Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 532 | How Jase and His Son Go Golfing Without Clubs & How Much Should You Love Your Life?

Episode Date: August 19, 2022

Al discusses how God can use authenticity to bless others in relationships and conversations with strangers. Jase tells a wild story about losing his golf clubs while his son's clubs were locked inside their own case! Al explains how Phil hilariously responds to being told about someone else's problems. Larry Bowles explains being defined by what he does vs. by what he doesn't do and highlights the Bible's surprising comment on loving your own life. And Jase explores the recurring themes of the book of Hebrews. Sign up to watch the Unashamed overtime show, only on BlazeTV: https://BlazeTV.com/Unashamed - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? We're back. Yeah, last time I was here, you had a problem with moths. Oh, yeah. And I wonder if that's changed since you've had this alien invasion at your house. I hate to launch that rocket again, but what's the current moth status? It's weird that you asked you that because, so I was gone for four or five days. I come back and I had a, I had a lot of.

lot of problems getting back to my house. I shared some of that last podcast. You know, no bag. When I left, there was a train that was dead stopped. I turned around and had to get groceries because I'm like, there's no groceries. So by the time I get home, my thought the whole time was when I walk into that pantry, will there be Maas? So I walk in. I mean, I didn't even bring the groceries in. The dogs are running around. They miss me. I'm just going to that pantry. So I opened the door, turn the light on, and there was one big one, just on the side of the wall. Of course, I took my hat, and he stuck to the wall. He was killed instantly, so he didn't suffer.

And so I left him there because I thought, I want to just put a message out here. I'm back. Spook the other mouths. Well, that's what I thought. So, I mean, there was only one. But how many maws does it take to make a pantry unsatisfiable? I would say one. That's what Barney 5 said.

You got a nip it in the bud. Well, I'll tell you an interesting story. Interesting story while I was on vacation. And these two things that I'm going to tell you, they kind of go hand-and-hand with my life. Because it just shows you that when you think the answer to your problems in life is just moving locations, that never... That's never going to work. No. You're taking.

Yeah. And your personality. Yeah. So look, we go to this place. I mean, I, I mean, this, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a. And one of the biggest houses, if not the biggest house on the island, my wife has rented. I mean, it has like multiple stories. You can see the ocean.

You're looking at the whole island when you go up on the roof and you're just looking. So I was like, how much of this costs? And she said, let's talk about something else. but what I noticed was as fantastic as this place was, we're playing a game, you know, the family, all my kids and all,

we're playing this game and it was basically kind of a silly game, but you ask a question and then you have all these answers and you submit your answer. You're trying to be funny. The game was about trying to be funny. We played the same game last week. You put answers. Yeah.

Oh, really? Yeah. And so we're playing this game, but as when the first night we're there, and it got right about when the sun was setting, somebody just let out a scream. And I looked down where there's a roach crawling, you know, toward my daughter. Well, then everybody, it's like the game in.

Now, the game, the pieces are up in the air. People are scrambling, you know, and guess what they're saying? Get him, Jace. Because this is my area. You're the roach slayer. You're the slayer of all. Yeah. What I didn't realize is that was only a sign of things to come.

That place was literally infested with thousands of roads. Yeah, the whole time we were there. So I spent most of the vacation killing roaches, which is what I do. I tell you how bad it was. My son makes this awesome dessert. It's like a peach cobbler. Did you recommend to the people who rented you this piece? of real estate that they have maybe a van come up and spray well missy said trust me i will

send them an email you know but we we got through it and it gave me something to do and i felt like you know i have a certain set of talents i'm just curious as that what was the method of of extinguishment of these there's actually pestilence i'll tell you this this place had high ceilance And so my number one method, and look, there's a video. I will get this video that my wife took that I didn't know she was filming of me. And this is not trick photography. I took my hat off. There you go.

And there was a roach near the ceiling. I would say it was probably a 12 to 15 feet throw. And I took my hat off my head and used it like a throwing dart and just bam, got the roach. my wife got it on video. I said, you need to post it. That'll go viral. Like an aborigine with a boomerang hat. I'm an air.

Did it come right back and land on your head? No, it fell off and I checked it for collateral damage. I did wash it after that. And so, you know, it was a part of me was kind of, it was a bummer that we had roaches crawl everywhere. But then, you know, it made me shine because that is one of my skill set. But my practical. application to that was is, I mean, we're in Hebrews and you're talking about putting your faith and

trust in what you see in the material universe. I mean, you could have said, oh, boy, we're here. I mean, if we had to put our faith and trust in this establishment, there was one big problem. Roaches. Yeah. They don't care. Yeah. It's a great place to hide. And it had been infested. But I just thought, in that, how life is he thinks spent all this money. You made a great point. When you started talking about this, you said, you know, if you try to move away from your problems, you can't move away from your problems. You just kind of take them with you. Same thing. And that's the whole point, I think, of what Jesus is trying to get us to do.

