Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1281 | Jase Sounds the Alarm on the Blood Moon & End-Times Hysteria

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

A blood moon sparks fresh waves of end-times predictions, apocalyptic charts, and doomsday rhetoric — but is that really the point? Jase, Al, and Zach push back on the obsession with “when” and “where,” arguing that Scripture shifts the focus to who you’re with and whether you’re ready. From 1 Thessalonians to Jesus healing on the Sabbath, the conversation reframes heaven not as escape, but as meaningful work in a renewed creation.  In this episode: 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13–18; 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1–4; 1 John 3, verses 16–19; John 5, verses 1–17; Matthew 11, verse 28; Romans 8, verse 19; Genesis 1, verse 28 “Unashamed” Episode 1281 is sponsored by: https://texassuperfood.com — Get 35% off your first order when you use code Unashamed. https://trustandwill.com/unashamed — Get 20% off and protect your legacy today!  https://chministries.org/unashamed — See why Christians are ditching health insurance for good. Get a simpler alternative at half the cost! 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 Anna Turns 40 05:42 Life Is a Vapor 10:18 Blood Moon & End-Times Hype 14:36 The Wrong Question 20:41 Who Are You With? Paul’s Answer 25:58 Heaven Isn’t a Vacation 31:44 Jesus & the Sabbath 39:52 Scarcity vs. Expansion 47:18 Retirement, Purpose, & Are You Ready? — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So welcome back to Unashamed. Jase, I was just catching up on my text in between our podcast recordings today. And I realized because Lisa sent a happy birthday text to my oldest daughter who turns 40 today. 40. She said, happy birthday, my sweet daughter, you have been a joy your whole life. We love you, my baby girl. See, your 40-year-old kid is still your baby girl.

Then she said, do you want a regular cake or a cookie cake? Anna said, thank you, cookie. So that's our celebration. But Anna is, man, she's always, it's kind of funny because when she was born, of course, she was a preemie. And so we spent the first three and a half months of her life with her in the hospital. And not sure whether she'd survive or not. Do you remember those days? Oh, I remember.

I remember Phil catching a bass. I called it. We were fishing. Yeah. Which we probably should have been at the hospital. It's okay. It was our way. Yeah.

And when you said how much she weighed, we were looking at those bass, those two-pound bass, thinking. And she weighed less than two pounds, yeah. She weighed less than two pounds. That was dad's first line when he did come up. Well, that's because we had been talking about it. Yeah, yeah. Say, well, how in the world is she going to survive? But she did.

And I think part of it, I was a fairly new Christian. You know, I'd come back as a prodigal just a few years before that. And so I almost compare it to almost a naive faith, but good. I mean, good in the sense that I was just so trusting that I never doubted that she would, we would walk out of there with her, even though I had no reason to think that. because every bit of news for the first month of her life was all bad. Like she was doing bad. She wasn't gaining weight. There was something wrong with her heart.

And I even was watching kids not survive in the NICU. I'd come in one day and the bed would be empty next to me. And we'd just been talking to these parents the day before. And now they weren't there. But I just thought, oh, I just felt so bad for them because they're grieving their loss of their child. But even with all that negativity, I just felt like, you know, God was going to spare her and bless us, and he did. And I'm grateful because after a month she had surgery,

started growing. But what I was going to say was she was a very strong-willed little child, little girl. And when you have your oldest, and you can probably be, it's probably the same with you and Reed, I would imagine, or you and Layla, Zach, I don't know,

but you want to, like, you're harder on them, no doubt about it, because it's the first one, you're wanting to do it right, you want them to be right. And so I was like, because Lisa was like,

I just don't know if we can break and I was like, oh, she will be broken. So I was very hard on Nan. And she turned out to be just the opposite of that, her life. Not that I'm taking credit for it, but I'm saying she is the most loyal, trustworthy. I mean, anything I tell her, I know it's going to be done. I mean, it's like, very humble.

I've never seen her raise her voice. Only once she raised her voice at now is Jay. Well, that's true. And look, every time, because he said, boy, I've seen it. And I was like, well, I guarantee you, I'm going to make an executive decision here. It's you. You had it coming. And every time he's ever told me something she said when she's aggravated was the most funny thing I have ever heard.

And I would have paid her $100, which I'm going to give you a hondo for her birthday. One hundo. Just last week we come in here, and she had left the last king of, the last king. because she waits in line for Jays to get him a Kinky and some other people too. But I mean, that's how she is. She's just, who would do that? But anyway, it's her 40th birthday today. Al, you have a 40-year-old daughter.

