Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 219 | Jase's Spiritual Stocks, the Bible on Investing and Tattoos, and Lying to the Holy Spirit

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

Jase says more power to the retail investors who went up against hedge funds shorting GameStop, but he's sticking with long-term investments. Phil, Jase, and Al look at what the Bible says about investing and acquiring wealth, and Jase finds a parable in Luke that makes for a good stock market analogy. The guys also discuss what the Bible tells Christians about tattoos, why you don't want to mess around with the Holy Spirit, hypocrisy in those who represent heaven, the stock market in your heart, and whether you can make the argument that scaring the hell out of people is biblical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Somebody has put me in some kind of group chat, which I detest. Because Phil, I might have to explain this to you. People will get like even up to 15 or 20 people, and they'll put everybody in the conversation, and then everybody starts talking, and your phone just constantly goes off.

and now they have these. Let me add one to that day. So apparently some new upgrade. Now you can put a thumbs up or a heart or a ha-ha on what the other person just said. So throw in what you just said. You have these people discuss the stuff. And then you got the next person giving that one a heart

and this one. And it's just your phone sounds like it's just ringing, but it's just texting. And then because our society is so sensitive, they when I upgraded my phone they took out the place where you could leave the conversation because they didn't want people to get offended because you left because the first thing I do when I'm in a group chat is go scroll down and look and figure out how to leave that I don't like it at all but having said that I noticed about a week ago I was look because of the

I thought they took that away. Now it's back on my phone. I left a conversation the other day, which was awesome. I need you to show me how to do that. I'll work with you. But what I was going to say is my phone's going off and it's all over the stock market.

Because even though I know very little about the stock market compared to people who do this, as a redneck who's put a couple years into this, I know more than most of my friends. Therefore, they deem me an expert. I'm like, wait a minute here. I took some money that I did not need, and I said, I'm going to try investing.

And look, I got the concept. The Bible talks about investing a lot. There's way more in here than you will realize about making investments for return. He's not. So my phone continually goes off because people are asking me about GameStop, which, you know, if you are not familiar with this, a brick and mortar video game store chain that has been doing terribly because when the pandemic hit and you have all these streaming games out there, this is not a company that you want to be invested.

a lot of money yet so you say well wait a minute it's gone up yeah so the question is for political reasons a group of people came in here and they said we're going to take on these big hedge fund companies who try to put these crappy businesses not that they were crappy by their own merit it's just a victim of circumstance things have changed people are now playing video games online there's a pandemic they closed all their stores they're not deemed essential. And so these hedge fund companies come in here and they do what they call short stocks and they basically try to make money in the company going out of business. And so a group of people said, no, we're going to buy that stock up and take on the hedge fund company. So I've given the

opinion to my kids who called me to my friends. I'm like, I'm not a gambler. I'm not even in the political arena. I mean, if they want to take on these hedge funds, more power to them. Great. Who's going to say don't do that? But as an investor, I'm looking at companies that are great who are making phenomenal earnings for the long term. And as I do that, as I pick these awesome future companies, you're taking the risk

and the volatility away from your money. Now, if you want to, for entertainment purposes or for political reasons, take your money and invest in those companies and get in that fight, okay, you're free. You're free to do that. So when I give my opinion as a long-term investor, I'm always going to take all that noise out of it and say come up with a winning formula.

It may be slow and steady, but it will work for great returns. That's my official stance. Well, you've come up with some of your wordage. Reminds me of Solomon. Blessed is the man. And this is to everyone who finds wisdom, Jace, the man who gains understanding. For she, wisdom and understanding, is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

She is more precious than rubies Nothing you desire can compare with her Long life is in her right hand Jace And in her left hand Are you ready for this? Yep Are riches and honor Her ways are pleasant ways

And all her paths are peace She's a tree of life to those who embrace her Those who lay hold of her Will be blessed So wisdom and understanding, whatever endeavor you're in, in this case, I think the topic is the stock market. I will just say on top of that, Jase, do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. And there's a lot of people evidently eyeballing you.

