Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 141 | Why Phil Didn't Like Christians, the Most Exciting Time of Year & the Light of the World

Episode Date: September 7, 2020

Phil and Jase are pumped about the upcoming start of teal season. They share tips on how to make blue-winged teal palatable and how to prepare dove. They also explain why eating well trumps hurt feelings, and Jase lists the foods he'll never cut out of his diet. Phil manages to segue into the great theme of the Bible, light vs. darkness, and he recalls his days of running from the light. The guys discuss how to see the light of God in your life, making mistakes even when you walk in the light, and why Jesus is freedom. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Now, what's crazy is all the things that have happened so far in 2020, people forget. It's not really about the past anyway because you can't change it. We survived up to this point, but we are on the threshold of really the exciting part of the year. Yeah. Are you following me? We're only days away from enjoying the fruit of our labor to see exactly where we went wrong and where we went right.

We have an apparatus in place. We are waiting right now, and they've already begun their journey. If you get a hurricane coming in from the Gulf of Mexico and it's moving north and the winds are 150 miles an hour. Yeah. Within one week, we have a duck season coming up. You only can shoot teal, small ducks, green wing teal, blue wing teal, cinnamon teal. So we're on the threshold. We're on the edge right now, less than a week.

This Saturday we will be in the duck blind before daylight and waiting for the elusive blue wing teal. because of the hurricane that just came through blowing 150 miles an hour, the dynamics would be ducks are smart enough to say, let's go back north for a while. Let's get out of here. We're not going to be able to, they know. So the ducks all take off, and they went back north to escape 155, 150 mile hour wind. When they fly.

Nothing flies in that. The birds are the first ones to say, time to go. So they leave. Well, I think they push back north somewhat. No doubt. Because you remember the last time we hunted in a hurricane, there were teal. It was the most teal. Swarms.

There were swarms of teal. They moved back north because Lake Charles, Louisiana, Cameron, Paris. That's the best teal hunting state parishes in Louisiana. They get a lot of teal. They're coming by them. Some will stay for the winter. Most fly on across the Gulf and go into the U.S. in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

That's where they winter. So they'll bounce off drilling platforms. You know, they get tired. They'll try to light on a drilling platform. Some of them, you know, they're old in the age, whatever. But the blue wing teal is not much for eating. A lot of fun to hunt and all that. We do cook them.

We'll dress up some of them, give them to some people who, they never get ducks. I mean, you know, the poor and whatnot. So we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll. filter that out in our culture, give them some ducks. Have you ever figured out why the green wing is so much better tasting than a blue wing? It's a good question. Does that have more fat on it? No.

I mean, they both have that. But the blue wing have a distinct smell. But I think it's the blue wings just in our area because some people have said, I mean, blue wings are awesome. We ate some blue wings in South Texas. Remember when the guy cut them in house? They were good. Oh, they were good. Is it more of a gamey flavor?

The tea we get, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, The aroma that comes off from them, I'm not being unkind here. I'm just being honest. It has the smell of a sewer pond. It may be because ducks that get out here in Louisiana, they may be going and lighting on sewer ponds is the reason they smell like sewer ponds. Yeah, I'm out on that. But you say, well, we'll put enough citrus in there and put them in an ice chest,

and we'll put a bottle of wine. We'll put cisterous. We'll put pineapple. We'll put oranges, lemons. will soak them for a 24-hour it's just hard some Cajun may can explain it to us but it's hard to get a blue wing to rid the pot of gumbo of that particular aroma but i've seen them do it i've seen them take a bucket what they'll do in south louisiana and they will put all the things he just named yeah in a bucket and i mean they just keep they just keep shoveling it in there and i'm like these must have been

musty. Yeah. But by the time this airs, I will have, dove season will have opened. So I will, what is the limit? Twelve or fifteen this year? Twelve. Twelve. So I will have eaten twelve dubs.

I'll cook them on the grill. And they're kind of appetizers. So I'll. Dove wraps. Yeah, they're great. Oh, they're very good. One of my wife's favorite thing to eat. I mean, she's happy at least for a week, no matter what the circumstance,

after the doves hit the table. Yeah. I mean, they're tasty morsels. The most consumed duck, the most consumed bird on the planet are, in fact, ducks. More ducks are eaten than chickens, turkeys, especially when you leave the United States. Ducks is number one, number one. A lot of those are, the world eat more ducks than any of that. A lot of those are farm-raised, so they got a lot of bat on them.

