Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 181 | How Phil and Jase Prep for Duck Season and Advice for a Family Who's New to Christianity

Episode Date: November 16, 2020

Phil and Jase spend all year getting ready for duck season, but when it finally rolls around, Miss Kay and Missy have a name for it: "The Ordeal." Jase highly recommends having the duck-hunting conversation before you get married. The guys also answer audience questions about how a young family can focus on Jesus in the home, how to end a struggle with sin after you repent, and how to share Jesus with a homosexual friend or family member. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? All right. This is part two of podcasts without Al. I wonder if that'll be the name of it. Push that through. Al did not think that we could do this, but we've already given some spiritual wisdom in our first podcast.

And for this one, we're going to do a little Q&A. These are questions that our listeners are wondering, they're pondering about, and they felt strongly enough to sit down and actually type it out and send the question. So I'm going to start with question one. How do y'all prepare for duck season? How do we prepare for duck season? The day after it's over, we begin the preparation for the following season.

So we add. So it's a little late because now what are we? One week? No. How, when does this thing start? It starts two days from Saturday. We're about nine days out. Nine days out.

Nine days out. So if you're waiting to this moment, your point is you've missed it. You, you, there are some, a certain season. of events that must take place right after duck season, the day after duck season. We begin to say, we need to carry butane bottles that we left in the blind.

We get out. We get an equipment. There's a cleanup. There's a cleanup. There's a cleanup. We begin to move out. We're moving back to the high ground because it's just ended. We're going into February, and that's in the early spring.

When the backwater start, we may already be experiencing while we're going. we're hunting, we see the backwater coming. We say, okay, we've got a big one coming. So we prepare for the flood that's coming. We've had five in a row where the river got about, where we're duck hunting, the river went from dry ground to about 25 feet in a lot of areas. Just imagine a rise, ladies and gentlemen, where you're in floaters, floating duck blinds on logs.

So one phase is prepare for the, backwater. You don't know how high it's going to get or how long it's going to stay. So you're preparing yourself. Lengthening your ropes when you see it start coming up, you've got to take care of duck blinds. Make sure they stay put and don't tear off down through the woods because you didn't tie them up properly. You did tie them up, but a beaver cut your rope. So you better be there two years later, two days later to find out where the duck blind's headed. So I'm in charge of all all the duck blinds, we've got about 50, some stationary, some floating. My job is to make sure the duck blinds are ready for the following year by being with them during the backwater when they come way up,

making sure they go right back down and they're faced in the right direction and don't get up on a snag over there where you turn the thing over. There's cotton mouths that live on them. There's gators that get up on them. And we go through all that. So you've basically got the water regime, you got the food regime. So after the duck blinds, you've got a water regime, meaning you're there and you're hunting ducks over water that you either pumped in or it rained enough to get it up in November. Well, what if that doesn't happen? It doesn't rain enough.

Well, we pump it up. Well, you don't want to pump it too much because you don't want to get it. in un date, most of you have grass. The food regime is you make sure that you have things on that piece of property. We're talking hundreds of acres here, over a thousand, in fact, or more. So you got all that ground that you want to make sure you've got the proper food regime. You plant stuff that ducks like, or you manipulate the soil, and the Almighty will plant things, that ducks like.

So you choose between the two, making sure you've got a food source, making sure the water regimes, you've got water to hunt on. Ducks like water. They don't fly around too much, and you can't kill them on dry ground. I think, too, what we're doing this year,

which is different, is we talked to our neighbor into us buying a crop that he would plant, and we're going to flood it, but we're not going to hunt it. Of course, he's next to us. He's a farmer. His property line joins ours.

