Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 13 | Jase's Fight Against Cell Phones

Episode Date: July 21, 2019

Jase explains his fight against cell phones, Al doesn’t have a problem with them, and Phil doesn’t even know how to turn on the darn thing.  See episodes of "Unashamed with Phil Robertson": https://bit.ly/2J4XsiX   See clips from Phil's TV show "In the Woods with Phil": https://bit.ly/2PNM6k1   To take a FREE 30 Day Trial of Phil's TV show and the rest of BlazeTV: https://www.BlazeTV.com/Phil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So, Jase, you've been on one of these... I've been on these speaking tour. You've been on one of my runs. How many times have you spoken in the last... I did the math 13 times at some organized group in the last 14 days. So yesterday, they asked me to speak at our home church, which I've been there.

I guess since I was a teenager, and they asked me about a month ago it was the first time I've ever preached there. And I've taught classes. I was surprised when you told me that. Yeah, I was shocked. I think it, you know. Because you know it was a long time for I preached.

I mean, I was working there for years. So I guess they didn't want to turn the Robertson's list. They only want this particular crowd of the same name. They only, it seems to be, they want us in small doses, boys. Like medicine. Yeah, a small, don't you. You know what?

It's like a good worm. You know what's crazy is I can't blame them. I can't either. I only have one speech. I basically introduce Jesus. The kickery is we do what we do free of charge. Well, that's right. You know?

Yeah, yes. I always say that when I do. You usually can have a little more latitude to speak freely if you're not being paid to do so. I like that. What are you going to do, fire you? And look, I'm the guy who was. paid for 22 years and now not. And I agree 100%.

It's far more enjoyable even on my side. See, yesterday it gave me comfort that I, you know, at our... You couldn't get fired for what you were. And so people, and look, most people that don't know me, like the visitors, they look up. Can you imagine what was going through their head yesterday? And they're like, this is the preacher. Because I looked about it. Some of them probably thought they're going to fire that old boy.

Yeah, there's no suit. You know, I have my hat on. You're like, he's got a hat on in church. I mean, I have to have it because my hair, I couldn't be able to read without it. You know, I'm having a bad hair. You could do one of those Jep samurai buns. You could have gone that route. I just can't.

There's something about that that makes me squeamish. But since you got rave reviews from your mother, I was across town preaching. I did remind the audience that you were on the other side of town preaching. I said, so we're doing something. right we've ended up being proclaiming with audiences i said how we got there only god knows i said but jace is over there right now doing the same thing i'm doing here well it was it was funny yesterday so i'm sitting on the front row you know getting i'm looking over my notes i got my walk-up song in my ears which was funny because i had it hooked up to my cell phone and i decided that i was going

talk about jesus and cell phones that that was the idea i had because I have three kids, one of them's a teenager, and everywhere I go, I hear all these, these conversations about young people and cell phones. But I can't drive 100 yards down the street without seeing an older person, usually, who's like a cell phone zombie. They're staring at their phone at a red light, and everybody's blowing the horn, and they look up, and that's why they don't even look like they realize they're in civilization on a highway that's dangerous and they've stopped traffic because they're, you know, looking at Facebook.

It's put them in another zone. Yeah, I call it to, that's what I, I labeled them cell phone zombies. Well, it's funny is I'm sitting there. I have a, you know how baseball players have a walk-up zone and they do this to, you know, motivate themselves and the crowd gets behind it to hit home runs. So I thought, you know, here we are in the spiritual war. of life. I am not comfortable public speaking.

That's my biggest fear. And I just spoke 13 times in the last 14 days. You're overcoming. And I started my sermon with that, that the Galatians 220, I've been crucified with Christ. Y'all know the passage. I no longer live,

but Jesus lives in me. Because if it was about me, this is the last thing I would do, especially for free, to get up and talk about something I know is going to be sensitive. because there are people who are addicted to their cell phones. And so mom came up because she was trying to encourage me.

You know, she's like, I love you. She is whispering, you know, man, I love you. I'm proud of you, you know. It's weird. I'm fixed to turn 50, you know, but I felt like she was like, you can do this, you know, don't be scared. Like it's your first day of kindergarten. Like, come on that bus.

You can do it. You can do it. Sweet moment that I said. Well, not many. Not many families are structured like ours. I'm in my early 70s. I'll still be in my 70s and Al there would be in his 60s. So you said, boy, that's still far behind.

