Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1367 | Jase Crashes a Stranger’s Cookout & Gets Stumped by the Crunchy Burger Recipe

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Jase breaks character and accepts a stranger’s dinner invite, only to discover a secret ingredient that leaves him confused and intrigued. Zach puts to bed the rumors of his questionable origins, and Al reflects on Lisa’s story of spending 33 years seeing herself through a broken lens before one major turning point helped her understand her life in a whole new way. The guys explore how being born again gives broken families a true fresh start, not by erasing what happened, but by giving them a new Father, a new identity, and a new legacy to build from. In this episode: Luke 20:38; James 1:12-21; Romans 1; John 14; Leviticus; Ephesians 5; Romans 12:1-2; John 6:33-40; Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:13 “Unashamed” Episode 1367 is sponsored by: 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 Jase’s Father’s Day Sermon Takes a Detour 07:45 Cornflakes…in Burgers? 11:30 Growing Up Poor but Eating Well 15:40 Psalm 139 & Being Known by God 22:03 The Adam and Eve Motel 28:20 The Prize of God’s Presence 34:16 Loving Your Neighbor 40:42 Seeing Ourselves as God Sees Us 46:11 Being Born Again Changes Everything — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 slash Spotify.

This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia. Feel good from the inside out. Visitactivia.ca for more details. I am unashamed. What about you?

Welcome back to the Unashamed podcast. I am still in St. Augustine, Florida, because, you know, we record a couple in a row. So those of you watching, I still got the dead animals. I almost switched my camera ago around, but it's just so much trouble. Maddie would have not been happy, just so you could see the other animals on the other side.

But if you were with us last time, you know, I'm here, Zach is in North Carolina. Jace is freshly back for North Carolina. He talked about, Jayce, you talked about your appearance there with the folks up there. I'm going to be speaking here at a Beast Feast. We got a thousand men coming, which I'm super excited about it. Kind of like your situation, Jayce. I got a room of 700, and then they've got a spillover room of 300.

And so they asked me to go in and give the group that's going to be watching it on a screen. They won't actually get to see me live, but they wanted me to go in there and give them a little, you know, five-minute, something different. just so they can actually see me in person. So I like when that happens, I don't know if you've ever had to do those before. I try to think of a little story that's something that the big audience, the big audience, everybody won't get. You know, so they feel like they got a little land yap,

a little extra. Tell them what the land yap is. That's a French term. Yeah, French time. And in Louisiana, we just say that's a little extra. That's like Jason's stories, a little extra. A little extra. Well, I had a fantastic time in North Carolina.

I really enjoyed, because I don't get to preach much. And, you know, so I did my usual jokes, you know. I know I look like a preacher, but I'm not. But I will preach. And, of course, Al, you'll appreciate this for getting lessons together. Because I actually wrote down a few notes, which is unusual for me. Which I didn't follow, which is not unusual. Which is not unusual for you.

Well, because I thought, you know what? It's Father's Day. I'm going to do four chapters, but just give overviews. Can you name those chapters that I was going to do on Father's Day? Hmm. I have to literally go look at my notes to remember what the four chapters were. Oh. So it's not four chapters like in the same book.

These are four independent chapters. There's four random chapters. because it was Father's Day. And what's funny about the Father's. Here's what's funny. This just occurred to me. The chapter that I did do both times that I broke down was not one of the four chapters. Now that sounds like the J-Suite.

No one loves. It was a rabbit hole. It was a rabbit hole to his own sermon. It was a rabbit hole. I just realized it. And do you know what chapter that I base both of these sermons on? Psalm 139. Oh, goodness.

I never would have guessed that. That's what I did. I read them. I read most of the chapter in both of them. But I don't know if you've read that lately, but for a Father's Day, it's really good. It's really good. So I'll save that because I kind of have. had an epiphany about this idea of widows and orphans that he says true religion is.

And I was like, why are the widows and the orphans? But it took Father's Day and me prepping for a sermon for that to become noticeable. But I was going to give you the four chapters that I was going to do. I was going to do Luke 15 because that's about the, that's one I was going to guess. They name the prodigal son that story, but it's really the loving father. because both sons had issues. Well, I never brought Luke 15 up in either speech. And I bring up Luke 15 in every speech because I was a prodigal.

The second one was Matthew 18, and I will use that when we get to the widows and orphan section, because that is so exciting that it's about children, and we'll talk about that. The two I did do were Act 17, because I had to get those three questions in. I had this 11-year-old boy that he was the son of kind of one of the ministers there, not the lead pastor. The lead pastor was on sabbatical, so that's what opened the door for me. But you know how you feel better about a dad when you meet their son? I love this little 11-year-old kid.