I have a 40-year-old daughter. I mean, I am the elder statesman now that dad has crossed over of this podcast. And I realize something. We're not here long. You know, and we've been talking a lot about eternal life. and heaven and the idea of being here. But it really does. I mean, James was right.

It's a whisper. It's a vapor. Yeah, 40 years ago. It's been a long time. I saw a stat on a line the other day. It was like one of these little memes. And it said, consider this. That the difference between 1990 and today is the same difference between 1990 and

1954. And I thought, whoa, that is. I said, let that sink in. And I was like, that, that, that one kind of stung a little bit for a moment. I was like, yep, it's moving. But it didn't really tell you anything you didn't know already. Nah, I just, it's just, but it just brought to light this thing I hadn't been. Because 54, it seems like a whole other lifetime ago, right?

I mean, people in the 50s. I mean, when I was in 1990, I mean, if you just said the 50s, I'd have been like, oh, day, that was like, that's like old school. That's the history, like way back at the history books. Now that's what my childhood is to other people. That's way back in the history books. And I'm like, wow. No, I get it.

I'm just saying, too much scrolling, not enough spending time out in the woods, realizing that. Because I think you're reminded of that when you're out in the outdoors. When you're in your little cocoon, you get distracted. Which, by the way, what I saw, was, I mean, maybe this is a thing, but we're fixing to have a total lunar eclipse. So I thought, what is that?

Is this something I should be concerned about? Should I be concerned? I looked it up. A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, casting its dark inner shadow, the umbra, across the entire lunar surface.

During the blood moon. And I thought, here we go. Every wacko who takes the figurative language of the Bible, they're like the moon is fixed to turn to blood. And we have an outbreak with in Iran, the Middle East. The Middle East is in an uproar. Yep. And the Israel's involved.

The moon is turning to blood. Israel's involved. The moon turns a reddish-on-law. orange color as it reflects sunlight scattered through Earth's atmosphere. So I was like, oh, no. And so then it has key aspects of a total lunar eclipse. Blood moon color, alignment. This only happens during a full moon when the sun, earth, and moon are perfectly aligned.

Duration. The total phase can last for a few minutes, up to nearly two hours. So it's going to happen 3.30, our time. Someone figured that out. So I might have to get up early if I want to see this. It's safe to watch with the naked eye. No special equipment is needed. The solar eclipse, you have to have the glasses.

And then I read the last bullet point. And I went, huh? Huh? Oh. This occurs roughly every two years. That was my question. But to be fair, there's been prophecies. Oh, here we go, Zach.

Let's do some conspiracy theories. Okay, let's do it. T them up, and I'm going to knock them down. Let's go. Let's go. There was the four blood veins, and they prophesied the end of the world, the second coming of Christ. So I don't know.

I was just Googling if this is, if any, or actually I was looking somewhere else, is there any prediction that tomorrow the end of the world will be coming? because a lot of people try to connect the moon turning into blood to the end times. But it's not the first time that it's happened. So they've said this before. Well, it happens over two and a half years. But you know, it hasn't happened at all, the second coming. I agree.

That was quite the profound statement. Well, I'm just saying, I mean, I'm a detective reasoning today. Well, let me ask you this. Why? How many times you've got to predict it? I mean, I've said you predict the coming, the end time. they're going to be here. There's one in 2012.

You remember 2012? So I was just about to say. In 2010, I was on a cruise, and we stopped in Tulum in Mexico, and we were touring some of the Mayan ruins. And the guy who was giving us the tour said he was a Mayan descent, or somewhere in his background. And he said, you know, in two years, it all ends, right? And this is right where we're standing is going to be the epicenter of the end of the world.

Because it was 20, he was convinced. He told us this. He said, get your affairs in order. You know, the sun's going to hit this. He showed us this statue that was there among the ruins here. It was beautiful architecture. But he said, the sun's going to hit right here. And it's going to shine right there.

And that's the end. As soon as it happens. And so I thought about it. I kept down Lisa after that 2012, the date he told us. I think it was December 21st or something. And I was like, well, the Mayan guy was wrong yet again. Yep. That was another one, right?

Well, I looked at it. It said some physicists in 1960, which was a decade before I was even born, said the world would end in 2026. Here's the exact date. I'm wondering if I should click on this. I clicked on it. Oh, now it's a history of every time someone is over. So I'm scrolling. I'm looking for the exact date.

Jay's just got a virus on his computer. Yeah. Every day there seems to be some kind of new miracle supplement on social media. And everybody's trying to tell you, what is the best answer to better your health? And it can be overwhelmed to know what to use. I'm using a new product called Texas Superfood, Dr. Dennis Black invented Texas superfood 25 years ago to help people get the nutrition

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That's Texassuperfood.com discount code unashamed. Well, while you're looking at that up, let me just say this about 2012. We have a mutual friend, all of us do, Scottie Barnett, and he, he, right before 2012, he started, this is the first person that I knew that went viral was Scott Barnett. and the way he went viral was right before 2012. He started a Facebook page, and it was called something like not dying in 2012. And it went via.

