Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 184 | Exploding Ammo & a Lethal Baton, Why We Can't Retreat from Evil & the Sermon No One Wants

Episode Date: November 22, 2020

Jase and Al revisit their childhood scuffles, shenanigans, and roughhousing, including exploding ammo and Willie's near-deadly baton. Phil, Jase, and Al explain why they love using Bible concordances, why we shouldn't retreat from evil, and which sermons they avoid like the plague. And Phil predicts a totalitarian future where hollering about Jesus can't be taken for granted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So I love hearing from all the fans out there. You guys are great. I mean, you send a lot of great questions. We had a great one yesterday that launched into our John 17 study. Biblical question, but sometimes you just hear from folks. This was from Joey from Nashville. And so Joey said, I just wanted to thank you and all your family for what you're doing, spreading the gospel. And this was the line I thought you'd like that. He said, and this must have come from when y'all did it when I wasn't here. But he said, I've got more out of your podcast in a month than I got out of going to church for years. Which I was like, that's not good.

But then he said, maybe it's just me. My heart may be finally open. So I do appreciate him saying that because it may not just be us. Then he said, P.S., tell Jace, having your dad puts you out of the car as a kid, three miles from your home is nothing. try having your dad put you out of the car in another country which then he said he used to say that ended the backseat fighting between me and my sister so I guess were y'all talking about

I remember that happening I don't remember talking about it was either on Zach we hadn't talked about it since I was doing that do you remember doing that uh-uh so if I went to like if I ever went to a psychiatrist you know they try to go into your childhood and see where it all went wrong.

That would be one of the memories. Because you know, when you're a little kid and Phil just pulls over on the side of the road, he said, hey, get out. The three miles is an exaggeration. It was more of a mile. When we get to the end of where you turn down mouth of Cyprus, that's where you'd put him out. He let us out.

The one time I remember was right when you turn on to Lee Andy. Really? Oh, yeah. Well, that was three miles. He went about 100 yards and just pulled over. He said, y'all get out. I was like, and do what? He said, walk.

Evidently, dad was upset. I'm too much hollered and talking. I don't know. No, Willie and I had the same game. They two fought every time on the way to church and backing. We were all in the same vehicle. It's very annoying. Well, here's the problem.

We had a dozen people in the car. I'm embellishing. Not by much. Not by much. And so Willie and I had a deal that if we touch each other at any moment, that we can't deal with that. If you touch the teeth? Yeah, like if his leg

touch my leg, I fixed to pop him or thump him. So I had to have space, but it was hard to have space. So you were practicing social distancing way before it became mainstream. I've been practicing that my whole life. And now that I think about it, you're like one of these authoritarian we talked about

last time because if somebody tells somebody, they got popped. That's what would get the thing going was like you touch me, then I'm going to hit you. which is, you know, it was kind of defeating the whole purpose. Willie woke up every morning, and he tried to get as close to me as possible without touching me. So he'd put his hand over my hand.

That's what caused the fight. He just won them pecking order deals. He just wanted to get his butt whipped every day, which he did, and that's the way it went. So when he was back there, he would, like, put his hand near me. So he wasn't breaking the rules. He knew the rule, don't touch me, so he'd get right here. We'd hit a bump, and he'd touch me, and I'd pop him.

And then you finally had a knife. Well, if I have to say anything about that, just remember, I wasn't the kind of fellow, I don't think, that would have ever started viewing the world through my children's eyes. They were young. Y'all were young books, you know, this, try to raise them up in the fear of the Lord. Yeah, well, you didn't have a lot of rules.

That was for sure. But one of them is, if you fought, then you usually got a weapon. Or in this case, you just said, well, you just get out. You were teaching a little less. Okay, Dave, raise your voice to make a point. That's in. You want to get excited. You want to raise the level of your voice.

No problem. But if it comes to blows, if we're going to fight over at a conversation, that's when I step in and say, no, you cross the line. But it didn't work in the short term because we fought, Willie and I, I went two-year stretch probably where we fought every day. I mean, fisticuffs. Like how old were y'all at the time? Middle school?

10 to 12. Yeah, right before middle school. Right at the end of elementary. You know, everybody's just kind of coming in there. Evidently, you tried to stay away from me when the scuffle started. I've said many times, I'm not sure where y'all were when all this was going on. Because it was me. Every day was like a episode of the people.

