Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1287 | Jase Gets a Longevity Tip from Morgan Freeman & Willie Crashes the Party
Episode Date: March 11, 2026Zach tears up watching his kids stop a country crowd cold with a 200-year-old hymn, turning a Larry Fleet concert into an unexpected worship service. The guys wrestle with the healing of the man at th...e Pool of Bethesda, confronting the uncomfortable truth that some people would rather stay sick than be healed. Jase shares a longevity tip that traveled from Clint Eastwood to Morgan Freeman to his ears, and Willie Robertson crashes the recording mid-Bible study with his entourage in tow. In this episode: Ephesians 2, verse 6; Colossians 3, verses 1-4; Luke 22, verses 54-55; 1 John 1, verse 7; 1 John 2, verses 5-6; 1 John 2, verse 24; 1 John 2, verse 27; 1 John 2, verse 28; 1 John 3, verse 6; 1 John 3, verse 24; 1 John 4, verses 4, 10, 12-13, 15-16; 1 John 5, verse 20 “Unashamed” Episode 1287 is sponsored by: https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Schedule your one-on-one consultation today by visiting the website or calling 864-644-1900 and mention "AL" https://ruffgreens.com — Get a FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag for your dog today when you use promo code Unashamed! Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: https://www.wildalaskan.com/UNASHAMED. 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 Popcorn Monday 02:10 Texas Pride & Life on the Road 05:20 Morgan Freeman Quotes Clint Eastwood 08:30 When Cultural Wisdom Sounds Biblical but Isn’t 13:00 What the Bible Says About Power 19:05 Willie Crashes the Podcast 25:40 The Kingdom Looks Nothing Like Earthly Power 33:20 Pride, Humility, & the Upside-Down Kingdom 41:30 How Phil Challenged the World’s Definition of Strength 52:20 Final Reflections on Power & Pride — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I am unashamed.
What about you?
Welcome back to Unashamed.
It's a, I call Monday's Popcorn Monday because I don't know what's going to pop up on the set of Unashamed because, you know, usually we're all been traveling, but you were home this weekend, right?
For the first time in a month.
I was in Corpus, Christi, Texas with the fine folks.
What you know I love about Texas audio?
and I always tell them this at the beginning.
Texans love Texas.
I mean, they're the most proud state.
I mean, I love Louisiana,
but then I also know that I also say
that we live in a very inhospitable terrain.
You know, the people are very hospitable,
but the terrain, everything here wants to hurt you.
You may give you a tip?
Damage you, kill you.
I feel like it's going to be tip day.
You ready for a tip, man?
I'm ready for a tip, I'm ready for a tip.
Don't mess with Texas.
And that's what they say.
And they love it.
I love it.
And I always tell them that if they decide to become their own country, which someone said it's in their constitution,
but then it's been challenged and shot down according to one guy told me.
But I said, if that ever happens, I said, we want to go with you.
We'll be Texiana.
I think they are their own country.
Yeah, they kind of are.
But I'd like to go with them and we'll bring the guns, more guns, we'll bring food because we're pretty good cooks.
Yeah.
We'll bring some merriment.
You know, Louisiana people are generally pretty happy.
We're just happy to survive.
You got any tips on survival today, Joe?
Yep.
I'm going to give you a tip from the culture world.
Okay.
So that's always take it for what you want.
It's not a biblical tip.
Not a biblical tip.
Okay.
But I heard Morgan Freeman quote, Clint Eastwood, which I was a Clint Eastwood fan,
just not, I don't.
know him personally and I don't really know his belief system whatsoever. But when I was young,
I really loved his movies. I thought, now, this is something. Because dad loved his movies,
so we were watching. Outlaw, Josie Wales, good, bad and ugly. All those, those westerns to me were
enjoyable. And there's never been another series of movies. You and I were like eight and four
one Christmas Eve and we went saw a dirty hair. Well, my parents, we've documented all that.
They did things.
And he said this two mom and dads,
they weren't giving out any parents of the year back in the old days.
No, and they agree with that.
So it's okay.
They repented.
The Lord worked it out.
But, you know, Clint Eastwood, he's in his 90s, I think.
Morgan Freeman has approaching 90 or whatever.
And so I heard Morgan Freeman quote Clint Eastwood one time.
He said, what is the key?
to this longevity.
And he said, well, a good friend of mine,
Clint Eastwood once said,
never let the old man in.
Never let the old man.
Well, that does have a spiritual connotation.
That's why I'm saying this now,
because I thought, ooh, that would be my launching point.
Yeah.
