Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 228 | Jase’s 'Funniest Home Videos' Moment, Cultural Clashes, and Remembering Rush Limbaugh | Ep 228

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

Phil, Jase, and Al are stuck at home in the snow. Jase finds out why it's a bad idea for rednecks to run on ice, and his come-to-Jesus moment with a house full of teenagers goes too far. Phil is cut off from civilization. Al and Zach remember Rush Limbaugh and the huge impact he had on conservatism and new media. Al wants to know why the Biden administration replaced "equality" with "equity." And Zach takes a biblical look at division and cultural clashes. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So here we are, unashamed, coming to you from another location. Actually, two locations. You'll notice that PR, the Duck Commander, is not with us today. We are embroiled in a, let's see, what the weather channel called it, a hostile winter invasion. That's what was on the hostile winter invasion. And that's kind of what it feels like. I mean, Jay's and I were looking out the window here in about, I don't know, how many inches of snow and ice. But, I mean, we've been locked down a week.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think the funniest thing I heard about this, which was a little crude from one of my red-name friends. He was like, this is what happens when you cancel Mardi Gras. Hell literally freezes over. It was funny. Well, blame it on Mardi Gras. You cast a Mardi Gras, oh, hell freezes over.

We have frozen over. Of course, we can't even dad so far out there. We had a huge ice thing, so now there's trees across the road. So I don't know when we're going to see Phil again. He's going to have to cut his way out. And Zat, now, what's it like you're in the balmy, North Carolina? What's going on in Black Mountain? Yeah, it's about probably 45 degrees here.

So we're not, we don't have quite the winter storm, you guys, guys. But I hear it's terrible It really is I mean obviously Texas is Yeah A lot worse off than us Because we've kept our power The whole time

People have lost their lives And I mean I was Here in the day I knock it off in there I have guard dogs That will occasionally go off Yeah I've trained these dogs

So I like them barking But I'm just Yeah if we're attacked by a mouse These things are for Rocious. I mean, they're like this dog. I was like, you know, in fact, when I walk into this house, I have to be careful because one wrong step and Jace loses an attack dog.

I mean, they're literally the size of my foot. They're not for protection. They're alarms. They see it. Yeah, they're out there. My dog came by and they let me know. I mean, what do they weigh? Are they about a pound?

A pound apiece? I would say one of them weighs about three pounds and the other one weighs about five pounds. Of course, if you give them a haircut, those weights get cut in half. Because they're mainly just fur. They're fur balls. They're very fluffy. But they're tenacious. I've trained them to be the first line of defense is like intruder.

So why do you have three? Because you had the one. Well, then you inherited one from Missy's grandmother that passed away. Yeah, that was her grandma being kind of funny, I think, because Missy doesn't like dogs in general. And so her grandma left her dog without her knowing it until she died.

She was like, oh, grandma left you the dog. So I said, I think she was trying to teach you something. You need to tap into that. And actually Missy's done quite well, but they mainly hang out with me. Who's the third dog?

Well, then I got big in my lab. He's in the garage. If we hear him, Bart, we'll have to I'll have to stop and you're going on without me. So I was checking my Twitter feed. I guess it was two days ago and Missy's Missy had tweeted out. She's showing a video right here in front of their house. Oh yeah.

I thought you were going to bring that out. And then Jace is racing. Was it big one? Here's what happened. Let me tell you the story. Rednecks don't run on ice. I'm telling you. The dog that Missy inherited was scared.

It's generally scared of anything. It sits there in shakes. And I'm trying to toughen him up. He's a male dog. I'm like, come on, dude. Well, when the ice hit, he had never seen ice. So he wouldn't go out on the ice. But that's a problem because at some point, when you've got to relieve yourself, there's only two options.

My house or the ice. So I was trying to get him to come out on the ice. So I was running saying, hey, we're running, we're racing, we're racing. So then I was like, let me just get biggin. We'll do a race that he won't be able to stand that. So we took off running, and I had forgotten that my neighbors had been riding four-wheels up and down the road. So when I hit one of their ruts, I went from snow to ice. And it actually happened in my slowdown.

But in two seconds, the back of my head was, pah. And so I looked up and Mr.'s like, oh, nobody saw. I didn't know she was front. Yeah, I mean, I saw it on Twitter, so along with a lot of other people, I'm sure. Yeah, so be sure and check that out on Missy's social media, and you're welcome. Yeah, that's a loving wife. That's a loving wife. That's a loving wife.

