Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 378 | Phil Finds a Random Person Walking His Dog & the Note Jep Left Zach When He Found God

Episode Date: November 10, 2021

Phil is surprised by a random person walking Bobo near his gate. Jase tells the story of a sermon Phil preached after having a curious dream. Jep gets over his fear of public speaking to share Jesus with teenagers. Zach recalls the note he found on his mirror when Jep moved out of their apartment — with all the furniture. Jase talks about the way you must come to God to be accepted. And Phil says fame can really rip you to shreds, but there's a way to turn that around and make it count for something. ▶️Get $5 off The Theft of America's Soul audiobook till 11/12 at Apple, Google & Kobo! https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-theft-of-americas-soul/id1450099007 - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? So this is exciting, Jace. This is this is anashamed podcast history because we are coming from three separate locations. We are we are putting all of our technology to the test. Well, you want my prediction? Let me go ahead and give you my prediction. What's your prediction? By the end of this, it'll be me and old Phil. Just talking it over. you don't have a lot of faith in our technology people have written emails that somehow i got to and they're like hey what happened at the end there was nobody there but you and phil i was like yeah that was my only response i just went yeah so for those of you listening because

if you're watching you can see it but if you're listening we have i am coming from austin texas and i have one Jeppicoe Robertson with me today. The other half of Jason's treasure hunting duo. And then we got Zach coming in from Black Mountain. So this is an exciting day. How long will it be before we crash and burn? That's the question. Anybody over or under, will it be?

Will we make it halfway, Jase? Yeah, you'll make it halfway. We usually wrap up the last third. I've not seen in my 75 years on the earth. I've not seen a group of individuals come together. All of them can do each other. So the bloodline is all the same. I've never seen a family structure who articulate what we are articulating.

I've never seen that ever. Are you talking about Jesus? Are you just talking about the... I haven't seen a family structure come together with any kind of what's the word who are at least well known. I haven't seen him come together and discuss these particular issues since I've been on the earth. Have you? I'm not sure how to respond to that.

I mean, I don't know, but our family is a little different. So, well, you got two brothers on here that we have our cousins, Zach. You're right. I mean, it's unique. I'm looking at three of my own children, you, old Jepico there. Oh, we're missing Willie. The only one that's missing is Willie, Willie Boy. So Willie's, Willie's not with us, but we also have fellas.

She's in the wings. Let me mention a couple of things before we get rolling today. We've been talking about Dad's book uncanceled because we've officially launched it. And so you can pre-order that on Amazon.com. And we really encourage you guys to do it because the more we pre-order, the more status we have on the book, which allows us to get it out to more people. So right now they're offering a little special. You can do Thet of America's Soul and Kendall for $2.99 or $5 off your theft audio book. But that is only until Friday.

So be sure and go and sign up, get you a book. We're going to be super excited that this book is fantastic. And we had Gordon on last week talking about it, and it's really good. So dad preached yesterday at WFR. And it's the first time, dad, you preached there in a couple of years because the last time you preached at WFR, Maine, was the Sunday that Phyllis was in attendance before we met her and found out she was our sister. And so we're going to talk about some of that text a little bit later on. But I kind of want to get a little bit of update from Jeff while he's here on the podcast about kind of what's going on here.

Jason Missy had a place here, and they have now fled to Tennessee from Texas. So what's it like not having Jason around? I miss him. I miss some red beans and rice. Nobody around here makes that. I think every time we were there, at least once every three days, we would all gather up, meet red beans and rice. and cage and cornbread.

Kind of an update with the fam, Lily is a freshman at Abilene Christian University, and she is doing really well. That's so amazing. I mean, I never thought my baby brother would have one of his kids in college, which we talk about all the time, Dad. It just shows you the passage of time, you know, because I still remember Lily as a little baby, and now she's in college. My grandchildren are in college now.

And having children, some of them. Not mine. Not yet. That's the older wing. That's the older wing. Yeah. So what about the rest of them? I guess Merritt's about to graduate.

Merritt's a senior doesn't know where she's going to school. But everybody else is doing great. Gus is, he's playing flag football, you know, the little kids. He's totally dominating. We are undefeated. I sort of expected Gus to be a dominator. Well, he's big for his age, you know. Oh, he's big.

