Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 217 | Phil Checks Out Fireball Videos, Why There Are Atheists, and Do You Need to Be Rebaptized?

Episode Date: January 31, 2021

Phil doesn't remember ever running out of gas, but Jase sure does, and it reminds him of how he used to siphon gas for Phil. Al recalls the last time he burned an egg carton. And speaking of burning things, for a guy who doesn't own a cellphone, Phil knows a lot about viral explosion videos. Jase is not a fan of churches that will only baptize you if you "join." The guys also talk about the world's sorriest gas cans, and they answer two audience questions: Why did God put atheists on the Earth, and do you need to be baptized again if you fall away from your walk with God?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? His company, it's almost worth a trillion dollars. Do you really think he cares now? Well, and you're right, he's as big as a government because he's got his own space thing going. Like, you know, he's firing rockets off to put satellites up. I mean, before nobody had enough money to do that. Only the government had enough money, but now this guy. Well, a member of our family, bought one, bought a car. I was like, well, I got to know.

She was like, well, it was great until I ran out of juice. And then she goes off into a story of pulling over and unplugging an ice machine and trying to plug her car into the ice machine. The story got long. Yeah. But I said, so eventually what happened? She said, I'll call somebody and said, I can't. I'm either walking or.

So the electric vehicle was also. but you got to have stations you have a you need some battery charging apparatus to maintain the new world well i know i know one thing they don't i mean they don't make a sound they just whist by you and they're really fast too they i mean i mean i like the concept but you know you can't be where you're walking that that we're going to have you ever run out of gas in a vehicle i have once I never have you ever run out again? I can't remember if I did.

I've never run out of that. I did once and I think it's something you should only do once. Yeah, that's right. Because now I fill it up. Now my wife, she did it once and every time I get in her vehicle, she'll just put a little bit in. I was like, well, let's you just fill it up because you're going to run out again. She said, I will never run out again.

And I said, why are you saying that? She said, because you talked about that for two years. Why? Until you ran out. Oh, you ask a fair question. Well, then I ran out, so I couldn't say anything. But here's why I ran. I'm going to just tell you why I ran out.

I pulled up the technology on my vehicle. It was right when I bought my last truck, the camouflage one, every one, which I just sold. And it said that I had 28 miles to go. I had it. You can put it on your screen. Yeah. So it was like 48, but all of a sudden I had gone like a mile and it went from 48 to like 44. It's like, what just happened here?

Then it hit 28 and it won't. So I had a good excuse. The technology. Your computer lied to you. It lied to me. I'm shocked. Yeah, that's a shocker. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have told you that.

Yeah. That sends you down a downward spiral even more. Well, you know. Another reason not to fool with that. When Alex was in high school, well now she was in college, my youngest, she had a mini Cooper. Have you ever seen those little bitty cars like was on the Italian Joe? Anyway, a little small car, not much bigger in this table. And but it had a, so it, I didn't realize this when we bought the car.

You know, I asked questions, sometimes it comes back to Hodge you. So the car was designed. It had two gas tanks in it and some kind of a, some kind of a ridge line in between the two tanks. so you really only had half a tank and half a tank and then there was a pump that pump gas over in from the one that had it into the other one well you think about that's a bad setup because with the pump goes out guess what you think you got a full tank of gas you only got half a tank of gas just quit on her so she was down south on some long stretch you know one of them's long stretches i10 down there and she can't figure out since the car says it has half a tank of gas so she's calling me crying you know she's calling jays girl and we finally got it in. They looked at it and they told me about this pump. I said, that's the worst design I've ever heard. Because your car says you have half a tank of gas.

But that pump went out. So you're having to pump gas into the other. One tank's all you need and you keep it out. That's exactly right. It's relatively high rate. I noticed this morning, Phil, the first thing he did was putting gas at that motor. And they now, they say it's because of safety issues.

They have gas cans that you cannot pour gas out of. That's right. It's the safest one ever built. You can't get the guy. It's just sitting there in. These are the sorriest pieces of junk. They're terrible. Why did this happen in our world?

Is it regulation? Is it some kind of global warming deterrent? Probably somebody had an accident because they poured out of some gas, caught on fire. Somebody got sued. Who knows? I mean, but you're right. That's a whole section of what people do with five gallons of gas. They stand up as show this redneck he gets up there, and he pours the entire five gallons of gasoline on top of a mound of debris.