Yeah. And he couldn't plan anyway because the backwater stayed up so much. The part that's right next to us, he couldn't. The water stayed there to July and August. So we talked to him into planting for us, which is what a lot of people do now when it comes to duck hunting. They'll have a place, what they'll call their sanctuary. They got this, I guess, from the government, because that's what they do, where they plant and let the ducks stay there and then you're in the woods or you have a break right next to it

well you and you don't disturb these eating ducks because it's easier to shoot a full happy duck than it is to one you know when you go into a ball open field it's hard to get them in there by the way have we paid him for that endeavor yet no but we will yeah he hasn't sent me a bill yet yeah so we're but that was a good move. That's good with our neighbor. He's plants duck food, food that ducks like. He's next to us. We don't fool with that.

We just have them. They're gathering up. But we're looking for a little trickle of them come by. And we have more ducks in the area if your neighbor's land is also flooded up. So basically every year, you know, location. And if he hunts it, what we flooded up. If he duck hunts it, that would probably be a good day for us. because we're over there across.

We'll try to get him to only do that at the end of the split or at the end of the season. But, you know, it's his land. He can do whatever he wants to. But what we're said about locations and how come you got 50 blinds? You know, we only have one blind. If you only have one blind, it's going to be hard to hunt every day and be successful. But when you have different locations, you know, I tell the story in my seminars. about duck hunting people they'll call and they'll say what duck call do you recommend for keeping ducks from lighting wide and it's a it's a terrible question

because if ducks are not lighting in your decoys to be honest they probably it's nothing personal they would rather light in this other location so forget buying another duck call move a blind over there which is why we have 50s safety blinds because there's a place within a specific area where they tend to want to go. And we try to zero in on that and have a blind in every small section where they tend to want to go. Would you agree with that? Yep. By the way, if you don't learn but one thing here today, if you happen to be a duck hunter and you use a duck call, we highly recommend ours because it does sound like a duck if you know what you're doing and you know how to blow it. but you must develop one particular little call that helps to keep them from light and wide

is on their last pass when they come over you when they're low enough to shoot but you want to get them backpedaled in the decoys you it's a two-note duck call I have my duck calls yeah you go like you hit that a lick jace that that oh here we go yeah I'll hit it for you. Well, you know, the age of coronavirus. I don't want my lips where your lips are been. You drag that note out a little bit. And if they turn quickly, you've done well and they're coming in.

It is a life-saving. When they pass over, you could have shot them. You drag it out. So what? I noticed we do that. So like on the first pass, we sound excited. And we'll, like, you'll call, and then I'll follow right behind you. So that's why we're normally blowing.

But when they get down to the last pass, what we noticed is that seems to be something that they cannot turn down. Now, I don't know. We called a three-note call. It's a sweet little hand saying, come on now. But speaking ducking knees, or whatever you want to call it, in the duck. Mallard Hen Whirl, whatever that note is, seems to be where the deal gets made. That's it. And we're only based on experience.

So for you duck hunters out there, I think that's interesting. We came up with a way to do that. But in the regime, when we're talking about all these blinds, and you've already brushed the blinds, when did you do that? They were all brushed. We did brush two yesterday in what we call the Mize hole, because when the hurricane came through here, it scattered a lot of the brush we had on the blind. It took it in all directions.

I say all directions. It took it in the direction. It was downwind of it. So it blew. But you got to remember amateurs stone and the nurse practitioner brushed up. those. So that was suspect at best. I observed after the hurricane and what was a brushed duck blind was about a fourth brush duck blind. I said, we need to put a load of willows on that one

and the one just up above there, Jace, the beach. So I brushed them both yesterday. I took stone with me so he could, for his learning, and we had Dan the eunuch for heavy lifting. So I had two good hands there, but we got the duck blinds. And what I'll do? We're eight, nine days some ducks and we normally are not brushing blinds. And what I'll do this starting this weekend is I'm the scout. The connoissance begins to take place. I won't, because we've got 50 locations. Well, how in the world would you know where to start opening day?