Yeah. Yeah. What about AGI? What about August? What's cool is we just opened up the House of Hope with, we partnered with the Tim Tebow Foundation. Oh, that's cool. Excellent choice. In Ethiopia. So it's going really well. We got six girls there. It's awesome. Although the travel stuff, like I was going to go, I think of February, but it's just gotten, it's hard again. They're like a level for word. You know, you just can't get in some of these kids. countries.

And I'm working on that, but the house is thriving and doing well. The girls are doing awesome. So, so dad, on your sermon yesterday, I jotted down. I was watching from here in Austin. So I got to see it on my computer from Computer Lamb. And so I wrote down some of my favorite quotes. So I want to mention those to the audience for anybody hadn't said. By the way, you can go to WFR Church.org if you want to watch

dad's sermon from yesterday. It should be up. Before you give the top five, I would give that a 10 out of 10. I thought it was your best sermon I've ever heard. Really? It was really good. It was good because it's typically a tough crowd there. Of course, it was a good crowd yesterday.

There were a lot of people that came from all over. Well, we have a large live stream audience now, and a lot of those are also podcast listeners. That's why I like to mention it on here. But you know, you're right, Jay's they travel. to come here because, you know, we've been mentioning it on here and on the, you know, on our live stream. It was a big deal for, for dad to be up. So the first thing, dad, the first one I really liked you said this early is, I don't have any

notes. I'm not smart enough to have notes. That was one of your quotes that I liked. So what did you mean by that? You're not smart enough to have notes. I'm on the other end of the spectrum of theologians. I'm not a theologian. I've never claimed to be one.

I thought you were going to say you're a C plus man. Well, he said that yesterday. Yeah. He was a C plus. I just thought there's sometimes that you just need to have a little more fire in the pulpit without dragging it on on some kind of three-point lesson plan that theologian said this is the way to do it. Yeah. Come up a three points.

I agree with that. I say you get the sound man yesterday at that. event needs some sort of award because I noticed that he had your mic you probably didn't notice this that when you got loud

you couldn't get loud there was only so loud you could get and the mic just went I mean I thought boy them boys are slick there they call that the governor they had a governor on your mic so the louder you got

The softer it got. There's a little Bible caveat in all of this, and there's three little words, raised his voice. Yeah. And he raised his voice. That's quite a few texts say that. We've had this argument many times. We've got a lot of preachers run around now that they never raised their voice.

They need to work on that. However, if you want to look at the context, when Peter raised his voice in Acts 2, 14, I think it's 14, and address the cross. crowd. They didn't have any microphones. Yeah. Yeah. So that's up. Well, yeah. We, we have them now. It's a computerized world and most people, they've just, they got little, but they actually never get into a situation where they need to raise their voice to make a point. No, I thought you raised your voice perfectly at the right top. Phil, I called you. I don't call many people after I hear a lesson because I'm, I mean, I'm brutally honest.

but that was really, really good. It was a good, I thought scheme of redemption, the Bible in 30 minutes focused on the son of man. That's why I thought that that text was perfect for him because that was such a good. It's kind of, I call it a tent pole text in Matthew because that really is, it all comes together right there to prepare. Well, for people, Al, for people that are just now listening,

you had the first 16 chapters Jesus claiming to be who he is and you get to this pivotal moment where he's asking his disciples who do people say the son of man is and then he declared he makes a declaration here

based on Peter saying you're the Christ the son of the living God and you've got one of them we know of Nathaniel when told by some of the other disciples. We found the Messiah that the prophets talked about, that Moses spoke about, you know, we found him.

And he said, well, who is he? They said, well, he's from Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathaniel says, can anything good come from Nazareth? So he's already saying, I don't know who this person thinks he is, but he can't be good because he's coming out of Nazareth. So that's the mindset of even the disciples who would be with Jesus. And what's interesting, I'll just read there, y'all to show you this. You say, well, what would it take for Nathaniel to say, good night?

