Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 34 | Surviving Bear Attacks and Recognizing Kingdom People

Episode Date: December 1, 2019

If a bear attacks: Jase compares what the Humane Society says to do and what he'd do. The guys also discuss how to recognize kingdom people. Al and Jase give a few examples from when they were in other countries doing mission work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unachanged. What about you? All right, so I'm down in the mic. They said they couldn't hear us. Well, no, so a lot of you have, by the way, we love feedback. So some of you have said we've been a little uneven on our sound. We hear you. We hear you because we want you to hear us.

I think it may be the set. I mean, we're out literally where there is no civilization. I mean, this is like. The fact we're able to do. do this from where we're doing it is pretty amazing. I mean, Phil lives in like a chasm of the civilized world that this place is almost forgotten. You know, I mean, when I come down here, I feel like I'm a million miles away from anything technical. That's why if you gather up, you know, a few rednecks and they're expounding on, they're not looking intently into things like.

perfect audio. We're saying they hear us. But we don't want to take away from people listening. But Phil has the thing where he does, I mean this may be like an intervention for you, but at this point, I'm going to go ahead and bring it out. Phil has a way where he's like, he uses directional, misdirectional dialogue.

And you've seen him do it. He'll be talking to you, but looking at me. He's actually dealing with your problem, but he's doing it by talking to me. Yeah, or he's just problem with you. I do it all the time.

It's bad for a mic, because you're like talking to this guy. Yep. Well, one of our sound engineers said that he called it, he didn't just say it was Phil. He called it the Robertson inflection that, you know, we can be talking along.

Then all of a sudden, we get fired up by something, and we just get loud. Of course, you were the author of that day. You put it in. People down here in the cell, I mean, they're talented. I've seen people talk before and never move their mouth.

I mean, they're like, what are you doing out there? And a cigarette hanging out of there. The cigarette moves is like, hey, what are y'all doing out there, boy? Somebody was on a late night show. Went down there and he said, down in the south in Georgia over there. He said, we got a bunch of guys out there. He said, in Georgia, them old guys come up there.

They said, what the hell are you all doing? They said their lips never moved. What the hell are you all doing on there? Cigar saying that. I've seen that before. That is a day. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So anyway, we said their lips, their mouth never moved. We're working on our unevenness. We're trying to, we don't want to distract from, you know, what we're talking about. I mean, I think some of it, look, when you go further south, I mean, you look at Coach O, you can tell, you know, they hadn't lost this year. But you can tell when they lost. Because you can't understand what he's talking about. Right. It's like, go tagas.

I mean, it's like, what? What did he just say? Yeah, people are looking to me and like, can you discern what he just said? And I said, I have no idea what he said, except for the important part was, go tigers. Which is, you know, they made. Jay says that he did, the reason his voice is the way it is from yelling. Oh, I think so he's in a coach his whole life. So he's not messed up his vocal cords.

That's why you can't, you know. It's funny. They strapped on Miss. I was in panic because their defense was bad, you know. And I told Missy, I was like, like, you know why that he used to be the coach at Ole Miss? And she was like, really? I was like, you know, but she watches the LSU game.

I said, yeah, I said, you know why they fired him? She's like, why? I said, because when he was at Ole Miss and he would do his postgame interviews, he would end it by saying, go tag us. And she's like, that is unbelievable. I said, babe, I'm kidding. They actually fired him because he threw a chair through a plate glass window. I think that's what got him.

And I think he, like, would take his shirt off before they gave. Somebody said he hit himself and knocked himself out. Yeah, he was firing them up but knocked himself out. With age comes to maturity. Well, so this, dad, you're going to love this. This is I-Target Pro. It's the combination of guns and cell phones.

Well, why would he love it? This would be another reason for you to get your first cell phone. This would be a giant mountain for me to climb. So, because you love guns. Explain it. It's a brilliant idea. I can tell you that. All right.

So tell the folks down what they do. So you take the bullet, you put it in your pistol. And you take your live ammo out of there. Yeah, be sure and do that. Make sure you do that in your living room. And you can put it in your hallway down there and put that target up. And it has a cell phone hook to it. And you can true your pistol in.

So you're aiming at your target. But you've got an app that you download. And basically, you know, you're putting the dot on there. So it's telling you how accurate you're saving you a lot of loud racket. That's right. Hearing protection and it's saving you on the cost of ammo. Well, when you pull the trigger, it does it? I mean, what sounds it made?

You know, probably something like, phew, pjong, fjong. I'm just trying to mimic a computer, what a computer would sound like. How do you know so much about this? I don't know. I hear people, just got these things. They make little funny sounds. I'm like.

And they're practicing so you can actually target practice. the cell phone. But this might, what am I missing? This may be the first, this may be the first reason to have one to side in your pistol, right? Because Phil.

Now you're getting a true in your gun, Ian. I'm like, right. So basically, the guys that I target pro have come up with the first dry fire training system. That's what it is.