That's right. The ducks you guys are killing are, there's no fat. Well, sometimes. Depending on their diet. I mean, you get a lot of them. They're just fat as they can be. Not like you would get those. First thing we do, we kill a duck as we feed them and we say, these ducks are fat.

They're good. They're heavy. We've killed ducks that have so much fat that when they hit the water, they bust. Yeah. They bust. Bust? The fat, they're so, so it just depends on the year. Now, here the last couple years.

Proper English would say they burst, but, you know, bust. Well, you have a master's in English. I have a master's in Redneckville, USA. But we don't want to think we're a bunch of redneck sitting up down here, you know. No, I don't mind. I am. I embrace it. Yeah, you did just embrace that.

Yeah. I mean, this is the culture we live in. You can't escape it. We won't miss a day. Maybe early Sunday morning on a few couple of weeks, we may miss Sunday morning, may not, may hunt about eight. Yeah. And going on up there, you know, and meet with the brothers.

But duck season to us is like, you know, you can't miss it. We're prepared. The ammo, the guns. It's therapy, film. The paperwork and all that. We're ready to go. The blinds are brushed. We've already done all that.

We have a great crop coming for regular duck season. But the teal just move through. You'll see them today, a lot of them. Tomorrow, you might not see a duck. Wait three days. You'll get another little burst of them. They're migrating from the Canadian prairies. all the way the Yucatan Peninsula.

So we follow them all the way and keep up with them, you know, and we... But it starts a chain of events. You got the doves, teal, then it goes to squirrel, deer. What's next? Turkey.

No, that's in the spring. We begin to unload any of our freezers that we've kept. We try to eat ducks within a few months after we kill them. Yeah. But some last on into this time of year. But we'll give those to the people

to need them. So they're fine, but we just say, well, we've got fresh ones coming. So no need to have them in the freezer. We just keep us a supply in our freezer that we eat like gumbos and first one thing. Well, Phil does that. I eat them. I'm not a big freezer of, I don't like. Everything's better if you don't freeze it.

I like them in a gumbo or like a dressing. I'm not a duck. I don't know. I just never. I can see why people don't like them. That's the one thing my wife, she just never has embraced because she's But she does like a green wing teal. Yeah.

I mean, a green wing teal cook like a dove on the grill, which I like them best on the grill. I have no problem with that. We make the little duck wraps on the good. Very good. The deal with the duck wraps, though, when you get the halifahina. They're wrapped in bacon,

and you have, like, Philadelphia cream cheese in the middle. And a jalapeno. They're seasoned pretty good. Halipina. Well, just think about that. You take a jalapena and bacon in Philadelphia cream cheese, You put that on just a piece of tuba for. You wrap anything.

And actually would be not bad. That's my point. You're not eating duck anymore. Well, that's right. I'll agree like a deer tastes better. And like, I mean, I've always made a joke about Willie. He's always been a deer hunter. And people are like, well, how come he's not a duck hunter?

I mean, he's the owner of duck commander. I'm like, have you seen his body type? He just looked at a deer and looked at a duck and said, there's more to eat on a deer. It would shock. It would shock. It would shock America if they looked into our menus once the hunting season starts on how many types of birds and fish and ducks and squirrel animals and, you know, dove, squirrels, you know, if they looked at our menu and they saw how much wild game we ate. I say we like it better because we know that there's not any kind of shots to enhance. some antibiotics and all this stuff that people put in meat processing with us.

We just eat them right out of the wild. That's about as organic as you're going to get. Oh, no, Dad. We literally kill them to eat. Well, you've spent a lifetime also honing your skill on how to, I mean, the whole family has spent a lifetime honing the skill on how to cook wild game. And it's got, the whole deal about cooking is you have to be, you hold people accountable. You have to be transparent.

You can't get your feelings hurt. It has to be critical. It has to be. It had to be accountability. You critique it and you say... It took 30 years with my wife to get to that point. Yep. That's where I'm at now.

A lot of people... She has arrived. She's one of the greatest cooks I know. The first 20 years, we call those the Trail of Tears. These top shelves, they have it figured out. They get 10 of them together once a month. They pick out a certain... cut off meat that they're going to cook.

Everyone has their own way to cook it. So all 10 of them will cook it. They'll all sit at a table. They have these numbered. One, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten. And they all eat it. They ate, each one of them eat what the other ones are fixing. Same piece of meat, you know, pork loin.

