Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1365 | The Robertsons React as JD Vance Turns Iran Headlines into a Big Jesus Moment

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Al, Jase, and Zach admit that James’ command to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry hits close to home, especially in a family where everyone learns early to speak up or get left out. The guys react to JD Vance turning questions about Iran into a public proclamation of Jesus, faith, and becoming the kind of man he knew he couldn’t become without God. Jase connects a brutally honest New Orleans story and Little Man’s spaghetti-night revelation to the aroma of Christ, the goodness of Jesus, and the kind of faith that moves from words into action. In this episode: 2 Corinthians 2:14–17; 2 Peter 2:22; 1 Peter 4:11; John 14; John 16; Colossians 1:15–23; Genesis 4; Romans 8:29; James 1:18–27; Proverbs 17:27; Psalm 103:8; Exodus 34:6; 1 Corinthians 8; Deuteronomy 6 “Unashamed” Episode 1365 is sponsored by: https://chministries.org/unashamed — Get a better solution at half the cost of traditional healthcare! https://bravebooks.com/unashamed — Use code UNASHAMED for 20% off your first order! https://myphdweightloss.com — Find out how Al lost 80+ pounds. Visit the website or call 864-644-1900 and mention "Al Robertson" to get 2 weeks free in the program! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Chapters 00:00 The Good & Bad of New Orleans 10:06 The Aroma of Christ vs. the Smell of the World 18:03 Faith Moves from Performance to Participation 25:10 Jesus as the Firstborn Over Creation 31:00 JD Vance Talks Jesus on TV 36:38 Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak 43:33 Why Being a Good Listener Matters 49:40 True Knowledge is Being Known by God — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. I've got to go when I leave here today to the great city of New Orleans, Louisiana. He says a six-month checkup. You have to go down and see the cancer doctor every six months. Just as a follow-up. But it's funny because my grandkids are going with us because they're going back and forth because we're on to Gulf stores from there. And so I have this shuttle service running this summer, taking my grandkids back and forth. But it's funny because

I said, are you all excited about going to New Orleans? And they're like, eh, because the last time we were there, we were walking or hotel. I tried to get a hotel close to what we've got to do so I can really just get out of there as fast as I can. New Orleans is, I mean, certain parts of the city used.

Well, I thought you were doing an event in New Orleans, and I thought how they need Jesus. They need Jesus. But I was going to say this, surprisingly, the last time I was in New Orleans at whatever game, we were down there watching the game, I can't remember who it was. I saw, there was a lot of street preachers. Yeah.

Now, granted, some of them might have been under the influence, and I'm not sure it was the spirit. What their message was. Well, yeah, but I just thought, okay, it's something. At least it's something. Well, it's funny the things that make their mark, though. So the last time we were down for this same thing, and it was one of the summer visits, because there's always one in the winter and one in the summer.

And Sage said, you know, she's my 11-year-old granddaughter, because we had walked. They went with me to get some coffee and then come back to the hotel. Because I pretty much have it mapped out where I don't, you know, because you can't, it's hard to get your car out. The parking down there's terrible. And it cost a fortune. It's like $50.

a night to park anyway, even at a hotel. And so you don't have to get your car out every time you go somewhere. So I try to get within walking distance. So we're walking past, and there's quite a few homeless people in New Orleans, and someone had defecated, you know, right there on the street, you know, in two or three different places. You know, it was like these little outcows that were meant to be like something good to look at, but someone had decided that was a bathroom. That's when I'm leaving

Yeah And so my So saves She said I don't I don't like to go to New Orleans I said yeah I know you know we got to go for ma'am's appointment She said I mean they just poop on the street Pat

I said well Unfortunately In America that's all the major cities That's where we're seeing a lot of that So you know It's gotten worse too It's got to The smell

The smell The smell The drugs That I think Every time I'm in New Orleans Orleans and they're like I remember while we were there we went to a Saints game and I was just like oh and missy was like what else like it's the smell it is a bad smell and it I depicted it as just vomit because a lot of people are getting drunk yeah and you can't get rid of that smell

and you know I have a high sense of smell and which reminds me of a funny story I should have told about little man look because you get I get so frustrated in the last podcast I was talking about some of the conversations without getting personal because I'm not trying to throw people onto the bus. But it does get frustrating sometimes when you're trying to help someone and they come to you and they're just being delusional about their current state of affairs. And it's very, very frustrating. But I thought this four-year-old dropped a line the other night that I thought, if a four-year-old

can get this. And I'll set the scene up. And I told this story on a previous podcast a couple of podcasts about he came to, he calls my wife Lulu. It's like, Lulu, I want to clean my room. And he was, look, four-year-olds, they want attention. They want you to say, great job, buddy. And look, when I was young, I used to do that. It reminded me of I would clean the whole house.

and because my parents for once, because that was before Jesus, they would say, great job. That's all I did it for, which I didn't know that at the time, you know, but I just wanted,

you want to impress people. So she let him clean his room, which was an epic fail, because he took that to me, because from his perspective, I'm going to rearrange the furniture, which became dangerous, and it just,

everything ended up, up in the middle of the room in a big pile, which is the opposite of cleaning up your room. Yeah, he's remodeled. Yeah. But during that, this happened, which is why you thought maybe he will clean up his room, like you wanted to see. So she's like, I got supper ready, and we had his favorite thing to eat, which is her spaghetti, which is from my mom's recipe.