He's the Messiah, the Savior of the world. John chapter 20, John brings up after the resurrection, and Peter and John ran up to the tomb. Verse 9 says, they still the disciples now, and he's asked them before this, at least probably halfway through his ministry, they've asked him, who do they say I am? They still did not understand from the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Well, you would think as many times as Jesus said, from that time on, beginning in Matthew 16,

halfway through his ministry, he said, here's what I'm going to do. And they all hurt. But they looked at each other. So when it came time after the resurrection, Jesus said, you remember when I told you I was going to go to Jerusalem and I was going to be mocked and flogged and spit on, and I'm going to die, and I'm going to be raised from the dead. They all looked at one another. Peter's saying,

There ain't no way that's going to happen. So all the way to the empty tomb. So Jesus comes along post-resurrections. He says, hey, you got any fish? Y'all catching anything? So this is, they're looking over there and they say, what? You see, y'all catching anything? Now, what's this?

Then he told Peter, the disciple whom Jesus loved, John, speaking about himself, said to Peter, It's the Lord. Well, as soon as they heard him say, it's the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, jumped into the water. The other side will follow the boat,

touring the net full of fish. They landed, they saw a fire burning. Jesus said, bring some of the fish you just caught. He's ready for a fish fry. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of fish. Jesus said to him, come, have some breakfast. Now remember,

This is the one that he had asked, who do you say I am? None of the disciples, check this out, dared ask him, who are you? Finally, we have an awakening. He said, none of them dared say, who are you? Remember Nathaniel? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Who are you? Who did they say I am?

They knew it was the Lord. Well, finally after walking on water, making enough fish and bread to feed 5,000, raising the dead, finally they say, after the resurrection, he's standing there saying, let's have a fish fry. They finally say,

it's the Lord. It finally, my point is this look at humanity the world and the misunderstanding and the failure to recognize

the one that it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God that's what's facing that's why that was so good because that's what I tried to bring out in the sermon yesterday and you did well let's take a break well I'm saying it's a question

for all of humanity is to ask who do you say the son of man is. That's right. That's right. Who named the sermon? Because that was a good name, the big reveal. Was that you or somebody else? That was Al, your brother. Wow.

That was a good name because of verse 17. I like it because it says this was not, when he said you're the Christ, the son of the living God. It says, this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven. That's it. The big reveal. And so then it's who he is and then what he's going to do and how he's going to do it, which is the rest of Matthew.

I just wanted to get. How you paved the way for me just to take it from where you were talking about and just run forward with it all the way to our death to sin because of our faith in Jesus is dead, we die to sin. And what do you know, we're buried and we're raised from the dead. It's amazing, isn't it, Jay? Yeah. Well, I was laughing at Dad because dad said,

He's saying this, I think it was on the podcast where he was telling me. He said, yeah, they asked me at White Street Road to come over and speak because the daddy was me. It was, that's what I do. Wow. You picked out that one statement where he said, he had no notes, but the statement he said after is the one that nobody laughed at when he said, hey, this could go on for hours. Nobody laughed because everybody thought, oh, no.

This really could. I love that verse 17 there because I think that's a he says you mentioned it Jason Jesus said to him blessed or you Simon because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven I think that when you start talking about who is Jesus it I think a lot of us think that we somehow are like explorers that we were we're exploring around us and then we come upon the discovery but that's not really how you come into this kind of encounter with a living God it is the father is

revealing him to us and I think that is pretty powerful to think about that doesn't this doesn't originate with us even faith itself originates with God and that God's revealing to us look and here's the here's the here's the thing that is shocking when Paul talked to the Corinthians he said we speak a message of wisdom among the mature but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom,

a wisdom that has been hidden. That's why all the way to the cross and even to this day after the resurrection. We speak that it's been hidden that God destined for our glory before time again. None of the rulers of this age, because we're saying, well, how come they couldn't figure out who it was that was talking based on what he did.

None of the rulers of this age, that's either satanic or the Roman Empire, I say both of them, they didn't understand it. For if they had, if they had known who he was and what he was going to do, they would not have crucified him. That's why he said,

it says no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind is conceived. God is prepared for those who love it. He just did it all without the rulers, the rulers of satanic rulers of this age. You can say Epheson 610 is what he's talking about. But you could add the Roman Empire and you say, they just didn't get it out all the way to the resurrection.