His name was Cooper. He asked right questions. But I forced myself, because in me explaining. I have one of those hats on. I don't have one on today. I don't even know what hat I have on. I have one that had the little gospel diagram, and I said, do you know what that means?

And he went, no sir. I was like, well, you need to learn what that means. I'll explain it to you when I speak. And so then he asked me to sign his Bible. And so in the margin, I put three questions. Of course, then I signed it, and I put this little symbol. I said, I'm going to explain that.

So he was like, well, what are the three questions? I said, well, I was going to see if you noticed that because I'm going to give you three questions. Because I told them the story that I taught the junior high for 11 years at our church. Number one, because nobody else wanted to do it. But number two is because that age, they're like sponges. Like this little kid, he asked me so many questions,

but they were spiritual questions. And actually when I left and got on my departure flight, he led the prayer for our safety. travels, which was pretty impressive. How would you say one? He's 11. His name's Cooper. Yeah, the same age as dot.

My grandson is exactly. Me and Cooper got to know each other because in a weird set of circumstances, after the event was over, I couldn't go back to the hotel. Their airport was really small. And so the guy working for the church was like, do you want to come over and have lunch with my parents? And I was like, sure. And so we did.

And they were lovable, salt to the earth people, which Bonnie, she snapped her head at me because I, 99.9% of the time, I'm never going to say that. Just because we're kind of food snobs and I'm not sure where this is headed. But I'm telling you that, boy, I thought, this boy, somebody had been doing some parenting here. And I want to see how that sausage was made. Let's go meet the grandparents, you know. And the only weird thing about that encounter, because it was lovely the whole time. And they were grilling burgers.

I was like, can't screw up a burger. So I went back there and inspected the food. As soon as we got there, everybody went inside. I went out back because I saw the smoke. And I was like, I'm going to go find the griller. And Grandpa was grilling. And look, Al, when I saw these burgers, it immediately took back.

I went back to my dad because he used to, when he grilled a burger, you remember what he would put in the meat? He put onions in there. And I didn't like the size of the onions. I made an adjustment to that when I left and cleft. But I thought that's what it was. And I thought, oh, this brings back memories here, you know. And I said, what you got?

going here and he said well he said we got i'm grilling burgers and i got this from my mom her recipe and i said look i think i know what this is and he said i don't think you do and i stop because i thought well it looks like burgers with onion and they look good look like little pieces of onion he said that uh he said now don't laugh but these these are burgers and those those things you see in there They're corn flakes. And I said, as in the cereal? He said, yep. I thought, boy, I'm fixed to learn something here today.

Oh, boy. Now you're beginning to wonder if these might not have stood up and call that invitation. But it looked, I mean, they look so good. They grill in, and he grilled them to perfection. And so when I ate it, what I realized, it tasted. it tasted great. And I thought, a cornflake's kind of unnoticeable as far as taste. In fact, of all the cereals I've ever eaten, I've always thought that to be, what is a cornflake?

Because if you didn't have something to add, you've got to put something add to that, right? Just my take on it was, the burger was perfectly fine. I can say it tastes fine. I would have never known those were corn flakes had he not told me. It was not noticeable. When you find out, yeah, I would have been a little bit. I don't think that would have liked that. Well, you would have had to just not like the idea of it.

Yeah, I don't think I'm telling you, the only way I knew that there was a cornflake is every once in a while, I got a little crunch. And I thought, I guess his mom won't. Say, I'm out on a crunchy button. I mean, when I was like six or seven years old, I used to take a bag of, you know, some Doritos or something and just. dump it on my burger and just eat it all.

But you know, you know what it is when you do that. To have it in it. I'll say this about the cornflake situation. Their marketing campaign is brilliant and it's actually true because I haven't eaten them in years. But every now and then, Jill will get them. I don't know why. I mean, I'm talking like over the course of 25 years of marriage, there's probably been, I don't know, maybe four times that she's bought cornflakes for something.

and it's typically like leftover, like they do the casseroles at Thanksgiving. They put the, you know what I mean? Yeah, they do them like on squash and stuff. There's different recipes that call for them, yeah. And now I guess hamburgers, yeah. All you guys have. So I've stumbled across them probably four times just out of kind of like a necessity. There's nothing to eat.

I mean, we've got nothing. Jill had gone to the grocery store. And I go in the pantry. There's nothing in there because, you know, my kids are like locust. They've just consumed things so fast. But the one thing they don't touch is the cornflake. They won't touch it. So it does survive in my house longer than any other kind of food item.

