Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1291 | Jase Robertson Issues a Wake-Up Call to Men Who Won’t Lead Their Families

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Phil Robertson had a surprising way of settling arguments with his boys when they got into trouble, and the guys dig into a bigger conversation about why so many men today struggle to lead their families. Turning to Genesis, the guys examine the roles given to men and women—roles humanity has wrestled with since the beginning and that modern culture only seems to complicate further. Zach helps explain how believers can test the spirits and recognize truth through Scripture and the fruit of the Spirit. In this episode: 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 4; 1 John 3, verse 13; Revelation 3; Genesis 2, verses 15–17; 1 John 3, verse 18; Colossians 1; Matthew 18; 1 John 3, verses 19–21; 1 John 4, verses 1–6; 1 John 5, verse 9; Galatians 5, verses 19–24 “Unashamed” Episode 1291 is sponsored by: https://fastgrowingtrees.com — Get 20% your first purchase when using the code UNASHAMED at checkout. https://timtebow.com/tree-unashamed/ — Get your copy of If the Tree Could Speak by Tim Tebow on Amazon today! 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" http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters 00:00 Willie’s Shockingly Exciting Birthday Gift 05:35 A Town Called “Surprise” 10:05 Getting Stuck in the Bathroom Line for a Reason 18:40 A Husband’s Duty to Protect 27:45 Leadership, Blame, & Responsibility 36:00 The L-O-V-E Section 44:00 God Is Greater Than Our Hearts 49:00 How to Recognize Truth 54:00 The Spirit of Truth vs. the Spirit of Falsehood — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. We are coming to you from our perspective boxes today. I'm back in Gulf Shores. Had a couple of events. Chase, you had an event this last week as well, I think. Oh, I did. You know where I went? Where? You're not going to believe it. You're going to be in for a big surprise. I mean, just a really big surprise. I don't know. Was it Canada?

No, it was a little place called Surprise, Arizona. Oh. I did that. What a nice surprise. I did that same joke. I get up. There's overflow crowd, all men, men's event. There was a thousand in the little arena, which was all at hold.

Overflow and, you know, watch the own video. And I said, this is just a really nice surprise. Ow, cricket. I was like, okay, either my impression was off, which probably was. Your delivery was off. That's what the problem was. Or the delivery was off, but Zach's silence doesn't bother me. No, Jay's relishes the silence.

You let it sip for a second? I let it sit for a second, and then that song came on in the back of my head. At the sound of silence, or how about it? Do do, do, do, do. You know. It's the old California. So then I had another joke in my hip pocket because Willie had done the same event last year. And so, which is kind of ironic.

I mean, they're like, they schedule Willie. And then the next year, they're like, well, let's get his brother. Yeah. I mean, it's surprise Arizona. I'm saying it doesn't ring like its redneck central USA. It's right north of Phoenix. So are you saying me or Jep may be on the docket for next year? Get ready.

It's a wonderful town. And so I have my second joke ready, prepare it, because they usually don't land because I can't be on purpose funny. But I said, so I know what you're thinking. What's the biggest difference between you and Willie? And I said, about 50 pounds. Eruption. eruption on that.

That landed. That's not a bad technique. You give them an awkward, like where you say the joke and everybody feels the awkwardness, then it builds the tension. Yeah. And then when you deliver the next joke, it's kind of a bait and switch. It's a good tactic to use. Because, man, we're all good at that.

The one thing we're all good at is throwing each other under the bus because remember Jason? I said you, I was in California last year, and you had been there like two months before in the same place, totally different event. But, and I said, how many y'all saw Jace a couple of months ago? And about a third of the audience, raise their hand. I said, well, you know what you got tonight? Upgrade.

And so that got a huge laugh. So I was in Brenham, Texas while you were in Surprise Arizona days, and the home of Bluebell ice cream. So my opening line was, you know, I always say, you know, who loves being in Texas? And they all cheered, you know. And I said, this is the land of Blue Bonnet, bluebell and black belts. And I had a bottle of water, the sea forest water, because Chuck Norris's ranch is just

right outside of Brigham in between there and some other town and Navasota. And he has a water thing that he, aquifer is that he found on his property. And so he makes water now. And so, and on the thing, it says. is the roundhouse kick of water. And so even Chuck Norris's water is, you know, special. And so I said that. And then I gave one of my Chuck Norris jokes, you know, they got all those Chuck Norris jokes.