You can't run away from yourself. Exactly. He's begging you to come to the end of yourself. That leads me to my second story. So the next morning we get up. We're going to just a, I mean, fancy, fancy, swankey, swanke. golf course. I mean, you could, you could literally eat your meal off the green or the fairway. No plate needed. And you'd feel good about it. That's how nice this place was.

I have a feeling that the golf club was not roach infested. Is that what you're saying? It's not roach infested, but here was the problem. So my son, my, so we send our clubs. Of course, mine are still gone. And we, you know, they're lost. And if you have them, It is wrong to steal. And I want those back. But anyway, so my son, he says, we're on the way to the golf course. And he went, because he's messing around. We're in this big rented vehicle.

And he's back there trying to get his golf clubs, I guess, taking a look at them, whatever he's doing, messing around in the back. I mean, all I'm seeing in the rearview mirror is his back. And he's over messing around. He's like, oh, Dad, I think we have a problem. I said, what's the problem? he said, well, when my air, when my, let me start over, when my golf bag went through security, there was a lock to the case that was in the bag that I've never used.

But when they checked it, they took that lock and locked my bag. And I said, well, why is that a problem? He said, I don't have a key. So that's why I said, when you leave and go on vacation, your problem's going. with you because now we're at one of the greatest golf courses I've ever seen in my life and we have clubs we have our own clubs my son his has been locked without his doing yeah you you you end up with problems you didn't know you even had you didn't even know you had it yeah and so I said well you never you should have thrown that lock away so we got into about a five-minute argument on

why the lock is even in the vicinity yeah because when you lock something up people then think it's valuable. If you just went like I did, wouldn't be a problem, although my clubs are now missing, which is, I think, me being punished for saying you should never lock a golf. Woodishudak coulda is come to, it's like the boomerang hat. It comes right back to you. However, this has a happy ending because one of the other quality, I have very few good qualities. One is I'm good at pest control. Two, I'm good at destroying things. If it requires destruction, like I can tear up anything. We're fixing to rip into bags now.

I said, here's what you do. I mean, I got a knife. My son, my other son, who's driving a vehicle, he was fixing to pull into a chainsaw place. And I was like, I think that's too graphic. I think it's also embarrassing that if we have to go buy a saw, I said, I don't want to buy a saw because I can't put that in my carry on, and I'm not going to leave it here. So he's like, okay, I was just trying to solve the problem. I was like, I think three grown men can destroy this case.

And so we basically, I'll give my son credit, he just fueled all his anger and frustration toward that lock. And he skinned his hand up a little bit, but not severe. and he destroyed the lock by the time we got to the golf course, which I thought was pretty impressive. I was really proud of him in that moment. So you guys collectively decided, you know, it's always like use the right tool for the job. A chainsaw was maybe not the proper.

I was thinking sledgehammer, hammer. We were going to stop at a convenience store and borrow a hammer. Because then you're like, what do you do? I was like, well, everybody has a hammer. And, but he took something and just started beating, and then he started prying. and he destroyed a lot, which then started a five-minute conversation

on why would you have a lock that was so easily destroyed? If somebody wanted it. Well, sure. Say that's what I'm saying. She spent too much time in the yuppie world up in the subdivision. You go to some mansion with an island

in my bags locked up, those kind of things I'm never going to deal with, ever. That's it. I'm not going, Jay. But Phil, that's your. deal is you don't realize that vacation is really not some getaway to some fake reality. Right. You have the same problems when you go.

It's not a fix-all. You still got to get along with people. I mean, I guarantee you it's just as easy to have a knock-down drag-out with your wife at home as it is on vacation. All that going on. If you got the bag, I mean, the people lost my bag. We're tearing up this bag. The whole time that's going on, I'm down there at the house.

at the end of the road, behind the gate, drinking a glass of tea, saying life is good. Battling rats instead of roaches. But I just have a little salt gun. Yeah. You put the salt in? You got a pattern. I'm just sitting there. I'm all the thighs by.

Yeah, that's why I'm saying. Same problem, though. That's what I'm sitting. No matter where you go. I'm just better prepared. You have way more ammo and a lot easier to get them because you've got a pretty good spray shot out there. So that's how I get the flying mom. Yeah, we were talking the last podcast podcast about technology and all that kind of stuff.