I know. He turns 50s. That's when you start raising, having children young. However, we're still running together and it's been a long time. So it's pretty good. It's not a bad point. And I'll tell people what my walk-up song is because I know I brought that out. So you got your walk-up song and your mom.

mother on your side. The walk-up song is, I think it's O'Glorious Day. It's the song that says, it's a new modern worship song. The tagline that got my attention is I ran out of that grave. It goes along and the crowd participates. They're like, I ran. Oh, yeah, it's a great crowd. It's my walk-up song because last year when I went to Israel, it was, I mean, I cannot try to encourage people to go on that trip because it's basically the Bible in picture

form and you're you're reading especially if you have a pretty good handle on the Bible and the history of it all but and I've shared this before but you know I know that when I get nervous or you know I'm around you know some of these events I do and I know y'all have done the same thing I'm the only sober person there and so it's not a church event but I know I'm fixed to share of Jesus. I have one speech. I'll do the duck call demonstration, you know, and that's what I justify I'm getting paid for. But I fixed to share Jesus because I believe it to be true. And so whenever I had these situations, I think it's good to find a place that motivates you and helps you realize that. So when I was in Israel and we saw where Jesus was, you know,

supposedly crucified, it worked, you know, for me. It was in a general area. But then there's some tombs there so you go and you visit the tombs and nothing really strikes you at first you go in the there's a little hole you go in the rock over it but you know the rock's not there you go in the hole and you look around you're like man this is this is something you know it's carved out of rock and it's quite extensive but when i stuck my head out of the hole that's when everything i believe just kind of hit me all at once i'm like i'm in israel jesus came back from the dead I'm sticking my head out of this hole. Dead people are in here, but this is what I believe.

So that's why it's my walk-ups home, because I think back to that moment, you know, when I ran out of that great, you know, I'm like, oh, yeah, let's get, I'm ready to, you know, so I march up there. It may not have been the hole, but it was a hole somewhere right around there where it actually happened. I mean, I'm coming out of the dirt,

and that's why I'm getting up here and sharing Jesus, especially in the sensitive issues about cell phone. But I told Mom, I said in that moment, And I was like, no, I'm glad you're here because I'm going to apologize. I said, you and your husband, you feel. I said, y'all are my icebreaker today. And then she didn't, I don't think she'd know what that meant. But what that means it is, you know, we learned this in school.

You need something kind of funny that breaks the tension, especially with somebody that looks like I do. You know, when I get up, people are like, what's going on here? Because some people I could tell, they didn't know who I was. They're like, is this guy actually fixed to preach? And so my... And it also relaxes you as the speaker. That's one of the reasons why. Which is funny because most people, that's the way they do it when they do it well.

Dad is one of the few exceptions. I've heard him do it before, but dad's one of those that just, he likes to come up and just punch you right in the nose. But Phil gets away with this. Well, he's different. You have a presence about it. I've noticed, I don't know if I've ever told you this. It's like when you show. up in a room full of people, you have a tendency just to everyone gravitate and then you dominate

the room. I think it's something with personality and pre- He's always been that way, though. Even young, it's not just because he's older. Well, I never thought about that. I think it's a God thing. I think it's a God thing. The term in the Bible that I've thought of before, and you'll see this a lot when you look at the details, it says that Jesus spoke as one who had authority. That phrase is in there a lot about speakers you know they'll say he spoke as one who had authority there's just something about the way some people speak that people listen you remember there's a commercial about that in they when somebody speaks people listen that that's you remember when like a month ago we were doing eric metaxus's show in new york yeah and so you and i split you did the first half of the second

half with dad so why on air while we're talking dad is going off on some riff and and mctaxis looks at me and he was like, your dad speaks like a man who's 900 years old. Yeah. And that was just the way he put it, which another guy at CPAC said it looks like he came off the page of the Old Testament. It's what you're describing. You know, now it's the look too, but it's just you've always had this way, especially men and young men.

I mean, they always gravitate and they always want to listen to what you have to say. You know, you were a coach and all that stuff. So that was some kind of God thing he gave you. For the rest of us, it's a good idea to have an icebreaker. So I got up there and I said, because here I'm going to talk about Jesus and the cell phone. And so I said, I come from a family that has trouble communicating. And the reason I said that. Which in the second service, I was in, everybody, a lot of people laughed when he said it.

They laughed when I said it. Because they thought it was like it was a joke because we're always, you know, talking about. And then I said, my dad does not own a cell phone, you know, because a lot of times when I've tried to get a hold to you, the first thing. thought that pops into my head is to get in my truck and drive 40 minutes. That's the best way to get a hold of you because actually trying to call you, oh, it's a long shot. It's a long shot. You've got to be near the phone that's attached to the wall.

And it's got to be functional. You go down here, you're the last part. If your phone goes out, electricity goes out, you're the last one. Or if the water's up, phone doesn't work. I mean, it just happened, yeah. You're shooting snakes. You're an outdoors guy. But, and then I can't.

up with your argument because I've heard it, which is, you know, you saw the phone, you saw the apple on the phone with the bite taken out of it and you're out, which I did, I'd heard you give that speech before and I was like, what? I wasn't making the connection. I just thought it was a little unusual that that particular logo, that picture. Yeah. The apple with the bite out of it. I'm like, hmm.