So I don't want you to think there's just some noodles and dump some sauce on it. This is a two-hour project. It's the greatest spaghetti on earth. Sorry. Where did the spaghetti originate from? Italy. Italy. We took that and went way beyond.

You sound like that now. I mean, pizzas and shaget. And spaghetti. But, I mean, my parents, they figured out how to make a pot of spaghetti. Would you agree? No, it's delicious. So it's his favorite thing. And he's like, I don't have time.

I've got to clean that ring. And I'm like, no, we're going to stop and stop and eat. And so he was frustrated because Lulu was making him eat the spaghetti, you know. And he's wanting to do this project. And so then all of a sudden he takes a bite. And he said, the smell got me in. And he said, and when I tasted that first bite, because she said, oh, now you want to eat the spaghetti. And he was like, yeah.

And so then he launched into this, he's four years old. He said the smell got me in. And when I ate the first bite, my heart told my mind, this is so good. And we both looked at each other, and I thought, did he just say my heart told my mind? This is good? I thought, that is a Jesus statement. He wants your heart. to tell your mind,

this is good, make good decision. That's great theology. That's four-year-old theology. It was fantastic. So that's why I should have told that part of the story. Because in that moment, I thought, we've done something good for this kid. He's probably watching the Hillsdale episodes,

and he's an Augustine guy now. That's what he got that from, for sure. I just thought, what I think for a four-year-old to come out of his mouth. But then, fast-forward two hours, When we go up after we heard La La LaLau crash, I thought, all right, we got to get back to work. Because we have a big pile of rubble. Then you're like, yeah, that was a moment, but it was just a moment. Yeah, so it is with four-year-old.

Two steps forward and then about three back. So here we go. But anyway. Well, you know, I thought when you said that, I thought, well, what about that verse that says we have the aroma of Christ? And so the smell gets us in. That's it. We taste and see that the Lord is good. the heart tells the mind, this is good.

Oh, that is the verse. Where is that? St. Corinthians 2 or 1st Corinthians 2? We need to read that. God always leads us in try. Yep. 2. 14. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession.

There's your kingdom analogy. Yep. We've won because he won. In Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance. of the knowledge of him. So when people are around us, it should be the exact opposite smell of Bourbon Street. Look, I love Louisiana.

I love New Orleans. Bourbon Street is famous. What's funny is they have some of the best food in the world. It is. It's amazing. So you get inside that restaurant, there's a good smell. If you walk outside, here's the deal, Al.

Greatest food in the world. You eat the food. but when you're on bourbon street people drink a lot of bourbon and they drink too much and then they throw up this wonderful food and then a smell of aroma forms

when now we just shifted over to 1st Peter or 2nd Peter 2 2 where he said the sow returns to its vomit oh yeah this is the dog returns to the mud the dog returns to the mud the dog returns to eating his own vomit Yeah.

There's your... I've always thought when dogs did that. I'm like, yep, there it is. It's in the Bible. So don't be offended us talking about this. This is biblical. It's biblical. And I want to finish reading this.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing to the one we are the smell of death. Because us saying we have eternal life, the gift of eternal life, and sharing that message, to be in positive about it. We should have said this on the last podcast. That's why people persecute you. But to them, they're like, well, I don't think I'm going to make it. Yeah.

And it's the smell of death. And to the others, the fragrance of life. I feel like I should do a perfume commercial, Maddie, about Jesus. You know how they do? Because these perfume commercials. Oh, yeah. Have you ever seen one? Oh, yeah.

They're always weird. And they're so, the cinematography is amazing. Yeah, they're out in the wilderness. It's like we're in some kind of cyborg AI. What are the things on Star Trek where you enter the portal thing where it like creates the holodeck. The holodeck. And you're like, what is this about? Because they're holding it to the end.

And it's always a big star, like a big movie star. Oh, yeah. And then it's like perfume, buy. Varaji or whoever. Varaji. I don't need no. That's a new designer, Maddie. Varaji.