And we try to come up with these things. I need a lock or I need this or that to try to fix my problems. A lot of times we become slaves to whatever that we create to fix the problem. And then it just kind of builds on it. By the way, who invented the golf game? Do you have any of it? Scotland. Scotland, which is our heritage.

We're Scottish. So, Phil, you know. need to take back everything you've said about people who play golf. That's your heritage. Yep. We were known for the Robertsons we asked, and they told us that when we visited where we came from, we were told that we were more infamous, famous for jam makers, jelly and jam. Yeah.

And storytellers. And you're still making jam and telling stories. Our full little mantra of when they picture, you know, fierce when roused. That was it? Fierce when roused. That was our family much. Don't get them stirred up. Scottish coat of arms kind of thing?

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But the guy I said, did we leave a good name there? He said, both good and bad. Both good and bad.

You know, he had that skirt on, you know, was there a name violated? Did we leave a good name? He said, both good and bad. So. Yeah. Have you ever gone down the kilt,

the kilt road with the whole Scottish thing? You know, one part of my history that I'm not a big fan of because the weather was rough and I'm like I mean we wore them one day the TV people talked us into it but I was like who it's a little bit airish yeah with the queue I mean you know being in from the fire service you know the the whole Scottish influence the bagpipes and all that you know I mean those are just so sacred to firemen but yeah I kind of like the house concept of yeah to to quote a famous philosopher. My favorite. My boys need a house, you know. My favorite. Yes, I'm seeing what you're saying.

Let's take a break. My favorite thing with dad is that dad's always like, whatever it is that you're having problems with, his answer is, that's why I never do that. Yeah. Well, that was my whole point. I was trying to make a spiritual analogy here that life is difficult, whether you stay at home or go on vacation. not a fix-all. You still have to, you know, deal with difficulty and endeavor to persevere. But it got,

it got lost somewhere in this. You know, I made the, I made that idea that because I never did that, I was talking to Kathy the other day, and we were talking about, you know, Jesus was tempted in all things. And when it comes to our identification in Christ, can I really come up with a scenario in my life that Jesus cannot relate to, and I don't think we can. I think that's why he came at the time that he did, because that was really kind of the height of human existence, what it meant to be human. We have lost a lot of that because we go to the grocery store to get food, you know? We have all of these things that we depend on, but he stepped into that moment. But Jesus, in understanding that process and how we relate to that, was something.

not necessarily defined by the things that he did. It was what he refused to do. He refused, you know, to extinguish a smoldering wick. He refused to bow down and worship Satan in, you know, this whole thing. He refused the glory of mankind. He refused to be well thought of and get his, at least in in his flesh, part of his, you know, divine and physical nature, he didn't not hold what man thought about him to be his value and that sort of thing. And I think by the same token, as we're talking about this response to faith, as it comes to understanding trust, as we move from the idea of faith to the idea of trust, and my trust is in the person. of Jesus Christ, it's in the character of God.

I need to be defined not by what I do, but what I refuse to do. I am not going to bow down to what the world considers to be the right thing to do, the data, the analysis and all of that. I'm going to live, I'm going to walk not by sight, but by faith. Well, that's what, you know, when you said that, made me think of that one where Hebrews 11, where it says, because you do a lot of mission work. But the point when it said, and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. I mean, look, when I went with you to Greece, and I've been, you know, I went to Ukraine and I've been to other countries, people know right off the bat before I say a word that I'm not from there. It is immediate. And then when I open my mouth and speak, oh, it's like validation 100%.

But it made me think that because even if I knew the language and even if I knew the culture, they're always going to view me as a stranger or a foreigner there. But when you put that into your character of following Jesus, that's the way we should be in the world. I mean, in whatever setting you're in, they should immediately know, before you even say a word. Right. It made me think of that story about Billy Graham that time. If I can remember how that story went. But he played golf with a guy who was not a believer.

He was an atheist. And the atheist was frustrated the whole time, didn't play well. And so after the round, I mean, he's slinging his clinging his. clubs around and they're like his buddies were were saying well what why did you know why was it so bad and he's like well it was just i mean billy graham and his faith and you know in my face and i just felt threatened and so they were like well that doesn't sound like billy graham i mean like in your i mean yeah you would expect him to share jesus but and so then when they got down to what exactly he said they said what exactly did he say? And he's like, we actually didn't say anything. And the point of the story is

he just felt guilty about his life just from being in the vicinity of Billy Graham. You know, when he got to thinking about it, he was just nice, he was courteous, he played good. And I think that's the way we should be in the world. I mean, we should, we should be viewed by our character in the way we operate, not that we're going to be perfect all the time, but it's the way we come across is a foreigner and an alien. Right. Interesting little point here. All of the Gospels

do it the same way, basically. But you read Matthew 16, and while Jesus was on the earth from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests,

and teachers of the law. And that he must be killed and on the third day be raised alive. Now, if you're running with a person and you're watching him grow, but all of a sudden, after that it went for about a year or a year and a half, he begins to say this over and over.