Now, what most people do mistakenly is they wait before the day before duck season, and they go right out there and scare all the ducks off. Bad move. And bad move. So when I go scout, because once you scare them, there's no guarantee that they're going to come back. But people want to see them, and I would call that a Yahoo rookie move to go jump up all your ducks the day before you're going to hunt. Be kind to your fellow duck brothers. Well, I was thinking that's the dumbest, most stupid thing you could do, and I would be highly upset.

Now, we get down to figures. Louisiana wildlife and figures. has come out with a magazine here the last few days and I read it to show, Jace, why the numbers have gone down from the 70s. They're slowly going down, down, down, on the harvesting of ducks. The average duck hunter in Louisiana, last year we had two states that beat us out on average. California, of all places, was ranked number one. Number two, was Arkansas, and number three was Louisiana. The average Louisiana duck hunter last year, we said we had a poor year until I started thinking

about these things, and I saw the article, and they said, because of a number of factors, the marsh in Louisiana has been shrinking since 1839. Now it's 2020, the last couple of hundred years. we are losing ground literally the Louisiana up coast the Mars is receding and being replaced with brackish saltwater what used to be dry ground meaning marshy wet but but basically land silt grew far greater food supply now it's receded to the point to where we're north of the marsh we're 300 miles north. The problem is, or $25,300, we don't see ducks coming over our head as much as we used to because they're not going to the marsh anymore because of the saltwater intrusion.

And also with the refuge system, which is what I was going to say, they can, the government is holding a lot of the ducks all the way down in mass quantities. That is correct. So the erosion of the marsh, the government now is holding, would you say most of the ducks? The weather patterns are of such. There's no doubt it's getting warmer. Global warming. When the temperature gets warmer, the snow and ice is not as pronounced in the northern tier of the United States. The ducks are stopping earlier, not moving as far south as they would on cold, cold winters. They're beginning to stay further north.

Well, we're in the last state on the continent, and they're not reaching us. So the average duck hunter, Jason, Louisiana, so you'll know, kills, harvest, 11 ducks a duck season. Yeah. Last year, the average duck hunter killed 11 ducks during a duck season. The good news is we hunt, and there's usually four to six people in the duck bowl.

blind four or five or six a lot of times four a lot of times five few times six and very rarely seven well if you add it up we didn't kill but 650 ducks last year yeah which was a poor year however that was an average of five people so you say well y'all killed average a hundred over a hundred a piece we made up for some other people but the difference is jace we hunted every day where the typical hunter that brought the 11 ducks in hunts on the weekend a little bit but doesn't hunt every day like we do. Let me ask another question.

So now here's another question we get on what do you do to get ready for duck season. When it comes to your beard, it's okay to summarize. I mean, I did it for years before we came out with a TV show. I would shave as a. I would shave as a present to my wife.

You're speaking of summarizing as getting ready for the summer months. Well, right. Yeah, they may think you were summarizing a set of numbers or something. Well, I figured that. I figured it out. Yeah, or summary. In February and March, I would usually shave once. And then, but once we get to where we're at now, well, there'll be no more trimming.

No. I'll just go with it. So in case you want to, you know, when you're asking, what do you do, when it comes to your facial hair in your hair, you need to just let that go. Would you agree? You need the hair. That's one of the. More hair helps keep you warm. And I think it's kind of fun.

And it sees the status of your relationship because the second part of the question was, now I didn't say this. The question said, and how do you train your relationship? your wife to deal with the hunting season. I don't know if I'd have said it quite like that, because I think it's not really a training. It's just something that you should, in my case, I laid it out beforehand while we were dating. I just said, here's, you know, I'm going to love you.

I love Jesus. I'm going to treat you with respect. You didn't want this to become a deal breaker. All right. It's somewhere in there. I gave the impression that if you have a problem with me duck hunting for basically two and a half months every day, we need to end this now. I look at it. My view is more simple than yours.

