Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 245 | Phil and His AR Go to the Doctor, Self-Segregation in America & 'Unconverted Believers'

Episode Date: March 21, 2021

Phil, Al, and One Kingdom's Mike Kellett talk favoritism, why the self-segregation spreading on college campuses and beyond is so unbiblical, and why violence always follows prejudice. Phil is always prepared — even at the doctor's office. The guys look back on a year of lockdowns and discuss the church as a living organism, the pruning happening in churches, and the problem of "unconverted believers" in the church. And Phil offers a reminder that God doesn't live in church buildings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? It's interesting just looking at Acts chapter 9 and 10, chapter 8, the last part of chapter 8, and you got 9 over here, and 10's fixing to start. But if you just took the time, this is called Open Page. You got a page on your left, you got a page on your right. They got a couple of pages of scripture. But in that short of place to look, we're in the book of Acts. There's some fellow out of Ethiopia.

God sent a man down there to talk to him. Philip began with Isaiah 53 over there because the eunuch didn't know who Jesus was. He tells him, started with that very passage of script and told him the good news. about Jesus. You like, that's interesting. What if you just look at it, it tells Saul's conversion. That's another one. I'm still just on the same page. Well, there's the eunuch. Let's see. Told him the good news about Jesus. Why shouldn't I be baptized? They went down in the water. Philip baptize him. There's Saul of Tarsus.

Scales came off his eyes. He's had a change of heart. Jesus has struck him down personally. So he got Philip, he's getting the Ethiopian eunuch in the middle of nowhere. The Apostle Paul, Jesus appears to him personally. You say, I got a job for you to do. Immediately after all the smoke cleared, he went to Anonis, Anonis said, I'm going to tell you what you have to do. Something like scales fell from his eyes. He's been blinded by Jesus.

He got his attention. He never argued with Jesus over it. And he's going around killing people who follow. him. He's killing people who follow him. You got a story on top of one with the eunuch, and here you got Saul. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regains his strength. Then he read verse 31 of chapter 9, the same still page. The church throughout Judea, Samarian, Galilee Samarite had a time of peace. It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Here's an interesting little

statement and it grew in numbers they covered a couple of them for you what they heard and their response to it and i'm just on a couple of pages in the book of acts it would seem to me if that's the case you start back at the beginning of acts third verse in after his suffering jesus died on a cross he showed himself to these men must have been resurrected and he was convincing him he was alive. Fast forward, and then they get up. Peter preaches a sermon.

You killed him, nail him by on a cross. God is raised him from the dead. What do we do? They responded, he baptized. How many times and how much redundancy would there have to be for someone to say, well, they went around proclaiming Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

that's two or three pages in the Bible. You would think people would just go forth and do what Jesus said. I got all the authority. I just beat death and I've removed the sins of the world. Go and make disciples and you baptize them. It looks like we all could come together at least on that. You'd think. I mean, give me a break here.

you say yeah he just keeps repeating himself and want to how many look the first sentence in the book of acts in my former book the obelisk I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up into heaven and then it gives a replay of him leaving that's acts one the beginning of the book and you go over there to the last statement in the book of acts you'd say, I wonder what the first thing he said was,

Jesus, him crucified and raised from the dead, going back into heaven, you say, and then it all unfold. The last thing it says in the book of act, well, well, you know, boldly and without hindrance, Paul preached. He was an unbeliever when it started. He was going around killing Christians.

Now he's on a different wavelength and a different message. He preached the kingdom of God. Well, how could you preach it? if it wasn't there. He preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ what he did,

what he's now doing, what he will do. First statement in the book of Acts, last statement. I'm like, what is, hiding in plain sight out? What's, what's,

so welcome back to the podcast, Mike. It's good to get another sermon on that. There you go. So we got our, that's a short sermon net on for look at the book of acts for crying out loud and tell me what it was about well well you started with the beginning and the end there's a bunch of stuff happening in between and you know one of those things was they had to fight the same thing that culture is fighting today nothing has changed

nothing's changed they had to try to figure out take the gospel to a different group of people of a different race and different religion and acts 10 all of a sudden you would think peter had gotten it by now but you know in acts in acts six you They're arguing over which of the widows to take care of. They get a little problem. Acts 8, they go to Samaritans. That's stretching them out some more because they didn't get along with them either. Yep.

And then all of a sudden, Acts 10, the whole thing comes open to the Gentiles. And that's going to challenge everybody that ever had a prejudice bone in their body. He's taking the food laws out of, in front of them. No more food laws. I thought about that field of passage in Acts 10. The one, you y'all had an old t-shirt, a rise killing eat. You remember that? Order some headquarters.