But when Peter heard what he said, he took him aside and said, look, that's never going to happen to you. I mean, come on, you don't need to be talking like that. One of the charges that Jesus told him in it is critical. Out of my sight, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God,

but the things of men. So the point being, if you live your life and you never get past your thinking about the things of men, that coming from men, you're in for a tough ride. That's exactly right. You know?

Going back to your thoughts, man, both of your thoughts here, What did Jesus say in the sermon of the Mount? This is Matthew 5, 6, and 7. You're salt and your light in this world. You're like a city on a hill. You can't hide a city on a hill. No one lights a lamp and then puts a bushel over it.

You're walking around. So he tells them what's fixing to happen. Yeah. And then they brutalize him and did exactly what he said they would do. Right. I mean, it's just amazing. I've heard it said that, you know, as we look, at, and we're making judgments all the time on authenticity in people's lives. And I think that's

what you're saying. What does it mean to be a witness in this world, to be salt, to be like? People are looking everywhere for authenticity. We were talking about this on the way out as we drove out here, but people understand something authentic in a person. And they can see the life of Christ in you. When you are, you, are when you're if you're running a religious game you're not much of a witness yeah when you are when jesus is your life and his life comes out of you that's when salt and light begin to hear beings we're salt of the earth you and but right we're like this on our walk of faith but with jesus just straight line just straight line faith at all times no matter what happened and

people can see that authenticity in you and that's what it is to bear a witness it's not a about being able to recite scripture, they see Jesus come out of you. I mean, if it's hard to believe modern day time, 2000 years since Jesus showed up, 2022, if it's hard for us to swallow the human race, just think about going back to there and him being there,

and the disciples you would have thought would be more, but they didn't understand him either, and they're with them every day. Exactly. And they were still like trying to wrap their head around, what is going down here. But what they see Jesus do. So when we go like this, we need to remember, so did the disciples, and they were with him.

Right. And why did they follow him? Because they saw something authentic in him. They saw a life that was not, you could not dispute it. And so the world is constantly squeezing us for one purpose, and that's to make us see our need for Christ. Yep. And all your lives are living.

testimonies of that is that you hit the whole point is going back to this idea it's not what I do is what I refuse to do you can't run away from your problems he wants me to come to the end of myself to finally give up and say I quit and he's like good now that you're out of the way we can do something I'm struggling with my faith mr. Robertson I'm struggling with my faith my faith it just right I said so were the apostles exactly and they were with him yeah and so the world squeezes us to make us see our need for Christ and then we come to Christ, guess what the world does? They squeeze us to see what's going to come out. So it is good to see that when the book of Hebrews, it starts listing the people of faith and you say, and they're all being squeezed.

I like to see what they went through. I said, well, that's right. And what does it come out? And I use this illustration in Athens one time. I'm talking to a bunch of, okay. Before we do that, let's take a break. I'm using this illustration and I take an orange and I'm standing, I'm talking to about 400 people from Iran and Afghanistan. Do you have an actual orange in your hand? An actual orange in my hand. Before I get up there, I'm using this illustration that the world is squeezing you, you know, and it wants to see what comes out. But I've kind of split this orange in half and I've taken the inside of the orange out. And I've put this kind of

nasty black goo on the inside and then kind of glued the thing back together. Really? And so I get up there and I start describing this orange. And I'm like, oh, it's got this sweet and it's got this tangy. And when you buy it into it, you know, and everybody's just salivating. Yeah. And I just go on and on about this orange. And then I squeeze it and this nasty black goo comes out and lands on the stage and everybody's horrified.

And I'm like, it's not what the outside looks like. This is what religion does. Yeah. And then, and this is what Jesus is saying. And you said, you guys are full of dead men's bones. Your whitewashed tombs on the outside, wash the inside of the cup. Yeah. That sort of thing.