We were around there. I probably was on the river. You either duck off shed or on the river. The last thing I remember was any kind of adult supervision while this was going on. But every day to me, my memories was like an episode of the Pink Panther when he would go in. He would walk into his apartment and he had hired the guy to keep him on his toes. The Asian guy, yeah. That's the way my childhood felt.

Every room I walked into, I have my head on a swivel. When I walked outside, I was looking for the trap. Well, just give you a little insight. I had thought about that in the year. The trials and tribulations of being a youngster males, y'all were four males. By the time you get 74, you really don't think about those things too much, Al, you know? No, and that's what I'm saying. I hadn't thought about it in years ago.

Y'all are still here. That's a good thing. Yeah. So, and your godly man, that's a great thing. Well, we look at it all, you know, with fondness. We weren't perfect. Even the three-mile walk. I mean, it's a story, you know.

I mean, like my room, the middle room, I remember looking around at the walls. Of course, I was getting older then. And it looked like. You were up to 13, 14. It's probably 16 or 17. Yeah. It looked like somebody had come in a gang with guns. and just sprayed the whole thing.

There were holes everywhere. And I thought, well, there's been a lot of fun. Some animal made, some man-made. Some boy made. What something was us throwing things at each other. I remember Willie one time, which I don't know where this came from, you know, when the band comes out and you have the baton twerlers. Well, we had a baton, like a regulation.

And I remember he threw that at me. Like the woman carried out the trunk. No, it's like the, you know, the ton twirl. With the rubber things on. With the rubber things on the end. Willie threw that at me one night. And I moved my head and it stuck in the bathroom door. It just went through the door.

Because the doors weren't real thick. I thought, boy, I didn't figure that thing penetrated. I remember when the- Means it was a thin wall. I remember when y'all built a fire out there in the yard, And they stuck a match to it, and it was burning. And there was some live rounds of 22 bullets in the pile. A lot of gunfire around there.

Well, and the hull, the lead, if you throw a 22 bullet in the fire, it will explode. But since it's not in a barrel, there's no loud sound to it. It's just a pop. But the lead stays, but the hull is what flies away. It becomes the projector. When it popped, when it popped, the hole came off, barely missed Jason's eye. But he put it out. And it hit him in the forehead right here.

And it just went about to hit his skull. And it traveled about that far underneath the, between the skin and the skull. So he had to have a little surgery there. The doctor cut that. It was lucky. How far was I, what? 30 yards? Yeah, he was probably.

Wait, over it. You aren't like you were standing over it. You never want to go around 22 bullets. Now, if it's shotgun shells and you accidentally dump them in the heater, we got charcoal heaters and them blinds, one of our buddies leaned over one time, and I saw two shotgun shells fall in that fire. I hollered out at them because at the time I didn't know what was fixing to happen, except I was thinking, boom, boom.

So I said, it's going to kill us all. I said, shells in the firebacker, Chails in the firebreaker, jump. And everybody hit the deck. And it was more or less just, and it was just, yeah, it just, the hall didn't even move much.

It just, it just. So the gunpowder just sizzled out, basically. Fizzle out because you put it in a barrel, hit the, what do they call it? Yeah, the whole, the hot plate. The primary. Primary. Well, you know, you put that inside of a barrel or something.

It can't go but one way out your barrel. Right. But there it just sort of fizzes and that's it. Of course, we all looked up and I said, whew. I said, well, I learned something there. It's okay to drop them in a fire, fire in the bucket. I said, I thought I was getting ready for an explosion, no explosion. So Jace was the one that always, he was out of all of our injuries and fighting and a lot of sports, basketball, people getting hurt.

Jason was the only one that ever had to make multiple hospital trips. For whatever reason, yours were always more severe. Your arm got broke. Broke both bones. Yeah, I know. And stay down here a couple days. Oh, yeah, it was a while until that got back. I was gone, and when I walked in, Ms. Kay said, Jace hurt his arm.

I think he's not sprained. Yeah, I think he just sprained his arm. He'll be okay. I said, bring it over. Look at me. And he had it laid up on a pillow. Yeah, he goes up there and I look at it. I said, it's broken, probably in a couple of places.

He's taken to the doctor. They said, what? I said, his arm is broken, take him to the doctor. They said, can we wait until Dallas goes off again? I noticed. We'll watch the rest of this show? I said, no. I said, get him up bad and get it, get him again, let him say.

Dad was looking there for you days. You might know. My diagnosis was on the spot quick. It was. And the doctor went. You've seen enough sports injuries. You knew, right? Well, the doctor went, which I thought was a bad sign.