Because I saw Morgan Freeman one time on a golf course.
Yeah, just a couple of years ago.
If I ever see him again,
I'm going to revisit.
that quote. There's the end. There's the conversation. He actually lives.
He used to live down the street from me when I was in Peninsula. I lived around the golf course.
We play every summer days when we're down there. And he has a house in there. But he still works.
He's like Eastwood. But I saw a picture of Eastwood, which he looks really bad now. I mean, like he's in his night.
But he was still working. I saw him on a movie set, but he was directing. He's like 96 years old.
Yeah. He's still working.
Well, that's what I'm talking about.
Which Mamma Joe kind of said something similar.
But what she said, her line was, because she's 94, and she was coming up to sit with mom.
You know, I mean, it's like, Mama Joe, you're 94 and you're sitting with my mom.
And she said, I said, what's your secret?
And she said, well, it's good, here's what she says.
It's good genetics and makeup is what she said.
And then she laughed.
She said, no, but you know what it is, hon?
She said, that chairs always call him, but I don't listen.
See, there you go.
That's another good one.
The chairs always call it.
In other words, once you plop down and quit moving, it's over.
It's what she said.
Boy, this is all kind of wisdom coming out today, Maddie.
Well, Maddie, you brought it because we had the wives on last week,
and Maddie got so fired up about it that we had an encore presentation.
It was, and I thought, well, that was so moving.
Can y'all hang around?
And I thought, boy, she's laying it on thick.
But she was serious, so I had to apologize.
guys.
They were talking about mentoring young women, and I didn't even think about it.
Maddie, you fit the profile for exactly what they were talking about.
Zach, what about you?
You haven't said anything.
It's been five minutes in, just like you're not even there.
Are you here?
Are you with us?
I'm here.
I was in North Carolina.
We're good.
You just saw your kids, right?
Tell us about that.
Because you were going.
You were flying out right now.
Yeah, wrapping the merch.
I went down.
I didn't fly out.
I drove out.
So they are.
on tour, Larry Fleet.
One thing you don't realize when you go on tour,
I thought they'd be, you know,
you show up, you do everything.
So they don't have a,
they don't have like the gear.
They got the gear, but they got a,
Layla has a Jedda or something like that.
It's like a little Volkswagen.
They can't get all their stuff in there.
So I let them borrow my truck and the trailer.
So I brought that down to them.
So I'm driving Layla's Jedda.
Dad loaned them the truck.
But it was awesome.
They played down in Atlanta.
And Jill and I went down there.
I got to see them open up for Larry Fleet.
And it was awesome.
So they're doing a whole 15 city tour.
They're doing, they may go to Europe.
So it was awesome.
They did a great job.
Did you cry?
I did tear up in one moment.
I told this earlier to Al.
Because all their songs are like country music or slash like Americana.
And that's kind of how Larry.
Larry plays like just straight up country music.
He has got that big song that made him pop.
The one that really set him off, made him popular, was where I found God,
which he talked about on this podcast.
But about halfway through the show, the kids, Max, was like, okay, this next song, I'm going to sing.
He said, you got to remember, he said, we're storytellers.
He said, that's what, all these songs are stories.
That's what we do.
We tell stories.
He said, but we can't let you leave here tonight without telling you the story.
And so this next song is about the story.
And it was that old hymn, Johnny Cash saying it,
were you there when they crucified my Lord?
There's three verses.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they buried him in the grave?
And were you there when he rose up from the grave?
And I mean, the place went nuts.
It turned into a worship service.
And I don't think anybody was expected.
I wasn't expecting that.
But I was watching people worship in the setting.
And I thought, you know,
everything we've been done on this podcast is about erasing the secular sacred divide.
The kingdom of God is here.
It's not stuck in a building somewhere, a church building.
It is in there, but it's everywhere.
God's kingdom is where his ruling reign is.
And in that moment, it was like, I got to see my kids actually display that on a stage.
And the audience to see their reaction was encouraging, to say the least,
because it was like, I think people want to see this secular.
or sacred divide erased.
And I could tell by the response to the audience.
So we did that.
I drove down there on a Friday right after we got on recording and then drove back here
because I had to preach on Sunday.
So, yeah, I've been burning it the last two and a half days.
Well, that's, and Larry's happy with your kiddos?
Yeah, he loved it.
Yeah, he texts me the first night when they opened up.
He's like, oh, my gosh, man, they're killing it.
They just got a standing ovation.
Well, he's awesome, though.
I mean, listen, I mean, I'd never been on his concerts.