You don't have to have the loud shooting. Good for your ears. Good for your ears. I mean, I hate to tell you this, you can't hear anymore. Too many shotgun blasts. I know it. It's basically a laser system

that makes it work. Right now you can get 10% sent all plus free shipping if you use the offer code fill so basically you can try this for 30 days no risk a return if you're not happy i guarantee it'll help it saves you a ton of money on ammo oh phil says it's a great idea oh you circulate the bullet because most people have cell phones you know i don't you keep it going it's uh basically i target pro dot com the letter i target pro dot com. The offer code is fill.

Check out on their website what all they offer. I think it'll be worth it for you. Risk three, 30 days, 10% off if you do it today. You know what? This is the perfect gift for Sa. Perfect. Because it's not dangerous. And he has a cell phone now.

Does he really? Yeah, he does. I have his number. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Well, this is what I'm getting him. Good gift. So I'm in the voting line Saturday.

You know, we voted for governor to walk in there, looking about the way I do now. And there was this girl in front of me, you know, had one kid on her, on her hip, you know, the other was grabbing her knee, you know, and I was like, well, that's awesome. She's, you know, carried two kids up here to vote, you know, and as always, I'm like, if you don't like what's going on, we have a right that people died for that we get to vote, you know, so I'd do it proudly. Me too. So I walked in there and, you know, I was dressed in chemo, so they were asked. asking me hunting questions, you know, well, the girl, she's like, well, he's not here. My husband, he's in Canada, bear hunting.

And so I was like, whoa. I was like, that's next level. Because I was talking about my wife calls this, you know, duck season open Saturday, this Saturday. And so I was like, she calls it the ordeal and kind of has a look on her face. Like, here we go, three months of just, you know, trying to survive this. but what spawned in this conversation was I was like I mean I don't hunt things that can hunt me now I don't disapprove of people who do you know I think it's noble but one of the ladies

that was like that you sign your name and she you know she's like I guess what are these people volunteers I guess they get paid oh did it yeah yeah well she said well I read somewhere where they they dumped a bunch of black bear in uh Louisiana I said oh yeah they're trying to bring them back. And so, and they said, you know, when I read what you were supposed to do if you're encountered by a bear, she was like, that just didn't seem to jive. And I was like, oh, it don't. So I looked it up. And I wanted to bring this up for the discussion today. Because I think as hunters and, you know, and based on Romans 1, there's an order of things. You have God, you have humans and you have animals. Humans, we view as protectors of our environment.

I know you agree with my assessment field. Yep. And when you get that out of whack, when you value an animal more than you do a human, you know, you have all kind of chaos in Romans 1. Anyway, I thought this was interesting. I mean, look what here in Louisiana, and I'm sure other places,

this is what they say you should do if you're encountered with a bear. Number one, you can't shoot them because that's illegal against the law. So they'll put you in jail if you shoot the bear. So that's out. they're real clear on that so they're like so if the bear comes upon you stand and face the bear directly never run away from or approach him so you can't shoot him you can't run away

and he can't go toward him and you can't go to him so what do they say i just curl up the ball and wait next make yourself look as big as possible by spreading your arms or better yet take off your coat. So pooch out your belly and hold out because that's, you know, your belly, make your beer belly bigger than it is. And maybe the bear will say, boy, that's a big belly. Or just be disgusted and walk away. Is this is the, no, you can't walk away. No, I'm saying the bear might walk away. Well, yeah. Gets a good look at you. What if you're just, you can't run anywhere? What if you're a small fellow, you know? Yeah, what if you're Richard Anderson?

Your odds of being, you know, a college football has a odds of use of. surviving or winning. You know, I'm like, if you're a little fellow, according to this. You're 5'8. You weigh 150 pounds. You're probably fixing to die. How big can you make yourself little? You know what they call that?

A snack. I mean, this is from the humane society. You know, this is like, I guess legit. Look, next, make as much noise as possible by yelling, banging pots and pans. Who are you getting these things from? Are using other noise-making? devices. Humane thing to do is let the bear eat you instead of you hurting the bear.

That's the deal. Yeah. That doesn't seem humane at all. Go ahead and cough it up and let him eat you because you don't want to kill him. It's better if you get eaten. That's a humane thing to do. So look, if the bear approaches and you have bear spray, I'm like, what is bear spray? Spray the bear as he approaches.

So you're walking around with a can of bear spray? What do you put in the back pocket, your coat? No, you put it in your pots and pans that you're carrying around with your fans. In the very rare case that a black bear does attack you, fight back. Yeah, that makes sense. Don't play dead. He's on one of my legs and most of it's gone and I need to fight back. Yeah.

Okay. I'll be fighting the best I can. He has big claws. on the end of his, you know, pause. Now listen to this. After the bear leaves, remove whatever attracted him to the location. They have some things. This is, you can't make this stuff up.