Yeah. If it's possible, Jace, as far as it depends on you, stock market. or no stock market. Live at peace with all, man, all and with everyone. Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written. You don't have to pay them back via the stock market or any other deal. It's mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. So if your enemy's hungry, you feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. and by this you'll heap burning coals on his head, do not be overcome by evil, be overcome with good.

So that's an overarching view. Whether you're in the stock market, whether you're investing in this and that, your livelihood, your job, your hard work, you have to be, you have to wise up and gain understanding and dealing with the human race, especially when you're dealing with them long green.

Well, you think about it. You know what I'm saying? We're fixed to read the scariest chapter in the Bible, in my opinion, Acts Chapter 5, where you had a couple who wanted to be viewed as giving. And they sold some land. They said, we're going to give all of it to you to help the needy and the people in our community. Key word, key phrase, all of it. But then they kept some to themselves, which they had the freedom to do.

It was the image at which they were portraying in their heart, and we'll get into that in detail, lying to God rather than men that caused the problem, and led to a justice that was downright terrifying. But it was all over money. and Al you'll remember this, Bill Smith, who brought Phil to the Lord in the bar on the state line. He used to make a statement. He said, if you want to see what's important to someone,

all you got to do is watch what they give their passion, their energy, their time, and their money to. And that's how you'll figure out what's most important to them. And that's where wisdom and understanding comes in. Yeah. He used to say take a person's checkbook and look through it, and you'll find out where their heart is. And I thought that was always a pretty wise.

Of course, you know, we don't do checkbooks much anymore, but that was a pretty wise saying. Because, you know, you brought it up, Dad. I mean, or Chase, too. The Bible does say a lot about money, about investment. Sure does. Solomon did, obviously. There were a lot of wealthy, successful people.

Jesus, most of his parables were about that very thing. But he did say the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Paul said that. Jesus said, you can't love money and God the same way. And so I think it's that idea of rubbing against each other that's the problem. I want to read where that statement, that verse you just quoted, where that story, I mean, how that statement came, the story that produced that statement, you can't love God and money. because I think it's a great stock market verse.

Now, people who work in that realm, they're not going to like that I read this. And people ask, so guess what? I'm going to tell you, I could be wrong. But this is a curious parable that Jesus told. This is in Luke 16. Jesus told his disciples there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

The whole reason I got into the stock market is because I had some money that I didn't need, which would mean I've become rich. Even though my whole life, I tried to do everything in my power to keep that from happening. Because I wanted to duck hunt. I love my wife. I love my kids. And I loved a duck on. And I thought, I need to find a way to make a living.

Duck hunting. And that was your dream and passion. You gave me a job. But I had resigned to the fact that I would never make a lot of money doing that. So my wife would become frustrated because she looked at it like, we're never going to have any money. I'm like, but that's okay. We're going to live on love and I'm going to get to duck on. That was my goal in life.

We do a silly duck show and all of a sudden this money just pours out. So I'm like, well, I'm going to take this money. money and I'm going to since I'm rich now and I'm going to give it to some they call them managers we manage your wealth well after a couple years of that I looked down and I thought I thought the whole idea of this was to make money on the investments because I was seeing a negative it's biblical Keep my commands, God says, in your heart. Far, they will prolong your years, your life, many years, and check this out. And bring you prosperity.

Yeah. God will help you prosper if you do what he says and you do it the right way. Exactly. So what you were aiming for? Oh, it's biblical. It's biblical. But here's, look, look. Let me clarify.

I didn't realize how the stock market works. I didn't realize how long-term investing worked. And I was looking at the short-term, which was my error. I was just throwing these money managers under the bus. Now I've learned now that I've done all the research and put the time in it and the work and watched how it works. Now we're years upon. The stock market doesn't go up every year. You know, if I'd have done a little research, I'd have realized.