That's exactly right. Get it out there for the world to enjoy it. So we've kind of got a, in this case, compound living has been a success because, like, both my kids live right next to me. And so we basically just been doing progressive meals, you know, different, each other's houses the whole time. We had fun with it. Then we get outside and playing the snow now. We're doing the podcast from Jay's house because he's right here and nearby. So we're making the most of the compound living.

It's working pretty good for us. I actually have four teenagers here because Missy came to see me from Austin. Oh, and got stuck. And got stuck with Mia and three of her friends. So we got a little cabin fever going. know, and I kind of chewed out the peanuts last night. They were being a little loud at 12.30, and I was like,

hey, knock it off. And so I think I scared them. But overall, it's been good. We had to come to Jesus meeting one night. I sat down and we talked about, I mean, because who knows, I thought maybe the Lord arranged this

encounter. So I preached Jesus to them. It was kind of a crickets. I did most of the talking. I asked question that it was just crickets. So look, it's hard to reach teenagers. That's the bottom line. But I think overall it's been good. I mean, missing, we got into one big, huge argument over,

she turned, she was trying to turn the hot water on and let it trickle. I was like, what are you doing? She's like, well, this way if the electricity goes off, we'll have hot water. And I was like, what? we have tankless hot water heaters which look originally when we got them they said they run off gas I said yes we'll pay the extra whatever because I thought we would have hot water when electricity goes off I come to find out they still they're ignited through electricity so that's what we got into this huge argument and I eventually had to call somebody to

settle argument turns out I was right But she was right on the little gas, you know, these little gas lit heaters that you have. So she turns them on, well, it gets too hot. Well, I can't sleep. Yeah. You know, but you don't want to say, oh, I'm too hot when it's a winter storm going out. So I spent one night on the couch just simply because it was just too hot. But I tell you all this to say, really, we got into this argument.

Mizzy had an interesting thought. She was like, you know, hell would be a lot more of a deterrent if it would be. It was freezing because she would rather be hot, you know, warm than cold. It's like we've avoided being cold at all costs here. So I've had a fire going for like four days, nonstop. So we're back full circle to hell freezing over for Missy. It's a frozen wasteland. So I wanted to mention to Zach, when we're recording this, Russ Limbaal passed away yesterday.

and I don't know if you were like me, Zach, because you're a little bit younger, but like, Rush had a huge impact on me just in terms of political, being a conservative listening to his talk radio back in the 80s and early 90s. So at least wanted to mention it today. I'm sure a lot of our listeners felt the same way that Rush was such an icon. You know, it's one thing I regret. We've gotten to meet a lot of neat people. I wish I could have met Russ Limbaugh before he passed away. But he was a huge impact on me. And I'm sure he was. for you too, is that? Yeah, I listened to Rush every day for probably about seven, eight years, you know, when I was in college and up until the early part of my career. He paid the way for a lot of even what we're doing now.

I mean, before Rush, there really wasn't an avenue for any content that didn't fit into kind of the mainstream thought process. But, you know, he went on AM radio because it was kind of the Wild West and opened the door up for really conservative thinkers. And, yeah, he was a great thinker. You know, it really was. And I think it was a big loss for, you know, conservative. I've been here a lot of tributes, but a lot of people now that are big in radio

or podcasting, the thing about it is they say just what you said. You know, the best thing about a person who's a trailblazer is you know they have a major impact when there's so many behind them that are now doing what. but he was the only one doing, you know, 30 plus years ago. So I think it's interesting and you're right. I think we even, you know, Blaze TV and everything we're doing and others like us, I think, whoa. We just had a bird, kamikaze style. Into the window.

Said, I need heat now. Oh, what? What is this clear obstruction? and hit his head flipped around like twice he's kind of addled now he's out on a tree land and he flew off again and the dogs came and come they came under the tree and were gathering like buzzards so I think there's no telling what's going to happen today so we're just saying unashamed they should be ready because there may be dogs teens birds and other strange things that happen when we're talking.

But anyway, yeah, so rest in peace for Rush. I'm grateful for what he did. And I do want to. Yeah. And I do want to mention those people in Texas having a tough time because, I mean, to us, we didn't get, I mean, it's been, you know, a few uncomfortable moments. But, I mean, there's really a lot of people out there suffering. And you never like to see people suffer in a mountain, heard anything from them,

boiling snow for water. and so our hearts and prayers should go out to. Yeah, it's been tough. I mean, there's been loss of life as well. And so, yeah, we definitely are thinking about you guys and hopefully we'll be thawing out here before too long. Well, yeah. And it just, it goes back to the point, look, whether it's the pandemic or whether it's people, you know, rioting in the streets over political issues or simply the weather, it reminds us that we're perishable. And so what we talk about on here, I mean, we believe this stuff.