Look, barbecue. Remove whatever attracted him. You say, well, what about I was the one that attracted him? How do I remove me? How about I attach my leg back before I. remove book. Be sure to take that with you because you don't want to. But look, here's what they say. Barbecue grill, bird feeder, or garbage. So let's look. Now listen to this. Then call 911.

Let's take care of the bear, whatever attracted to that first while I'm bleeding in my, you know, insides have been turned. As my entrails are along the ground. Now we're going to wait and hope that the bear does not make a move until. the personnel from 9-1-1 is on the scene. You know what hit me? Look, you know what hit me when you call 911? You're now calling someone with a gun. Who will shoot the bear?

Who will shoot the bear immediately? If they attack a human, they shoot the bear. I'm like, why not just trust hunters? If you've hunted, if you have had a hunting license for five years, everybody should be cleared to shoot bear if they attack you. If they attack you, that's right. I mean, you are now professional. Because, look, when I lived in Yuppieville up in town,

every time there was some kind of animal problem, guess who they called? Me. Because they had no idea what to do. We have a coon with rabies that's attacking our dog. The kids are scared. They call me. Remember they called you about the beaver that was cutting everybody's trees down? They called me about the beaver. They had a rabid dog. You know, that guess what? They call me. I took care of it in less than 60 seconds in every case. It's because I realize God's given us a responsibility. At some point you've got to trust humans to do the right thing. That's what we do as hunters.

You know, it was interesting when I was reading this on the same site. They were like, you know, some people are proponents for hunting, which these people were against. And they're, look, you know what the reasoning was on why they don't think that that's a good thing? Because they're like, well, they're not hunting the bears that would actually attack people in parks in their homes. They're killing wild bears. So that doesn't even solve the preempt.

problem, which I thought was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. So I said all that to say this. There was actually in the Bible an occurrence in Second Kings 2. I want to read this because we're talking about kings and kingdoms. And it made me think about this verse. You'll probably know where I'm going with this. This is Second King's. It's one of my favorite stories. It's an awesome story. I mean, it's a rated R story, but Second Kings 2 in verse, is that 23? It says from there, Elijah went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some ewes came out of the town and jeered at him. Go on up, you bald head, they said.

Go on up, you bald head. They was making fun of him because he was bald, which, look, obviously, from looking at us, I prefer, you know, the hairy way. But, you know, I mean, Elijah, he could have had leprosy or something. that was common with, you know, being bald or maybe just decided to go bald. But still, you know, they shouldn't have been making fun of him, right? And so in verse 24, he turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord.

I mean, he basically turned them over to the Lord because the Lord had summoned him to go to Bethel, which means, was that mean House of God? And they produced a lot of good songs, by the way. And so then two bears came out of the... the woods and mauled 42 of the lads. And, you know, these are like young men, like a gang of thugs. And he went on to Mount Carmel from there and returned to Samaria. So I thought, you know, that's what happens when you're, number one,

you get turned over to the Lord and start messing with his business. But number two, when you're not prepared for bear attacks. Because I'm prepared. You're subject to a mawling. Yeah. So what I get out of that, it's more important to be in close connection, have a relationship with the one he made the bears. That's number one, obvious. And actually, actually, Elijah, he turned around, he looked at them, these young ewes that were running their mouth, and he called down a curse on them in the name of them. So the curse was, here comes a couple of bears. Well, the Lord did that. Yeah.

You know, he didn't. I mean, he just turned them over the Lord, and the Lord said, here's two bears. I know he uses weather to bring the human race into line. And now we've identified a Second King's 2, where he does use animals too for his will to be doing. Well, to read between the lines, I was inferring that a lot of people who persecute people

who worship and follow God, they also say and write things that I just read about what to do when a bear comes it's so ridiculous you know it's like the guy remember the guy who who lived with the bears for like three years and documented I mean it's like he had a campfire and a bear he had chairs for the bears and he's sitting there and they're you know seeing they were all they were all friends they were all friends and guess what happened he got torn into little bitty pieces by the bears all that was left was his backbone. Yeah.

So it was a fascinating story in our culture until that happened. And guess what? They buried that down deep the story. Because it's just not the way God set it up. The teaching would be be careful who you make friends with. So that was my, that's right. I always said. That was my voting booth conversation,

which I encourage people to vote, but also encourage people to have conversations about the ridiculous nature of some of the things that happens in our culture, in our environment, the animal world. And sometimes you just got to stand up and say, that's just not right. You know?

Only Jay's could hear some woman say, my husband's bear hunting in Canada and go down the path. Your mind is a whole... Well, I'm saying the woman sitting at the boat, Voting booth is the one that brought it up. She said, well, I hope a bear doesn't attack me because according to the law, we can't shoot him.