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I'm a member. You too can get started today by visiting CHministries.org slash unashamed. That's chmistries.org slash unashamed. But I feel like we are to have the greatest commercial for the fragrance of life in Jesus. This is good. And who is equal to such a task? And then it says his point was, unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. This goes with James.

It's not about money. On the contrary, in Christ, we speak before God. with sincerity like men sent from God. Yeah. Because I thought about this when I brought up the idea of the debar about the words that you speak, meaning action, it's more than words. It accompanies itself with action.

Right. Which is Jesus in human form. The word of God that was in the cloud, in the fire, speaking creation, you know, on the mountains through the law. This is Jesus there all along becoming a human body person. And because think about another verse that says just what this said. I mean, that's just popped in my head. When 1st Peter 4 says, when you speak, I'm going to find this.

We're going by the seat of our pants here today. Where does it say? When you speak, you speak the very oracles of God. Where is that at? Verse 11, listen to this. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words or that word is oracles of God. And then, here's your action. If anyone serves, he should know what the strength God provides.

So that in all things God may be praised through Jesus. the subtle subtle thing I'm trying to get across here is we speak half the things we say

look this convicts me when I start thinking about this because we are in a family of embellishers and nonsensical speech true

amen and when I read a verse like that it scares me when I know the original meaning of that word is that if you're

when you speak because God language when he says you should speak as though God were speaking through him are the very oracles of God. Well, when God speaks, something happens and it's good. So you're like gulp. I mean, that is sobering and convicting.

But I think it's going to go along. The reason I keep harping on this is because James, he seems to zero everything down on your. tongue and what's coming out of your mouth as he goes along here. And so I think you've got to have that backdrop because you're just like, well, what's he making such a big deal about what you say in your tongue being like the rudder of the ship? He gives to that in James III. And I think this is why.

Yeah, it is. And to tie this off before we get into James, you think about, we talk about all the time about heaven and earth. We talk about places, but we realize that they're only representative of the people and the personality and the what happens. And, you know, it's bringing heaven to earth the idea. In the same way we talk about New Orleans. It's a city. And there's a lot of good qualities about it.

It has great history. It's been an American for a very long time. But it's all about what you decide you're going to do when you're there. I mean, you see people down and out. You see people come down there and do terrible things that maybe they wouldn't do back home. And I've had that same experience because I tell the story about when dad, the first time I ever saw him, like, go really hard public was in New Orleans. That was Superdome. Yeah.

You know, when he decided to just share Jesus with a bunch of. I think that's the perfect place to start. Yeah, exactly. And he's like, boom, here we go. And I just, I'll never forget that moment. I was, you know, a brand new Christian. I went there as a prodigal. that was my faraway place to squander.

Isn't that crazy? It feels like a small world. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's where you went to go away from the Lord, and it's where my dad started his public ministry. Exactly. And I was president of both. And then 40 years later,

it's the place where God led us to the most amazing people to help Lisa deal with breast cancer. And, I mean, they're just... Well, and y'all helped plan a church there. Yeah, and we're right, after Katrina. We did. And I still love going and meet with those guys. I mean, they're awesome. And it's in the worst part of New Orleans. But it's funny, when I go there, I have no fear because I'm there with the brothers and we're reaching people, we're teaching kids. And I mean,

like, if I'm there with my grandkids, I'd be scared to death. But, you know, when I go there with them, I feel, that's what I'm saying, it's people, it's what you always say about vacation. It's not necessarily the destination. It's who's going with you. And it's the same with that. It's the same with the place. So anyway. You mentioned, you mentioned, I think this is the whole like shift as we're trying to move away from a performative religion and move into a participation in the communal life of God, which is the reality that he's invited us into. So when you had mentioned in the last episode about, like we were talking about the letter and the spirit, I was thinking about, you mentioned that John, I think you mentioned John 14 now, that the spirit will, he'll,

illuminate the things of Christ. John 16, he says, he's going to, Jesus says he's going to take what's mine and then he's going to give it to you. So Jesus is like, you want what I have. And so when you think about that in the context of like, what's in it for us,

like, it really is pleasure that we're after. We want joy. We want good things. And that's not bad. For the joy set before him, the Bible says that Christ endure the cross. So we have a joy that's set before us. And so you say, well, he's going to impart that to us to the Spirit, which is in direct line with the language that Paul uses in 1st Corinthians when he says that we actually can't imagine those things.

Like, God has prepared to give those who love him incredible things so incredible that no thought of man has ever imagined even how great it is. We can't even imagine it. It's so great. But he has revealed this to us by his spirit is what Paul says. And so I think that it ties into this whole idea about the aroma of Christ and everything. Because I think so often it's like we want to attack the behavior of something and we want to say, you got to stop doing that bad thing. But really, that's not the point.