We believe that we're indestructible because of God's power. And no matter what happens, we had that in our mind that gives us peace. And I think it's an appeal to people. I mean, if my house floods, guess what? Okay, I'm going to deal with it. You know, if I slip on the ice because I saw the first, even after our little moment that we had out here that was funny, me running wide open and, you know, bussing it. When I got back inside, I'd turned on my computer and it was a news alert.

It was like the first death in Louisiana was a man from Lafayette who fell, who was my age, who fell on the ice and hit his head. And I thought. But you did too. Yeah, I could have just died here. But we were kind of cackling about it. But why is it that you laugh when somebody gets hurt initially? I mean, you know, it's hard to even wait.

You got to make sure they're up. Okay, but I mean, it's, why is it funny when other people talk to? I don't know. Oh, yeah. I remember Phil, we were one year. Well, I think we shared this story. We were hunting or going hunting. And someone had put a board up because the water was high to the boat house where our boats were parked.

But it was a two before. And it had had ice on it. And so we were trying to carry something. I can't remember what it was that was heavy. Phil was like, we were all standing there like, we need a wider board. I'm not walking on a tube before over water that's icy. And Phil said, let me show you how to do that. He grabbed whatever it was.

He took one step and literally his feet went where his head was in two seconds. And it's probably the hardest I've ever laughed in my life. But I'll have to admit, you know, my dad, now wet, was on his knees. and he started laughing. We just all laughed. Well, that's why you got to laugh and make it okay for everybody else to laugh. That's what you can't just get all offended

because you know, just start laughing at yourself and then we can all have a big laugh at it. And then someone said, I think it was God when he said, you're okay. And Phil said, I don't know. And then we laugh.

It was pretty funny. All right, let's take a break. So we, anyway, we're surviving is what we're saying. So we're at, Acts chapter 6 and 7 is where we are in our textual study and so without Phil we're going to plow forward we'll miss his insights but we got Zach we got the the brain so I'm sure he's got a few things

for us but uh you know we left off we had talked about his persecution that's been going on the early church is sort of now you know it's kind of it's kind of on a role I mean it's formed it's formed what it's formed it's impacting people daily the apollo They're still doing great things. Basically, the leadership can't stop them. They told them what twice to quit preaching? And they're just like, you know. Which goes from my point about having the power of the spirit and the resurrection,

the resurrected Lord at your service headquartered in heaven. Because they're literally not paying any attentions to threats on their life. Right. They're like, quit speaking about Jesus or we'll put you in jail. Okay. Guess what? Prison break. We're back to speaking about Jesus.

Angels are letting them out of jail. Yeah. So which is a reminder that this is truly the acts of God through people. He works in our lives on the daily basis. And my question is, when did he stop doing that? He hasn't. He hasn't. So what happens in Acts 6.

It's verse one. I think it's really interesting because being a pastor, it's been a lot of time with, you know, believers and brothers and sisters. This is the first recorded complaint. And it only took us, like, you know, four chapters to get there. But verse one says, in those days when the number of disciples was increasing, so things are growing. Things are doing great. Verse one or where are you asked? Acts six, so five chapters. The Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebrae Jews. So there's that first time you say the word complain. And being a pastor is interesting because the hardest part about being a church or being

a part of a, you know, full-time ministry is complaining. I mean, there's no doubt about it. I mean, that was the, now that I'm not, I'm preaching, but I'm not necessarily pasturing a church and being there and doing all the things I did before. The biggest freedom is not hearing complaints. And, I mean, I hate to say it like that. It was just true. And of course, an American church will complain about anything.

I came here today and my park is by, I came here today and the heat's not turned on over in the room. And it's just constant. You know, you're kind of trying to gear up to, you know, really share the Word of God and try to be the message of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, you just start dealing with that. So I kind of get the idea here when this happens because what happened, and this is a legitimate thing is, I believe this is that this is kind of the dividing line that you see in the early church. Because first they're all Jews, but then these Grecian Jews are basically Hellenistic Jews, and they've been converted in as Greeks. Well, they're always kind of seen as second citizens because they were Greeks and they weren't, you know, born Jews.