So how to cook a pork loin? Ten people get together. They all cook it with their seasons and all. Everybody gets together and they eat it all. And they say, well, what you think? I'm number three. Who won the content? Which one was the best?

And when the majority says, number six, number six was the best restaurant, who was that? Bob. Bob, how did you fix that? Now they want to inquire about why Bob's is the best. You are critiquated. The rest of them, they didn't quite make the cut. But the number one, if the majority says,

that's the way to cook a pork lawn. You've critiqued it, you've eaten it, Everyone's happy. All of them were edible. All of them were edible. But some say, well, this is a little too much. And then the person who said, yeah, if you had a left off this particular season, I think it had been better, you begin to critique it. Some women can't handle that.

They just, ha, ha, ha, ha. Well, it's not just women, men either. Men too. Well, yeah. So that's why people, the restaurant business is so big. And that's why there's a lot of people out there eating bad food. Because the possibility, especially in our culture, of hurting someone's, you. feelings is a greater important than eating well.

Dogs are a good barometer when no one in the house could actually eat what I prepared. No one can eat it, including me. I'm like, whew, but I, I took a wrong turn. I bombed out on that one. Well, throw it in the yard and everybody goes to the door and they're watching to see what the dogs do. If the dogs walk up there, then they run off. You say, even the dog.

won't eat it. That's when that's a bad batch. You don't need to do that again. Change something. Change something. Even the dogs turn it down. That's bad cooking there. You're going to implement that into your household. You try to eat it first. If you can't, see if the dogs read it. You can't throw the cats in too. But if they can't eat it, if they turn their nose to it, you say, I'm not going to do that again. Nothing likes it. That's a good litmus test right there. I mean, the problem I see, we'll have guests in, if they're not from Louisiana, they think all our food is too spicy.

Yep. And I just say, get you something to drink. Because this is better than, I mean, even like our beans and rice. It can be overdone, but food, food for the most part, in further north you run, where you begin to explain to people, there's more into seasoning than ketchup. There's other seasonings available. Well, that's not. ketchup is as strong as you go.

Most people, though, use ketchup. The reason ketchup is such of what it is, is because they're trying to mask what they're eating. Most of the food I prepare, the last thing I would want to do is slop a bunch of ketchup on it. I mean, I like ketchup. You would accentuate the flavor. Well, right.

I'm like, when I'm eating a steak, when I see somebody take their steak, they'll cut it and then dip it in some ketchup. I think, that old boy don't know how to grill a steak. that's the last thing I do. And they're just doing it out of habit. People are funny, funny, funny about eating. You know, now they have the commercial.

They shipped them some food, ready to eat. And she took a bite of the chicken. She's like, oh, my goodness. We don't have to cook anymore. We don't have to cook. We just buy it. We don't have to cook anymore. They're jumping up and down.

Cooking to them is a scourge. They got a little old apartment somewhere. We up in a high-wise in New York. They have all these weight-lost things. that, look, basically, they're not telling you how to lose weight. They're selling a bunch of crappy food that is about unedible, and it's so bad that you don't eat much of it. And they're like, you'll lose weight.

And people pay that. Let's take a break. That's good. No, that's what they do. Somebody was sitting at a bar probably and said, look, let's do this. Let's sell a bunch of crappy food to people. that way they don't have to cook. They don't care.

They can't eat much of it because it's just bad. Now, we don't want to make them sick or anything. We'll make sure it's okay. And then they won't eat as much and then they'll lose weight. So we'll package it around losing weight. Pretty slick. I think they'll go for it. And they do.

It's a slick trick. They're like, we'll send you the food. I'm like, I'm going to tell you right now, that's no good. Because you're sending a package under the idea of losing weight. and people do it. That's fine. I've noticed that if you eat good food and you're active, it's not a problem.

You got to be active. I mean, Phil, you don't necessarily eat the healthiest, but you're 70. I sure he does. I would say over 50% of what he eats was some kind of wild game. But I'm saying by the state, he eats butter, he eats, I mean, he eats carbs. You've been reading too many articles.

If butter is bad for you. It's only bad. I'm saying his lifestyle. I'd have been dead. a long time ago. But you move a lot. I mean, you're on the land every single day. I mean, you, like you said, you had a couple of episodes. I weighed last night. I'm six, six foot three inches tall, I'm 172 pounds. But I'm just telling there's some, there's some foods that, look, that, that are, they're deal breakers. You know, butter's want any diet that excludes butter, I'm out on that.