Like, there's not like a list of bad things that we're not supposed to do. Everything is an invitation into life. And when you separate your religion from reality and it's like some kind of just code that you're engaging in, then you're not actually experiencing the thing you're supposed to experience. And so out of the mouths of babes, I mean, little man hit it right. I mean, I'm in because of the smell. It was shocking. I'm in because of smell.

I tasted it. It was good. My heart told my mind. This is good. That's the pathway. It was top ten shocking statements I've ever heard come out of somebody's mouth. And it was a four-year-old. I thought, where in the world did he get that from?

Yeah. I told you about, I was with a grown man a couple days before. and I was getting frustrated over how it was going. And when you mentioned that the John 14 and John 16, it made me think of what I should have said in that conversation. Because Colossians won, when you start talking about who Christ is, the only in our participation in that, if you'll notice, I've been noticing this more lately.

It's like when the Bible writers try to do, describe who Jesus is. The only way they can do it is through poetry. It's like a poem because it's so profound and so hard to get your head around. Think Philippians, too, and think this one in Colossians. One, you know, where he starts off in verse 15. He's going to describe Jesus. He's like, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

So immediately you think, what's that word firstborn? because I talked about the last podcast, you know, what does that mean? And people have got it wrong in the past because they're like, oh, he was, God created him. Well, no, because the next phrase of the poem says, for by him, all things were created. And you're like, oh, wait, what does that mean? You know, and that's why I said it's more his status. He is the image. We're created in the image.

He is the image of the invisible God. for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, powers, rulers, or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. But every time you read a verse, you want to stop and say, well, wait a minute, but they're not, they're not doing what's right. And you keep reading. He is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. It's kind of like those phrases that says, Jesus was the first.

first and the last. He's just trying to relate to us, which is unrelatable, really, because he's eternal. Well, how can you be the first and last if you're eternal? One thing I noticed, grandkids, they want to be on the move. They want to be looking at the next thing.

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because eternal has no beginning. beginning or in. And so you're trying to put it in that perspective. And before y'all comment, you know, I got bogged down here because it's so powerful. Then when he gets to 21 and gets practical, he says, once you were alienated from God and you are enemies in your minds, and then this is just such a profound statement because of your evil behavior. It wasn't, it's no grand scheme of, oh, I couldn't help.

No, you just chose to live an evil lifestyle, and as a result of that, you became alienated from God. Because to participate in evil is to reject in the provision of God. So that's why you become an enemy in your mind, and you can't escape this. And I think this is so key. And it has everything in do with James' argument. Like, if you think about the whole thing that James is trying to do in this book, is he's trying to essentially show people. that you can't separate faith from works.

Because that's been the big debate throughout. I mean, I remember coming up in the Church of Christ, Al. I mean, the early years, I mean, you could get fired from a Church of Christ. Like when I was a kid, I'd know preachers that got fire from, quote, unquote, preaching grace. And my dad being one of them. And so, I mean, he got, we got fired from the church twice. And so we, I remember those early debates, even though I was a, young kid, I remember them. And then there was a shift in the 90s in the churches of Christ

where I would call it the grace movement. I don't know what it's termed historically, but churches began to talk about grace a lot more. But the problem is even in the whole debate, right? Then it's like, well, it's not works. It's grace. It's all grace. And then I don't have to do anything. Well, no, we're not saying that. And you're trying to figure out, is it grace? Is it works? Is it faith? What, like, what are we doing here? And what James is trying to show is that these two things are inseparable. Because if faith is me ultimately believing in the revelation of God, and I actually, he reveals it to me, it's the John 14 through John 16 text, but the spirit of God,

he illuminates my heart, he says, here's reality. And I see that. And I say, okay, you know what? I'm going to trust you and believe you in that. I'm going to try. I'm going to do this because you said it. Even sometimes if I don't really feel it yet, I'm going to trust. you and so I'm going to do it. That's faith.

That always leads to life. So the work is, I do work. I work. For example, if I came to your house and you said, hey, Zach, don't touch that stove. It's really, really hot. I just cooked on it. It's super hot. Don't touch it.

I would believe you. And so my action would be, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to touch that. And so that's work. But it's connected to trust. And so faith without works is dad because what he's saying is his faith is participation in God's life. Well, I would echo, and it's just not the revelation of God, it's the reconciliation to God,

which is the next verse in Colossians 1, where he said, but now you have been reconciled by Christ. It's the relational aspect of it. And I think you noticed this more. We were talking about Cain and Abel. This has nothing to do with anything we're talking about, but I just noticed this. this verse the other night when I was looking at that story. Because I was thinking that first fruits that weren't given and the first born that was,

and then how those two words would be later depicted in the new creation that Jesus brought with us being the first fruits and Jesus being the firstborn over all creation and the first born from the dead. And then we read Romans 8 last time about the first fruits of the spirit. But he also, Paul, and I know he didn't do this by accident, brought up the same story because later on in Romans 8, he says, he calls Jesus the first born. It goes back, it keeps going back to that, the original creation and this being the new creation.

