Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 372 | Phil Is Nearly Killed by a 'Jumping Betty' & Our Culture's Infatuation with Senseless Rules

Episode Date: October 31, 2021

Phil hides his near-death experience from Jase. There's a good reason you should never underestimate the lengths to which a Robertson will go to kill some ducks. Jase and Al discuss wearing hats in church and other rules that don't matter. Jase shares a message from the Bible about why rules won't make people behave better — no matter how many you have. And Al reminds us why the things we think and say are so important. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? How's that jet lag working for you with the sleep? Gain sleep. I'm all messed up. Get out in the middle of the night. You know, when we went to Scotland a few years ago and filmed for the show, and I thought I was, I laughed at him for doing it,

but it turned out it's probably pretty smart. But, Sae, you know, he never, we all kind of crossed over and got on their time frame because there's a big difference, six-hour difference. But I said, hey. So I said, no. No. No. I'm going to bed.

So he just stayed up all night, every night, stayed on his normal schedule. And then when he wasn't working, he slept. When he was, he didn't sleep. So that was his way of dealing with it, which, hey, it worked, I guess. You know, I decided to cross over and then come back. At about three or four in the morning, I'm awake, no matter what, which will be perfect for duck season, which is coming up.

Yeah. But up fast. Well, I heard when I got back, I heard you had a couple of near-death experiences. And you wasn't going to tell me about them, weren't you? Well, I didn't want to spread the news and put fear in anybody's mind. No, my blood pressure never went up because I said, the only difference in me and you, the person telling me this story won J-Stone, as I said, I'm not surprised.

we we moved a floating duck blind by taking the pontoons out from under it putting them on a trailer and we went down through a narrow narrow trail in the woods it would hold barely a pickup truck pulling a trailer with pontoons on it so we took the pontoons down set them out of where the blind is going to be. Then we had to come back and get the duck line. So I measured the narrow trees on the road. I measured each one of them to see if it was wide enough to go down through there or we have to cut one down.

At this point in the story, this seems like a harmless venture. Harmless venture. Because it's dry land, right? That's right. So everything's running smooth. I've looked at it. I said there's a couple of places where I have to have hit it just at the right angle for the blind on the trailer to get in between the close growing trees.

So I ran into this was a lag at the first, you'd have to back it up, the trailer, big long trailer. The boats, I mean, the blind, let's see, when I married it, I think it was about 13. There was 13 feet. I had to have at least 13 feet in between the trees for the blind to go through it. Well, a couple of them, but just right, you know, quarter of an inch. I got a big long trailer. I mean, you go into it wrong angle. So anyway, I finally, we made it until I got on the dump that we put across the slew.

We put a raised a dump up, hauled dirt in there. came way up. What's the weight limit on that dump? Well, there are any sages down there? We put a lot of dirt on it. We said, we think this will hold a forewitter at least. Then we said it'll hold a truck. But I got on one end of that thing.

And when I'm going down that levy, it's a dump we put there way up, built way up. One mistake in whatever you're in is going to roll down that bank. So I got out there and I got in this in the middle of the thing. There was an overcup tree coming out like that. Here's the dump right here. He's pointing it out of me. The overcup is right on my left. The pickup truck goes by the overcup.

And here comes the blind and the trailer. Uh-oh. I'm six inches. I need six more inches. I'm on the top of a dump. Yeah. Which is just a truck best bare. will go through. I move over six inches. I run the risk of the entire truck going down the bank.

So you stopped and reassessed. So I stopped and got out and I'm parked and the trailer is right beside the overcut tree. And I said, Dan, I said, go get my chains off. I'm going to have to cut this one so I can get across here. The logger, when I told him what happened, he told me, said, yeah, that's a jumping, a jumping Betty or something. He had a nickname. A jumping Betty. A jumping Betty. I've never heard that turn.

What does that mean? He said, that's happened to me before, and he said, I just want to tell you, more people have been killed. Jumping Betty. Jumping Betty. Than any other thing with a chainsaw. Because the tree was like this at an angle. My truck is parked right here, right here.

My truck's right there. I don't know how to describe that. So the overcup is bad even with my door. Yeah. So I get the chainsaw and I begin to cut as low as I can right here. The overcup is about, it's about like that. Couple feet around. So it's a pretty good size tree.

When I got that chainsaw about halfway through that overcup, a truck's parked right here. When it began to fall, ran with a chainsaw. before it fell as it went like this started falling a huge part of it split the middle of it split and this part came up it just come up as the tree is fallen i instantaneously would save my life backed up hurriedly when the tree hit the all the limbs and when the tree hit in the when the tree hit in the slew, it hit. And this stump right here that I had just cut, I cut it halfway through. Is that the jumping down?