Ooh. And he gets down, throws his can, the empty can, he throws it over there. He walks down there, and they had their cell phone on all. Countdown, four, three, two. And when he lit that, all of all you see. solve. It was a fireball. A fireball.

He disappears in it. He's coughing. Then we heard you kept hearing, you're all right? You're all right? I mean, it was an explosion. Where did you see this? Oh, Dan showed me one after the other. There's a whole section of DEDs don't ever do.

But they keep doing it. So you are actually looking at the internet occasionally. He walked over there and said, look at this. And I looked down. I said, what is it? He said these people are pouring gasoline on wood and then they're just lighting them five, ten gallons of gas. Oh, listen, it went all the way out around the head. It drained out.

I mean, it was dangerous. I don't know whether they lived or died, but it was pathetic to walks. Well, probably they lived or it wouldn't have been on there, I would guess. He knows with our world. I'm not sure why we're even talking about this. I don't either. Well, he started out with electric cars. How do people run out of gas?

Well, why do people put five to ten gallons of gasoline on top of a pile of wood and think they're going to light it without getting burned up? I mean... But it seems like the resurrection would be more appealing based on what I'm hearing. Some of that's just ignorant. See, the scar right here? So I was like a little boy, and I was lighting egg cartons. You know, egg cartons is kind of mad at that spongy plastic.

This may be awkward, but where were the parents? who knows. So I'm lighting up where the fire would drop out. It was fire. So I was pulling my hand. Molten, molten plastic. And I was doing the old, can I get my hand out of the way fast enough while the drops are there? You're trying to get burned in a dumb way.

So, of course, one hits me right here. And I mean, just sizzled down, felt like it burned into the bone. I'm running around, screaming and crying. And I was like, why did I? Why would you do that? You know, as you go that? I've never forgotten. You can't let them do it.

That's called a redneck tattoo. That's right. And there it is. All these years, like 50 years later, there it is. Put your little ink in there and you got it. But what gets me is, I mean, I was five or six years old and didn't know any better. Of course, guess what? I've never burned one since.

That's right. That's how you typically do. Well, I used to siphon gas out of vehicles. Look, at my parents' command. It wasn't that I did it This man here said Go get some gas out of that blue truck And I was looking around

You know I've seen dad's happening He said cut a piece of that water hose off Of the water hose we're using This is a one and done He said Make sure that when you suck on that hose You get it out quick

And he's like It's got to be below Because the first time I did it, I had the tank above. Yeah. And I was like, this thing won't work. It's like, it's gravity. Gravity. Forget the dangers of that.

How am I still alive? I hadn't thought about siphoning gas in years, but you used to siphon it all the time, moving it from one vehicle to the other. They say now you can't do it. They have some way. I'm sure you can. If you can't pour it out of a can, I'm sure you can't saffing it out of a tank. They shut that down.

They're trying to curtail, you know, stupid redneck tricks. Oh, man. It reminds me of the verse where that Acts 4, where it says they were unschooled, ordinary men. But, hey, Jesus makes you smart. Jesus makes you smart. That's exactly right. So I thought today we'd do a few questions from our audience.

Okay. We have not seen these before. We've not seen them. So this is literally off the cuff. We get our first reactions here. I thought the first one is, well, let me just read to. This is anonymous, I don't know who sent it.

Why do you think God put atheists on the earth? Then the follow-up was, do you think it was to see how committed we are to converting people to Christianity? Well, you just went straight off into the deep end. He didn't put atheists on the earth. There's something called what you're going to choose. Do you choose God, the God of heaven?

or do you deny the God of heaven and choose some other thing. Right. So it's just a... Yeah, you're not born atheists. You're free to choose God or not choose God. Where's the verse says, choose this day, whom you will serve? Where's that day? I'm on it.

I think you're talking about Joshua. Joshua 24, maybe. Joshua 15th. Well, you're right, Dad. Which was the whole point. You're right now, Joshua 2415. Yeah. Read that.

Choose whom, let's see. Now, therefore, fear of the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness, put away the gods of your fathers. If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your father served in the region. You know, and then it's a famous line. Yeah. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He makes his choice. I mean, we believe, you know, Psalm 119 that when David was reflecting in that Psalm 119,

where he said that you created my inmost being, you knitted me together in my mother's womb, it's in that realm, Psalm 119, Psalm 120, somewhere in there. So we believe that we're made in the image of God, innocent. if God is 100% perfect, holy, and true, his creation would be that way too. He is incapable of evil, unbelief.