But I was accusing those fellas of what we have here. I was like, you're wasting my possessions. So guess what? You're fired. I'm taking that money back and I'm going to invest it myself. So I want to read this story, though. He says, so he called, this is Luke 16, too, called him and asked him, what is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager. any longer. Same thing I did. The manager said to himself, what shall I do now? My master's taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. You know, when you stare at screens for long periods of times, it's not good for your muscles. That was a joke. I know that I'll do that so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked his, asked first, how much do you owe? this guy's like, oh, 800 gallons of olive oil, which I thought was kind of funny, that we had all this transactions over olive oil, which we still treasure today.

The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 400. Then he asked the second, how much do you owe? A thousand bushels of wheat, he replied, I mean, it reminds me of the stock market, because you have prices, you have, oh, you're trying to get the right set of circumstances is to either make some, you know, don't lose at all. I mean, it has the same qualities here. Versa. You know, as sophisticated as we try to make it out to be,

it really has to have to just trading into commodities and oils. Exactly. The basic things of life, just like it was 2000. And you have all these rules that you go by. You realize the stock market doesn't go up. Some of the stocks you own are going down. You allow how much risk you want to take by, you know, what sector or what company, but also how much money you put in.

And like what I'll do is they have this thing called dollar cost average where you'll buy stock, then you'll buy it again, then you'll buy it again. And then when it goes back up, you'll sell your higher cost, which doesn't really matter long term, but you want to feel better about it. You're trying to sort out the timing. The exact wordage of Luke 16 is the parable of the shrewd. Let's take a break. Yeah.

Jason, by the way, the wordage used in this particular Luke 16 is the parable of the, the word is shrewd. Well, I got another word that it describes, and you're going to be shocked. Meaning high acumen, meaning you know. Well, he says shrewd in verse 8. For the people of this world. are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. Yep.

So now I'm getting a really good stock market analogy because I would say we would at least call people who work in and amongst the stock market shrewd. In fact, that's why you have a group of the little people who I would be considered a little person trying to take on these big establishes. because they're like, well, you're too shrewd. Yeah. Right? And look, you see their point.

Now, as a little person, though, you've got to ask yourself, am I willing to take this kind of gamble in companies that fundamentally are not very sound? Now, you might, it might work. And we might make some kind of political statement that changes it. But what probably, in my opinion, is going to happen is that these big, ginormous money establishments, they'll probably change the rules. They'll stifle the little man and guess what? You'll keep going.

I mean, that's just the environment that we're forced to work in. So you can say, well, I'm just not going to do it and take my money out. Okay. But watch what it says here in verse 9. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Well, he gives actually a way to say, it's okay to get involved in these kind of worldly ventures. As long as your heart is right and you have the big picture in mind.

So that's our goal as a Christian. That's why I think it's okay to do it, even though a lot of it is, what is the word? Shady or bullied or, you know, I don't want to use the word corrupt, but it just, it does feel like there's a lot of big money people taking advantage of situations. Because there's a lot of people who do have never thought about godliness. Well, right. With contentment.

And they're going to call it shrewd. which is a, let's just call it shrewd. So he gets to verse 10, he says, whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. True statement. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

What an analogy. I mean, this is like blowing my mind. and if you have been trustworthy with someone else's property who will give you who will give you property of your own then he says no servant can serve two masters either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both god and money and then he says this the Pharisees who were hypocrites which is a common quality to what we'll see in acts five Because that whole thing was hypocritical.

Watch what it says. Who love money. Heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. Because the love of money is a root of all kinds of people. And I think they were also snaring because they thought he's actually promoting people to get involved in worldly wealth. Now think of the one who's talking here. God in flesh is speaking of what's to be how you view riches, wealth, interaction, the shrew, the world. I mean, he's saying, better keep me number one.

He can't serve us both with, he makes a distinction there. Yeah. Make sure you make sure you have the, it go back to Proverbs again. Watch, what, what, what, what, what, you be careful to do what God says. You can, he'll give your prosperity, but, but remember where all this is coming from. That's exactly right. Well, when I first brought this up, you know, Zach, who's on our show from time to time, my cousin, he's like, I don't know if we want to go down this road because it might offend,

you know, Christians, one, because of all this, the stuff that's going on that causes the common man to try to rise up against them. And I think people need to understand with Zach's, you can be godly and be shrewd. That is exactly my point. And you can recommend. Shrew doesn't mean you're up to no good. You're just,

you are shrewd, but you're God. Jesus praised it in this context. And if Jesus says something is praiseworthy, then it's good to go. You can, and like he said, he gave the green light to be involved

in acquiring worldly wealth. He's like, don't misman, manage your money. And he said, even though those in the light are going to have more trouble. He did say, too, it can be a little, do well with a little, and you'll do well if it's bigger. But he allowed for both.