When the main part of the tree hit the ground, the slew, that log right there jumped up. I mean, about shoulder high, I'm standing right beside the truck. When I jumped back and moved, that thing jumped from right here, here's my truck. and it came up and it just went co-woom. Is that the big dent in the back of your truck back there? I know. I told, Dan ran him. Are you all right?

I said, yeah, I'm all right. He said, that caves your whole truck here. The whole back part of your truck is cave in. I hadn't heard this part. I said, Dan, the good news is I said, I now have a truck that looks like the redneck truck. All of them got big dents in them. So I see. So the tree fell.

but then it pushed back. It pushed the stump back, I guess. When it fell. I'm having a hard time. As soon as it hit. The end of the tree, actually. As soon as it hit like that, it jumped up and toward me and just, and the truck was like this, and then it just went, woo-w-woom.

So if you hadn't to move back, what you had just got. I'm dead. It's the end of the law. If I had to move back, I'm dead. I'm dead. It would have crushed you. It would crush me. So it must have hit a angle.

It came like this close, and I was moving back. but it came like so close. And I just saw it coming up. I couldn't believe he got that high. And the logger said, yeah, when them jumping beties, but you got to watch that. He said, it was holler in the middle? I said, yep, it was holler.

I got out in that holler. And it just, the half of it broke up like that as it was falling. It was lighter. And then it broke off. And when the tree hit the ground, it just went. Pushed it back. Came up. I mean, it came up six feet.

The thing hit and jumped up six feet. rent right at my truck. Well, now I've got a big overcut tree just stuck in the side of my truck like that. So I thought, well, I just got up. I saw that. I got up there and had to solve that bigger section. It pail went down in the creek. I cut another one and where I get through.

And so the Toblian, and I just passed on over it, thinking the almighty, I'm glad you gave me the ability to get out of the way and get out of the way in a hurry. Did it was it like at a force where you felt the wind come by? Yeah. Oh, wow. It was just like we took a whole tree, raised it up six feet off the ground, and ran in into a pickup truck. That's what happened. I never seen anything like it. And you were in between the tree and the pickup truck for a second.

For a second. I moved and it came by. It was just if you don't move, you die. Yep. It was close. Well, I'm glad you made it. Me too. I have not heard this story.

I heard the 10-second version, which Phil was cut down a tree and it almost landed on him. That's all I heard. But that was much more. Yeah. One time when we're down there, I'll show you that. But anyway, we took the blind around there, set it down on top of the pontoon. It's easy with a trachow. Raised the blind up off the trailer.

We put it on it with a tracho. We picked up the whole blind, set it down. but you have to place those those rotation pontoon you gotta place them just right it i mean you're done a quarter of eight so we're down in and we just moved them over kicked them over and moved them around prided them over and just set the blind right down on it i tied ropes on it so they can't come out you know so dan is a big uh he's a big machine operator now so he operates dan has broken out and want to to run heavy equipment and i said get on it so he get on it so he got

I said, take it easy, take it slow. Now, he's slow as Christmas. I mean, he's, you know, he's slow and steady. But he's just going across that. Yeah. So I told somebody. That plan sounds more dangerous because I remember, you know, the guy that owns the outfit is Scott Harrington.

I never had met him until he came over and did this job for me. But I've never seen three men do that much work in that short a period of time. three men with they are armed with chainsawes. A lot of people don't know what we're doing, but we're making a duck hole. Because the hurricane or the year of the two hurricanes hit, was that last year? Last year. Yeah. Well, it basically down how many, what percentage of the trees?

Oh, I would say, just put it this way. There are several thousand trees were blown down. and they were just going to sit there and rot. And I said, you know what? We're like, if you make us a couple duck holes, we'll give you the trees that are laid down. What are we going to do with them? It's enough.

It's more than. We had to have logging big trailers and trucks and some kind of cutters or whatever to get the law. I didn't have it all out of equipment. So I said, I'll just keep. So I tried this law your longer. Well, on the ground is tough to navigate also. So it's not like.

These three showed up. But I've been amazed at how much three men can do with chain cells and track holes. I mean, amazing. James, when you go over there, you know, it's ready for to be viewed. Well, in the cell phone world, I get a daily video every day of the progress. So I'm already amazed. I'm like, wow.

Jay's is getting it real time. They call it real time. So it looks good. We got us the duck hole. If you look at the whole landscape over there, you know, we've got 1,600 acres. but I'd say about 5% of it, 5 is all, or just have some kind of openings where there's grass and where we plant duck food and deer, deer plots.