I want to read that, Romans 8, now I've done got sidetracked onto this, but Romans 8 where it says, verse 29, For those God foreknow, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many siblings. So think family of God, the ultimate human has provided a way for us to be reconciled to God, and that is forever. What I was going to say, that didn't really have anything to do with anything, this little obscure verse about Cain and Abel from Eve's perspective, written by Moses, I guess. In Genesis 5, or Genesis 4, this is funny.

I want to get y'all's comment on this. It says, Adam lay with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. And she said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth. fourth a man. Because I thought about that. If you are the first people, and all of a sudden this happens, I witness my three kids being born into this world. Well, if you had no knowledge of that beforehand, that that's a possibility. Even though God said, hey, the two will become one flesh, and I mean, you look at the anatomy of the male and the female. I'm sure they're looking at each other and thinking, I think I see how this fits, you know. But still,

But she acknowledged, and I just thought if that one truth would catch hold to civilization, that this is not just me and a man, you know, having sex and produce a baby, but this is with the help of the Lord. The Lord gives life. I just thought it kind of hit me like a ton of bricks because we're living in a civilization now where it's like unborn babies are being massacred. Yeah. There's no, it's like, well, it's my body.

this is part of me. And when that gets lost, you see creation itself start to crumble. You know, we were talking about going public with that and being able to talk about that. I was super impressed yesterday. I watched J.D. Vance was everywhere yesterday because he's got a new book out. But it's interesting because they got all this Iran stuff going on this week, and I realize this will be later released. So, you know, everybody's going to ask him about that.

But he's talking about his book. And the name of his book is called Communion. Finding my way back to faith. Oh, really? Yeah. It's basically his testimony. But even watching him on a show like the Five, which is, you know, a political show, when it came to the segment for him to talk about his book, they all asked him questions.

And it was so good because he was so articulate about why. But you're talking about Jesus? Oh, straight up Jesus and straight up gospel. And it's funny because Gutfeld, so it says finding your way back to faith. He said, why did you ever leave it? That's a great question. And he said, well, he said, I grew up knowing about God. He said, I grew up in a home where we talked about God and we went to church.

He said, but then like a lot of people, I hit my teenage years and I decided I just would do it my way. He said, and then all I cared about was money and what kind of job I was going to get. Because, you know, he's like, he went to Yale or someplace and became an attorney and became wealthy and wrote a book. And he said, and then I just looked at myself and when I started to decide what kind of man I wanted to be the rest of, in my life. I met my wife and, you know, we were getting married. And he said, I looked in the mirror and just thought, you're not a, you're not a good man. Yeah. You know, and I mean, he's just saying all this on the show. And he said, and I realized that I needed God in my life to be the kind of man I need to be. If I was going to be a father one day and all this, and he said, and that's what

led me back to faith. And, but his wife is a Hindu, but they're raising their children as Christians. And he talked about that why. And he said, you know, know, I can respect her, and we have a lot of interesting debates, but he said, she comes with me, you know, and we raise our kids, and that's where, you know, I'm trying to respect her faith. And, you know, it's funny to listen to a politician even talking about his faith. But the fact that there was a eight-minute discussion where Jesus was glorified and by our vice president on national television, and he went on the view into the same thing. So I just, I just thought to myself, these are, there's good times, even when we talk about

there being bad time. You know, you talk about our government and all that, which is a positive. So I was super impressed. All right, I want to, we're halfway through this podcast. Let's get to James. We haven't even got started. But really, I made that illustration because in the verse 18, when he, he's using being born as an illustration. And Jesus did it when he said, remember when he told Nicodemus, hey, you need to be born from above. I mean, this, he's using that same analogy.

You think, hey, we're created beings in the image of God. He gives us life, and then you can be born again. There's a new creation, and he's the one using the illustration. I'm not. And James says, in verse 18, which now leads into our new text, he chose to give us birth. There's the new birth. Through the Word of Truth, there's Jesus,

that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created. And there's that spirit-led, reflecting that God is real in Christ. So, you know, I remember it was probably somewhere between 40 and 45 years old. It just seemed like all of a sudden I had to start dealing with weight issues. And so I started trying the fad diets and they would work and I would lose some weight or I would, you know, get back into working out and that would be great. But then I would always put it back on and usually more than before. And so what I didn't know was and the good folks that Ph.D. weight loss taught me is that as I was going to be getting older, my metabolism began to slow down. And so that's what they taught me at PhD.