And so that becomes a problem. And it's really a problem throughout the whole first century church, I think. Well, it's a problem today, too. You think about, you know, just cultural differences, racial differences, you know, that are still happening in the church. I mean, this is interesting, though, that you have two groups, of people from two different cultures, and there's kind of this cultural clash happening in the New Testament church, where you have widows of a certain group are being overlooked by the distributors from the second group.

And I think that still goes, it's very relevant for what's going on now. I was reading in Ephesians 2 this week with my kids, just about one of the beautiful things about the kingdom of God is that you do have these different cultures that can come together and find reconciliation through the cross. It's not perfect. It's a dirty business. It's messy. We're never going to fully get there on this side of heaven,

but we can continue to strive to find real authentic community through the gospel. But I think it's cool here how, yeah, that was how the first kind of church structure came to be was in this moment right here, you know? Yeah. And really, about selfishness and unselfishness. I think in any movement, it's easier when it's small.

That's why I think small groups are so effective. And you have intimacy. You can talk about people's lives. But the more growth that happens and the more people you're reaching, well, now you have the more possibility of people being selfish and they start complaining. And I think that's why Paul reminded the Philippians, because I think this same problem happened. you know in chapter two where you said do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider your cells consider other better yeah better than yourselves and then he gives this awesome picture of the humility of jesus who being in the very nature of god didn't consider a quality something to be grasped made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant you know and it

eventually goes he humbled himself to death even death on a cross but then after that he has this, which my mom used to quote this to me every day for like three years. I think it was more than three. Well, she zeroed in on arguing, but to Al's point and the point in Act 6, because the widows were being overlooked. And, you know, what's happening is you're reaching people, you're helping people, you're finding people who are in need, and we don't have enough servants. We've got too many chiefs saying, hey, let's win the world, let's win the world.

And there's not enough servants helping people. and in 14 of Philippians 2 he says do everything without do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars which is a beautiful thought in the universe as you hold out the word of life which is Jesus he is the word the word came flesh that he just said in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. So it's kind of a, I think it's the same situation. It's the same problem that's going to happen as generations go on. It's a great point. And it's one of my favorite texts, that text in the whole Bible. And the reason why is because any relationships that you have, whether it's husband and

wife, you know, father to your kids, you know, mother to your kids, your sisters, your brothers, people in the church, that passage has great application. because if you live that way, where you really lived with a servant mindset, you would always have a better relationship. There's just no way it couldn't be better. It is. But you,

it's just hard, it's easy to read. It's hard to put in your life. I mean, when I had to come to Jesus meeting with the teenagers, I felt it's a little bad because I came down hard on it. But it was late at night. They were being loud.

Missy was asleep. I mean, I'm like, this is my house. I protect my wife. She has sleep in the top three of important things in life. And I hate to say, I think it's barely above me, but it's close. Don't mess with their sleep.

And so they were being loud. And so I came in there and said, hey, you know, knock it off. They were kind of laughing. They didn't realize that I was saying, shut it now. And so I said, hey, this is rude. The woman of the house is 20 feet away trying to get. some sleep and you're you know you are being too late you'll wake her up one of the kids they were like oh sorry i forgot and i should have just said okay and went on this is probably my mistake but i said

well for you have to have forgotten that means you would have at some point considered somebody else so i don't believe it that's i probably went too far over that line of reason but look at one We were all teenagers, and you're not thinking of other people is my point. I mean, you've lost track of time. I get it. We're in an ice storm. So it's just hard to do. You had a moment.

You had a moment that you were trying to speak. Yeah, I think that humility goes a long way. I mean, in the context of Acts 6, you know, you've got two different groups of people. You've got the Hellenistic Jews that spoke Greek on one side, and then you got the the Hebrew Jews that did not speak Greek. And this cultural difference, it's easy to kind of get selfish and kind of into your protection. We've talked about this a lot on the podcast.

I mean, it doesn't, this transcends all cultures where you want to hang on to whatever your cultural preference is. And that's a form of selfishness. And it's hard to give that up because it's comfortable. It's what you know. It's what you're familiar with. But in the kingdom of God, there's just not. really a place for that. That's why we keep talking about this idea. This whole thing is

as we move into Acts 6 at the end of it and in Acts 7, again, it's always about the kingdom of God. That's where our allegiance lies. But it's cool to see that in the first century that they didn't have this right either. And they were really close to that. They had apostles and all that. And they were doing a great job either. It does give me hope of the grace we can live under, you know? It's a great point. that let's take another break i think the point is though you're never in a problem-free zone i mean it's like marriage or parenting or in the church look god gives us the resources you know especially with