Yeah. So we're planting them for the deer and the ducks. So overall, it's still, I don't like to cut down trees. Well, what about the running off the road thing? I thought that was part of this day you had. The tree almost hit you, and then you ran off the dumper. you took a wrong time somewhere was there or was that just right oh no that that that's you know just to get the thing there i was just operating on just i mean i was barely getting the trailer in between these

tree big trees and i didn't i didn't want to cut the trees down but i ended up i cut one and like they got killed doing that so i guess that's reason number 3,000 12 it's uh it's uh it goes under the heading of what a man to do for a duck. Yeah. He'll almost die. Oh, yeah. Well, that's how old George, he did down his property.

A rollover is what got it. Oh, yeah. How old was he 80? He was about 80, 80s in his 80s. Yeah. I don't know that he was quite pulling the caper you did, but he was doing something like that. But you know, I've said before, because, you know, mom always worries about you.

I worry about your daddy over there. And I said, Mom, I mean, that's what he loves to do. Like, if you did die, we talked about this before. if you die loving what you do, it's not the worst thing in the world. I mean, you know, the resurrection is the only chance we got. That's right. So I've looked past all scourges and inflammation and getting this and that and other operations. Tree cuttings.

Look, there's so many ways you can die, but the bottom line is, the old age is pretty well proven. That's what usually. Yeah, I think that's the number one cause. they never put that on there. Yeah. That's right. I'd put that on the top of the lift.

Yeah. You just got old. Well, Josh, I don't, I'm not a creative, but I think we should call this episode Jumping Betty. I think that's. Jumping Betty. Let's take a way. I tell you what, it'll make you jump. If you don't jump, you die.

I think it was jumping pills. Maybe we should call it jumping pill. Let's take a break. Well, I guess you can laugh about it now in the moment. It probably wasn't so funny. But I'm glad you made it, Deb. Because we had to get back into the. this Matthew, Matthew 15 is where we're at if you're following along with us in our study.

Certain events at a man's history, by the way, so you all know, will make him drawn to just the idea of the resurrection of the dead. But that's one of them. Yeah. That's one of them right there. Did that, is that the flash that went through your mind there and the minutes after that situation? Yep. So how long did it take you to kind of say, oh, I don't. almost died there. I'd say within within one minute, I was over it. Because the tree, the tree was out of the way and I'm up there on the, I'm up on the track trailer and I'm easing on past it and the blind just goes over

that stump I just made about two inches. It just cleared it by about two inches. I said, I said, Dan, so for six. I said, Dan, this is a feat that you're participating in. He said, I never seen anything. dang like it. He did good. I never even heard anything like that.

He said, we cut it close in more ways than one. So for 60 seconds, you went, whoo. But the blind is there, and the loggers were kind enough to leave when we made the hole. It's not a huge hole, but it is a, we shot it with a transit to see how much water we will actually have when air dump, when that dump was crossing on how much we would hold. So they shot that, went up there and shot the elevation with a transit. What is the result of that? I'd like to know that.

Because I add it on a little part of the hole. But, oh, it's the most beautiful thing. How deep would it be? The water will be about down there where the blind is, about a foot deep. And it just goes out in the flatwoods out there. It's a whole, I call it the Twin Oaks, West Side, West Side, Twin Oaks. whole twin oak because they got two big old oak trees are like that the blind is right in between them and they pile up two piles of brush for me i could use of my disposal to brush it

yeah so i've got the brush already there i just got to go over and push it up a little bit around it and put it on top the west side twin oaks it sounds like a it's like a side division yeah yeah twin oaks twin oaks the blind's right between two huge oak trees well that's narrowed it down for me there's a lot of oaks I'll have it where we can hunt that this year we'll hunt that one so I look forward

to hunting that one you know when times get hard go up there a lot of woodies a lot of wood ducks but hey they eat the best wood duck fingers

I'm all about the wood duck fingers after we discovered that last year another way to eat a wood duck what's a fried woodie yeah that thing is delicious how do we never know about that I mean after all these years

which we just discovered. Never tried it. Never tried it. What do you fingers? But I thought about it when I ate a deer because it's basically what you're doing with a deer. It is. If you cut it thin.

Well, then Jay's got that little tenderizing technique. He cuts all those tendons. Tenderize it and you brine it, it'll be good. It's really good. It's really good. He brines it, then goes buttermilk,

and the fingers are cut, and then he goes with egg wash. And we usually season it after we fry it's like it fries up in but it's good but you don't want to you don't want to you you would not want to eat deer within a week before that yeah because it's not as good as a young deer not as good but but if you add that deer in a while if you had that deer in a while it's pretty good and it's it's a great way to eat a duck because there's not a lot of great place to you with that assessment yeah so we're um we're in matthew 15 and um I've noticed have you all noticed like as

we're going through Matthew, as we're going through this three-year ministry, now every time the Pharisees showed up, show up, it's another gripe about something. Plus, it's a hedging. There's a lot of confusion about something as simple as who is this guy? Right. Who is this for a person? I mean, there's still doubt. They're like, who, well, he did what?