And it just blew up, and all these people started to subscribe to it, the people who just did not, I'm not dying in 2012. But it was a big, I mean, the thing blew up. And I thought,

he's on to something there. That was the first person I knew that went viral. was part that I personally knew. And now he's had a great career at UPS. I found it. Now, he made this prediction almost 70 years ago. Friday, November 13th, which is eight days before duck season, which would be quite a bummer. All right, Matt, put that in the calendar, so we're going to find out.

We're going to have this conversation. I mean, this guy has been dead for years, and that was his prediction. Wow. But Friday to 13th. It is a Friday to 13th. I believe the Bible that only the Lord knows. And I mean, even Jesus himself, you know, and I think maybe he was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem,

the temple in Jerusalem when he made that. He's like, not even I know, only God knows. Right, right. Yeah. Which I agree with your analysis there. What do you think it is, though? Because this is a big, I think this is a big, I think this is a big temptation for a lot of people.

They feel like particularly religious people and unfortunately particularly Christians, we feel like we got to know, we want to be able to map this out because we want to know when the end times are going to be. When is Christ going to come back? And we build out all these scenarios

and all these maps and all these, and I'm like, what do you think it is? I think it's obvious. I think it's an obvious thing because you want to get ready. Yeah. I mean. That's not a bad thing.

Yeah. It's the same thing about when you go. It's a little late. Well, when you've got a big trip coming up, something you're really anticipating. You know how you keep checking your watch or the calendar. You're getting close to it. And you get it. It's an anticipation.

But I think part of it, Zach, is we've been talking about this so much for the last couple of years actually on the podcast. And dad talked about a lot, too, because, you know, as he said, the resurrection loomed large for him because he knew he was about to cross over. But it's really not understanding this concept that we have is one of the reasons why the anticipation so high is, well, we're ready to get to the next thing. And because you don't know the thing we're doing now, which is heaven here with us. Oh, exactly. I mean, I think a lot of that's just that missed idea of what the afterlife, and I put that in quotes, because the afterlife's already begun.

The garden has already been reset. All we're waiting on is the resurrection, and that will happen when he comes back. the great resurrection, and I get it, it's something to be anticipated. But if you're already living in it, you know, you just don't, I don't know, I just, I don't know, I just, I'm not near as afraid to die. I know we're talking about, I'm 61 years old. Yeah. They say you got prostate problems, you know, it could be something, who knows.

But I'm just not like sitting around bemoaning. Whatever time I have left while I'm here in this state, I want to be a light. I want to shine. I want to like impact people's, people say, well, why, why are you running all over? the country and doing all these days because we're not here long. Well, I'm going to give you the text and I'm going to make a statement. I think it's time. All right, it's time.

Here are the bad questions to ask as far as what the Bible says. These are the wrong questions. What are the wrong question? When is it going to happen? Yeah. Wrong question. So I'm in First Thessalonians, but you can pick anywhere. Yeah.

And it says First Thessalonians five. verse one. No, brothers, about times and dates, we don't need to write you. Say a question. When is it going to happen? If you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

And remember, to Jason, to your point, the historical context of the Thessalonians, according to other things, was the early church. They just shut it down. They were like, we're just going to quit work. That's why he had to tell them, look, you've got to work.

You got to keep doing. I mean, they were just like, all right, you know, it's over. So that's a bad question number one. Wrong question. And look, I had no idea we were going to talk about this. This is literally off the top of my head. So I may have to reflect on what I'm saying and add or take away something. Matt, that was a note to you.

According to the Bible. There's some editing here. So that's one. This may be edited. This may never be said. When is it going to happen? Wrong question. Wrong question.

I like that. Where are we going? Wrong question. Wrong question. I'm going to read it. So I'm going to back up a couple verses. What was that first? The first Thessonians, five.

I'm going to write these down. Yeah, 5.1. I like this. I like where you're going, James. All right. First Thessalonians four and verse, I feel like I need to read the whole thing, but we're so familiar with this. Should I read the whole thing?

