it's not that it's not, I think that we're entering to a time period where we're seeing a lot more of what you experienced this last weekend, people who are irreligious or non-religious or atheists, they're coming in to faith for the very first time. I saw some really crazy stats out of London that young people, that the amount of the percentage of young people in Europe just over the last three to four years who are walking away from atheism, I mean, it's plummeting in London among young people. And then belief in God is skyrocketing. I mean, like really incredible numbers. And it's not a result. I don't think,

of necessarily having these hemmed-up arguments. Not that that's bad, but it is an expression, I think, of what they're experiencing in some of the revival and renewal movements of the churches in England, that God's showing up in a very authentic way. I think that with AI advancing rapidly every single day, people are craving what is real, probably more than ever, at any point in our lifetime. there's a guy that wrote a book I read a few years ago, and he had this line in it that was so good.

He said, we are drowning in data, but we're thirsting for meaning. And I think it's where people are at. We want meaning. We want roots. We want connection. And so you're up there at Bass Pro,

and you just authentically shared who Jesus was, and this woman is like, wow, I'm moved by the authenticity and the realness of what she experienced there. And the good news is that everybody's actually equipped to do that. You don't have to be a pastor or a preacher. If you're a believer in Christ, you're a priesthood. You're part of the priesthood of believers.

You're equipped to share that testimony of your story of when time changed for you. Yes, it's 2 Corinthians 5, Zach. It's the we are all ministers of reconciliation. And we're a part of that ministry. about when we were reconciled to God. I want to make a point because we're just kind of generally talking about in 1 John today,

but it was something I hadn't noticed, and the N.T. Wright actually made the point, but I loved it because it fits in with what we're talking about, this idea about the moment you know something. And back in chapter 3, verse, let's see, what is the verse 2, when he says, Dear friends, now we are children of God,

and what we will be has not yet been made known, but when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And obviously he's looking ahead to that moment of the Perusia, the coming of Christ, when we see what the resurrected body looks like, not just for him, because we see him, but then for us as well. But then Entie Wright makes the point when he gets over to chapter four in verse four, he says, You dear children are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you, is greater than the one who is in the world. And he talked about this

eye-opening moment that we're not just waiting to see. We can already see the unseen because of who lives in us, which gives us this glimpse looking forward to that moment. And he used Jay's,

and we've used it a lot on this podcast, he used the illustration from 2nd King 6 when Elisha asked God to open the eyes of his servant because he looks out and he sees this army wait and he's like, oh, we're done, we're cooked.

And it's almost like a joke. Elijah says, Lord, well, you just let him see what I'm looking at. And then he sees the fire and the chariots and all the angels and angelic beings that are behind the army that looks so daunting. And he says, Ntri was saying, that's what it's like for us. Like, we anticipate and we look forward, not exactly sure what it's going to be like because we don't know until we see him. but at the same time, while we're living, we're already seeing the results of what he does in our lives.

And that gives us a power to overcome the world that the world can't understand. So it's just, it was a beautiful point about time that as we talk about the end of time, we're living in the end of time already because we already know. Well, and I thought about how First John starts when he talks about that which we've seen

from the beginning, which we heard, which we've seen with our eyes. They had that moment with their own eyes. They saw the creator of the universe as a man, which is why they're now calling him that. They say, this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. And it made me think, you know, a good question to ask people is,

well, why did Jesus come? Why did God come to Earth? It's a good question. It made me think of that song. I looked it up a while ago. We used to sing this song that, Why did my Savior come to earth? And I thought, that's a really...

Because he loved me so. Yeah. Why did he choose a lowly birth because he loved me so? Then they have the little, He loved... You're the tenor. Tenor.

He love... He loved. he No, you're supposed to do the tenor. I want you to He loves He loves it.

There you go. He loves me. That's it. I thought it was harder than that. It is higher than that. Well, I mean, but I mean, you want me to get real vulnerable here to get a high tenor on the podcast.