They are males and they are females. I just noticed that hair is coming out of males way more prevalent on their faces. There's more hair on their faces than with women. Most women. Women, they don't even stand for a little piece for us. They're taking tweezers and pulling it out. They don't want any hair. But males, we have hair that grows out of our face, under our arms, and a few other areas.

You say, what about that hair? Being a man who believes in the Bible and God created us from the dust of the earth, he made males where hair is more prevalent coming off, especially their faces. When you're saying... It's quite the asset. Quite the asset. And I thank God that he gave it to us because someone says,

do you wear a mask? Jace, this is my mask. Yeah. The microbes catch on the follicles, the hair, but they're not in my skin or up my nose yet. I'm hanging them. I'm hanging them in the hair.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. All these guys eat little millennial punks. They need to let their whiskers go. They will have a mask when someone asked, you're not wearing a mask. He said, oh, I beg to differ. Yeah. I have a mask, and it's better than yours because, look, Jay,

I'm, your, your nostrils right now have, have this. Right. And it would stop a lot of things you wouldn't want going up in your nasal passages, including the coronavirus. However, you got it, and I didn't, so I'm just saying, more hair, Jayce, more hair. More hair. More hair. Shouldn't have done that trim.

That's right. That trim got it. You got me. That's sad. Let's take a break. So there's really no training. I think once you get to duck season as a married man, that should have already, the conversation should have already happened.

It's just like trying to go out there and look at your hole the day before and scaring all the ducks off. if you wait as a man who's dating, if you're going to wait until a week before Doug season to sit down with your wife, you know, in the first year of marriage, it's way too late. You, you've, that ship has sailed.

Your own mother, Jace, the, has used the wordage. She says, When does the ordeal begin? She calls duck season. Well, my wife calls it that. The ordeal.

So they pass that on. Yeah. Now it's ingrained in their psyche. Don't mess with duck season. Don't mess with that. But I had to convince her that I was not going to do anything immoral or illegal, that this was under the category of good, clean fun. And then like you, I managed a way.

to make my living from hunting. So duck hunting. It was pretty... Bless our family more than I can ever say. Any way you want to slice it, Jay's. So when I'm getting up for years, you know, I've been married 30 years to, when I get up and say I've got to go to work,

I figured out a way to do that where I was actually hunting. Stick to your guns and sometimes at least, Oh, it pays rich dividends. Yeah, it does. It did. So that's good. All right, question two. This is from Stacey.

Listen to the podcast on Spotify. All right. Female. Yep. And she says, now that I'm a wife and mother of two, I really want to make sure that my family is centered around God. I guess my question is,

what is your best advice for a young family that is rather new to Christianity to keep God at our center. New to Christianity, Stacey. And I think before you answer, it's, you know, a lot of people, and I think this was the Lord's idea, you know, they may sow their wild oats

or however you want to put it, but most people, when they get married and they have their first kid, all of a sudden, they start thinking, I don't want my kid to grow up and do some of the dumb things I did, or they just feel this sense of responsibility to all of a sudden get God's qualities in their kids' lives because who doesn't want the best for their kids? So I think that's kind of the question, which is a great question.

So what would you say? Stacey, you're a good girl for asking. Get your Bible out and read 1. Peter, chapter 2, start in a verse about, 23 to give you some context. When they hurl their insults at him, he did not retaliate. It's a good lesson to learn, Stacey. Know that. When people try to insult you, don't retaliate. When he suffered, and when you suffer, Stacey, it happens. He made no threats. So no threats, no retaliation, Stacey. You said, how does a person live their life new to Christianity to keep God at our center.

I'm giving you the text. It is written. He himself bore our sins in his body on a tree. Your sins have been removed, Stacey. So therefore, try your best to live a godly life. So that we might die out of sins and live for righteousness. And one of the things you mentioned could keep God at the center. Well, by his wounds you've been healed, this has given you motivation.