And one of my favorite ones is when the boogeyman goes to bed at night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. And people laugh? Oh, they roared. You're in different crowds. I don't think that would have for me. but it wouldn't i'll tell you this yeah it's funny you said that about willie i i looked on his instagram uh or cori's and she got him a birthday gift that i mean when he opened this thing up it was like like literally like christmas morning because he don't to see will he get excited like

that is is rare and you know what the present was that he got so excited about i'm gonna say no i'm gonna say like that'd be depressing i'm some kind of all you can eat buffet. It was a cheese grater, a commercial cheese grater. Oh, yeah, I did see that. This thing was like, I mean, it was huge. I'm like, when a man gets excited over massive amounts of cheese grading, you know what I mean? That's something going on there.

There may be a problem. Is that what you're saying? Oh, it was, yeah, I mean, it was like a legit, this is the kind of thing you could put. I saw that thing. I was just as impressed as. he was. I was wishing I had one, and I don't even grade that much cheese anymore. No, that's funny. That is funny. Well, look, here was what I learned. I couldn't make fun of the town, and I only do that for humor purposes anyway. We want to make the town known for Jesus,

which I said later in the speech. I'm like, we need to surprise people in surprise that God visited the planet. Jesus, and he came here to get his family back together forever. But here's what's interesting, because this is a good story. So the town was originated in 1938 by this woman, Flora May Statler. And the name stemmed because she was going to make it a farming community, which I stopped right there and said, you're in a desert.

It's kind of hard to farm things when you have a lack of water. But you know what you say to that, Jay? Surprise. Yeah. But she made this statement. She said she would be surprised if the town ever amounted to much. So they named it surprise. And look, nothing happened until the 1990s.

and then it took off. It took that long. So now I looked up how many people lived there, 167,000. I mean, that's pretty big. That is 25, 30 minutes outside of Phoenix. So it may be just that Phoenix got so big. Yeah.

It's kind of become a bedroom community, they call it. Yeah. But it's an interesting town, real nice. Love the people. They have two spring training. major league baseball teams that visit there. So that was, because I could see the ball fields when I was coming in. So, yeah, and then I dropped the ball, Al, because look, I was going to, at the end,

the only notes I had, I had First Thessalonians 5'4, do not be surprised when Jesus comes back. No one should be surprised. So I was going to do that. You know, when Jesus comes back, it's the faith test. Would that surprise you? And since we're in 1 John, I was going to read 1st John 313. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. Mm.

Ooh. You know what's interesting is those two words translated surprise are different in the Greek language. Really? So I'm glad I did that because I thought, well, I don't want to use something if it's not the word for surprise. So the one in 1st John 3 is more about our English definition of surprise. But 1ststallant 5, which I've quoted hundreds of times at events, it actually is not like our English word surprise. It's more because in the context it says you don't live in darkness

where this day, the day of the Lord coming back, should surprise you like a thief. So it's actually, and the Greek seems like it's a little more about... More about preparedness? Well, about being grasped by... Like if a thief came in, I mean, it still has a surprise connotation. But you don't want to be like surprised by a thief, and then he grabs all your stuff or grabs you,

and you're like, oh, well, what's happening? That's more of the idea, which I thought was interesting. I did that on the plane. I was looking up the various words for surprise. Did you include that in your thing? No, I forgot. Oh, it's just so embarrassing that I thought it was so good, you know, and then that was going to be the big ending, and then I forgot it.

But I wanted to say it here because we probably picked up a few listeners. These people were fired up. I mean, it was men. I mean, when I stood up, to speak, half the audience stood up. And I said, what are y'all doing? I haven't even started yet. Lower your expectations. They were already charity, yes. Well, spring is right around the corner, starting to see the blooms coming out. And our good friends at fast-growing trees, they're America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands

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Offer is valid for a limited time terms and conditions may apply. So anyway, but I really loved it. But I wanted to tell you this when I was on that plane. And I just took this as a sign. I was also going to share this story. I forgot all about it. I got so centered and focused on Jesus during the presentation. I forgot my little things that I was going to add.

And maybe that's for the best. But so, Al, I'm up toward the front of the plane, and it's a long flight from Dallas to Phoenix. I say long, you know, almost three hours. So at some point, I'm looking at. at the little bathroom light. It's time to go. So I get up and go up there. Well, for some reason, I didn't see there was a woman in plain clothes, like sitting where the stewardess usually sits. And I thought, oh, there's a line. So I stopped. So now I'm in the little in between the aisles.

And she's like, oh, did you need to go to the bathroom? And I was thinking, well, aren't you in line? So that's what I said. I said, oh, no, go ahead. And she's like, no, I'm a ride-along, which I didn't really know what that meant at the time. I don't know if I ever really figured it out, but I thought, in my opinion, I think she's like a stewardess in training kind of thing, maybe. I don't know if they do that. She had just been, yeah, but they also, like, if they're off-duty, they can still fly places, I think, if they work for the airline. Well, something. They call them deadheads.