That's what I always you say. That's why you need to know. They're still arguing about whether you can eat meat, whether you can eat this and that or another. They're still to this day saying, no, well, I don't think you ought to eat that. They're still arguing about food and they're making up food laws as they go. You just read through the Bible and you say, no. Well, and Mike talked about this Sunday in his sermon, which was excellent.

He might preach this text, which is why I wanted to be on the podcast today, because we've been studying this together that so many people approach the book of acts trying to create a pattern theology. In other words, to make rules up because this is the way they did it here, this way they did there.

Mike made a fantastic point that Jesus never intended for the first century church to be anything but the first century church. It just happened to be the time when they were doing this. We're in the 21st century. Things change. Things changed.

That was the name. That was the name of your sermon. Yeah, remember old Jack Exxon. He used to preach. He would always say, things, change. Well, the thing about that is in Acts, there's no verse in the Bible that says, as a church, go reproduce the church in the Bible. There's no verse that says that. But there is a verse that says, go reproduce Jesus in your life.

Exactly. Well, when you get that going, then the body takes care of itself. Yep. And so old Peter here, he finds it. It's interesting here, he gets, there's two videos. visions that to be in this first chapter 10 here one Cornelia says at the same time Peter has one they both have a vision and they both act on it and it pulls them together in harmony for the gospel to be preached and for God do what he wants to do there it says that Peter was on top of that roof and that he was hungry and then he went into a trance

I kind of use do that the other way around I get hungry eat and then I go into a train you know but but me sweats anybody yeah you know so food is on his mind boy did did the almighty give him a thing you know here comes a giant movie screen dropping out of the heavens you know like four corners you know and it contained all four footed animals birds are there revel he didn't want you to miss it right he says get up and Kill them and eat them, Peter. Peter, whoa, you're talking to me? Yeah, I'm talking to you.

No more food law, son. The Gentiles are going to be brought in. And what's interesting, Kelly, is that the topic they chose was the one that caused so much division among them food laws, what you can eat and what you can eat. Which is really interesting. And you see it all the way through. Paul had to write whole chapters in his books about it. And all the way through, Al, it's down to 2021. years since you showed up.

They're still arguing about the food laws. I'm like, you know, kill it and grill it. But they're like, boy, you, who are you? It reminded me, remember the woman, the Australian journalist that did the story on you for Time Magazine? And she was a vegan. And so she was like, she was curious because she was asking you about it. But then y'all got into a whole discussion about it.

You were like, you know, I don't care if you. vegetables is just that's all you want but i mean i like meat what's wrong with why is because she was like a you know pretty militant about her i said did you get your don't eat animal did you get it from the bible or did you get it from some other source who told you that and she said oh no i'm not religious at all i said so it's not on biblical principles that the food laws i said so where did you get the information she said well i'm not quite sure i said i am somebody put that in your head. You got up one morning and said, I'm going to chastise everyone who eats meat. I'm like, look. I said, I don't care what you eat. I said, why would you be worried about what I put in my mouth?

I said, I'm not getting it here. But anyway, I just told her, went through about a 15 or 20 minute deal. I showed her. I said, what about fruit? Is that in or out with you? She said, no, fruit. Fruit's fine. You can eat fruit. I said, pretty well, any kind of fruit, yeah. So I showed her that we made mayhaw's from mayhaw jelly i said fruit it grows in the woods along with the animals crawling around squirrels yeah we eat them and you know rabbits and deer and ducks i said but fruit comes out of the same place i said so we pick it and we i said it's jelly in can you eat mayhaw's fruit out of the wood she said oh yeah i'm good oh yeah i said well come in here so i gave her some mayhael jell on a teaspoon i said tell me what you think she said oh my goodness

that is delicious. I said, right out of the woods. I said, we're free to eat it. So will you. I said, anything out there? Just eat it. I said, meat's the same way. So we talked further.

She leaves. She said, could you suggest a restaurant for me? I thought, let me see. I said, what restaurant cooks good veggies? So I gave her one up here in Monroe. We had eaten that. It was a cotton, yeah. Cotton.

I said, go by there. I said, they have great veggies. I said, you'll love it. So a month went by, she published the article. She didn't bad by me over the food box. She did. She was very fair. And she told Al, she said, by the way, your dad recommended a restaurant for me. And while I was there, I tried the brazed duck.

And she said, it was delicious. She had a moment, Kenner, and the duck won her over. She ate brazed duck. She said, you know what? Maybe that old dude's right. Maybe I need to rethink this. There's different ways of getting into it. But you were very, I thought you did it the right.

It said it like it wasn't an argument. You were just kind of making it. Oh, I love the woman. She's just, she did cry. For Time magazine, to be honest with it, I was expecting not to be quite so fair. You never know. You never know. Well, that is true.