through his spirit and and the armor of god where you deal with problems and you move on i mean they got together they had some people let's wait on the tables let's help the widows that and but that's also keep sharing Jesus. And you'll notice when it gets down to verse 7, it says, so the Word of God spread the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly. And so, I mean, it was just something, I think when you have something that's hard and you have bumps in the road, those are character-making events. And if you keep the big prize at the forefront of your mind, which is getting Jesus out to the world,

then you see what happens next, which is then their attack, not from within, but from the outside, from the religious people. Which I think that's the whole point, because they had some, you know, some tension going on inside. And they said, what can we do to fix this? Because we don't want this to take away from us continuing to reach people. And I think at a practical level for those of we out there, a lot of you don't, are in the church family or committed to that. I think a great practical lesson towards guys like me is that you want to let the people that are gifted and talented especially to be able to proclaim the word of guy, they're just good at getting it to people, which obviously, Stephen, the guy, were fixing a focus in on. He had way more gifts than just waiting on those tables too.

He just needed an opportunity to be able to exercise it. He's going to do it in a big way. It has a huge impact. So you wanted them to be able to do that. It's not that the tables are not important and taking care of the widows is not important. But in this case, the disciple said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. And I think we just have to accept that, that the gospel going out is the most important thing

and impact to people's lives. And we have to keep that ranked at the top. Sometimes we get in a situation where we're in the church and all of a sudden we do start looking at ourselves, well, you know, nobody visited me, you know, this happened and I didn't get some food at the social. And all of a sudden, you become a reason why the gospel is not being charged out of wherever you are. So just don't be that person. Or the meetings that is happening in leadership is all concentrated on tables, chairs, and social events.

And the arguments are occurring and you look up and there's nothing happening as far as the Declaration of Jesus. Yeah. It becomes an inward thing. You don't ever want this to become club-like. This is a mission. That's the idea. Yeah, and this is the text that one of the texts we would use as Christians to say that there is a role for a full-time pastor, you know, minister role that's dedicated to teaching and studying the word and prayer that his full-time vocation is to minister to the church in terms from the standpoint of,

I'm going to teach the church, you know, doctrines, what the Bible. They're going to be one of those. people in the church and it can be paid for that. I was thinking about 1st Timothy 5 talks about setting up elders and some of them are worthy of double honor, meaning that they're paid elders. They get paid to be an elder or to be a pastor, a shepherd. There's also other verses in Ephesians 4 about some people have different roles in the church. And so, you know, I do think, wow, we talk a whole lot about deconsolidation of the church

on this podcast. We talk a whole lot about the deconsolidation of power. and getting out of the building. I mean, there is a biblical precedent and role for someone that he paid to be a full-time, like, I'm here to preach the Word of God. Yeah, there is a role for that in Scripture, and I think this is the text you'd use for that. I agree. But I also think that the two things that really combine us that we've been talking about today,

one is the humility. Because when you have someone that's being prideful, it just becomes, you know, a challenge. And the second thing is that looking at the overall picture, that we all come together with different gifts and roles to lift up Jesus to the world. And so sometimes you have to sacrifice, you know, how many tables we're going to put out or some big argument over something silly over the greater need, which is declaring Jesus to the world.

Well, so the solution for the disciples, what they did, was they said, look, we want to get some folks from our number here. They're full of wisdom and the spirit and they're good guys. And we're going to turn this over to them. And so they came up with seven guys. And for Stephen is the first one mentioned in verse five. And he even gets a description. So you know he has some real gifts because Luke said a man full of faith and of the Holy

Spirit. So he kind of stood apart. This guy's got potential. He's going to do something big. I mean, that's basically what we're learning. And we're fixing to see what he did. And then you have Philip, who also, we read about him in Acts chapter 8. He was pretty amazing and had gifts as well.

And then there's these other guys, which we don't read about them later. It doesn't mean they're not important. But I did want to mention the last guy, because this goes to Zach's point earlier, Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. So the wisdom was they picked, since they were having this issue about the Hebrew, Hebraic Jews, weren't necessarily to taking care of the Grecian Jews. they appoint one of the seven from the Grecian community, which made perfect sense. So now you've got one of the seven that he's from the group that has really kind of been

neglected through this process. So I think there's a lot of wisdom in that for decisions we make going forward. You know that that group is going to be fair-minded now because they have one of their own number in there. So I just think it makes sense. Kind of exact what you were talking about, the difference between race and everything else. We are to be able to look like in our culture, even in churches and in the kingdom of God, because we're all in this together.

