Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 231 | Phil Says Goodbye to Blue, Miss Kay's Battering Ram, and Hate in the Name of Religion

Episode Date: February 24, 2021

Phil thinks Miss Kay's car was damaged in the snowstorm, but that's not the real story. It's time to retire Blue, the dog Phil calls "the greatest retriever of all time." What the guys won't miss is the world's best duck dog peeing on everything in sight. Al recalls a guy who blacked out parts of the Bible that mentioned the Holy Spirit living inside us. And the guys discuss what people do in the name of religion, confusing the sin and the sinner, and why it's harder to reach older people with Jesus. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Well, we're back to our somewhat normal studio, except Al is, Al, where are you at? I am in the southern lair. You know, you guys are in the northern layer, which is, you know, close to our hunting property. I have, Lisa and I bought a house down here in Gulf Shores, and it is now the southern layer, because like your wife, When your wife is in a different location, you want to try to be in that location as much as possible. Yeah, I get it. That's why I'm here. I was amazed coming down here how many trees had fallen due to the ice storm.

Of course, two days ago it was 16, and today it was 66 coming down here. Well, it started four nights ago, and the ice was just forming on the trees. it's kind of like a sleet but it's below freezing and the ice is sticking to the tree limbs well I'm going out there and they turned more and more and more to ice all that day four days ago

the trees began to shine and they were like it was an ice field but they're all trees and they're hanging in every direction where my abode is, my house. I'm surrounded by big trees, some of them 250 years old.

They were there when Thomas Jefferson came up through here and the Louisiana purchase. He didn't come, but he sent a group up here, checking out, see what he wanted to find out about Hot Springs, Arkansas, where the Washington starts because people say you take a bath in it

and you live 300 years. So he was wanting to check that out. but they and I read the whole thing of his journey I read a little book about it it chronicles especially the part where he came right by our house out there I mean he they were every day they would add information to where they were going so they came out of jonesville where the two three rivers meet and makes the black the washtal the tin saw and the little river come together so he talked about that but when he got up in this country I was wondering, but he said lots of birds, lots of ducks.

Yeah. So back then they didn't have ducks eating. They said they killed some. And they said the ducks that were black and had large feet seemed to be the best eating. So they were eating coots. Oh, my. Which I was thinking, I was thinking, that bunch of learned a lot since 1800. They came up through here in 1800, speaking of the place where we now live.

Well, just put it bluntly. The trees got coated with ice first. Well, about dark, the trees, it's been misty all day, frozen ice building up on the limbs. When they began to fall, it sounds, it was like this. Crack, it'd be a big crack. And I'm like, whoa, what was that? And then, co-woo! So I'm looking out across through the timber in my yard.

I moved out in the open, as open as I could find it, where the trees weren't. And the tree limbs began to crack and fall. And the first thing I said, I waited. I said, because I had to run underneath two or three trees to get in the house. I said, I'm going to try to make it. So I made it in spite of all the stuff hitting the ground. When I say hitting the ground, I mean. I wish I could have seen that.

You running. Well, today... These trees are falling behind you. Four days later, there's a crew of individuals because some of those limbs broke off, and now they're just hanging. Some of them are like this big around, a foot through. Well, these limbs will kill you if they fall on you.

But they stripped power lines. I mean... It was like... It looked like that all the way. Miss Kay's got lights out in the yard, but it took all that. down so I have an electrician and some tree cutters on the premises over there where I live you know what I noticed Phil cleaning it up I noticed number one with the snow and being here

and so long I figured out I did a lot of tracking in my yard because there was nothing to do and trees weren't falling in my yard so I'd get up every morning and look at the tracks and I would try to go figure out what the tracks belong to. to. I mean, the various, pretty well realized I got some armadillo, some raccoons, skunks. I saw the same thing. But I'm like, it kind of ruined that movie. You remember that movie with Charles Bronson? What was the name of that? Death Hunt? I think it was Death Hunt, where they tracked him in the snow. The whole movie is about them tracking him. Lee Marvin was after him. Yeah, but it kind of, but it kind of,

kind of ruined the movie for me because I thought it's impossible with all the snowfall not to be tracked. So either he was that slick or the movie was unrealistic. You can watch it. It's a good one. It's really good. But I didn't realize that. The other thing I didn't realize is how bright it is at night when there's snow on the ground. I mean, I was walking around.