You never know. And, you know, that's one of the things that Peter run into. I mean, he didn't even, even with the vision, he wasn't totally convinced yet. Because he's trying to figure out what the, what the vision meant there in X10. And then these three guys show up and say, look, our boss, this Gentile Roman guy is in charge of 100 people, he says come to the house and teach him. I was thinking about the humility of that. Here, this centurion is this guy who's willing to learn from a Jewish fisherman. He's got to have some.

There's got to be some great honesty of heart about him, some great humility. I mean, he really wanted to do the. right thing, but he still needed to be taught the gospel. And he's had a vision, which, by the way, miracles happen in people's lives, whether a lot of times, whether they're followers or not. I mean, God uses a lot of different things. Yep. And this time, he's going to convince Jews, Gentiles can be right. He's going to use the same miracle of pouring out the spirit in speaking languages so those Jewish believers will say, hey, these Gentiles can be. It was that heart of a prejudice that God...

The division was wide and entrenched. And you're right, it goes both ways. Let's take a quick break. It goes both ways because you're right. What centurion would be humble enough to seek out a Jewish fisherman? But he was a seeker. I was... Let's just look at the division, Al.

when Peter and him, they went inside, found a large gathering. Before that, it says Peter, let's see, Peter entered the house. Here he's visiting with Gentiles. Uh-oh. Just look at the division and how deep racism can go. Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. He said, good night. There's a Jew, and he's come to my house.

do you just think how deep-rooted racism was that's right i mean it was something and he fell at his feet and peter feet peter said hey get up stand up this is something that should uh realize and in a hurry i am only a man myself so yeah talking with peter they went inside god chose them what to do and old peter has a moment and he says in verse 54 or 34 or five there Peter began to speak. I now realized how true it is that God does not show favoritism. Al, the only place where you're going to find a zone where there is no favoritism is with the people of God. That's right.

There is none. That's right. But that's lingered. And to this day, if you don't agree with our narrative and you need to try not to be so white or try not to be so black, the color of people's skins, it's an argument that is a sad thing to watch. It is. And it's so ridiculous anyway, because we've talked about this before. The people we're reading about here were brown people.

I mean, go look at Israel. They're not white. Sure. So somehow this idea about white fragility and white privals and all that, I mean, like, the people in the Bible are people of color. We're all people of color. And you said it beautifully Sunday, Mike. I mean, red and yellow, black and white, right?

I mean, we've been singing it our whole life. It's the only place in question. And they're saying, try not to be so white. And I'm looking down, thinking, I didn't have anything to do with what color I am. I just look down. Nor does anybody, right? Well, look, God made everybody in his image. And in Acts 17, he says he's made from one man every nation.

Every nation. Which that's coming up to reinforce get off the favoritism. Yeah, get off of it. because everybody's made in the image of God. Everybody's valuable. And so it doesn't matter. We don't need to be colorblind. That denies how God made people.

And a large IQ, not necessary. No, no, but we need to be colorful in the church. But not colorblind. We need everybody with talents, abilities, regardless of how you were raised, to be used to the glory of God. Yep. But, man, they had a difficult time with it. And we're having a difficult time.

I think about our nation and the struggles people have to treat people right. And then the way that somehow or another, if we can legally make it happen, that that's going to solve everybody. The legal system does not change people's hearts. So you're not going to solve racism. I was looking for the word racism in the Bible couldn't find it. That's right. But I could find prejudice and favoritism all over the place. And God's saying that the God,

It is for everybody. You tell the value of something about what's paid for it. And what was paid for the every man was the blood of Christ. That's how valuable everybody is. It's one race. You've said it before, Phil. It's the human race. And that's what Peter was really trying to break open there that all of a sudden these Gentiles can all

have the gospel just like everybody else. And need to. Matter of fact. That's what Paul all of a sudden emphasizes and says, God even used the Jewish jealousy by converting the Gentiles to try to get more of them saying. Saul or Tarces went from a murderous, blaspheming. He went from that to a son of God, and it didn't take him long either. He was the up-and-coming Pharisee of Pharisees,

and he was bold enough that he just decided, he just went and started rounding people up. I mean, you think about it, I mean, Saul really did have that extra degree. I mean, there was no way he was having anything for a Gentile. He didn't even like the Jewish Christian. That's right. And then little did he know that God had prepared the rest of his life for 30 plus years. He would be the key envoy to go in and converting all these Gentiles.

He said himself, he was set aside from birth. From birth, yeah. He said, but of course he didn't add, but I could add it. But he didn't know it was coming. For the first 30 years, he had no idea. which is really interesting. And even in this context we're talking about today,

it's, you know, Peter and the people he took with him to Cornelis' house, they were as much the converted in this story as Cornelis was. That's exactly right. I mean, in other words, that's true.