That was a text I was preaching out of. But the idea is that when I come to Christ, people are going to squeeze me harder than the world did before because they want to see what comes out. And when people, we're all going to get squeezed. We're all going to have problems. We're all going to have struggles. and the true test, the measure of my faith is what, when I'm squeezed, and I can deceive everybody in my life. I always say what I am at my worst moment is really my true condition,

because I can act right, you know, and everything else. When my kids were little, they had these little Legos and cars all over the floor to come out at three in the morning because you hear a noise in the house and you hit those barefoot and you're walking on that. what's coming out of your mouth in that moment. So you're being squeezed. You're naked before God here. And so how do we react to the world being squeezed?

And the whole point, what Jesus is trying to do in his heavenly discipleship of me is trying to remove everything about me and pour his life into me. He's trying to get me to get rid of my kingdom, my image, my strength, my religion so that he can give me his kingdom, his glory, his image, his life, his strength in me. It is the idea that I need to become less and he becomes more. And don't you like this contrast that the dad read that text? And a lot of times people will read that and they'll say, man, I mean, I'm sure that hurt Peter's feelings. That was pretty harsh, you know, because for him to say that to Peter, you know how much he loved it.

But if you think about it, it really wasn't harsh. It really was grace because he wasn't saying, you know, Peter, you're Satan. He was saying that's, he was speaking directly to Satan because that's where that thought comes from. The idea that Jesus wasn't going to complete the plan that he came with. Remember when Satan tempted him, what did he try to tempt him with? Alter the plan. You know, I, and scripture, his own words. He tried to use his own words against him. Exactly. So I love that because in the same context, when he asked him, who do people say I am? And Peter's one that jump. sense is you're the son of the living God. He says, bless you. And then when Peter tries to make the

point that Satan's trying to make, he says, whoa. So there's a contrast there that Christ's plan is always better. But the voice of Satan is the one you don't want to listen to. So I've always loved that because it seems so harsh. But really, it's just Jesus identifying that when you try to go against the plan of Christ, then you're not doing his bidding. You're doing the bidding for Satan, which is, you know, powerful. Right. I've always thought of that. Here's Jesus and he's standing face to face with Peter and he says, get behind me, Satan.

And who he's talking to, what is happening? Here's Jesus. Here's Satan in the middle and there's Peter. Yep. And he didn't say Satan, get behind Peter because Peter would have just had Satan on his back at that point. He said, get behind me because Peter couldn't see Jesus. And so we walk around in this world. we got our problems on one hand, and we got Jesus on the other, and we're walking like this,

and I'm focused on all my problems, all my fleshly things, and I'm trying to use my faith to fix my problems, and what I need to do is simply do this. Now I have Christ on this hand, and my problems are there. They're always going to be there, but they don't overwhelm me, because I can see Jesus. I don't have my problems in between me and Christ. That's why he kept repeating. We're going up to Jerusalem. You know, that was Matthew 16. You turn one page, he said the same thing. You turn another page.

He says the same thing. Well, you keep reading, and you finally get to where, that's what he did. He said, I'm going to die. They're going to take me up there. And they're going to take me up there. And they're going to kill me. And three days I'll be raised from the dead. He said it over and over and over.

Then did it. And he said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Right. Go. Right. And that's 2 Corinthians 13. For surely he was crucified in weakness, but it is the power of God that comes through death. Resurrection life is only available to those who have died.

That's what we don't. We're still trying to save our own lives through religion and all external things. And it's like, finally, just give up and let me, you know, unless you give up your life, you're never going to have my life in you. Yeah, that's what it gets back down to this life. What was you going to say, out? I was going to say that's why you quoted all the time that one of your favorite thoughts is fix your eyes on Jesus, which is this idea of the invisible. We can't even see him physically on the earth, and yet we're constantly being told to fix our eyes on him. And I thought about when Larry made that point.

That's how we do that. We do that through faith, and it puts our problems behind him, which is really. Well, it's a good reminder. I mean, you got the Hebrews 3 that says, fix your thoughts on Jesus. Then you got the Hebrews 12 that says, so fix your thoughts. your eyes on Jesus. I mean, after he reads all these, these giants of the faith. And then Hebrews 13 that I think you referenced last podcast, you're fixing your walk with Jesus because he's like he suffered outside the city gate. I mean, he was comparing this what they were trying to go back to,

which was basically Jewish nationalism. The temple. Yeah. He's not, he's not in the temple. He's outside the city. He's outside with the people. It's like, and the point I was going to make is, I think you do it, you know, when you go public with your faith, kind of getting back to that illustration I said about Billy Graham, you just affect people wherever you go. I mean, I just, I went on vacation, but the most meaningful things outside of my family that happened was just the people that I sat beside on the plane. I mean, the first guy was a, he was a manager at Walmart, which was crazy, because our duck calls got, you know, we started swapping Walmart story. But at some point, point in there, it got spiritual.