That's probably the origin of the cornflake burger. No one would eat them. So his mom said, let's put them in a burger because you can't screw that up, which is true. It's hard to screw up a good burger. But here's the deal, though. I mean, this is true. It means their marketing message is true because every time I've out of necessity, I've said, I'm just going to eat a bowl of corn flakes.

And I get my bowl out, assume we have milk. I won't eat it without milk. If we got milk, I'll put the cornflakes in. I'll put the milk in. I'll sit down at the table and I'll take a bite. And every time I'm like, you know what, these are acts. I forgot that this is good. It's good.

And you forget, which is their campaign, taste them again for the first time. And every time I eat corn flakes, I'm like, yeah, I forgot. Like, it's, I mean, they're not bad as a cereal. You put them in a burger. I'm starting to realize why, you know what the number one question when I go out in public, and I got it three times in North Carolina, about you? You know what the number. What they say?

You know what the number one question is? About me? Yep. What is it? This is number one question. They say, where's he from? and it just occurred to me now after your listen to your dissertation on corn flakes why they asked that why they asked that i don't i'm not following what's that what are you saying well i'm not saying

anything they asked me where you're from but i've always been puzzled by he's not he's not putting value in that zach he's just saying that's what they said i'm from i was born in florida north florida moved to louisiana back to louisiana my parents where they met and then we move back to Florida and then I'll move back to Louisiana. So I've kind of, I kind of count both, but you got to keep in mind that we were poor. And y'all, so were we, Zah. Yeah, but y'all were poor, but I thought we were, we were more poor. Because you were in ministry, you were in ministry poor.

We were like, I was wearing all of y'all's leftover clothes and my mom had no, like, what's the funniest thing I've ever heard. I asked why people ask where you're from and you said, we were poor. Well, we were poor. I mean, and so like, I would come to your house and y'all had like fruity pebbles. Yeah? You had,

your mom, Kay always had she had all those good cereals. We didn't have all that stuff, man. We were hitting the corn flakes. But the point is, we were poor, but we ate good. Yeah, we were just poured and we... Well, my parents, my parents, both of them, and we talked about

this on a recent podcast, Jay's. Oh, not this specific thing, but you kept talking about first fruits. Our parents had a first fruit mentality when it came to feeding us. We didn't have much, but we got the best of what we could get. I carried that tradition into my family because me too. And my wife, it caused her a lot of stress because we just broke the bank at the grocery store. And she just got to a point where she would not let me go. oh, she was like, because you buy all the most expensive things. I'm like, we're going to eat good no matter what. If we go into debt.

Do you remember Jason, we were in the school of preaching, one of our instructors, DeLukee, he was talking. He was just being real practical. And I love that about Don because he was a preacher's preacher. I mean, he spent his whole life preaching. And he said, you know, I know what's going to happen. You get out there, you get a job preaching somewhere, and you're low on money.

and you're not sure what to do. He said, do you know what you need to do? Of course, we all were just listening. You know, we were quick to listen. He said, take your family out to eat. Have a good meal. Give them confidence that you're going to get through this thing. And I've never forgotten that.

That was however many years ago, 35 years ago, when he said that. But that was the same mentality. The idea was you can just, you know, scrimp yourself to death. But everybody's got to eat. And mom always used, she bought the best. brands. I mean, you may not have, you may have to supplement that with something out of the garden, but the idea was when it comes to eating, we're going to eat pretty good.

All right, good. Exactly. Which we did. Well, I wasn't going to gripe when I imposed and invited myself to a family gathering. I mean, they invited me, but I didn't, I don't know if they were just being courteous, but I was like, sounds good, let's go. And actually, it was really lovely. and I just, it was just a, it was a fascinating time.

So what was the fourth, you said Acts 17, I never heard the fourth chapter. Oh, and the fourth chapter was John 21, which is why I'm a follower of Jesus. When I read that for the first time myself, the miraculous catch, and then, I mean, think about Father's Day and Jesus kept saying, my father, referring to God as his father, and then he garranted, Yeah, there's, because if you follow along those chapters, you'll see why I did this. Luke 15 kind of tells the story of the one. When he said, there's rejoicing on heaven and earth when the one comes back. But Matthew 18 does it from a different perspective.