And I think in our cases, Jay's talked about earlier, when I tell the sort of the Robertson family story when I go out and speak around the country, that's the story I tell. I mean, we didn't have much, but dad, once you became a Christian and led our family to contempt on the river, you know, we were happy with a life that didn't have much. And he showed that his, you know, ambitions were, you know, pretty much just low-hanging fruit. He was okay with a live-ball. Plus, my investments, and as it turns out, we're good. But my investments, I didn't invest or fool with the stock market.

I primarily, if you've noticed, I primarily invested in land. You see what I'm saying? Well, that's good. That's called being diversified, Phil. Diversified? I didn't know that. Well, I'm just saying I never got to the stock market phase. I'm like, what's that?

So. Well, Zach also said, well, you don't want to recommend people investing in stock market if the stock market, you know, crashes and then lose all their money. I mean, it's risky. And I said, well, Zach, but you're. looking at it from a perspective of that it's going to crash and go down. That's called a bear. I said, you named one of your kids bear.

You have bear tendencies. I said, I'm on the bull side. And there's no right side. There's different ways to do this. I know very little about the stock market overall. What I decided to do was take great companies, put in a lot of time, effort, research, invest my money in them, more than 15 stocks, be diversified, and hopefully as years go by, it accumulates wealth.

And a lot of these, I would take out the money that I put in after a while, so actually de-risking my investment. Now, if I thought the whole thing was going to crash, I wouldn't start off with the first statement. Take money that you don't need and put it in the stock market. and when you say don't need you mean that to live on that's right you know month a month or whatever to take care of your family if you have money that you can put in that you don't need whether it's you know once a month or every six months or you come in like in my case i went from having nothing

to having a lot in a very short period of time so i could have done two things and look i i was scared my wife and i we prayed we discussed we talked to money managers we got it advice because I was like, I don't want to, in view of what I just read in Luke 16, number one, I don't want to develop a love for this. And I don't want to mismanage what's been poured out here. So one of the things I did at the advice of people at our church who were financial investors, they said, what you do to do is take some of it and invest in the stock market. Yeah.

My initial reaction was no. Because I thought that's just, if I want to gamble, I'll go buy a bunch of lottery tickets. That's what I was thinking. Well, I didn't understand it. I didn't know. I needed. And eventually it led me to a place to where I thought, you know what, I need to educate myself and figure out what the heck is going on. Let's take a quick break.

So to your point, we talked about lighter tickets before, I read somewhere where most, people that win lottery, win a large amount of money, lose it. And the reason why is because they don't follow the path you said. They don't pray about it. They don't figure out how do we long term do it. So most of them lose it. But the two things that they said in this thing I read where they had all these different lottery winners, they all gained weight and they all picked up bad habit.

Yeah. You know, and that was interesting because, you know, money, you said a lot of times when an athlete you take a, you know, 19, 20, 21-year-old kid who doesn't have a lot of stability probably in his upbringing. And then you dump $10 or $15 million into his life. I mean, you see some of the craziest choices anywhere. Why wouldn't you? I mean, there's no basis there to make good basic decisions, financial decisions or obviously spiritual. Yeah.

Well, one of the reasons I brought this up is one of the messages I got on my phone was from a family member. because now since I know more than everybody else, even though it's not much, I'm now the guru stock advice giver to all my family who are in the stock market. So one of the members of my family wanted to buy one of these stocks that's gone hyperbolic and just out the roof because they're like, I need more, I can make more cash and then buy more steady stocks. So let's do it in the short term. well I said don't do it and it doesn't mean that I'm you know was was not for the effort I see what's going on

but I was just looking at her situation saying you don't have a lot of money and what the extra money that you have you want to invest it and I'm helping you do that and everything's going great let's not stop and get off the winning formula now if she said I want to make a political statement with my couple thousand dollars here. I'm like, okay, who am I to say? You can't do it. But I was like, if you want a less risky way to do it, we're going to think long term because that's my investing strategy.