I mean, it was like, oh, man, it was, the whole thing.
I really liked that guy.
He was, he had him on the podcast when we were in Nashville.
You remember he?
Yeah.
I wasn't listening.
I was, I was looking at the lyrics to that song, were you there?
I was like, what is the meaning behind that?
Well, here's what the artificial intelligence is,
which is a bunch of humans that they gather.
It says it prompts us to reverently,
imagine witnessing the Savior's death and resurrection and to consider how we would have felt
if we had been there.
Were you there?
Well, that's interesting, the reverence, because when I was telling Al about it earlier,
it was like, it was a moment, because everybody's cheering, you're at a concert, you're having
a good time, and then when that song landed, it was like silence, except for the voices,
you know, and it's a reverent thing when you,
start to just think about,
and that song is so simple,
but it's kind of,
in a weird way,
it's kind of a haunting song,
that it just,
it just,
it transports you back into that moment.
I heard one,
I heard David Crowder,
who we've also had on the podcast one time,
he did a,
a mashup of that song
with his song,
I'm the one who held the nails.
Oh,
yeah.
You know,
like I'm the one,
it's me.
I'm guilty.
I was the one hammering,
you know,
hammering my,
hand. So it was at an Easter service and he had they started with that were you there and they
crucified my Lord and then it was basically like moved into I yeah I was there. I was the one
that was driving the nails in the hands of Jesus and because a lot of times even in we're in this
Bible study that we're doing we're talking about what they did to Jesus but that's not really
the biblical story. Yeah. You know what we did to Jesus and to put yourself in that place
of not only witnessing the love of Christ,
but then also on the other side of it,
you know,
understanding that he died for our sins,
which means that we were the ones
who put the nail in the hand
of the one that we call Jesus.
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Gravity begins to shift.
It became a reality.
You're right.
And look, through the years of after that for like the last 20 years now, I tried all the
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I'm taking this as a sign.
So yesterday during the sermon, I got distracted.
and I started doing my own Bible study for a second.
I'm shocked.
Like I just did here.
And I guess I was thinking, I forgot the,
there was some statement about going to heaven.
And I thought, you know, that statement is actually not in the Bible,
the way it's used hundreds of times every Sunday.
And so I went to Ephesian story.
2 and verse 6.
But this is in the context of being or experiencing the new birth.
We were under the control of the evil one.
We were following the ways of the world.
We were gratifying the cravings of our sinful flesh.
But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy,
He made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions.
It is by the grace.
It is by grace.
You've been saved.
And then it kind of what Zach just did.
Like, were you there?
Yeah, we were there.
It says, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Because in my mind I was thinking, where does it say?
we go to heaven.
Well, I just read it to you.
Yeah.
Well, when did that happen?
So when did that happen?
That's a good question.
So look, this gets better.
So I did my little Greek lexicon.
I'm sitting on the front row,
acting like I'm paying attention,
but I'm reading this one.
No wonder.
I was asked you what the sermon was about.
You had no idea.
I think you're going to find this fascinating.
So I looked that word up,
seated us.
Because here's what I was thinking.
When in the, if you go back to the garden and Adam and Eve, when it says, and God rested Adam in the garden to work it.
And I was thinking, I wonder if there's a similarity there of setting Adam in.
And now in this new creation, we're resting in the heaven.
Ram's with Jesus seated.
So that was my thought, which I never really got down that way, because when I looked it up
in the Greek lexicon, that word for seated is only used twice in the New Testament, only twice.
And so to sit or place or rest is used a bunch of times.
But that's always just kind of the idea of sitting down.
Or the common.
Like the feed another five thousand, they sat down.
Well, that's a form of the word.
But this actual word is in the company of.
It's only used twice.
What's fascinating, it's used here.
So it's a partnership, a fellowship, a reality that you're in the company.
Well, that kind of made me start getting excited because I thought, oh, he made a point.
Paul did to say, look, you're literally in the company, which goes in with what we've been
studying with 1st, John 1, this fellowship participation. Here's what's interesting. The other time
that it's used, Luke 22, is your mind wondering, what in the world? 52. 55, Luke 22,
Jesus is arrested. Remember that Jesus had predicted that Peter would deny him three times.
Yeah.
Then John kind of uses his one time to get into the temple.
And remember Peter, he was not, he chose not to keep going further.
Right.
So Jesus is arrested.
Luke 22.
Yep.
So 54 says, then season him, they let him away, took him into the house of the high priest,
Peter followed at a distance, but when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together.
There's the other time that it's used.