I've always said, in Jesus is the ultimate place where equality occurs. You look around our world and the people alike, if we can just come together, promote unity, in Jesus is the ultimate place. Because you recognize one that we're all made in the image of God. Yeah.

Jesus died for everyone. We all make mistakes, and we come together, male or female, social class, ethnicity, under the banner of disciples of Jesus, sons of God, however you want to phrase it,

possessors of the Holy Spirit. So it teaches you that we're all just humans. So Zach, I got a question for you. Jay's made me think of this. So we think of the word equality. And it's one that is very meaningful to us because, you know, we believe, as Jay said, we are all equal in Christ. As Americans, we believe we were created by God equal,

because that's what our original doctor. tell us. So I've noticed since the Biden administration has come in, the word equality is now replaced with the word equity. If you notice this, like everything I'm reading now coming out of the Biden administration is for racial equity. So what do they mean? What do they mean by that? Because I know you, you know, study these things and no more than I do. So why that transition? What are they talking about and what's their ultimate goal? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a nuanced discussion. I mean, I've read a lot of, I try to, well, first of all, when I get into a subject like this or any controversial subject, I try to find the best of both sides of an argument.

And I want to read everybody. I want to know what the best is saying so that I have an accurate representation. Yeah, a lot of language that's being used right now, equity is more kind of an economic term. You know, if you think about it, it's a, I mean, you trade equities, which means stocks or equity and a business, it's about money and it's about wealth and redistribution of wealth. And so, yeah, I think that what their argument would be is that there is, there's the systemic racism that's occurred and it's deeply embedded in our culture and that it is our job to make that right.

You know, the problem, and even in the church, I mean, this is, I mean, John McArthur and some of those guys have said this is going to be voting back. who's another guy who's got a book coming out called Fault Lines. I just got an advanced computer's copy on that. He talks about this movement a lot. And by the way, let's pray for Vody as well. He's got, I think he has some kind of heart disease or something. And he came back from Africa.

And so he's, I don't know what else going on with him. The guys from Just Thinking podcast that we had on the show as well. But yeah, I think what's going on here is a very common. these guys are saying this may be one of the biggest issues the church faces as well. There's a big debate inside the church, too. This isn't just like in politics. This is a debate in the church.

And what brings us together? Should we recognize? Like, should we recognize? Go ahead. Take a break. Should, you know, should we recognize race or should we not? And it's, I mean, there's a lot of people that are hurt, angry on all sides of this issue.

And I, you know, I try to stay out. of some of the more emotionally charged language because you get into politics, man, that becomes more of a football you can kick around. And what I think is most important is to consider as our role in the church, how do we speak into that? How do we speak into the racial divide, which is really not just a racial divide? It's a cultural divide as well. I do think that the Bible gives us a picture of a very diverse church in the first century.

I mentioned Ephesians, too. let me read this to you kind of going to jesus point this is ephesus 2 verse um verse 13 it says um but now in christ jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of jesus for he himself is our peace who made us both talking about two different cultures here both one so he's made two different cultures in the in the new testament church one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. And you think there's a dividing wall of hostility in our culture today? Yeah, even in the church.

But how did Jesus break it down? He did it, verse 15, Ephesians 2, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. He's talking about racial and cultural differences here in becoming one. making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body. And this is how he does it. He does it through the cross, therefore killing the hostility. And the way that he does that is when we really come to the cross of Calvary and we come before a living God,

nobody really has anything to offer at that place. Right. And so we're all in that moment when we come to the cross of Calvary where our own sin is, is highlighted. We recognize our own depravity. We recognize the fact that how far we are from his, from his holiness. And that puts me in a posture of humility that really no matter what somebody, where they came from, what their differences is, even their current sin struggles, I don't have a, I don't have a claim to righteousness. I don't have a claim to justice, you know, based on what I've done, because I'm guilty too. It puts me in a place of humility.

Yeah, I love it. Well, you remember in 1st Corinthians 12, I mean, here's the Church of Corinth, which they had been given a lot of gifts of the Holy Spirit, you know, with healings and speaking in tongues and all this, which had caused a lot of problems because they were more focused on the gifts rather than faith, hope, and love. And, you know, eventually the most embarrassing charge ever is Paul had to remind them of the gospel, you know, in chapter 15. And just think how embarrassing that is.

what God did through Jesus. But to go along with what we're saying, and I think they had some division among them where he wouldn't have addressed this. And selfishness. Remember because their big issues was all that? They're not looking out for each other. They're just, when the Lord's suffer is going on,

you get out of here. I'm drinking my stuff. I'm doing my stuff. So in 1st Corinthians 12, at the end of it, he made this point that what you made earlier, Zach, the body of Christ, everyone has a part of it and God has appointed first of all apostles which were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Lord.