He said, I'm going to have to re-break that. which is not something a kid wants to hear. Yeah, you don't hear re-break. He's not good. How come it took his alone to get up here? I said my dad was out of town. And Granny claimed to be a nurse. Misdiagnosis here.

If there was quite a bit of blood, or injuries like that where there's swelling and there's, they brought him to me, and I would look at them. Well, there wasn't any swelling. I'm not a doctor. I don't play one on TV, but I know. I know.

my bones. When this finger, it's like sticking straight up, those I would say, let me see here. And I would get them. And whoever it happened to was not ready for this, but I'd look around, you know, as if his mama was looking, you know, football players on the field, you know, I would go. I'd say, let's see what here. And I said, now give me some tape. And look, I would take tape them together and tape them together.

Dislocation, yeah. I said, get back out there, boy. And we had a feel like that. My bone, he said that your bone stick, that's your bone. Because it was, it was, I mean, it wasn't just like broken. It was broken. You remember that time, Jay's we were sitting in the living, I think we were folding duck call boxes, and I picked up a shotgun shell.

It wasn't a hole. And so Jason was sitting over there, and I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I thought I'd just, you know, near missing, but I just lobbed that thing across the room. Right on the top of the head. You got your butt. Oh, way, Dad just gave me, Dad was sitting right by me. He just gave me the head pop. You know, dad had the little pop across the back of the head. You idiot? What, you? I mean, and you were right.

I mean, it was just like, I didn't mean for it to be a direct hit, but it was a, because Jason's rolling around. Now, by this time, the audience is saying, it doesn't sound like y'all were taught a lot about love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness. It was just raising boys. We were mischievous. In the woods down here. There was a little mischief from time to time. But it wasn't, yeah, it wasn't like, you're right. I mean, it wasn't like we were, we just felt like that's the way we treated each other.

You know, but I never treated anybody else that way. No, I didn't either. It was just like my brothers were all my enemies until I got 18, and then they all turned out to be my best friends. That's exactly right. But when we were kids, we weren't friends. We weren't. I mean, it was a fight.

It was a fight. There was no, I never looked at them like, boy, you know, I love my brother. No. You brought up a good point. So it begs the question when you're reaching maturity, boys is all I know. I didn't raise any girls. That would have been nightmarish. And Phyllis came way late to the game.

So, you know, however she got raised, but I had nothing to do with her rearing. It was 45 before I ever met the moment. But with sons, it does give you a little insight about the human being's sinful nature. You know, you get up there about when it's time that you're accountable, which on up and whatever. Whenever that kicks in. Late junior high, I've always thought, as it rules, it varies with the individual. But when you get up in the sinning years, you know, you don't realize, well, what a struggle that is

and how people can, how that's handled and how that's. And how they can... But it's a perfect accidental segue segue to what we're going to talk about today. We'll talk about what we're going to talk about. Hang on, let's take a break. We were in John 17 the last time.

And the only thing section, because he prayed for himself, which we talked about that, and he prayed for all the believers. But we really didn't talk about him praying for his disciples. But what I found fascinating, just looking at this from big picture is he was proud of his disciples and he mentions them in that way he says i pray for them like in verse 9 of 17 for those you have given me for they are yours

all i have is yours and all you have is mine and glorious come to me through them i mean so he's acting like he's proud of him i will remain in the world no longer but they are still in the world and I'm coming to you, protect them by the power of your name. So then he says, while I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name. None has been lost except the one deemed, which we know that was Judas. But here's what I was going to say. Well, let me read that next verse. He says, I'm going to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy.

within them. What I found fascinating, they're all fixed to turn away from him. And he knows that. And it made me realize that just kind of what you said about us being boys, I mean, we were, we did a lot of rotten things, especially with each other.

But it's almost like God sees us to compare it to a crop would be like he sees this. As soon as the corn, you know, pops out of the ground and just the green just a green leaf he's seeing later on when that thing's going to mature and see the ear

it is written he said I determine the end from the beginning that's one of the texts I read the other day I determined the end from the beginning right

he's looking long I've already forgotten where it was I think it was Isaiah 40 or somewhere in Ellis. But it's the right point. It's why that verse says, while we were sinners,

Christ died for us, and he knows our heart. And he's being so proud of his disciples, and the next chapter, which we'll get into, you know, Peter denies him three times. Well, which is horrible.

