Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 379 | Phil's Dispute with an 8-Year-Old Girl & Why Jase Wants You to Stop Listening to Preachers

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

Phil reads a new children's book, "The Beard Ballad," to a group of kids, and one 8-year-old's response prompts a hilarious comeback. Jep shares the wholesome reason he started metal detecting and the jackpot he found with a little help from Phil. Al remembers walking to school with Phil and searching for treasure along the way. Zach goes hunting in Nebraska, and Jase is upset he didn’t get invited. Jase has a bone to pick with the religious community. And Zach and Jase get back into the metaverse and why we should only trust Jesus' metamorphosis.  - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Well, once again, we're rolling from Austin, Texas. I've got Jepicoe here with me for a second podcast, which is super exciting because we don't get to see Jeff that much anymore since he's down here. I'm in town because I'm speaking at an event down here, so I got to tag in with Jeff. We got Zach coming in from Black Mountain, which is always a blessing. want to thank Mike Brock, who helped set up. I'm at the Central Baptist Church, is where Jeff and I are in Round Rock, and Pastor Jim allowed us to use one of their rooms in here. So I just want to thank those guys for allowing us to be able to do that. I want to mention, before we get in the podcast, that you can pre-order uncancel. That's new book that is really, really good. Zach,

would you confer? Excellent book. Great book. You can pre-order it on Amazon.com and pre-order order helps us because it moves the status of the bookup. So we want to be able to do that. They also are offering a couple of things that will end today on Friday. So you want to check it out and do it quickly. You can get theft of America's Soul on Kindle for $2.99 or you can get $5 off theft in the audiobook. So they're still offering that if you go ahead and sign up this week because like I said, it helps us. So check it out. So I wanted to, we mentioned on the last podcast that dad preached at WFR and did great. And by the way, you can check it out, WFRchurch.org, if you haven't seen it yet, it's

really good. He, you know, I had kind of set it up in the text because I preached a couple of weeks before, Dad, and then I'll preach this week as well after. And, you know, that text in Matthew 16 was just perfect for, I knew Dad would knock it out of the park, which he did. But something else happened, Dad, which I didn't know about this. This was something you and Zach had done because I wasn't there. but what happened after the sermon when you were at WFR?

Because I hear there was, that wasn't the end of the story. I'd like to know because when the heads went down, I went out. Yeah. Which is the classic Jay's move, by the way. Well, I know what we're talking about. What's the name of the author of the book? Is that tell what it is? It's a beard ballad.

Harold Cronk, who was the director of God's Not Dead, wrote the children's book. and then Phil wrote the forward for it. So we've set up this deal where Phil was going to read the book to some kids so that we could get some video. We'll show you guys the video. So, yeah, how did it go, Phil? It went well. I had one little girl when I talked about the –

So you were reading the book to kids, right? Is that the setup? No, I like to say that. And I was speaking well and explaining to them the little male children that there come a time when they will have whiskers like. these if they desire to have those and I was beginning to talk to them about the protection aspect of whiskers and I mentioned you know when you're duck hunting and deer hunting you know and you'll be warm while you're in the deer stand and one

of the little girls she said oh but I love animals surely you don't shoot animals I said hey girl I love animals too fried how old were these kids she fell back on her back and went to kicking her heels and I thought, well, there's room for growth here. I don't do this very often, but the only scene I ever like, like just where I laughed really hard on our little duck show was when they had Cy go in there and when y'all did the, you taught one group, the older kids, how to clean a duck.

And a high school, yeah. And they pretty well just said, go in there and do it and we'll film it. And they told Cy to tell stories. So Si walks in there. Who knows what he's going to say? He's like, you ever heard of a place called numb? I mean, they had no idea that Sa was fixed to go off on this. And then they're...

So then he proceeds to tell a story about a tiger there, which he says, rip the arm off of a soldier. And so he's telling this classic side story. And they're showing the picture to those. kids' faces and they're just like in horror. Yeah. And what's funny is people, I know people around the world thought, oh, they made all this stuff up.

I've heard that same story from Sae many times about the tiger dragon the guy through the woods. I must admit that speaking to eight and nine-year-old children about Whiskers is humbling. But it's a great little book about fatherhood and direction. And with whiskers, it should be with whiskers comes age. And that also comes parenting, being a model for your children. And I was trying to get that across, you know, when the little girl got disturbed because she said, I think he's talking about killing animals.