He had mentioned that in chapter 9 and verse 1. You know, prophets and then he goes through these gifts of the Holy Spirit. But then he got down to 29. He said, are all apostles or all prophets? I mean, the understood answer is no. There are different people that God has set up. but even what led to that section was in verse 12 he said the body is a unit and it is made up of many parts and though all its parts are many they form one body so it is with christ for we were all baptized by one

spirit into one body and then he gets into wherever you're from whether jews or greeks slave or free, we're all given the one spirit to drink. And that's why I said, ultimately, in Jesus is where true equality happens. I mean, or he wouldn't be mentioning this. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. It's a great point. And I do think, Zach, that it applies this idea, because that is, you hit it. Y'all hit it. It's the dividing line for the New Testament church. but it's been like it's always the dividing line between some culture, some race, some division. And I think the answer is simple. I mean, our enemy is an enemy of division.

That's what he does. The more you can divide people and get them isolated, the more you can, they become bitter. They look at their own sinfulness and it overwhelms them. And if they don't look for something bigger than themselves, they destroy each other. Well, it puts us in a difficult position in the church because particularly like where we're, the perspective we're coming from because we're kind of going to make everybody mad. You know, we're going to make kind of, we're going to make the nationalist, Matt, because we're going to say, not sorry, but, you know, our hope is not in that kingdom.

And so our hope is in another kingdom. And so then that's more kind of on the right. And then more on the left, you're going to make those folks mad because you're going to say, No, no, we're not buying into the politics of identity. That's not our deal. So it's a difficult spot to be in, but if you look out throughout the vein of history, in hindsight's 2020, by the way, too, I think we'll look back on this time period, in this cultural moment. I think God's people are going to, I keep saying this, they're going to stand in the gap by the power of the Holy Spirit,

and they're going to say no. In God's kingdom, our cultural differences, our racial differences, are all. All those nuances, those are all secondary. And when I say secondary, it's way behind the importance that we are unified in the truth of the gospel. And our church might look really strange to the world because you're not going to understand how these people who should be fundamentally opposed to one another are actually doing life together. We're not going to participate in the divisiveness in that wall of hostility. That's right. Let's take one last break.

But isn't that what makes it really? you know, there's all these different types of groups, different kinds of language, different kinds of background, uniting. You know, as Philippians, I think chapter 1, like 27 or whatever, where it says we contend as one man for the faith of the gospel. I mean, to me, that's what makes it appealing. I mean, I learned that when our parents came to the Lord. They would treat someone with money or someone way down the social class. line with equal importance, which was always fascinating to me

as a kid watching this, but then I later understood. The reason they do that is because what we have in Christ allows you to view all people as valuable because they're made by God. And I think my parents do an exceptional job of that. I mean, I've seen my dad so many times where a guy comes in and I'm I'd hear a story and I'm like oh boy this guy's crazy you know

and my dad would ask him like what he thought about something or and I'm like what what is he but he was he was giving him importance because he viewed him as valuable because he was looking at him through the eyes of the Holy Spirit of God which he is valuable which goes back to the story in Luke 15 where Jesus was eating with the sinners and the tax collectors and like we we're doing even with these people. And in fact, what we're fixed to get into with what happened to Stephen is the same issue. Who are you associating with? Who do you think you are?

This is not how it works in the dividing lines that came out. I'd say probably the number one thing I hear, Trace, because every Sunday when we meet together, there are different people that come in. A lot of them are you guys, unashamed, you listen to the podcast. So you want to come through Westman-O and you want to see if you meet some of the time? most sometimes you do sometimes you don't but when i meet you and we talk the number one thing i hear is that you guys treat everybody they're surprised they expect us to be like i don't know what they expect but but the the answer i get back is you guys just normal guys that are just you really do what you talk about doing on the podcast or on the show we're like yeah it's who we are

and i want to say this because you know you're you're right we probably are in the middle of this fight and people, you know, attack Christians or whatever. But I think it's because we're the last people left that you can actually offend from the world because they don't, they're not worried about hurting our feelings or whatever. That's why it's so interesting. Once we declared publicly that we are followers of Jesus Christ, we get all these vicious attacks. You know, we have this controversy that happened with, with Phil, you know. I mean, you send a guy from GQ to interview my dad. He starts asking all this. these provocative, provocative, somewhat controversial questions.