His doubts all over it. Yeah. But I've noticed their deal is, and I thought about this when we were, when I was reading through this last night, that, because, you know, I did church work for a long time. And, you know, when, when things go south, usually between a church and a leader, particularly a pastor or leader, it's usually because it starts looking like every time somebody comes in, they've got something this guy is not doing, they don't like. You know, it's like, and that begins to build up.

That's right. The pressure comes up. And finally, they either force him out or, you. leaves in our culture is full of that full of that so i couldn't have icing judgment on others and it's like in this like you can't do anything right like every sermon there's like a same analogy with like a football that that's right you know very much i mean once like you know lSU coach oh i mean you got remember two years ago they won a national championship yeah best team ever at ls u and one of the best teams in the history of college football and all of a sudden the you know half the coaches

left, half the players left. They, you know, went pro or whatever. Then the bunch didn't play as COVID. Then COVID had, you know, so they finished 500 and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa now. Whoa. And then all of a sudden, we don't know how to play football. This guy can't do anything. And all our players started getting hurt.

You know, even this year, they, I mean, it's like 20 injuries or whatever. Yeah. And so you look up. Within two years. It's like, he's on. And I don't, people have asked me what I thought about it. I was like, well, I wouldn't fire a person within two years just based on results. But I'm not there.

And I don't know all the workings of, because most of that stuff happens, just like church leadership. The people who are around the situation, they know more. But I do think it's interesting that the team that played the national championship game two years ago, LSU, which they want, they played Clemson. Well, Clemson, two years later, is having a horrible year. I think they're four and three. Same as, yeah, same as LSA. So it's like those two teams were there.

And now you have their quarterbacks who are both starting in the pros, along with a lot of other bells and whistles, players of that team. So, you know, it's hard to, it's hard to do it every year. But it's the same mindset. I've often wondered if we fast forward, Jesus so far he has not told anyone unless they they should have seen it from what the prophet said but they didn't but this whole thing going up to Matthew 16 he hasn't told anybody yet what he is going to do the big thing he's going to do he's hinted at it well he's

hinted out he's heading out he's hunting he out of it but but he has to just flat out told him look, here's what's fix to go down. That's what I was going to make the point in that analysis. And this time on, I mean, you talk about, it goes into what I would mention, the last podcast, look, you scoffers, wonder and perish. Where are you? That's the Apostle Paul just gave him a little history lesson in Acts chapter 13. This was after Jesus did what he said he was going to do.

We're before he even said, here's what I'm going to do. Once he did it, when you get over in the book of Acts, God's talking. He said, for I'm going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you. Well, that's at the heart. Al, you got to remember, he says, you scoffers. Well, the scoffing stage is at a maximum. It hadn't even really started.

It's fixing to really break loose. But I think, once somebody says, he sold you, what? He's going to do what? Al's point was good, though. They had just made up their mind, though, at this stage, because every time they were around them, they couldn't be friends because he's... He's doing something.

He or his disciples are doing something just saying right. How hard to sell would it be if Jesus showed up at modern-day America? He showed up and he started walking around in the streets in these cities. What do you think, Al, how would it go down? If Jesus himself showed up right now and started going across the great cities

and fist that, another, not moving very far, maybe he just camps out in New York. But what would the, what kind of response would he receive, Al, if he would be just like it was here.

I think it's the same one we get. Yeah. Theoretically, where Jesus is in us, you know, the mystery of godliness is that Christ is in you. The further you go along this journey,

the less it's about you and the more it's about him anyway. And so I would think it's a pretty accurate depiction. of what happens. Some hate, a lot hate. Some don't care. And some say,

huh, but you know, let's take it. Do you think there'd be a few scoffers? Yeah. If Jesus showed up and saying, you're going to do what? Yeah. You did what? Probably more than.

How'd you pull that trick off? We heard you come up here, you know, some guy you heal him. He said, how'd you do that? I mean, would they just take it and say, well, good night, I believe in you. Well, you got scoffers. People scoffed.

Just because that's what they do. Tell me about it. They don't need a reason. I've heard Facebook, there's a lot of scoffing going on. Is that true? How do you hear all this stuff? Dan? Dan, Dan, Dan says some guy gave a little statement.

I've been bringing it up because I thought it was so funny. I had some deal with old Corona when we talked, you know. Corona, he's a concern. Corolla. Corolla. Corona. Hang on, Dan. Let me tell you.