It's about children. And it's not so much about sinners repenting. It's about he doesn't want any one of those little ones to be lost. And so now that is a fatherly. perspective. So you see where I'm going this with the widows and the orphans because it really gives you the idea of people who have lost relationships beyond their control. I mean, a widow, her husband died. An orphan wasn't his fault. And Jesus really highlights that. And I think ultimately, when you realize the body of Christ is the bride of Christ and we're all children of the father,

or heavenly father. That's why I went to the Psalm 139. Because it's like, no matter what happens, when you read Psalm 139, you will leave that building, the church building, thinking, I'm made by God, and he knows me better than any conceivable person

knowing another person. There's a purpose for which I was made. So that's why I hung out there, but I spent so much time on Psalm 139. And that's why I went to Act 17, because that kind of echoes Psalm 139 when it says, that's the one that really had an impact on your son, Zach, in the duck line. And I read that God determined the times set for them in the exact places where they should live.

You know, are we not God's offspring? You remember Paul's speech? And he's not far from, I mean, there's a closeness. It echoes Psalm 139. So that was kind of the Father's Day deal. But I asked, look, this little 11-year-old, when his dad got up because we were in the green room and I was fixed to go out and it was chaos. And I said, and this is another reason I went to the family outing. I said, well, you've never, where's your mom?

And he said, oh, she's coming. And I said, what's she like? And he said, I'm going to tell you, she's really, really, really. And he had about five reallys. And he didn't realize it that every time he said, really, I was getting on the edge of my. seat. I thought, what is this 11-year-old fixing to say about his mom? And he said, she's really, really, really the nicest person in the world. And I thought, wow. Oh, and I told his mom that when we were at that out, and she's like, oh, thank the Lord we had a good day today.

Yeah. Because when it comes to an 11-year-old, it could depend on the day. Which told me that, yeah, I'm nice, but hey, if you don't do what I said, there's a reason that boys acting like that, which I thought was hilarious. I love it. That's such a good. Psalm 139, I just pulled up as reading through it as you were talking. I'm like, man, that is such a beautiful passage because when you think about in the garden

of Eden, what was ruptured was communion with God. What was ruptured was intimacy with God. And what intimacy ultimately is is to be known and to be seen and to be like revealed. Like there's not a hiding there. And so you read a verse like that, you search me, O Lord, and you know me. Rees says a thing or two about great combinations. Chocolate and peanut butter, obviously, but there's more than one way to Reese's. From indulgent Reese's big cups with caramel to crunchy Reese's pieces and Reese's miniatures, there's a delicious Reese's for every mood. It's the same combo you love, just with more ways to enjoy it. So, whether you're snacking, sharing, or just treating yourself, nothing else is Reese's. Well, let me read the ones I read. I read that. You search me, you know me. You know when

I sit and when I rise, I thought this was just fantastic. And I went into the weeds on this in my speech. You perceive my thoughts from afar. I mean, just think about that concept. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, oh Lord. So then I skip down in read verse seven. Where can I go from your spirit where can i flee from your presence if i go up to the heavens you are there because i did this whole thing about when jesus had the conversation with the thief on the cross later about when he said today you'll be with me in paradise which i just think is one of the most fascinating statements kind of like what we did last podcast about jesus having a conversation with a guy that would died 1500 years before

moses and a guy disappeared 800 years before well the thief on the cross he's like, hey, let's meet up later in the garden. He says paradise, but the word means garden, which takes us back to your thought, being in the presence of God in the garden where all this began, and then Jesus usuring that back in, allowing us being in the presence of God, going to heaven on our behalf.

But even if you went up to heaven, guess what? He's there. If you make your bed in, then the word here is Shio, in the realm of the dead, in the depths, you're there too. Yeah. And so I was reading this because it was Father's Day. I brought up my dad.

I brought up Luke 2038 where the story about the woman who had been married seven times. And at the end he says, hey, to God, all are alive. And so I was like, don't say we're sorry for your loss. There's no loss here. I'm going to see my dad again. There's nowhere you can go to escape the presence of God. You will stand before God. I think it's a very powerful moment, if you consider this.

And so then I read about the darkness and the light. I mean, even when you're in darkness, he's fully aware of where you're at. And then verse 13, now this is familiar with everybody. Well, 13 through 16 is probably the greatest and most off-quoted pro-life passage in the entire body. Exactly. Exactly. But when you read the whole chapter, it really comes to life. It's not that just you were born. This is an ongoing thing here. He is after you, which makes sense of Luke 15 and Matthew 18, the pursuit of us in this relationship. So it says you created my M.O's being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place. when I was woven together in the depths of the air, your eyes saw my unformed body.