She's a ride-along. Young girl. Yeah. I think Maddie, you know, in her 20s. Yeah. And so she's like, no, I'm a ride-along. So I was like, oh, okay. So I get to the bathroom door, and she kind of moves back where you get off the plane, you know, but we're 30,000 feet or whatever.

And she said, Mr. Robertson, well, then that kind of made me think, this is different. How does she know my name? Because she said, Mr. Roberts. I thought she's riding along. What do you know all the passengers? And but then kind of her lips started quivering and I thought, oh no, what's fixing to happen here? And she's just like, I listen to y'all's podcast and I just, I'm really on fire for the Lord. And she started telling me what she's involved in, all great stuff.

I mean, it warmed my heart. Here's a 20-something year old woman. And she's just fired. up, but she's emotional. And she said, I just, I'm taking this as a sign because you're on here, and I've been wanting some advice, and I just, I think God led you here. So I was like, gulp, what advice is going to ask? And she said, here's the problem.

And she tearfully said, she's like, I'm dating a guy who's lukewarm. And I was waiting for the rest of it. And I was like, now here's a woman on fire for the Lord. She is emotional because she's dating a guy that she depicted as lukewarm, which I know where she got that, Revelation chapter 3. Yeah. Where this illustration at the church, Jesus himself said, I wish you were either hot or cold.

And evidently there was some springs there in that region, and they used hot water for some things in cold water. But he's like, but you're... You're lukewarm. Yeah, you're lukewarm. And then he says something that should make all of us pause. And I appreciate her attitude because he said it literally makes me want to gag and vomit that you're lukewarm. And so I gave her scriptural advice.

I basically just told her how I met my wife, you know, when we were in the dating world. And I said, I think you need to come to Jesus meeting. And I think you need to sit down with him and tell him where you're headed and what you're all about and see how serious he is about doing this. It was basically the gist of my advice. I said it'll save you some time if he's not on board. Yeah. Did she take that well? I mean, she...

Oh, she did. I mean, she kind of told me her story, you know, which was fascinating. she said, you know, when she was in her mother's womb, they detected some problems or whatever, and they encouraged her mom to have an abortion. It's like Tebow's story. Yep, that's what it reminded me. Yeah. And so I think she really more than other people having that experience and then being told that story,

she's like, God's got a plan for me. And I'm all about it. And so, no, it was moving. And I thought, here I am going to a men's event. And what are the odds of me meeting a young woman whose whole issue right now, the most important thing in her life, is trying to figure out how she can get her boyfriend fired up for the Lord, which has just made me think about men needing to lead and to step up. So it did affect my speech because it made me think of the creation story.

And, you know, Eve gets, let's face it, she gets the brunt of what happened. And it's so interesting that when you get to the New Testament, you know, Adam kind of gets all the blame. I mean, I think he's, I think the writers, you think Romans 5, where he's like, for an Adam all sin, you know, and then the new man, Jesus comes to redeem. but it's like, well, shouldn't Eve be included in that? So, but what it made me think is, really it's true, because when you think about Adam and what happened and how that went down, he should have stepped up. Yeah.

He should have stepped up and said, wait a minute. Show some leadership here, but he didn't. Part of the priestly role is that you're there to guard and protect the garden as you expand. it. So, I mean, there is an element of, there's an element of a guarding role. And so the fact that Satan even got in and was able to have that conversation with Eve, yeah, a lot of theologians believe that that was, primarily came out of Adam, essentially advocating his priestly role to protect the garden. So Adam allows this conversation. He allows this threat that he allows. that he allows this intrusion into the garden, which paves the way for the deception. So he certainly was like a part of it, even though he wasn't the one that actually sinned first. He did at least like step back and advocate his responsibility.

I think you see that in the scripture. Well, plus not only that, it's the, in my opinion, the number one responsibility of a husband and a father is to protect, is to protect your wife, is to protect. your children, your household, your family, both from evil, but also from anything. I mean, like, that's our number one role. So I definitely think, as you're on to him abdicating his responsibility as protector. And I hadn't thought about as much about the garden, I think you're right about that too, but also just of his wife. I mean, she came from him. She is a part of him. And so I think when we become one flesh with our brides, which by the way,

is that I'm worried for you because we had, you had a meeting, a big meeting you had to do. And so Jill stepped into your spot. I'm worried that Unashamed Nation is going to say, we need more Jill. She was so good. Was she not, Jase? Was Jill not a big hit? Yeah, and you could still get the credit for it. You could just sit Jill.