He creates life. In that creation, there is a process working with our brain where you choose. That's why if someone has some sort of mental illness, you know,

we view them as more, safe like an innocent kid because they don't have the ability to discern and even our court system and governments acknowledge that this was the whole you know used to people thought people that were insane they had a evil spirit or whatever and then later it was like well it's actually then we'll lock them up and treat them but we're not going to hold them responsible for their decision-making process because there's some wires have have crossed Right. So that's what I would say.

I think once you go through puberty, if you read any list of sins and the Bible's full of them, take Galatians 519 for an example, when you go through that list of sins, sexual immorality, you know, factions, envy, when you look at a little kid, you're not seeing the concept of sin. Now maybe right and wrong,

disobedience, you know, don't put your hand on the fire. you know, discipline, punishment, but they're not able to discern evil. But once you start noticing the opposite sex, you go through puberty, you get it. There's a rebellion that occurs through the decision-making process. Well, some people, in an effort to justify

the way they want to live their life, you have to alienate yourself from a God who sets up a moral system. Right. So that's what I believe. This would be the easiest one. John 716, if my teaching is not my own, it comes from him who sent me, if, and it's the biggest if of your life, if anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching

comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself. But he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth. There's nothing false in him. But the bottom line is, if anyone chooses a lot of people have chosen not to do God's will. Right. A lot of people. And not to believe. And they come up with all kinds of scenarios where they're right. You know, here's what we believe, you know, and there is no God. Right. And, you know, it got to be of the large explosion. People choose to believe that. Which is in itself a belief system.

Let's take a quick break. Well, I hate to fast forward because I think when we get to Acts 17, which is top three chapters in the Bible for me. But he explains in his sermon, Paul, who God is, who the living God is. And in that explanation, he says, he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything

because he gives all men life, breath, and everything else from one man. He made all nations of men that they should live on the earth and he determines the time set for him and the exact places where they should live. But the key verse is the next one. God did this.

This whole plan of each person being in the time slot that they were. He did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him. So I believe

there is a longing inside every person on the earth to find God. Now whether you decide to dismiss that or suppress that longing, which is then why people who do surrender to God, it is then their

responsibility to be used by God to share with others who have decided not to pursue God. Then when you tie in the Romans 1, which I don't think is is point in Romans 1, but you can make the practical application in that based on what has been made, all men are without excuse. His divine power and divine nature and eternal power have been clearly seen.

He needs to realize the person who asked that question, that there's been a mighty throng of one-time atheists who've in fact changed their mind. Yeah. He's kind of saying it's like it's beyond you're done. Not really. There's been a lot of atheists who, after a number of years, have studied in the Bible. Well, a lot of them. Seeing if there was a flood or not.

A lot of them were trying to disprove the Bible in God and wound up being converted. And I got news for you. There's multiple examples in the Bible and in real life where God uses people who do not believe in him to do his will. That's true. His power. Acts 4 says that. Clearly, he used Pilate and Herod to do what. what his power and his will was determined to do beforehand.

Yep. And then you got the Romans 9 and 10 where it says, if God wants to make some people for a noble purpose and some for, how do you say that? Ignoble. So be it, who are we to, as Clay, to blame the potter? Yeah, the molder. The motor. I mean, okay, you had a chance.

You had a shot. But I'm of the opinion that every person that will surrender to God, he creates a circumstance, some kind of encounter, where he uses people like us to share Jesus. I just believe that. I believe there's a grid. He hasn't worked out. And people say, well, it's just too big for him to pull that off.

But when you read Act 17, if you believe that, if he can put the exact people in the exact places where they should live, if you can pull that all, well, why can you pull off in an encounter? You could do it easily. You could do it. And if you drop the ball and don't share, well, guess what? Because we've all done that. Then someone else comes along in this process of life.

Well, in Genesis, it's obvious in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 that he made us in his image, everybody, whether you wind up being a non-believer in God or not, you're still made in his image. So whether you, like you said, whether you believe that's true or not, it's true, according to God, if you are a believer. And then the first thing that happened was choice. I mean, there was evil, present, and then there's good. And so it's interesting because no matter what, whether you say the earth, you know, we came from, you know, fish or whatever, you know, the whole process of evolution, you still got good and evil. That's why I look, I've said this and offended numerous religious people over the year. and let's just go ahead and do it one more time.