I said, you call me, I'll shoot him. And she's like, well, that's against the law. I was like, well, I'm going to use my one phone call and call the Lord. And maybe the same thing that happened with Elijah may happen. Maybe the bears will show up. I think I would just take my chances in front of a jury of my peers. I'm walking down the middle of the road in the middle of nowhere. where I look up and here comes a gris coming at me, you know,

and I was armed with a high-powered rifle. He's coming at me. What are you going to do? I would take my chances in court explaining why I blew his head off before he, when he got up there about 10 yards from me. You sure you don't want to go with? I set my rifle down. I picked up two pots.

I think I would say blow his head off now and then take it to court. I made myself big. I made myself big. And I didn't run. You know, there's a famous joke. about, you know, and it came from this kind of nonsense is that basically you run if you're with a buddy, because all you got to do is outrun him. Yep.

When I used to teach at camp, I used this verse in First Kings 2 when I would have unruly, you know, teenagers I was trying to teach, you know, they wasn't listening. They wouldn't pay attention. I'd go over here and I'd say, don't make me, because we're in an outdoor setting, I said, don't make me call the curse, because they're in no telling what the Almighty will send out of the woods. They didn't know that was in the Bible. You'd be surprised at how kids will react. I said, so my discipline text was that one. I'll call the Almighty Dad on you, and we'll have some bears come out here. I read this to both. It's going to get ugly. I read that to both of my kids,

my boys along the way. And look, when I got asked to go, they had a troubled, a troubled class at school. When I got asked to go out there, this is what I went with. Because they were bullies. Yeah. And bullying is a major problem in high school. Absolutely. It's terrible. I was like, I'll tell you this, you don't clean it up, and there's a lot of to be two bears come out of the woods. You know, they're looking, because it's a fascinating.

Kids, this is interesting to them, that's in the Bible. Whatever. Whatever the situation, I would say common sense is a much needed quality in today's society. Common sense. Well, and a trust with people with guns. It's not the guns. It's the human heart. And at some point, you're trusting people with guns.

Because what gets me at the end of all these things that, to me, just seem ridiculous, their answer is we'll call somebody with a gun. Because we trust them because they went through a course or whatever. I'm like, you don't trust me? I've lived in the wild. I've been doing it my whole life. Yeah, I understand when I see a raccoon with rabies, what needs to be done. I want to call somebody.

I'm like, this raccoon has rabies. We need to take care of it. Because this is going to infect all our animals and everything we love. We take care of it and we move on. That's a good point. So we're in a perfect lead-in days. We're talking about kings and you were in second kings. Elijah and Lasha were prophets that God put to speak truth to kings because, you know,

in those first few kings that were around in Israel had a tendency to do what happens today. They followed the political wins or their own desires about what they wanted to do. and they forgot that the Almighty had set up, you know, Israel to do his bidding. So those, but it was always a tenuous relationship. And I always say, because I think Dad always has that sort of prophetic spirit about him, that prophets were usually not very popular. The kings didn't care much for them, although they had to listen to them because they were bringing the word of God.

But the people didn't like them much either. And you saw that the case you were talking about with Elijah, because, you know, they were just straight up. They were going to tell you black and white, here's what God said. And they didn't mince words. They didn't like the warnings. That's right. Because typically they were about their behavior, right?

Yeah. Have you noticed? They didn't like the warnings, the rebukes, the chastisement, you know. Have you noticed in your appearances around the fruited plain that, especially stuff we do on media and when you're on a talk show or so? Have you noticed that people still don't like the rebukes? I have. I've been called many unkind names. for just quoting scripture saying,

just think about it. Like ravaging wolves. Because if God is real and he's true, then you accept that, your life will change. That's right. And people, they don't want to change, so they attack the source, which is God.

Which I always found interesting in a passage, you know, Hebrews 13 8th says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's not going to change. who he is his nature, what he did on the cross, his resurrection, you know, him at the right hand of God, but even his character is everything about him is good. But once you acknowledge that, well, everything in your life changes. Right. And he's unchanging because it would have to be that way when you start thinking about eternity. Because you, you wouldn't want a God who all of a sudden

changes who he is. You know, a million years down heaven, all of a sudden he becomes corrupt. Right. Well, this is not going to work. And so that's why people attack because they don't want to change. When the kingdom just before it was established in Acts chapter 2, after it blew in with a hurricane and a wind, it's a little inside here. The first thing said about the first 3,000 that heard the gospel, Jesus died, y'all put him to death by nailing him to a cross,

but God is raising from the dead. They'd been asking about the kingdom. What about the kingdom? What about the kingdom? And he's telling him, look, just wait right here. You'll receive power and you'll start from here. And you'll begin to proclaim the kingdom of God in Jerusalem here, Judea, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

This is going worldwide. It's interesting, the first 3,000, the first thing that said, and you fast forward to modern day and say, I wonder if that's still pertinent. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. So it's a message to the kingdom. Look, no matter what happens, just hold to what the apostles said,

and I had them write it down. God said, I'm going to have these guys write down. Matthew is going to tell the story of my son. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. They're telling my story. You get to the book of Acts. When the kingdom finally gets there, all these years of waiting on it, it gets there and you say, what's the first thing they did?