It doesn't mean that there aren't more than one way. I'm sure all these people who have ridden that game stop up, they've made a lot of money. My only point is, as an investor, looking at it like that, that works every time but once. But if you keep going all in trying to time just something that's outside the fundamentals of basic. A phenomenon, basically. Yeah, it's a phenomenon. If you keep going down, you know, you can go to a roulette wheel and put red.

I don't know if red or black is the seven because I've never done that. But, you know, if you keep trying to do that and you hit one, okay, great. But if you keep putting a lot of money in it, at some point it just don't hit. that's all I'm saying. I like something with a little more sustenance and substance. And by research and keeping your priorities in line, you can do that. If you want to just, you know, gamble this money or do it for entertainment or make a political statement, it's perfectly fine. It is your money.

But I just wouldn't want to come across as I'm mismanaging it, you know. That's what I'm. getting at it. I thought it was interesting, as you mentioned, I love the Luke 16 that we kind of got there because Luke wrote Acts and he obviously wrote Luke. And Luke has a little different background from the rest of him because he was a Gentile doctor, you know, who came along later, but obviously was a great writer. And he got with the audience. He probably had some money. Right. It had some money. Yeah. So he's the only one that included that parable, which is interesting because you don't find it in the other gospels. But I think.

it does set up right to this point, and we're in Acts chapter four in verse 36, because we didn't read this part last time, but I want to read it because it directly sets up what's about to happen. In verse 36, Joseph, a Levite, which I thought was really interesting that Luke felt it necessary to mention that he was a Levite. And without getting deep into the weeds of it, I would just tell you that Levites didn't own land, which was really interesting. In other words in the Old Testament when they had the 12 tribes, Levi was the priesthood tribe. And so God set it up. You know, they all got a land inheritance when they took over the land of Canaan. But he wanted it set up where the people of Israel had to support the people that he had

doing priestly duties and tabernacadoos. And those were the Levites. They come from Eric. So when you look at that situation and you see the situation, you know, I don't even know why he owned land, but he did. Because typically they could have a house, but they couldn't have property that they owned. But he mentions it. And the only thing I can just, my guess,

is that this was almost like people were, you know, bringing this money to the Apostles' feet. And here was a guy who was obviously a great guy, winds up going with Paul and being like his, you know, right-hand man for several missionary journeys, is that maybe he wasn't supposed to own this piece of property.

So maybe this was more of a confessional thing. I don't know. Or it just got watered down through the years like most religious laws. It would be. And, you know, I mean, to me, if you got a law that says I can't buy land, I mean, just think about that, Phil, when you said, I put money in land and you have a religious edict that says, okay, Phil, you can't, you know, it'd be awesome.

But as a Christian, you can't buy land. And you're right. The reason you have to look at some of these laws that God implemented, he did it. so that the Israelites would have the idea that his clergymen, for lack of a better word, that he had in place, he wanted them, giving them their first fruits. They were supposed to give 10%. They had to build house for it. That was the purpose of it.

Like you said, what happens is over 2,000 years is that, you know, that's where the Pharisees came from or where they park. Well, right. And even now, Al, people go back and look at those laws and the old law for the nation of Israel that was written, what, thousands of years? years ago and they're like well you can't have a tattoo you know because of and they'll turn over there to wherever it is the leviticus and there i'm like we're not under that law anymore but even today people still try to apply those and in an essence it was watered down i guess from when it was written that's what i always thought but i mean i'm i'm not sure it's neither here nor there i just think that he did something out of grace and freedom to help other people.