And all of a sudden, the old gray beard, I was the tyrant, you know. But I explained to it. I'm surprised you didn't go to Genesis 9 on that. And, birthplace of honey. She was young, and I just, you know, she was kind of kicking around, beautiful little girl. So I thought it pretty funny myself. You know, how young girls in this age, when's the last time I've ever talked to a group of little

children? It's been a while. Yeah, but it's biblical. Oh, it's biblical. Yeah, we usually shield you from those kind of environments. But it's interesting because I'm wondering how there's a little girl in Westmanoe, Louisiana, attending WFR Church that is, you know, her family is not killing animals because everybody I know around there is heavy

into deer hunting, squirrel honey. Yeah, but Zach asked me to, who wrote that book, Grunk? Croc, Harold Croc. Croc. But it's a wonderful little book about raising children and fathers. How do you spell the guy's name? All I'm hearing is crock, like a crock pot. C-R-O-N-K, C-R-N-K, C-R-N-K.

Cronk. Cronk. Cronk. Like gronkowski. It's a beautiful little story about fatherhood, which we need more of. By the way, he's addressing an issue that needs to be addressed when it comes to fathers, you know, males, patriarchs. So I would just tell them the little children that, you know,

and some of them got to squirming a little bit there, you know. But overall, I thought the little boys, they were just astonished that one day, if they desired, they'll have hair coming out of their face, and it's a symbol of a lot of things. Age is one, and wisdom is number two. So I was just trying to get that in their little heads, but I thought it went well. Yeah, that's what we got, I mean, really,

what spoke to me about the book is, I mean, we're at a place now where you guys know this. I mean, there is an all-out assault on fatherhood, just masculinity in general, and so I love this book because it's, It's just a kind of a whimsical way of kids. You know, it's a story about a kid who's identifying with his father. He's watching his dad grow a beer.

He's like, I want to grow a beer. So they grow up one together. They're chopping wood. They're doing, you know, wearing a clannel shirts. It's a simple book, but I think we need more of it. Yeah, I'm glad you did that, Phil. I appreciate you doing that. One of the aspects of sharing Jesus with people is getting people to understand the method that God used to show the Apostle Peter.

there would no longer be any food laws. That was under the law of Moses, certain things you could not eat. But when Jesus showed up and grace, full of grace and truth, the Apostle Paul in about Acts chapter 10, Peter's up on the roof, he sees this vision, it looks like a giant sheet being let down by its four corners. The sheet contained all kinds of four-footed animals. I just brought the thing about hunters because,

Peter recorded that he saw and he heard God say, arise, kill, and eat, full-footed animals, birds of the earth, reptiles of the ground. So no more food laws. And one of the little eight-year-olds was having trouble with that, but she had never heard that. Well, she needed that. So that's one case for fathers. A father should teach their children that. You may be a brother.

you know, he's going through puberty right now, and he's got a, I mean, a nice mustache. I was like, buddy, you keep letting that go. You're going to look like Tom Selleck. That's it. Which Rivers, River's so little as hard for me to imagine him going through puberty. But, you know, Jeff, I was thinking about that because you and Jay's are into treasure hunting, and I may be wrong, correct me if I'm wrong,

but didn't you get into treasure hunting really just to do something with him? because he kind of got into it too, or did he do it later? Yeah, I mean, yeah. So when I went with Jace, you know, at their old house, like I got fired up about it when I told River about it, he was like, you know, because what kid doesn't want to go find treasure? Yeah. I mean, I've wanted to do that my whole life. It sounds great, but Jout looked at a way to make a lot of money. Yeah.

He was like, I might find something really valuable and cash in. Oh, yeah. And I'm going to get my, you know, let's hunt together, you know. Well, I mentioned before, I mentioned before on the podcast that when I saw Jeff digging through my chain stray in my truck, I said, Jeff, what do you do it? He said, just looking for coins, valuable coins, you never know where they may be hanging out. I was like, this is low-hanging fruit here at Al's truck. That's where I was coming from.