They just did not. And to this day, it's still hidden. Well, and the reason is, it's amazing. Look, this was revealed to me. when I was in Greece, one of the things that resonated with the people that I was speaking to is, as I made a point similar to what you just made, saying that if your religious group is reigning in death, that's the exact opposite of what Jesus is doing. He's reigning in life.

Because throughout history, the evil one would always, that was his go-to move, That's why it says he was a murderer from the beginning, which is what power and kingdoms were known for. Whoever can kill the most people and conquer the most territory, they rule the world. So they're thinking, oh, so you think you're the son of the world? And the Jews were looking for just that. We need to rule the world. Right.

So when he said, hey, I'm the son of God. They're like, well, he's a threat. Let's kill him because that's what evil does. But I was making that point over there where, where here's a group. of people that are refugees from countries where they will kill you if you do not believe their message. So to them it meant more that statement because now here they see, oh, Jesus is about life, love and life.

Get rid of him. Yeah, that's right. It's just so crazy. That's the point he makes, and Paul makes in First Corinthians, too, that Phil just just mentioned the revelation that God's revealing. I love this. and he says, Phil, you just mentioned it, but it's the things which I has not seen, an ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man,

all that God has prepared for those who love him. And that, and that is life. And to the point that Jesus makes a Matthew 16, 17, says, for to us, God revealed them through the spirit. So the natural man, he says, can't even see these things. You can't see the things of God until God supernaturally reveals them to you, which reduces all of our bragging rights. And I was thinking about what he talks about, when he talks about building his rock upon the church, I was going to ask y'all, do you all think that in Matthew 16 when he says, upon this rock, I'll build my church? Do you think he's talking about Peter's confession?

Because that's the big debate. Peter's confession. I would say Peter's confession. Absolutely. I agree. Totally agree. I do think it's humorous that he was known as the rock on who he is. Our confession of faith standing next before we go down into the watery grave,

our confession of faith is Jesus is the Messiah. He is the son of God. He is God and flesh. That's quite a statement for a human being to make, but it must be made from the heart to get out of here. But it also gives us confidence because Peter was definitely a man of action and he made a lot of mistakes. And the fact that he made all those mistakes,

I mean, he's just fixing to be, I mean, Jesus is fixing to just call him Satan here. Think about it. Just like two minutes later. Yeah, you dying for the sins of the world. Forget that. That's not going to happen. Yeah.

And he's like, get behind me, say, but the fact that he would build his church on that rock coming from the lips of a guy who made many mistakes kind of gives me confidence a couple thousand years later. Even Nathaniel saying nothing good comes out of Nazareth. Yeah, Jesus didn't hold again. He said, there's a true Israelite right there. He didn't hold it against him. Yeah.

He had no idea who he was. Don't you think that Paul made that transfer of the confession of Peter and Romans 10 when he said, you know, that you confess Jesus as Lord? That's our way of embracing the kingdom of God. So he basically opened that doorway up for all of us. He adds a resurrection too. If you believe God raised him from the dead and confessed with your mouth, then you understand how this works. Yeah. And then there's that passage in Revelation that we're saved by the, what is it, the blood of the lamb and the power of our testimony.

Yeah, where are your testimony? Yes, I think the idea is, is that there's power in this confession. Some people believe that the church is built on the rock of Peter, which I hope that's not true, because Peter is not capable to staining the church. That's right. But certainly this confession, and I love the confession, because here's the confession, that Jesus, you are the Christ and the Son of the Living God. I mean, that is the confession that the church is built on, and we get this promise that that confession has so much power that the gates of hell will not overpower it. Yeah. It's not us that sustains it at all, and I think that's encouraging.

I used the last few words in the book of Revelation that John was recorded. he said, I'm the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. And yesterday, during the sermon, I said, and here's a news flash, I said it somehow, not only is he the beginning and the end, he's the end of the beginning. The end. It ends with him. That's pretty good. Now, let's take another break.

So to add another quote of yours that I love, and you said this with that, that volume that you mentioned earlier. You said this, you know, boldly. You said, you need to repent and get out of that crap. I thought that was pretty good. I don't remember that line. Oh, yeah, that was there. Yeah.

And then after that, you said, imagine if I had had notes, which I thought was pretty good because you had about not having it. Then you said, imagine if I'd have had them, how good this would have been. And then you said, it took that much. much to save our sorry hides. I thought that was pretty good just to put us on the same boat. Then the last quote I have, which is my favorite, how does a man find himself walking my dog?