For you were like sheep. going astray when we're all were lost, but now you've returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Now, to be specific, you're in Jesus, you've returned to the shepherd and overseer of your soul. Listen carefully to what he had the spirit write down. Wives, you said you have children, so I'm thinking you're married. In the same way, be submissive to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe the word, I hope your husband does, but if he doesn't, do like this. They may be won over without talk by the behavior of their wives.

Stacey, your behavior can carry you into a great lifestyle. When they see the purity and reverence of your life, live that way, Stacy, your beauty, honey, should not come from outward adornment. I understand Mabeline and how y'all all use it, you know, picking the tweezers, you got the little watching your eyebrows. I understand. But you don't want to get carried away with braided hair, wearing of gold, jewelry, fine clothes. It does not make you a godly woman, Stacey.

Instead, listen carefully. It should be that, Stacey, of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. check us out stacey which is of great worth in god's sight now watch for this is the way the holy women of the past learned from the past stacey who put their hope in god used to make themselves beautiful and he brings up stacey the mother of your faith you say i've always heard the father of my faith Abraham. Well, Abraham had a woman he was married to, and she's your model. They were submissive to their own husbands, the women of faith, like Sarah, here's the mother of your faith,

who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. We've kind of lost that in America, and a lot of people say, what the world are you talking about? I'm just quoting what the Apostle Peter said by the power of the spirit. You're her daughter, Stacy, if you do what is right, girl, and do not give way to fear. Be known for a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth. It will really save you a lot of troublesome times

that you would have otherwise, that you'll otherwise go through. So that's the answer to your question, little girl. Thanks for writing that. Well, my take on it is, you know, number one, You read that from First Peter, but I remember Bill Smith used to say this. He'd say the number one thing you can do for your kids as a wife or a husband is love your husband or wife. I mean, if you're...

I spoke on behalf of Stacey, but the husbands, Peter addresses them also, but I would just give her the information. Well, I would say that. So I think that's a as dynamic of a relationship that you have with each other, that trickles down to your kids from the energy and the vibe. These people that try to make it work from, you know, and we realize, you know, what's the percentage now? 50% 60% of marriage end up in divorce. And so they try to make it work for the kids and I get it, you know, I would do the same thing. but if you have a stable environment, husband and wife, that's going to be a great asset.

For them, look, to your kids to have the ability to have these godly truths. Because once they get mad or bitter, it's hard to reach them. The second thing I'd recommend is, because a lot of people, when they give advice, they say, well, go to church and read your Bible. Well, I know a lot of families that go to church and read the Bible and are a million miles.

It's chaos and insanity in the home. So what I would say is you focus on Jesus in your home. And one of the ways you do that is you share Jesus with your neighbors. you have Bible studies that reveal Jesus. That was one of the most helpful things when y'all were young in the faith. For me, as I was seeing y'all be hospitable, even though y'all didn't have a lot of money, you would have suppers and invite the neighbors and friends, and you would feed them fish with what you had, and then you would share Jesus.

But when you see that going on, that was very impressionable to me, that this is not something we do on Sunday morning. we're living for Jesus every day. So you can sum that up by saying you act the same way publicly and privately. And so that takes care of the go to the church and focusing on Jesus. So, you know, we used to do little nightly divos. And I would usually, when my kids were little, I would usually try to focus on Jesus. Because to me, you know, the whole Bible is important.

and I like for them to know the stories. But if they get to the end of the row, which is about when they're a teenager, and they miss Jesus, well, they missed it. I'm telling you. So that would be my advice is, I'm all for having a church family to go to

and get plugged into because there's a lot of activities that they can do. But I think it's more important to see, for kids to see parents that love Jesus, six days a week before we get to Sunday. The second and third and fourth place you go, Stacey. I gave you 1 Peter 3, 1 through 17. Now read 1st John 2, verse 6, which simply says,

walk as Jesus did, girl. Hebrews 514, speaking of know the difference between good and evil, you digest the scriptures, embrace good, shun evil. and last Hebrews 12, 7 through 11. So you put those verses together with 1 Peter, and you got it. Okay.