And I really highlighted this next sentence. All the days ordained from me were written in your book before one of them came to be. And so then I was like, happy Father's Day, every day's Father's Day, if you're made the image of God. I mean, that's what this whole pursuit is about, get to know the Father. Well, not only that, Jay's,

another thing I love about that particular route that David takes by taking it into this, this little boy, a little girl inside a mother's womb is that it also highlights and shows you. Zach, you mentioned the garden, the idea of the responsibility of all the things God gives us on this earth. When we become one flesh with another person, husband and wife, then the one thing that we have that's most like God is the ability to create and create life. and so because we come together, life comes, and then we have a responsibility and what happens with that life.

And so some of these same things that God loves us and the reasons he connects to us is the same reason we want to carry that on generations and generations of generation. And so I love that picture of sort of the restoration of Adam and Eve. In fact, it was funny because Jay's I was going to mention this earlier, about just maybe a quarter mile down the road here

when I was coming to where these folks meet here, at their building, there was a motel. And I just, I thought about you when I saw it, because I thought, oh, J. So love this. It was the Adam and Eve motel. And then it said, locally owned and operated. And I laughed out loud because I said, the Adam and Eve motel. And it was not a hotel. It was a motel. And I don't know exactly what that reference is about. They could be godly people or are talking about restoration or it could be a whole other point. I got to add that to my, ads that people do in the world to try to convey godly supernatural encounters. I thought you'd like that.

I'm putting that with the angel soft toilet paper and what was the ruler, the almighty ruler? It's a tape matter, you know, almighty. Well, now we've got the Adameney Motel. Locally owned and operated. You got to have that thrown in there. This isn't a chain. We thought of this here in St. Augustine, Florida. Now, see, Al, if I would have checked in there just to go see if they had Angel soft toilet paper.

Now, if that's not funny. It's not. But I was thinking about the idea of this, the idea of life. And we met, Jay, as you mentioned this in the last podcast, that God is, is the author of life. And that's what he creates in us to create that life. But not just to create it, but then to see it through, to. see it flourish, to see it do all the things it's supposed to do. You know, not just to just like, okay, I hope it all works out.

I mean, like intentionally building something that matters. Yeah, I think my components of my sermon was way better than the delivery. Because when you, in reality, when I got out there, I only got 35 minutes. I'm not covering those four chapters. You said, I mean. Because John 21, to your point out, was my whole point. Yeah. Life in Jesus.

He is like, he was dead and he's eating fish with his disciples. It's so weird. I mean, I think most of what he did with his disciples was done. And I really feel this way about when you read the sermon on the Mount. I think when you read the sermon on the Mount, as soon as you get to the end, because when you get to the end, he's like, that's where we have the golden rule. You don't love others like you love yourself. And you're like, what does that exactly mean?

because most of the Bible, when it talks about yourself, it's not in a positive thing. We screw up. And so it's like, so then you have to go back and read and think, maybe it has something to do with when he said, when you pray that we pray our father, we're all in this together. And I pray for his will to be done. I listened to a really good podcast about this. and they were trying to explain all that. The point I'm making is that when Jesus had that meal on the bank with his disciples, it just, the pages, it's hard for that to come off the page from their perspective.

They just saw him die or heard that he died, and now you're eating fish with it? I mean, that had to be the most mind-blowing, and they go back. And then all of a sudden, him talking with Moses and Elijah makes total sense. They're like, this guy is guy. He can't die. Which you see that light ball moment for them in what they did next in the book of acts. Because then all of a sudden when they're threatened, their whole life is threatened if they don't stop preaching. They're like, do what you will, which they all wind up dying because they wouldn't deny Jesus.

Well, it makes sense. It totally makes sense. So that's what I was trying to capture in this. I was like, and I made my little statement that I'm proud of because it's the one on how we study the Bible, we spend way too much time talking about where we're going in the afterlife and when that's going to happen versus who we're with and for how long. Because that is the point of the Bible. Being with the Lord God and other people, that you love, living forever.

That's what this is about. So that was the thrust of my sermon. And you see this echoed here in James when y'all talked about life. He basically had just given a cycle of death. And look, to go back to that doing the will of God, talking about our desires, I noticed this that I should have said

when in James one, there's a lot of words translated for desire. in the Bible. I was really not aware of that until I started looking them all up. So like that word, I pray that your will be done as it is on earth, as it is in heaven. Well, it's one of the words for desires and choices is kind of mirroring that. But you want to, and so Jesus showed that and that his desire was to do what God, what his father desire. He said, that over and over. Remember when he said, not my will, but yours be done? Well, that word will, it's another word for desire. But in James I, when he says each one is tempted when by his own

evil desire, well, that's the, that word is different. That word is more, here's a more accurate word, lust. It's the same word translated in Romans one and it says, God gave them over for the desires, the lust of their hearts. Yeah. So I think we should have said that because when you see desire, that can mean there's different words for that in the New Testament Greek is what the point I was making. But when he says persevered under trial in verse 12 so that you'll receive the crown of life. I mean, ultimately this is about life and living forever with God and other people.