That's when the change happened. And here's a picture of me at the beginning of my journey. This is now almost a year and a half ago. Here I am now. So you see it's quite a bit of difference. And now I'm much healthier. Got off my CPAP machine, got off all my meds, which is fantastic. I feel free. I feel healthy. I'm able to do a lot more with my grandkids and exercise regularly and just overall feel so much better. And so we want that for you as a lot of you. well right now when you call and mention Al Robertson yours truly you'll get two free weeks and they'll pay for the cost of your food that's a 1500 dollar value right off the bat so it's a good deal call 864 64 6441900 now that's 864 644

1900 or go to my PhD weight loss.com because the goal here isn't to lose the weight once it's never having to start again that's 864 644 9,900 or Or go to my PhD weight loss.com. So for the rest of the book now, he's going to talk about what it looks like when you're this person. Yeah. You're this new birth.

So here's what he says. My dear brother, his next statement, verse 19, and I'll read down to 27, because we'll be here for a minute. My dear brothers, take note of this,

which I like that because it's like, I mean, he's saying, you might want to write this down, or you might want to make sure you remember this. Take note of this. He had no idea that somebody was going to write this down and pass it along for a couple thousand years. A couple of thousand years later.

We're here doing podcasts about it in West Monroe and North Carolina. Take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Now, Jay's, you love bumper sticker statements in the Bible. That's a good one. Well, but I have trouble with ones that are so convicting to my life. I'm two out of three on this. I'm pretty good.

I'm guilty of not arriving at that three-point sermon. This is a struggle. Except the slow to become angry. And you probably attest to that. Of all our family dynamics, I'm not the one getting angry. No, and I don't either. I'm pretty slow. Is there anybody?

I don't really have a temper. I've never seen that. No, and it's funny because, you know, dad was like that. He wasn't a quick anger person, but dad was the kind of person that when he got anger about something, it took him about 24 hours to sort of percolate to anger. Yeah. And then he would be hot, you know. Yeah, he was. He was slow, but when it happened, it happened. For man's anger, does not bring about the righteous life God desires, which is, that's a great, another great part of the statement. And remember, when you see righteous life, it's how you're doing in

relationship. You're acting right with God and other people, which makes a lot more sense, if you think about it. Well, and think about it. Anger is, that's why it's such a gateway emotion to damage relationships, because very little, this is what he says here, but very little good comes out of human anger in relationship. I mean, sometimes it does, because we should be, but we'll talk about that. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. So there's this idea back about the word again. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word who does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror. And after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. And, you know, Entie Wright made an interesting point about that. He said, you know, James wrote this in a time where you didn't have a lot of mirrors around. Oh, right. So, I mean, it would have been more prevalent to forget, because you may not see your face for a minute, you know,

if you saw in a reflecting pool or someplace, you know, where you have. And I'm sure the mirrors back then weren't quite the quality they are now. And they're not really getting, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know. I mean, now people are, you know, taking pictures in front of the mirror. How many times have you seen a young girl mostly, but. just they have the phone and you think i guess they're reading into something and if you get close

enough to look they're looking at themselves oh it's the phone turned around to look at yourself and they're just yeah they're doing their face and you know they're yeah you're in the airport all the time and i'm like they're not they're looking at themselves yeah 24-7 it's not it's not really healthy uh but the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this not forgetting what he's heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. So this is really setting up the next chapter as well, and the faith and works, as that mentioned.

And then this little two-parter, which is so good, if anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rain on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. There's that word deceive again. Yeah. And you're deceiving yourself. Yeah.

Yeah, and it's what you say, according to his verse. Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this. So the opposite of what he just talked about. To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Which is so fascinating. It's so good. But I guess we have to start with the quick to listen. Slow to speak, slow to become angry.

So, Zach, out of those three, which is the most difficult for you? I'm probably quick to speak too often and slow to listen. We do talk for a living. Well, if you are, then that means I'm terrible at that. Well, I've sat on here. You too are not the best listening. We're not going to, if the spirit's convicting you, we're definitely not going to get in the way of that.

I think our family, that's probably more hard default. You know why that is, though? Because in our family, if you don't force your way into a conversation, you're not getting in the conversation. So you're not in an early age. I mean, this is, hey, you've got to fight for your spot. And so we just all grew up with kind of that mentality. And when we're together, I'll tell you what it makes for a very fun and lively. It's never boring.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I will say this about the ability to listen. And I think really effective pastoral people, whether that's a deacon or an elder or shepherd at a church, are typically pretty good listeners because if you're trying to help somebody, and this ties in that last verse when he talks about looking after people who are in trouble. And he mentions widows and orphans. But I would also include anybody that's in a sinful situation. As you were mentioning that about someone coming to you.