That's why when people who, because it's a serious matter, and I hate to even make an argument about it, because it's so serious and I'm so passionate about it, it upsets me that people will take the life of an unborn child in the name of a phrase called pro-choice. Yeah. And so then people say, well, I'm not pro-choice. Well, that's a godly principle.

Being pro, he gave us the ability to choose. We're not saying, we're not against pro-choice. We're opposed to making bad choices, wrong choices. It's not the choice itself. But to me, that's what the world does. They take a principle that's from God, and they build an argument around it where it sounds right. Because in that case, being pro-choice is biblical. We are pro-choice.

Sure we are. God gave us the ability to choose. To go back to Joshua, he said, choose whom you're going to serve. Good versus evil. Me and my household, you're not going to have a household if you're taking the life of all your unborn children. You just have a building and you're in it.

It literally stops what God said in Acts 17, what he does. He's determining where we should be, made in the image of God. He does this so we do. we would seek him and find him. And people say, well, we're pro-choice, so we're going to take their life,

murder them, the innocent, before they ever come out, which I believe was a creation of God. You're a decade behind, because they've already changed that language now. You don't hear pro-choice anymore. Here's what you hear now. Women's reproductive rights.

That's the frame for it now. So we're going to take a step back from the baby. Now it's your reproductive right, which whatever that means. to choose to kill an infant. Because they say, because it's their body, which I just read, you did not choose to be here. That is the one thing you didn't choose.

That's right. You just showed up. So you have to address where that origin came from. It's not their body. There's another body inside their body. That's right. There's two bodies. Well, and there's another body that made your body.

That's right. It's more complex. That's right. that's what Reagan used to say. He said, you know, it's interesting that back when they called it pro-choice, he said, every pro-choice person got here. Yep. You know what I'm saying?

Because they were saying, we need to have the right to abort children. And he said, the only reason you could even be pro-choice is that you got here to be that. So someone shows life for you. That's it. So, you know, which is, you know, back to the original point. Well, when you look at the end of the argument, and you look at all the choices that you have, I'm going to choose life every time.

Correct. When we get to the end, I'm going to choose life. Even with my own life, if there's a way to extend it, which I believe it is in Jesus, he is life. Well, it's a no-brainer for me. I'm like, Jesus, over here, you live. everything else literally everything else

results in death I'm going to choose life well you know the famous atheist of the past and there's been a lot of them you know for the last 500 years they were most of them committed suicide the famous ones and it's easy to understand why

to your point this is because if you're just if there's no purpose other than just you got here by random chance and then there's nothing beyond. So say you've got a tough situation, you've got your family, whatever, then it's really hard without hope and purpose

to have the value of life, wouldn't you think? I mean, atheism is a pretty depressing concept. But I do think God chose to set this life up so that we could be used, despite our flaws, to share him. Yeah. So you couldn't share him if everybody was already in.

Because he's like, well, why? You wouldn't realize what you have to gain if you didn't consider what you have to lose. Which is sad when you look at it, but I think it's the same reason he chose Judas as one of the 12. Well, he obviously knew that he was going to betray him. Why did he choose him?

It had been prophesied. Isn't it? Wouldn't you make an argument that Judas was an atheist? He didn't believe He didn't believe Jesus was the son of God And he was I don't mean with him I mean with him

So why did God do that? I think it's because You see what you have It would be hard to appreciate what you have So here's let's take another break So that brings up another interesting question We get this a lot too Is that well Judas didn't really have a choice then

But he did have a choice then but he did have a choice. He had a choice. I mean, he didn't, nobody made him do it. Just because God knew he would do it, doesn't make him. That's where you get into the idea. Well, the problem is people. I remember the moment Jesus said, this is the one, the moment he gave him that piece of bread,

the one I give this bread, that Satan entered him. That's right. So the evil one works within this. Which is chilling when you think about the possibilities there. It comes from the evil one. I said this before, and we got a- killing offspring. We got a couple letters for it.