Peter sat down with them.
A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight.
She looked closely at him and said, this man was with him, but he denied it.
and so you probably see where I'm going with this.
Who are you with?
Where are you at?
And when you throw in Colossians 3,
I think my point makes sense.
Colossians 3, verse 1,
since then you have been raised with Christ.
Same phrase as Ephesians 2, 6 and 7.
Set your hearts on things above.
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
So that's how this happens.
In your mind,
you're seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
I think those go together.
Set your mind on things above.
Not on earthly things.
For you died and your life is now hidden.
Uh-oh.
these two phrases
with Christ
in God
so then you get to
when Christ who is your life appears
you will also be with Him in glory
we're already there
yeah
I don't know any other way
to interpret that I just gave you the two times
it's mentioned and so you realize
am I sitting around a fire
staring at it denying Jesus
that I know him with worldly friends
yeah I mean those are the two
pictures
What were the two verses again?
Luke 2255 and Ephesians 2, 6.
And then I think Colossians 3, 1 through 4, explains further.
Ephesians 2, 6.
And then, so here's what I did before you comment.
So then I went to 1st John, and I want to add another theme.
Another theme added, because I've been doing these things about the themes.
Remember all the ifs and remember all the we know this?
Is this a...
Did y'all need to call a pro?
Did you get stumped on a question?
It must have been the wrong number.
The Willie Poppean.
We love the Willie Poppe.
That was...
There were cameras.
He had like a little entourage behind them, all these little minions.
He got his little minions with him?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's going to wind up someplace, just so you know.
He's somewhere outside of your control.
He wasn't in front of a mic, but he said, did y'all need to call a pro?
Yeah.
Did y'all get stumped on the Bible question?
That was his thing.
I heard, yeah, I could hear it through the mic.
It just sounded like nonsense to me, but, you know, I'm sure in his world, that was meaningful.
Well, here's my take on that.
When you start preaching the reality of Jesus and us being seated with him in the heavenly realms,
people start responding.
They just start coming.
Holy Spirit just moved.
There's our first convert to this new thought.
I think he felt convicted.
I think he felt convicted.
There was a spiritual awakening that just happened, and we saw it.
No question. Great.
So here, here, I don't know what this happened.
The difference in us, there's a podcast going on next door, the duck all room in there recording.
He would sit out and there, and that would be the whole rest of their podcast.
We're just like, okay, who'd be gone.
Let us get back to the talk.
Well, we have some many distractions today.
They're working on the roof.
Yeah, if you hear him beating and banging.
Well, hold on, you got to tell people who that was.
Do we even say who it was?
I said it was Willie.
He said Willie.
Okay, I didn't that.
It was Willie with his little posse.
And they were filming.
There was a little film crew over here behind Maddie.
So, Maddie, I'm glad you didn't look toward the camera because we need you.
You've got to be never look at the camera.
You're part of our mystery.
So let me show you this.
I think you'll love this.
All right, let me show you this.
So in First John.
I looked up, and thanks to human intelligence, they've gathered all these verses for me.
So look, the phrase in him or with him is constantly all over the place.
But look, think of the difference, and I try to wrap my head around that.
What's the difference in being in him and with him?
Because it uses those phrases multiple times in 1 John.
And look, all over, especially Paul's writing.
I mean, in him, I said, I think, are the most two important words.
But now I've stumbled up on with him.
And when we read the end of 1st John 2, where he got to chapter 3,
when he said when he appears, we'll be like him.
So there's you a sermon out.
In him is our current status.
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So when somebody says, what are you doing?
I'm seated in the heavenly realms with Christ.
Yeah.
But I'm appearing here on earth because of God's plan.
And if you would like to, we got a chair for you.
Right.
There's a door that, that's why Jesus said, I am the door.
Yeah.
The door is open to this access if you want to come and rest in him.
That's your position.
With him is this partnership, this participation.
That's why we're here on the earth.
We're with him.
And we will be like him.
That's what happens after we die.
Or if we're still alive when he comes back, there's going to be a change to this body
where it becomes heavenly.
Yeah.
Earthly to heavenly, but still a body.
Right.
We'll be like him.
4.5.
So.
And you're right.
What's happened is most of our understanding of this,
and I'm sad to say,
most of the teaching that still goes on,
is in him and then with him will be the after.
And we never get into the like,
you know what I'm saying?
Like it's an early cutoff like we're,
just kind of in a waiting status that's not already amazing.
That's what we kind of missed through the process.
Now here's the irony, and here's why this is hard to wrap your head around.