It just, and so then, I mean, later on, I gave him my email because it was such a deep, and he was a believer, obviously, the deep spiritual conversation. Well, then when he wrote me the email, when I got back home, I was like, oh, man, that, because I didn't think it was that big of a conversation, but you have someone who's a believer runs up on another believer, you have a big meaningful conversation, kind of what we're doing on this podcast about Jesus, but I could tell he was using this as a launching path, you know, moving forward. So it was really encouraging.

But then, so I get off the plane, I go to the next plane, well, it was a young woman who was a software, real intelligent. I'm not sure she was a believer. I don't think she was, but when she was asking, I mean, what do you do? Well, how do I answer that? What do you do? Because, I mean, she looked at me and was like, what do you do? I was like, well, it's complicated.

I mean, I remember in Athens, you're trying to explain this to a girl from Afghanistan. She's like, what do you do? Let's take a break. So I was like, well, I was on, I'm an entertainer. I was on a TV show. Well, oh, really? What show? I do a podcast.

Oh, what piecat? Well, the conversation got spiritual. Now, from her perspective, since she didn't seem like a believer. she was asking me questions that she was curious about in life, which was perfect. I mean, so what do you think? You know, I mean, how did the, I mean, what is your take on how we all got here? It was things like, that was just perfect, just like softballs, just boom. And so it was, it was a meaningful, you know, conversation.

But on the way back, same, there was a guy who owns restaurants that I actually had met before, which was embarrassing. but I sat beside Oh, I met you before. And it just went down the same, you know, rabbit hole into having Jesus conversations. But it kind of hit me when I got back off the plane. I thought, you know, I had five. I just thought back to the, in the airport

and on the airplanes. There were five God instituted conversations that happened about Jesus. that I know the fruit of that. And it really wasn't like I purposefully said, okay, I'm going to get on a plane and I'm going to, you know, witness to the person, which is normal conversations that came up that if that's who you are and what you do,

that's the things that are going to come up. And then once it went down the road, well, guess what? This matters to all of humanity. All humanity makes mistakes. They want to have a purpose in life. They want to be a part of a group of any kind of. kind of group, whether it's spiritual or not, they want to be a part of something. They wonder

about what happens after death. They wonder how do we fix the problems in life? And, you know, what's funny is most of their answers were, you know, all around the political system. And I'd just flat out say, I'd say that you can't legislate love. They're not going to, they're not going to figure out the world. This is what the apostle Paul is talking about when he says, let your speech be seasoned with salt. It goes back. to the salt and light thing, and you're being squeezed because people can see your light and they can taste the salt and what's coming out of you. And that is, I mean, it's part and parcel to exactly what we're talking about in Hebrews 11 here.

Hebrews 11 is set up at the end of Hebrews 10, and the entire point that he's making, he's talking about, my righteous one will live by faith, and I take no pleasure in anyone that shrinks back. Okay? And so we get to the end of this, and we were talking about this in our last time together, but we have this reference to these people we call the others. And the world, it says, is not worthy of them.

They didn't receive anything that was promised. And I made the point that, you know, it's one thing to believe for some earthly outcome, but a true measure of faith is how long can you wait and trust and not receive anything because your hope is not in this world. It's in, you know, we don't grieve like those who have no hope because something better is coming. And you have Jesus in the book of Revelation in chapter 12 and verse 11.

And it says that this throng, those who have been redeemed by Christ, They have come around this throne of God. And there's the lamb bearing the marks of death and the center of this throne. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the lamb who was, who is, and who is to come. And they overcame the world, all its problems, sin, Satan, everything else by two things. One is the blood of the lamb. And the second is the word of their testimony.

And that's what you're talking about. When you're squeezed, when you're in a conversation, Jesus is going to come out because Jesus says your life and your life is coming out. And then the back part of that verse, you ready for this? To tie this back to Hebrews is that these people were not afraid or did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death. The exact same phrase that is being talked about here in Hebrews 11. It's amazing. It really is.

I was going to say two things. One is you mentioned that full of grace and salt, our conversation, which means what Jace was talking about, it's full of grace, meaning it's about what God has done for me. But then it's also a full of salt, which means it's spicy. I mean,

in other words, it's interesting. You know, it's willing to talk about style. I like that Jay says that you don't have to plan that. You just be who you are. And we all know from this podcast that Jace can tell the tale, right? And so God can use that for someone else to be blessed, which is a great blessing.