I was using it in a different matter. I was talking about the reputation of Jesus, but I do think it's an obscure story and statement, and I think it's worth mentioning again, that just because God knows everything, doesn't mean he interferes with the life that he had planned for you. He knows what you're going to do,

but we have a being that's not. bound by time so there's a different set of rules that's not that we we don't even can identify with and there's no time elapsing and he knows everything so they're like well why did he do it because when you ask a question like that you've immediately put God down on our level yep it he's not functioning like we are where we're waiting and we're looking at this guy's life and why It just is. Everything is happening at the same time. So when you start look to God,

so when you look at that from that perspective, you wouldn't ask that question. Correct. Because it wasn't something that he, oh, I shouldn't have done that. Well, he doesn't do that. Because we're made in his image, but what people try to do is they try to put him and our image.

So you come up with questions like that. Right, exactly. Look, I'm not saying it's wrong to ask the question. No, it's not. But I'm saying once you dive deeper into who God is, those kinds of questions are like, it's kind of a silly question because I'm trying to put him on my level so I can understand. Which, by the way, was the very first temptation to Eve from Satan, so you will be like God. I mean, think about it.

The first sin committed was to be like God. And it's still going on to this very day. I don't have a problem with hearing that question. and saying, I don't know. Because God is so big, I would rather be where I'm trying to understand God instead of trying to make God conform to my understanding. Correct. Which is why you have that question.

So here's another question that I think is really good, and we get this quite a bit, so I want you to talk about it. This person was, he said I was saved and baptized years ago, and now he's 41, he says, and he just went down a bad path. Then he came back. He said, do I need to be saved again and baptized? And we get a lot of questions about people who made sometimes a decision as a young, you know, 8, 9, 10, 11 year old, and then live life and realize sinful stuff.

And then they're in their 20s now, and they're like, do I need to be baptized again? So a lot of questions like that. So I would say that's my first answer is. the same as the first question. From God's perspective, there was no... You're not saved again. You're not...

It's his perspective. He sees the culmination as it is before, during, and after. So I think that's what happens with this argument about falling away. I mean, you have clear passages that will say, if they fall away. there's a hundred of them you can go to.

But from God's perspective, I don't think it works that way. So actually they're both right when they say, well, you know, like they'll use a phrase, once saved, always say, well, from God's perspective, of course. He knows your heart. But we don't know that. Our life is bumpy. And so all I know is in Acts 29, oh, I see,

where was the story when they said, he said, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Acts 19. Acts 19. And their response is kind of funny. They said, we haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit. And it says on hearing that, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. So forget about the context, because we'll get to that one day.

They had been baptized by John. They had been baptized by John. And forget the, we'll get into the. the details. But my only perspective of it is from their, the way they were looking at it, they went ahead and did something about that. Their, their heart was not in question. Right. John the Baptist came preaching and they're like, we believe. Well, then later on, they run up on some people and they're like, oh, there's a Holy Spirit. Man, heard about this. What do we do? Does that mean I wasn't saved before? I know they were asking

those types of questions. Which, by the way, that's right before that in Acts 18. you have Apollos, who was a great young leader and man was really helping a lot of people. He runs up on this. He taught about Jesus. He was doing great, but he ran up on Priscilla and Akila, and they listened to him. They thought, uh, he needs, he's not quite there. So it said they sat down and shared. I think the phrase was they taught him about Jesus.

They taught him more adequately. Exactly. So what I'm saying is back to him, he was, he just learned more at a different point in aside. I'll use myself as an illustration. But they weren't cut off. Well, I want to say this, though, before you use your illustration,

is we need to get out of the business of pointing at people and saying, you're saved, you're out, we don't know. So we say, look, here's Jesus. I know who saves you. And I know what saves you. Jesus and his grace.

Correct. And his resurrection. So I'm not going to make an opinion because I'm not following you around. And you're not God. I'm not God. So when people say, well, do you think I need to do, do you think,

I said, here's Jesus. This is what I give you. A point. Here's what and how and who. Work it out. And then, you know, your life and your repentant, I don't even know what you're thinking. People could be doing good things

and their heart can be a million miles away. Here it is. So somebody says, well, I was baptized 14 times. You know, would you baptize? me again. It's like, I'll usually quote the verse that Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, I'll say, let me give you Jesus. And he'll get it again. It's like, well, will you baptize me again? Okay. I don't care if you baptize yourself. But if you miss Jesus, you've missed it. But that's for you to make the call on that. I think when these people are saying,

well, you know, you're lost. And here's why, because the third time that you accepted Christ, You had the wrong vernacular and vocabulary. We laugh, but people do this, you know. They do it all the time. Let's take another break. So what was your illustration? So my illustration was myself. So I was, I was baptized when I was about 11 or 12.