All right. 13. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. So I'm going to ask you the right question at this point

while answering or debunking the second question, which is where? Where? Who cares? Wrong question. jump. When? Who cares? Wrong question. Right question. Who are you with? Yeah. And for how long? So I have two bad questions and two good questions. And this is one that's answered. So if Jesus is bringing those who have fallen asleep in him or died, what does that mean? What does that mean?

on, well, where, wrong question, but who are they with? If he's bringing them, who are they with? They're with him. They're with him. Mm-hmm. Good question there. That's a good question. So then it says, verse 16, according to the Lord's own word, we tell you,

we who are still alive and are left to the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. for the Lord himself will come down from heaven, loud command, the voice of the archangel, there's a trumpet going off, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we are still alive, so we get to watch that.

Oh, yeah. When I lived next to the cemetery for about 14 years, I was like, this is going to be the place to be. You know what I like about this is we get to watch it, and then the anticipation is like, ooh, I'm going to. Then we get to experience it. I get to watch. If it happens in my lifetime, I'll get to watch that happening.

Dad was convinced it was going to happen in his. He used to tell me, said, how it happens every 2000 years. So we who are still alive and are left will be culled up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, here's the answer of the two good questions. And so we will be with the Lord. Well, that's who are you with? Yeah. That's a good question.

And there's your answer. That's what the Bible is about. Remember when Paul said, you know, I'm in this tent. If the tent is destroyed, I'm torn. Do I want to stay here or do I want to be, remember what he said? At home with the Lord. Who you're with is a good question and for how long. Yeah.

And so we'll be with the Lord forever. therefore encourage each other with these words. So I just gave you the two wrong questions. As far as what the Bible was about. So like when the thief on the cross said, today you'll be with me in paradise. But when you look at that word and break it down, it's like a garden setting, temporary.

It's a refreshing. But it says today you'll be, With me. Remember, the Bible is about who you're with. Not where you're going. Yep. And not when it's going to happen. Yeah.

That's good. I think the location, though, you could push back a little bit on the location in that the earth matters because it will be a renewed earth and heaven reunited. Well, great, Zach. But look, if you're married, let's take you in jail. All right. Yeah. And let's say, what was the first place that y'all lived when you got married?

Memphis, Tennessee. All right. Apartment? Was it an apartment? Apartment? I could, yeah, we lived to... Right there on I-40 right across the mall. Zach remembers the address.

On the bottom floor. That's pretty impressive. We were in apartment number six, 106. So, compared to where you live now, which is a big, you know, what, two-stress. Story House. Oh, it's quite the place. It's a historical home almost. Now, has the place where you lived, how much has that changed your relationship from

apartments and where you live now on this just sprawling oasis on the top of the mouth? How much would those two locations factor in to the relationship you have with your wife? I mean, I love her regardless of where we've lived. I get your point. Well, I think my point. It's who you're with, Zach. One of the things that I really think that we should take serious as parents and as people who are growing families is the legacy that we're leaving behind. And that's why I've been working with trust and will because they make estate planning super simple.

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I'm not denying until you win. I'm just saying that like, here's my point is that I think the earthy part matters because of this. because here's the problem when you get into all these prophecies about the second coming primarily from the position of this third temple being set up, the whole thing, that whole thing. The problem with it is that it tends to minimize the role or the vocation of humanity, which is to expand the temple of God to encompass the entire globe. That is our job for eternity. And if we're waiting on some kind of, like, the way that it's been positioned most of my life and we're raptured out of here, you're missing out on the vocation the scripture teaches about. Now, I agree with that.

But you're going back to the vocation, which is now who we're with. Yeah. And for how long? It's our job. I mean, when Jesus left, he gave us the job, right? It started with the 12, and then it was the 100 in the room. and then it was the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost and 5,000 a couple of days later. And we all have a job.

What you're talking about is our vocations. And you're right, this is the place we work. And I also think to your point about the earth, the blue dot as a – what was the guy's name, Saker or the scientist? He called it the special blue dot. There is something unique because as far as we know, unless God can do whatever he wants, But as far as we know from Scripture, he didn't become anything else. And the other beings, the other extraterrestrials that we've had contact with here on Earth,

the Satan and angels and, you know, beings from that other realm, the Bible's very clear. He didn't become one of them. He became one of us. And that makes humanity special in and of itself. And as far as we know, he's never done that anywhere else. Now, we don't know. The universe is a big place.

but what he said to us is it's unique for us. And so when people talk about aliens, and I've always been infatuated with that, you know, I want to go see the pyramids and people say, you know, how does things get here and things like that? But really, it's kind of like Jason, it's a bad question because who cares?

Ultimately, I'm just, all I care is humanity. I love the illustration when somebody, the preachers have said this for years, but it just doesn't seem to resonate, you know, okay, these people who have these special relationships who the Lord told them this, you know, Lord told me he's coming in five minutes. What would you do?