Yeah. That needs more context. That's the guy a week ago that I'm driving in to where we live. And I see a vehicle parked at my gate on this side of the gate. gate, there has to be a code for you to get through the gate. Well, this guy is walking away from his vehicle. I'd say 300 yards. And Bobo, my dog, is running along beside him. Well, I pull up and say, what are you doing with walking my dog here? I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm just walking with Bobo. I said, had you know my dog's name? And he said, I saw it on TV. I said,

I said, well, where are you from? He said, I'm from North Dakota. I said, so you drove a thousand miles to be walking my dog. Is there something I can do for you? And he said, I've never been water immersed. I said, water immersed. I said, well, I said, I'm going to drive down to your vehicle, crank it up, get behind my truck, and I'll explain that to you. So I just drove on by.

I got to the gate, opened it, and he followed me through the gate. And now he is a son of God because I told him the good news about Jesus. And we went to the river and I baptized him. It was a good, it started with a man walking my dog, and I've never seen the man before. Yeah, I would advise the listeners say, be careful doing that. You might get yourself in trouble. Best to go through the church on that probably. Yeah, we have a process by which to do it.

But the guy of North Dakota didn't understand the process. So you'll email us. We'll hook you up with who you need to talk to. But it just struck me as funny that dad would say, and I can hear him saying that, how does a man find himself walking my dog? I thought that was interesting. Only dad could that happen to. I figured if he's good enough for Bobo, he'd get enough for to be a son of God, too.

Bobo will bite you. Oh, yeah, I know it. But they had made friends. And I thought, well, what are you doing, Bobo? I did notice, and when I pull up there, I said, well, I was looking around. And Bobo, where'd Bobo go? He said, well, he's on your side of the truck. And I opened my door, and Bobo hopped up with me.

He said, I just bringing a man to be converted here. Bobo sent him looking out. We went on to the river. Bobo gave him the seal of approval. Well, Bobo has his. He gave him the seal of approval. Bopo has his own Facebook page. He's a very famous dog.

Yeah, he's getting big. Yeah, he's bigger than me. Is that the one to Big K? Oh, yeah. You know, what's interesting, you know, he's talking about that sermon yesterday. There was a guy there that heard you preach 25 years ago. And so we had a conversation. But he said, yeah, that's the best one he's given since he had that dream.

So I was going to ask you about this. And I was like, what dream? He said, well, 25 years ago, he said he preached a sermon. He had a dream. He said, ask him about, he said, El Camino Real. Do you remember this? In Spanish, it means the winding road. Yeah, the right road.

The right road. You don't remember this? No. Well, Phil, you gave. I remember. 25 years ago? No, I don't remember that. He said that you had had a dream and you woke up thinking this phrase. I think that was it, El Camino Real.

Yeah. The Royal Road. So we had one of the brothers there, Manny, who speaks Spanish, you went to him and said, what does this mean? And he said, the right road. The Royal Road. Or the Royal Road. Okay.

The Royal Road. And so you took that to mean that's what you needed to give your sermon on, and you gave the sermon on the narrow road versus the broad road. So do you remember now? No. Well, I thought it was pretty impressive that a guy for 25 years ago, he remembered that. He remembered that. So a lot of times you think, boy, I don't know what happened there.

I might have got in the way. but I mean it was I was pretty impressed so I thought I would I had rumors about that sermon it was a it was a fan favorite at White's Ferry Road for a while yep I don't remember that I must have been duck out of no royale yeah I don't remember that but that's I mean you're right

jays most sermons are pretty much forgotten for the most part but there'll be some that'll hit just right some person and they'll never forget it I mean I get that from people too every once a while which is humbling when it happens. I think that's why God has given some the gift of prophesying, which is just preaching, preaching the word. That it may be because things you think won't have an impact with some people, you know, years go by and they never forget.