What he says is, remember this, fix it in your mind, Isaiah 45, about verse seven or eight there eight remember this fix it in your mind take it to heart you rebels y'all were pretty good little rebels remember the former things those of long ago i'm god there is no weather i'm god there's none like me i make known the end from the beginning and he's talking about

his whole apparatus to get jesus here yeah observe his behavior it's a valid what he had to say what he did what he's going to do. What he's saying, he says, from ancient times, what is still to come, it's 700 years before Jesus. I say,

this is God talking, my purpose will stand. Well, everybody at the sound of my voice who's hearing my voice right now, what you do is you go back into your concordance and you look up

purpose because everything was purposed in Christ everything centered around that in fact he says that in Ephesians

while you're there jace so while you're looking that up while you're looking that up I'm going to make a point about that because a lot of people are new to Bible study they're listening to a podcast

because I talk to so many of you when he says a concordance you can buy a study Bible this has what's called a concordance so if you see a word in a text you can look over in the margin or look it up in the back of the Bible

and find other verses that use that word. It's a really good study tool to help you see in context what some of these words mean. I use it every day. I do too. And that's why we use these Thompson Chain Bibles. A lot of you ask about the Bibles we use

it's because they have a really good concordance in the margin. So it helps you just study the whole Bible in one big picture as opposed to just going into one verse. So that's what Dad was talking about. Do you find it? Yeah, I'll find it. keep our well what I was going to say is a lot of people

filling here a lot of people they don't realize you know a lot of times that I brought people to our assembly or what people say to church which the church they're members of Christ you know Ephesians 5 he went through the marriage

illustration but then he said I'm talking about the church and Jesus a lot of people have been uncomfortable and especially, you know, Phil has brought people who when you look at them, now they're fresh out of the world. Tattoos, earrings, just look, rut. And wild, wild stories. Wild-eyed.

It makes people uncomfortable. But you got to remember the reason we're bringing up something like this, you know, I remember being young and dumb and stupid. And we just talked about it. But here are people that we've shared Jesus to, and they look rough around the edges. And look, let's face it, they've been up to no good. And we're not looking at where they've been. We know what they've been doing.

Some of your audience is in that situation as we speak. Oh, there's no doubt. You know, and I'm not looking at that on my own. I just realized that Jesus looks at you from that perspective. effective. And there's a difference in struggling and continuing to do evil. These disciples went through a big struggle in that their Lord and Savior, the one they're following, granted they didn't see the big picture, but I guarantee you we wouldn't have either if a guy comes down from heaven saying, hey, I'm not from here. I'm from another place. I guarantee all three of us would be like,

yeah, right, what you've been smoking? Now, you've wrote up an interesting point because I found the text I was looking for. Ephesians 1. God shows us in Him Jesus before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. It's all going to sit around Jesus in accordance with the pleasure of his will to the praise of his glorious grace. He's freely given us and the one he loves. this is before the world i'm i'm i'm telling you the end before the end gets here i'm telling you from beginning in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins and accords with the riches of god's grace which he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding he made known to us

us the apostles the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ. So someone would say when? To be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment. During the days of the Roman Empire, is when God chose to intervene personally by becoming flesh, Jesus. To bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. Now, what's this?

Now, that's one, purposed in Christ. In him, we were also. chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything, in conformity with the purpose of his will. That's twice. In order that, we who were the first to hope in Christ, think about it. Before Jesus died, it was buried and raised from the dead. Al, all of what we're talking about 2,000 years later was a mystery.

I mean, they didn't know, not even the evil one. We were the first hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. And then he says, and you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed you were marked in him with a seal. So it went from a mystery to the unveiling of the mystery with the appearance of Jesus, what he did, what he's now doing at the right end of God. it went from Jesus is coming as Jay says Genesis through Malachi Jesus is here

uh-oh big chains coming Satan's fixed to be driven out the power of Satan is fixed to be thwarted by the spirit of God given to you if you put your faith in him what he did his death the burial resurrection so now they're here and now I'm saying to you the audience now we're 2,000 years in if you don't have it yet, you should have gotten it by now or you better move quickly because this is a one-time event that's not going to happen again.

Don't miss it. It's in or out, in or out, take it or leave it. Hang on, Jason. Let's take a break. Well, I wanted to read the second section of that, his prayer for his disciples, to go along with Phil saying, he says, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world. Here in this is verse 15. 15, but that you protect them from the evil one, which is when you think about it.

We're at the starting point of the king. It's how they respond to what's fixing to happen. All his disciples responded favorably, eventually, except Judas. Of course, he had already betrayed him, and he could have said, you know what, I blew it, I messed up. No, he went out there and killed himself. Yeah. And he actually did that before Jesus died for him. And let me say something before you read that next verse.