It's a great question. The correct answer would be nothing different. The same as what I did. The same as what I did five minutes ago. There's where your faith is. If you're going to panic and try to start saying 14 Hail Marys or whatever religious man that's a great that is a great answer actually because when you said that i thought okay if your eschatology or your view of the end times or your view of theology or any ology that you

can come up with you got to ask yourself this question what does it lead you to do and and if and if it leads you to reassemble what you've already been doing and say okay i'm gonna now i got to build some kind of fence around this i got to hunker down we got to i got to i got to grind it out. If any, if that's in your psych, got to start prepping, any of that, if that's the answer, then that's actually the wrong answer because the answer should be that you're going to continue to cultivate the garden. You're going to continue to expand out what you're doing. I think, well, this is the problem. I think we've separated the second coming with our current world. And granted, in scripture, you know, in Hebrews, too, I mentioned this in the last podcast,

It does talk about the world to come. So there is a world that's coming. But the kingdom, that's the nature of the kingdom. It's here and it's not yet really fully realized yet. So at the consummation, at the second coming of the kingdom, what are we going to be doing? We're just going to do what we've always been doing, which is what? Cultivating the earth, expanding the temple of God, expanding the garden. And so you've got to think about the downstream implications of what you're allowing yourself to buy into

from different preachers and pastors and teachings. You've got to go back to that Genesis 128 and think, is this lined up with the vision of humans cultivating the garden, expanding out that garden? Or is it a retreatist mindset? The world's going to hell in a handbasket. Because if the world's going to hell in a handbasket, and we're just waiting on the rapture,

then why in the world do we need to be worried about cultivating anything? The whole thing's going to burn, remember? The whole thing's going to hell in a handbasket. We don't do anything. We just got to get out of here. But if, on the other hand, God is going to renew the earth through us, and the Bible says what, that the creation itself

is longing for the sons of God to be revealed, Romans 8? Why is it longing? Because it's longing to be renewed, and it will be through the agency under the dominion of us humans that that will be accomplished. So that's the better picture throughout Scripture,

not hunker down, we're getting out of here. Don't worry about this place. That's not how we live. We live, this place matters because God's going to be here, and this will be his temple throughout the entire cosmos. And we're going to be the agents who are going to build that. We are going to be the agents that will, under our vice regency, we're going to expand out the place that God will dwell with his people.

That's a different story. No, that's really good. In fact, when you were saying that, Zach, I was thinking directly in the context of where we've been studying first John, hear these words in the context of what we've been discussing here for the last 20 minutes. This is 1 John 318. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. So this is the idea about living and why we live the way we do.

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. I mean, that sounds like we're pretty confident, right? I mean, we're living in that. We know that whenever our hearts condemn us. So in other words, even though we still have moments, we are at rest in his presence. Why?

Because God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. And I love that idea that that's how you can, we're working wide open, but we're at full rest in terms of knowing what's coming, knowing eternity's out there. I mean, I don't know. It's just a new creation Sabbath.

Yeah. I mean, look at that. You think he's using that phrase by accident? That he sets our hearts at rest in his presence? Yeah. Well, the rest does not mean in the context of what you just read. It doesn't mean vacation. No, because he said to begin with, remember,

do, it's about action. It's about... Adam, he rested Adam in the garden to work it. To work it. Yeah. And so the idea of the rest, it's not like heaven's going to be

a perpetual vacation and leisure. It's, what it's going to be is that, that just means that, like when God, when God rested, does that mean God's just chilling now? I don't eat anything? He just, no, he still sustains the, I'm glad you brought that up because when it says he rested, when Jesus came along on the scene, where is that verse where he says, my father is working? I'm going to have to look it up.

Talk amongst yourselves. Well, I was going to say this, to the Jason's order point, like looking that up, that you think about it, the idea of being with somebody. and he used the illustration of you and Jill in the houses. But so in a couple of weeks, I'm going on a cruise with my grandkids, and it's on a carnival cruise. I hate carnival cruises. I mean, for me personally, I wouldn't, and you know, you've had some bad experiences. But, hey, ow, that's like going into an MRI machine for me.

Well, it sort of is, but I'm super excited about the trip, but not because of the mode we're traveling. I don't like any of that. I don't like the chip. I don't like being on the thing. Now I can't even eat the food. Before it was the guys' burgers, I can't even eat anything of that stuff.