Do cut something else. What about white rice? White rice. Did you cut that? I've eaten thousands of pounds of white rice. Doesn't butter come from cow's milk? I remember my mother, she had the churn. They'd put the milk in the churn, and she's still like this.

And she's going to save that milk after, and the cream rises at the top. And through that, we had sweet milk, had that in the ice box. it wasn't a refrigerator. It was not hooked up to any wires. It was just a ice, and you put a block of ice in there, 25 pound block of ice. It'd stay there for a week. Go get you another one uptown a couple of miles.

Put a block in there, and that's where you had your cheese, your milk, and your butter. Well, all that was coming from the one cow down there in the pasture. They'd get them up there, and they'd milked the cow. I'll get her up there and they milk the cow, take the butter in. So you got your sweet milk out of that. Then you've got your butter, churned butter. Your cream rises to the top, as they say.

If you want to whip cream, you get that cream, whip it a little bit with a little sugar. You got whipped cream. So a cow's milk is where butter comes from. I'm thinking, how dangerous could it be? Cows milk? Yeah, it's dangerous. I mean, infants are there. You know, they're giving cows milk.

And they're surviving In combination With a sedentary lifestyle Yeah But see in our world They've come up with an article Where basically people going around They're just eating little roots

And an occasional nut And you look at them And they look pale And they just don't There was meat hanging In a little cabin Log cabin We lived in a log cabin

Homemade house And you know Cracks in the sides But we didn't care one fireplace, no gas heat, none of that, no TV, no cell phone, nothing, none of that. Well, that way had to get thought of that. One little radio about that long, you could catch Matt Dillon and Chester on the radio. You know, Le Chester, you know, we got a good idea.

They did have horses, sound effects to make them think they're riding up there, you know, and here comes the outlaws. No one ever got killed. And ever, ever, ever. There was no blood ever shed. Every once in a while, they would shoot the gun out of your hand. but nobody was ever injured. You don't want to go that far.

That'd been too brutal. I came out of that and I'm looking at what I'm now looking at. And I'll be honest with you, I'll be glad to get out of here. It's getting pretty bad. I'm looking forward to getting out of this place. You're looking for the light. But you're naming things that I think are non-negotiable. I eat a lot of butter.

I eat a lot of rice. I'm not. Would you call me skinny? Yeah, you're pretty skinny. Yeah, so that's not the problem. You got genetics. Look at Willie. Look at myself.

I mean, like, Jeff, we all kind of have a little bit more of that. We're eating the same. We're eating the same thing. So, to change the pace a little bit. I just think there's, there's larger quantities. Now, look, where I don't eat a lot, I don't eat a lot of sweets, stuff like that. I mean, I will, but not a lot of it. But, you know, if you eat a cream cheese pie every day, guess what?

You're going to have trouble getting through a door at some point. That I can see, but putting butter on your corn? No, that's not a problem. I'm not saying take a stick of butter and just put it down the hatch. But I'm going to butter my popcorn. When I see people that don't butter their popcorn, I'm thinking, well, that's dumb. It'd be way better if you put a little butter on it. You just don't want to get so big that you can't get through the door.

Yeah, if you can't get through the door, then start cutting things. But the last things I would cut would be butter and rice. That's out. Well, I'm saying that'd be the last things to go. I mean, it's just crazy that you mentioned two, two things. Milk and grain, butter and rice, milk and grain, done responsibly, you'll be all right. Yeah. You won't be heavy, heavy, no.

So, check this out. All right. Now, this is a, let me, let me, all you folks that are watching, just remember. or listening. Or listening. Just remember this. If you want to get on and expand what you read, you want to expand it easily. We're in John 12.

So John 12, verse 35, Jesus said, I'll show you how to do this. And it's to help you a lot when you study your Bible. Jesus talking, you're going to have the light just a little while longer. he didn't stay but 33 years. He's saying, he's already said I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. So walk while you have the light

before darkness overtakes you. If it hadn't been for me, there would be darkness on the planet Earth, the rest of the time planet Earth's here. However, I've shown up and I'm like a light. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he's going. I see it in the streets of America every day.

But it's basically saying that about everybody. If you have the earth and there was a one light switch, not the sun, but if there was one, because he's speaking metaphorically, but not really, he's like the light switch. So you don't turn that on, which is Jesus. It is the equivalent of wandering around in the dark. And every time I've ever done that, it's a miserable. occurrence. Do you agree?