I could see everything. It was fascinating to me. In this part of the country, where we see snow so seldom. By the way, when's the last time you saw snow like that in ice? In the 80s, I think, 1980, that was a week. So what's that? 40 years ago, 35, 40 years. I was a teenager.

We're just not prepared for that to happen. Well, it's so funny. When I get, I'd get back to the house and Mr. and said, what are you doing out there? And I was like, I'm tracking animals. She said, why? I said, because I can't. I had deer tracks right through my front yard.

I don't know what they were doing out there, but they normally don't come in your yard. They're looking for something deep. A lot of people said, we got deer coming right up to our house. I said, in the redneck world, you don't see that. No, I don't do that. What's funny, Dad, is that, so we're 30 miles north of you. And we didn't have the same phenomenon with the ice and the trees. No.

And we had some, but not near as much. We had more straight ice and snow, sleet and snow. So just that 30 miles south, you had a little different phenomenon than we had. We didn't lose a lot of land. It's all being cleaned up. Fortunately for us, it did bang up some of the vehicles. Ms. Kay, she had a glass broken on one of her lights on the front of her. Well, I got a question.

I pulled it out from under that tree, but I told her about it. I said, look, your limbs must have hit you car. You know, and broke the lights. And she said, no, I ran into a car up there at Walmart parking lot. That's what got that.

I'm like, my question is who would notice? She's kind of, dad, she's like her grandmother. Remember that first car I ever had when Nanny died? She gave that car to mom, and that's the one I learned how to drive.

You took it for duck call sales, because it was all we had that would run at that time. And that old car, of course, back in those days, this thing was back of Ford Fair Lane, probably made in the 50s or 60s. Oh, yeah. And that thing was like the tank. But it had dense and rusps things all over it

because Nanny would just run into stuff, I guess. Then the UPS truck sideswired with you in it, remember? He did. He did. And neither one of you stopped. Y'all just kept going like that. We just swiped it. And then he tried to get it.

me in trouble because, you know, I was 15 years old, so he thought I'll just put it on this kid. So the state trooper came out there, looked at the place we hit, which is that curve right there where Harrison lives. Yeah. And looked at it and the cops said, this is a no-file. I mean, if you meet here, you're going to, you know, if you meet here, you're going to hit somebody. Yeah, it's a one-lane road and people are. That's a one-lane road. Traveling. UPS truck and the car, not enough room. But you know, that old fair lane, it didn't even get a dam, but it put a big old

put a big old streak on that truck. Yeah. The redneck world's a lot like places in Mexico, you know, where there's no street lights and all this stuff. You know, you hit somebody, you know, if he's still alive and you're alive, you're like, oh, I don't worry about it. They go on and you go on.

I kind of like the way they roll. It's the old ways, Dad. Well, once the lawsuit phase started coming in, oh, my neck, I made my check. I mean, yeah. Well, I think it comes from most of our vehicles have always been battering rams anyway. Subpar.

And so it never bothered me to side swipe a tree or... No. I just thought, just like scars that I have. You know, after a while, you're kind of proud of them. You're like... Or like your mama, what in the world would they put a concrete post out there in the middle of the Walmart parking lot? I didn't know that post was there.

Of course, she just caved in the front of the rig. I said, well, I said, well, what did you do when you hit it? She said, I just gunned it thinking, what's holding me? But she's trying to go over a concrete pipe, a pillar out there in the park lot about three-foot tall. Yeah. You know, riding beneath her car and she just, boom. Well, I'm going to tell you, when these drive-thrus, when I remember being, you know, a teenager or a kid riding with Ms. Kay, and every time you would go into these like the sonic or whatever where you it's a you you got to watch your rearview mirror on she is the master at taking out those because they make them cheap you know it looks nice and all lit up but your rearview mirror coming out it'll just shear it all yeah and so i told her one time i was like one day you're gonna have there's gonna be a poster inside all sonics with your mugshot on it saying drive through on

only. And you know why she likes to go to Sonic? Because they make these drink, their drinks there are like, it's about a half a gallon of fluid, whatever your tea or whatever. I mean, the thing is just huge.