But the idea that all my grandkids are going to be with me and they're so excited. Last night they're all looking up the excursions and they were so pumped about it because they've never done one. So because it's them, and I get a whole week to spend with them, I'm super excited about it,

even though there's no tenets of it that I would personally enjoy without them being there. So I've got five kids and having a big family like that. I'm telling you right now, you're going to want to pay attention real quick to where your money's going, especially when it comes to health care. And here's the truth that traditional health insurance, it just keeps skyrocketing. And honestly, it's starting to feel like we're boxed in. And that frustration is exactly while my family has switched over to CHM, Christian Healthcare Ministries,

and we have not looked back since. CHM is a Christian alternative to health insurance that comes in about half the cost, which immediately freed up real room in our budget. But the bigger win was freedom because we're not stuck in the same old, tiny little network that some bureaucrat tells us where to go. We can actually choose from the doctor, the surgeons, the hospitals that actually makes sense for our family. And so since CHM is a nonprofit ministry, I'm not paying a bunch of money into a profit machine. I'm actually joining a community of believers who share each other's medical burdens through giving and prayer.

And that's a big deal. And that aligns with how I want to leave my family. So CHM, they got four flexible plans, low-cost programs for every stage of life, and you can enroll or switch at any time. Plus, you get access to CHM's care solutions for virtual appointments, prescription savings, surgery support, and more. For us, it's been a smart move financially and spiritually. Health cost sharing really helped Lisa and I when she was going through her cancer because the insurance is so high, but they don't pay. And so these guys walking alongside was fantastic. See why so many believers are taking a leap of faith with the Christian alternative.

to health insurance, start today by visiting CH Ministries.org slash Unashamed, and use our promo code wellness for 50% credit towards your first month. That's C.H. Ministries.org slash unashamed and use promo code wellness. Again. I'm sorry.

I tuned out once you said you couldn't eat a burger, and I thought. Well, not the way I used to. I can eat a burger, but I have to do some things to make it PhD-friendly. Well, speaking of unfulfilled prophecies, because I ate a lot of burgers. So I'll probably be... Well, you eat...

I was going to say the crap of you. The stuff you eat, I cannot eat it at all. The fact that you're still skinny and your metabolism burns them up is quite amazing because you eat hardly anything healthy, and yet you already put you are. So whatever. I made this unique creature in you did. Well, as a wise man once said... He'll eat a whole bag of chips just in one sitting.

I realize that's not a good thing. Or a whole king cake. Yeah. That is funny, that last king cake that I got. Did you eat the whole thing? Oh, yeah. Well, let me see it one piece. But look, when she got there, I said, never going to guess.

Never going to guess. Anna brought us a king cake. I said, I went ahead and sampled the first piece. And so she went in there to get her a piece, and she said, you're calling that a piece? A quarter of it. One quarter. I just,

so let me. All right, what's the verse? So remember when God rested, I got that in quotations. After. Now, here's what I want. I want to say this, I think is important. It's that smarter than me,

so he can probably elaborate on this. But so when at each day of creation, after something was created, he would say, and it was evening. Yeah, he said it was good, but then he was, but he said it was evening and then morning, I think that is the phrase. But when he got to the seventh, he, after the last time, it doesn't say that. Yeah.

So I believe that that's kind of the time is now. We're ready to live eternally. You have all. We have, yeah, the seventh day is. Yeah, the seventh day was like a timeless moment. Now, then when sin happened, and you get introduced to this nation that God raises up, and he gives them the laws, and he has this Sabbath day, which would become a foreshadowing of this, what we just read, that we can rest in His presence in Jesus because of what he accomplished.

So there's no other explanation why Jesus went around doing all these things on the Sabbath. He knew it was going to make them say, well, wait a minute now. Hang out. Why did Jesus do that over and over and over again? What possible, is he just picking on them? Because your view of why Jesus is doing that has to matter. He's either trying to poke fun at him, or he's saying, saying there's something bigger going on in this you keeping the Sabbath.

There's a, because it's a good point, because the principle behind the law of the Sabbath, because it was one of the ten, was the idea that a person, even though working, needs a day of rest. I mean, in a work week. So there was a principle behind the law, but you're right. But they took that then as being everything, like it was all about the day. And I'm not knocking the principle. I'm just saying Jesus offered something bigger. That was pointing to me.

I'm talking about you can be with me forever. You want to have some rest and experience that? Well, just think about the arrogance, though, Jay. They're telling the Son of God, and I realize they didn't believe it was the Son of God, but they're telling him, no, we're going to tell you, their Son of God, how you're going to do the Sabbath. And he's like, no, because I was there when the whole thing was created. Yeah.

And it wasn't, and the reason we did it this way was not for you to do the Sabbath. It was the Sabbath was for you. Remember he said that? He said, you've got it backwards. Well, and now I feel like this healing at the pool, and this is where it was. No, I can't believe I didn't know that. But so Jesus heals this guy, 38 years. Just think about it.