And I had been a really good kid up until that point, in terms of just the world and me. And, you know, basically grew up in a non-Christian home. This was, this was, you know, right after you came to Christ, Dad, and Mom. And so, but I had always been a part of the church, and I'd been, I grew up part in the Bible. And so it just kind of became the time some other people getting baptized too. And I thought, well, yeah, I need to go ahead and do that.

And you were like, yeah, that's great. And, I mean, I was 12. I was pretty smart kid, you know. But what happened was, as I look back on it, is that, you know, I really, I made a decision. And that may have been the one that God, as you said, looked at from them. But what happened to me, I hit about 14, you know, right around that puberty time and all that. Well, I just went headlong into a sinful life for about four years. First, I was a double secret agent, and then I basically owned it, you know, because you gave me a choice, and I took off.

So when I came back home as a prodigal son at 18, just like Luke 15, I was that kid that mentioned, I came back. You guys embraced me. well then I felt like for the first time I understood really who Jesus was now I had I had been pretty good then I had been really bad and now I had come back and said you know I want to live for him I want to be different I want to be changed and so you and I for I mean it was months because I was like I didn't want to get baptized again because I felt like you know Ephesians for verses there's one baptism so I was like questioning you were like well it doesn't matter I mean if this is what you need to help get you you on the road. We'll go do it again. But I was holding back because I didn't want to like,

it made it feel like to me that I was questioning God's ability to save if I got baptized the second time. So I'm just being honest. It was an inner struggle. But after a while of you and I, we'd sit down and talk about it. You'd show me some verses. We'd talk about it. And I'd say, I don't think so more about that. But it went on for, you know, quite a bit of time. And finally, you know, I just said, you know what? I don't know which one God's counting. but I need to do it again to put myself at peace of mind. Nothing wrong with making sure. That's right.

And so that was my story. I think it's from your perspective, and I think it's fine. I mean, look, you have to. And the reason I say that, Jay, is because I know people out there like this person sent this in, it's a struggle in their mind. And so I'm always like, look, God wants you to have peace of mind. He wants you to, you know, so whatever it takes for that to happen for you? If you want to be baptized again, I'll baptize again.

I mean, I don't hold back because of my own experiences. Well, I mean, it comes back to Jesus being presented, and you can know the facts about Jesus and not be in love with Jesus. That's why I think a good question to ask yourself is, do I love Jesus? You compare it to the greatest relationship that you have at the time, because most everybody has at least one relationship, even if it's their mom. They're like, well, there's somebody that loves me out there. and that relationship with Jesus is greater than that. So you can know, because I've sat down with people who are raised in church and they know the facts, but there's no passion and love and desire for being like Jesus.

And a lot of them struggle with the fact that when the apostle, Paul said, first to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and to the Gentiles also. so all of this, these covering the tracks going worldwide with the God. I preach that they should repent to all of them now. Everybody should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. I think when individuals are having a difficult time proving their repentance because their lifestyle is not in order with what God wants them to do,

then they start getting well, I need to be re-bed. But what's actually, in most cases, I don't. notice. They just need to repent. Repent. Just repent. Well, just think about Peter's first sermon. What do he do? He shared Jesus. He'll live the life, you know. He declared him Lord and Christ. They were cut to the heart. They said, what do we do?

He said, repent and be baptized. Well, then you get to Acts 8, which I'll love that it's in there. Because Philip is going down, and there's the Ethiopian eunuch who's reading a passage from Isaiah about

Jesus. It was a prophecy about Jesus and he asked Philip he said well who's the prophet talking about him or someone else and it says with that in that moment he declared to the unit the good news of Jesus Christ and you're like well the story ends they're going across a desert and the next Senate says after he told him the good news about Jesus they traveled around they traveled along the road and they came to some water and they're in a middle of in a desert, there was not a, if God wanted to put point one, point two, point three, we're going to do, here's the system. It just seems so random that they're going along the desert. He's reading, so he obviously is open to who this person is, and Philip explains it to him, but he didn't put any pressure on it.