You say, I'm, you could become a contributor. And you say, well, how do I contribute? Well, I'm sending my wife. Yeah. She was great. But it made me think about 1st John 318, which we're at also, and we've been studying, when it says, Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth, it makes me think if you're a guy and you're leading your family or in a dating relationship,

you know, you should, it's not about what you say. You lead in actions and truth. If you have to say, I learned this. year one of my marriage. If I, and I said it, I was like, look, I'm leading this thing. That meant nothing. And because my wife said, well, you could have fooled me. Yeah, it's just words.

Actions and truth. That's what you should bring to the table. But look, to finish that story. So then I turn around, because now it's, we've had a 10 or 12 minute conversation. I had just a question because when I go to the bathroom a lot on airplanes, and were you still waiting to go to the bathroom? Oh, yeah, I'm still. And I'm like...

See, that would have been a problem for me. I would have said I will be right back to talk to you. No, it's not just you. It was a problem. I had moved to 9.5 out of 10. So, Jay's, I don't get surprised very often. Tim Tebow was coming on. I didn't even know about the book that he had written.

Yeah. if the tree could speak. Which was convicting because this was really clever, and this is really well done. I think it's for everyone, and it's a great conversation starter, about why we're here, what we're supposed to be doing here, and what happens next in the Lord. So the idea behind the book is, what if the cross itself could speak? And so it's wonderful, it's well thought out. It gives you a different perspective on the cross because the cross is the closest witness,

in a sense, that Jesus hung on that. day. And one of the things that convicted me about it was the cross thinking, oh, no, this is the worst job I could have to be a place where Jesus died. But then the cross realizes that it's also the place to hold Christ up, which is very, very special. So it's very good. Even if you heard the Easter story a thousand times, this one will challenge you and deepen your faith. It's well written. It's beautifully illustrated. It makes you slow down and really feel the way to what Jesus did for us. What you get from this book will stick with you long after you put it down, and you want to pick it up year after year as you prepare to celebrate Easter.

Step inside the story, hear the witness, and experience Easter like never before. Check out Tim Tebow's book, If the Tree Could Speak on Amazon. That's If the Tree Could Speak by Tim Tebow. Order your copy on Amazon today. So then I turn around because the stewardess, the actual stewardess, seems to be trying to get involved in the conversation. And I thought, because there's a little bit of turbulence and we're jostling around.

And so I look at her and I was like, my apologies. And she said, oh, no, I thought that was beautiful. And I thought, well, here we go. And she said, you're not going to believe this. She said, I was FaceTime and my husband earlier in the day. And I noticed he was wearing a shirt that I think you might be interested in. And I thought, I was looking down at my wardrobe thinking, how did you make that connection? But I thought she was making fun of what I had on.

But when she showed me the picture of her husband, he was wearing an unashamed sweatshirt. And she said, he has listened to every one of your podcasts. And I am truly grateful for y'all's podcast because it's made him such a better man and husband. So I thought, well, wow, we're just having quite the come-to-Jesus meeting here in front of the paint. Well, you are 30,000 feet above the planet, days, when all this was happening. Yeah, so I thought that was really encouraging. I want to share that. We appreciate Unashamed Nation out there.

It was really encouraging. Let me give you this for a quick. This is interesting. I just pulled it up. This is in Genesis chapter 2. Let me pull my Bible back a little bit. This is so interesting. this is the commandment that God gave to Adam.

Think about this. Eve's not in the picture when God says this. The Lord took, this is Genesis 215. The Lord God took the man, that would be Adam, and he put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. In the Hebrew for the word work and keep, those are two different words. One is to cultivate, the other is to protect and to guard.

So cultivate the garden, expand it, but as you're doing it, protect it from any intrusion. and corruption. And the Lord God commanded the man, that would be Adam, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. So what's interesting, the very next verse is that God said,

it's not good for man to be alone, so I'll make a suitable helper for him. So then he creates Eve after he gives this command. I think about the setup here. So you think what was Adam's role? He was the one that received this word from the Lord and this instruction from the Lord. Then the serpent comes in and he says, did God really say that you can't eat from any tree in the garden? The one who should have responded first was not Eve.

It was Adam. Adam was the one that received the command and he could easily just set it. No, no, no, no. That's not how the conversation went down. Actually, what God said was, I can eat from any tree in the garden except one, but he remained silent. And so I think his silence was a, it was like a, it wasn't ignorance. It was a silent participation in the lie. He allowed that lie because in whatever level he wanted it.