Because when you remember, back in Acts 2, when they got, when the Holy Spirit fell on them, they're speaking these languages, they were doing that obviously to convince these people to listen to them on the day of Pentecost.

Now, we're fast forward about 10 years in the story. storyline here. And here Peter is, they go there. He's not sure why. I mean, remember, it took the sheet three times. He says surprised at the Gentile. Right. It took three times. Peter has a problem with three. It takes three times to get through. So then he goes. And then he's shocked when the Holy Spirit falls on these people. And they start speaking in languages again. He's like, what in the world? This is another day of Pentecost. And that's what it was. It was almost like a

second wave on this baptism in the Holy Spirit that we were talking about that Jesus told him it and he basically said well he ends up by saying well might as well baptize him too so it looked like to me we're all I mean why not I mean how are we going to start so he he realized to me it was like it's a it's a fascinating story because it shows me that Peter 10 years have come by they've been doing all this great stuff but 10 years Mike's right he never understood that we're going to go this is going worldwide. That's why we all need to realize we need to give people, we need to instruct them and love them,

no matter where they came from or what their ethnicity is. But we need to be able to give them a little time to digest because people are, you trying to tell me, to this day, you just look at America. What stunts me is, and I've told our brothers about this before, we still have to this day black churches and white churches. And the Asian church. There's a lot of that are still very...

Out of all the things we do, we should realize we need to all come together. We're saying we're under one head, even Jesus and the black churches, and we're saying in the white church, why don't we just come together for crying out loud and meet together when we come together as a group? And it would be far more, what's the word, forceful and powerful if we did that. Right. So we still have a ways to go, even dating back 2,000 years ago and beyond that. But you're still struggling with this.

You know, it's interesting that with this latest thing that's going on in the last few years is really, it's almost like the idea is we want to self-segregate. We want to go back. Like the idea was we all need to be together as a people. that's what civil rights was about and it was fantastic Martin Luther King had it right Oh he was fantastic I mean he had the right mindset And but look at he had he was here not too long ago

Look at how that's changed just in a short 50 years And now the ideas I was reading somewhere Where all these Ivy League schools Are going back to their own graduation For every different group So we got a black graduation We got a white graduation We got an LGBT graduation

We got a this one We got an Asian And I was like, what are they? The university is the idea that we bring people together, university, you know, to be able to teach all these different disciplines. Well, and the problem is, is that any time you try to approach it, you know, in order to solve someone's selfish desire, you're always going to have a problem. And with somebody saying, look, this belongs to me and I'm not getting it because of my color of my skin or because of I'm poor or because of whatever other reason. if that's the motive, then it's always going to be problematic. Because that's not what's going to bring people together is trying to satisfy each other.

It's going to have to get back to being sold out that God's answers are better than politicians. And it's pretty evident, Al, that it's not a governmental fix. Correct. It's a heart, it's a spiritual fix. fix. That's right. It has to be, we talk about this all the time, and it's a tough sell. It was a tough sell back then in the book of Acts, and that day and age, and it's a tough sell now. Look at the problems, though. When this happens, Peter runs into a problem with his own church. Because those leaders are like, oh, no, I wouldn't know about this. Look, they killed these,

guys. Not only did they cancel the son of God thinking they were rid of him, they violated commandment number six that they had received 1,500 years earlier, do not murder. Well, they plainly murdered Jesus Christ. That's right. And Peter got up and told them that so did Stephen. You say, what did they do? Before it was over, they started with Jesus, and then there was Stephen, and then there was Saul, the Apostle Paul, and Peter.

You said, they killed them all. That's right. They basically, you want to talk about the cancel culture this month here, and we're about this close to it. Well, and it's the same type stuff. Two thousand years later, you take it. Let's take another break. Yeah, you see the same thing.

And we've said this before. When prejudice is involved of any kind or segregation, you know, separation, violence will always be in the offing. It's amazing. And again, this is, we're over 2,000 years later. And what do you see? When you separate people and there's all this doubt and distance, you see violence. You see people turn to that same thing.

It makes Jesus' statement, the two greatest commands in the Bible, is love God and love your neighbor. It goes on to say, love's the fulfillment of the law. Love does no harm to its neighbor. It's a love problem, Mal. It is. We have a big one in America, so we're struggling to show them the way. And it's even in churches. It's there.

Because Peter's problem of his testimony is told in 11. two church leaders back in Jerusalem that had a hard time because they were criticizing him for what he'd been doing. Because what he did was violate everything they'd been taught

about being in a guy south. First of all, he'd already violated being in Simon the Tanner South Sea. You know, Paul made him face-to-face in that Galatian letter because he was over there, got him a little group going on there. He had a problem later on with it too.