Yeah, it has a real small base so you can put it in your cup over. And then it's like so big, it's impossible to stay in there because it's top heavy. And I'm like, but Kay, she loves it because she likes to buy it. then drink it all day, you know.

Well, I didn't realize this, Jay, so there's a happy hour at Sonic. It's like, I don't know what it is, two to four. So you get the drink like at half price. So I took the kids by to get something to eat. I was like, wow, all these cards here at 3 o'clock, you know, there's like a line of cars. And look, everyone that pull up through the thing, get a big old giant drink and drive off. And I thought, who goes to a fast food place for a drink?

But, I mean, they are lined up. For a quarter. For a quarter off. Hard to figure. Well, Phil, what's this I hear about your dog? I mean, it's happy news today because I got the word. It's already, it's gone almost viral in our little world. That you're, you finally agreed to retire, oh, Blue.

Well, Blue, and you would agree with this. As far as retrieving ducks, none that we've ever had have even come clubby. to doing what that dog could do. I'll agree with that. I mean, he's running out there. If it's teal, let's say, yeah, I don't care three of them. He grabs three green-winged teal. He brings back three at a time.

Hands him to me. I said, got some more. And he takes back, that's all I say, got some more. He turns around and he goes to get the rest of them, brings them to you. Big Ducks, he pick up two at a time, like two miles. Two instead of one, saves time. the greatest retriever, you ask me a question of all time. However, when you get that sucker and you open that gate,

it's like a cannon being shot out of a rocket. I mean, he will run over you. The gate slams you in the face. He will leap from just running, jump, slam over the four-wheeler to get in it. First thing he does is peas on everything in the four-wheel. wheeler, especially if it's like your bag, size bag. He pees on everything in there. He said, got to mark everybody's bag.

So he pitches on all the bags. Yeah. Well, he just, and look, he won't shut up as far as like he sits there all day. He's wanting to go, but I won't let him because we're not, there's no ducks out there. But he moaned and whined literally. All day. The moment he got off that shooting ports, when we were leaving, when he went from that position and got in the boat, quiet.

Never moaned again while he's in the boat. Therefore, we were tying blue and all we required of the next dog is, we know he's not going to be or she won't be as good as blue. We know that. No dog has ever retrieved that many ducks. I would say that dog retrieved, and you'll agree, thousands. and saved us percentage-wise

he got so many that we thought he'd never get I would say he probably saved us several hundred cripples that we wouldn't have gotten

so we're turning him loose and giving him to Burrell because Burl says I'd like to have that dog that is a great retriever

I said the dog won't shut up in the blind Burrell he said I just want him because I know what he's done

I've watched him the great thing about this is Burrell lives in Colorado. So I like that this decision is final because it's a long way from here to Colorado. You don't want blue in the same neighborhood you live in. You want him to slam to Colorado. That's where you need. He needs to go. Well, and Burroughs got a big ranch. I mean, like they live on a big open air. You know, they got farm animals. I mean, you know, he'll finally be able to just run and frolic. You know, who knows.

Here's the deal. What I was going to say is on a scale. from one to ten, blues retrieving ability was an 11. I agree. But when it comes to manners, zero. That's right. When it comes to social skills, zero. But Jace, he is a dog. You're a human being. Yeah, but everything is extreme. You're talking about social skills and manners. You're talking about a dog. A dog tends to not be as... Most dogs, when I gave you. you the idea maybe if you domesticate him some, he'll be a little more friendly and won't wind so much. If you pin him up, my point was, he's so hyper that maybe you domesticated. We tried that, but Ms. Kay, after two days. And he literally destroyed everything on your seven acres.

He started with peeing on all the car tires and truck tires. We don't care outside. But he got inside. I said, well, he won't do that inside. Isn't it wrong? Every chair pee on it. Couch, pee on it. Table, pee on it. Let's get that dog out of. He's peeing on the floor. I'm like, well. Yeah.