And it wasn't just that he advocated his responsibility of it. He was actually participating in the lie because he knew, because he was the one that God actually said it to. Which is so, it makes that verse in 1 John 3, I read so much more profound because the reason he didn't say any words is because he didn't want to take any action and he didn't want to hold to the truth that God said. And I also would remind you when you read that verse, the English translation that says he put him in the garden, it's the same word for God resting. He rested at him.

in the garden. And the point there is way more powerful because he's like, God's mission is, I've given you everything you need. Trust me. Even though you're resting to work the garden, it's not the work that we tend to think about working for your salvation. That's the resting. He's like, this is your salvation. This is the gift I'm giving you. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to stress about it. You just trust me. And I've given you a job to do. There's your action. Lead your wife. Trust what I say. I mean, and look at the results too, Jase. The immediate reaction to them now recognizing evil and sin for what it is and their actions that put them in this position. It was hiding. It was fear. And it was blame. I mean, the first thing he does is say,

It was the woman you gave me that gave me the fruit. So he blamed God. He blamed Eve. He blamed everybody but himself. Which is what men do. Which is what men do. I'm guilty. I mean, first, we were raised in a spirit of blame.

No matter what happens, you get that straight. Whose fault was it that this happened? That's right. Exactly. You had to assess that before you could even deal with whatever the situation. I used to joke and say, if you come home with a board stuck, a nail stuck in your foot and a board on the bottom of it, before we could deal with that, we had to deal with why were you at the dump or why were you at this place? You know, it was like, well, you know, I'm an idiot, but can we get this nail out of my foot, you know, is the situation.

Oh, I remember Phil one time. He was sick. We took off went duck hunting. tore up his equipment and all that got back, and it was just a withering interrogation. And I remember it just kept the intensity, kept intensifying. And finally, I quoted Colossians 1.

I said, Dad, I am free from accusation. By the blood of Jesus. I cannot be accused. And to my dad's credit, he went, well, Jason, he figured out the one thing you could deal with dad,

if you had a scripture, if you had a scripture, you could mine out of there, then you could probably get out, get off the hook. That's one thing he appreciated in any argument or any kind of anger management

figuring out who's screwed up. You better bring your Bible. If you start quoting Bible verses, he's like, okay. Pretty clever. Pretty clever. Then he said, okay, now let's back to it.

But it was a moment of an oasis in the desert of that conversation. A lot like surprise. I'm telling you, I could live there. It was good people. Well, I had similar experiences. Several people came up to me. And when I was in Texas, loved the podcast. One lady came over to my table.

She said, I don't even know if I'm supposed to come over here. because we were about getting ready to get up and speak. And I said, no, it's okay. And she said, I just love your podcast. And my son's love it. And we never miss an episode. She said, now, Jace, you're going to tell Jase, he is too mean to Zach. Yeah.

And I said, well, I will tell him. I will tell him that. I said, but you know, we're just doing that in fun, right? And she said, oh, I know. And he told me you love me. So we got to. I told her that. I told it.

She said, yeah, but he was sarcastic. She knew she had listened to them. He was 80% sarcastic. We've done Zavis, he was 20% sincere. Exactly. That's funny. But there, yeah, it's really nice to meet you guys out there, like Jay's was saying, and come across. And we do know how much you guys love the podcast and we're the same way.

Yeah. Well, it's funny about that story. When I got back to my seat, of course, my assistant, she's like, is everything okay? She has no idea what happened. I went to the bathroom and you come back, 25. five minutes later, she thinks there's fixed to be a story here. And I said, fortunately, it was all Jesus conversations, which was really the theme of the whole trip, because on the way back, there was a storm in Dallas, and we have such upheaval in

our world now, which disrupts everything in the flights. And it was one of the more miserable tracks home. It took me 14 hours from the time I woke up to get back to my house, which was about midnight. But I had so many Jesus conversations because you're like, what do you do in the airport when you're, there's so many people you can barely move? And multiple flights are canceled and gates are being changed. And you're spending a lot of time. I spent two hours on the runway before we took off. Yeah, that's the worst.

We had so many Jesus' conversations, though, it was just like a revival, every little group that I managed to find myself. And then we had a wonderful break because I got to the, we landed in the international section of the Dallas airport, and we were going to go to one of these little club things, you know,

because our flight got canceled, so we were going to have to hang out for eight hours. And so we put our name in, well, there's a two-hour waiting list where you can even get there. And I'm like, what do we do? I'm just looking at this sea of humanity. I mean, and people are grumpy because everybody's flights are changed. You could just sense it.