It's a healthy thing to remember things that point you to Jesus and got you there, whatever the topic was. I agree. Well, and all of us here kind of have a gift of gab. Jep was, which I'm proud of Jep, because you were the least likely wanting to do it. But once you just kind of said, I'm going to step over that fear and got it in front of people, I mean, it allowed you to do what you do. I actually just had my first speaking thing in probably two years, I would say. You know, once COVID hit a just kind of quit going out.

but it was a couple days ago in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was a thing called Teen Challenge. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've done to that. I mean, dude, it was awesome. Those guys are awesome. There were three kids that gave their testimony. One, this guy who was living under a bridge in a tent.

I mean, had absolutely no hope, strung out on all kind of stuff. He was the most eloquent speaker. Like, you'd have never known this guy lived in a tent. I mean, it just showed you the power of Jesus. and like, you know, repentance and where that can lead. It was awesome. Yeah. Did you share your testimony, Jeff?

I did. I gave them my little testimony about, you know, coming to the house, you know, just we had our big intervention. Yeah. Did you talk about dragging me into sin with you? No, I did talk about you, though. It was funny because I talked about leaving that note on the apartment. Remember? Yeah.

It said, moved out, changed my life. tell you more later and I walk in and like all the you owned all the furniture and it was gone so I was like uh-oh yep we might be in trouble so wait a minute now so y'all because I remember y'all are running buddies in the in the pig pan so when jays hang on jays let's take a break so when jeep had that happened that's that was his he left a note on the door for you yeah so we should have kept we should have kept that note I should have kept it if I had known he was going to be famous I would have I Wilf kept and sold it at the height of the honesty on eBay. Moved out.

Actually, change life moved out. That was it. Good luck. Tell you more later. Tell you more later. Actually, Zach thought he'd be back by dinner, so he didn't say the note because he thought how long would it last. You need to write a book, and that needs to be the title.

Yeah. I hadn't heard that story. Me and Zach should write one together. Yeah. The rest of the story. It was crazy because we knew. something was up because we we were up to no good and we always kept a bag of marijuana on our mantle and then we had a would always have natural white what was beer we drank we'd have that in the

fridge and and so Willie invites us to a Bible study apparently he had broke into our apartment we didn't know we were so stupid but he goes some of you you're sitting here listening to this checking your head like you agree with me but if I would go to your apartment I'd see a you couple cases of natural light in your fridge, you'd have a bag of weed on your mantle. Of course, me and Jep were like, man, man, that's so similar to our story, you know, because we thought he was just. So we were like, we're going to have one more blowout, and then we're going to start calming down because I think that we kind of sense that you guys were onto us. And we never got a chance for that last blowout.

Jesus got to hold a Jep first and then me second. So it was a family intervention, and everyone had a speech for Jepico. And it worked. His exact words were after Jason spoke, Ile, Jason, his mother, Ms. Kay, me, after we all gave our input into it, the question old Jeff Behr asked, he said, what took y'all so long? And where have y'all been? I said, well, we're here now.

But it changed his life. So welcome aboard, Jefferick. Thank you. It just happened. Like, it just happened. That could be another book title. What took y'all so long? That could be another interesting story.

Well, you know, and that's what I'm saying, Jeff, and we all kind of became well known, and we got opportunities to tell our story. I remember Jeff and I, we were in Poto, Oklahoma. You remember this, Jeff? And we shared our testimony together, and we had never, I don't think we'd ever done it before or since. But it was really interesting because Jeff and I, oldest, youngest, were the bookend. prodigal sons and our family, which mom loves saying that.

Who do you think out of my boys were prodigals? Well, they all guessed Jace and Willie, just because of the way they were on the show, fighting all the time and all that. But she said, no, the baby and the preacher. You know, they were the prodigals. So we gave our testimony together to a group of men, and it was really powerful. But I noticed Jep's growth when I came over here at Austin, and he was working a room.

They were raising money for August. children. And I just watched him work in that room, you know, from the front, which is something I've done my whole life. And, you know, we've done different times for different things. And I was like, Jeff has done it. I mean, he's, God has brought him over that hump because he worked that room and they raised a ton of money and for a great cause. And I was just, I was so proud of it, Jeff, because I was like, I knew that wasn't your thing. Of course, Jay's talks about it all the time, too, that public speaking was never, he didn't think that was ever his thing. And yet we all realized because we had an opportunity that we had to do it.