I think you had a point once you see what's on it. So I made that reference, but I also said I've heard Phil go, you know, and talk about all the evil things that happened on the phone and the Apple. I just hear about them. I've never actually witnessed them. Yeah, but my icebreaker moment was, but here we are in a duck blind, and we're having face-to-face conversations. It's real good for camaraderie.

I mean, that's one of the main reasons we duck hunt in a blind. You're out looking at God's creation. you know, it's just hard to think that this just came from nothing because we're paying attention to all the details. Having real conversations, you know, in this setting, it's awesome. And then you'll get on a conversation about the cell phone. What's funny, and I said, I've got to be fair, though. Phil has a lot of good points.

I think it's hard as right. There is a lot of evil. I was like, and then he'll say, somebody get on the cell phone and check the weather, see when that wind is going to change. You know, then I'm like, oh, so there is something positive about it. Doppler radio. And then he'll say, I was like, well, I thought you didn't like the cell phone.

Then we're back on the rant about all this going on. Then he'll say, hey, somebody called Ms. Kay and told her to get dinner ready. Yeah, tell her to go ahead and get them biscuits going. So if I didn't have this cell phone, we don't eat. It used to be on a walkie-talkie or some kind of CB unit in somebody's rig, but I've just seen it grow exponentially until we finally got out to the cell phone. scared of them but there's some doctor radar bingo or uh tell miss k we'll be back in an hour that way your dinner's ready when you get there or pretty handy remember the conversation the

argument we had i look up you know i have a compass on my phone and i'm like here we are it feels like arguing which way the wind is oh yeah they started arguing well it's it's on that itself like it didn't make the compass accurate you know it's like they didn't and look sigh just full-blown said, nope, that's wrong. And so I'm like, I'm not following this guy. When you're looking at a compass on my phone and you're like, nope, that's wrong? I never doubted the positive things from just sitting back and observing people who use cell phone.

I never doubted that there were positive things on it. Well, but I just observed it all. and I said, I think in this particular area with a device that people are drawn to the extent that they are, I just said, I think the negative in my mind outweighs the good. I think I'd be best without this. And you didn't want to have to. You didn't want to have to learn how to do it either, right? That's right.

I mean, that was a big piece of it. It seemed very complicated. What you just described was the basis where I launched. I said, here's the deal. I'm going to, for today, I'm going to ask you to turn your cell phones off. And I found out later, not everybody could do it. Some of them. Some could not do it.

They couldn't do it. That's one of the things that scares me about it. Can you do without it for a little while? You said, well, how do you know? Because some of them filmed what I said, and they put it on their Facebook wall. There you go. Yeah. So give us your speech, Jase, because I want to hear it.

I was not there. That's what I did. I related the cell phone. It's hard to give my speech, you know, in this setting, exactly, but I'll give you the high points. I related the cell phone to guns, just like the gun control. You know, people ask us all over it. When anything happens, they ask us because they know we have a lot of guns

and we're a pro-second amendment. Because we always go to the argument is the human heart. Even in the case of mental illness, their heart has been affected in a way where they're using a gun as a simple way. It wouldn't matter that it's a gun. That's our point. It's the human heart. They're just trying to find the quickest, easiest thing.

And so we're like, that's where you got, and it's unfortunate. So we're actually pro-gun because we're like, we need other people with guns. And defend ourselves. Yeah, with good intentions to defend ourselves. And it makes sense to us. But then on the cell phone, we don't, I feel like even people, and that's where I was challenging some of the,

arguments we've had with each other and somehow another we think it's something that's like an organism unto it same thing it's a place with information that you can go to quesie you know quick and easy access but it's the same principle to me there are positives happen there you combine the human heart and what you want with that cell phone and you get what you got now i read the first john too where it says don't don't love anything in the world And I added the words wide web. It was a joke. But you'll find that because 1st John 2 has three categories that the world that you'll find quick and easy,

which is the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does. Well, you think about it. Those three things, if that's what you're after, well, a cell phone is instant access. So, but then on the other. side, I said, but Jesus is instant access. And I quoted Hebrews 13A. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If you go through that theologically in your mind, you will deduct and conclude that he is now. If you're yesterday, today, and forever, that's why he said, I am.

They asked him about Abraham. He said, yeah, I was before him. They're like, what? Because I am. And so I read Romans 5, about we've given access. We've gained access to Jesus. The difficulty is, through faith. The cell phone is done by what you're seeing. Even though it's, you know, telepathically in satellites, you're looking, you have this internet access. So you have two things that work, but one of them is alive. One of them's dead. It's just an object that you're combining with your heart, which makes you realize that this one in your hand, the phone could be a trap. And so that's kind of the way I introduced it. But then I had a lot of stats, and you heard them, about the dangers of cell phones,

which is you're six times more likely to be in an accident, a car accident, from a cell phone distraction, then you are drunk driving. Whoa. Yeah, six times. 84% of teenagers have a cell phone. The average age,

I mean, the average time spent on a cell phone from ages 13 to 18 years of age is nine hours. it doesn't seem right you think that can be right so then you start realizing they're not sleeping the average age from 8 to 12 spent on it was six hours so they're on here and the reason i'm bringing up the teenagers preteen and we wonder why they think like they think and say what they say that's what scares me you're explaining why i i started backing yeah backing up but now here's my point let me say seven minutes before we get there because this is one of the unique things, the phone, that

it's not, this isn't just an American problem. It really is a worldwide problem. I'm in Africa in a country called the Gambia. 900,000 people in this small African country. You know how many cell phones were in the country? 9,000.