It just, the humans were restless. Kids were crying. So, Jill, you wouldn't know anything about this, but Zach probably would. As we've gotten older, it's been a little harder to manage our weight. If you notice that in old Zachary I mean, maybe a little bit Maybe a little around the middle Such a good wife to stand in for her husband

Well, I'll go ahead and just talk about me then Because I've tried everything, Joe I've tried keto, paleo, weight watchers, intermittent fasting If it's a diet out there, I've tried it But really the answer never was about willpower I found out from our good friends at PhD weight loss And my good friend Dr. Ashley Lucas that it's about metabolism.

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No more CPAP machines, feeling better, exercising more. And so if you're thinking to yourself, is 2026 going to be the year? I'm telling you, let's get after it. If you call now, they'll give you two free weeks in the program and pay for your food so you can finally see real results without more trial and error. If you're done with yo-yo dieting and want clarity,

call Ph.D. Weight Loss Now and mention Al. No more guessing, just answers. Call them at 864-6-44-1900 and say, that's 864-6-4-1900, or you can visit My PhD Weight Loss. I said, we need to find a spot. And I looked down and there was one little spot because we were way up on this like escalator. You could just kind of see.

There was one little spot that there seemed to be no activity. And I said, let's go there. And so we went and sat down and it was more comfy chairs than normal. And there were no people. I couldn't figure it out. So we sat there about 30 minutes and I thought, why is this spot? like that and my assistant finally looked up and said because we're sitting at the Turkish airlines terminal gate and I thought oh there ain't nobody flying to turkey there's a war going on

over there and the few people that came by nobody was speaking English and so we sat there for a couple hours and caught our breath in comfy chairs and it was it was the best spot there so I thought that was kind of if only it had some Turkish coffee to go with it because they make some really good strong coffee in turkey exactly you would have had it going on well uh Zach so did Jill say she enjoyed her time with us here on she did that was great said uh you all had a great discussion and uh and she enjoyed it I was on the road last week I went to Nashville came back then we went and ended up in and Rale of North Carolina and then back the next day.

So we've been all over the place. But so I unfortunately missed out. I miss being here that I really did. So you all got a great. Well, the number one thing that I hear from fans is they love it when our wives are on the podcast. So I hear that every time, especially from the ladies that I meet the list of the podcast. So we'll have to do that more and more. So we want to get a little bit into a.

first John where we left off here in our we've talked up most of our podcast i guess we did a little bit of a genesis study today i've been trying to get to first john i mean we're getting into the love section so uh we are which is well we did jay so zach jays had a little uh he had a rabbit hole about greater and greatest which we spent a couple of podcasts talking about because it was in that uh what verse was it jace where it said the well there was three times uh yeah it was so that that one that says in verse 19 of chapter three, this then is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts, which that's why I brought up that point about at rest in his presence. So when God rested Adam in the garden, he set him at rest in his presence. Whenever our

hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything. which that story in Genesis shows that verse explicitly. I mean, God knew what was going on. Why are you hiding from God? Remember, it wasn't just the blame shifting after the sin. Then they're hiding. And so he knows what's going on and where it says God is greater than our hearts,

which is, you know, I think for us, we tend to look at it from our perspective, and he is clearly saying one verse after another here, you know, this is love, which we're going to get to, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Or we think about us coming to know God. And then when you come to know God, what's the first thing you realize?

Well, he knows us. Yeah. This is about him. And I think that's, John's really trying to draw out those contrast. He's greater than our hearts. and he kind of continues that theme with two other times where he uses that greater. Yeah, four, four, four is one. Four, four.

The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. To my point. Yeah. And then the other one is in... Five-nine. Yeah, five-nine. Good job, Al. And I really love this one because most people, you know, when you show up at a religious establishment,

they're like, well, share your testimony. And well, 1st John 5'9 says God's testimony is greater than mine. Yeah. So let me share God's testimony through me. And it says, we accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God. So I kind of went down a rabbit hole about when Jesus shared in Matthew 18, who is the greatest in the kingdom? and because Peter had profoundly said that he, Jesus, is the son of God. And when he said, who do you say, who do people say I am?

And right after that, Jesus rebuked Peter because when Jesus said, I'm going to die and be bearing raise, and Peter's like, no, that's never going to happen. So then he gets called Satan because of that. But anyway, an argument broke out among the disciples about who was the greatest because Peter had made that profound statement. And God was, Jesus was like, that came from God. You saying that. So all of a sudden, fast forward a couple chapters and you're getting them asking Jesus, who's the greatest? Because we're obsessed for that.