38 years. And he's like, do you want to get well? And serve. verse 7, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me. We talked about that. Jesus said, get up, pick up your mat and walk. What's he need the mat? What's he need the mat for? To remember what just happened here. To remember you spent 38 years of you. Yeah, exactly. Now, in verse 9, it says, the second part. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat. Well, now here's the other

reason why Jesus told him to carry that mat. Oh, is he just trying to make them mad? No, he's trying to provide a little more intellect on who he is. So, but he replied, well, the man who made me said, pick up your mat and walk. So he's like, what are you stupid? 38 years, I've been down. This guy healed me. He said pick up the mat. Guess what?

I'm picking up the mat. Because he's looking at this realistically. If someone had that kind of health care power without the aid of any, just said, do it. You're going to do whatever he tells you to do. There's a lesson in here for us all. And the same guy, Jason, John and I remember, said the same thing, the guy that he had been born blind. And then he healed him.

And they were like, well, who was this case? I don't know. But whoever he was, I'm with him. You go do your own investigation. I'm with him. So they asked him, well, who is this fellow who told you to pick up, pick it up, and walk? But just you have to take a time out here. Where's the celebration?

Where's the happiness? Where's the, oh, could this guy actually be the Messiah? Where is that? How would you have that kind of power? Can't be a trick. He was an eminent for 38 years. And everybody knew him. He's not even a doctor.

Yeah. Nope, none of that. That's how steeped in this that they were. And so they asked him, well, who is this fellow? The man who was healed had no idea who he was. For Jesus had slipped away into the crash. that was there. Later, Jesus found him at the temple, which I think is very powerful. Because here's the Son of God, created the universe in human form looking for one guy, who he's already healed.

Just think how powerful that is. If you were that guy. Here's the 99 and the one. I was looking for you. He wants to have a conversation. See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. I read all that to say this, verse 16. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Just think of who you're with. They're persecuting the Son of God.

Whose idea was to have the Sabbath if he was with God in the beginning in the first place. But Jesus said to them, here's the verse, my father is always at his work. Well, wait a minute here. I thought he was resting. Where did this come from? So maybe your idea of resting is not what the Bible's definition is, is my point.

He is always at his work to this very day. And guess what? And I, too, am working. Yeah. So it doesn't mean what you think it means, that's all I'm saying. And then when he says, when he says things like, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, he's not saying, I've got a retirement plan for you. That's not what he's saying at all.

He's talking about if you're tired of trying to do it on your own and save yourself, I got something way better for you. But it's going to be a workhouse once you get in. A house. You know, but a good workhouse. Yeah, but here's, yeah, well, here's what you got to remember. If you think that heaven is just one big leisure activity, like it's just going to be one big vacation, yeah, then I would argue that you probably have misunderstood the biblical teaching on work.

Yeah. Because work was a blessing pre-fall. The reason why you're saying, now, man, I hate going to work is because, of this one little thing called the curse that happens in Genesis 3 when God says you're going to work by the sweat of your brow, but the ground is going to produce thorns and thistles for you. So the curse is not the work. The curse is that in your work, there's going to be a lot of it that's going to be futile. It's going to be pointless. It's going to be meaningless. At the second coming of Christ, at the renewal of earth and the renewal of heaven, work will be redeemed. And so work

would be meaningful and fruitful. And you actually see this in nature today. I read about this study that was done in the 1950s recently. It's a fascinating story about these mice. It's called the experiment I think was called Mouse Utopia. And so I was trying to look up the guy who did it back in the 50s, but he basically took these mice and they put them in this environment and they gave them all the food, all the water, everything they needed, and they had plenty of room to expand. But what happened is over time, the rats or the mice, they end up turning on themselves. They had this complete meltdown of their society. And they started to get really territorial, territorial, hyper-aggressive.

They started to attack one another. They formed like little groups and the whole thing just turned into like mad max. And what they noted in this, they called it a behavioral sink. And what he meant by that was it's just the whole society just unraveled. But it didn't unravel because of a lack of resource. and it didn't even unravel because there wasn't room to expand. What happened is, is that they were just given everything that they would ever need and they didn't have any meaningful work to do so that they just ended up turning on themselves. And so they didn't even know that they

could actually expand out. They had plenty of room to expand, but they were so, they, they, these rats or these mice, they began to see the world through the lens of scarcity. And I got to make sure I get mine. I got to make sure I get mine. That they couldn't even see that there was infinite room to expand. And when I read this, I was thinking, man, isn't that the whole picture of humanity that we, when you don't understand that your calling is to expand the garden, then you end up hoarding the fruit that's in the garden. You end up hoarding the harvest instead of expanding the garden. And that is why I think it's so important that we have to be careful when we start thinking about these different