They made sure they were doing. Well, if you take an earthly kingdom and the kingdom of God is operating within that earthly kingdom, say in China, right now people would be stunned. to see how many of God's people, they're in China. Oh, yeah. But the Chinese military and the authorities, they don't know where they are because they're hiding in their homes and little groups,

and they're being very low, low, low profile. So they don't have big buildings with steeples on them. No, that's the first place they're coming. Yeah. But they're diffused throughout northern. Korea, they're there all over the world. They're there operating within, in this case, communist countries, dictators. In order to function, you have to do it quietly. But it's ironic. It's amazing. That's why you can't stamp it out. You can't get the head.

They made it illegal to do that, but it actually turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened for the church. You are correct. By it being illegal, because then you can't put a thumb on it. They don't know where to look to find it. That's why in America we've gone way too far with identifying where we are because of our freedom. But trust me, that French Revolution, you say, where's the first place, you know, that the French authorities, when they said, we're getting rid of this religion stuff. They all knew where to go, those big Catholic churches, Notre Dame. And they killed them right there in the yard.

They knew where to go find them. But that's not real good for the kingdom of God. I think, you know, last week when we talked about, kind of our view of the kingdom coming via the Holy Spirit being poured out being here right one of the predictions that Jesus said we didn't read last week was in John 3 when Nicodemus came up to him and he's like you know I see that you're from God because nobody could do these miraculous signs course here's Nicodemus a religious leader he was a little embarrassed to be seen with him during the day, you know, he came at night.

This is a religious, you know, heavyweight. But Jesus said something interesting. In reply, John 3.3, I'll tell you the truth. This terminology is what I want to zero in on. It says no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's born again. Now, two verses later. They won't even know it's here. Yeah, Nicodemus, because he's like, no,

Nicodemus got hung up on, because if something, somebody said that to you and you had no concept of what that phrase meant and that this that was Jesus introduced that you know we didn't later on I've been born again you know that was Jesus he said well how can I be born again you know a second time I'm old can I get back inside my mother yeah and so then but then he uses again different terminology then Jesus said to tell you the truth no one can enter the kingdom you know he first said no one can see no one can see it unless they're born again. Well, that was a different, just like what you're talking about. People that are born again, oh, you see the kingdom because you watch people who's also been born

again. You can't get it down to a location like you were made up with the French Revolution. Because God doesn't live in buildings. Act 17, one of my most favorite verse. God does not live in temples built by hands. So it's hard to see because then you, you have the hypocritical nature of human beings also could you know just because someone's in a church building that means nothing no he can be as far away from god and we've we've proven that so i thought it was interesting that he's like you can't see it unless you're born again and you can't enter it enter it unless he's born a water in the spirit which then goes to acts two what you said there's there's a couple of interesting things that happened when peter who had the keys of the kingdom

Matthew 16. Yep. He then shares Jesus. Well, the people listening, the 3,000 that you referred to, said, well, what do we do? Well, he then enters the same concept that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about. He said, repent and be baptized. We have water here. Yep.

And you'll receive forgiveness of sins. And you'll, I mean, you, for the remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift to the Holy Spirit. So it actually seems like it's the same. principle of entering the kingdom being born in water and spirit that he was referring to that Jesus was referring to which I believe it was and look here's what's amazing not only did they hold to the apostles teaching they to the fellowship they met together they didn't have church buildings the Jews had synagogues but these people didn't have any structures

they devote themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer They were amazed by what the apostles were doing, the miracles. They were together, had everything in common, so they knew where to find each other. They sold their possessions and good. They gave to anyone as he had need, which is a wonderful thing. Everyone was loved. Every day they met together in the temple courts. They broke bread and their homes, ate together, had meals together.

they praise God and at that point the people were like ha well what do you know well add about and the Lord added to their number the ones of being saved you fast forward 2,000 years and you say that would be the best way to roll out wherever you are just offer your body wherever you are 24-7 365 days a year so that when people and offer your body to your heart holiness to what God has said. And look, when people see that, they see the kingdom of God. Well, and it's interesting because, as Jason was saying, the idea, there's a lot of people that say, I believe in a higher power, I believe in intelligent design, there's a lot of

names they give to the Almighty, which is all good. I'm glad they do believe that. But there's a difference in that general idea of there being something beyond the cosmos to a born-again believer. And now you tell somebody who's born-again, you can see what others can't see, whether they believe in a higher-power or not. That's right.