Let's take a break. Old Corolla, you know, he's an atheist. He says. But Carolla did say. He says, you know, I wish I were like y'all feel. I said, I wish I could have that. Yeah. He said, but I just don't, don't, don't, I'm not into it, you know.

But he's the one that, and a lot of people heard us discussing, he being an atheist and me a follower of Jesus. So we talked. But I didn't hold against a guy. I love him. I mean, I hope he's fine, find Jesus. But. And I told him, and I'm trying to convert you there, Carolla.

I thought it was interesting. our conversation with him because speaking of scoffers, being a comedian, he's dealing with some of the same thing we're talking about here just in his world. He didn't scoff about Jesus. He just said, I wish I had it. But these scoffers are supposedly believers. You know, but you said what would happen today, I know exactly what would happen. There would be people that claim to be followers of Jesus.

If he showed up and he said something, they'd say, yeah, but that's not what you said here. and they would go back then to their Bible and try to disprove him by what they thought he said 2,000 years ago. Well, when I was researching this, the Pharisees and teachers of the law, because Jesus asked him a peculiar question. I mean, they come up and say, your followers are not washing their hands, which reminds me of modern-day culture. I mean, we went through a washing-your-hand rule in our society. That's right.

And so he doesn't really answer the question. This case, Jay, they didn't, they took a step further. Before they've always said they broke the law, they broke the law, they said. Now they're just saying, why don't they keep our traditions? Well, we're saying, we're saying, find Jesus, find Jesus, and you be okay. And they're saying, more important than that is find a mask and you will be okay. That's right. Well, find the soap.

Hey, they're not washing their hands. That's my point. Our soap. Where's their hand sanitize? But you know, I've read about this last night, too, because we both agree. When we read this, we were like, huh, because it's not a passage or a story that gets a lot of traction. Right. But they had the old law that God provided for the benefit of societies, and then they added to it with all these books.

And there was a couple of books. I mean, I started writing them down, and I thought, well, I don't want to bore people this. But these teachers of the law and Pharisees had all these. massive amount. I read somewhere where one of them was like 37,000 pages of traditions, all well meaning, all that supported each and every situation that would come up in between the laws that God had already written. The problem happened from what I read from scholars is that what they wrote long ago as meaningful in specific situations through the years just became the law in all situations.

So it's like that's why when they're walking by and they see somebody eating, you know, on the Sabbath because he's hungry. I mean, is he actually working? No, he's hungry. He picked a grape and ate it. And you're going to stop what you're doing and have a confrontation over that. And here you're like, did they wash their hands before they eat? Because I'm thinking, if a guy didn't wash his hands before he eat,

I mean, I would rather you do that. But what's that on me? I don't care. I don't care if you've got dirt streaming down here. If you want to eat it, eat it. Right. But they stopped and then all of a sudden made it a spiritual issue, which what I said is I think their idea in mind was a respectful thing.

But it took a turn in Jesus, because all of a sudden, he leaves the, washing the hands and said, well, you break to command a guy for the sake of tradition. And his was a little more serious because he said, honor your father and mother. And so then he, when did he get into, yeah, then he quotes Isaiah down there in verse seven. He's like, you hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far.

from me, they worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men. Then he... A lot of that still goes on. Yeah, then he goes past the washing of the hands. This is where I wanted to get to. 10 and 11, and he called the crowd to him, because he's like,

they're not going to listen. Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean. Because that's what I think is interesting. They were asking about washing the hands, but he went into the actual what the food that was going in. That doesn't make you unclean.

Well, because what they were talking about was the ceremonial thing about, you know, everything was about you make your food unclean if you're not properly washed. So they were taking everything to the nth degree. And that was the whole point. They were missing it. But, you know, Jesus, think about it, we all would look at a question like this, and we would know that it's like, this is ridiculous. But then we're like, well, I don't know to judge their heart.

But Jesus knows their heart. So, like, he is judging their hearts. Well, that's why I was going to say he made a point. There had all these food laws, too, that he's supported in the old law. And so now all of a sudden. Because we know it makes sense to wash your hands that helps you not get germs. I mean, there was a reason why all those things were there. But when you try to say, you're not, your guys are not doing right by this, he brought it to the.

It would be like somebody listening to this podcast and then they say, I don't think Jay's thinks you ought to wash your hand. You see? I was like, no, I think you should wash your hand. But if you don't, I'm not stopping my consumption of whatever I'm eating and addressing that. I will not do it. Or say that somehow you're not right spiritually. Or say, you know, you're in danger here of falling out of God's graces. Clean hands or hell.