I'm singing and I'm not a singer. So then he's got the best voice of the three of us. Let's be fair, we sang all these acapella grown up. So we, and they're in there. They are locked in there. No, 1892,

when this was written. Why did he? drink the bitter cup of sorrow, pain, and woe, while on the cross be lifted up because he loved me so. And now he bids me look and live. When you said that about the eyes, I mean, and then it says, his grace and power to know, there's a lot of, there's, the word no is used in first John. I'm going to wait till next podcast to share how many times that's used. then it says a home and glory he will give because he loved me so till Jesus comes I'll sing his praise

and then the glory go and reign with him through endless days it kind of goes along with what we're talking about but what I do think and this was another question that we talked about when the atheists responded they were telling me about because her view of God was a mean and judging only. That's it. But it made me think, why did he come to Earth? And you remember when he saw Zakeas?

I mean, here's a guy, tax collector, and he said that. You know, he wanted to go to his house. I mean, the creator of the universe coming down, a little short guy who collects money up in a tree, and he's like, I want to go to your house today. And then he makes that statement, for the son of man, didn't come to be,

served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. But it made me think of John... And the idea he was struggling, he wanted to see him. And I love the way Luke puts it in his gospel, because he tells the story in Luke 19 of Zakias right after the story of the rich young ruler, who was a guy who was looking Jesus square in the eye and missed him. And here was this little guy that climbed up a tree. I want to say this before Jay's continues.

if that offends you, because that offends people. What you just said offends people, and they say, well, how dare you diminish Christ in that way? But the problem you got to remember is Jason said. He just repeated what Jesus said. Well, that was my point, because look, a lot of our churches, who we love, they tend to focus on that to a point where, you know, here's a person here in the bad news, of Christ, which there is some bad news if you go your own way. I mean, it truly is.

Well, there's a picture of the world all through this book of verse John that's bad. Yeah. But my point is, the first thing out of his mouth in Mark's account was, I got good news for you. And I wanted to read this in John 10, because I think it goes with John saying, this we proclaim to you the word of life. Just think about how this is going.

Think about it from an atheistic view. When Jesus says, you know, he starts off talking about I am the shepherd, my sheep know me, you know, in John 10. Yeah, thief comes to kill and destroy. Well, right. When he gets to that point, he's like, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But the question was, why did Jesus come?

So I read you the Zechias moment. You know, I came to give my life as a ransom for many. But watch what he says. I have come that they, what? I have come, fill in the blank, whatever you would put there in your religious connotation. It's not doom and gloom. He says, I have come that they may have life.

and have it to the full. Abundant. Why is he saying that? Because when you really step back and look at what Jesus did, if he came only to condemn, which John 317 says the exact opposite, you know, for God to love the world,

and he's like, he didn't come. To condemn the order, he came to save the world. That's what it says. We realize there are consequences for that. But when you just look at what he said, he's like, I've come that they may have life. Because when you step back and think, if he just came to condemn and to destroy, well, he had a fine way of proving it.

He went around. He helped the lonely. He helped the sick. He healed the sick. He drove out oppressing demons. He took on corrupt leaders. Everything he did doesn't go with that narrative. It looks like he came to bring life and life to the full.

So I think there's a balance there of understanding the consequences of a life without Christ and realizing why he came. He is in pursuit, just like Zacchaeus, that's why I brought that up. You realize that he came seeking and saving, rescuing the loss who are considered cheap. You read the last verse of 1 Peter chapter 2, and it says, we all like sheep have gone astray. but we have returned to the true shepherd. So for looking for a consistent message out there, churches, it probably should be more of that one than the condemnation side.

Let me mention before we leave because we're out of time. Lisa aren't going to be in Omaha, Nebraska, Thursday, February 19th. I think this drops before if you're in that area. But check out our website, Al and Lisa Robertson.com. It tells where we're going to be. We've got a ton of events coming up. So I love meeting you guys out there when you can get in to see. us so hopefully we get to see you. We'll

dive back into this first John next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little bell and choose

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