Jep raced to see me because he said, Dad, do you know of any place around here where I may look for cornage and maybe find some? I said, there's a mailbox down there that my mother stuck up down there. And she said, you need to charge people when they drive down here on the river, a buck, charge them a dollar to launch their boat. because the launches are not many on the river. So I said, where that mailbox is, yep, money used to go into that box. I said, I figured there's a few coins dropped.

He said, where is it? Where was it? So I went down there. The mailbox is no longer there, but I knew where it was. I said, the mailbox was right here. So look in here. Well, about an hour later, he comes running down up to me. He said, you're not going to believe what I found.

Gold coin. look, no, he just had handfuls of coins that dated way back for 20 years. So there were just quarters and 50 cent pieces and dimes. And he said, boy, I've hit the jackpot. So he's been a treasure hunter ever since. Beb, bo, bo, bo, pip, pip, pip, that good night. And then he split it with you because it's your land. He didn't give me a dime.

Oh, good. Hey, I work for that. Finders, keepers, losers, weepers. You're supposed to split it with the land. is kind of the general rule. You split the proceeds because he might want to come back. It was amazing how much cornage that the boat launchers had dropped in 20 years, 25 years. It was amazing how much money was under the earth.

I was really surprised. No, the coolest thing I found was a little, like, placard that goes on, like, a desk that said James Robertson, which I don't know if he ever had a job. It was like, you know, it's like something you'd go into an office. see your name. Really? Yeah, I found that. Yeah. Well, you know, it's one of my, one of my earliest memories, dad, when we were living in Junction City, and you were teaching and coaching, and I had started to school with like four years old, I think it was just glorified daycare because mom was the secretary for the superintendent, and I probably wasn't supposed to be, and I mean,

it was not even kindergarten. It was like first grade, so I was like super young, but you would walk me to school every day. I would walk with you. And then you, you would drop me off at my classroom and you'd go on and do your stuff. And so walking along that road there in Junction City, because we lived right next to the school campus, we started, we found some money one time. We started looking and somebody had dropped some coins and we found it. And then every day we would stop and kind of spread out our search pattern. And we wound up finding quite a bit of money right there on that school campus. And I'm four years old. So that was 52 years ago. I still remember it. And we did that together. So I guess in a sense,

since dad was doing treasure hunting, Jace, back in the day, before you were even bored. You got to remember, if this wasn't cool, if this wasn't cool, there's no way, now we're in Matthew 17 today, but in Matthew, at the end of Matthew 17, we have a situation over taxes come up. And Jesus, of all things that he could have chosen to make an illustration, he tells Peter to go catch a fish. and look in his mouth and there'll be a couple of coins

and you go pay the taxes that we owe from that fish's mouth. So I took that to Maine finding lost coins are cool, number one, or if it wasn't, he wouldn't have sent him to do that process. And number two, he knows where all the good stuff is.

Yeah. Now, it could have been a miracle. He could have put the coins in there or he could have known that that fish swallowed the coins. I mean, I don't know what your take on that is. That's what I mean, that's what gets me. There's so many levels of that miracle

that are amazing. Let's take our first break. I ran up on an interesting thing. I went duck hunting up in Nebraska. I sent Phil some videos of the 40,000 mallards that were sitting on this guy's place. So he's taking us around showing us his place up here in Nebraska.

And there's two boulders that were stuck in the ground and a spring was emerging from the boulders. And it created this little sturt river that went down into the bigger river. And so apparently where this was at was a famous spring where the Mormon Trail came through. And one of the guys that were with us, when we got up there, he got out of the back of his gator,

pulls out a metal detector. And he started finding stuff. I said, man, if Jason, Jet will love to see this. Yeah, I appreciate the call on that. We're duck hunting and we're metal detecting. How many ducks did y'all actually shoot? Huh. We didn't do too well in the shoot.

The weather was just, it was probably 75 degrees. Let's analyze this. You said that this guy had 40,000 ducks on his place. You went and saw them. Then y'all went and hunting them, but then you didn't do very good. He has a sanctuary of about 500 acres where he doesn't hunt, and that's where they were.

So then he has flooded corn where we hunted, which, so, you know. Sounds like we have a failure to execute the plan. I did okay. Okay. Zach said they expected too much of him once he said, I'm the nephew of Phil Robertson, the duck call builder. So they said, whoa. but then they were let down by saying, yeah, well, it happens.