All right, let's take a break. Next question. All right, we get this question a lot. What would you say to a believer who has sin repented but still struggles with that sin? and this person, this is Terry, I think it's a female. I don't think Terry, T-E-R-I. That's how female spelled Terry.

So I was raised in a legalistic home, so grace is not something that is easily accepted. Thank you for what your family does to further the kingdom. Let me just define that before we answer the question. You know, a lot of people say, what does legalistic mean? There's a lot of religions in charge. churches that for whatever reason, they believe that they can legally be good enough to make it to

heaven. And they call that legalistic. So if you're basing your salvation on a rule keeping system and you tend to lean toward follow the rules and you can make it to heaven, people view that as legalistic instead of more of a grace centered which is God's grace is what saves you a hundred percent and we respond to that with making better decisions which would be legal ways impossible to earn it well right so I'm just explaining her question but the question she says okay so she sins then she puts repented which repent means to make a decision to change and then the fruits then prove that decision. That's the true definition.

And I'll read that in Acts. But then it says, then they start struggling with the same sin again. So what do you do about that? Or what's your take on that while I'm looking at verse up? Well, make sure you implement 1 John, chapter 1, about 6 and following about Jesus being there 24-7 to mediate for you as you struggle with your sins.

But let me just read you a little text here. After your baptism, now I'm in Romans 6, 1 through 4. After your baptism, you told God through faith that you were done with sin, you're dying to it. If we've been united with him in his death, we'll certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know our old self was crucified, so you were correct in saying you repented, your sin were forgiven, but now you're still struggling with the sin. Remember this. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we'll also live with him.

We know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has a mastery of him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives is where you're struggling. He lives to God in the same way. Now listen, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. in Christ Jesus. Your position is in Jesus. Therefore, here's the answer to you question. Don't let sin rain in your mortal body. There's a difference between struggling and you make mistakes and sin

raining like it did before you were baptized through your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Let me interject this for you finish reading. That verse was in Acts 20. 26, 20, which goes in with what you're saying. Paul said that he preached, which he was sharing his conversion here, and he had just said what Jesus said about sending Saul who had become Paul, he said to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan of God, so that they may receive forgiveness and a place among those who are sanctified.

So then he said this in verse 20, I preached that they should repent, turn to God. So you hear Jesus, you're baptized, you turn to God, and prove their repentance by their deeds. Correct. Which is the definition of, so you bury the old self, and then you prove it by the power of the Holy Spirit. All right, go ahead.

So you go and you say, well, my problem is I return to the same sin. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. so that you obey its evil desire. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God. Listen to this, as those who have been brought from death to life. It's the biggest event that ever happened to you when you were saved initially, kid. Offer the parts of your bodies to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your. master, that's the way you were before you got in Jesus. But now, because of your faith, you're not under law, where I have to do everything perfectly or he'll weed me out. Which would be legalism. You're under grace. Yeah. And so that's Roman 6. Well, look, the reason he read Roman 6 is because the first question of Roman 6, his answer was based on a question. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Which was her question? Yeah. Because she's saying, While I sin, I repented. But I'm still struggling with the sin.

I repented of. And look, there's a lot of religions that are contributing to this mindset. You know, a lot of people say, you know, you do the effort to repent. I mean, just because you're repenting, if you don't have God's forgiveness or grace, that's what's providing the cleansing. So when you make the decision, and he knows your heart, which is it's a hard thing to put 0.1, 0.2.3, but you just got to step back and say, wait a minute here.

God knows my heart. Now, he knows if you're having this line of thinking, Roman 6'1, if you're saying, you know what, I'll go out there and have an affair because I know that God will forgive me later. Well, if that's your mindset, who are you trying to kid, God? So that's why I think you got to, when people come up with these types of questions,

and I'm not saying it's a bad question, I'm just saying, God knows your heart. I don't. We're going to tell you to focus on God's grace. Do not offer your bodies as instruments. There should be some changes. There should be a drastic difference.