Because for all the passages that says you're either in him, with him, or be like him,
or you know him.
Yeah.
There's a bunch of those.
You know him.
Well, then it has a contrast saying, he's in us.
he's with us
yeah
so it's like us
he's made like us in every way
he he was made like us
and he knows us
yeah we know him oh he knows us
he knows our name so what comes first
well he addresses that where we're the next section
we're gonna be he addresses that
now he he's the initiator
he knows us so we can know him
I mean he
we can love because he
he first loved us.
Yeah.
So, and that's, that's the way this participation, but the more you wrap your head around
this, the more intimate this becomes.
And that's why Paul wrote those things.
This is a reality in our mind.
Yeah.
Because part of this is part of this new creation, this new life, is just believing in the
possibility that there is a door, that he is real.
Yeah.
I mean, that gets into your desires and thoughts.
And I think that, that is the biggest thing.
to overcome.
Yeah.
It's kind of like we were talking about
before we started
when he,
in John 5,
when he comes up to the man
who had been laying by this pool
for years
and who had walked.
Yeah, almost 40 years.
Well, Jesus asked him
an interesting question.
He's like, do you want to get well?
I mean, that is such a profound question.
Yeah.
Because you, for that long,
you've now become dependent.
Because remember, he was like, well, I can't get to the water.
Yeah, he had all these excuses, which, why wouldn't you have them?
Because that's the way your life is.
You've pretty much realized that it's probably not going to happen.
I mean, you're basically going on a lottery here.
Remember, because that little cultural verse that was not in the ancient manuscripts said,
it was believed that the first one in there, the angel of the Lord,
or stirred the waters or whatever.
He's like, do you want to get well?
I mean, it's sometimes hard to think outside our box of our earthly existence.
And the interesting thing was we made the point we were there is the healing he got was way bigger
than being able to jump up and run around.
I mean, that was a sign for the moment for Jesus.
but the healing took place at a far deeper level.
It's kind of like, Zach, that what was the phrase from our Hillsdale podcast,
that God is transcendent and imminent?
Yeah.
I mean, I love that idea that the bigness of God, sometimes it's hard for us to wrap our mind,
but that he's with us, that he's in us, that he makes himself available to us.
We talked about that on that other podcast.
But in Jesus, that's exactly what we get.
And we really can't understand the other without seeing Jesus, without having him here, without experiencing him being one of us.
I think that's how we know.
Yeah, the incarnation is interesting.
I mean, y'all had mentioned in the connection to who we are.
You mentioned that Hebrews passage, which I actually preached on Sunday that he had to become like us in every way.
And that's in Hebrews too.
And what he says is before he talks about Christ becoming like us in every way, which is the incarnation.
You know, it's the transcendent becoming imminent in the incarnation that Christ took on flesh.
He became like humans in every single way.
He became a human.
But before that, he says, he basically says it wasn't the angels to whom God subjected the world to come.
That's the kingdom.
The world to come is the kingdom.
It's the consummated kingdom.
And so there's another, like this world that we're in now, the kingdom's here, but it's not fully realized.
yet. And so we have this idea
that there's another world that's going to come
that we're going to be a part of.
And he says it wasn't the angels that he
subjected that world.
Then he references, he says, it's written
somewhere and he references Psalm 8.
And when he gives that
Psalm 8 passage, he
says, what is man that
you are mindful of him, the son of man,
that you would care for him? You made him a little lower than the
angels and that you had the Psalm 8 passage.
To go back and read Psalm 8,
what the psalmist is actually talking about is this dominion that humans possess and so when when paul
when sorry not paul the hebrew writer is writing this and he says it wasn't the angels to who
god subjected the world to come what he's saying is it's you it's the spiritual believers those who
are who are connected with the crucified lord jesus christ we will be actually reigning in in the in the new
heavens and the new earth and the way that he describes that in psalm
is the transcendent and the eminent,
because he starts with God so far above us.
He says, if you go back to read Psalm 8,
it says, oh, Lord, oh, Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth?
You are so amazing and other than.
And then the question that arises out of that is,
and what is man that you would even notice him?
Much less care for him.
You know, like, what does it say about us?
If you're that amazing,
and you have us in mind,
what does that say about us as humans
and what it ultimately says is
is that Christ has an intention for us
and that intention is to rule,
it is to reign,
it is to exercise dominion,
it is to cultivate a garden,
and the way that's accomplished
is by Christ being the,
he goes through first and actually accomplishes that.
That's why he had to become like us in every way.