1.2 million cell phones. There were 300,000 more phones than people. Some people got two phones. And look, trust me, this is Africa. But even now, people have business phones. So a guy like me, you got to remember when I said to y'all, I was just looking at

the world, trying to get the gospel preached to the world. I said, I know this sounds crazy, me having never owned a cell phone, but I think you guys need to figure out. I didn't know having any idea what y'all would do. you and Zach, I said, my nephew and my son, sitting right here. I said, y'all figure out how we can get the gospel preached on that little black box. I was looking at it as a tool, like you said, for good because I had heard there was a lot of mischief. I said, well, why don't, and I said, me of all people, I've never even clicked on to the internet or a cell.

Well, good news is based on that directive, we are now doing the unashamed podcast where millions of people are living. A lot of people. That's my point. I realized that the people were watching me speak because we live stream, you know, when someone preaches. So I realize they're watching it. So how many hours you say for the young people? In other words, if they had a sliver of time where they hear stuff like we are now discussing,

that would be a good thing. Which back to my lesson, though, and look, a couple of troubling stats were, you know, they had a stat where 11 teenagers a day. in our country, die in a car accident because of texting and driving or some distraction of the phone. When you think about that, that's a lot. Look, 1600 kids last year,

and this is taller and younger. You said, well, they weren't on a cell phone. No, they're just riding in a car, but the wreck happened because of a cell phone distraction who lost their life. And so, which is troubling. I mean, this is, look, I know you don't drive around. downtown a lot, Phil, but for the rest of us in civilization.

You, I mean, Al, how many people do you see being distracted by their cell phone that's causing mayhem out there? All the, all the horns being blown, there's somebody looking at their cell phone on a highway and on a dangerous interstate or going down the interstate or you come up then, they're driving 20 miles an hour. And you're like, hey, I blow the horn. I'm like, they put a horn in a car for a reason. I blow it.

They look up. Well, when I get up beside them, you look, they're on their cell phone. Driving 20 miles an hour. And you're right. Dad doesn't see them because he only drives on Sunday. And there's hardly anybody on there unless they're going to church. Not only that. I told Ms. Kay, she said, I noticed a lot of people today on that front row or two.

They all had their cell phones aiming aimed at you. Well, right. Here was the kicker. I never noticed it. You didn't even see it. I never saw it. Hey, before you get back to that, something happened recently to show you how little dad leaves the river to even see these things

we're talking about so we're in an airport doing some media and i bring dad a chick-fil-a a spicy chick-fil-a sandwich with the full you know the pepper jack cheese everything he's eating that sandwich he looks at it's like man ow that's that is some chicken sandwich that that is good and it hit me i thought dad's never eaten a chick-fil-a-s sandwich because the only time he goes to town is Sunday and they're never open. It sounds like I'm watching my 73-year-old dad have his first chick-flip. Everything, you know, everything he eats. Ignor's bliss.

He shot, you know, out in the yard. You know, I mean, when we had the chickens, you know, like get attached to those chickens. And then I was like, where are they with those chickens? And I wasn't making the connection. I'd get up in the morning, I'm looking for them. And then I'm like, what are we eating for lunch? They're like, fried chicken. And then it hit me.

I'm like, oh, where are you? eating them chickens we had in the yard. But dad hadn't forgot it because he was in the hospital a few months ago. And he, Dan said, you want me to pick you up something to eat, Phil? And he said, yeah, give me two of them chick-fil-a sandwiches. The spicy ones, and there's got to be spicy. It's got to be spicy. They're all good.

Sorry, sorry, that's just a... So I came at it from the angle, because you thought, what are you going to pick on the young people now? Because I had, look, I've had situations with all three of my kids. Now, two of them are no longer teenagers. but the first two I gave them the cell phone checked it and I mean 24 hours later I'm like okay you're not ready for this well well my daughter because now there's more sophisticated apps I'm not familiar with everything I had never heard of Snapchat and I don't know anything about it you

right and but I've heard those two words put together let me give you what do you call it Snapchat let me give you a tutorial on Snapchat it first was for people who wanted to cheat on their husbands and wives. Oh, yeah, it's a private place. Because you've got to think about it. And that's what the thinking behind it? Well, then kids took it over, the teenagers, it had a way bigger following with teenagers

because you think about it. It was sold as a place for teenagers to go this private that you can hide from your parents. Oh, my goodness. Now, because supposedly, like, once you send something, it deletes quickly. Yeah, I mean, you can delete everything immediately. and it's gone.