That's a good application even today. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. Sometimes in Christianity, in modern times especially, the idea is we have to retreat. Everything's about retreat to a place of safety where, you know, we can't be impacted by evil. But you get the idea here from this text. That's not what he says we're supposed to do while we're here. You're going to be beat up.

You're going to be confused. You're going to be mistrial. You've got to be in the mix. So look, look, how many, there were just one who made it out of there alive as far as physical death. I'm not being martyred. Of the disciples, that's right. You said, John was the only one that actually died of old age, I guess, but all the rest of them were slaughtered. But you say that.

Fast forward 2,000 years, and they said, well, now what they started, we have to take it while we're here until we either are, killed or we die of old age. Who knows what it'll be. That's exactly right. Whatever it is, how we just push forward. But I think God, I mean, this, we're chasing a rabbit here, but I think

God just kept John from dying to Mars death because he said, yeah, said that. Because when I read the history, now this was not in the Bible, but in the historical evidence, they had like, he was bold seven different times and.

Oh, he went through a lot. He had a lot. Yeah, I mean, they're like. But he didn't come out done. Well, he survived. Can you imagine what he looked like? But you know, which, by the way,

part of the reason why I know that's true is because John really got the last word, you know, Revelation was most scholars, but it was pretty much the last thing that you see. When was Revelation written? 90. Probably around 90. And so everybody else was already long down.

90 AD, friends. So everybody else was long gone. but John still had that last purpose. You know, he had to speak that message because what was happening with the Romans and all that stuff was all. That was Jesus giving him revelation personally. That's exactly right.

Well, I think, you brought up a good point. A lot of people, when it gets tough, you know, they pray, just take me out of the world. Take me now, Lord. Yeah. And, I mean, he basically said the opposite. He said, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil.

While they're in there scrapping. Because he's going to get to the point on why here in just a second, because he says, they are not of the world, even as I'm not of it. Sanctify them or set them apart. Different translations have, in my, when you see a little letter by a word, it'll give you an alternate. Definition. Yeah, definition. Especially the Greek word.

It says set apart for sacred use or made holy. Set them apart, sanctify them by the truth. your word is truth as you sent me into the world this is the point i wanted to get to i have sent them into the world for them i sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified here's what my point is he's saying i've sent them out of the world but he's overlooking what's fixed to happen right they're all fixed and abandoning which seems and he told him that remember at the end of 16 he said you're about to scatter You're going to be in your homes.

You're going to leave me. Shows you the frailty of one's faith. I mean, even theirs, they would have been ridden. By the way, guys, just so you'll know, I'm 74. You say, your time is drawing nigh, as they say. Yeah, he may give me 90, who knows, 80. Might give me 100, might give me one. But you say, because of the current events and what's happened,

and these Marxism, we're on our way to a Marxist, totalitarian nation for the first time in our history for sure. Look, things are coming, and for the ones who follow Jesus faith with what we're doing right now, I'm going to tell you, boy, some, I don't know whether I might be able to see it because it's in the next, let's just go with the next four years.

But you're all going to see some things, We've taken it for granted. We could get out and holler about Jesus and all that, get a little persecution. No big deal. But it's fixing to get rude for everybody who follows Jesus. I'm just telling you all that, be ready. No, I think you're right.

And it's interesting because the mantle is fixed to be handed to us 2,000 years later. And the point here in the prayer, if you think about what Jason was talking about, you can't sanctify yourself. He's praying to God. This is a big mistake people make. they think, oh, well, I can be holy just because I'm doing the right thing or I'm doing this or I'm going to do it myself. But that's his point.

You can't be set apart and made holy unless Jesus is the one doing it. And that's why he prays for that. Listen to what Peter said in 1st Peter 1. When he started. Now, this is interesting because Peter wrote this, and Peter was a part of this group that's listening. He said, to God's elect, strangers in the world. So he's quoting what Jesus said. We're not up the world.

scattered throughout Pontchus Galatia, and he lists all these places, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Christ Jesus and the sprinkling of his blood. I can tell you right off the bat that I've been called worse names than a little strange. Exactly. Exactly. So the point is, Jesus is in you, the Holy Spirit is the way that happens. Literally, he's in you, and you're in him. Mary said, the Father's in me.

I'm in the Father. I'm in you. So this is how it works. So when he left here, that's why I told him, he said, the Holy Spirit is going to, I'm going to roll him out for you, and then he's going to live in you.