You're proving your repentance by your deed. However, having said all that, you could still in your heart say, oh, yeah, I prayed and I confessed. And in your mind say, yeah, but I'm going to go have another affair. And then I'll repent later. That could be your total mindset, and you could hide that from us and we'd never know it. This is a great place to go.

Turn back now, Terry, to Romans chapter 4. When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man or woman, in this year case, Terry, if you're a woman, you may be a man, I don't know. However, to the man, to the person who does not work, but trusts God. who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessingness of the man or woman to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Remember this, Terry.

Blessed are they? That'd be you, girl or boy, whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Let's see. He took your sins away. they're forgiven, they're covered. Blessed is the man or woman whose sin, and here's where you are in Jesus. The Lord will never count against them.

So knowing that, try your best, not the sin. But if you do, read 1st John chapter 1, about 6 and followed. Your tenor of life, your walk with God, you say, I'm going to make some mistakes, but I'm never going to reach where I never commit one act of wrong. You just had to remember. I think that's the key phrase, Phil. We're all going to make mistakes, but God's not.

He knows your heart. And sometimes I've said to myself, you know, I've done the same thing over and over and thought, why do I keep doing it? And, you know, you have these conversations with God, dishing God, even in your mind. They may not be vocal or verbal. And you, you, those are the things you say.

You know my heart. I'm an idiot. You know, please forgive me. Train yourself to know the difference between good and evil, embrace good, shun evil. It's a lifelong struggle. All right, we're going to do one more question. Now this one, no name given, which is fine, and I understand why after reading the question. And you probably thought we weren't going to answer that, but we will.

My question is regarding homosexuality. How do we deal, stand against it when we have family members who participate in it? And he goes through this. It's kind of long. I want to be fair to it, but I'll give you just the minor details. He has an older brother who's gay, and I've known his partner all my life. I've always referred to them as my brothers. Of course, I love them both.

I feel like it puts me in a weird position. They know I'm a Christian. I have been my entire life. Let's see. Oh, I've even invited them to church and to our baby dedication. With our age gap, we aren't exactly close, but he's still my big brother. And now that I have children, I'm wondering how I will explain all this to her, I guess his daughter. And then he kind of goes into what he's figured out in his mind.

So I'm going to read what he says. We believe it's wrong. Your uncle's living in a way that's against what God says is appropriate. I know we all sin, but I guess the difference. says that we repent. I don't, I don't know. Then he says, don't keep doing it or believe it's okay.

I can tell he's confused. So he's like, so how do I handle that? What do I tell my daughter? What do I tell anyone else who challenges me on it? Yeah. Big topic for five minutes.

All you do is, is you say it is written. You can show them this in love. Let your brother know you love it, man his partner. It is written. Genesis chapter 19 the story of Sodom and Gamara. It is written.

Read the story. You recommend they do this. It is written. Romans 1, 1 through 18, then through 27, all the way to 32. Romans chapter 1. Read it. It is written. And I think a lot of people feel, though, they immediately think, well, if you read that, you know, that's going to cause problems.

but you notice Phil said the first thing you said was you love him that's right you know what we do is we introduce Jesus to people that's where these words came from we love you here's what God said about your question and when you look at John 8 I use John 8 as a model because here was a woman called an adultery you said well that has nothing to do with homosexuality well she's caught in sin interesting word he said he said where are your where you're accusers okay Couture. Yeah. And he said, I don't condemn you. Yeah. Well, leave the condemnation part to God. What we do, the biggest problem I see in our culture is we don't distinguish between people living, making decisions on who they have sex with. Because a lot of people, you know, they act for argument's sake, like, that's not going on. But we make decisions on who we have sex with.