Clean hands or hell. I tell you a good illustration, Jay, before you get to that next verse. to me a perfect example because this is something I've dealt with before. Let's take another break. So is people wear a hat inside a church building? You know, traditionally. You got to pick on me, huh? Traditionally.

It's called a hairnet. That's right. Am I? No, but not just you, other people too. So traditionally, people take their hat off when they go into a church building. It's kind of a tradition that's always been accepted. And I've always supported that I was going to ask. So is it kind of like a sign of?

Amid, I mean. Well, yeah, people treated a sign of respect. Take your hat off when they do the national anthem. There's stuff like that.

So it's a tradition. And it's a good one. I support it. But some people, I've had some people that, you know, people come in. They don't know.

They never been in a bill, a church bill before they go. Like they go to a ballgame or anything else. They got their hat on. I come up, shake their hand. Hey,

welcome WFR. Glad you're here. But then I remember one time, one brother, he said in the back, and he pulled me aside. And he was just like this situation. He said, when is somebody going to do something about all these people in here with hats on?

And I was like, do something. What would you do? I mean, we got to put a stop to that. I said, this is disrespect. Disrespect. And then he said, and we've got all these thugs over here, you know, from these drug-addicted people. And I said, you. And then I got angry.

I was like, I was like, you are just spewing out so much hatred and judgment to these people. I said, we're here to help people see who Jesus is. I don't care about their hats. What I was basically saying is what Jesus said. The tradition of wearing a hat or not, this person is here to find out who Jesus is. And that's what I'm focused on. What's so ironic about that. Did you remember that famous?

And again, same thing. You said, well, I'll say, well, I'll say, it's okay to wear a hat. I would, I take mine off. I'm not going to wear it, but I'm not going to bring up anything to anybody about wearing a hat or not wearing a hat. I've had people corner me. I'm sure you have. And read the verse in 1st Corinthians 12. He, you know, he who prays with his head cover is dishonoring his head.

And, of course, I always say, can you tell I'm a man? Of course, that makes it awkward. Because they've already confronted me over the hat. And they're like, what do you mean? Like, by looking at me, would you assume that I'm a man? Is that a really ugly one? Yeah. I said, we're good.

Because that was the point of it. And then it's like, well, does that have to do with anything? But I'm like, no, we're good. Appreciate it. Because that has everything to do with First Corinthians. Well, that's kind of what I was thinking of. But, I mean, and it is about the heart. And, I mean, I take my hat off when we pray, you know.

But if I didn't, it's not a sin. No. It has nothing to do with the heart. It's a tradition. Not at all. Yeah. And it makes no different. But I had another guy come and said, would you go over there and tell those three guys to take their hats off?

And I said, I will not. I've never seen these three people before. This is the first time they've ever been here. I'm not going to do it. And I looked at them and said, and neither are you. Are you and I are going to have problems? I've got better one than that. I've never thought about that.

Yeah. I've never actually personally thought about somebody having a hat on or all. Well, you shouldn't be. You shouldn't. But let me give you the reason I had to is because I got. confronted by some other person. Let me give you. It was just like these fairs.

Let me give you an analogy on why that's so stupid is you remember that I think he was a gangster on the Las Vegas strip back. I mean, we're going, I'm going back 40, 50 years. That guy Bugsy. They had a movie about it. Yeah. He builds a hotel and you know why his hotel, he had everything you could have? You know why his hotel didn't make it on the strip?

How could you not make it on the Las Vegas strip when you're pouring on this money? Because he didn't like people. to wear their hats when they came in. So he's like, you have to take your hat off. Well, most of the people at that time are cowboys. And they're like, we ain't taking our hat off. So the people who cropped up right around him, they were like, oh, you can wear a hat here.

And not only that, you can do whatever the heck you want to do. Because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Because they're gambling. But I'm like, my point is the same thing happened here on the exact opposite end of a spectrum from a church building. over this same rule over a respect thing. And so to me, when you see that kind of irony, you're way off of what you should be worried about.

You know, having a hat on the top of your head is not significant. No, that's correct. And if that's what you're focused on, which is what I told one of the brothers, if that's what you're focused on, you don't need to be here. I've never thought about that one. We're a hat.

Well, I think it all came from the first. Corinthians issue, which, look, I think it was more of a, when you read the entire book, go to Corinth, which I did, and look around, they had a major gender issue. And they were obsessed with their bodies. I mean, they, when they ran the marathon, where we got that idea, look, Phil, they ran naked. Oh, yeah. So at least we don't keep doing that. I mean, well.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I think the New York Marathon, at least most people have something on. So here's what's interesting. In verse 12, the disciples came to him and asked, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? What Jesus just said about, hey, don't worry about what goes in, what comes out. And I love it. He says, he replied, every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up

by the roots. Leave them. They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Now, that's pretty obvious to me. But I love it. Peter said, explain this parable to us. I mean, it was almost like, I don't know if they just had a hard time thinking, well, you know, the Pharisees are the Pharisees.