He didn't have to. Because we know this, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That's right. And I think that's what calls this next scenario, which is jealousy and envy to want to be promoted among the believers and doing these, you know, grandiose acts of, of giving and you think well would that happen today i mean i hate to say it but if someone is giving huge amounts of money that we can use to help kids or whatever great charity there is for them to do it out of a spirit of selfishness yeah i mean that that is truly sad course we don't know that but

in these in this day god knows the heart and said watch yes so we don't know the heart that's right let's take another break. Jason, once you read, read the first six verses in chapter 5. Now, a man named

Anonise together with his wife Safara also sold a piece of property, which I'm making the connection that, oh,

look at what Barnabas did. Watch this. With his wife's full knowledge, he kept back part of the money for himself,

but he brought the rest and put it at the Apostle's feet. Then Peter said, Anonis, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart?

that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land. Didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God. When Anonis heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

Then the young man came forward wrapping his body and they carried him out and buried him. Of course, later his wife's going to show up. We'll get to that later. So before we get to that, though, so I mean, obviously when I read this knowing we were going to be talking about it, there were some things that jumped out of. I mean, I just kind of throw the questions out and then we'll answer them. So one was what was the sin? And obviously, I think we've identified it as this hypocrisy and selfishness because they were misleading.

They were saying, but he uses the term lying to men. is different from lying to God. I thought that was interesting because a sin is a lie as a sin, right? We know. I think this is different. Yeah, I think that came from, which I think a lot of religious people that I've heard commentary on, get this wrong.

I think it came from having the freedom to do this. So there was no law or we're not under law. and it actually says after the land was sold wasn't the money at your disposal. Well, it was up to you to figure out how to use it. So you, when you read between the lines with that in mind, he had told men, this is what I'm going to give and here's how much I got for it, which was a lie, because it was obviously bigger than what he said. do the men. And that's where it came in. You didn't lie to men, but to God.

You were right and free to do with this, what you wanted to do, but you tried to make it look like you were given this amount, and you actually took some for yourself, because even though you wanted to do this great thing for the community, because of what happened with Barnabas, in the end, you wanted that money. that's the bottom line. Plus, think about this. This is at the very beginning of the church and how it's going to unfold. And the only way they had to be able to know whether something was truth or not is if it was from the spirit of God.

I mean, that's what they had. You had these eyewitnesses. And so as we go further, and when you get over into first and second, Peter, first, second, third John, they'll talk about this. a lot of years they've gone by by then. They'll say, you've got to test the spirit. You got to make sure that they're saying the right things because now we're starting to get falsehood come in. And this is the first instance we see in this early time.

So far, everything's been great. People are loving each other. They're helping each other out. But for the first time, Satan comes right up in the middle of this thing through this couple who are lying. And I think it was more protection for this early, you know, phenomenon that was created here on Earth. anything because this is pretty severe.

I mean, we don't see this anywhere else happened in the Bible where somebody just drops dead because they committed a sin and especially one so grievous because it was against the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but I also think when it says Satan, how he said, Anna, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart?

And we know from other passages, for that to happen, you allow that to happen. You know, James said, resist him and he'll flee from you. So it's like the temptation, he gives the scenario with this land and the money and the fame. And then you allow that to happen, which usually happens coincides with you lying to the Holy Spirit. I just think it's a two-way street on that as far as the temptation happens. You know, the evil one provides that. and then you have a situation where you make the decision ultimately.

I think that's how the evil one works. I'm trying to say, I don't think Satan just, like, made him do this as far as, you know, he took over his being and without his decision that led down the road. I think he provided the situation and he fell in it. But that phrase line to the Holy Spirit, what about this? Let me throw this wrinkle at. you because I thought this was interesting. Because it made me think about what Jesus said in Mark 3.

And this, again, was early in his ministry. And it starts in verse 20. His family heard about this that he was there. And, you know, he was with these people. And he says, and they went to take charge of him for they said he is out of his mind. So his family said he was crazy. And then the teachers of the law says, oh, no, he's not crazy. He is possessed by Beelzebub, by the power of.

demons, he is driving out demons. So they said he was possessed. And then Jesus says this, which I find it fascinating. And I'm just wondering if you all think it ties into what we're talking about. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposed himself and is divided, he cannot stand.