You know, one thing I said about dad, who did always have, a word, but he was also a really good listener. He would say, tell me your story, and he would listen. And I learned a lot from that because it helped me later to know, I can't really help someone unless I know what they're dealing with, unless I know what the problem is. And so to do that, you have to be able to listen. And I've noticed that I really skilled people that counsel people well, they can listen and then they can hear. And they, they can hear things maybe the person is not even realizing they're sharing, but you, you know, you hear enough people and you start to hear patterns.

And, Jay, you talk about patterns. You start to see the pattern of something, and you're like, okay, I think, I may know what's going on with you. And then you can try to apply something that biblically or a spiritual thought that helps them. And so I know you do the same thing as that. So we're probably a little harder on himself because we do talk for a living. But, I mean, I'm a pretty good listener to people and able to then give them advice

biblically or spiritually that can help. But if I don't listen, I'm not going to know. If I just tried broadcast and blast, then I'm not really going to know that. And that's a little bit different individual. Yeah, I think, too, like what James is doing here to you. I don't think he's giving us like, okay, here's all the list of things

that you guys need to be working on. Yeah, it's not a new rule book. Yeah. That's not, it's kind of similar to the Mount. I mean, it's kind of similar to me in that, that if you read the argument as a whole, And by that, I mean, you read the whole book of James. Then you start to see what he's doing.

He's laying the groundwork here at the beginning. And I think he's just laying the groundwork to say, look, if there's this, like, huge dichotomy between what you say you believe and what you do, that's not, you may not actually believe this thing over here. Because he really believe this, this is what you'll do. And then he, because then he goes in, we won't get into this today, but he gets in this whole argument about Abraham. and he uses him as like a prototype of what that means to have faith because he was the father of our faith. And so he kind of dabbles into that whole argument. I said, consider Abraham. I mean, you know, like look at his story.

He did some stuff. You know what I mean? And I think that's like the whole progression of it. And then he also has this interesting thing. And they're about a fig tree bearing fruit. So now you're back to like, like, what is my nature? What am I supposed to be doing? You're back to that Genesis 128 vocation, be fruitful, multiply.

you see the Holy Spirit bears free. So it's much more about he's building this argument that if you are really in Christ, if you really have faith in Christ, you're going to do some stuff. I think that's what he's saying, is you're going to work. You're going to have some good works. If you really believe him, you're going to have some good works that are going to follow up with that. And these are some of the examples that he's talking about. Right.

You know, what do you all think about the religion? pure religion. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result?

Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com. Spotify. Well, hold on now, because I want to give my take on the quick delay. I wanted to hear what y'all said first. Yep. And so I did a little, I went in a different direction. Because I thought, is this phrase unique to James, you know, quick to listen? Because it is like a bumper sticker. Yeah. Slow to speak, slow to become angry. So I'll give you my little take. And I look this up. And the exact phrase is found nowhere. in the Bible. But when you start putting all the passages together, slow to anger is foundational

in the Old Testament because God would be described as a God who is slow to anger. There's countless passages. I'll give you a couple. Psalm 1038, Exodus 346. And then the book of Proverbs, which we said, reading Proverbs is prerequisite because that is all about wisdom, lady wisdom, and kind of Jesus fulfilling that in human form. But I'll read you this proverb 1727. It's a good one. And this is what this calls me to go in this direction. It says the one who has knowledge uses spare words with restraint. And whoever has understanding is even tempered.

So I'm positive that this statement was rooted there because that's basically what it says. If you think you know a lot of stuff, it doesn't necessarily mean you've got to talk a lot. And if you have understanding, you're not going to be quick to get angry. Because you understand the big picture, which I just thought that was so profound a verse. but it also made me think when it comes to the knowledge thing of, and this goes back to something we talked about last podcast,

it's 1st Corinthians 8, and here we go again, trying to describe what Jesus is and our participation in that. So an interesting debate came up in 1st Corinthians 8, we were talking about the smell of food and all this out of the heart, tells the mind.

I wanted to read that, then when we were talking about that story, but I'll read it now. So Paul addresses this food sacrifice to idols, and he says, we know that we all possess knowledge, because I think you're seeing a pattern develop once I read that proverbs about people who speak a lot, usually they think they know a lot. They're like, hey, listen to what I've got to say, you know, or we write books or oh, and I'm educated. The whole educational system, I have all this knowledge. Let me impart this wisdom to you. And the Bible seems to be saying the opposite because, and this I think is the key point,

when it comes to in Christ, it's not what you know, it's who. It goes back to a person behind this, even when we said the righteousness is all about your righteousness with him, as in your relationship with him, in your relationship to others. which is my comment about the word religion there, Zach, because he then goes to widows and orphans of all the things. You're like, this is true religion? I mean, that just doesn't make people think, oh, that's so deep. No, it's just good.