So that's what you're describing that community. A perfect example is a few years ago, I went to Africa, and I wound up getting stuck in this airport. Three in a morning, I got to catch another flight, some other place, and I'm like,

I go in the airline just went kaput. You know, you think here, you go in and you say, hey, I got a Delta flight. Yeah, Delta just went out of business. day. That's what happens in Africa. So that's where I'm at. And I'm thinking, man, this is, this is not good for Al. I'm trying by myself. So I had one number of a brother who was one of our speakers for one kingdom. And I called him up. I've never met him. I called him up. And his

name was Arnold. I said, Arnold. I said, this is your brother, Alan, from the U.S. I said, I'm here. I'm stuck in the airport. I said, I can get no flight and they all speak French. And he spoke French, but luckily for me, he also spoke English. He said, brother, I'll be right there. So he didn't tell me where to meet him, nothing. He just said, I'll be right there. This is a huge big airport. So I'll walk outside after a little bit, I'm looking around.

It's just getting daylight. And I'm looking at all these faces in the country is in Senegal. It's 98% Muslim. So I'm looking at all these people, and they're looking, and you know, you're in another country. So I'm intimidated. I'm looking around. You're standing now. Right. I'm staying the day. I don't

know if I'm ever getting out of here. I'm looking at all these faces and it looks like from my mindset, everybody's wanting to get a piece of owl. Whatever I got, everybody wants it. It's like I'm looking at ravaging wolves in my mind. But look, I'm looking and looking, looking, looking. And I was like, well, there's my guy. I mean, hundreds of people were out there, but there was one guy that was just smiling and looked like he didn't want anything for me. And I didn't know. I'd never met this man. I walked over to him and said, are you brother around? He said, I am. Are you brother Alan? I said, I am. He said, come to my house. We'll take care of all this. Pretty cool. I mean, you think about it. How did I know out of a sea of 100 faces, that was my brother?

But that's what happens with the idea of born again. I knew that guy didn't want anything from me. And in fact, he put me up overnight and got me fixed up. I want to read this in Paul's letter to the Romans. You know, he goes in Romans 13. He talks about God establishing the authorities, like you said, and we have a role, even though we're under that authority that God set up for peace and justice and the laws of the land, an argument had developed in Romans 14 about matters of eating and drinking and trying to follow man's law with keeping God's law in mind. But he gets down to the end, which is my point about seeing this kingdom. in Romans 14 and verse 17 he says for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit because anyone who serves Christ in this way

is pleasing to God and approved by men that's what people have to see or they'll never see the kingdom of God that's right unless there's a difference look if they see individuals look around the 320 million of us on the United States. Well, the acts of the sinful nature are obvious. So if they see coming out of a man or a woman, Galatians 519. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy,

fits of raids, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. He says, I'm telling all y'all, those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. You're like, that's not them. That's not who they are. Keep looking. Well, when you see the ones just below that, but the fruit of the spirit, when they see love,

oh, is it needed? Look at America. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-confidence. controlled. You say, against those things, the Apostle Paul adds, there's no law, meaning when you see that kind of behavior, you can spot anybody. All you have to do, Al, is just observe their behavior. He's fixing to tell a story on who he is. It's that simple. It is. We need to implement that more and more and get out of this idea. If I go to church, you're like, go to church. nowhere in the Bible does that phrase exist going to church go to church we are the church the king is

Jesus Christ we are members of the kingdom and we're known for love joy peace place it's kind as good and his faith with the gentle and self-control it has to be there you know what's interesting is that when Jesus left here remember we talked about this before he was talking about the kingdom of God to his disciples the Holy Spirit comes they you know the first belief believers begin to happen right there on the day of Pentecost. But, you know, Jesus told him, he said, I want you to start here in Jerusalem, but I want you to go to Judea, Samaria, and he's now describing the region and everywhere on the earth. Go. Go. And therefore, the kingdom is going to be everywhere. Well, guess what? We get all the way over to Acts chapter 8 and 9, nobody went

anywhere. They were still all right there. So time is passing because everybody loves being together, kind of what you're describing. So guess what happened? A major persecution breaks out against the church and guess what happened? Scattered them. They had to. You know, it's interesting. Acts 1, remember when they said, are you now going to restore the kingdom

at Israel? What was that? Verse 6 or 7. Yeah. Because they thought like a lot of people in our world today that this was some kind of physical thing. Like the kingdom of God is going to be this attack where like a war breaks out.

The tallest building on earth, but the tallest steeple and the greatest glitter. I mean, this is going to be the biggest structure ever built by anybody. We're reading these verses and it's all fruits of the spirit. That's why we can be three brothers sitting on the side of a hill here in Wastaw Parish. Then I mentioned my brother Arnold, who's right now on the other side of the world, teaching people in Senegal or somebody in red China or somewhere else.

We're all members of the kingdom of God. Give your life to God. obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, do what Peter said, repent and be baptized, you'll receive God's spirit. You say, so where do I go now? You say, you don't have to go anywhere. Just be out and about. And when people run up on you, they're like, hmm.