His end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an eternal sin. Then he said, he said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit. So I just, I don't know, that that jumped into my head that Jesus said that, because that's a very, I mean, that's a people have been asking the question about that for, you know, eons every since he said it. But it sounds like to me, right in the first century, we already see a situation where someone again is trying to pit, you know, Satan against what we're doing.

And they're saying lying to the Holy Spirit, you don't want to mess around with the Holy Spirit. Well, what you think, Phil? He may be on to something there. I just think. Hey, Jay, just take another break. Here's what I think. You just think about how to go to modern day, I try to simplify and clarify things so that people are listening to us can make decisions

because every day is filled with these opportunities to do what's right or to do what's evil and what you put in your head. But we know that our belief system in Jesus and the way we conduct our lives is all done through faith. It's kind of like when you try to describe faith, it's like our secret world that we live in. You can do things that are good. And people in the world do this, that they don't care if Jesus was crucified, shot,

or whatever. They don't. And people do good things for different reasons. That don't mean they're not good. It's, they're great. They're helping out society. Does it mean their heart is in tune with God? God, no.

It doesn't mean at all. But it doesn't mean also if, you know, people who are Sunday Christians or whatever or doing things for status or whatever reason, it doesn't mean that inside their heart. And so it is ugly. And we don't really know that and everybody has that own little spiritual war. So I think what happens is when you're representing heaven and those who abide there, you know, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. When you're doing that publicly or in the way you operate and your heart is just carnal and evil,

I think we're just getting a picture that God detest that. It's the, it's the, and Satan loves it because he's doing the most damage to what is being represented. Look, what is the one reason and excuse that comes up more than any other on why people, people don't come to Christ. They build this wall right here because they're like, yeah, I knew somebody at that church. He abused little kids or I knew, you know, all they want is money or, well, all these things are saying it's true. Happens every day.

People in the name of Jesus are hypocrites and are trying to look one way and in their heart can't be any more evil. Well, to me, if I was part of the evil forces, this is the best way for them to make God look bad. And I think that's why it happens. Yep. So my point is, if you deny the Holy Spirit, which is what this man and his wife did, they deny the truth. Because look, they're saying they did something. Well, they know the Holy Spirit lives in them. I mean, you're talking about lying. You're lying to yourself. You're lying to your inner self. And that's where the Holy Spirit is. And he's representative

of Christ. So I think that's why it was so severe. And then look back at verse 7. Three hours later, his wife came in. And remember, she had full-nour. knowledge, not knowing what it happened. She didn't know her husband had fallen dead. And remember, they just hauled the guy out and went and buried it. And you got to remember, think of the atmosphere when she came in. They had just seen this happen. She should have right then thought, uh-oh.

Because if you see somebody die, whether it's in the Lord or not, there's a, there's a response in the room. The atmosphere has changed. It's changed quite a bit. So Peter asked her, and I love this because he gives her a chance to tell the truth. Tell me, is this the price you and I'm going to ask God for the land? I love it that he gave her a chance to make it right. Yeah. So she should have looked at the atmosphere, knew something was wrong.

Then we got a direct question. So here's this one little decision. Am I going to lie or am I going to tell the truth? Lie or die? Yes, that is the price. Peter said to her, how could you agree? Now, he says it differently to her to test the spirit of the Lord. The other one he said he lied to him. Here he says, why are you testing the spirit? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out also.

You're right, Jay's. That's not what you want to hear anytime in any setting. And you know, it made me think about that Romans 10 passage where Paul said, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, not beautiful feet when they're cut. You're about to fall dead and they're going to carry you out, which is what happened in the situation. Well, then it got, look, at that moment she fell down to his feet and died. Then the young men came in and finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear.