I wanted to mention just to get us back to Hebrews 11, 20 and 21. Last time on the podcast, we brought up Isaac and Jacob. I just want to give a little bit of a thumbnail about their lives. And they talk a little bit about that the rest of the way to get us to Moses and Joseph and Moses, who personally Joseph's the most interesting person to me in the entire Old Testament. but I don't want to get ahead of myself, but let's take our last break. So Isaac,

the son of the promise, his wife, winds up having, she's pregnant with twins. And I've always thought, and Larry, I'd be interesting your take on this, I've always thought that,

because Esau, so you have Esau and Jacob, and as they're in the womb, they're wrestling, you know, and it's like the idea of this is what it's like. We've been talking about this idea of choice because you've got these two sons.

Esau was supposed to be the son of blessing and the son of birthright, but he did. And it went to Jacob, but God had already predicted it was going to happen, right? I mean, Rebecca knew. But all this deceit and everything happens for him to get this blessing. And then basically, Esau was one of those kind of guys. I think he would fit into our family. He liked to hunt. He liked to fish.

He didn't care much about hanging around the tents. I mean, he sounded like dad's kind of guy. Would sell his, would. He would sell his birthright for one piece of a backstrap. Oh, no, it was a bowl of seat. Gumbos. But it probably had backstrap in it. Yeah.

this bowl of Ettee fe and I'm like okay give it here brotherly love man trust me trust me when we were growing up Larry a lot of the birthrights surround did surround food because we sat at the at the table in a certain order and it went downhill there's no doubt about it which explains a lot why all all fight started over food I mean I literally we I've rolled around in the yard for a year If you added all the time up over feet. And my wife helped me. She intervened in my life like 10 years into our marriage, and we just had our anniversary.

But about 10 years in, she said, here's the deal. Because I was critiquing her cooking, and she realizes that, because she was calling me a food snob, which I realized later that that wasn't a negative thing. But, you know, if somebody called me a food snob, I thought she was like wanting to go to war here. Yeah. It just means I'm real particular about what I'm going to eat.

So she said this line. She said, you got to remember, in my family, we ate to survive. And in your family, you survived to eat. Hmm. And I said, yep, that's it. Yeah. You hit it. No, I understand this.

I spent 25 years in a fire station, you know, a bunch of guys. And food hit the table. I mean, and there's no. adult supervision whatsoever. It's just like, yeah, no, there's, I get it. So to my point, when I was on that plane talking to the software, the young professional, I said, no, no, where are you from? Well, she was from the place where we were going.

I said, okay, look, I need to know the top two restaurants where, and so she was like, well, you know, this place. I was like, no, I don't think you understand. Just food quality, if your life depended and the whole country, depending, depending on, on you you representing a place to go eat so people would say yes this was good and we could save the world those are the places i want so think but think i don't want you to take your time and think about why i was telling missy about this because when i got there i was like this woman said to go there was a place called fiddlers i was like i mean i i put the whole country on that decision

And that's what she said Because Missy's like, we already have other plans I'm like, you don't understand I looked into this woman's soul And she's lived here her whole life And I made her make a decision And that's what she came up with Well guess what? They didn't want to go

And so the next night I'm back on it I was like, because they're like, where are we going to go eat? Because it was too far. I don't know what all their reasons were So I go in and buy a hat We were, everybody was shopping and I saw the ultimate treasure hunting hat and so I bought it. Well, the girl working behind the counter, I said, let me ask you a question.

Have you lived here? How long you live there? I said, what is the place, if your life dependent on recommending a place to go eat within a five-mile radius of this place, wherever you go. You know what she said? The same place the other woman said. I walk outside, all families. I said, we're going to this restaurant tonight. The foot is down.

And they said, well, what if we can't get in? I was like, oh, we're getting in there. I don't care if we wait until the place closes and we get a carryout. So we go there, long story short, and guess what? It was fantastic. I don't even know why I'm telling this story. I mean, I was like, why are you so opposed? We never have arguments like what you're just saying.

Yeah, well, I don't like to eat out as a general rule. But we're here. We're going to eat out. I'm like, go talk to the people. Put the pressure on them to make the decision. And then when you have the answer, do everything in your control to make that happen. Don't try to avoid and just say, oh, it doesn't matter. So I'm saying, I guess my point was I feel sympathy for ESO in that moment.

because I understand, but he did make, that was a bad decision. He went, there's a, there's a line you cross. Yeah. See, well, I just stay at the house and you say, you got, you got 20 minutes, we got 20 minutes, then we'll walk out the door here. You say, what's waiting on you in the food line? Well, she got up early this morning by daylight, so I'm having pork roast and dumplings. Well, I get it, but look, the rest is a world.