He had a problem later on. But the Tanner, he's dealing with dead animals and skins and he was unclean. And so here that Peter and somehow or another he's rationalized, well, it's okay to stay with him. It was okay to be the Samaritan. So he's kind of gradually moving that direction,

but still kind of shocked at when the whole thing happens with the Gentiles. And it's almost like he's a step behind because I thought about the Samaria deal you were talking about. Because remember, first they had somebody else went up there first. You remember Peter and John didn't come till later until word got back to them that, hey, you know what? Phillips in there converting a bunch of people. Right. He's converting people. And all of a sudden, I mean, and they're, they're, getting these people are they're seeing it and they're coming to Jesus but they didn't just run up there

no no i mean remember when jesus was talking to the woman in john four when they walked up and saw him talking to the samaritan woman they were like what is he doing they said they wouldn't say anything because you know they didn't want to get their snout snapped you know it was the deal but they weren't a question jesus but they did question it she had about five husbands the current husband she had she was shacked up with he's not your husband you say you wouldn't think starting there or later on when the apostle paul and him when they were he was sol or tar so you wouldn't think they would start with that kind of the guy right to and who ended up writing most of the new testament you know like a murdering heathen but you remember after she was convinced she went

back to the town and she brought all those people out to him and it said many believe and I wondered if that was the core that when they come back after Jesus that was probably the group that got converted, you know, when Philip one down. I think that's why the Bible is clear in 1st Corinthians 13. Love never fails. You know, the hospitality thing here too, I think is very, very important. We've lost a great skill here. And the pandemic's made it even worse. Having people in your home, when you get people's legs under your table and you eat with them, and you'll get to know who they are and what's going on with them. That's right. And we got to do that with different color people. we have to do that with different, whether they're rich or whether they're poor,

folks from different countries, different backgrounds. When you sit around and eat together and can talk, things happen at the dinner table that don't happen anywhere else. And Peter gets invited this guy's house. They sit down. They visit. They eat together. And he implores him to stay longer and keep teaching them.

But there's something powerful about that spirit of hospitality. Physical food, whether it be physical food or, spiritual food, a lot can get accomplished over a meal in the scriptures. How many people have been fed at your house? It says it over and over, practice hospitality, and it does add for all you out there without grumbling. So you can't say, I've never seen people eat that much. Or what that cost for us to do that?

If you ever go to analyzing the cost of hospitality, how you'll quit. That's exactly right. One time I asked you, Phil, I don't know if you remember, one of our leaders meetings, I said, Phil, what's the difference between when you first started and now that you kind of got a little something going on? And your answer was, we have a better, greater meat. The menu. The menu. Right.

Used to, it was hamburgers. Now it's, you know, a mouse is going to be. You know, when you dig into a pot and the first thing you see are squirrel heads, you're like, yo. Y'all sit down. We got some squirrel. dumpling today and then they see the squirrel like we took their eyes out because that makes it worse you better pop them eyes out throw them in a trash but just something about the look of squirrel it looks like a big rat in the pot but they are delicious i have to say they're really good they're of the

rodent family but they are fine eating they are good but think about the variety of kinds of people feel that have come down to your house man just the variety of where they come from different countries nations racist i mean just think about all the different ones. Yesterday here there were two family groups of artists and I told them when I they were on the pocket. I first saw both of them when I first met him, Phyllis's husband, my long lost daughter, she's married to an artist. They walked in the door. I said, so what do you do for a living there? He said, I'm an artist. I said, man, that makes you weird being an artist. I said, but the good news is weirdness is in down here. I said, you're going to fit right in. Well, yesterday,

one showed up from California. We talked to him, O'Hara. Noah. But I was impressed with those artists, weren't you? Oh, man. That Noah. I mean, they're looking at things, you know, like, I'm not looking at it. Yeah, right. They got a different way of view in the world. Then there were a carpenter with us, a woodworker. Yep. Who made our new table.

Then we had duck call makers. Yep. But all, so it's a lot of different facets, a lot of groups of individuals. It is. That you just, some of you said, well, artists are weird. Let's face it. She said, come on in. Today we got another gallery. We got Hamburger Maven. We got my cousins.

We had outdoor people. I mean, it's just the beauty of it is that's what Christianity is about. Yep. It's about people embracing because of Forever Family. That's what, you know, we coined the phrase Forever Family or maybe Bill Smith did, but whoever did it was right on time. Bring it everybody under one head, even Christ. I mean, you know, it's a beautiful thing to watch. So let's take another break.

So there was a, we were going to do a video testimony. We just didn't get around to it because we've been doing a lot of video testimonies, including DAB in this sermon series. And we were going to do one of our sisters, and her name is Betty Cooper. And Betty is a brilliant. She's an African-American woman, super smart, taught computer for 30 years in college. She taught me. And so she was my professor.