eschatologies that would lend our imagination to think about the kingdom in a different way, we'll be careful. If your view of the kingdom is not one that is expanding a garden and it puts you into a mindset of scarcity and hoarding the harvest instead of cultivating a garden, then you're going to end up missing out. And so rest then becomes, if you understand it, I think the way the Bible gives it is you work hard and then you're over, rest is overseeing the harvest

when there's not any futility that's producing thorns and thistles. That's what rest actually looks like. It doesn't look like just twiddling our thumbs sitting at the beach, just doing nothing all the time. Not that there's anything wrong with that for moments, but I think that that's not the picture

that the Bible gives us of the next, of what's to come after this, this world is renewed. In fact, you would lose person. purpose, Zach, I mean, to your point, I mean, you would lose purpose in life. And I like what you were just saying about this idea of that study, because when things happened even to this day, like we were up there a year and a half ago with you guys when that hurricane hit. And, man, all of a sudden, all the things you knew were turned upside down, there was a palpable feeling of

that that could have turned sideways and did. People started breaking into cars, the steel, gasoline, and remember Zach, some of that early stuff. And then even me, when I would drive by and there's 200 people, like, surrounding a convenience store, I was like, they're fixing the break into that. I mean, like, they're desperate. Like, they just, they all walked over there to this convenience store close to where our house was

because they were in cars that can't go anywhere. They're all sitting on the side of the interstate. And I was just watching it, and it felt like in 24 hours, that whole thing could have de-evolved into some kind of movie. And it was just all of a sudden Based on a scarcity mindset. Yeah.

Yeah. Scarcity mindset is there. But the opposite of that can happen when what I just witnessed this ice storm, we're without power. People are out. Neighbors are checking on each other. The guy was just here a couple of days ago telling me about he had a vehicle that could get around so he was going and taking gas to people.

And he said we couldn't get all the way to where they were. So we had to agree that someplace we could drive to a certain point and then walk the rest of the way so I could give him a five-gallon thing a gas, you know, for his house. And I was thinking like, well, that's the idea if in scarcity and difficulty that we help each other. I mean, that's the kingdom mindset. It's totally different versus if you're only looking out for yourself, that you're only thinking, I got to get mine, which is completely the opposite of everything we're talking

about here, right? Well, and that verse says that when it says if anyone, you know, after he defines love in 1st John 316, Jesus Christ laid down his life, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possession, sees his brother's knee but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Yeah, that's the perfect point. It can't.

So I'm proud of AI for the first time. I throw a lot of rocks at it, but I typed in, does the Bible ever talk about retirement? Here's the answer. The modern concept of retirement completely. stopping work to pursue personal leisure is actually not in the Bible. Boom. Boom. Wow.

Boom. Might drop. Hey, I just crossed into Dia. Hey, look, I'm going to tell you something. This is one of the greatest sermons ever given. He's got to go, and there's one little section of it. It's like the crux of the sermon, and it was in the 90s, and it was by John Piper at Passion. And he basically told this story.

It's been known as the same. seashell sermon. And so he basically tells this story of this couple who moves to Punta Gorda, Florida, and he's reading a brochure, a retirement brochure, and he's basically saying where they spend their days picking up seashells. And then he juxtaposes that with these two older women that were, I think, in their 80s that went to do mission work overseas, and they die by actually driving their car off a cliff. And he's like, how do you want to go out? Like picking up seashells, that's how you want to spend the rest of your day is picking up seashells on the, he's like, that is a tragedy. And these other women literally, they're in their 80s, serving Jesus on the mission field,

and just drive off a cliff. He says, that's how I want to go out. And it's like, I mean, if you listen to this sermon and you don't want to run through a brick wall, then there's something wrong with you. I mean, it'll fire you up. Well, it actually summarized saying you may retire from a secular job or career, but the biblical principle is that you never retire from serving God. Wow.

Amen. So, look, I think the retirement is when you die in Christ, because then you're leaning on his body, he's working through you, in you, with you. It's not your work, it's his work. Well, right. And we always say that, and we even talk about testimony. It's not my story. It's God's story, you know, but it's lived through us because then when we die to ourselves,

that's when the intersection happened and we became in him and him and us as we've been talking about. So good stuff. Hey, well, one thing, I know we're about out of time. I did want to just answer

the question we started with here is because I think I have the answer based on everything we just said, is today, if you're listening to this podcast, is it the end of the world? Is this it? And the answer is this, we don't know. It could be, but we don't know.

I don't know. Well, the better question, is, are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Would it surprise you when he comes back? That's first Thessalonians 5.4. That is the profound question.

So it's who you're with for how long, and will this day of the Lord surprise you? First Thessalonians 5.4. Questions to ponder. Until 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.