So that's what I'm saying. He's a dog of extremes. Welcome to my world, ladies and gentlemen. Make it sometimes in life, you've got to know when it's time to move on. Blues whiskers now. He has gray whiskers. He's 10 years. So this year I watched him a little bit slower than he's been.

but overall, even with 10 years under his belt, Blue has a lot of, to this day, a lot of stamina. So is there an heir apparent? Is there a dog in training? Yeah, I have a dog in training. Well, I have my dog. Me, me, me. And my dog's coming on strong.

Oh, Biggin. Biggin. Yeah, Biggin. I've watched him in action. Biggin ain't got it. But Jayce likes him, so let him try him. Mimi, I don't know whether Mimi has it or not. I mean, she's being trained.

She's a little female. She's quiet, meek. And I thought, well, we'll see. I said, any whining going on. The trainer said no whining. So the trainer said she's going to be a good one, not near the stamina and speed of blue. No one's going to be that fast.

And nobody's going to top him on that. Well, what I was going to say when you average out all his qualities, he was about a five. because it's not worth it. If you're sitting there miserable. Retrieving way up there. Doesn't matter. Because you're so miserable and annoyed

and all your stuff smells like dog feces and urine. I no longer care at that point. I'll go get them myself, which is what we turned into. There were certain regulations that we passed. When he got in the wheeler, we had somebody watching him like a hawk. If he squatted down in the position,

we're like, hey, hey, hey, hey. Well, when we got to the gate, let him out, let him run, and you make sure that when he squats down, I said, is he peeing or taking a dump? They said, well, he's peeing right now. I said, wait till he takes a dump, or he does not get back inside the vehicle. We'd wait, and when he took that dump,

sometimes they have to take three dumps, sometimes four different dogs, have different lower bowel troubles. But blue, one dump, he's good to go, and he won't take the dump. in the duck blind or the boat. So we had to watch that. But other than that,

all these duck hunters out there, they understand what I'm talking about. Do the other people that hunt, are they having this discussion that we just had about watching the dogs? I would dare say there are people out there, the duck hunt that say, Phil,

I know exactly the misery you have gone through, son. Yeah. That's funny. Well, also so long blue and welcome Mimi and now the new battle would be between Mimi and Biggin, I guess. Dad, you know, you can use females like the last before Blue. I would say the three or four labs before that were all female because you had Vegas and Priscilla.

That's why I went with female this time. I said, well, you know, a little meek and mild female Labador might be better than one of these fired up, you know, frisky types like Blue. bloop was just wide open all the time. It all went wrong when you named the dog blue that's black. That's where it went wrong. The dog had two brothers, one of the yellow collar, one of the green collar, and the blue collar one. The guy said, which one of these you want? He showed me what they could do, and they're retrieving.

And I said, blue has got this one here with that blue collar. He has more energy than the other two. But that's where I went wrong. I wish you'd have taken the middle one. I didn't realize he was that fired up. you know another thing blue when blue was a puppy he got bit by that huge water moxin yep and maybe that traumatic experience did something to him I don't know he'd like to kill him that one almost he lived over that one and by the way

I killed that snake my buddy did I sent one of my hands down there and to to I said you stay here till you kill that snake day and night so he camped out down there where the snake bit blue. Finally, that old big cotton mouth showed back up. I'm talking a four-footer like that, a huge thing. And he come out there, and my buddy was holding him up, sitting there picture of him. And I, Dan, the Unique sent that to Dan,

to verify he was dead. Because I didn't want him abiding another one of my dogs. Or me. Or me. Yeah, he needed that. All right, we covered, we covered that. Where are we going next? Acts what?

We are in, we were at the end of Acts 7. Last time we talked about Stephen and what happened to him. He was basically the first, first martyr post-Jesus. You know, it didn't take long. You know, we get into Acts. I just want to, I want to make a little comment here that's, it's plain to see Acts 7 and Acts 8

I just thought about it and underline it Remember for all you listeners you say what about the book of Acts what's the point of the book of Acts what's it about and we started over in Acts 2 where it opened up Luke records in Acts chapter 1 the gospel of Jesus after he was

after his suffering then he talked about his depot Parture. Peter gets up and preaches the gospel in Acts 2 and Acts 3 and Acts 4 and Acts 5. Well, you get to Chapter 6, 7, and 8. When Stephen was talking, was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? This is verse 31 and following. They even kill those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you've betrayed and murdered him. So they were busy there. You got Acts 8 verse 4.