And what his work is, according to Peter and 1st Peter 1st, is to sanctify you, to set you apart, to make you hold. In the world. So then we represent, that's why 1st Corinthians 5, or 2 Corinthians 5, The second of his vows, says,

we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. Right. What I wanted to pick up on, though, is Jesus sees your potential, even while we're, we do dumb things. I mean, here he just prays that he's going to send them out in the world, he's going to set them apart,

his power is going to work in them, and Peter denies him. He does the exact opposite. The point being that he's, what he's supposed to do, and he also, when you're, you throw in Matthew 26, remember when it says Jesus was being led to his trial, it said Peter followed at a distance.

I've heard sermons on that, which is a very good spiritual application to that. But what the point was, God was faithful to him, even when he followed out a distance, even when he denied him, he saw the potential of what was going to happen. Just don't beat yourself up to the point where you follow you. Here's my point. Hang on, Dad. Let's take a break. My point is you don't have to, you shouldn't think of yourself unless you're a hall of faith.

You're in the hall of faith. Yeah. And you're some kind of faithful giant. He's saying, don't get down on yourself. Just do your job. You don't have to be a mental giant. Just go out and do the work of the kingdom. And hang in there.

It may be just encouraging others. It may be preaching the gospel. it may be helping out your neighbor or being generous. It's got all these different gifts that the Spirit gives you, and you all work together as one, and there'll be people that always be proclaimers, and they'll be the ones, the teachers and the pastors, but the rank and file person should not think,

look at these guys. I mean, they all hit the road. You know, sometimes when I'm in a conversation with someone, you know, a lot of people, I'll tell them. I was like, you need to get your faith out of the church. church building and go out here and like what we're talking about let god sanctify you and set you apart represent jesus and but some stories i hear on what people are going through are so rough that i've said many times i said my advice would be to hang in there at this stage of your life

just don't quit and i i think of like incidents like this it's okay to struggle to be immature to make mistakes because God knows our heart. Just don't give up. The ones who were with Jesus made plenty of them. Well, that's the point here. I mean, Jesus was proud of them, even though they were just fixed to go through their lowest moment of abandoning. And he knew that.

We're all fallible men. But the point is you don't quit just because you get confused. You don't know what direction you're supposed to head, which is what happened to them. If their leader dies on the earth, most, I guess every movement but Jesus is, that pretty much ended that long term. It's been my studied opinion, Al, that probably the bigger problem in today's culture, instead of like the fear of the authorities and all that, which we're fixing to come down on us,

probably the bigger problem, it seems to me that Christianity nationwide, probably worldwide, I would think more nationwide in America. Let's just look at America. you say the bigger problem, I would say, is just boredom. Yeah. It's just boredom. They go in there and they drive up to the church building on Sunday morning. They're about half asleep. They may be dreaming about fishing or doing something else.

And they're looking at their watch. That was the song. I told Phil. They're looking at their watch trying to say, when's this thing going in? When can I get down to the... That's like, boredom is a killer. When can I get down to the Piccadilly? When it comes to Jesus.

I told Phil now when I walk in. then my son sent me a song from Trace Atkins. I don't know if it's a new song or an old song because I don't really listen to country music much. But it's a country song. And the tagline of it was, I'd rather be on a lake with my mind on God, fishing and his creation,

than in a church building, thinking about fishing. It's a very clever song. That's kind of what I'm alluding to. Which makes people who leadership in churches, it makes them angry when a song comes out of that. Because they're like, what are you saying? But we all know the problems. When you're dealing with flawed people, with flawed organizations, even though, you know, we should meet.

I'm all for, it's not good for a man to be alone. We do all. We all meet. Yeah, we meet with the brothers. But the point is what you said, if your life is in Christ, you know, is limited to what you do at a church bill? Well, boredom is what's going to happen. If you want some excitement, go out there and start declaring Jesus in public.

Trust me when I tell you, it's excitement. I don't even know whether that's a good word to describe it, but that's... Well, you're what's interesting about that, Jay's. It's really the coronavirus has really helped open my eyes more to that, because I'm obviously been involved in being there on Sunday and trying to motivate and encourage people to listen to the word. I spent most of my life doing that. But since coronavirus, if I'm gone,

Lisa and I are down at our condo, we're on the beach, I plug in. We're singing songs. We're watching our guys back home. And then I'm looking out of the ocean. And then, you know, we start having spiritual conversations. I thought, you know, we encountered God because we took time to give him glory

and sing some praises to him and have a good season conversation. Who's the old comedian? You don't have to be said that. Hey, I got the coronavirus. I haven't been in church in a month. Because I just thought, well, I don't want to, you know, even though it's been the 14 days or whatever, I don't even take the chance and get out there.