And we were like, well, we were shocked that it put this long. But I'll say this, the one thing that they didn't count on, because typically when enemies attack you, and we're fixed to see it from Stephen, they stereotyped you. So they're like, well, these, here's a family from Louisiana. So they just concluded or deducted that we were prejudiced because we're from the south. that we'll attack that, we'll come up with a narrative. So they started putting out these headlines. But what they failed to realize is that in our life, from the time we were really small kids, we have met at a church with all kind of ethnic groups represented. There are

members of our family that we've adopted that, I mean, a lot of people effectively call us the United Nations. And so all of a sudden, when they started digging in, they're like, well, wait a minute here. We've come up with a stereotype and an attack that could not be further from the truth, which they don't realize why that happened, but it came from what I read in 1st, Corinthians 12, that at some point in our spiritual journey, you know, we became colorblind. We became blind to the differences of how we're viewed in the world, and it just became we're in Jesus. And the longer you do that, you really, don't notice the differences that the world highlights.

So you don't have to tell me that we're going to have some special month to celebrate this different group. You know, in Jesus, we tend to come together no matter what those differences are. Yeah, but I think you highlight a problem there, though, that where the discussion has moved is they, the argument. I mean, I just read white fragility, and I've been reading a lot of these books lately just to kind of get my mind around what the current debate is. And, you know, the case that's being made, though, is that, that, like, the way you just positioned that, Jace, they would say that that you're looking at racism or prejudice as being a individual thing. And so they would attack our position as saying that we are too individualistic. and they're looking at things more like collectively, like this collective whole of society.

And so it's gotten kind of difficult because we do believe in the individual. We believe that the individual has made the image of God. We do believe in the collective body, too. We call it the church. And so we're kind of stuck in this weird place that we're kind of in between the two. But the healing, though, I don't understand how you can even make a case for liberty, how you can make a case for human rights on any level, including on the level of race or gender or anything for that matter, if we do not anchor it in Genesis 126. So I don't even know, to me, it's all meaningless anyways. If Genesis 126 isn't true in 27 that man's made in the image of God, mankind, humanity, that we're made in God's image.

If that's not true, we really don't have an argument. And what scares me is that that that's not the, anchor of the current argument that's coming out of, even the church, the people that are teaching a lot of this stuff. They're not anchoring it in the Imago Day. They're not. And they're anchoring in some kind of humanistic philosophy, Frederick Hegel, Karl Marx, or whoever you want to go back to and read. But that's what scares me. We've got to get back to the basis of that man, kindness, made the image of God. I think that's what was happening in an axe when this division's happening, that's when they implemented these guys. They wanted to make sure that these women were taken care of.

Yeah, I want to say this. You know, I thought about some, I was trying to be creative in ways I could reach these teenage girls. And I thought of a question, and I haven't really thought too long on this, but I was going to throw it out in our closing moments, because I thought about asking them, how would you create a perfect world? if you were in charge of this, how would you go about doing that?

Because I looked at it from God's perspective. Because when you think of the challenges that that presents, because really that's what we're trying to do from a political standpoint and different races and all, how do you create some kind of perfect harmony? And I thought, well, the challenges are God gave us the ability to choose. So with that, that presents a challenge. Because we have a lot of mistakes that have been made.

You have our deaths, so you only have a limited time frame because we're all perishable, so you're going to make a perfect world, and you're real close to someone, and then they die, or they're murdered. We have more challenges based on choice. Then I thought about time itself. You have all the past, the present, and the future living in a place where bad choices are made and people are dying. And you probably see where I'm going with it. That's why God chose to bring Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And what did he do? He lived his life to lead to a cross so that you could have a way to start over with the bad choices you made. He then overcame death. So there's a way to live again. And then I thought he superimposed him. through time because he's an internal being. He's at the right hand of God, but we'll see. That doesn't mean he's asleep or detached or away because you'll see that at the end of Stephen's life. So I guess the closing statement for me is no matter what the sin, no matter what

the divide, no matter what's happened, reparations were made at the cross, going backwards or forward. And that's basically our proclamation. So it's been great discussion today from strange environments from what we normally have. We're going to try to get connected back with Phil for the next podcast. Stay tuned on that. Zach, you're going to have to try to zoom in so we can finish this discussion about Steve and we've got some really interesting stuff to talk about. So we'll see you next time on Unashamed.