They preached their word wherever they went. Acts 4.25. They had testified. They had... 825. Proclaim the word of the Lord, 825. They were preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages right up above there. When they...

Acts 8, when they believed Philip as he preached the gospel of the kingdom, of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized. So basically, the preaching of the gospel and their response of being baptized is throughout the book of Acts over and over and over. The message, the faith's response, their baptism, and they moved on. So they were fulfilling what Jesus said, look, when he was resurrected from the dead, all authority in heaven and earth has been given. me, therefore, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

Son, the Holy Spirit, teach them to obey everything I've commanded you. I'll be with you to the end of the age. All of that is recorded in the book of Acts. Listen to this, over and over and over, and someone says, why be so redundant? If you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, why were they so redundant about Jesus, what he had to say and what he did? and what he's going to do. Well, he did all of those things. But the whole thing, once Jesus is on the earth, it was about his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

They never got off of that. To this day, Al, we don't either. We stay on that. That's right. Let's take another break. So to that point, Dan, I think that what you see on the opposition side, what Stephen faced. Basically, it was the same,

you're watching the same thing play itself out what they did to Jesus, these Jewish leaders. That's correct. They could not accept that he was really the one because of the way he was raised, the way he looked, whatever. They just kept rejecting him. They still couldn't put their faith in him.

And they built this false narrative. And so first, you know, they thought they got rid of it when they killed Jesus, but he came back. So they didn't. Instead, it's spreading. They keep rounding up the apostles at first. We read about that in three, four, and five,

but they couldn't hold on to them because the angels showed up and let them out. So they just keep telling them to shut up. And then Stephen comes along. Now it's the next generation. These are guys that the apostles have laid their hands on to now be the new young leaders. And so they think they go back to the same thing. What interested in me is the high priest, when he gets questions, you know, Stephen. He has two options.

He could say, what about this false narrative? Or he could have said, why Jesus? Which would have been a much better question to ask. But instead, he says, are these charges true? Yeah. You know? And it kills me because it's like, these guys will not learn. They cannot stop it.

Well, for all the people who say, well, Phil, we've heard you talk about the Bible and Jesus and what he did. But you seem at times to be a little harsh with people. I've never been as harsh as Stephen was when he said, was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even kill those who predicted the coming of the righteous one. Now you've betrayed and murdered him. I've never told an individual, Al, you're the one who killed Jesus. You're the one who put him on the cross.

Your sins and mine. I've never told someone that because it seems, I don't know, what do you want to call it, I just, I'm a little more subtle than that. You know, everybody sins, but I never look at a person and say, your sins put Jesus Christ on the cross. I just... But you know what? You might, Dad, if...

That's being pretty blunt on Stephen's part. But you might, you might would do that if basically you were on trial, which is what he is, literally for your life. Maybe. You might just come out with it, you know what I'm saying? There was something we didn't talk about. point is we've become sort of soft about talking about you know how much Jesus he so loved the world that he would become flesh of all things this is the god of the cosmos who made the cosmos

somehow how we seem to be uh what's the word jace we just don't uh we tend to want it to be a little bit nicer than the brutality of all of it put together but i think it's more about it's just were brutal thing. These were arguments, though, among seemingly everybody was trying to accomplish the same thing in a religious setting. So, you know, you just think about it. I think when you're denying Jesus as the son of God, if you want to rile me up, that'll do it. Everything else, I do feel a little more nicer about.

So I think that's what was provoking all this passion is that, you know, here's Stephen. I mean, you've met, you know, through Jesus's resurrection and what he did on the cross, you're now able to have a relationship with God himself. And there's people coming up there saying, no, it's not real. That's right. We need to be under this old law, and we need to go into these rituals. ritualistic worship settings. Well, he's like, no.

And I think the more you challenge that, that's why he was so passionate about it. But the law and the practice of it had been there for 1,500 years. I mean, it fell. It's a tough nut to crack out. Once you get over 40 years old in life, it's pretty well impossible to change your mind on anything. Tell me about it.