And so when you read the Psalm 139, I said all that to say, well, doesn't that echo where he says in verse 17, every good and perfect gift is from above? Well, we're in that camp as far as having life. And then here comes Jesus alone who gave us birth. So you see those two bursts that God gives us, not only to have life, thanks Psalm 139, but also. So, you know, Luke 15, the celebration of someone who was lost but is found, who was dead but is alive, they experienced the new birth that is in Jesus. And this causes rejoicing in heaven and on earth, which is fascinating to think about. You showed that picture in that, in the verse 15 of James 1, about how I caught the stairway to hell, you know,

because we talk about the old Led Zeppelin's on Stairway to Heaven. The stairway to have, because you see it's a descent, desire, conception, birth to sin, sin,

full grown, birth to death. Like, it's a dissension into a life that turns out terribly and turns out miserably. And not only ends in physical death,

but also seems like death while you're in it. And that's why it's just so unfilable. And so it's almost like when, when you just have totally the natural, totally going to this idea of lust mentality, as you say, well, start something, because it doesn't just end there. It may start with lust, but it's going to end down at the Adam and Eve, you know,

and it's going to keep going into this dissent that then becomes this death-like place, death of relationship, death of marriages, death of families, death of all these things that matter. When he gives you the opposite idea, you can be born anew and born again. And what does that do? That gives you a whole fresh start. I say all the time to people because we talk to a lot of people in our church days that are in terrible

situations because they came out of really terrible. They mean their second, third, four generations of just totally dysfunctional you know, alcoholic, drug abusing, all these different things that are in their family history and I always tell them because you look at that and you, and on

Father's Day and Mother's Day, they're looking around each other like, well, this is no celebration at my house. You know, I had a terrible dad or I had a terrible mom. And I always tell them the same thing. You didn't have a choice on what family you were born into, but you do have a choice on being reborn. And anybody can start a new family and a new family heritage,

a new family history, a new family legacy. And you do about just what James is talking about in this passage. And it does change you. Because you mentioned life. Look down in verse 19 or 20, because after he does the quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry, man's anger does not bring about the righteous, what, life that God desires. And there it is again.

So now you begin to see this new fruit-bearing, fast-growing tree, as it were, that's now producing fruit that works and is a blessing to other people. And so, you know, and for the rest of this, that's what he's going to get into. You're going to see something that's going to be really powerful and really has an effect on everybody. Now we've gone from natural, what is, you know, falling down the stairs to what is supernatural. And that takes us up to you. The righteous life, the righteous life too, Al. It's not, again, it's not performative.

I mean, it's relational and it's context. And it's being united with the father. I was thinking we were, you guys reading John 14, as Jason was talking earlier. And, you know, a lot of times we talk about, we talk on this podcast about we're not going to heaven as much as heaven and earth are going to be reunited. So heaven's coming to us. Jesus says something kind of strange in John 14. He says, don't let your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. I'm reading from the NIV here because it's what's up on my screen. If it's not so, I would have told you, if it's not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am. you will know the way to the place where I'm going.

And so they're hearing this. And so when you think about that idea, like it does sound like Jesus is going somewhere. He's going to make this new place. He's going to come and get us and take him with him. But I think we're misunderstanding the whole thing about the place. A lot of times it's the same problem we have, but understanding what the righteous life means.

We're trying to think of it. But when we try to imagine it, we're imagining it apart from the father. We're imagining it as like some type of autonomous, like really cool mansion. And what makes it so awesome? Or like maybe your version of that is the streets of gold or, you know, all the things that are going to be there. But that's not the point because when they said, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way?

He says, you're going to know the way. He said, no, we don't know the way. We don't even know where you're going. How are we going to know the way? And listen to how Jesus, the son of God, connects the place. that he says he's going to prepare for us with the person of the father. He says, I am the way, the truth in the life. Nobody comes to the father. That's the place is the father. It's in relationship with the father. Nobody comes to the father except through me. If you really know me, then you'll

know my father as well. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him. And I think that that is, is like when you start thinking about like the big scheme of redemption, it's not salvation to do, we're not living a righteous life so that we get to autonomously live forever. That's the whole point of Psalm 139. There is no place where you escape his presence. His presence is the prize. There you go.