She was married to an auto mechanic. named Albert. Yeah. Just salt to the earth person. But just the opposite of his wife. I mean, he was just a mechanic guy, good with his hands, you know. And then he had like real bad rheumatoid arthritis before he died. But this family has been with us at Wysfair Road all the years we've been there.

And I just found it interesting. So I'm in Betty's class in college. She's teaching me computer program. And so she's our instructor and she's great. She's funny and she's this brilliant person. And then on Sundays, she was in my class. You know, because I'm teaching at WFR, and she's right there on the third row, you know, her and Albert. And it struck me in that moment that that's what it should look like.

In other words, the idea, she's instructing me. I'm instructing her in the Word of God. We love each other as a brother and sister. The color of skin meant nothing to either one of us. We recognized we were different. We came from different. It's a beautiful thing. It's what it should be, right?

I mean, the idea that anybody has things to contribute no matter what. Yeah, and you can't find that out if you're not with people. That's right. You got to be with them. You got to sit down somewhere, eat together, talk, and share ideas and learn from each other. And I love that about, look, Peter's learning the big lesson, but so is Cornice. And I think it's great because he has his family there. So he's going to pass that right on down to the next generation to make sure this thing keeps going.

That's right. And unfortunately, I think we've had people pass down from one generation to another the opposite. Yeah. And that gets in trouble. us just appearing at a building one time a week, which is a great thing to do. But today, what is today? Tuesday. Today is Tuesday. So everyone, all of our listeners will understand. The reason you never read the term going to church is because that doesn't explain anything. Right now, we, along with you who are listening, are worshiping God in spirit and truth.

And we're remembering Jesus, our Savior. We're challenging you to love God and love each other. and it's Tuesday. So you say, the church is meeting. The church is meeting here. Yeah. So we just got to start thinking like that instead of saying, so when I walk out the door, the worship service is over on Sunday. No, it's really going to crank up on Monday morning.

Then it's going to carry on through Tuesday, and it's going to last the next time we come back in here for a couple hours. That's a little bit of glimpse of the, the way the whole thing works. That's right. You've got to think of the church instead of a name or a building or a group of people that gather up once a week.

If the church is the body of Christ, then it's a living organism. It's not more of an organism than it is an organization. Right, right. And whatever Jesus was busy doing in his body while he was here is what we ought to be doing as his body while we're here. while we're here. That's the function of the church.

Basically, it's a reproduction of the life of Christ with a variety of people with talents and abilities that God's given them to do what Christ was doing. But when you get it down to four walls and how you do a service and all those kinds of things, you lose focus really, really quick. If you're not careful, you get where the gospel all of a sudden did in first importance

and you get wrangling with religion and fighting over things. And it's just, that's not what it was designed. It's not how it's designed within the New Testament in terms of being the body of Christ. So you fast forward 2,000 years, the Apostle Paul is talking to the Ephesians. I became a servant of this gospel. That's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. God becoming flesh, dying on the cross, being buried, raised in the dead.

By the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power, striking him down on the road and getting him lined out, although I am less than the least of all God's peoples, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles, in Acts chapter 10, where we are now, when Cornelius and him and the food laws started, stopped, to the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, you say, it took a long time for people to even figure out who Jesus was, what he did, for ages past was kept hidden in God, by, my count about 5,000 years, who created all things. His intent was, God's intent, I hope all of y'all are listening,

was that now, beginning 2,000 years ago, right at it, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers, authorities, and the heavenly realms, the evil one, according to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. And that's seven days a week, not just one little session at a church building. The days of God doesn't live in church buildings. He lives in the church, his people who are worldwide. So we just need to pick the momentum up a little bit and go forward.

And be bold doing it because the times are kind of like they were 2,000 years ago. it's still persecution. It's still there. Just need to suck it up and go forward. And it feels like, I mean, there's a feeling, wouldn't you say, that it's kind of ramping up to more of that confrontation? I think so. There's going to be more confrontation, not less. No doubt.

But sometimes if you don't have confrontation, you don't really have the ability to see one side against the other. Sometimes the confrontation makes things clearer for people. But I think there's a purging going on. There's a pruning going on with churches. And especially I think in terms of mega churches around, you know, you get thousands and thousands of people on a worship service type thing. Look, I'm proud for every person who worships God, you know,

regardless if it's 50 or 5,000. But I do think it's real easy for there to be thousands of unconverted believers. But they've confessed a belief, but when the pandemic hits and the pruning starts, all of a sudden they're out. It brought a lot of problems with it. Someone said, so y'all are not into overthrowing the government. Y'all are into overthrowing the forces of evil, which robs governments of what they should be. Exactly. We're looking at it from a spiritual angle, not a governmental one.