How many older people, I've watched it through the years, have responded to Jesus, Al, there's not many of them over 45 or 50. If they don't come to Jesus by the time they're 30-ish, it seems like the ones after that are much harder to reach. No, it's just like me convincing you that that dog is not great because you're like, what are you talking about? It's the greatest retriever ever. I'm like, yeah, but there's other factors that I'm viewing as not worth it.

It's taking away, and the argument continues, but he's like, well, look at what he does. Now, if you were, you know, 21, you'd say, yeah, that dog is way too loud. And this is, it's just, once you reach an age, and especially among religions, and I don't know why, they seem to have the authority on this. But most religious groups that I know of, once they figure this is the way we do things from A to Z, all of those, of those matters become impossible to change. I mean, one of the wisest people I have in my life, they're like, if you go on Sunday morning to any kind of meeting and you try to change anything, they will run you out. They'll cover their ears and go, I mean, he was using this as an illustration here.

We don't do that here ever. Well, the irony, the irony of it all. our message to this day 2,021 years since Jesus became flesh the 33 years he lived the story says he died, he was buried and raised from the dead

our message in this case has not changed the reason I said the book of Acts started start with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Jesus is here. What did he say and what did he do? And what happened to him? We're still, to this day,

we preach exactly what these guys said, right or wrong? That's right. You're exactly right. And to Jason's point, though, I think there's, you can have a lot of grace with a lot of different views about, you know, religious topics, different things in the Bible.

There's weighty issues. But when it comes down to God, God, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. I mean, you've got to get, you've got to get them right in terms of who they are and what they do. And I think your passion level does rise. Let's take a break. Wow. Love you know, you remember we were at a little small church plant. We were young. Jason was a teenager and I just got married. And so I was, you know, 20 or 21. And we were at this little church plant, but this is teaching came along and one of the brothers there got into it. that you don't have the Holy Spirit.

Like, he doesn't live in you. Yeah. I remember Granny and Paul at that time. We were all going there together, and you were a fairly new Christian, but still studying and learning. But they were like, instantly, they were like, whoa, wait a minute. Oh, what did that trigger?

A lot of passion. Because I remember passionate arguments. When you start attacking something that we view as so essential to your daily wall. It's like the guys actually saying you don't have the Holy Spirit. In fact, to the point of where he blacked it out in his Bible,

everywhere it said it. And what did he put in place of? The word. So his theory was, the word. The Holy Spirit only operates in your life when you're reading or studying the Bible. Yeah, because I remember that argument.

Somebody brought up, but what about when you're sleeping? And he's like, you know, so if you die in your sleep uh well you're in trouble well here's what i wanted to say based on that because i remember that and it was frustrating and i i'm glad i went through it because it made me less legalistic in you know where i you know meeting on sunday morning and put it in perspective that this is more of a movement you know you read matthew 28 later i mean earlier and i i had read Mark 16, I think, on our last podcast where it said he went to the right hand of God, but he was still working with them as they moved around.

And I think that's the way God still works. But I wanted to bring up, when you look up what happens in Acts 8, you know, Stephen dies. And what happens? Jesus stands in heaven. They have this moment. And then Philip, who was the second one mentioned in Acts 6, well, then he steps up. and it made me realize that that's how this works and here you have saul given the approval of stephen's death well what happens in act nine well he's converted and so all of these things

don't fit into these narratives of these side of the road church building settings because even what philip does and the place where he does is in a little place called samaria and we remember that where was the foundation of that laid in john four jesus associating with a person that guess what we don't associate with in their culture when he's at a well and they have a conversation not only is it a racial thing she's been married six or seven times and is living with somebody else and then jesus has this moment because he doesn't operate like normal religious people

because they would say hey she's not with us oh look at her past and then they had this moment. Well, guess who went and laid the foundation in Samaria? This is in John 439. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him,

they urged him to stay with him, and he stayed two days. And because of his word, many became believers. Well, now here we are. Fast forward to Acts 8. Something traumatic has happened. in the movement of Jesus where Stephen dies and Philip goes to Samaria and guess what happens the same success based on Jesus being not a ritualistic religious person they had had this encounter through this woman's testimony I just think that's so cool about how God doesn't work

how we think he should or how you know things that fit our narrative he's way more outside the box dealing with people on the individual basis, which I think is awesome. It is. Good point. Remember the discussion Jesus had with her. Remember he told her because she was, because you know, the Samaritans were not under this Jewish

leadership that you're saying. They're outcast. You know, they were part of the northern Israel and they had been wiped, you know, they had been, in terms of the Jewish mindset, they were wiped off a long time ago. You remember the story of the Samaritan whenever, you know, he was heard. And then the