Who was the old comedians talking about a tough crowd? Rodney Dangerfield. You know, Rodney Dangerfield. Ooh, tough crowd. Tough crowd. James, have you ever run up on a tough crowd? Oh, life's been a tough crowd. I wanted to skip ahead, though.

Something about Jesus and his personality, he says, and we'll cover it. more in depth when we get to it. But in chapter 18 and verse 20, when he was being interrogated, he said, I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple where all Jews come together. And I like this one statement.

He said, I said nothing in secret. And I just thought about how many religious organizations, how many times there's a lot being said in secret, which is not beneficial. Trust me. I mean, it's a little back room, you know, sister, so-and-so, brother, so-and-so,

here and there and young. But isn't that nice that Jesus, he didn't hide anything? Everything he said and did in the religious world, he did it in public. You didn't have to wonder what he was thinking. And he didn't pick sides or choose. It was just out there.

And I just think if we adopted that in our church settings, it would be way better off. It just occurred to me. I out to looking at just the memory of preaching the gospel through the years. I've never concocted a sermon whereby I was preaching to a group of my brothers and sisters, and I was really wanting to get money out of them. I've never concocted a sermon whereby I wanted to elicit. some money coming from them.

I just never, I never, been down. Good job. Good job. That's the way you should have. I've said that for years. I was like, I don't know. I mean, I all might have been in a meeting or two back when I was an intern, but I remember I used to rail on that.

I'm like, if you get people who are in love with Jesus, you ain't got to worry about them giving. That's right. That's part of it. When you do a six-week sermon series on giving, you know what my mind's on? Fishing. I'm not listening to this. You're like Tracy's asking,

let's take one last break. Where I am now, Al, is in a situation where we tell our brothers and sisters, look, we're going to remember Jesus. We're going to drink his blood and partake of his body. I'll give you a few words at a minute

and we'll be out of here. I said, but the bottom line is, I don't want you thinking we're not going to pass the plate. We're not going to pass the bucket, whatever. where you put money into it. I said, we'll get the lights paid around here.

We have to do that. I said, there's a box back there in the back bolted to the floor. Got a little slit in it. If you want to put anything in it, go ahead. I said, but as far as me telling you, you've got to go.

You're tithing it. So because of your particular crowd, Dad, is that why that's bolted to the floor? You might have a couple in there that may want to just take it with it. And a lot of people may misunderstand. I mean, you help.

Like one of my bodyguards, who's a SWAT policeman told me, he said, Robinson, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but half your congregation, I've arrested them. Which I left. That's what I was going to say? So what do you think now? And he said, y'all are actually doing better than we were.

Because all we do is arresting. We don't have time to point them to Jesus, but y'all are on the other end. I said, we're all working together here, man. So I want to intro one thought, unless you had something else. No, I was just going to get you to define that. being, you know, sanctification is a big church word. It's a big Bible word.

And a lot of people, when they hear that, they just immediately say, what? So I was trying to, I was going to ask you, what are some clever ways to define that? Well, to make holy is the little meaning of the Greek word, to make holy. And which is why I said that, it's not, only God can do that.

Well, right. So remember, we can't sanctify. Of course, the world will look upon that. Let's face it, as a little strange. Yeah. Well, then you have a lot of other words, justification, which you see a lot in Romans, which is Jesus died to justify our sins to be. Basically, those are words sometimes.

You're viewed as sinless. Sinless. But Jesus is praying to God, sanctify them. Right. So he's saying, and keep them from evil, protect them. So he's like, set them apart because I'm sending them out. Right. So if you get that in your mind, you say, what do we do today?

Well, God set us apart. Yep. And we got a job today. That's right. And we do it every day like he did. And despite the times we blow it, despite the times we blow it as far as not making the most of the opportunity. Like Peter, I'm referring to Peter, his three upcoming denials and falling out of distance. Because it's easy since we know the end of the story.

Well, Peter became a monster in a good way. for the faith. That is correct. I mean, he became a warrior. But in this moment, not a warrior. But Jesus was still, I just think that if people can grab a hold of that where they don't have to,

you're not going to come out of the water necessarily a warrior. You're going to have to take some jabs and some hits, and sometimes you're just going to have to hang in there. And this could be what would happen to you. The last few verses in the book of John, John 21, Jesus is talking about verse, what is it, verse 18 or so. Peter, he said to Peter, feed my sheep. I tell you the truth, he's talking to Peter, Jesus is.