But look, there are ways to get deleted material, and I've, you know, I learned about that. But anyway, here's the only point I made on that. And there's, there's parents that you can find ways to see what your kid is doing on the cell phone. But here's what I told the parents, and here are the issues. I wasn't picking on young people so much as the older generation, and I divided everybody in the sermon into two categories.

The young were under 40 and the old were over 40. I was like, that's going to be our two categories for today, which, you know, I had offended probably the, you know, everybody around the bubble. Yeah, people on the bubble. But I, and my logic was, you know, Jesus was here 33 years, and I'm giving you seven bonus years.

I was like, in my mind, there was a reason he was only here 33 years. Once you get over about 40, it's almost impossible to teach you anything. Just think about it. You tend to get set in your ways. Is that what you're saying? you look at the people and the energy and churches, you're like, where is this happening?

People are coming in Jesus. They're more open-minded usually when they're under 40 years old. That's true. Usually under 30. And I went to Luke 15. And here was where my whole sermon and theology came from. Jesus came in the, when there was no technology other than, you know, papyrus paper and some ink from black soot. Word them out, 90%.

Word them out. And I'm like, are you think that happened on accident or God designed it? God knew when in society, because he knew we had a problem after the garden, which, by the way, the evil one in the garden where sin started, you think, what did the evil one do? He created a setting that seemed like God was not around. So looking at Snapchat and these places, kids think, and adults who are having private messages about having, you know, an affair or whatever. It seems like there's a setting where God's a million miles around. We have a secret society.

We have a secret setting. And it's actually in this bizarre, virtual reality world where you can actually be better than you are. Because you can type and project an image of who you are. That's what kind of is disgusting about, you know, social media in general. It's actually not you. It's a projection.

of how you want people to view you. You know, you're not going to put the worst picture of yourself as your profile. Oh, you're going to go spend. These women are going to go spend some money, and they're going to make that project. This is me. You know, because you meet these people in real life, and you only see a picture, because I've met that,

had that happen, and I'm like, good grief, what happened? But you realize that that's kind of the way it goes. So I go to Luke 15, and here. Here's Jesus in this world where you think about what did Jesus do. He went around face to face. He put his arms around people. He hung out with this sketchy, you know, even though he never sinned. He had a reputation, Matthew 11, y'all mentioned that in my sermon.

I all heard it. He had a reputation for being a glutton and a drunkard. Why? Because he was dealing with shady people and sketchy. And there's in their environment. And he goes to Luke 15 and he tells why, because people accused him the religious people who he argued with the whole time and had problems with. And I'm saying this older generation, they accuse him,

why are you eating with tax collectors and sinners? Well, he tells these three beautiful, beautiful parables about something being lost and he's after them. And he's sharing that the reason he came to earth is he's the image of the invisible God. He's the bridge to God. God is after in his grace, love, and mercy. each individual human being on the earth. I mean, to me, I've said this many times.

If somebody said you could only have one chapter in the Bible, what would you go with? I'd say Luke 15. Because it's basically God, in his grace, pursuing human beings. That's right. Even the shady, even the sketchy. I zeroed in on the third story,

which was the story about the two sons. And so I linked that with the 40 and under, crowd here's a guy and this is what I've found from having teenagers struggle with the cell phone and meeting with people our younger crowd the reason they're so hooked on their cell phone is they don't want to miss out on what the world has to offer this is the it's all the information and it's a connection with people even though it hurts you socially you know because you're projecting this you're typing you're not actually with people but you want that connection and you don't want to miss out well that's why the guy left the

family and went off and with the party and then the friends it's same same deal he just didn't have a cell phone to make it quicker he actually just took off down the road and and found it and what happened here's the father representative representative of god waiting on the road when he came to his senses you know that son keyed in on those three things the cravings of sinful man from 1 John 2, the lust of his eyes, and the boast of what he has and does. But it was a bad idea. But then the older brother represents the Pharisees, the religious world, who they're tucked in their room, no relationship with the father.

They've missed out on the relationship with other people and helping us as bridges through Jesus on bringing people back to the father. They missed it. They're trying to some kind of self-performing. performance, rules and regulations. So he brings them up. So that was the generation that I attached to the 40 and above. But I said, here's the problem.