Levi walks by him and the other guy walks by him. And, you know, it was the idea was the Samaritan went and helped this guy. And they were looking at this. Like, what is he talking about? Why would, you can't include these people. And when he was talking to that woman, remember he said, they talked about worship on the mountain. He said, there have to come a time when you worship neither in Jerusalem or on this mountain, you know, because God is spirit. We'll worship his spirit and truth.

That was some. That was some breaking news there. Was. And so Philip, now filling them. that when he comes back into that region and start sharing with them what Jesus is now they're starting to understand what Jesus was talking about because so you know he had to connect with some of those original people maybe even that woman no doubt yeah well in that we even when you get to uh in in chapter 8 which we'll get to one of the famous stories in the bible philip in the ethiopian

eunuch you know that rolls off the tongue and we hear that story but you think about it now here's here's an African who's not only you know a different color who's a eunuch and they had this moment and you know we've used their story for many other things but to me if you don't get anything out of

the entire Bible you realize that no matter what our circumstances or where we're from this thesis that God makes all people and that sent he sent Jesus to die for all people and that he will use all people to share the glories of his son. That is correct.

I mean, as you go through this, every person that we tend to either have a riff with or alienate ourselves with, you know, back in their day, you know, Jesus is becoming the bridge to all these people

and the relationships of God, and that's what's spreading. And what's so frustrating is that the religious people are the ones fighting it. Yeah. I mean, it just burns you up from this perspective, even to the point of killing the leaders of the movement,

you know, just like what happened to Stephen. And you have that little button up here of these men burying Stephen and it says they mourn for him. And we know they weren't mourning in the way the world mourns because it's obvious that he's going to be resurrected, but it's still painful to see at the hands of people in the

name of religion what they'll do. That are that brutal. Even to murder. Well, you just think about it. All these stories, like he said, the Ethiopian eunuch, he cuts through while he's at it. Any kind of, any kind of racism

is out. As far as people say, well, you know, so we've been fighting that thing. aisle ever since God made human beings, you know it? Well, the Book of Acts clears it up. Look, the people, the gripe of the world is not

too far off. There's a lot of hatred being shown in the name of religion. I mean, you see it here in Acts 8, 7, and 8, but you see it in our world too. People confuse you know, sin and the center, and

there's not any love. They're still picking up rocks and throwing them like they did and, you know, John 8, even to this day. And I mean, you know, spiritual rocks of social media rocks thrown across the bow. And to me, I don't know how God couldn't be any more specific about how he uses people who everyone else has written off. I just keep going back to what happened John 4. I mean, this woman, you just wouldn't think of all the people you would pick to plant a church in this region, a woman who had been married six times and was shacked up,

it just wouldn't seem the first choice. And even Saul here, a guy who's actually murdering that Christians in your movement, that's who you're going to pick to have a conversation with. And write most of the New Testament? He's going to write most of the New Testament. What are we missing in modern day, though,

about giving up on people? and throwing hate rocks where this is clearly in the opposite direction. What are we missing, Jace? We are missing a lot. Well, another point I want to make about this is that you remember when Jesus was leaving. The last thing he said, literally the last words he said to the disciples, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, which is where they all are.

And also in Judea, which is the area surrounding Jerusalem and Samaria, he mentions that, and to the ends of the earth. And so what was interesting was he told them that. And so, but it's not like they're sitting around making this plan about, you know, you know how churches are. We got our mission statement. We got this. We got that.

You know, all our ideas of what we're supposed to do. God moved them when he was ready for them to move. And he did it through this martyr. And then it says on that day, when this happened in chapter 8, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judean. A lot would say, well, why would God let that persecution come upon his people? You've got to keep remembering these people are children of the resurrection.