Philip told him by Jesus. It's just the next verse, he said, well, here's some water. Why shouldn't it be baptized? middle of nowhere in a desert and when he said that never heard of jesus and that's in verse 36 of chapter 8 look here's water why shouldn't it be baptized well he got now i just want to say it was all about jesus but at some point evidently that came up in the conversation how do i get in on this should i do this should what is it mean he wouldn't have known about baptism you know does it you know, how do I surrender to Jesus?

I mean, at some point, but it doesn't say it. And then he said, he gave orders, stop the chariot. Out in the middle of nowhere, somebody passed by, they're like, what them two dudes doing down there in that pothole in a desert? And it says, then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away. I tell you this, I know God endorsed this. This kind of moment out in the middle of nowhere

where someone falls in love with Jesus. Yeah. Because then the Lord's, look, I need you over. The gospel's fixed and go to Ethiopia. Yeah, and then God, to my earlier point, sped up the process of the next encounter. Because instead of waiting for Philip to get in the chariot and go to the next, God just said, here, there you go. What happened? It was only a dream. Not really but here you are now keep speaking about me let's take another break i wish you had the teleportation going now wouldn't that be something love that then then the unit went on his way rejoicing well what's he so happy about he found jesus he found jesus and he had a moment here that was not in any kind of religious manual that you will find except in the bible of just it's just so random that it makes me realize

that we get way too centered on crossing the T's and dot in the eyes of church business, in quotation marks, and the process and the semantics. You know, at this group, we say this and we do this. You know, some people baptized before, some people baptized during, some people baptized after you say this now, say this prayer, go through this program, do this. It's all, it's like, and you're like, you wonder why people grow up and they say, I never, I never fell in love with Jesus. I went through the, all the role.

robotics and you know I have the lingo but my life it's not happening so that's what I think what was interesting was that started which we'll deal with when we get there

but in verse 26 an angel of the Lord said to Philip go south to the road the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza that's all he told him he didn't tell him why he just said go down there

and then it was interesting once he got there He met the youth opening. But if you believe God has a plan for everyone, going back to Acts 17, and he uses us, those who have surrendered to Jesus, to execute the plan. You know, Philip got it. I mean, it's more difficult for us, but I would hate to be the guy that's dropping the ball where God's like, I'm going to send this person to old Jace. He's going to share the great news of my son through the spirit. And, you know, I talk about baseball the whole time. And so now we got to go down to the next road and somebody else got to step up because I blew that.

I believe that's going on in our world. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt that does. And you're right. God provides those opportunities. There was a young guy Sunday came up to me. And he's here in one of our houses. And I think he said he was from Nashville, Justin from Nashville.

and he said, you know, I'm here, but I've always been a fan of your family. I used to love the show. And I said, well, have you heard of our podcast? He said, I never missed one. So I know you're probably listening to Joseph. But then he started telling me some things about his life that obviously got him here and got him in one of our recovery houses. But I thought, you know, this is an opportunity.

You know, this is a young man that needs some guidance and needs it. I mean, that's what God does. So whether it's the initial salvation or it could just be some disciplining along the way. He's going to put people in people's path to help him. Well, look, I was blabbering on. I forgot to make my point. But my point was... Here's something.

Have a point. It's so much better for the listening. Yeah, I had it. I just forgot to highlight it. I got to preaching. But in that 836, when the eunuch, he was sitting there in the chariot and he was daydreaming and whatever going along, he saw that water. And in that moment, he asked this question.

that the listener asked. He's like, why shouldn't I be baptized? Now, to us who are in Jesus, I try to make sure that I'm not doing anything that God is not endorsing. So it's like if someone asked me to baptize them, I usually try to talk them out of that because I'm famous and I want to make sure

that they just don't want to have this moment with a famous person. And so I say, look. Because it's not about us. And it's not about baptism per se. If you're not in love with Jesus and don't understand what he did for it. You know, that's the whole reason. The reason he had this moment because he was reading in Isaiah about Jesus.

And he was cut to the heart. And Philip explained it to him. And he's wanting to respond. Right. And Philip probably thought, I mean, I'm just guessing here. But, I mean, it might have been better to take him to a town and say, because, you know, this could have been the very first African-American convert. I can almost assure he was the first Ethiopian, probably. Well, I said this one time in a lesson, and the guy said, well, how come you know he was, you know, African-American?