You're griping about the cell phone and your kid being addicted to it, but you're not having a meaningful conversation with your kid at your house because you're in your room, but the door's locked, staring at Facebook saying what somebody ate at Taco Bell. There's the problem. We don't have the relationship in the interaction. So sometimes even what you're saying, what I got from yesterday and today is that even within a family structure in a unit,

you've got this division taking place, and the cell phone becomes the same, you know, Satan uses it against both. Because, you know, it's interesting. But God uses it also. It was probably a good thing just thinking back, you all were raised in an era, all except probably Jeff, the youngest one. but he almost where they didn't have cell phone well i told jays that i told jays that was why you all went in an era where it was not a well that's why we can use it i'm not addicted to mine at all

but would you could you still spend too much time on it sure and but back to your thing on the prodigals because that's a really interesting point i mean it's i love the way you use it you're exactly right and how it parallels the idea about the cell phone but even just that story itself. And you said this yesterday, so it's not the prodigal son, there's prodigal sons. Yeah.

Because actually Jesus was aiming at the older. And so in Milan Lisa's new book, I tell a story in there because it's about forgiveness. I tell the story of Jep's wandering as the younger brother. But what's ironic is that I too was a prodigal, the oldest son in your family. I also went off the rails for four years. what's ironic is is when Jep came back.

Now, Jason and I are, you know, I'm heavily involved with the church. Jay says as well, Willie's working with the college age, which Jep is now reaching that age. And so when we had this intervention for Jep, his line was to us is what took y'all so long. Oh, that's right. And it really affected me. And I talk about that in my new book. He was thrilled with the intervention. Well, right.

And then I realized that I was the younger brother and the older brother in the stup. I've had the older brother temptations because, you know, I've never been drunk. I've never smoked dope. I've had sex with one woman, my wife, you know, on our wedding night for the first time. But the temptation in that is, is then to think that I'm better. That's right. I'm self-righteous or to look down. Look, I've got mistakes.

I make mistakes in the moment like we all do, you know, evil thoughts and bad thoughts. But there's a temptation to all. of a sudden think you're better than somebody because you don't have as much baggage. And well, that's who Jesus, he was zero and in on that older brother. That's right. You got a, you should have been involved. You should have helped. You should have thrown a party.

You know, remember he said, I didn't. There's nobody ever thrown a party for me. You kill the fat and calf. You can't feel to kill the fat and calf for this, you know, lost one, but you wouldn't even do a goat for me. Why are you running to this sinful brother's one? I've had it all together all these years. Yeah.

I've got an idea. We didn't throw a party for you because you're selfish and nobody likes you. You know, you're mean and judgmental. Yeah. Otherwise, you would have had a party. We'd have killed the fat and goat. So there you got to get it. That's why I started off with I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

It's not about me. You know, we're all flawed, but God uses us through his grace to rescue people. So let me get to what I was trying to project because it's, it's two things, you know. it's this combination of, yes, there's a problem. You know, it's not the phone. It's young, ill-equipped young people who it's dangerous to get into something that's that accessible. So the older generation, yes, we need to step up and say, have a conversation about it.

What do you, you know, check them, help them. Teach them about that Jesus was faithful. face-to-face conversations. That's what we need. But look, you know what I was amazed at when I did all the research for this? Even the world, even the world, non-Christians, they don't recommend anybody being on a cell phone more than two hours a day. Because they said, you know what?

When you see, they did the research. When you see kids get on there more than two hours a day, you see depression, you see suicides, you see cyberbullion, you see all this stuff that comes out, they're unhappy. And it's because they're trying to be fulfilled, they're trying to connect and they're trying not to miss out on something that in Snapchat, it's all evil and bad. You know what I was amazed, you know, and I told my daughter that when I took her phone

away, that's a punishment because I want to teach her about real life. We want to have real conversation. We want to develop some Jesus skills, putting your arms around people talking. And that's what I called that. But I decided to fast from my cell phone also. That's why I hadn't been on social media in three months. I was wondering why you weren't retweeting my tweets. Now I know.

Now there's a few things that my wife said, you know, this is really good. Will you let me post this on your page? I'm like, fine. And people think that we have people do that for us. No, it's either me or my wife. But since we, the two became one, I consider that me. So talking to your daughter, you used yourself and you told her that, that you were actually backing off of it.

I backed off two, but look, here's my point that I don't want our listeners to miss this. What I learned is, even though I wasn't on it much, I was being distracted from what's going in my daughter's life. So when we both did it together, guess what? After her two-week withdrawals was over, because it took her that long to just literally get. Just like an addiction. It's like an addiction. We started playing cards. We started playing board games.

She started playing the piano. She slept all the time. She had been sleeping. you know yeah but you know what i was i was now had more time to notice her and to have talks and it's positive and i feel bad that i'm you know sharing our struggles in the world but i told her i was like we live in the light as christians you know we make mistakes in the light god uses that to point people to jesus but i want to say this because i know you know we're about out of time two things happen after i shared that i introduced jesus to people and i wanted

to start the conversation in our homes about cell phones. That's all I wanted to do. I didn't want to come over as some expert. I wanted to share, you know, in a raw way, what happened in my life. Well, after the first sermon, because we have two services, one's laid back kind of traditional. And then the second one's a little bit more. So I had the old crowd and the young crowd. So in my two speeches, I kind of zeroed in on the older brother in the first one.