So, Jeff, your work there involves trying to get people to adopt children that have been just thrown away. Is that, is that fair? Yep. I would say that's a very fair thing to say. I mean, most all of our children are special needs, you know, victims of abuse. Like, it's kind of the society's, you know, castaways, throwaways. and so that's why I love it is because

if it ain't for us I don't know who's going to look after these kids I mean I know they just ain't going to make it yep yeah you're doing a good work Ed yep thank you so the long pause the long pulse

well I was thinking I know we're going to get into chapter 17 later but I mean here was this epic moment on claiming making this rock you know the foundation Jesus is the son of God and then when he gets to 17 which is this awesome display of power then he starts talking about in 18 the importance of children and not causing them to stumble and yeah i mean how does that fit into this scenario you know i mean what a what a

poignant moment. I mean, I'm ready to get in it because a lot of the, in our society today, there's people coming up with different sorts of laws and ideas to try to tarnish and taint children's minds, you know, telling them what to think instead of how. Yep. And, uh, well, even like in Jep's experiences with the kids he deals with that they're so taking advantage of and done terribly, you know, in different cultures. And, you know, the idea that they're just someone's property to do with whatever they want to is terrible.

I mean, and, of course, to me, that's what Jesus speaks to most of all. I think he's aiming at the disciples by saying this is the kind of faith you should have, is the faith of a child, you know, that just has that willingness to do that. Before we get there, though, let's take our last break. I wanted to bring up one thing before we left 16. and we mentioned it briefly, but it was when Peter got rebuked. I mean, do you not, does, do you guys not see that as sort of the ultimate human, you know, failure in that he had just proclaimed who Jesus was? And Jesus basically says, man, I'm proud of you because, you know, that came straight from God and yet you were willing to embrace it.

But then literally in the next breath, when then he describes what that means. In other words, if I am the living God, I came here to die, and this is what I'm going to have to do. And Peter rebukes him. And then he, I mean, in the same conversation, Jesus turns around and says, get behind me, Satan. I mean, doesn't that represent sort of humanity's weakness in the sense that you can get it so right? And then you can turn right around and get it so wrong in the same conversation. Yep. Well, I don't think he's like, well, you know, you've figured it out.

but then you're trying to apply what you think I should do, which is what we all have a temptation as human beings. We want to fit who God is in the way we think this should happen or what I want to do. Because then he goes into this speech about it, this is how I'm going to do this. And it's the exact opposite of what you just said, Because then he starts getting into the, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Well, people are still having difficulty understanding what that means today. They're like, do what? Take up my cross. Yep. And then he's like, whoever wants to save his life will lose it. They're like, what? Does it make sense? This doesn't make sense.

So I think it starts with your narrative of God. You've got to come to him. surrendered and then you've got to be open to what he wants you to do which is basically continue a life of surrender which goes back to that where he all started on that sermon on the mount with those beatitudes none of that was appealing to me when I was reading my Bible as a new Christian when I saw that blessed or the poor and spirit and the meek and I was like I don't know by this, what does this mean? You know, I was wanting to yield the sword and let's go whip somebody.

Yep. I was going to say, I think it's a battle of the wheels, this is what I've learned is when I'm trying to do my will, that usually doesn't work out well. That's right. When I yield to what I think God wants me to do, things work out much better. Yeah, 100%. I was thinking that if we, when we talk about who God is, who do you say I am, how we define God matters a lot.

And when we look at his attributes, I mean, I do think there are some attributes that are contingent upon God creating us. For example, like wrath is a contingent attribute because God wasn't poured wrath out on himself before he creates because there was no sin. Mercy is a attribute that God has, but it's how he relates to his creation.

Sovereignty. God is sovereign over his creation. but a pre-existing attribute of who God is, is John, I think it's 1st John 4-8, God is love. And I think what you're seeing here in this revelation of himself in Matthew 16, he's revealing his nature as being love. And what Peter wants like us is like, well, let's go conquer, let's go, let's set up the kingdom. Let's get the, I mean, let's get the weapons out, let's roll. And Jesus is like, you don't understand how this is going to play out. I'm actually, I didn't come here to conquer that way.