You know, we've always trusted these guys to be. You're going against them? Yeah, you're saying they're blind guides. I mean, you know, he was like, what exactly does this mean? And then his answer is, are you still so dull? Which I kind of get it because, I mean, I don't. I don't know. That's not a real hard parable to understand.

He's been talking about these guys. Then he says, look, don't listen to them. Yeah. They're going to lead you down a road. You do not want to go. And then he just kind of ignores them. Right. And starts talking to the crowd as in they're just not going to listen.

Of course, then he gets, I mean, you're talking about throwing them under the bus. He says in verse 12 and 13, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them. They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit. I mean, that's pretty straightforward. And then he goes right back in verse 17. He says, don't you see, he just goes back to his every point. Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body. But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. And these make a man unclean. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sex, and immorality, it goes through the whole list.

These are what make a man unclean. But eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean. Pretty straightforward. But even like, look, when I was in Greece the last day, I told it when missing, I told you about eating the fish on the shore and it was beautiful. And all, what I didn't tell you is right to our right, there were people swimming. Half up didn't have clothes on. And I think that was the reason they didn't go down there.

but I was like, take me to the beach. I need some fish. So we were walking down. We decided to walk the other way, me and one of the leaders that had been converted, and he had his son. And so his little boy said, look, we're sitting there talking, but really not paying attention. There's nobody on this side, I mean, that you could really tell.

And the boy's like, look, so when we looked up, well, there were two women on the beach, well, one of them, and the boys, like, pointing, like, look, because she had no top on them. Well, when the leader looked at me, he's like, I'm so sorry. I was like, what are you sorry for? That's not true. She's like, well, I brought you down there.

I was like, as long as we stay away from the second look, we're good. Of course, he was like, what do you mean? And so I made this exact analogy. I was like, well, your son, he's the one that led us into temptation. I said, and we acknowledge that. I was like, then we looked at each other. I said, but we didn't look back.

I was like, because then, I mean, your heart is a long ways from what you see as you're walking down the beach. You know, and he's like, can I use that? I was like, oh, I didn't come up with it. I got this out of the problem. He's like, that's good. It's the second look. Let's take our last break. Yeah, we call it.

notice and dismiss. I mean, you can't, as a man, it's hard not to notice a half-dressed woman as you walk past, but then you dismiss the idea that she's over there. And to her credit, when the little boy pointed out, she did put her, put a shirt on. You know, she put a top of it. Because I think that embarrassed her. This little boy, like, look, daddy. And it's hard because Americans, I mean, look, we got plenty of scantily clad bikini women all over,

but we're not quite in Europe. They just go to the, you know, topless, that's their deal. But I see, they got so many statues around. A giant swing on trying to watch a Monday night football game. There's a giant swing to get around all the gyrating boobs flying the epidermin. I'm like, man, I said, give me a break. I just want to watch a ball game here. I remember the last time we were in New York.

It's just, it's just our culture, it's just, it's beginning to. To rock. We were in New York, Jason, doing some stuff. I can't remember the last project, but we had filmed in Times Square, right in the middle, heart of New York, you know, their tourist district. And I said, Dad, what do you think about this place? You look, of course, there's just big screens everywhere in that Times Square. And Dad said, all I see is gyrating humans.

That was your take on Times Square. because it was just these sides of building screens of nothing but commercials and models and people dancing around. After a while, I'm like, give me a break. I mean, I think there's a lot of applications you can make here, but one of them is you don't need to make rules to try to get around these situations. More rules is not going to work. Correct. I don't think that's the point. I've told thousands, look, just love God and love your neighbor, and it's not rule-oriented.

It's just a change of heart. Love the one who has created the cosmos has saved you by appearing, dying on a cross, being buried and raised from the dead. I said, that's pretty well it, no rules. But they're stunned. They're bound to be some rules. It's no, no rules. You know, in Colossians, too, he goes through the burial. You know, that we get to partake in the death and burial and the resurrection in Jesus.

You know, in 2.12, it says after he just said you had your sinful nature cut off, having been buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through your faith. And he gets to 14. It says he forgave us all our sins. He canceled the written code with its regulations. Well, then when he gets to 20, he says, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why do you, why is though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? And he starts naming, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are all destined to perish because they're based on human commands and teachings.