I zeroed in on the younger brother and the second, second one. So it was actually a perfect setup. up well after the first sermon there's a family that i really love they've been in our church for years and the reason they're there for years is a young guy when i was in the pre 40 i was 25 i shared jesus with this guy he comes to the lord jimmy lindsie you know his whole family eventually came to jesus through that which is awesome well they had some visitors from texas what i didn't know is they here they come on a sunday morning randomly to our church they see me getting up there and speaking. I didn't know that they had lost their daughter in a car wreck

because she was texting and driving. And they just happened to be visiting. I just happened to be talking about that. So here we are in a parking lot. We're all crying once they, you know, said that. But and the mom did the talking, but she was like, you know, we wish we would have heard something like this before that ever would have happened. It would have brought to our attention. I mean, now there are a few years, you know, past, you never get over that, you know. But it was. kind of a group therapy session. And look, it was bad. I mean, it wasn't anything fulfilling about that, but it's life.

And it's, it's hard. It's, you know, we have to overcome these things. The second story I wanted to share was the second service, we had a guy respond. You know, at our church, we have kind of the altar call like other people. And I shared Jesus. And I really didn't talk about the response months in the second service because I kind of went over. And the first service I did, I told the kind of funny story about the guy. He responded to Jesus and he wanted to be baptized and we baptized by seeing him later. I'm like, man, you

hadn't called me or anything. He's like, man, I took a hammer out to my cell phone. I never brought up the cell phone, but I thought he concluded that if he's going to live a Christian life, he's going to have to destroy that phone, which made me think the new Apple phone's coming out and it costs $1,500. dollar, which is what I spent on my first truck. I had an 18-year-old kid that came to Christ, so he went back home to Kansas. He said, I got to get lined out. So he took his cell phone, threw it up, and took a shotgun. Because I guess he wanted to do a little trick shooting and blast it.

Without any urging from you. No, he just did on his own. He told me, you know, same thing. I couldn't get a hold to him. He called me on his mom's phone. He said, which is weird because I compared the phone to the gun. It's not the phone. But young, immature people knew in Christ, they just think, well, I need to get rid of that.

You know, it's when you kind of step back and look at it, you don't realize it's your heart and it's how you're using it. But it's really hard to use it in a proper way because it's just so easy. And I used to tell people that when people say, you know, I'm addicted to porn on the internet or whatever, you know, because it just popped up. And I thought, yeah, I bet it just popped up. you know, W, whatever, and then it popped up.

Yep. But, you know, one day, look, I'm on there checking, you know,

my stocks or whatever. And I have like six, Phil, Phil, we'll have no idea what I'm talking about, but I have six screens. Oh,

you're, you're on. I've never been in. Yeah, six windows open, you know, and so at the end, I was exing them all out. Well,

they were pulling up as you're exing them out because you're checking for different sites or stocks. Well, the last one is just, you know, a naked woman.

I'm like, What in the world? I'm looking for the X. Then you're trying to get it out of it. How do you get it out? What has, you know, I hadn't clicked on a neck. I mean, just full, here I am. And so I thought, well, maybe it did just pop up on these, you know, some of these sites.

So let me get to this second story. This guy he responds. And somebody else is handling it. One of the pastors there, David Brom, which was, by the way, I shared Jesus with him. Another guy. It's weird that I'm seeing these guys who. I remember when they were outside of Jesus. I shared they just so happened to respond.

And now he's a pastor. And you were talking about converting people and being shy. And there was Blake, who was the first guy you led. Yeah, I looked up when I was telling my story about being scared of public speaking. And, well, my best friend from high school, who was the first person that I shared with face to face, he was in the audience. You know, he responded, what, 25 years ago. Oh, 30 years ago. But I love seeing him back.

there because I just like, hey, the story I just told, there he is. He was in the crowd. I shared with that guy who's my best friend in high school. So this guy responds. So they said, instead of, because he wanted to be baptized and it's hard to explain here, but the second service is in a different room. They don't have any water around there. So you have to walk to the big, you know, auditorium and there's a baptistery back there. So they, somebody said, we'll go over there and baptize him if any of you all want to come. So I guess about 60 people came over. And so David, the pastor's

he's, you know, going through the, you know, what's happening here. You're reenacting Jesus's death, Merrill resurrection. It's a glorious day, you know. And he asked him, like, who's going to be the Lord of your life? And he said Jesus, you know, and he's like, well, he asked a question, which I usually don't ask this question, but

he said, are you ready? And, you know, he had told him about how to hold his nose. And he said, are you ready? And he went, I don't think so. and so everybody just kind of a chill happened and I thought uh oh and he he started walking away and David kind of grabbed his arm like where are you going