You have the great theme of the Bible throughout. You have darkness, which is evil. And you have light, which is good. Let's take a break. Good and evil. Let's take a break. So I'm just showing them how to do this quickly. So you're reading this text in John 1235.

Then verse 30 says, was it 36? 36. Put your trust in the light. why you have it. He said, take advantage of me. Take advantage of me. Listen to what I say. I'm mistake free. There's nothing I can't do. I can perform miracles, drive out demons. I can walk on water. I can do everything. I'm God. I made the cosmos. Put your trust in the light where you have it so that you may become sons of light. Now, you look over there in verse 44. He picks it up again. He picks it up again. Again, I have come, verse 46, I have come into the world as a light.

Well, he's already said that in a few verses previous to that, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. Now you say, well, how do you expand that type of thinking when it comes down to Jesus being the light of the world? You write down, as a remembrance, you write down, John chapter one. John, you write J.N. real small, right next to verse 46, because he's talking about light. Well, now I go back in the book of John and to show you how many times he's mentioned as light instead of darkness. So here's John, chapter one, verse four. I just read from John 12. I put John 1 next to John 12 where I would know where I would know where to go to next.

I go from John 1246. I go to John 1, verse 4, because I wrote it down. I look down there at that little writing, and I have the little verse there. Now watch. In Him was life when Jesus sells up. That life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Then and now, 2,020 years later.

later, there came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him, all men might believe. He himself, John the Baptist, was not the light. Nope. Couldn't, couldn't tie his shoes. Nope. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. Our calendars documented. So we're discussing light. You say, well, what verse did you put next after you quoted John 12? You went back to John 1-1 because you wrote

John 1 verse 4. You wrote that down where you could go back to it. Yeah. Same, we're talking about the same matter and the matter is lacked, the same concept. Well, now I wrote 3, verse 14. So you got John 3.14. Which is right before the famous verse in the Bible, 316. That is correct. And the worth of it is, after Jesus said, for God's the love of the world, he sent his only begotten son, whoever believes in it won't perish, but I return life. Watch. God did not send his son and to the world to condemn the world? Well, it's a 17, right?

This is 17. Oh, you said 14. Yeah. All right, keep going. But to save the world. He didn't come to condemn us. He came to save us. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he's not believed in the name of God's one and only son. Now, what's this? And by the way, John the apostle, spoke more about the light of the world, Jesus, than any other writer. It stands out about his writing. I'm still over here in the gospel of John, but I'll show you in a minute how that jumps forth and it begins to appear in other places in the Bible.

But right now, we're just looking at this. This is the verdict. That means the verdict has already been rendered. Lights coming to the world. God showed up 2,020 years ago. He's the light of the world. He'll save you. But here's the problem.

Men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. So they renounce him. They renounced him then and they murdered him. But they're murdering him, save the world. But let me jump in here. And brought forth the sons of light. And you're like, well, man. Before you finish.

let me just jump in here. If you think about being in the dark, you say, what happens when you're in the dark? Like physically. You're kind of feeling your way around. You're feeling the way around. And you're stumbling. You trip over things, you fall.

There's a fear and a panic that happens, especially if you hear something that's weird. You know, I've ran before when I was younger, you know, and a kid. It's tough when you can't see. Yeah, and you can't see. But now I think here, one of the benefits, from being in the dark, is that you think nobody sees what you're doing.

Yep. Which is why I think here he said, men love darkness because their deeds were evil. The only positive you could think of was when nobody saw, if you just keep this narrative going, nobody sees what I'm doing. So I kind of like it because my deeds are evil and nobody knows what I'm doing. I just wanted to interject that. And that depends on who you are, because I remember there was a game that we used to play when we were kids called Blind Man's Bluff. And y'all would turn the lights out.

And then y'all would put stuff in your pillowcases. Yeah. And they would, I mean, this is what your sons would do to me and Jeff, your older signs. And they would proceed to beat us with these pillows. And it was supposed to be a fun game. It's in the dark. You don't see where it's coming. But I mean, it's just, so it depends on which in your, if you're on the receiving end of the punishment in the dark, it could be very fearful.

I think the point is Jesus and John is saying this, but people have to have this moment of truth in their life that they realize they're in darkness. Yeah. I mean, that's his point. There's a light switch. And I love my brothers and sisters. Yeah. When I was before I became a child of the light, I didn't like Christian people. But once you saw it, it's, it's, I didn't want anything to do with them.