To be in relationship with the father is the prize. That's the point. It's so funny that, I mean, you just echoed basically what I talked about. I mean, I made that exact point, and we didn't confer before that. That's why I couldn't get off the Psalm 139, and so I had to weed out two of my chapters.

But I want to say this. You triggered a thought, because a lot of people come to me. I have many discussions of people like, I can't figure out what God's will is for my life. Because there's, you know, I mentioned that passage, and I'd like to know what you all thought. I listened to that podcast, and I was more confused than I was thinking, oh, I see this clearly. Because they were making a big deal about the golden rule, and I'll give you the context of this.

But I think it applies to where we're going in James, so I wanted to get y'all's thoughts. But here was the point. When Jesus would say something like fulfilling the law or summing up the law, and they went through all the Old Testament places where like the law was summed up in various forms, which was, I did like that part. And here's Jesus summing it up with love God and love your neighbor. But in Luke's version of that,

when he says that love the Golden Road, love others as you would love yourself, well, for us in modern day, we're like loving yourself is causing a lot of, that's kind of causing mayhem. You see their point? Well, in their culture, and they did a good job of this, Jesus highlighted on when they said love your neighbor,

they were like, well, who's my neighbor? Because those are quotes from Leviticus about loving your neighbor. Well, back then, their whole debate was who is my neighbor, which is why Jesus told that story about the Good Samaritan. And he turned that whole argument on its head because he was like, this Samaritan, who's not an Israelite, look how he loved his neighbor. It wasn't like he was, he made a story that they had to think about,

and they were like, there's the guy loving his neighbor. So indirectly, you're thinking, we ought to love any human is the whole point. But then when you throw in the will love your neighbor as yourself, where you're like, well, I'm doing a horrible job. loving myself, which my take on it, which why I thought it became confusing, it's kind of like when Paul made that same argument about in the husband-wife relationship in Ephesians 5, remember when he says the husband should love his wife as he does his own body,

but he says he, but he feeds it and he cares for it. And I think that's his point. It's like, let's face it, as all single individuals, human, we wake up every day and we're pretty much thinking about ourselves. That's just the truth. I mean, it shouldn't be that way. We should be surrendering to God. Jesus gave us the example, not your will.

I mean, not my will, but yours be done. And I think that's what he kind of meant was like, instead of waking up every day, if you had your own personal view of yourself translated to all people, like Psalm 139, not just that you were made like that, but everybody else was too. I think you would look around and you'd see a lot more love in your life. Well, my take on it, Jay's has always been, because I struggle with that too, but you referenced the Ephesians 5. I think that gives you that idea of kind of what he's talking about

in terms of just how God sees us because he sees us a lot differently than we see ourselves, especially through our flaws. I mean, I'm married to a woman that spent her first 33 years seeing herself in a terrible through a terrible lens because she had all the wrong things to look at herself. But when she finally submitted to Christ and began to see herself as he

sees her, then she had a whole different outlook on life. And when we do a particular marriage lesson together, I love the way she closed it because she says, when I look at myself, and then she goes down the list. You know, my kids see me, my grandkids, my

husband. And then she ends up But when I see myself as God sees me, here's what I see. And it will literally transform you into a completely new person. And so I think that's what he means as much as anything. That's the part of loving us as God loves us. Once we can see ourselves as he sees us, it changes everything. You know, it's kind of like with our kids. Like when they mess up, I mean, we're angry with them.

We're disciplined them. We're upset with them. But we never quit seeing them as our son and our daughter. I mean, we love them. That's why we're here. We're not just going to say, well, out of my side, I never want to see you again until you get this worked out in your life. We don't see them that way, and that's the way he feels about us. Well, I wanted to read this because to go back to my point about what is the Lord's will in my life,

and in that sermon on the mount when he says, here's how you pray, our father, and when he says, we pray that your will be done. And think like, was that Romans 12, 1 and 2, where it says doing the father's will, what exactly is that says, how is that worded before? Yeah, his good, pleasing and perfectly to know what God's will is for our lives when we worship. Yeah, all for your bodies is living sacrifices, acceptable and pleasing to God. and then it says do not conform to any longer to the pattern of this world which what is that form

which is me first you never and God in emergencies I made that up but but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good and pleasing and perfect will but I set all that up to say

there is a specific moment in Jesus' words where he graphically and specifically described what God's will is. And I want to read it to you. This is in John chapter 6. So the next time you have that thought,

I don't know what God's will is for my life. Well, here it is. This is John 6 and verse 34 when they were following him around because they wanted the bread and fish. And he said, I got bread from heaven, that's a 33, that gives, here's a key word, life to the world.