What did you say that? The last thing anybody will see you doing is what? carrying a sign. Yeah, walking down a road with a stick in my hand. Some calls that I've got, I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. We're mass communicate. Yeah, it's a bigger of that. Let's take one last break.

So, Mike, it's interesting in our last segment here, yesterday was a year anniversary from when the lockdown started for our church. I mean, I guess across America, when basically most churches just said, we're not meeting. I mean, you know, we were a national emergency. It's really amazing because a year goes by, and you realize it just seemed like it was just yesterday, but, I mean, that was a quick. I can't believe how quick it's gone out.

I was in New Orleans that week, actually at the governor's prayer breakfast, which, by the way, he and his wife did a great job on that a year ago. That's when they first announced there was one case found and down there in Jefferson Parish. By the time I got down to New Orleans, there were 13 the next morning,

and then, I spoke down at a church, and then by the time I left the next day, I don't know, there was 30-something, and all that was in New Orleans, and I told Susan, I said, we better get on out of here. You're not walking to New Orleans. You're walking out of New Orleans. Yeah, get out of here. But on that trip back, all of a sudden, Al, you and I are having conversations about, well, what are we going to do about Sunday?

Yeah. You know, are we having a chair. I was supposed to preach. So I got my sermon all worked up. I was in Branson, meeting with Phyllis and Tony, you know, and they were, families meeting their people. We had just met them, you know, a few weeks earlier. And so Kell and I start getting on the phone, you know, what do you think?

Well, we're still going to meet. So up until Friday, we were still meeting. You know, because they hadn't really said what was going to happen. The governor hadn't said. And then. But I'm a little old school on it. I mean, I'm not much for closing down. If it snows, I just, if you can come, come, you know, and we'll do whatever.

We'll have something. We just, we just down here on the river, the river rats and whatnot of people down in here. we just took hold of the verse where Jesus said we're two or three of you are gathered together in my name, I'll be there. Right. So we just went kind of underground. We said, fine.

The pandemic came and went. I never caught it. Now I've been vaccinated, so I can't give it to somebody. So I'm thinking, I'm good to go, but the woman yesterday when I pray to give blood, she said, yeah, where's your mask? I said, well, let's see. I never had coronavirus. So I never caught it.

And I've had a doctor research that and he checks swabs. He took things up by the nose. He took my blood. He said, I never had any antibodies. So I never caught it. I never had it. Now I've been vaccinated against it. So I can't give it to you us talking here.

So I said, I'm good without the mask. I made it this far without a mask. I said, everybody said, well, I noticed that about as many catch it with mask on. I never wore anything. And I never caught it. So I said, I think I'm good to go. But whatever you want, I said, I'll have my hat. I said, well, that worked?

She said, she didn't look at that. I said, what about that? Can you hear it? Did she ever, what she ever say? She just, I just walked back in there and got ready to get the blood, gave them the blood. She thought, well, I guess that don't do. I was always, you never had it.

You've been wearing a basket around your hand. told me I'll never get it because I've been vaccinated. Why would I wear anything? Phil was wearing a mask around his head for years. And he was the pioneer of social distancing. He's been distancing separate people for 50 years. That's exactly right. You got the vaccine now, so you're never going to get it.

So I'm thinking, you can't get it from me. I can't get it from you. I said, I think we're good. Lift the mask. And now not only should you have one, you should be wearing two. two masks maybe even three three would be even better if you get vaccinated against something and they say this thing is you know i got i get you i don't understand i don't quite get it dad met his first karen we got a real karen here today so not you karen you're a fantastic

karen but these these people that are just going around now in their case they're in the doctor office whatever but i mean you're just like you told her the deal which i guess she got it but Did she give you like a snarky look? Like, or? She just, I think she just said like, you know. I think she gave up on that. If you never had it, that means, and you now are vaccinated so that you can't get it. I think you're pretty good to go now.

I said, why don't we just find it? Well, you know that when you're out in public, you kind of have a look about you anyway. I don't go much to town. Give blood and meet with the brothers. And that's about it. That gets up and walks out. He's wearing just what he's wearing the day. He's uniform.

him, the white t-shirt with the stains on it and the pants. Relax. And then he has an AR with him. So we got a table full of people. So that's walking by with his AR. And I looked over at the California guy. And Noah, I said, no, is that, is this the way you go to the doctor? Yeah.

Carrying your AR. If you read my mail, you would be armed too when you walked out the door. Noah looks like, not in California. You're not going to walk around with your AR in California. That is going to happen. I remember the first Sunday, tell them what happened with our friend here. Yeah, so our next podcast, we've got our guest is here. Oh, I'm jumping a gun on you.