All these people who went forth in the book of Acts, they killed them one after the other. all of them but John's so he said this is a tough but that's a good point Phil here's what I think and I probably should have said this before because this persecution keeps coming up what's weird is what what the because we know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil and they're using even religious people in this setting to try to stop the spread of Jesus they're trying to put the fire out but Jesus they still are but the persecution is making it spread

That's what you notice every time. Every time the persecution comes on there, so we're stopping this. Here we are 2,000 years later, and guess what? They still haven't stopped it. That's right. But they're still trying. And God allowed Stephen to die, and what happened?

Somebody else stood up. And guess what? Then we converted the person who killed our main leader, Stephen. That's why when you think the evil world, you're like, oh, they're crashing around and they're going to win. Our team wins. Look, the last study I had, which was just a couple days ago, with two young women who were, look, they were brought to my house.

I don't know what they thought they were going to hear, but they weren't believers at all. And when I brought it up, they were aggressively against it. and that got a little bit, I would say, you know, what is the word? They were not respectful at all and thought anybody who believed in this was just an idiot. And so, look, I was so tempted at various times throughout that discussion just to say, you know, your law, good luck. I mean, I was just so tempting because they were just being so disagreeable and disrespectful.

They were just totally closed mine. But it's helpful for me to hear stories like this to realize if you ever, number one, the power's in the message of Jesus and introducing them. But if you ever get these types of people surrendered to Jesus, they're so tough and just bitter and courageous in a way that they're like, you know, blankety blank, get that out of my face. this is the power of God. He converts these people. He changes these people heart.

He reaches way down deep, and then they become some of the most awesome representatives for him. So that's why, look, I stuck to the script. I'm getting this out until they get up and run out, which is about what happened. But I thought, you know what, it'll linger, and you never know through the power of conversion. That's just what we do.

Nothing has changed. Most people don't search and seek when things are going well, which is back to the point of the persecution here. In other words, I'm living in my house. I'm doing my thing. I got my job. I got my life and things are pretty good.

They're like, whatever, I don't need any of that. When they start searching is when something bad happens. You get sick, somebody dies. You get a hooked on drugs and you realize your life is falling apart. I mean,

that's the people, which is why Jesus was going around. And that's the people that were broken were most of the ones that were coming to him and said, I'm a mess here. I got this evil spirit. Which was true. The two women that we studied with,

they were successful, you know, from a worldly viewpoint, had plenty of money. You know, a lot of friends, they're like, we don't need this. It's way, and one of them said at a time, what we do is way easier than what you're trying to do.

I was thinking, What? Easier. The people who were there when Stephen was killed, a brutal death. Think about it. They brutalized him. And Saul, who was going to be the future Apostle Paul that would write most of the New Testament, Saul was there giving approval to his death. He's like, kill him, kill him, get rid of him. Hey, he needed killing.

well how would you go from that I will have to admit that the way he was converted it was he didn't have much room like jay said they left out running the one he was trying to convert but the apostle paul with that kind of happening jays i mean i out he was pretty well cornered when all of a sudden jesus go comes upon him personally read verse three dad eight three i mean to show you where not it was he given approval of the death but look what he also began to destroy the church yeah this is the moment in acts where the persecution went from the leadership you know first they tried what do you do with any movement they tried to cut the head of the snake off so correct well that didn't work and so then they just started hunting the all the christians this is where that began, it's like a, it's a real pivotal moment, I think, in the narrative moving forward.

What they didn't realize is you can't cut the head off because it's in heaven. That's why you can't win this. The more you persecute, the more it spreads. So it's like it goes underground in a way. And you think of all the countries that, where it's against the law to be public about Jesus. Well, do you think that stopped it? No. Now it's impossible. to snuff out because they're in basements in your country and they're still worshiping and they're whispering the verses that's right what sa what saul didn't realize is what he did was he got the church out of jerusalem and you know of course he's going to realize it later when he gets his

mission so we're out of time that seemed to go by fast to me hope it did to our audience thanks for listening to the unashamed podcast help us out by rating us on iTunes and don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to blazed TV at blazesthcTV.com slash unashamed.