So verse 34, sir, from now on give us this bread. And so then he gives a little dissertation in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, he who believes in me will never go thirsty. We know this. but as I told you, you have seen me, and still you do not believe. I mean, it's right here in front of you. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of him

who sent me, which he echoed, but right before the cross, not my will, but your will. and then here's the moment where he defines the will of God. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my father's will is that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

that is what God desires, which proves my point about who you're with and for how long. That's what this is about. He could have said a number of things here. Okay, you're in a situation. No, that's why this has to be the center. What Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection and him becoming a man in Jesus, pursuing every human that's ever been born, that is the will of God. So when you look up and realize, well, I'm in, well, what is there left for you to do?

It's for you to image him to share this story so that other people made in the image of God, your neighbor, which is why this became the golden rule, you love them enough to say, hey, you want to come? This is awesome. I love the way you universalize that because you think neighbor, your first thought is the guy that lives next door to you. and that could be true. But it could be the guys on the bus next to you going someplace or an airplane. And then you think, well, my neighbor is that Canada and Mexico? Well, yeah. But my neighbor on planet Earth is anybody that lives on planet Earth.

So, I mean, the idea is everywhere we go we find that neighbor, which I think was Jesus' old point of what he was trying to say. And I love the idea about being born anew, then plants the word in you. Back to James 121. And that word for word planted in you is called Dekomai. And it's the same word used in Acts 17, Jace, which is one of your chapters. For the Bereans, Paul said, now the Bereans, or Luke wrote, Now the Bereans were a more noble character than of the Thessalonians,

for they received the message with great eagerness. That's that same word they, received them, and examined the scriptures every day to see what Paul said was true. And it's interesting that Luke would say that about the Thessalonians because Paul mentions in First Thessonians 1-6 and 213 and 213 that many of them also welcome the message, receive the word. And we know that they weren't as of noble characters that Brinns, but the point is it didn't matter. The idea was once it's planted in you, now you're on a pathway to something. You're going to look more like Jesus every day. The more that that word bears its fruit and lives out in your life, which is the beauty of it.

And I love that he's using the planting metaphor in the garden when you think, man, when Jesus gets in you, it's fixed to pop up and grow and then become Jesus on earth. That's the plant that you like, what is the fruit of it that God is doing in my life? And I think Galatians 5. Yeah, Galatian 5. Yeah. I think that leads us to the greatest question you can ever ask somebody because we all have Bible studies with people individual, all. all the time. And people start telling their story and they're confused and they're like, there's no way out and look what happened to me. And the greatest question you can ask them,

because this supersedes all arguments and all confusion about where do we go from here. And I have said this hundreds of times and it always has a good effect. I just say, you know what? I don't know about all that, but maybe you just need to be born again. It's such a disarming question or statement toward all the mess in our life. It's like, why don't you just start over? Instead of us analyzing where this all went bad, some of it was not your fault. People that are abused and it's horrifying to listen to. And you're like, there's nothing we can do about it.

We can't go back and fix it. But God says, you know what, you can be born again. We can start over because ultimately he's a father that's not going to do you. wrong. Yeah, that's a great line too, because if you think about the born again, you think about the baby, right? A baby grows into something. But you know, that's also that grows into something, a tumor, cancer. And so I think you start to view it as you're growing into a particular something, right? Are you a cancer that's growing in you? Or are you growing into maturity? Are you growing into something that produces fruit? Are you growing into a plant? Or are you a cancer in a

that's growing to kill the plant. Those are your two options, and that's what God's invited us into. So I love it, Jay, to your born-again analogy, and I'll close with this. Jesus said that in John 3 to a very religious Pharisee. He told him to be born again, and then he turned right around and said, same thing to a Samaritan woman at a well who nobody would want to talk to. And so I would say that that means that Jesus considered his neighbor to be whoever he was talking to, and the message was the same in all circumstances,

born again, which is a good way to be. All right, we're out of time. We'll pick it up. I'll ask you both as we're leaving, because I'll have an answer for you on the next time we'll record. Will Al get his car fixed in the next two days to be able to continue his journey back home? Jay Sweet's say yes or no.

Will I still be here Thursday? Negative. Zach? Negatory. Al, they have, look, they have buses and trains. Well, it sounds like I may see you again from right here in the oldest city in America. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast.

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