You're taking back to the sermon on the Mount, the people who seem to be swept under the rug in our society, Jesus saying, you're the ones I'm after. It's kind of like the last will be first. kind of idea. And so then he says the man in First Corinthians, his 8, who thinks he knows something,

does not yet know as he ought to know. So where's he going with this? Where is Paul? Why is he talking about food sacrifice to idols and have some profound wisdom? But then he says in verse 3, but the man who loves

God is known by God. He flips knowledge on its head and says, if you love God, you're known by him. That's true knowledge, is you saying, God knows me. And if you stop and think about it, what's his point? It's deep. He's like, if you're known by God, you're good.

And you acknowledge that. And you love him? You're good. Which is why I said, it's who you know and who you're known by. So then he says, and I mean, this is deep what he's fixed as they. So then about eating food sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there's no God but one. Now what's this statement? He says the one God. So he uses that Shama. There's one God. He goes back to the Old Testament. You can look it up.

But then he says this, for even if there are so-called gods with whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods, little G, and many lords. Yet for us, now watch what he does. This is a brain teaser. There's but one God. He quotes Deuteronomy again. The Father from whom all things came, and for whom we live,

and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ. So he uses that statement, there's but one God and Lord, but he uses it as God the Father and Jesus is the Son. They're one. but there's one God and us being known by them. I think that's just fascinating, even though it's a brain teaser. Through whom all things came and through whom we live.

And so then he gets back to his point, but that is his real point about there's a God, and our participation in him is true knowledge, which will then trickle down to how we act and respond, which is God is slow to anger. And then what I was going to do is, look at Jesus' life. You want to know where those three things were? I'm just amazed that every time I read the conversations Jesus had,

and he's actually having a conversation and letting them speak, and from the Samaritan woman to all the other, these episodes where he's literally having a conversation, you would think he would do all the talking. Oh, no. He lets him talk. He listens to what they have to say. And then even in his death, he showed those three things.

being slow to speak, quick to listen. Remember, he said very few words when he was on trial. There were times on the trials, right. He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. And talking about slow to become angry. You realize what he could have done to those people on the spot? I mean, he could have disintegrated them and melted them like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

All this, it was more the person exemplifying this concept in. love. Yeah. And he's doing it for us. So that's what I had to say, Zach. Go ahead. I was just going to say that what you said earlier is, too, about when you have that kind of confidence in Christ, you don't, you can be slow to speak.

That was a really good point. I remember for years, I used to, I studied apologetics. I'd learned a ton about defending the Christian faith. There is certainly a room for that. We need that. But I never really convinced anybody with like an offensive argument. the more that I became convinced myself, then my tactic changed from me presenting information to people

to me asking questions. And the more confident that you actually are in what you believe, that you are, so to speak, because the real gold, honestly, at any kind of discussion about Christ, in my opinion, the real goal is can you get someone in a conversation where they'll actually tell you what they really believe, what they really feel, what they really think.

Because then you can actually deal with stuff. I'd say 95% of our interactions are in defensive postures, and you never actually get to the real things. But if you're confident in Christ and you actually do know what you're talking about, then I thought that the degree that you are confident, that's the degree that you can slow down and you can ask more questions. And actually the best approach is the Socratic approach is through your question and you can leave people to draw their own conclusions about who the Christ is because he's revealed this in a way that he's accessible.

And so we don't have to necessarily like spell everything out for everybody. We can ask enough questions that draw people into the ultimate conclusion, which is Christ. I'm so glad you said that because I have in the last few years amended the way I share Jesus. And the first thing I do is let them talk. I say, what's your story? Because that way later on, because I know the story of Jesus convict you. It makes you feel guilty. And your impulse, especially when you're not living right, is to push back.

And it's like, no, now when I said, what's your story? Or they start wanting to argue with it. And you're like, none of this came up. And now all of a sudden, you know, your con, which, you know, I may not be that confrontational, but I'm just, I'm knowing they had a chance to tell the story. And what's really sad is most people when you say, what's your story, there's nothing. about Jesus. Yeah.

It's just their story. Right. And their take, which is me thinking, this is why you need Jesus. Yeah, and being willing to talk about it. I have one other point that we will say for next time before, I'm saying this so you'll remind me about the quick to listen. It has to do with all things, the transfiguration. So put that in your notes out.

And before we move on from this, I think it's really good. All right. But I didn't read it out of a book. It just came to me in the middle of the night. Transfiguration on the quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become a year. We have been teased, unashamed audience,

so we'll pick it up there next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube. And be sure to click the little bell and choose all notifications to watch every episode.