No, it's okay. No, it's okay. It's a perfect setup because we're almost out of times here. The perfect tease. You should do podcasts. I should try to do one another. You should. I think is One Kingdom going to start a podcast?

Actually, we are. One Kingdom Ministry is going to have a podcast. We're going to teach guys all over the world. We have ambassadors all over the world. Yeah. And we're going to just open up the Bible and deal with grace and truth. Great idea.

It's going to be a, Ryan Lee is going to help kind of line it up for one kingdom. It's our mission's ministry. And so I'm pretty excited about that. So Mike and I, Mike and I preached together for 10 years at the BFR. And then I left to be a part of the whole Duck Commander, Duck Dynasty world,

and really never came back to preach, but we were all three elders at our church. And then Mike works for one kingdom now. So when Trent left our preacher, I thought it handed that all over. I thought, He had the baton and they gave it back. And so now Mike and I are working for free.

But I don't know about you, Mike, but I've never felt freer. I mean, like, because I don't worry about church work, the part I don't like, they never really, you know, like we talk about, you know, people that, you know, are difficult sometimes because they're people. And so church work is hard. It's hard on preachers and pastors because you get deflated if people are just griping about this or I'm mad about that. Or Mike said the other day, you know, we're taking out all the pews and putting chairs at

WFR. I know somebody you're already figuring out where, because you'd lose your pew. You've been on the same pew. You know, and now you're not going to know where to go because there's just going to be a bunch of chairs in there. Most of the time, love for each other, come slow, boys. It does. Come slow. By the fact, somebody asked me, say, can you think I could come and get my pew?

Could I say, please do because I'm trying to get rid of. Hall them off. So Mike works for our outreach ministry, which is One Kingdom. And Dad and I, we've contributed for years to different causes under One Kingdom because What I love about the mission statement, because one kingdom's been around a long time, used to be World Radio, is to preach the gospel to every person in their own language.

And it's the same thing we started here with the Great Commission. Book of Acts all over. All over again. You think about Acts 2, when everybody's hearing in our own language, is really just a future vision of the verse in Revelation, where he says, finally, they're all gathered around the throne, all these folks that have been saved. and they're praising God and they're from every nation and then they're in every language.

And he's made us a kingdom and a... Yeah, he starts with the end in mind when he does that next year. Which is why I love that you guys changed the name a few years ago, Ben did, to One Kingdom because that's the idea. It's One Kingdom. It is worldwide. So any of you podcast listeners of the interest, it go to Onekingdom.org, and that's one of our church ministries, but just see what these guys are doing.

It's incredible. one. So, I don't know. Yeah. We'd love to have you on board. Love for you to look and see what's going on. Partner, partner with people. So just to close out, so our next podcast, Kenny's here. And Kenny was here that day. It was his birthday, which is yesterday. And he was there. That first day we had the lockdown, the first lockdown live stream, which has now grown into a great ministry. We got people. Which we had one person in the audience and it was a visitor. That's right. There were a handful. I think. Didn't get the memo. I remember a few people. But yeah, but then Kitty, then it was on his birthday, and then it was his rebirth day, because I brought him down here, and you met him and baptized him in the rear, which we'll talk about that with him. But it was really interesting because I thought about that today with you guys both being here,

that that was a year ago. And yet, look what, God has done through the live stream. You had, what, eight states worth of people that were there Sunday? Eight or ten state, different states, you know, I'm like, boy, I like the way this is. Y'all are baptized them over there. We baptized five at WFR. I mean, it feels like acts. You got people all over the world on the live stream video.

They're riding in. They're asking Bible questions. We're studying with them. I made a trip up to Illinois. We're going to make some more trips to connect some of our live stream, basically live stream members. They're living everywhere. Those yesterday were from Odessa, Texas.

I'm not quite sure where Odessa is. But it was a family group, a husband, a wife, and a daughter. I told that daughter what about. I said, you look like her. There's her mother there, you know. She smiled, you know. I said, you look like that woman with you. I was like Dad, small talk,

because you never know what he's going to say, but people love that when he makes this little comment. They were some great people. All right, well, thanks for being here, Mike. Oh, it's great. You failed in admirably for Jace. You were in Jace's chair. You weren't argumentative or rude or all the stuff here.

I know I'm not as positive as Jay says about everything. But, you know, I try. I mean, Kelly. Well, takes care of getting rid of the stories because he never runs out of stories as the label, unless that woman of his is sitting beside him. Then the stories fizzle out. I told that about what happened here yesterday.

I'm sorry I missed that one. You got to check it out. It's quite the podcast. And I was thoroughly entertained by watching him squirms. So check it out. 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 blazestiv.com slash unashamed.