No, well, they said, we're going to let you shoot the first ducks since you're the duck commander's nephew, so you better not miss because all the expectations are riding on you. Did you rise to the challenge? Oh, yeah, I hit it. I hit the first four ducks that came in, and they were all singles. We didn't hit any.

We didn't have any big groups work, which is, you know, but it was fun to say you would have loved it. So you went four, you went four for your first four? I went four for four. Really? Not mad because I hadn't ducked out of any year. So I hadn't even shot my shotgun ever a year. Well, that sounds like you exceeded the expectations.

We're two weeks out on our duck season and we'll hope that some of those mallards in Nebraska will move on further south. I like how you're looking. I like how dad's looking his wrist. Like I've ever, I've won to watch before. Missy was giving me a hard time because she's like, why would you say she had listened to one of the earlier podcasts? She's like, why are you driving around town looking for a bank to see what time? it is. Why didn't you just look at your watch? I said, babe, watches were frowned upon in my upbringing, even though my dad looks at his wrist at least once a day and makes some kind of time reference.

He actually has an own one, and he's kind of like I am about headboards, you know, you shouldn't own a headboard. It's a waste of time. But what's interesting is, Jason, on that one, he looked at the watch. I mean, he held it up, but he was talking about a calendar because he was talking about November. I mean, you weren't even talking about time, dad. You were talking about calendar dates, but you were looking at your wrist. And one of the arguments... I consider watches to be clutter, too much clutter. But here's a problem in that, Phil, one of your argument...

Internet, too much clutter. You use more than any other argument. Time pieces, too much clutter. One of your arguments you use more than any other is that we count time by Jesus. And I'm like, well, you don't. Because you don't like any clocks. You're not counting any kind of time. But a calendar that comes my way from time to time, I look at that top date.

And I say, how many years since Jesus got 2,021 years? That's all the time I need to know, right there. Okay. So, Jays, what is the most oft-asked question by dad in a duck line every single day? What is it? What time is it? What time? Exactly, boys.

Right now exactly what time is it. It's 7.30. Okay, yep. Because mid morning is usually when the mallors come in, mid morning. No, not mid morning. 10 to 10 15. Everybody, hush up. Hush up.

Y'all are talking too loud. This is a prime time. I'm like, what time? From 10 to 10, 15, everyone must be silent. have their hands on their gun in the ready position because this is called prime time. Well, well said. Everybody has a computer but me.

Fine, I can live with it. Everybody has a watch but me. Yes, we do. I can live with it. But I'm not going to partake of either one of those endeavors. Yeah. So Jeff, I have to mention, Jason mentioned the story from Missy about the bank.

So last week on the podcast, he remembers the number where you used to call in and get the time from the bank. You remember like back in the old days? I remember doing that. He remembered the number. And so, and he hasn't called it in 15 or 20 years, I guess, at least. Yeah. And so we, so he goes and gets his phone and we call it and you still, it's still a bank and you still get the time. Really?

Yeah. Do you know this, that they called me back? I'm kidding. I just wanted to see what y'all said. They wanted me to take out of the home. We were laughing about that the other day because Jay's, I mean, he can't even remember what day it is, but he remembered that number. No, I said, look, that phone hasn't rung in years, decade. And they still, it just shows you about life, though, how people won't change to fit the

modern times. They still had that. You know, I'm the first person called that in a decade. And nobody using that number. Everybody knows what time it is now. They still. There's probably some little old guy living out in the middle of nowhere, some little old lady that still comes on. That's still living in the past. I mean, that's why they're in the middle of nowhere. You don't care what time it is. I have found, unless your dad. I have found that without a timepiece, as in watch or computer. Without that, if you don't have that, I have found that life is less stressful,

in my opinion, if you don't have a timepiece or a computer. Life is less stressful. That's good analysis. There's no doubt. That's my logic. That's true. That is true. And that's why when people, like Zach loves to camp

and his whole family, they take off, and he unplugs, like I can't get him for, you know, because he goes places where the phone won't work. But that's about what it takes in, is that to just really kind of unplugged from the world just to be with your family or whatever. I think it's healthy. I think it's healthy.

Yeah, it's not, when we talked about this last week about Facebook's Metaverse, I don't think it's healthy to be constantly plugged in. Everybody has access to you. Yeah, it's, I think that's probably honestly, feel while you're so affected. The rock band, Chicago had it right. Does anyone really know what time it is?