When you were younger, Peter, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted, whatever direction you wanted to go. But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you, you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would be, would glorify God. Then he said to him, follow me. You got a rough death coming on there, dude.

Just think about that. Just think about God in flesh telling one of his followers, Al. Yep, younger, you got up and did what you wanted to do. But Peter, I got news for you. there come a time and they're going to tie you up and they're going to drag you off out there and secular history says old peter died a rough death uh jason yeah well and um you're right and so i'm preaching this sunday so i've been studying all week in this section we're in actually a little later in 18 when they actually came to get him and it was really interesting so i want to kind

of close this out with this verse this is the this is the basis for my sermon sunday in this scene and it's not in John, but it's in Luke's version of what happens here. Let me read it to you, and so I'll tell you what my sermon is. Where are you on Luke? I'm teasing. Luke 22, 52. So this is the moment when they're coming to arrest him. Judas is there.

Jesus said to the chief priest, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come for them. So it's a big crew. Hundreds of people have shown up, and they got lanterns and weapons. Kind of something out of a movie. Yeah, it reminded me like, go, go get the, the monster. Exactly.

So he said, am I leading a rebellion that you come at me with swords and clubs? You know, he kind of, it's funny because you just kind of listen to

say, whoa, boy, they brought out the whole crew here, you know? This is like the police coming to shut down Thanksgiving. That's exactly right. Knock your doors in once we talked about last day.

So here's my sermon thought. Of course, it'll be out of the book of John. Every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me. Imagine what they were thinking when he said that.

He said, I was teaching you guys just last week. He's looking at all these people. Then he says, and here's my sermon, but this is your hour when darkness rains. I mean, that's a powerful statement. My sermon is called the doorway to darkness. And so the whole idea is that when you reject truth,

because it's about the conversation you have with pilot, when you reject truth, darkness is just a doorway waiting for you to walk through it. Pilate's words was, what's true? What is truth? That's exactly. What is true? Should I asked who.

That's right. Yeah. That's why he didn't get it. That's right. Because Jesus said, I am the truth. Yeah. He's looking at him. And he's like, what is truth?

If he had asked who, it might have popped into his head. And you know what was interesting? That's where we are now. I'm fixing to write a whole book on it about it. Exactly. So I was thinking of... In our last podcast, we talked about that. What's interesting about this context that I'm going to dive into Sunday is that pilot,

first the Jewish leadership and then pilot, And then Pilate even sent Jesus to Herod, who was the tetrarch of Galilee. They tried to solve this uprising problem with politics. You know, because you get Pilots the Roman guy. This is the other guy. These are the Jewish leaders. But they never understood who Jesus was. All right.

But Al, it would be hard to take him seriously. I mean, because they're like what politicians do, especially bad ones, or any kind of government, you know, if you get somebody, who's causing an uproar, when in the end, you can just take him out. Right. That ends at. Who's going to care about some old carpenter in Galilee? Would our politicians, 2,000 years later, would they know who Jesus is?

I have no idea. How do they have the same response? Same problem, same response. That's exactly right. And he missed it. The problem they had was, is that God had been prepping them for this moment for thousands of years. I mean, there were prophecies, there were pictures, this is the guy, and then who gets here,

and he looked at it. All of his purpose was right here. It was right there. I feel like though when you read all the trials and all the conversations he had, they felt a little bit like, this guy's not a threat. He's crazy. That's what they thought. And they sent, there was some sympathy. That's why I think they didn't want to kill him. Because they're like, he's nuts. He don't even think he's from here. Except though what was interesting was until he got a crowd of people together, which I thought about our current climate, until he got a crowd of people together, until he got a crowd of people together

that became a mob and said crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. Yeah, and they say, he says he's some kind of king. They're like, a king. Is that the one walking around out of the woods camping out all that? I've got these rag-tag people with him. He's what? Some kind of king, and they're like, king.

He's no king. All right, so next week when we come back, we'll pick up on this time. I want to say one other thing. I'll tell you how the sermon went. The first time I read this, John 17 and 18, and all the trials, what stood out to me in a practical way is I need to make sure I'm on the right side of this. Yeah.

Big time. I'm telling you. We all do. All right. We'll see you next. Hey, we've got fellas coming up on our next podcast. And Tony, you get to meet her husband, Tony, so we're excited about that. We'll see you next time.

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