So you invite people to your home. You serve a little meal. You talk to them about Jesus. You point them to the Savior of the world, the king. And you explain to them what the kingdom is, you being a member of it. and you say, and you offer a prayer, you remember his death, burial, resurrection, and you say, is it that simple? It's that simple. When I went to the, to the, Billy Graham, to the cove and went to Billy Graham's office,

there's a lot of pictures of there, him with presidents, and really impressive stuff. You and I have both seen it. But my favorite picture was one of him standing at a pulpit with his Bible open. And so he's preaching Jesus. there's an interpreter standing up on a box next to him, a little bit short people, so he's got to get up tall next to it. And in front of him, they're at an airport. In front of him, there are 1.1 million South Koreans that he's preaching Jesus.

This is back in the 70s, I guess. But, you know, as a preacher, as someone who's up in front of people, I just thought, what an opportunity. I mean, in one setting, he was able to preach over a million people. The fruit of his labor is still there. It's still there. is Zachariah, which is how the kingdom is spread. That's how it's spread. It's amazing when you tell that story. When I went to the Ukraine, we, of course, this is,

I'm going back 25 years ago. One day we need to tell that story on the back. I have plenty of stories, but, you know, we get, I go fly into Moscow. I mean, they were like, you know, the wall has been torn down. We can now share Jesus in there, so their American missionary went over there, and he, you know, started having. house churches and and it was a humanitarian effort. Right. So they were like, bring your own food. And so we got over there for a month.

But on the way from Moscow to the Ukraine, when we got into the Ukraine, we were going to get on a plane. And they were like, sorry, the plane, we can't fly in the plane. So we're like, what? They're like, no fuel. Because Ukraine was like a third world country. Ran out of gas. So we're like, what do we do?

And so, oh, Mike, you know, Mike, he's like, I guess we take a train. So I get on this train for 20-something hours, but what happened is now we have no way to coordinate. Our guys think he's going to the airport, you know. Yeah, because you can't. And we couldn't get a whole drive. This is pre-cell phone. Yeah, pre-cell phone. It's 25 years ago.

And so we're on this train, and it's like zero degrees outside, and it's like 100 inside. It's one of the most miserable 20-hour rides I've ever taken. And we're stopping ever so often. Well, we don't even know where to get off. It's just crazy. And so we pulled in at a stop and Mike said, I think that's our guy. And so we're like, you know, he started hollering English.

And then he responds back. I mean, there's like, there's hundreds of people around. I'm like, how did you have picked that American? out at this train stop. It was just so weird of a happening. It seemed borderline miraculous, you know. So we all, the train starts moving. So we all jump off the train because this is our guy and we're headed, you know,

who knows if we don't get off the train where we're headed. And so I literally jumped off the train, hit the snow and ice. We were all around. We're all looking around. And then the other Mike that was on the trip said, we didn't get our bags. Because if we were in such a hurry to get off the plane, we all left our bag. So we look at the plane and there's some

Ukrainian, they're holding our bags up like, we can't understand what they're saying. I'm like, them doggone rascal. Because they were laughing like, hey, you're bag in Russian. I was like, man, they got our stuff, but who cares we're alive with American. And then they were like, oh, they're asking

if we wanted to throw them back. Yeah, the train's picking up some speed. So they started chucking those bags. They would hit and just explode. All our stuff just, and I was like, it's one of the weirdest things that happened in my life. And I'm not sure if that we could see the kingdom. I just thought that was just a strange thing.

It was almost like God intervened. And here's this guy in it, because the country, like you said, was so miserable. It was in such miserable conditions. And that's what Mike had said. He said, you know, he was the only one that didn't have a frowning on his face. It's so weird when you tell that a story because I immediately, that story popped in my head and I thought, you know, no matter what happens, there's a joy that comes from the Holy Spirit of God that you get when you're born again that really in certain aspects of life when you're doing

something for God. Because we, I mean, look, they said it's going to be rough. That's the only time of my life where I've ever known what it is to be hungry. Yeah. You know, because we ran out of food because I looked at the people, I knew I was coming home to America. And I looked at the people and I thought they need this more than I do. And so you just got to a point where you just ran out of food. You gave away all your food. And so the last five days, I was like, I knew what it was to be hungry. I mean, we started bickering with each other.

You couldn't help it. You're just hungry, you know. They had a little Lord of the Flies thing working there with the mission team. The exchange rate in the Ukraine was like 750 to 1. Look, I'm carrying around my money feel in a box on my shoulder. basically with a sign saying kill me i have a box full of money and when we we hit moscow they had the world's largest macdonalds there and i hadn't eaten in five days anything substantial so i bought my way to the front of the line just handing people's money there's a long line of people there's a long line and when i got up to the front i just

set all my money down there and i'm like okay this was back to your teenage years whatever's Whatever I can get in that box, that's what I want. I want to feed. And McDonald's, where it was the epicenter of fine dining. I was like, I want you to keep those burgers coming. And I want to buy whatever this will buy for everybody behind me. So how many of these Ukrainians and the Russians did y'all win while you were there? Well, what's interesting is we plant the seed and get it going.