Yes, he did. Without time. Well, that's pretty good, Dad. That was good. You could be a singer. Can we read this Matthew 17? Because I'm itching to get into this. Get after.

Let's do it, Jay's. You lead us into it. I mean, all of a sudden, which this bothers me about the religious world, because I'm transparent. When they do things I don't like, I say it. They get to chapter 17. And a lot of people are like, they don't know what to make of this. On why this is even in here or what does it mean?

But I'm like, Jesus has spent the first 16 chapters, proven who he is, and now what he's going to do about it, and he lays out his plan that he's going to have to die. And he rebukes Peter because Peter didn't get that. And then all of a sudden, I would think this represents a, prelude to the resurrection, to the power that he possesses. And maybe this is the answer to the shadow of what happened with Moses and the giving of the law, because there's a lot of similarities on what happened at Mount Sinai with Moses and this. When you read Exodus, you'll make that

transition. I would add, Jay's, I would add, it's both. It's both the law. It's a combination of the law of which he said he was the fulfillment, and it's a culmination of prophecy because he said he also fulfilled all prophecy. So I think that's why God chose to send Moses and Elijah into this moment, send them forward into this moment, or back. That plus Jason, just one comment. I think it worthy of note, and I mentioned it yesterday in the sermon I gave, is that the atheist will say to us, y'all, you all believe in the miraculous, the supernatural, and we don't. But then they say nothing exploded and there's the cosmos, which would be a miracle of gigantic

proportions. And out of that explosion came salt water. And that's where what made humanity is the slime left over from the saltwater that came from the explosion. It was a good point. That would be miraculous. Which would be a miracle. It would be a miracle.

So they believe in miracles, but they say, we're not going to follow Jesus because you all believe in the supernatural. I've said that too. Even about, you know, think about a watermelon plant coming out of the ground after water hit the dirt and a seed is there and then all this green vine starts crawling. Well, this is borderline miraculous here. Yeah. Because if you looked into the seed before it was planted, you wouldn't see that green vine.

At all. It's not there. Acorn about the size of a little bitty, little bitty acorn. And it turns into a gigantic bull oak tree that will stop a vehicle at 80 miles an hour. And they say, yeah, we believe that. So that's back what we talked about in the last podcast about revelation, because that's the revelation of what's created from Romans 1. It's not a natural process.

It's a supernatural process, in my opinion. It is. Let's take a break. I asked Jeff, before you read this text, Jay's, I asked Jeff to look up the word transfigured just in our language to understand what it means. Because that's a word you don't see really anywhere else in the Bible. I've got a good guess. I've got a guess.

All right, give us your guess, then he'll read it. Metamorphosis. It is to transform into something more beautiful or elevated. And it had an example where it says, The world is made luminous and is transfigured. So let me say this, in a world where we're pursuing the Metaverse and the meta, what's the other meta, what's the new meta, what's the new Facebook? Meta Musel?

It's just meta. It's just meta. We got the meta, metaverse is the world that you'll live in virtually, but the company's name is meta. How about a reading written 2,000 years ago, roughly, of an individual claiming to be God who undergoes a metamorphosis? Instantaneously. I mean, now this is riveting. See, this is what they're pursuing. So that's why they say, look, we're going to be meta.

Well, until I see something like this, because this gets my attention, having a social network where we're fixed to get into the meta, does not interest me. Unless you're an android named Zuckerberg, this would not interest. There he was transfigured. He goes to High Mountain, and there he is transfigured before them. his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. I'm not real sure what that means, but Revelation, the book of Revelation, has the same references referring to the son of man slash son of God. Just then there appeared before them, Moses, who, if you're not, if you're new to the faith,

well, he's dead. He died. He had been that way a while. A few books ago. Now there was a dispute between the evil ones. About 2,000 years. Yeah. About where the body of Moses was, because I believe, Al, you'll probably know where

this is. God buried him. It said, God buried him. Yep. So I'm not sure where that is. I think it's in numbers. The end of numbers are Deuteronomy. Yeah, but it was Mount Nebo, I think was the mountain.

So now, but, well, But you say you have to go back and read. Just then there appeared before them, Moses, and Elijah, and they're talking with Jesus. You remember what happened to Elijah? Now, he didn't die. He just pulled off the planet. He just levitated and left.