I wanted to get away from them. But do you think it's because you were in darkness and you thought this is, nobody really knows what I'm doing? Pretty well. I think the Holy Spirit has to illuminate your heart to the fact that you are in darkness. I think about this metaphor, particularly when you were mentioning how you're, I woke up several times in a hotel room. And for whatever reason, I was in such a deep sleep. I didn't know where I was at.

Maybe I'm traveling or whatever. You wake up. And you're trying to fill your way around. And it's what you said. It's like panic mode because you don't know where you're at. You have no context for where you're at, where I'm at, where you can't see anything. And you stumble around. And then all of a sudden, you see that sliver of light under the door.

And it gives you that context to you. where you're at, and you can begin to make meaning against. I think a lot of this metaphor of the light when we're talking about Jesus is Jesus brings a context to our existence that you cannot make sense of the world until you can, and it just takes a little sliver that I think comes from the illumination of the spirit. I ran from Jesus for 28 years. I ran from him, away from him. I ran away from the light, away from the light.

Watch. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. I was there. One of the reasons I gave everybody the carnage. And ever since I came to Jesus, I was quick to say this is where I've been. I'd be high, getting laid, getting drunk, running. I'd tell them, I'd tell them over and over and over. I was coughing it up. I made sure they knew that before I went any further talking to them in the Bible. I would make sure they knew. I've been where you are. I've been there.

I've been there, and I've done that. I told them over and over and over and over. Let's take a quick break. To this day, and when somebody like, you know, my long-lost daughter steps out of the past, I said, yep, I didn't know she was coming, but I know what? exactly where she came from, my sinful behavior. So they won't come into the life for fear that each. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen, and this is

critical, it's very important, so that it may be seen plainly. You look at people's behavior and you say, I'm looking at pre-Jesus behavior. And it's a nightmare as far as I can tell, but they've got it kind of hidden. So you really don't know what they're up to. They're trying to disguise it best they can. But don't you think that's what he's saying? Once you come into the light, you are now honest about your mistakes, moving from the past and forward. And a good word to enforce your point.

It's the difference between night and day. Well, hold on. I mean, it's... But think about this. The verse 21 in John 3 actually puts the honesty before the light because he says, he who practices the truth comes to the light. So I think that, because that's the question, as you guys are talking about this, I'm thinking, if somebody's listening right now and they're in darkness,

what would you say to somebody who's in darkness and can't see it? And I would say if you want to see the light, you've got to love the truth first. Yeah. If you don't love the truth, you're not going to see the light. It's what sets you free. But if somebody said, well, what's the truth? What would you say? Well, then I will go back to Jesus.

Who's the light? I said, I am the truth, the way. That's why these little details about Jesus' personality in life, to me, that is the truth. Because you're not going to, most people who are in darkness, they've manipulated the system in their mind going on. Number one, they don't even think they're in darkness. Because a lot of people, if you bring up Jesus,

They're like, what are you're telling me? My life's great. And that's why I like going to church and they go up there for a hour or two and then they say, and everybody's acting pretty good. It's like everybody's in the light. But no one really knows what's going on the other six days when they walk out that door and they go to over there to their job. You've got to remember, whoever lives by the truth comes into.

the light. Yeah. Whoever lives by it. You say it's 24-7, who you are, wherever you are. It has to be there so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. So the bottom line is when somebody runs upon the three of us, one at a time or as a group, when they walk away, they may say a lot of things, they may not like us, they may not,

but one thing they can't say. they can't say they live like heathens they're out they're looting they're burning they're shooting they're up in people they're yeah they're mean to their name no i didn't see anything i like that coming out of that bunch i didn't see what did you see he said well they kind of were really into jesus christ uh i heard no profanity and i stayed with them a month i duck hunted with them I was around there. They weren't bad-minded people. They weren't gossip.

They didn't seem to hate anybody. Well, once they see that, they're like, what, how do you do that? I've asked many of them. We converted people because they didn't hear us cursing. They said, why not? I'm like, I'll show you. You point them to Jesus.

You point them to the light. All of a sudden, they're like, my goodness, I never heard that story before. That's why you don't cuss. That's why we don't cuss. But even in mistakes. look, I was playing a card game a while back, and there's a guy who I brought to the Lord, or, you know, God used me.