Such regulations have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, false humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. And I do believe there's an underlying current here that he was telling them, you can have 100,000 rules and traditions. It's not going to work. Yeah, they won't change you and they won't save you. They won't change you and they won't save you, even though they may be great and good.

And that's why we live, I mean, Titus too, you know, the grace of God teaches us to say, no, this is more about why you're doing something and what, motivates you and your heart between you and God, him knowing your soul and your being and how you feel when you do mess up and how, why you were walking down the beach and what you were thinking. Once you acknowledge that, I think that's what he's after. So I would say the second application off of that one is to focus on the spiritual and not the physical, meaning that the whole point here was their focus was only what's going into your body. which Jesus is like on the scale of what matters to me, that's so low, what you eat, how you eat it, the process by which you do that, compared to what's in your heart, meaning your mind, your biblical heart, and what you're thinking and what you're saying and the actions that you're doing. He said, that's what I'm focused on, is having a good heart, not necessarily the proper food, digestion, and all the ceremonies.

But it's still, whatever your narrative is, because somebody may hear that, say, well, I'll just say, I can be 450 pounds. Yeah. Because it doesn't matter what it goes. Right. Hey, might have a salad. But what I'm saying is, isn't that the way it works? Exactly.

It's extreme. You try to get people to focus on Jesus and have a heart that loves God and loves each other and loves themselves now that they have the spirit of God, you know, and the surrender that they're participating in. But they're still looking. for ways around to do what they want to do or or make themselves feel better about the, the situation or the people they're with. Right.

So back to our earlier illustration, that's why someone can be with a group of people and assembly together or whatever and meeting and only be focused on what they're seeing physical, way a person's dress, the way a person looks, the way the person, whatever. Instead of saying, you know what, praise God. I need to meet this person. This person may not know Christ. I mean, you know, that's a vision of looking at things to a spiritual lens as opposed to just how you carry yourself, what you look like, you know, those kind of.

But, I mean, that should be the last thing with it. Like that said, the best thing is if I'm leading and I'm talking about Jesus and there's a group of people there, I'm not really too concerned about any of what they look like coming in, what they're wearing, what they're not wearing. My concern is much more about are they going to, am I going to introduce Jesus to this? It took 75 years, but now I understand depravity can go mainstream quickly if you're not careful. Oh, yeah. It can go quickly.

Right. Well, it is mainstream. Oh, it's mainstream. Oh, it's mainstream. Which is sad. I remember I was back one years ago. We had gone through school, you know, and I preached to the place. And then they asked me if I would do it.

They were in transition. So I was like, yeah, I'll give you a few weeks. Well, one week I got up and just shared Jesus, and I didn't offer the invitation. Because no one had responded, and it was the same people there. I just didn't. You know, how that you do at the end, if anybody's got a need, stand. And look, we sat in silence for about 30 seconds.

And one of the guys, he said, you forgot to do the invitation. I said, yeah, I just thought they wanted to respond. They would. he was like but i don't think we can go on unless you do an invitation i mean that we were you were frozen we had frozen i haven't found that particular verse said you must squeeze in to have the invitation so i said well i'm glad you brought it up i said you do it i mean that was pretty good for a young you didn't have a live experience that was pretty quick well you know i was just felt i was a little frustrated and uh i just thought

this will be a good thing to learn. And so then the next week, when I got up there, I talked about stuff like this. I was like, you're in such a routine. Because you're like, we didn't have an invitation. I was like, when's the last time someone actually responded around here? They all laughed. Years.

We can't get up and walk out until that part of the service has been conducted. It was like when I was 18 and baptized the first guy, I was so excited. I mean, I was on fire for Jesus. An old guy, brother, come up and put his arm around me. He said, he did really good. I said, oh, thank you. I was so excited. He said, but you forgot to say for the remission of sins.

He said, but you know what? I prayed about it. I think it's going to be okay. And I was like, oh, thank you, brother. Like, as long as you got me cleared, I didn't mess this guy's salvation up. So that offers a question. Why do people like rules, regulations, and rules.

Jace read the text or in Colossus. I think relationships. What's with that? Because they don't seem to just lighten up and loosen up and say no rules. Just love God, love you, neighbor. Because relationships are unpredictable. You don't know what's going to happen. You've got to work at it harder.

If you get in, if you have a ritual in your mind, anybody can do that. They just teach you the ritual. All right, tell me what I need to do. Tell me what I shouldn't do. Oh, I got that. But when you, you know, just the illustration of marriage, try that in marriage. See how long that last. Well, I followed all the rules.

Our culture has become infatuated with rules. Yep. I've never seen anything like it. Rules that sometimes make no sense, it can't be kept. Yeah. All right, we'll try to do better next time. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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