So I just think it's... In a flaming chariot, by the way. I think it's interesting in all the commentaries I read about this, and I read a lot, nobody mentioned the significance. that I read, that these two men had circumstances out of the norm concerning their death. One of them, there's an argument about where the body is buried, and the other, he just, he didn't die. And now, thousands of years later, they're having a conversation with a radiating Jesus. On top of a hill.

On top of a mountain in front of witnesses. And look, this one. wasn't something that that was not forgotten. You remember in, is that Second Peter? When Peter, Peter addresses this scene later on when he writes his letter, he brings it up. I think

it's, we'll take a pause from Matthew and read what he said. I love this. In Second Peter 116, Peter said, we didn't follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because look, that is what the world says. They said, well, this is just some story that y'all made up and people wrote down. He said, we didn't follow that, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, for he received

honor and glory from God, the Father, when the voice came to him. We're fixed to read about that. From the majestic glory saying, this is my son, whom I love. With him, I am well, please. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. So if you go back to Matthew 17, he then describes, well, Peter in verse four, says to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.

I mean, I think he was struggling with what to say. He should have just kept his mouth shut. Hey, Jay. Jay's, let me mention two things before you read the rest of that. So it's Deuteronomy 34, for those that want to check it out, which is where it says Moses, he climbed Mount Nebo, and it says he died and God buried him. But no one knows where his grave is to this day. And then also in the book of Jude, we get a little insight that Michael, the archangel,

was arguing with Satan over the body of Moses. So that's just a couple of things that you mentioned her. I'll say, Al, the significance of that goes back to this, the evil one held people enslaved through their fear of death. Hebrews 2 14 through 16 talks about that. And when Jesus died and was raised, he freed us from that fear of death, which goes in with the evil one being a murderer from the beginning. So when anyone dies, I think that's why he was interested. in where that body is because to him that ended that that that's all of well he can't find the body he's like well wait a minute here what what's I believe that it's what's the word I believe that it's makes sense for him to be having this argument about that because since he's the one having the power over death I think you're I think you're right that was part of it and I think that's also part of the power of this transfigure is it shows the ability that Jesus has over the living and the dead.

You know, to Emma is not that big a deal just to have them show up, even though, you know, they left the earth in mysterious circumstances too. Let's take another break, Jason. So then Peter, just bumbling, stumbling, fumbling, says, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, I'll put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. and I think this had to do something with the tabernacle laws, and he didn't know what to do.

And he's like, maybe we should get you some shelter here. And this is. You know what you say? You know what the southern idiom for Peter is in this, Jay's? Bless him. Yeah. Bless him. Bless him.

Well, I think this has got to be the most embarrassing moment, probably right behind the Corinthians for getting the gospel. Here's an embarrassing moment. when you're interrupted by God, you know, you're talking. While he was still speaking about shelters and it's good for us to be here with two dead guys, a bright cloud enveloped them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my son whom I love with him. I am well pleased.

Now I want to stop right there and allow me to a one minute sermon. You remember where this was said before? Yep. Jesus' baptism. When we went from the water to the wilderness, Jesus was baptized and he was declared to be the son of God. The Holy Spirit came on him. And Jesus said those three things.

I've preached that many times that God says the same thing. The difference here is the next line. And I think in your sermon, Sunday, Phil, when you said, we spent all this time figuring out who Jesus is. And now we have another level of a deeper understanding of who God is. And he adds this phrase, listen to it. Because it's one thing to recognize, okay, that Jesus could be the son of God. And as you search, you're like, oh, listen to him.

I mean, that was what was happening here. So think about what the resurrection accomplished and trying to figure out, is there a God, who is he, what does he want from me? When you understand who Jesus is, you understand who God is. And when you listen to him, things are going to change in your life for the better. I mean, that's what I believe. You are correct. Faith comes from hearing, hearing, listen to him. You've got to listen.

Romans 10. to him. Yeah, and in this moment, I love this. As you mentioned, where do we hear this before? We heard that first part. This is my son, whom I'm well pleased, whatever Jesus was baptized, listen to him. And then I love this next line because it's kind of scary, but I think it makes sense when you think about the totality of what he's saying here.