So when you get to Jace's question
that he mentioned,
do you even want to be healed,
I mean, that's the question.
Do you even want this?
Because that's the part I feel like that some people can't want the healing
because they're so attached to whatever the vice is.
And it's like that C.S. Lewis thing in The Great Divorce,
and it has that lizard of lust on the guy's shoulder.
Remember that?
It's like a lizard of like a lot.
It's like attached to him.
And the angel's like, hey, you want me to remove that?
Do you even want to be healed?
Do you want me to take that away from you?
And the guy's like, no, no, it'll kill me.
It's going to hurt.
It'll kill me.
And the angel's like, yeah, I might kill you, but you want to live like that?
And the guy's like, no, I don't take it, even if it kills me.
And so when the angel takes that lizard of lust, he rips it off his shoulder, and he throws it on the ground,
and then it becomes some creature that then the guy rides and he's in control of.
That's the picture, right?
Ultimately, what he says, do you want to be healed?
what he's saying is do you want to be ruled by the creation?
You want it to rule you?
Or do you want to rule it?
That is the question.
If you don't have an imagination for what could be,
then you're going to say,
now I'm going to stick with what I know,
and you're going to miss out.
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He also said,
when he pulled that lizard off his shoulder,
it was a scream that was almost non-earthly.
It was so, such a, you know, he really had a picture.
And I love that idea because the idea is,
it is hard for us, the concept of putting ourselves to death.
And that's exactly what has to happen.
C.S. Lewis called it the bittersweet,
the ultimate bittersweet moment because it's difficult to do.
I mean, it's hard to lay your life down, you know, which is exactly what this text is about.
Yeah.
So I want to give you these examples, just a thumbnail.
So in 1st, John 2.5, it says, but if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him.
All right.
Verse 6, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Yeah.
So then 224, I mean, you're going to be fascinated how this works.
It says, see that you have heard, what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.
If it does, you will also remain in the son and in the father.
First John 228.
And now, dear children, continue in him so that when he appears we may be confident.
not ashamed for him at his coming.
Then 3.6.
No one who lives in him keeps on the practice of sinning.
Look at 324.
Those who obey his commands live in him.
I'm going to stop right there.
413.
It says, we know that we live in him.
I'm going to stop right there.
416.
And so we know we're allowing the love God has for us.
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God.
Then you have 1 John 5 in verse 20, of course.
We know also that the Son of God has come
and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.
And we are in Him.
who is true, even in his son.
Now, if you look at the, not the opposite,
what would you call that, the Him and Us.
So that's us and Him.
Well, look, it's almost the same verses,
but I'll just pick out a few.
So look at 1st John 2.27.
As for you, the anointing you receive from Him
remains in you,
remains in you.
And you do not need anyone to teach you.
He's like, you have the Holy Spirit, which is me.
In you.
Yeah.
First John 324.
Those who obey his commands live in him.
And then I stopped the first time.
And he and them.
And this is how we know that he lives in us.
We know it by the spirit he gave.
And it's fascinating.
Then at 1 John 4-4,
you dear children are from God and have overcome them
because the one who is in you
is greater than the one who's in the world.
I just found this fascinating as I continue to read.
Verse 12 of chapter 4 says,
no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.
It's hard to get your head around.
Verse 13, we know that we live in him and he in us because of the spirit, because he has given us,
of his spirit.
4.15.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God,
God lives in Him.
And He and God.
There's another duel.
416.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us,
God is love.
Whoever lives in love
lives in God and God in Him.
I mean, I don't know how more profound that John can be
where he's saying, don't miss this.
This is a two-way street,
but he puts it in the context of when he starts trying to explain this in detail,
and when he says, you know, this is love,
not that we love God, it makes more sense of it all.
where's that at first john 410 this is love not that we love god but that he loved us and sent
his son as an atoning sacrifice for sins and i only bring that up because he's the initiator yeah
of this but he's welcoming us to him yeah that's why i believe when jesus and john 10 said i'm the
door i know my sheep by name why is he saying why is he going into detail about that you're like
oh, oh, I need to enter this door.
And door pops up all over the New Testament in various ways.
Yeah, knocking on the door, the whole thing.
Well, and it's interesting because we say this about every fifth podcast,
we've been at first John, but if you look at the timeline of now this John,
who is an older man, an elder in the church,
who has lived now this wisdom.
and obviously there's some love that's waning at the end of the first century because that's
where we're headed in the next chapter and chapter four is all about the love of God.
But you remember when he wrote John, he was a much younger man, it had just happened,
but everything Jesus is talking about was only was pointed to because Jesus hadn't died yet.