Here's what happened. We shared Jesus with hundreds of people. we would uh how did they take that overall you know we put up a sign this was the the uh been under communism you know for 75 years whatever good people I loved them I mean I here recently you know when the bomb when they started bombing they the bomb hit in Gerlofka which was the town where I was out and when I went to the internet looked all the news media I literally walked down that road where the bomb it was it kind of overcome with emotion because I got a lot of friends there you know who came the Lord. But what happened was... So y'all did win a certain percentage of them.

Yeah, I'm going to explain to you what happened. The American missionary, something while we were there happened to his wife, which is another reason why we got hungry. So he leaves. So basically it's me and my two guys. We don't even have a liaison. We're just in a country that we don't know, and we lost our American missionary. But his idea for sharing Jesus was there were three English-speaking universities in the whole country where they go to college to learn English. Well, we put up a sign, and you know the diagram that the guy who brought you to the Lord came up with. We put a sign up at that university with an arrow pointing down, with a cross, with a tomb,

with an arrow pointing up, and with the error coming back. And we put on there, learn this language from three Americans. and the university gave us a two-hour slot every day. So look, I said, this is what y'all think. Because I was thinking our universities, I thought, ain't nobody going to show up in here. And they said, no, they're fascinated by Americans. They wouldn't let you talk about Jesus in our universities.

You'd never be able to post that. But you got to remember, they came in there to learn English. They're there to learn English. Right. So, well, how better to learn English from Americans? So that was kind of the draw. So look, we put that sign up. An hour later, we had a first class.

I walked in. It was standing in room only. And I mean, I was overcoming the motion because I thought these people have no idea what they're fixing to hear. That's right. So I got up and I shared Jesus for two hours every day. And it would be a whole new crowd, a whole new crowd.

And so then our next move was they were fascinated with basketball. There was only two or three gyms in the whole country. And one of them was at that university. So us, the three Americans, we'd go down there and play basketball. They had rubber rims, which I thought was interesting. You either had nothing but net or this thing bounced and like went into off the rear. What you're saying is the downside of socialism slash communism was very evident. It was terrible.

So let me finish up what happened with the basketball. Well, they were so amazed at how well we played. that people started showing up. And by the time we let, there were hundreds of people coming to watch us play. And so what we would do, started off, we would be three Americans against three Ukrainians,

but they were so terrible. We just said, we don't care how many you get. So it basically got to where it was us three against a mob. They didn't have the concept of dribbling. They're running with the ball, but it was fun.

And so then we would invite them to our, little apartments and flats or to our class and we share Jesus. So we didn't baptize a whole lot of people because it was tough to find some water, you know, but a lot of people made professions of faith and so they were going to put their faith in. But look, here's what happened to finish this story. Well, a crew came in after we left, another crew, and they brought hundreds to the Lord. And they were like, we can't figure out where all these people came from.

from, but I knew I was like, oh, we planted the seed through those basketball games, to those classes, and then the church took off. So, you know, you go in stages and hear these people that were, you know, trying to find something to eat, they found Jesus through the experience. It was an awesome experience. But it was the same thing we're talking about here. We brought the most powerful thing on the planet. We brought the spirit of God through the introduction of Jesus.

And those people, despite their conditions, they, became the most powerful people on the planet. They knew their sins were removed. They knew why they were here. And no matter what happened to them, if they died of starvation, they knew they was going to live forever and be a part of God's eternal kingdom. And that's what we try to convey the difference in our theology and our principles than a lot of religious people. It's not a physical thing. Being a part of the kingdom ensures you of everlasting life because you have that spirit. But it also, you show the fruits of it in a country that desperately needed hope. Yep.

Interesting. Well, so who knew that 25 years later, Ukraine would be right at the forefront of every political discussion. Well, I believe that happened because when we were there, see, now I believe there's a lot of spirit-filled people there. And I believe that's why the persecution came. There's no doubt in my mind. Because I saw a spark and a fire takeoff as far as among the people with Jesus.

And now I'm thinking, well, I wonder why there's so much problem in Ukraine is in the news so much. And I'm thinking, you know what? I think it's because of the spiritual aspect of it. But nobody would know that. I mean, this is breaking news. At least there are some who are trying to weed out the corruption that comes from a no-god for 75 years. To fight it all. So we'll talk about that next time on Unashame. We'll expand that out a little bit more and talk about it. So good stuff. We are so glad you're watching and listening to the Unashamed podcast. Be sure to like us on Facebook, subscribe on YouTube and iTunes. That's going to keep you up today with all the new episodes. And it's also going to let other people find out about our

podcast. So keep spreading the word and watching and listening to Unashamed with Phil Robertson.