When the disciples heard this, you said, what did they do when they heard this? That's what they did. They fell face down to the ground and were terrified. Yeah. And I think so often we think of Jesus as this cosmic bellhop. We think of him petting the lamb. We think of him with the kids around him. And that's certainly part of what Jesus chose to be. But I mean, in this moment, in this transfiguration, Jesus is taken on an appearance that is almost a foretaste of glory divine. It's a foretaste of what the resurrected Jesus is going to be. It's a terrifying thing. to see him. When it's when Paul saw him in Acts, what was Acts 9 on the road to Damascus? It says he fell to the ground. Paul did.

Paul felt, and in Revelation chapter 1, this says when I, this is John on the Alapapap, says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And what I love about all three of these passages, Matthew 17, Acts 9 and Revelation 1 is that God, Jesus doesn't leave us in our terrified fear. And Revelation 1, he says, and he placed his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid. I'm the first, the last, I'm the living one. I was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore and I hold the keys, the Hades and death. And in the transfiguration, when it says they fell on their face and they were terrified, look what Jesus did. He came to them and he touched them. Jesus touched them. And he said, get up.

don't be afraid and they lifted up their eyes and they saw knowing that jesus and so i'm thinking which that's god well how ironic is that that they were that terrified which i came up with a formula because a lot of people have trouble understanding this because they're like well how could they be so fearful in that moment because the number one phrase in the bible is don't be afraid but fear god is like number five fear god and then what what you what Matthew recorded is terrifying. So here's what I think. I think when they realized, just think about this,

you have two people who were here hundreds of years before they were here, have now showed up and they figured that out. We have this bright light going on. And now all of a sudden, God the Father is speaking and they get it. That this is, there is a God and he is actually speaking. and we have people who supposedly we thought were dead having a conversation. Well, then you know what? The ultimate lesson is don't mess with him.

Well, and I think they also realize that, you know what, he knows me way better than I thought. And there's no escaping him, even if I die. Well, that causes sheer terror because you're, you feel. you can't feel any smaller in that moment than if he was kind of whispering it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. All right. But then the don't be afraid is the part of, but here's God in this moment through Jesus, who you're supposed to listen to, who just told me to get up, is he's all good.

He's for me. We know the grace is coming. He's not going to make a mistake. He's 100% just. He's fair. I mean, so I think that's the way this thing works is that, yeah, God knows us, and that causes us to fear because we're flawed and we make mistakes. But what gives us comfort and confidence is that we know him and he's all righteous, all holy, he's fair. he's going to do what's right.

And I think that's a point he was trying to make. Which explains fully faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see. Well, they're there on that mountain and they're certain of what they're looking at. You see what I'm saying? And they're giving us the story, and they said, check this out. You may not see him, but this is what he's. looks like if he wants to, that transfiguration. You're like, okay, one thing comes out of that. Don't be messing with him at all. So let's take our last break. I think there's a practical measure

too, Jay. As you mentioned earlier when we started into this that a lot of scholars are like, you know, not exactly understanding why this happened when it happened. But to me, it's very clear. You mentioned before when the first time that God spoke when Jesus was baptized, remember the disciples, He hadn't gotten the disciples yet. So, I mean, John the Baptist saw what happened, but these guys didn't. And they had only heard about it because, you know, then he goes out and he calls these guys. So this is a reaffirmation to the disciples of who Jesus is. And that's why I think he adds that last phrase, listen to him, because for the first time,

he's just told him what he's got to do. And now they're visually seeing that he really is the son of God. And he has the power to conjure back. from the great beyond two of the most historic figures in Israel's history. So, I mean, just from a practical measure, it makes perfect sense in the context of where Moses puts this of why this happened when it happened. By the way, when the law was given at Mount Sinai, it was similar to this. When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet, you can imagine the God,

blown trumpet. They heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke. They trembled with fear, and they stayed at a distance. And they said to Moses, speak to us. God remember, listen to him. Speak to us yourself, and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die. I mean, it was vengeance.

The law Moses had been given. And he said to the people, don't be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will keep you from sinning. Pretty interesting. Yeah. That's what I was going to say is like, I think every time in the Bible when God shows up in some kind of physical form, everybody's face goes to the ground. I think maybe you can sense how sinless and perfect he is and your own kind of shows your brokenness. And it's like, that's why it was as every needle about it.