and in his confession you know that we had just gone over he said he had been 60 days sober so I knew he had come out of the celebrate recovery group you know he'd been so I knew he wasn't on drugs or anything he just got his 60 day tip you know and I was like and so David, I thought, asked, he's like, well, what's wrong when he said, my, my, my, my head's cloudy, but he was trying to get away. And so I felt like now spiritual war has broken out, because I've

never seen this before. I mean, I've been involved in thousands of Baptists. I've never seen that. He's trying to get away and he's like, pull him like, no. And I said, hey, when I said, hey, and he, and he looked at it because I felt like, I just gave the sermon, the introduction, the of Jesus that led to this point so maybe I can help you know and he stared at me in a way that was chilling and so I stared at him and we had a I don't know how long it was it seemed it seemed like a minute I'm sure it was probably 10 to 30 seconds we were just staring at each other and all of a sudden I started sensing something just evil I was like it was like he was looking through me or something he was just staring at me and I just felt

compelled to tell him I was like this is not about you you've you've been sober for two months you just heard the greatest story in the world you were introduced to the greatest being the grace of God this has nothing to do with you you're surrendering to that right here and there's something inside of you that's saying no it's not coming from God because this was his idea it's something evil and so then he tried to to bolt again. I said, hey, you're not leaving. This is, you're not doing anything. This is not about you. So he kind of started quivering and David, who said, well, maybe it was something I said. And I went, no, it was nothing you said. You did good. I felt like I was barking, you know. And so look,

he started shaking. He looked up. And now this is what was amazing. At the top of his lungs, he said every different denomination at an altar call that I've ever heard he said I accept Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior in Jesus name but it was a little longer than that but he was just like as he was shaking I looked at David and I said do it he baptized and look he came up and I'm telling you it was like there was a glow around this man I mean it was amazing. When the roar that went up from the group, because I was just outside the door, I heard this huge roar. Yeah, everybody cheered and I looked around and there wasn't a dry eye. It was one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. I had never seen that before.

That is why when you read these texts, the truth will set you free beginning with Satan. First John 5 and 18, you have the children of God and the whole world. is under the control of the evil one. There's no doubt about it. And sometimes when you see that release from him, it's sort of worthy of note. And what's amazing is he had already responded at the altar call. He had already,

I mean, he had asked him as Jesus' Lord of your life. But in that moment, he looked up, and it's like everything he had ever heard from an invitation, it came out, but it came out as he believed it. Yeah. This was him saying. Freedom is a wonderful thing. I'm not going through the motions.

I'm doing it. And it was awesome. So I thought of all the times I've spoken in the last two weeks. This is what we do. It's not about us. You're introducing Jesus to people that is that, they're that lost sheep out in the wilderness and God is using you to bring that Luke 15 connection.

Oh, I just saw Jesus pick up the sheep at that point and say, oh, yeah. So here's what's ironic. This is we kind of wrap up. You know, you set out, you were driven by the Holy Spirit to do this, I call it a wake-up, you know, an alert about cell phones, the dangers you did with a raw personal story. But the effect on this young man and a lot of other people that will hear. And by the way, WFRchurch.org.

Because I know now you're going to be in. interested. We've heard us talk about this and Jay's, you're like, I want to see that. You can go to our church website and it'll be on there in the archives. You'll see it. So you have a chance to watch it and listen to the whole thing as Jay's presented it. But that's what God does. And so you never imagine the way that was going to wrap. But in that guy's heart, anytime the gospel is out there, it impacts. And so just kind of bring it back to what we've been talking about. Last time we were on, we talked about the Tower of Babel. And when Jace was telling me about his sermon the day before he preached it, we talked about

that tower and that idea of that kind of that global, you know. And I'll say that, I mentioned that yesterday, the problem with the Tower of Babel was that they were going to make a name for themselves instead of God. And I called it yesterday. I said, we have something else that the world has come together on. It's the cell tower of Babel, which is what I told he should have named the sermon. Very true, Jace. Which is true. So that kind of takes us back to where we are in terms of our study. But when I heard Jason's sermon, I was like, we've got to talk about this on the podcast because it was so fresh. So thanks for sharing it again, Jase, and us being able to weigh in.

We're going to continue on. If you want to do a little reading ahead, Genesis 12 through 22, one of the greatest figures in all the Bible, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, so much New Testament stuff. So we're going to be talking about them for the next little while. but hope today was a blessing to you. Check it out, WFRChurch.org. You'll see Jace's picture probably or the sermon. I don't even know what. Do you know what they titled it?

It had no title. It's the lesson with no name. It's the man with no name. I thought of Jesus and the cell phones later, but I didn't give them a title, you know, because I was so mad at, you know, all kind of technology. Because they were like, we got to get it for this and for that. And I'm like, I'll see you Sunday.

So if you look it up, it'll be on July 7th, was the day that he preached it. So, man, we appreciate you guys coming along with us for Unashamed with Phil Roberts. So we're so glad you guys were with us today. You can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube or Facebook. And be sure and rate us on iTunes so that other people can know about the podcast.