He kept pointing to everything.
He was painting these pictures and all of his teaching about what that fellowship would look like.
Remember he spent three chapters talking about the Holy Spirit in 14, 15, 16.
And so these disciples, and to your point of Peter, just couldn't grasp this idea.
How would this be possible to have this relationship with Yahweh, especially when it was just so fearful.
And the idea was it would be so hard to have that intimacy.
And Jesus kept saying, but look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me.
And then right up to the point of his dad, then they all thought, what happened?
Then he raised, and then they got it.
but they only got it when the Holy Spirit came.
Remember when you breathed into him?
So I just love it that now he is in later.
That's why he keeps just going back over and over and over again.
How many times Jay's just mentioned?
Because, I mean, how many are repeated?
27 times I found in my study of chapter four, he mentions love.
Yeah.
27 times in 15 verses.
I mean, you know, about repetitive.
I think he's trying to get him to understand how much God loves us.
like you said, and what he did for us,
and now what that does for us,
putting us in the company.
Because think about you got the father,
you got the son,
you got the spirit,
and now you got us.
In that fellowship of this triune God.
I mean, it really is fascinating
that we get to do that because of his love.
I wanted to show you another example of this,
and I think we,
I don't know if this kind of hit me,
but so in Revelation,
And this was me studying about this walking in the light
or whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
There's a lot of walking verses in 1st John.
And it makes me think of when Jesus was doing his miracles and all,
and he would hit like the guy by the pool.
He gets up and he walks.
And so Paul used this illustration.
Unfortunately, the NIV does not translate the word walk in this anymore.
So that was unfortunate.
But I want to read this when Paul and Roman 6 says,
what shall we say then?
Shall we go on sin until the grace may increase and we die to sin?
Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through Babixt.
into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may walk in newness of life.
It's not in the NIV.
But when I looked up the Greek, it was in there.
That's why it hit me.
And so you said, well, what's my point?
Well, when you get to Revelation, and here's a message to seven churches,
And the first one in Revelation 2 in Ephesus, which we went through the book of Ephesians.
And you remember Ephesus, all this different diversity of human beings from people all over the cultural world?
How many times did Paul use in Christ or in him, by the way, in the book of Ephesians?
And look, and if you look up the word, walk in the book of Ephesians, all over the place.
because I did. I think it's seven or eight times.
So, but watch how this works.
He said, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write,
these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand.
Because he had just said, you know, John is seeing this vision.
And he sees this vision of Jesus where in verse 17 of chapter one,
don't be afraid, I'm the first and the last, I'm the living one.
I was dead, behold, I'm alive forever.
I hold the keys of death and Hades.
This is our king, the king of kings.
Right, therefore, what you have seen, what is now,
and what will take place later.
The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand,
and of the seven golden lampstands is this.
The seven stars are the angels or messengers of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
So there's a lot of debate about are these stars?
Does each church have an angel or is this?
The whole point is Jesus has them in his hand.
The one holding this is more important.
But here's the little phrase I was going after.
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand
and walks among the seven golden lampstands,
which we just read.
Those are the churches.
Yeah.
The church is supposed to emit the light of the Lord.
Right.
That we're giving the world a glimpse of what new creation looks like in our world.
What I found fascinating is Jesus said he's the one who's walking among them.
And we just don't believe that.
In reality, look, I think some churches, if they thought about that, they would think,
He ain't walking in here.
I can tell you that.
Because I'm contrasting that by us being seated with him at the right hand of God.
We're like, whoa, that can't mean that.
Well, I read it to you.
It sure seems that that was what Paul's implication was.
That that's a reality because he doubled down on it in Colossians 3 saying,
put your mind up there because that's where you're at.
Meanwhile, he's walking among you.
your fellowship.
And you know why I thought of that?
Because it takes me back to the garden.
You remember what was the father doing
when Adam and Eve were in the garden
pre-sinful act?
He was walking.
It says the exact phrase
that he was walking in the cool of the day
among the garden.
His presence is there.
So I just found that
fascinating. He says it again in one of the other churches about walking among in chapter three. I can look
it up. But I just didn't know if you had thought about that picture before.
No, and I think you're exactly right, which is John's point in First John, but also in his
revelation, because remember John's the one that gives that revelation. And remember, he had been
at this church at Ephesus as an elder for many years. And so he had intimate knowledge of this church.
And there are issues, I'm sure, like any church would have.
So his whole tone is this reminder about what your purpose is and who you are.