I mean, you can't help but go down because you're like, whoa. That's right. Yeah, because we're undone. I love that. I think that's the point. I think that the point here is you got Moses and Elijah. Moses is representation of the law. Elijah's representation of the prophets.

And they all kind of coming to this point where the whole thing is wrapped up in the person of Jesus. He said, well, what's the practical point of that is what Jeff just said, that you're undone? I think you got none. you bring nothing to the table. And I think the fear that these guys are, you can get out of here alive, listen to him. Yeah. And, but in that moment, though, Phil, I mean, you know, you're looking at this glorious being.

And you're like, whoa, uh-oh, any attempt that I thought, any, any shelter I thought I had, whatever it is, like, I'm done. And I think so many times we think when we think, well, Jesus comes back, we're just going to run to Jesus. And I think what's going to happen, honestly, when Jesus comes back, I think first thing we're all going to do, I think everybody is going to hit the deck about, uh-oh. Yep. I think there's no doubt, no doubt. I agree with that. There's going to be a moment where we're all like, whoa, oh, oh my goodness, he's, he's way better than I thought, and I'm way worse than I thought. But I think if you're in Christ and the beauty of this whole thing is he's going to touch you. He's

going to put his hand on your shoulder and just what he did every time. He said, don't be afraid. I got- And look, Zach, that's a difference in the two covenants because dad painted the picture. They couldn't touch the mountain or they would die. So not only did they not get touched, they couldn't even touch the mountain where the presence of God was. And yet what you're describing in those texts you read was that Jesus is touching us. That's the difference in the first covenant of law and the second covenant of fulfillment of law

in Jesus. That's the picture. That's Paul's point in 2 Corinthians 3, which references what Phil was talking about. talking about when Moses went and met with God. And Moses would come down and he was radiating the glory of God because it got so glorious, but I love this first 11th says, for if that which fades away with glory was much more than what which remains in his glory.

Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away, but their minds were hardened until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, to your point, Al, the same veil remains unlifted

because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, I love this, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

but we all with unveiled faces beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory justice from the Lord the Spirit I love that great's powerful you raising your hand yes I'm right yeah I'm raising my hand because look you think about what the old law how much material that he gave them I mean we got whole books in the old testament that was written and here we go you started in John 1 where it says Moses brought us the law and where is that John 1 Jesus came full of grace and truth grace and truth and here he says look here's the foundation for the church is that Jesus is the Christ the son of living God which he's already announced that

when he said this is my son when he's baptized who I love and I'm well pleased And so all those laws and all those books and all those history and even think about modern day, all the churches and the programs and the creed and the sermons and just all these scholars putting all these commentaries and material. And God gives a three word sermon. Three words. Listen to him. Listen to him. Man.

I mean, I'm like, you want to, you want to. you want to grow a church you want to put some spark in your church you know and we've we've all been to churches where you walk in and you think oh who died here i mean frozen chosen yeah and we i got a news flash he came back yeah we've got the death part because this place is dead he came back so i just i think that's why i go around to people and uh you know a lot of what I say in my speeches always make people uncomfortable because I say, quit, stop listening to the preacher. I'm not trying to get you to go to church. I don't want you to listen to the preacher. Well, the preacher's looking around like, what are you talking about? And I get it from right here

because the building block of the church, the rock that we're built on that Jesus is the son of God, and he said, you listen to him. I mean, that's where we get our material. And that's why I always say, you've got to focus on Jesus and what he said, because you have it, somebody put it in red letters, and that should be unadulterated the focus and mission of our church home basis across the world. Well said. So let me close it out by reading these last four verses. As they were coming down the mountain, verse 9, Jesus said, don't tell anyone what you have seen

until the son of man has been raised from the dead. So he goes back to the resurrection, dad. Then he says, the disciples asked him, why then did the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first? Jesus replied, to be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize it, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way, the son of man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood he was talking about John the Baptist. So I thought it's a perfect ending because it goes back to where we began in that what Jesus was going to have to do.

is what he reminds him of again. That was the point of the whole exercise. You bet you. Which is powerful. Thanks, Jeff, for being here. Jep's got to do some cooking tomorrow. He won't be back with me, but we'll be back and try it again next time. Bye, Jop.

See you, buddy. 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 episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to blazed TV at blaisTV.com slash unashamed.