Now, when we read the Bible, God pretty much says, as far as right and wrong, anything other than a husband and a wife, male and a female, and you read Matthew 19 and see that. So my point is, here's a woman called an adultery. It didn't matter what, as far as what God's word said, what kind of sin was going on here. They were, here was religious people picking up rocks going to kill her. and actually had a case to be made under the old law at that time, which we don't. And so my point is we introduced Jesus to people because that's his call, and he said, I'm not going to condemn you. He treated her with love, and that's what the cross is all about.

And, you know, that's the way people can change their minds, hearts, and choices that are made. The biggest different in our culture that I see is that people who claim to be in Christ with that kind of mindset. And that's addressed in, where's that? First Corinthians 5, 2nd Corinthians 5. Yeah. 1 Corinthians 5. But then he made a profound... First Corinthians, 6, 9, and 10. Well, I was thinking about 1st Corinthians 5 when he said, I've written you in my letters not to associate with sexually moral people, which is the category of anything other than a lot of people.

a husband and a wife, which I referred to Matthew 19, not at all meaning the people of this world who are a mall or the greedier swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave the world. And that's my point. I have lots of friends who consider themselves gay or whatever phrase you want. I have friends. I would say, I don't want to give a number, but several people who worked on our show, they had that kind of lifestyle.

He said, well, you do. You love them. You're friendly. They're in the world. You know, we present Jesus where we can. We have conversations about Jesus, not their lifestyle. We're not the police because we're all flawed ourselves. We need the grace of God, just like everybody else.

And I think that's where it gets all cloudy. Now, if somebody's preaching at the church we're meeting at, and all of a sudden he comes out and he says, that he thinks that that's, you know, a godly lifestyle, we would have a different conversation in a room with people who love him. And to me, once you surrender to Jesus, it is different. If you're claiming to represent Jesus, well, there's a standard of choices that we make, and we have the Bible, and we can have discussions, and that's the difference.

So my answer would be, I think you're doing a fantastic job. You can, you love, you present ways to share Jesus. Now, when you said I invited him to go to church, I don't think that that's necessarily the best idea just because people tend to stereotype, you know, go into church with a system of judgment. And I would share Jesus. I would have a conversation about Jesus.

I would recommend reading a book of John to them, see them what Jesus is like. And then you let them deal with it on their own. One of the good brothers I studied with, he was telling me about his conversion. And he said, I claimed to be a woman for a couple of years. You know, when I was in my 20s, you know, I said, did you know that you were born a male and you couldn't have been a woman? He said, well, of course.

I said, well, why would you act like you were a woman for two years? He showed me a picture of himself as a woman. I mean, he had the breast, the whole gamut. And he said, I just kept listening to those lies, the evil one were telling me. And he said, it was all a ploy. I said, so you knew that your behavior was not right? He said, of course I did. He said, I read the verse.

I read Bible verses. I could see it. He said, but I was at a point to where I just bowed up and said, nobody's going to tell me I'm going to live my life. He said, when I finally said, Lord, help me out of this. and he turned, now he's responsible for bringing many people who are that particular lifestyle, homosexual behavior, and brought them to the Lord. Well, and we have to, and we have those stories.

I would encourage the brothers who are, in fact, participate in that particular behavior, to reach out the ones who have gotten out of it, to reach out to them. Don't condemn them. That's God's job. The ones who were in that sin that I've studied with, and look, I didn't make it.

a big deal of of that being different than anything else that we do. But they would bring up the idea about being born that way, which is kind of what you're going into, which is

in our minds a justification of decisions that they're making later on in life. But what I've noticed is you share Jesus, you withhold judgment, you treat them with love, and then when that comes up that argument i said well in john three when he's having this this conversation with a

religious fella he says you can be born again and i just remember one of the guys i study with who was in that lifestyle it was like a light bulb went on so it doesn't matter if you believe you were born that way or not you understand who jesus is you trust him you see what you see what what he says, but fortunately for all of us, we can be born again. That's a good point. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell

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