And there's a drift that's obviously happened here in this first century church setting from when they first found out about Christ and they're on fire and they're loving each other.
And now these doctrines are coming in.
And what, Jesus didn't really come here.
And he wasn't really in flesh because, you know, the Greeks had it right.
flesh is bad.
And so you see all this stuff creep in.
It's the same stuff we deal with the day.
Yeah.
You know, you get off track and you're right.
As you realize, we're not really alike because we're fighting with one another.
And, you know, it becomes this place of gossip and, you know, a detriment.
Some people are like, church becomes a negative thing.
I mean, all of us run into people every single day.
They're like, well, I love Jesus, but I hate church.
And you're just like, that's a terrible thing that's happened.
It's awful.
Well, even in his letter to him, first he brags on them.
He's like, I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance.
Well, you just need to stop there.
And like, he's walking among your church.
He knows exactly what's going on.
He knows everybody by name.
He's fully aware of what's happening here.
And he's like, I know that you can't tolerate wicked men,
that you've tested those who claim to be apostles but are not.
You have found them false.
Everything's good here.
You have persevered and have endured hard.
for my name and have not grown weary, fully aware.
This has given you a picture of him walking among your church.
Yeah.
Yet I hold this against you.
You have forsaken your first love.
Which is why I thought this went in with First John, with him loving us first.
That is the definition of love.
Remember the height from which you have fallen.
Repent.
Do the things you do it at first.
If you do not repent, I'm going to come to you and remember.
your lamp stand from its place because you're not doing your job emitting the light.
But you have this in your favor.
You hate the practices of the Nickelotians, which I also hate.
He who has ears, let him hear, let him hear what the Spirit says of the churches.
And then watch what he says.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of God, which he goes back to the garden when the father was walking along
with the first two humans.
So we've got the first creation,
and now we have the new creation that Jesus introduced,
and it's just as intimate.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
And whenever I do, when Lisa and I speak,
I talk about the four-year period now,
I've got a good verse for it, Jase,
because when I was seated in the company of unbelievers,
and that's where I went to,
and I was denying Christ.
You know, now I got that verse that Luke 2255,
that when you're seated among the unbelievers
and you're living like they do,
the line I use, Jesus, I always say,
during this era of my life,
I turned my back on my first love,
which was Jesus Christ,
because God had protected us
through some really rough times, you know,
before mom and day were Christians,
and I turned my back on him.
And then in that interim of time,
ironically, I also turn my back on my second love, which is now the love of my life, my wife,
as well, and crushed her.
So you're capable of anything in the dark, is my point.
Yeah.
Which is why the Bible is just pleading to not be seated in that place, to be seated in the heavenly rounds.
What an opportunity.
And why would you ever want to go back to the darkness, you know, once you've seen the light?
Why would you ever want to go back to being the guy that was sitting by the pool?
that didn't want to get well.
You know, he never went back there.
That guy never went back to that pool.
He's gone.
He's gone.
He's up and hop and skip and jump in someplace,
but he ain't going back there.
Which, why would you ever want to?
The other analogy was in Revelation 3
when he, at the church in Sardis,
he's like, these are the words of him
holds the seven spirits of God,
the sevenfold spirit,
and the seven stars,
which you'd already been through.
I know your deed.
You have a reputation of being a,
alive, but you're dead.
Yeah.
Wake up. Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not
found your deeds complete in the side of God.
He's walking, saying, what are you doing?
You're not acting like you've been made alive.
You're not seated with me in the heavenly realms.
I'm walking through and watching what you're doing.
Remember, therefore, what you've received and heard,
obey it, and repent. But if you do not
wake up, I will come like a thief.
And then he gets to verse four, and he's like,
yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.
That's his analogy.
They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.
He who overcomes will like them be dressed in white.
I will never blot out his name from the book of life,
but will acknowledge their name before my father and his angels,
which is where we're seated.
I love that.
And as a callback here, because we're out of time, Zach, what you described in that concert
was your son and daughter being a light for Jesus.
By giving him that glory in the middle of a, you know, concert, that's what we do.
That's the moment you see.
That's what we're called to do.
And that's in the every day.
That's not a once-a-week thing or, you know, just somewhere in a church building.
That's anywhere.
That's anywhere during the walk.
You want to be that light and you want to show it?
It makes 1st John 1-7 ring more true, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.
I love it.
And that used to be a verse used to say, you've got to get you step back in church.
It's way bigger than that, boys.
We're seated in the heavenly rounds.
All right.
We'll get back into it next time.
Don't know a shame.
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