That's the second time it says that because in verse five, it said, All who saw Anonis, great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. I have a lot of people say, well, why is that when the number one phrase in the Bible is do not be afraid? We've talked about this in earlier podcast. But, you know, I think the number four phrase, most common phrase in the Bible, is fear God and keep his commandments. So there is a balance there as far as we're not to be afraid of anything in this life of what the world can do. but when it comes to making oaths and vows to God and doing things and being hypocritical about it in your heart there's a time to fear God when that's going on when you know deep down in your heart

you're living this extravagant lie and you see that manifests itself in everyday life with husbands cheating on wives wives sheeting on husbands then they come back and they're like oh no I'm sorry, you know, give me another chance. And then you go through the whole thing. And then their heart, nothing's going to change. But since we don't know that, it's camouflage. But you see, I think, the same kind of hypocrisy, because then what happens?

You look up, here we go again, you know. And it's so frustrating. And, you know, I'm using that just in one sin that I can think of. This had to do with money in trying to act one way, get what you want. So could you make an argument that scaring the hell out of people is biblical? I think it's biblical in that it gets you attention. Because think about it. What does physical death do? What was the purpose here? We had people who are lying. God's not going to make mistakes. They were doing the worst possible thing you could do on the planet. They were making God look bad in his people.

And so what, well, as a result, what does physical death do? it gets your attention. Even people that don't believe in God, when they go to a cemetery or they see somebody die, because they know they're going to die. And what is the message of the church at this time? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's right.

Remember where we are, is everything in the book of Acts that we're going to look at is a first. Now, it's the first time you're seeing this sort of thing happen. And so God's going to deal with it very swiftly through Peter. and look very sternly. I mean, it would scare you. Yeah, but Al, think about the point.

Look, the law is not going to change your life. Sin is not going to change your life. The consequences of sin, it's not going to change your life. Change your heart. The physical death, it's not going to do it. Jesus is what he did on a cross and the resurrection. Those are heart, life-changing things. However, these things, the consequences of,

of sin and physical death, they do get our attention. Well, Solomon probably had it right again. I would say did have it right. Now all has been heard. This is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. He'll bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it's good or evil.

Well, you look at that and you say, okay, it's enough that he's put the fear in me. Well, you mess with that, Al. It's not wise. It's not wise. I think it's okay to fear as long as you're fear in hypocrisy in your life. You know, he wrote a whole book on the, what,

the frustration that mankind has with his own sin, wealth, money. He covers the whole thing. look here's the deal and he just ends it up but saying fear god do what he says you'll be i'd tell you what i'll took from this story i don't want to lie of the holy spirit i don't want to guess the holy spirit me either i don't i just want to follow his leave there's a lot of money changing hands uh within organized christianity al there's a lot of money changing hands well and in the world It's not in the world and both, sometimes it's kind of hard to see the difference, but you have to be real careful in your view of money.

If you're going to be a Christian, and if you're in the world, too, it can really cost you your life, your soul. I keep going back to chapter 4 and 33, because you got to remember, with great power, the apostles continue to testify the resurrection of the Lord, and much grace was upon them all. We all make mistakes. We have daily thoughts that are terrible, but you need to manage those things in your own life

way before you're thinking about how you're going to manage money that can burn up and be gone in an instant. The management to me in walking with Jesus is of the heart. And when you screw up or if you have a thought, because when you get to this stage, a lot had to happen to get so cold and callous, where there's people dying and you're still oblivious of living this lot. You're going all the way to the grave with this lie.

If there's a worldly listener hearing this conversation, many would tend to say, Al, this is just too blooming strict. It's just too strict. Wouldn't you think? Sure. Yeah, I mean, certainly if you didn't understand. You know, if you're going to expect me to live a life of being honest with God, he'll forgive you.

And this man and woman had the opportunity to do that. Okay. We blew it. We decided, you know, we're making ourselves look good or whatever. And we sold this land. We slid a little bit to us until they're giving it all. We're acknowledging that. We sin now.

You all forgive us. And that have been okay. Yeah. Well, my point is, Phil, it's the stock market that's going on in your heart, there's every one of us on a daily basis, some stuff we've got to sell, and we need to keep buying what God provided in Jesus through his grace and hope. Yep. Oh, Jay, it always finds a way to get it back to the stock market. Spiritual stocks.

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