I was like, have ever been to Ethiopian? I actually said, have you ever seen a white Ethiopian? And I was just saying, like, what do you mean? He was like, oh, I guess I didn't think about that. I was like, we got a moment here. We could convert a country. That's right. And it started out in a desert with two guys,

and I am 100% convinced that this guy went on his way of rejoicing, and I know what he did. Oh, yeah. He started sharing that saying Jesus. Yeah, he did. And the roots of that encounter are probably still there today, 2,000 years later. No doubt about it.

Jeff just got back from there. Lots of brothers down in Ethiopia. No doubt about it. Yeah. And that's how the gospel spread, which was interesting because we talked about it. You know, Jesus told him, he gave them the blueprint. He said, look, you start here in Jerusalem. Holy Spirit's going to come.

But then I want you to go to Judea, which was a little out of Jerusalem, Samaria, which was a little further out, and the utter ends of the earth. And so what he was telling was, I want this to go out. What's interesting is, which we'll get there eventually, is chapter 8, which is where he started. The church didn't want to go anywhere because they were 11, 11. some church, you know what I mean? Back to the Tower of Bible. That's right.

Everybody's together. We're sharing stuff. Let's build a tower to heaven and praise God. He's like scatter. That's good. Move because he wanted his son being shared from house to house, town to town, nation to nation. And we're still doing the same thing. You think about just us three.

How many mission-type oriented things do you support? Oh, a ton. I mean, I know. I still go from time. Because you say, well, why are y'all doing that? We are trying to share Jesus with the modern world. Yep. Which is kind of why we're doing this podcast.

When people say, what are your goals? I was like, well, I have one. Now, I have meaning goal, but I have one, just, let me just go ahead and clarify. The overarching. We are attempting to share Jesus to the world. That's right. They're like, well, the world's too big. Well, how do you play?

to do that one at a time or or maybe multiples you know that's but but even multiples it's one person that's true it still a decision that's exactly right and they hear about jesus there's no different than what happened to the evil open unit and he's like well hey what about me can i you want to stop the chariot and how many times have you had to stop the chariot moment in your life where somebody says i'm ready yeah or or i wasn't sure thousands Or they say, I didn't know. Because to me, look, I can't remember pretty much past about a year at this stage of my life. When you start going back to when I, you know, came to Christ, 14, what was that, 36 years ago and change?

You're getting old, Jay. Yeah. I mean, all I remember is I wanted to follow and serve Jesus Christ based on what I had heard. and I'm I'm here I am 30 something years later I'm good with that yeah I mean I had one conversion but other people you know even my wife when she got older and and she doesn't mind sharing this because she shares it with other people she's like I was a kid I wasn't sure what I was doing I didn't want to go to hell which we said before is not necessarily a you know a bad motivation who who wants to go but you don't want to stay in that motivation well right but

she's like I think we need to do this again. And I'm not sure the details, but I think one night, you know, she basically confessed Jesus as Lord and I'm baptized. She was, she was older. Which is a good point that whatever journey, however you get to Jesus, whether you did it through a church route or some other route or, or you just didn't know anything and then one day somebody shared it and you did it, it's getting in Jesus is the thing. So whatever the route was to get you there, get there. I mean, believe it or not, I'm not a churchy person. A lot of people I share Jesus with,

we're not in a church building. We may be fishing, duck hunting, playing cards, going down a road, or whatever. You share Jesus in various formats, and then things happen. People respond, and the next thing you know, I always say, look, it's not good to be alone. So plug in, because it does help you.

Your church family will help you with training and, you know, different, growing. A few of them said, Phil, the reason I came to talk to you, I want to be baptized. He said, because I was so young, you know, when I was eight or nine or whatever. And he said, but the other day I went down and I asked the preacher where we meet asking the baptizement. He said, only if you join the church here. See, I do not like that advice. Well, when he said that, I said, well, here's the deal.

when you're baptized, you are joined with Jesus and the church. I said, that's when it happens. He said, let's do it right now. I said, okay. Acts 2, and the Lord added to the church, those who are being saved. Let's lead that to Jesus. I've said many times people come in, they say, I want to join y'all's church. I'm like, sorry, you can't do it.

And they're like, I'm like, the Lord at you. You surrender the Lord. Guess what? You're in whether I like it or not. They're like, oh, okay. I thought it was some kind of exclusionary thing. Here there and everywhere. No, I don't have that power.

Thanks for the questions. We always enjoy diving into some of those. So keep them coming.