This guy has been a faithful brother, and he was involved in a hand with a guy who I'm not sure of his faith, because I didn't know him real well, but their tempers flare. They got an argument about something, and the guy who loves Jesus, you know, just kind of lost it. and I was thinking this is not good I mean he he was the guilty party said some things he shouldn't have said

used some language he shouldn't have said so I thought now how's it this is a terrible example and I was thinking how am I going to confront this guy because this is bad and about the time I was thinking that

it's like a light switched on in his mind like what am I doing over a card game and he just stop, apologize, took all the wrong, said, you know, I was completely wrong. I apologize, which is very hard for a grown man today, especially when you're playing games with other men. And to me, I thought, and so after it was over, he sent me a text, said that was a terrible example. And I said, you know what? You handled that. Yeah, it was, you were wrong.

I did say that. I said, but you handled that like. we do, which is the opposite of what the world does. And I thought even though he messed up and he said a few things that he shouldn't have said, that's what happens in life. But then he took responsibility. And I thought, you know, somebody to me thought it was more impressive on the way he held it. But he basically lived out this verse. It hit him that the truth of the matter was he was acting like an idiot, like the old self that we buried.

Yep. Then he took ownership of it. He apologized. And I thought, no, what happened? What happened through God? Because only the forgiveness that he experienced in Jesus. And to me, that was living in the life. I mean, it's not only our lives are different, yes.

But even when we do make a mistake, which to me, it was a minor mistake. Guys would be guys. You know, we're competitive. And he just lost his cool over something that was so silly and stupid. That's what everyone needs to understand. there'll be mistakes made when you're walking in the light. You'll make some mistakes. But when they're, do you do what that guy did?

Said, you know what? My bad. My bad. You said, that's walking in the light. He gets it. So that's the way it'll be. So look, from there, so we started in John 12. I wrote a little verse down on John 1, verse 4 and following.

Now I read John 3, verse 16 and following. still talking about the same topic, light. So you say, what's the next verse you're going to go to? Hold that one, Phil, for the break. So I wrote down, John 812, just to show you how many times the light is mentioned when it comes to Jesus. John 812. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.

but will have the light of life. What a statement. You're like, man. Which is what's weird was my point that he didn't say you're not ever going to make another mistake. You'll never walk in darkness. There's a difference in making mistakes in Jesus and making mistakes. And being quick to ask for forgiveness. Well, but he's just, you're in the light.

What's happening, the forgiveness and the grace that we get to experience? To me it goes back. You remember when Kane killed Abel? There's a statement. I think it's like Genesis 412 when he's basically being separated from God. He summed it up that there's a sentence at the end of verse 12. It says, you will be a restless wonderer on the earth. And it makes me think about that darkness.

And he was warned. Sin is crouching at your door. And you think, what do people do outside of Jesus? they're restless, restless wanderers on the earth. That's what you do outside of Jesus. Now, you might think, oh, I'm headed toward retirement. I'm headed for financial security. I'm headed for a promotion.

Or I'm going to, you know, sleep with ever a woman in the world. I mean, your aspiration, but basically outside of Jesus, the only thing that you can do is wander restlessly. And there's an end to that. I mean, I think you look at what's going on in our culture, Portland and all these areas right now. The end result is just complete and utter darkness and chaos. I mean, there's no context. I read, I'm reading a book right now, and the author said this was written before all this that's happening.

But he was talking about different protest movements in the last five, ten years. says about the protesters, they won't take yes for an answer, which I thought was interesting. And what he means is there's nothing, there's no end to this. There's no context. There's no meaning. There's no truth. It's just, it's just a free-for-all. Yeah, I think where we're, what I'm thinking and what you're bringing up is when people say, well, you need Jesus. Well, the world, they're like, what does that mean? They don't know what you mean. They have no idea what I'm talking about. Nope. And so what we're doing, but what Phil is sharing by reading the red letters of Jesus,

in this case, light, you're starting to get a picture of what was Jesus exactly trying to, why is he the light of my world? Not the world, because he is the world, but at some point it gets into my world. And you're like, well, without Jesus, how am I just wrestling in darkness? And so you start. looking at your decisions that you're making and where the direction of your life what's important to you what you give your time to and your energy to and what moves you and what your dreams are and well they're they all are going to have a dead end that it's it's not going to be fulfilling you say well well but i think it is and that's when you get into the truth because could it be possible that

you're you're believing in a lie that somehow another if you make millions of dollars that you're going to be happy. Which is why, just a few chapters later, which I wish I was going to be here for this, because this is my favorite four chapters of the Bible, or three chapters, John 14 through John 17, he introduces the Holy Spirit as the one who delivers us into all truth. And so now we have the third member of the Trinity. Jesus has said, I'm leaving, but trust me, it's good that I'm leaving because he, He's coming, the counselor, and when he comes, he will guide you into all truth.