I came here to conquer through suffering. And a suffering savior is not, it's not popular. It wasn't popular then. It's not popular today because it's offensive. And it puts us in a position of where, like Jeff said, we got to release control at that point. Say, well, wait a second. I'm not going to be able to control this thing.

And God's like, no. God says, I set the example when I emptied myself, Philippians too. Bible says that he emptied himself of, instead that he didn't consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. on the nature of a servant. So when you start thinking about, man, that's what God did, the creator of the cosmos. If he condescends that far and takes on human flesh, which is completely absurd, and if God's going to do that, what does that mean for me? And I think that what he's revealing here in the

scriptures, I think what he's saying is, is there's something beautiful in denying yourself. There's something beautiful in laying down yourself. The real riches of the kingdom, what was promised in 1st Corinthians 2. What no I see, no ears heard, what God is prepared for those who love him. I think it's some kind of relational thing we get when we empty ourselves like Christ did. That's why Paul said our attitude's got to be like Jesus. I think that's what he's kind of getting at here. And I don't think Peter really got it until after he denied him three times on the night of his death.

And then when he saw him in the resurrected body. And the reason why is because right up until the moment, remember Peter is the one that does have a sword and cuts off the guy's ear at the critical moment. He's still thinking, we're going to take this thing by force. And Jesus has put the sword away and he puts the guy's ear back on, which shows you how he is. And I call it Zach, it's restraint to be able to restore. And so like Jesus could have called down legions of angels and wiped out everything. everybody that was around him. But he showed restraint because without what he did, we wouldn't be restored.

And that's what makes the cross so powerful. Is that song we sang growing up? You know, he could have called 10,000 angels. Like he could have called 10,000 angels and wiped everybody out, but he didn't. And I think it's something in there that we're like, we're trying to get our mind around what kind of being would do this, you know? And that's what that's when you answer the question, who, who do you say I am, those are the, that's the thing I think God wants us to complicate is, you know, and even

Peter, Peter even after the resurrection for a time period in Galatians when he, when he slipped. And remember he went around and started hanging out with the Judaizers. And Paul said that he had to go to Peter and rebuke him to his face when he saw that he was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. So even, I love that because I love Peter because I feel like that a lot of us, man, we still struggle with sin, even knowing all this, we still struggle with it. But Peter's kind of like this guy.

We can say, well, hey, he did too. It's all about the weapons, and Peter had a misunderstanding. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world, guns, bullets, and whatever. On the contrary, the weapons we have, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Man, what a, what a text.

Different weapons, boys. What text was that? I think that's 2nd Corinthians 10. 2nd Corinthians 10. Yeah, like verse 5 or something. Well, I think, you know, our world has this back. I mean, there's so much, people are so get their feelings heard and they're so easily offended these days. And, I mean, you want people to rise up and be strong.

But, you know, when I look back at our, when y'all first came to Jesus and our humble beginnings, I mean, look, there were, when it came to work and we were pushed hard and, and I think, shown, you know, tough love in a lot of of things we did. But these spiritual qualities, the more God revealed those to us, it didn't really affect how we were in functioning. I felt like, you know, the verse that in Colossians says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, I mean, you can be tough, you can work hard, you can set an example. But when you realize how God uses us, you have to surrender your heart. and these spiritual qualities, because that truly is the making of a man or a woman. I mean, that's the strength, even though you think it's weak and something you don't want to pursue.

To me, that's what true strength is. I found out a truism, I would call it, when it comes to serving Jesus. Fame when it came. I'd never known fame. When I saw fame what little bit I have come my way, it taught me a lesson. Fame's a bummer unless you use fame to point people to Jesus. In that case, you say it's okay. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, but, but until you understand that,

fame can really rip you their shreds. That's exactly where I was going with that. Because I remember when we became, but, but, but until you understand that, that, that's, until you understand. famous and all of a sudden we have more money. And you start getting invited to these things where other famous people are, people are money. Well, I looked around and thought, this is it for you? You think just hanging out here and this is like life, the pinnacle of life?

Well, how sad is this? No, thank you. I'm going to do something with what God has given me besides this. Yep. That's good. We're out of time. We'll try to do better next time. And we made it all the way to the end, Jay.

That's true. We did. Hey. Thank you. I was wrong. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube.

And be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to Blaze TV at blazed.com slash Unashamed.