We're obsessed with being the greatest, being the best. But the point is, God is greater in every category. But John seems to bring that up. Yeah. Well, I want to read this little bridge text, and then we'll get into chapter four, which is kind of new ground for us. But we've read this before. But here's how it kind of bridges the thought of what you just said, Joe.

He says, Dear Friends in verse 21, if our hearts do not condemn us because he just mentioned that, then we have confidence before God. And we've used that word a lot talking about this idea about the approaching the presence of God with confidence and how that works. And receive from him anything we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is this concept of living within the will of God. And you say, well, how do you do that?

Well, he tells you exactly how. And this is his command, to believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. So this is that back to basic command that Jesus. had said, Sam, when he was here as well, love God, love your neighbor. And he says, those who obey this, those who obey his commands, live in him and he in them. Well, how does that work? This is how we know that he lives in us. We know it by the spirit he gave us. So his transition into this next chapter is the reintroduction of the Holy Spirit. And the idea that this is how you know. This is literally

he lives in us. I mean, it's a deposit, Paul would call it, the Holy Spirit, a taste of eternity, a presence that is now with us. And it's a conscience challenger. It's a teacher. It's a guide. Remember all the words he used back in John 14, 15,

and 16 to describe the role of the Holy Spirit, a fruit bearer. And so that's how he's going to get into this thing about love and sort of the, I would just call it the, essence of what love is because it is God. It was God first. And so that's why if you don't have the Holy Spirit, it's hard to fathom or do any of these things because how would you ever know? If you don't know Christ at this level, you know. So I love the transition. Let me read the first six

verses. Well, Ann, I just wanted to say before you read those six verses, when you see these commands and you remember this takes us back to john 15 when he's talking about the vine i am the vine you're the branches remain in me and then he launches it yeah i'm calling you friends and do what i command and here's my command i mean it's like a drum roll love one another as i have loved you and i think you're you're seeing that echo in the new testament about jesus's new creation because we went through the garden and you know God basically had one command don't eat that tree just reflect my image moored over the creation and the animals and here's here's your wife I mean he gave the the two will become one flesh I mean these were the basic guidelines here but it was pretty simplistic of course then that moved on to an actual encounter with Moses in this process of him getting his family back after the first sin.

And it made me think that, you know, in our tech world, somebody said this as a joke, but I thought it was pretty funny. They said, you know, actually, in an era of Moses, there's no cell phones or anything like that. But technically, Moses was the the first one to download God's instruction from the cloud onto his tablets. That's not a bad point. That's pretty good. Okay, see what we're doing here? Same basic idea.

Isn't that weird how we use that terminology? And you have this story here back there that use. is similar language in a totally different way, in the presence of God. I mean, he was, and we always talk about this heaven and earth being overlapped and interlocked or, you know, heaven and earth being a theme of the Bible coming together. But here, I mean, here's Moses in the presence of God,

getting instruction. And so now I just think you fast forward and you see this idea of what Jesus brought by his death and barrel and resurrection and being at the right hand, where he's talking about commands, but then he's like, those who obey his commands live in him, and he and them,

and this is how we know that he lives in us. Well, it's different than Moses having these tablets where you're like, well, how are you doing? How are you doing with these rules? Here, it's like we know it by the spirit he gave us, and that's the transition into that new creation, in learning what it means to trust God's commands. You now have his presence inside of you that is there to provide rest.

That's why it has that little part about if our hearts condemn us. Why do our hearts condemn us? Because we just have a hard time doing what God says. But he's given us that spirit. And I think that's what we need to pursue, what that means. Remember, when he got back down from the mountain, he had to reboot the tablets. because his operating system crashed because he broke them because the people were all down there worshipping the golden cap.

Remember when he got to the bottom? That's a great point now. There had to be a reboot. All right, let me read these verses and we'll mainly talk about it on the next podcast, but I want to get them in so you can kind of carry him over. So he's going to come back to his dear friends. He keeps coming back to dear friends and dear children. It's kind of his circular every time, which is just so. to me, so makes it familial.