And John 17 says, we're sanctified by the truth because what I think the light is, it's flipping on the light and giving clarity to reality, particularly in showing all these ways that are leading to a dead end, and then highlighting the way, which is Jesus, which leads to life, which is why he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then you're right. You get to the spirit, which we really haven't. gotten to in detail, because really you can't fix your, you can't get out of the darkness. I mean, you were in there.

You said, why don't you just get out of, quit acting like an idiot? Because, I mean, you're. Wrong escape house. But something happened. One person. So you're introduced to Jesus, and then all of a sudden you surrender. Everything changed. And the Holy Spirit comes in, and all of a sudden you turn into a different person.

Everything changed. Then you look back and say, what's that's why? Now it's so critical for people to understand, you see Jesus through the power of the Spirit in His people. Yes. You look up and you say, whoa, that one seems a little bit strange. What's their deal? Well, then when they sit down and hear the rest of the story, they said, I am beginning to see.

And by the Spirit and the words that he's written in the Bible, and by the inner conviction and testimony that the Spirit, John 6th, says he will convict the world of guilt. When you had the moment and when I had a moment in my life where I was convicted of my guilt and I was like, whoa, I'm in darkness. I didn't come to that conclusion on my own. God revealed that to me in that moment. And I had to respond to his revelation by either saying, I think I'm going to quench that.

That's why I had all these people write that down. So look, you started in John 12, then we've been back to John 1, then we got on John 3, then we got in John. 8, 12, well, you say, well, what verse did you put when you left John 12? I wrote down there, chapter 9, verse 5. We just read it. You say, I mean, this is chapter 8, verse 12, 8, 812. You say, what's the next one you wrote down?

And you want to look at the subject light, Jesus being the light, the light. What does it mean? So I wrote down there chapter 9, verse 5. So I turn a page, while I am in the world. I'm the light of the world. Other words, we're at the point where they found the blind guy and they said, well, no, he did this. Jesus said, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents?

Here's the light talking. Let me shed a little light on what you're wondering about. Neither this man nor his parents' sin, but this happens so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. The work of God being displayed in his life, that's for all of us. You think about it. You say, they see the work. work of God displayed in our life, and it's light. You point him to the light, to the light. While I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. You say, where did you go next? I go back to

where I started. I wrote down right there, little bitty letters, John 12, verse 35, and now I'm back to where we started. You say, so how do I leapfrog from the gospel of John if I want to know some more about light. Well, I wrote down there 1st John. I didn't have to be specific on where I was going in 1st John because I've read 1st John a lot.

Well, the whole book is about walking in the light. Not only did he write the gospel of John and he's talking about Jesus being the light of the world. When Jesus dies, is buried, is raised from the dead. John recorded that and they said, well, what happened after that?

well John got around to writing 1 John, 2nd John, and 3rd John, and watch. You say, well, I wonder what he had to say when he got. Well, they'll have to read it because we're running short of time. We're really out of time. But I wanted to say this one thing. Read 1st John then, chapter 1. Read that on how many times light is mentioned. You're like, good night.

Then throw on top of that, Ephesians chapter 2, there are many more, but just that. And Ephesians 4. Fees and four, I mean. Four and five. Fees and four. But I wanted to say something, because I think to bring all this together, something Zach mentioned,

one of the ways you can see the light of God in your life is the presence of freedom. And he mentioned this text, but I just want to read it a lot of us when we think, why, I'm not in darkness out there, or how do I know that I'm in darkness? It was written in 2 Corinthians 3 that the biggest thing causing the darkness

is that we have a mask, a veil over, you know, our heart and eyes when it comes to who Jesus is. And look what Paul said when he says, whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, which is what we were just talking about. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, which is the opposite of what people, when the darkness think following Jesus is, they think it's a bunch of rules and regulations. They don't understand it's the opposite. Oh, it's true freedom. And then it says, and we who with unveiled faces, because we can see the Lord, all reflect the Lord's glory. We're being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord,

who is the Spirit. That's good. Well, we'll end with that. Just three quick things. Make sure you guys are subscribing to our iTunes channel or iTunes podcast or whatever podcast app you use. Also, check us out on YouTube, subscribe there as well. And if you're not a Blaze subscriber and you want to get behind the scenes content that you won't get anywhere else, and also Mark Levin, Len Beck, and a host of other folks, go to blazedtv.com slash unashamed.

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