I knew dad was going to. The rest of it is saying that's why I never eat out. Phil, your answer to everything is just don't move. Don't leave. Don't move. Don't change the thing. Don't change the thing. Don't do it.

Don't turn it on. Throw it away. Don't do it. I mean, after a while. When supper time comes, she's got something ready. Dinner time comes, she's got something ready. No word spoken, none. You got to remember.

You always have two choices. Survive or live. There's a difference. Hebrews chapter 11. 11, verse 20. Look at you playing the role. Look at Larry playing the role of Al. I'm trying to get his dad.

I'm going to play this. Is by faith, Isaac bless Jacob and Esau in regard to what? Into their future. Okay? And so we have this younger son getting this blessing. Why is this require faith for Isaac to do this? You hit on it earlier because God said,

Okay, so this is why we're moving from. He is going something completely counterculture because he's given the birthright to the second son and everybody in his life is going to go, what a moron. You can't do that. But I trust the character of God in regard to my son's future. So I'm going with God here, not what everybody else demands for me in this life. and this is the lesson of faith. And so God has put, really, he's put Isaac in an impossible situation. He's put Noah in an impossible situation.

He has put Abraham in an impossible situation. This is going back to Numbers 21. This is what Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about in verse 14. Just as, you know, that Moses lifted up that snake, everybody's snake bit. They're all dying, sitting there on the desert floor, and God says, all of you are in an impossible situation. The only way out is through faith. Yeah.

And so if I'm, you know, I was in emergency management for 25 years, city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Let's say there's just poisonous snakes coming into the city of 400,000 people. And the mayor calls, and we have an emergency activation of the EOC, the emergency operation center. And I stand up and propose a response plan. And I'm like, okay, what we need to do is. we need to make a bronze snake and put it on the pole on top of city hall and just have everybody look at it and believe that we're going to be okay. You think the mayor and city council is going to go.

Oh, that's a good plan, Lair. This is exactly what is going on in the desert. Yeah. And it's by faith that, and this is what I'm saying. He set it up and he says, anybody that shrinks back from faith that tries to save their life, they're not going to make it. You're going to die. You got the snake venom in you.

The only way out, it makes zero sense, zero sense to the world. This is not a thing that we can apply human logic to. And so his whole goal is to bring us to the end of ourselves, to put us in an impossible situation and not shrink back from going, no, I'm going to do what God said. I'm going to trust the character of God. God and that is what faith is. And so even when I am in this flesh and I'm still struggling with sin in my life, it is the absence of doubt of the character of God that keeps me safeguarded by faith. That's the shield of faith that I take up to extinguish those arrows and the daggers and everything the world's throwing at me. That's what's safeguarding my inheritance that is kept for me

in heaven and it is through faith. But even now, I'm saying like, for them, I see it. It wasn't logical. It wasn't reasonable. But now for us, I mean, we're reading this. He supplied his word. And even though we can't see, I mean, I can't like Hebrews 3, 4 says, you know, every house is built by someone.

But, well, we didn't see every house being built. So how do we know they were built? I mean, well, the design, you know, in the, the point he then says, but God is the builder of everything. But we can use reason and logic based on what we read to say, okay, God has a plan. And when I surrender myself, like you're saying, I'm going to be okay no matter what happens. I mean, I'm 100% convinced of that. But even now, I think when he gets to the end and said, combined with us, he made us all perfect.

I mean, their life was harder because they were having to reason into something that we didn't even, I mean, they didn't have the resurrection of Jesus. Right. But so I do think, my point is, I do think when he said we understand, there is some, you know, once you experience Jesus by reading the gospels, even though you weren't there, by reading the book of John, you actually have the same experience. that, oh, you're seeing the character of God through what you read, which is different than any other book, which is then compelling you to say, well, wait a minute here. What's caused you to worship, I like this. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshipped as he leaned on top of his staff.

He's sitting there. He's got it in here. His faith is geared inside. side is brain pan. Right, yeah. You see what I'm saying? He's being squeezed. Oh, yeah.

That's what's coming out. Oh, yeah. At the end of his life, we're out of time, but I do want to say, I know what the mayor of Tulsa would have, I know what the mayor of Tulsa would have said to you, Larry Bowes. He would have said, you know what? They need a guy like you in Oklahoma City. Yeah. That would have been the end of that.

That was 19, 1995, yeah. We got 50, we got 15 more minutes of overtime with Larry Bowes on his trip this So if you want to cross over and hear a little bit more about Jacob and Esau, do that. BlazTV.com slash Unashamed. We'll see you in the overtime. 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

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