You know, it's just such a family setting, which is John's, you know, kind of, he said like a sweet old man. He reminds me of Bill Smith when he was in his 80s. He said, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Because you got to remember when all this is happening, there were some things, some letters that had been circulating by this time,

but it was hard, you know, a lot of things. were still, this is the frontier of Christianity. So there's a lot of false stuff going on too. Well, and a reminder in 226, remember he just profoundly said, I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. So that's been a theme throughout his sermon. Exactly. And he says again here, to your point,

because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. And this has been a theme. This was from chapter two as well as does. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So this was kind of, he keeps coming back to this bellwether of the idea about the incarnation of Jesus. So that's obviously what's kind of been at the heart of the whole problem. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist. Here he goes back into that again. which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. And we talk quite a bit about that already. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. There's that same phrase again. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

This is how we recognize the spirit or a spirit. It could be translated either way, the spirit, capital S of truth and the spirit, little S, of falsehood. Yeah. So it's back to these competing, the competing worlds, which we've talked about a lot. John talked about a lot. Here he keeps coming back to this idea. the idea of anti-Christ means you're anti-Messia, which means you don't believe that Jesus really came in flesh,

which is obviously going on. And still, there are still some people in groups today that don't recognize him as God. And so that's how you know, he says it's false. So before we get to the love part, that's kind of the transition. But I was going to ask out what you thought in just the last couple of minutes, and then we'll get into it next time.

But about this idea of testing the spirit, because you still have to test things, right? I mean, there's still falsehoods. There's still things that happen. There's still people at nods. I mean, what is the testing process? Because there's still, all these things are still present, even 2,000 years later. I would say, I would say your first test is, does this contradict the scripture?

And so I would, I mean, that's the first test that I go to is what is this spirit contradicting what the Bible says. And I think that, now, granted, I mean, there is a diversity of opinion on a lot of things. I mean, you can read our comment section sometime and people will be like, you're a heretic or don't make these, you know, the broad accusations. That's not helpful. You know, we can't have a- Quit reading the comments. Let somebody else read.

I'm all for someone reading the comments. Oh, yeah. But probably shouldn't be us. Well, I mean, but the truth is, it doesn't mean, like, truth matters, right? I mean, so, like, we're not saying the treat doesn't matter, but we can also be wrong on things, and we all are wrong on things. And so, but for me, it's like, what does the scripture clearly say? If this is, like, directly in competition or contradiction with the scripture, it's out.

And then I found this to be helpful on some more of the kind of areas that are, maybe there's not a clear answer. And you're wondering, is God leading me in this particular direction? You know, the desert fathers were like more from a monastic tradition. And what they would do is they would ask a question, does it lead to the fruit of the spirit? Does this lead to peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control? Yeah, that's where I was going. Because I think that should be the number one. Well, look, all right, there's two different things.

You ask us a generic question. But I'm saying, what is John talking about? I think the chapter didn't really have a chapter break. somebody put these numbers in here chapter four is not chapter four so what did he say the last verse of chapter three he said this is how we know he lives in us we know it by the spirit he gave us well in that vein he's like so watch out test every other spirit doesn't say other but that's the point how does it relate to the Holy Spirit? So that Galatians 519 through 24 is a,

you can't be any more clear about two sides of the Holy Spirit and the sinful nature. It's what they produce, right? Yeah, he revisits this idea of the world where it said the viewpoint of the world. What's the viewpoint of the world? You just read that? that how do you know that?

Well, he's already said in 1 John 2 what the viewpoint of the world is, and it's a lot like Galatians 519. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. So I would say the number one test is if there's a person who is participating in that list and they're giving you spiritual truths, they failed that to us.

And let me add to you that because you go back and read the first John. How much of First John is talking about loving your brother, being in fellowship with one another. And in the acts of the sinful nature in Galatians chapter 5, there's fits of rage. That's one of the accusations. That's one of the dissension. Well, and the fruit of the spirit is love. Going back to what we're talking about these comments, I just use it. I'm just using this as an example.

But like, yeah, and someone can be a believer and still like the spirit they're coming at you with could be not. If they're coming at, you would rage and accusation and personal attacks, that does not, that does not look like the freedom of the spirit. That looks more like the acts of the simple nature. So I'm not going to receive that kind of accusation if we're trying to arrive at truth. I'm not going to let that get into my mind. Now, Grant, I might think about what I said. Did I say that right?

Or is this right? Am I arriving at truth? But I think the problem is that when we say the word truth, when Jesus talks about it, about truth. He's not talking about simply a set of right doctrinal beliefs. He's actually saying that truth is personified. And that is a key point of the whole point of First John is much more about communion with Christ than getting the right ideas about Christ. That's the big difference. And I think you got to work, you got to be careful not to let that come in doctrine matters. But what I've said it's all the time, but but doctrine won't save you. Christ saves you.

Yeah. Christ save you. Not your doctrine. You got to remember that. That's good. And we're out of time. So we'll have to, we'll pick this up on the next Unashamed and keep feeling with him. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast.

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